Soda P - Pent-Up (demo-track)

[autostatic]

Dear all,

After convincing my other bandmembers to move to Linux because of all the time we lost figuring out how all that proprietary stuff works we did get a lot more productive.

So here it is, the very first demo-track from our rehearsal room, completely recorded and mixed with Linux.

Soda P - Pent-Up (demo-track)

This is also the first band track that I tried to mix and master a bit. I fear I'm still a better musician than a studio engineer, but I've learned so much already the last two years, thanks to this forum, the LAU mailinglist and the guys at #opensourcemusicians (especially [lsd]/wootangent.net). What didn't help either is that I had to mix this track partly on my headphones (I do have a pair of decent DT770's) because of our little man sleeping downstairs: http://lou.dekenwaarestraat.nl/
What did help is that I have close to zero experience with recording/mixing/creating music on other OS's. When I read how other people are struggling with switching from one OS to Linux I realize how lucky I am that I've chosen Linux from the start to make/record music with my computer.

And we're still experimenting with the band when it comes to mic placement, which mic to use for what, amp settings, soundcard settings etc. Also, most tracks for this song were played in one take, simply because we don't have a lot of time (a few hours a week) and since it's demo stuff we had to let go of our perfectionism, we'll save that for the definite recordings.

Software I used:
- Qtractor (I'm a huge Qtractor afficionado)
- Yoshimi with the Pulse Pad 3 instrument patch for the synth riff in this song
- Guitarix distortion plugin for the synth
- JAMin
- SC4 and Calf compressor plugins
- C* EQ plugin
- Freeverb plugin (I still have to emerge myself in that convolution stuff)
- Rezound (could someone please save that program from oblivion? It's just so much better than Audacity)
- Jack1 with FFADO for our FireWire card
- Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 (I still use 9.10 for various reasons)

I enjoyed a lot playing around with this song, especially now that I finally have a room for myself at my home for my music stuff where I have some mics set up, a decent PC, some MIDI controllers and percussion stuff. I did the backing vocals, the MIDI stuff and the tambourine at home. I love tambourines but I hate playing them, it's a friggin difficult instrument, no kidding. I also tried adding some acoustic guitar but that didn't work out. Originally, this song is an acoustic song that I must've written more than 10 years ago: http://www.autostatic.com/beltree/beltree-pentup.mp3

So shoot. Really, I'd appreciate any feedback so I can improve my recording and mixing skills (and eventually my mastering skills). We're a DIY band so if we could also do this very last thing ourselves we'd be thrilled.

Best,

Jeremy
http://sodap.nl

[Pablo]

Congratulations!

The little man sleeping downstairs Good title for another song! Keep up the good work!

Pablo

[Capoeira]

After convincing my other bandmembers to move to Linux because of all the time we lost figuring out how all that proprietary stuff works we did get a lot more productive.

that was about time, congrats

I fear I'm still a better musician than a studio engineer

I don't see where that is

I'm not familiar with this kind of music but for me the drums and percussion could be more "in your face". generally you put the drums in the middel not to left and right, but it depends on sound you want. The guitars are in the middel? try out with drums in the middel and and guitars more or all to the sides - lead voice in the middel and backing-voice to the sides. The tambourine you would than sepperate from the drums putin it more to the sides, too
The kickdrumm could have more punch, too - I almost can't here it through the guitars
The synthpart sound awsome.

Just a few things you could try out, perhaps you want it to sound like this

[Capoeira]

problem is, you can't really here the stereo-field through headphones. the last thing you wanna do through phones is panning. at least this step you should do on a stereo os monitors even if it is with low volume.
found this one: http://www.wikirecording.org/How_to_Approach_Panning

[autostatic]

Thanks guys! And Capoeira, thanks for the useful information, that's something I can work on. I did check the mix on my studio monitors but those monitors aren't really calibrated yet.

[t-sys]

sounds good in its own genre. i especially like the synth riff. indeed, i would also take the vocals in the middle. and the song ends halfway too soon? on the other hand, these are just the "rules" that our ears are trained to follow nowadays. sometimes it's healthy to throw them out of the window and see where it results. take e.g. some late 60's recording and you'll find instruments and vocs fully panned to some strange corner, bass drums like carton boxes, still sounding better than anything. and songs that start and end from nowhere....

anyhow, i'd still do some more balancing in regard to panning. maybe a little less compression would give more punch too. otherwise, nice work!

[DoosC]

Great job, really ! It sounds very natural and very acoustic. The mixing feels just right and obvious.
To me, doing more would make it artificial.

[autostatic]

Thanks DoosC! I won't do more but the mix sounds a bit out of balance to me right now. But I let it rest for now, we already started recording the next song.