Tama Superstar recording

SLEEPY BRiGHT EYEZ

Platinum Member
My friend and I wrote and recorded this song at the end of last year. It was never quite complete, which is why I hadn't uploaded it in the past. However, it's a really great song I think and I doubt it will ever be finished further than it's current state. My friend sang lead vocals and played guitar. I played drums, bass, back up vocals, and the little piano stuff at the end. I used my Superstar kit and Saluda cymbals.

Lady Went Down
 
I am a taker!!

Your singer kind of reminded me of David Bowie. Just a bit.

I loved the sound of your snare!!!

What are you using. It sounds just amazing.

Your drumming is good too! I loved the hi hat sound and the ride sounded pretty good.

I wish more people would give their opinions here!!
 
Good lord the singer sounds like Bowie! Actually, a bizarre cross of Bowie and Morrissey...

I like the song. My main point is actually the mix - I like the dry drums, that makes a nice change - but I'm here thinking maybe the snare is a little too far in the mix at the expense of the vocals. The guitars have nice depth though and I like the 'filthy' bass sound. Maybe just a dab more compression on the snare and thens slight backing off in the mix would yield a more balanced result - but it's a pretty good mix all the same!
 
My friend has a pretty good voice. I wish he would practice his vocals more. It's hard to get him to do things the same twice. There were many takes of the vocal tracks. Him and I have very different voices, and it was a bit of a challenge meshing us two together in the chorus parts.

The snare was just the stock snare that came with my Superstar kit. I think I was using an Evans HD Dry head on it. For the snare mic, it was probably a cheap 58 clone. I ran it through my ART Pro Channel pre before hitting the Firebox into Sonar. Definitely some compression and a little EQ in Sonar as well. I remember I put a faint delay on the snare just to give it a little depth. The room I recorded in is very small, only about 11'x11' with 8' ceilings. Not very ideal for drum recording. But I like the dry sound of the kit as a whole as well.

The hihats are my Saluda 14" MistX, and I was using two different rides. One is a 20" Saluda MistX, the other is a 20" Saluda Glory. The MistX is the more sustainy one, the Glory is the more tonal pingy one. I was alternating them during each section of the chorus. The pitch is very close on the two rides, it's the sustain and thickness of the tone that are different.

MFB what do you mean exactly with the snare vs vocals? On my laptop the snare is a bit loud, maybe over powering the vocals.

The guitar was recorded DI through a Line 6 Pod. My friend was very determined to record DI. We recorded the guitar and drums at the same time. The guitar was also going through the Fender amp while we recorded, which the drum mics picked up a bit. I went back and re-amped the guitar track through a Fender Chorus 2x12 that I put out in my living room, and used two MXL 604 mics as stereo room mics. I mixed the room mics with the DI signal to get that guitar sound. It was really tough bringing the DI guitar track to life.

The bass was DI through my Bass Pod.

Thanks for the comments, they are very much appreciated.
 
.... 'filthy' bass sound.

Trust a sound engineer to describe a sound as filthy as in 'good filthy'.. lol.

Very distinctive song, SBE .. Not sure how I feel about the voice. It is attractive and dissonant at the same time. A very nice song.. and I like what you're doing on the drums.

Nothing is cliche. I like that.
 
Thanks Aydee. I agree, his voice is a bit dissonant but still a bit captivating. He's done some pretty cool solo stuff. When I did the back up vocals I tried to emulate his vocal style, which was pretty hard for me.

Last year I was pretty into compound meters. I loved mixing the threes with standard fours. That was one of my favorite drum beats. We've done a lot of music together (about 13 yrs now) just the two of us- guitar and drums. So I try to follow his guitar with my drumming, since there was no bass reference.

I love the stuff we write together, because like you said, it's not cliche. It's greatly based on feeling. We used to do a lot of improv, even at live shows. Very different from my solo stuff which is pretty straight forward. His solo stuff is even further out there. I think we balance each other nicely.

I have another demo we recorded around the same time, but never quite finished. It's a great example of how simply changing the placement of your drums in the same room and changing a couple of mics can greatly alter the sound, even with the same kit. It's not as great of a performance, but I may post it anyway because I think it's a good example of that.

He's actually working with me now with this new company. We spend our week days in other cities around the country, and we've joked about renting a storage unit if we'll be in the same city for a few weeks, buy some gear at a local pawn shop and record. I'm trying to get set up with Reason again so I can have some sort of music outlet while I'm on the road.
 
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