My New Band's First Song!, Symphonic Metal Options

[Dinaga]

Hey mates, I talked about my new Symphonic Metal band in an older topic, so I'd like to share with you our first song.

http://soundcloud.com/dino-trnka/dolia-winter-queen-1

Everything was done in Cubase with Guitar Rig.
I won't talk much about it, I'll let the music speak for itself.

So... Please tell me what you think about the song, the overall feel, the instruments, vocals, the production and of course, the guitar solo. Looking forward to your opinion, thanks a lot in advance!


Cheers!

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[Saoirse O'Shea]

Wow, thanks a lot Sir for such a detailed feedback! You guys really give the best feedback, this is exactly what we need right now!
...And we definitely need a better microphone because vocals are sometimes too silent and other times too loud. All in all - your're totally right, there is room for improvement!

...

Nice composition and playing/singing but +1 with Gab's comments on the mix - it does need some more attention.

You need to not just consider the vox mic but the preamp that is being use and you should consider using a compressor on it. To some extent though you need a more consistent recording and performance with attention to mic technique. This isn't questionng whether she has a nice voice and can sing but on being able to hold, position and work a mic appropriately. Vox needs de-essing quite a bit as well.

With reverb - you can either use reverb as an obvious effect or as ambience. In the recording, to me, the vox reverb here is used as an effect and IMHO it doesn't work. I'd suggest that you use reverb on this recording more as abience and be more subtle with it.

Bass and low mid range is rather lost in the mix and as both Gab and Chris say the mix sounds thin and it also a little like it was recorded in a long tunnel. Related to this your instrument balance and positions needs some work - drums are too low and lack power, etc.

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[Dinaga]

Thanks again people for the nice comments

Nice composition and playing/singing but +1 with Gab's comments on the mix - it does need some more attention.

You need to not just consider the vox mic but the preamp that is being use and you should consider using a compressor on it. To some extent though you need a more consistent recording and performance with attention to mic technique. This isn't questionng whether she has a nice voice and can sing but on being able to hold, position and work a mic appropriately. Vox needs de-essing quite a bit as well.

With reverb - you can either use reverb as an obvious effect or as ambience. In the recording, to me, the vox reverb here is used as an effect and IMHO it doesn't work. I'd suggest that you use reverb on this recording more as abience and be more subtle with it.

Bass and low mid range is rather lost in the mix and as both Gab and Chris say the mix sounds thin and it also a little like it was recorded in a long tunnel. Related to this your instrument balance and positions needs some work - drums are too low and lack power, etc.

You're right. Now that you said it, as I listen to the song again I realize more and more that the vox reverb was waaaay too high, and it distracts from the vocals, and from the whole song. This is the first time I have the job of mixing the song and I have a lot to learn. I didn't use a compressor before (except when it was included in a Guitar Rig preset but then I didn't meddle with it), so I'll have to experiment with it and see how it can be used to give the best results... We also need to experiment with the microphone position (try to find the ideal distance from the microphone and the singer).

I don't know if you listened to the SoundCloud or the YouTube version. The YouTube version is the latest one. We also realized that vocals (and drums) in the SoundCloud version needed decreasing so we did that in the video version. I don't know if it's enough though?

And you're on the spot with the "tunnel" comment - yeah, I noticed that too, and it's mainly because of the excessive reverb on the vocals. We'll need to be more careful about that one, because it's really evident, especially in the song ending...

I have a question for the others who record songs with vocals: What are the things you usually add to vocals? I know it depends from song to song but are there some ideas which work most of the time? I'd like to have a solid foundation from where I can start, and then I can add more variables etc.

Thanks a lot mates.

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