Critique my recording (please)

[paul_c2]

This is "Theme song" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I am sure people are familiar with it).

I am fairly new to using DAWs/Reaper "properly", I know the basics of what the various common/basic plugins do (eg compressor, limiter, EQ, etc) but I am by no means an expert.

The drums and synth (start 4 bars) were manually entered in Musescore then the MIDI tweaked, "humanised" and put into Reaper using the MT-PowerDrumKit and Diachi Virtual Analog Synth respectively (both free). The rhythm guitar is 3 takes triple-tracked, using various different pickup selections on a Fender Start. The lead guitar is double-tracked. And the 'scratch' was put in afterwards too, using 4 takes blended together. The bass is a Fender Jazz DI'd straight in, but then put though EQ compression and one of the free amp modellers supplied with Reaper. And, the "bell" special effect at the end is a free sample of a church bell from the internet, although it needed to go through the free standard "pitch shift" plugin so it rang out in the right key (E minor).

Any comments, criticism, suggestions for improvements welcome. 

(This is the original: 

)

 

[akabane]

Hey! 

Respect, I really liked it - and brought me back a fair few years 😅

As far as feedback goes, I would just say in terms of mix, in the original you can hear the bass going at it much harder than in your version - bring it up! The bass line on this is nice 

In terms of sound, your guitar sounds very 'thin' compared to the original, not sure why though. Yours might be very mid-highs heavy whereas the original feels more bassy. Perhaps try a different amp emulator or a different distortion? A cool 'cheat' could be copying the guitar track, adding a sub-octave to one of them and keep it distorted? I wonder how much 'bottom grit' it would add...food for thought!

Well done though, it's something you really don't hear much more these days!

Edited June 30, 2020 by akabane

[paul_c2]

Thanks for the feedback. Its a real guitar amp, when I dialled in the initial tone I liked it and went "yes!" but I've always preferred quite harsh, trebly guitar sounds rather than more rounded. I think its because a lot of my experience comes from playing guitar in big bands, where I try to go above the alto saxes rather than compete with them. But point taken, I ought to try a few different variations, then see how those sit in the mix. I got into the habit of taking a DI signal from the guitar too (which isn't actually used) so I could play around with re-amping too. 

Also I recently bought a Native Instruments keyboard and it came with a ton of software including the "Guitar Rig 5" plugin. So that might be worth a look at.

[akabane]

Oh it still kicks donkey: without a direct reference to the original, there's no way I could have told