Soundtest Biaxident!

Fox622003

Gold Member
Hey guys, so I was trying different positioning and postproduction on my drums the other day and I played this part that reminded me of this track by LTE; I'm not really a fan of Mike Portnoy or Dream Theater, but I found a midi and just started playing over it, and I have to admit it was fun. Anyway, I know it saturates a bit on parts, but I hope you get the idea of the sound I'm going for, and any advice on it is welcome. Feel free to critique my playing, although keep in mind I was a bit limited since there's not a lot of room for improvisation in this track.
I'll see if I can get a video up soon, hopefully, with some advice on how to improve my sound from you guys.


Cheers, Fox.
 

Attachments

  • Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident Drum Cover.mp3
    6.6 MB · Views: 148
Now that was interesting & coincidental. I jammed this track with my band a few months ago, just a spur of the moment thing when the keys player fired it up, really, not an easy track to nail down. I'm absolutely not a Portnoy fan, but our previous guitarist was into LTE. Anyhow, we bashed it around for 30 mins or so, & got it sounding quite good. You got the essential content of each section right, but a few minor dragging issues. I listened again, & came to the conclusion that the melody key line in the backing track was a slightly different timing to the original track. Sort of a slight push ahead improv. This, coupled with a degree of drag on the kick drum, loses the groove in a couple of sections, almost as if you couldn't hear the backing track properly. Don't get me wrong, the technical skill aspects of the piece were very good, it's just that the vibe didn't hang together.

I thought your sound was generally good, but a bit harsh/bright on the cymbals. I'll reserve further comment on this though, because I'm unable to listen through my good quality cans right now. I'll try to get back to that later. How did you record this piece?
 
Don't get me wrong, the technical skill aspects of the piece were very good, it's just that the vibe didn't hang together.

That's true, and it's not entirely my fault, it's not my playing at least. I had two separate backing tracks setup on Cubase, one with a click and the other without, and they just wouldn't line up; when I got them to line up on a part, they wouldn't line up on another (hence, while my drumming lines up to the click, when you disable that track and enable the other, it won't line up as good, since I wasn't actually even hearing the final track), and it isn't very enjoyable to listen to it with the click track because it all goes out through the left channel, but I'll upload it in case you have the time to take a listen and re-evaluate on the grooving part, I'd like to hear your opinion, since it was pretty tough to groove on some of the odd-time parts.


I thought your sound was generally good, but a bit harsh/bright on the cymbals. I'll reserve further comment on this though, because I'm unable to listen through my good quality cans right now. I'll try to get back to that later. How did you record this piece?

Well, it was hard to balance a good snare sound (or what I like at least - - to really hear the drum and have that bright, fast attack) with a good cymbal sound, since the overheads capture a lot of the snare. It was recorded with 2 overheads, close mic for each piece except the biggest floor tom and a small pencil condenser for the hi hat. All that goes through my Tascam US-1641 and into Cubase LE 5 through USB. This set up gives me decent control over each track.
But anyway, any advice on sound is appreciated, since I'm still learning, and I might have overdone it on the compression for the overheads and snare mic.
Thanks for listening!


Fox.
 

Attachments

  • Liquid Tension Experiment - Biaxident Drum Cover (Click Backing).mp3
    6.1 MB · Views: 83
Thanks for posting that click version, it certainly nailed the tracks as being at fault. I could better hear your playing, & how it interfaced with the overall timing. Still a couple of tiny timing wobbles, but nothing to concern about. I'd love to hear you playing in a band context. To be honest, I'd really struggle to groove this piece against a backing track, especially one as benign as this one. With real players, it's a different game completely.

As for sound, I'm not used to doing anything software based, so I'm ill placed to advise you. That said, by whatever mechanism, I did feel the kit sound was a bit over processed, & certainly over compression of the cymbals. I loved that little breath splash sound you had going there. The second of the splashes you use in an early part of the piece. Just wonderful!

Are you in a band? If not, that's well overdue IMO, you have much to offer. If you are, put up some stuff. I'm much more used to working through "real" music, & much happier offering critique on a players ability to make music, rather than the somewhat sterile act of playing mechanisms.
 
Thanks for posting that click version, it certainly nailed the tracks as being at fault. I could better hear your playing, & how it interfaced with the overall timing. Still a couple of tiny timing wobbles, but nothing to concern about. I'd love to hear you playing in a band context. To be honest, I'd really struggle to groove this piece against a backing track, especially one as benign as this one. With real players, it's a different game completely.

As for sound, I'm not used to doing anything software based, so I'm ill placed to advise you. That said, by whatever mechanism, I did feel the kit sound was a bit over processed, & certainly over compression of the cymbals. I loved that little breath splash sound you had going there. The second of the splashes you use in an early part of the piece. Just wonderful!

Are you in a band? If not, that's well overdue IMO, you have much to offer. If you are, put up some stuff. I'm much more used to working through "real" music, & much happier offering critique on a players ability to make music, rather than the somewhat sterile act of playing mechanisms.

Thanks, I'm glad you could check out that version.
Yeah, I'm in a band, I was going to work on a video of me playing to one of our tracks, actually, but it would still be studio-ish. I'll see if I can manage to get everyone together and record one of our songs in a semi-live setting at least.
Glad you liked the splash sound! They are all Staggs ;-).


Fox.
 
Thanks, I'm glad you could check out that version.
Yeah, I'm in a band, I was going to work on a video of me playing to one of our tracks, actually, but it would still be studio-ish. I'll see if I can manage to get everyone together and record one of our songs in a semi-live setting at least.
Glad you liked the splash sound! They are all Staggs ;-).


Fox.
Just a handicam recording will do. As long as it's not distorted, then it's cool. That stagg splash was just superb. Really trashy, I like that. The other splash was a bit on the dead side for my liking, but that second splash in the sequence is a real stunner!
 
Hey! If I may give you some feedback: I'd work on the simple things (not the easy things, but the simple), placement and tightness. For example the two handed (I assume) 16th-note-figure on the hihat; the notes are not very smooth, it doesn't groove.
You're on the good way of course, but those subtleties, those small differences are the hardest to improve and master, and they are the big difference that separate the good from the amateur, and the world class from the good. My own experience :).
 
Hey! If I may give you some feedback: I'd work on the simple things (not the easy things, but the simple), placement and tightness. For example the two handed (I assume) 16th-note-figure on the hihat; the notes are not very smooth, it doesn't groove.
You're on the good way of course, but those subtleties, those small differences are the hardest to improve and master, and they are the big difference that separate the good from the amateur, and the world class from the good. My own experience :).

Alright; there's another 16th note part on the hi hats on a video I'll be probably be working on, I'll see if I can get it right then!
Thanks for the advise, and I know the importance of the simple things, but I also suck at double pedal playing for example (even though I'm not interested in doing extreme speed, I still lack control for short bursts), and that's one of the things I try to keep up with the most.
Thanks for listening and dropping by.


Fox.
 
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