Critique my recording, please

[tonybologna000]

Hey everybody,
I've been working on recording a demo for my band with a pretty limited amount of equipment. This is my first experience recording a song ever, and I'm having fun. I recorded all tracks with an sm57 (my only mic) except for bass, which went straight into my MOTU 8pre. The drums were created with Jamstix 2. I exclusively used a LP through a Bogner Shiva into a 2x12 cab with v30s. Everything was put together in Cubase Studio 5.

What I'm looking for is opinions on whether I'm getting the levels right, if the guitar tones sound okay, amount of reverb is ideal, etc. If there are any pointers you can give me at all, I'd really be happy to hear them. I don't have the very end of the song recorded, so it just cuts off at the end.

I plan to re-record the vocals after I get the music where I want it, so no need to bash my singing, lol. And yes, I know I'd benefit from using more mics, especially for vocals, but it'll be awhile before the wife lets me put any more moolah into this.

Thanks guys, and keep it constructive.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1021330&songID=8511533

 

[Stratman69]

Sounds great! Reminds me of The Screaming Trees. All you need is that dreamy Jim Morrison style voice and your there!

 

[ash]

great start for your first recording.

a few things I noticed:
- the clean rhythm guitar is sometimes a bit rushed, could be a bit more relxed (timing-wise)
- guitars are way too dominant, imho. drums are pushed too far to the background, vocals ditto.
- guitar tones are ok, a little old school for my taste. you may want to try a high pass filter on the distorted guitars, maybe around 80HZ or higher, since the low frequencies sound a bit muddy, and the bass gets lost during loud passages.
- if you have, an exciter might help to brighten up the vocals.
- backing vocals would work nice during the chorus.

 

[eberg15101]

I'd say put the vocals in more tracks and louder, the clean guitar was a bit off timing wise, and sounded a little out of tune with the rest of guitars--also I did not like the tone of it as all, it sounded pretty dead
the bass needs brought out a bit more, same with drums
reminded me of Offspring at the end

 

[tonybologna000]

Thanks so much for all the help guys. I've been reading some other posts here, and I've re-tweaked a lot of the EQ. The drums, bass and vocals are now louder, and I re-recorded the vocals. I feel a lot better about this one.

As for the "dead" tone of the clean guitar, I wouldn't really know where to start in fixing that. Also, I made sure I had my guitar tuned and intonated perfectly before recording, so I don't know how to fix the tuning issue either (does anyone else hear this). Also, where is the clean guitar sounding rushed at? I guess I don't have an ear for this either.

Let me know what you guys this of my revision. I'd still love to hear more pointers too. Thanks!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=1021330

 

[eberg15101]

This one is a lot lot better, my only suggestions are some reverb on the drums and bring out the kick drum more(that is personal preference though), the clean guitar sounds good, did you re EQ it, thats why it sounded so dead and thin I think, and on the lead guitar a bit less high end, for the solo at the end it got kind of spiky, and some wah on that solo at the end would sound really good (but once again personal preference) so much better though, honestly if you finished an album and it was reasonably priced I'd buy it, or at least go out of my way to download it, which I usually don't do, so take that as a big compliment