My recent project

[slaphappygarry]

Hey Guys,

Just finished a 6 track EP for a friend of mine, Kirstyn Knowles (www.myspace.com/kjkband), who I play bass for. She wrote all the tracks herself (except the one with the harp which was kindly donated for the project by a friend). Its a really nice varied ep IMO and i am prett proud of it.

Anyway, here are three tracks for your listening pleasure.

Any feedback on the songs, bass playing, recording or production welcomed.

G

[attachment=2446:01_Alright.mp3]

[attachment=2447:02_Never_Change.mp3]

[attachment=2448:03_Tiny_Bird.mp3]

[slaphappygarry]

Cheers man



G

[Kiwi]

[u]Alright:[/u]
I like the use of room ambience on the drums! Gives it a nice spatial quality. If it was me producing, I would have made more of the room ambience thing to give the song more of a rustic-recorded-on-the-porch type quality. Did you use a tube mic on her vocals? I'm picking up a bit of sibilance on the intro vocals. There's also quite a change in the quality of the mix after the intro as well - the guitar sinks back into the mix a little too noticeably. It's better into the bridge though.
[u]
Never Change:[/u]
Good mix overall, I personally felt the drums needed a more powerful sound and the guitar distortion could be crunchier - maybe less gain? The bass sat in the mix well against the vox.

[u]Tiny bird[/u]
Lovely! Simple but effective. I might have put a little more shimmer of reverb on the harp but I can see that wouldn't sit within the natural acoustic production values you've gone for overall.

[slaphappygarry]

Hey Steve,

Tube mic yes. Believe it or not, a second guitar comes in when the drums kick in so its the opposite. Recorded the drums in a lovely old hall type room which made them a little larger than life, which was what i was after; real airy, powerful drum sound that wasn't compressed. Too much ambience from the room mic made everything a little undefined sonically. Infact, there are 2 guitar tracks that come in with the drums as the little counter picked part kicks in too.

Unnatural reverb's stand out when you use too much of them hence the nakedness of Tiny Bird. Incidently, the "natural acoustic production values" where my kitchen If you listen carefully you can hear running water in the pipes and my freezer. I like that stuff, makes everything a little more human.

cheers for the feedback

G

[Kiwi]

So how did you mic the drums? Did you have them close mic'd and mixed in some ambient? Or was it all ambient mic'd? If it was a mix, I would have put the ambient mics further from the kit probably. I wasn't listening that closely to the guitars TBH, and I only listened once before posting.

[ped]

Cool, I really like it. Nice and open sounding and really easy on the ears. Think a slap solo might sound good in 'Tiny Bird' ;0)

[slaphappygarry]

The drum kit was recorded on 6 mics:

-D112 outside the kick (i hate clicky kicks)
-SM 57 Tom and bottom of the snare.
-A pair of AKG 414 overheads behind the drummer to stop getting too much kick and picking up the toms.
-A Neumann tlm170 (i think) in the room.



For those not geeky enough to know what that lot is here is a picture of the room. The micright infront of the kit didnt work so want used. I used the screening to make sure the overheads kept a tighter stereo image of the kit rather than lots of the room and not much definitions (especially as i couldn't use tom mics).

[quote]Think a slap solo might sound good in 'Tiny Bird' ;0)[/quote]

Bom digga digga dig dig

G

[stonecoldbass]

All in all a sterling piece of work Garry! Lovely organic sounds, the solid performances are treated sympathetic to the genre to give a convincing set of tunes. Perhaps a more 'woody' bass tone would help solidify the low end a bit, but only a small quip.
cheers!
craig

[kneal6]

Those all sound amazing, you're right to be proud. Good job.

[slaphappygarry]

Cheers guys

^_^

I appreciate the feedback

G