Riot on Broadway

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

Hey guys, check out my band's first recorded demo, "What's The Point?" It's a chill ska-influenced song written mostly by our bass player.

Keep in mind the following few things:
1. We did NOT use a click track, so our guitarist kind of gets off beat in the intro and in a few sections in the song. When we do a real recording of the song, we are definately using a click track.
2. We recorded my part, drums, on our guitarist's drumset, and he mic'd the bass drum and snare too loud and they sound horrible. Our singer's set, however sounds really good on recording, so we will be using that. My set is cheap and doesn't sound that good...
3. You can't hear the toms in this recording, but when the fills sound like they have rests, listen close and you'll hear the toms.
4. Our singer is coming up with new ways to sing it for the real recording
5. Our bassist has new basslines for most of the song...
6. We have a trombone in the band...He will record on the real recording.

So yeah, listen to it. Let me know what you all think about it...I personally think it's really cool. Feel free to post ideas or suggestions.

Here's the link:
http://www.purevolume.com/riotonbroadway

Thanks,
Mark

[mrchristian]

I like the intro. I would have it kick in one segment earlier though.

[Jovianknight]

Your name reminds me of Panic at the Disco. I am going to copy you and them with an equally inventive name,

Uprising in Disneyland

[Lexluthor]

Hey there are some good things about it and some bad ill list them. Bad first

Bad:
• The recording really lets it down, it sounds like you have some alright equipment but that your not using it very well. The tracks (especially the drums) really sound like they are clipping. Make sure the levels aren’t set to high when you recording the tracks in. Also look up Compression (if you don’t already know what it is) The vocals (and in fact all the tracks) could really use some (That would hopefully balance level out some of those extreme dynamics and fine tune the track)
•"Only got one shot at a first impression, im willing to give you two" NEVER sing that line ever again.
• Some of the vocals are a little out of key and some of the parts are out. Not a majorly bad singer though, just do more takes to get it right.

Good Points:
• Nice Ska beat
• It wells accomplishes what it sets out to achieve as a song (Being chilled out and shiz)
• Good vocal melody

Overall it’s a nice track, you just need to iron out some of the issues with recording and musicianship to make it that little bit better. Oh and this should be in the Audio Arena.

EDIT: I didnt read your post (it was to long) Sorry if I commented on thing you had already explained.

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

thanks guys...especially lexluther.

yeah, i hate the sound of the drums. our singer's set sounds so much better and i dont have to tweak it in any kind of recording programs to make it sound good, so i'm gonna use that from now on...or completely tweak our guitarist's set...

what does clipping mean? because for some things when i try to raise the volume it asks if i want to allow clipping and i don't know what it means...so i click yes.

our singer is gonna start training his voice to stay on key, and the final recording will be much better (we did realize this issue)

[Lexluthor]

Yeah actually as a song it sounds pretty good.

Haha, err how to explain clipping. I guess the best was would be to say this. When you record a track the volume can only go so high without distorting the sound (and basically just becoming really crap and horrible) So what you need to do is make sure than when you record the track that you havent got the input volume set to high.

Depending on what software you use they may show this in a different way. But you should know the image of sound recording and little green bars jumping up as you make a sound... well if the bar goes to high and goes into the red then the track is clipping and needs to be turned down a little.

Just spend some time before you record the final track to make sure your volume doesnt go into the red (And dont click yes when it asks if you want to allow for clipping.. haha)


What program do you use to record?

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

well i use a Fostex MR8-HD to do the actual recording, and it usually doesn't go into the red when i record on there. I am currently using Audacity for editing, but since that's what I want to do when I get out of high school and college (I'm just now getting into it), I'm trying to get up enough cash to buy Cubase or something.

[Lexluthor]

Yeah well I dunno... I use Cubase and its made quite easy because once I get the tracks in I can normalize them to reach sort of an optimum volume. I not sure if Audacity comes with that process built it. Check the help files or something because it could really help you.

You can record the tracks at a fairly low volume (well not too low obviously) and then normalize the tracks and the computer will automatically raise the volume to max without it clipping.

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

yeah, audacity comes with a normalize function. which Cubase do you have? the one i'm looking into buying is the least expensive version...i think it's around $150 - USD

[Lexluthor]

Ive got Cubase SX3 but lets just say it didn't cost over $100..
I do a music tech course and my teacher hooked me up shall we say.
Haha, but yeah id imagine for what your trying to do (and in honesty anything id ever try and do) a cheaper version should be fine.

[Nicko_Shmicko]

1. We did NOT use a click track, so our guitarist kind of gets off beat in the intro and in a few sections in the song. When we do a real recording of the song, we are definately using a click track.

most bands dont use click tracks when recording, just learn to keep time.

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

most interviews i've read say that they use click tracks on their recordings

and according to my bass teacher (even though i'm the drummer in this band), most guitarists, but not all, don't have a very good sense of rhythm without a drummer...and there's no drums in the first i think 2 measures of the intro...just random cymbal rolls, so we have to record the guitar first so he knows when to come in (im not a fan of stick clicks) and then i'll lay down the drum track and then everything should be fine after that. we really only need click for guitar.

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

Hey, Lexluthor...I just downloaded a "try before you buy" version of Cubase SX and it's not letting me put any tracks on there to edit...any tips on how to get started?

I read through the help files and it didn't say much about this...

[Lexluthor]

Haha, yeah Cubase can be really confusing to learn... buts its so good when you get used to it.

To get going click: File/ New Project/ Empty/ *Choose a place*

Then look underneath where it say the letters M S R W (To the left) Under the letters you need to right click in the blue area. Click "Add Audio Track", then choose Mono (well unless your working with two mics) Ok then you need to set up your soundcard (here it gets a little tricky)

Click Devices/ Device setup

Then under VST Audiobay your going to have to figure out how to set up your soundcard (And to be honest it can be a pain in the ***) Just mess around you will get it to work in the end. Now you need to set up an audio bus. Press

Devices/ VST Connections/ *Delete any busses already there*/ *Right click* and press "Add Bus"/ *Choose either mono or stereo/ Then select your audio device.

Haha now your more or less done. Find and click the track that you added prviously and (to the far left of the screen) where it says "in: No bus" and select the one you just set up.

Now your done if all has gone well press record and hopefully it will work. If you having any problems ill give you a hand. Just ask on here.

I expect you will, those instructions were rubbish... sorry.

Hope this helps.

[Lexluthor]

Oh and the "try before you buy" crack is really good.... not that I would know... or anything like that....

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

what if i already have the audio on my computer? i don't need to record it, because i use a multitracker (Fostex MR8-HD)

[Lexluthor]

Oh right. Ok thats easy then.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Click open new project.

Then click

File/ Inport/ Audio File/ *Find the file*/ Then I advise copying the file to the working directory, but you dont have too.

Just do this again for more than one track. Once they are in you can begin editing them. There is still alot to learn about using Cubase to edit, but its all fairly simple. Here are some tips..

------------------------------------------------------------------

To Normalize the track click

Audio/ Process/ Normalize/ Then just select 0.0db

------------------------------------------------------------------

To add other effects you should first name the tracks (On the left) Then open the mixer. Click...

Devices/ Mixer

Once in the mixer find the track you want to edit, and press the little round e button on that track. That should open a window called VST AUDIO CHANNEL SETTINGS.

In the boxes under the words i1 i2 i3 so on.. you can add effects. You can mess around with them and tweek them till it sounds right. Use effects like reverb, chorus and compression. Also in this window you can tweek the tracks EQ (By moving the green graph to the left of the window) This effects the high end and low end sounds.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh and one more point. When your in the mixer never adjust the levels of the tracks so high that the little round C button turns red on the master volume. That means the tracks are clipping and distorting slightly.



Hope this helps. Again ask any questions you want. I honestly have nothing better to do.

[Hi My Name Is Mark]

cool. how do i save it as a mp3/wav? (mp3 for the purevolume/myspace when we get a good recording of the song, wav for the cd/ep when we get more songs)

[Lexluthor]

Cool i hope that all worked ok for you.

This may be hard to explain, so feel free to ask any questions.

To save them as MP3s or WAVs you have to first set the left and right markers (The bit thats like a ruler (or straight edge) with the numbers, above your audio (near the top of the screen))

To do that you can either drag along the triangle (on the straight edge) at the start of the track to the right OR you could go to where the end of the track is and hold ALT and click on the ruler (or straight edge) looking thing is.

The aim is to have all the audio you want to export under the blue cover type thing. (Sorry this sounds Soooooo much more complicated than it really is)


Once you have done that click

File/ Export/ Audio Mixdown

Then choose where you want to save, and the type of file you want to save as.


This was really hard to explain, lol. So seriously ill send you some pics or whatever (that might help explain) if you dont understand.