The Weirdest Band Practice Evar

[curriemaster]

So Ive recently joined a band as the drummer of all things and a wee while ago I purchased an electronic drum kit. This was initially to allow me to practice more frequently than only when we hired a rehearsal room (I have found this is good way to feel shit about your drumming :P).

The other day I decided that we could try and use my new drumkit for practice rather than fork over £30 for a room for 2 hours. Of course, I dont have the gear of a studio that would allow me to amp a guitar and bass and put my guitar over a PA; but I do have a sweet mixer and some recording gear. So I jacked the Audio Out of the drumkit, guitar pedal and bass into my trusty Lexicon Omega and routed the output of the Omega into a Behringer mixer with three headphone outputs.

We all headphoned it up, adjusted the levels of our various instruments and had a go doing some practice/recording. It came out surprisingly good, each instrument was given a separate track in Cubase (not the individual drums unfortunately :( ) and we were able to monitor ourselves and each other quite successfully during the songs. I actually had a Shure SM58 recording the room noise in case anyone wanted to sing but it just picked up the thunk of me hitting the drumpads and the guitarists laboured wheezing.

This story was brought to you by Globogym. Ride the whale of life!

Ive uploaded an pretty direct and unfiddled with version of one of my old songs called "Jekyll and Hyde Reloaded" to my if anyone wants to have a taste of insanity.

Now the real question is: does anyone have any sweet tips on mxing and EQing a band? Id like to let each instrument cut through the mix a bit better, at present it sounds quite muddy. Additionally does anyone have any suggestions on how to correctly set up a Roland electronic drum kit (td3kw) for this kind of recording?

Thanks for reading, hints/tips/tricks are much appreciated!

[Telliath]

How is that weird?

[Sp1r1T]

At 8/26/08 04:18 PM, Telliath wrote: How is that weird?

Because You're posting in here :D

[Alchemist94]

Well we can't really help you EQ if we can't hear what needs to be done. Post what you have so far and you'll get more help. ;)

[Alchemist94]

Sorry dude didn't read the whole post.

[curriemaster]

At 8/26/08 04:18 PM, Telliath wrote: How is that weird?

Well now that I think about it may not be the wierdest, we werent naked with gorilla masks on...nor did continually fart the tune of "Money" by Pink Floyd. But it was certainly surreal to be rocking out somewhat and then listening to mic track to hear only the faint tap-thunk of my drumkit and some barely audible guitar/bass string noises.

It was pretty much like practicing in another dimension.

[Alchemist94]

Sorry for triple post. This one might be helpful.

When the distorted guitar comes in it sounds too... Muffled and overpowering. Turn it down a tad and boost the treble. Hope this helps. :/

[curriemaster]

At 8/26/08 04:23 PM, Alchemist94 wrote: Sorry for triple post. This one might be helpful.

When the distorted guitar comes in it sounds too... Muffled and overpowering. Turn it down a tad and boost the treble. Hope this helps. :/

Aye cheers always good get another opinion...Im just sitting here alone. I have asked Bruce the Guitar but he just sits and stares at me in stony silence. I think hes mad :(. I will give that a go and see how it sounds, I agree it sounds muffled as it kind of overpowers the snare sound and some of the higher bass notes.

Oh yeah and I apologise for all the dud notes/rhythms in the song, they are fairly cringeworthy.

[Alchemist94]

Lol it's not as bad as mainstream bands. Nothing is as bad as mainstream bands. Just promise me you will never become the next my chemical romance, K? :P

[Ambimetric]

It was better quality than what I thought it would have been. It seems relatively untouched, though. As in you just reocorded and uploaded.
Can I be cheeky and ask if I can have a go at mixing it? :)

[curriemaster]

At 8/26/08 04:42 PM, Ambimetric wrote: It was better quality than what I thought it would have been. It seems relatively untouched, though. As in you just reocorded and uploaded.
Can I be cheeky and ask if I can have a go at mixing it? :)

Yeah its pretty much as we heard it when we recorded it except for some slight EQ, reverb and compression but I only spent about 5 minutes on it.

Im intrigued how you would mix it but the Cubase file including audio is 112 Mb, Im not really sure how I would get that to you.

[SinJim]

You may find this link useful. It's about mixing multi-track (acoustic) drum sets. It has a ridiculous amount of information on that. If that's what you need, then hurray! If you're talking about micing the drumset, you might wanna check google for some of the best setups. All I know is you're going to need a lot of mics. I did not listen to the track but yea, this is all sweet information. If you're talking about the whole band for the duration of the song, then check this link out. It has how to do a basic (very fundamental but it will get you started) mix of the instruments using panning and EQing.

Good luck!

~SinJim

[Ambimetric]

At 8/26/08 05:44 PM, curriemaster wrote: Im intrigued how you would mix it but the Cubase file including audio is 112 Mb, Im not really sure how I would get that to you.

I was assuming there are only 3-5 audio tracks, and was thinking you could just send me each track seperately for me to play about with?

[SinJim]

I forgot to mention, for more information on Mixing (beginner to advanced tutorials and articles) check this list out. You really can't run out of things to read here...

Anyhow, sorry for the double post, just forgot that. Don't forget that panning the instruments and EQing them can work wonders and you may even be able to avoid using compressors for a time. In the end, though, if you want your track to sound REALLY good you need to go to an engineer. Either that or take the time and effort to get the education that he had.

~SinJim

[curriemaster]

At 8/27/08 11:22 AM, SinJim wrote: You may find this link useful. It's about mixing multi-track (acoustic) drum sets. It has a ridiculous amount of information on that. If that's what you need, then hurray! If you're talking about micing the drumset, you might wanna check google for some of the best setups. All I know is you're going to need a lot of mics. I did not listen to the track but yea, this is all sweet information. If you're talking about the whole band for the duration of the song, then check this link out. It has how to do a basic (very fundamental but it will get you started) mix of the instruments using panning and EQing.

Good luck!

~SinJim

Thanks very much for the links, I will be sure to check them out. I am using a Roladn V-Drums Electronic drumkit, so it has an audio out jack into which each drum/cymbal is mixed, so I currently dont have access to the individual drum outputs via audio. I can however record to MIDI and separate out each drum manually, which might be a massive pain in the bazonga.

I was really asking about any Mixing/EQing tips people might have on making the most of an ensemble (in this case a trio) of instruments such that they are each clearly audible. For example I tried out notching down a low frequency on the guitar and that same frequency up on the bass. I also panned the guitar right and the bass left.

But I appreciate all help offered and Im sure those articles will help as well so Ill definitely check them out, thanks :)

[SinJim]

Currie, make sure you check the second link in the first post I had, I think you'll find that useful.

~SinJim