Rime Of The Ancient Mariner cover

Very nice!
I was almost deafened there, though, even with the volume on my PC down very low:eek:
 
Forostar said:
The sound isn't that great but I like what you did with the Adrian solo.
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Hey, just for the purpose of constructive criticism, what wasn't so great about the sound? After already converting to MP3 in Cubase, Soundcloud then compress the hell out of it further, but the levels and overall sound was pretty spot on in my studio. Just curious really. Thanks for the Adrian solo comment, by the way. Not a patch on his though. Cheers. Robert.
 
Although overall sound quality is not that good, you played really well and I can hear that you've crafted a pretty cool guitar tone! What's your setup? I mean guitar, amp, recording method, anything... :)
 
Srogyy said:
Although overall sound quality is not that good, you played really well and I can hear that you've crafted a pretty cool guitar tone! What's your setup? I mean guitar, amp, recording method, anything... :)
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Hmmmm. I am a little curious. I use a USA strat through a Fender Deluxe and a Line6 Flextone, mic'd with a Roland DR-80c and an SM-57, to a M-Audio interface, running Cubase 3, with plenty of good plug-ins, with M-Audio monitors. I've gotta be honest, it sounded great through the final master I did and even better through my Technics stereo as a lossless WAV file. Have a listen to some of my old band, Gravel. That stuff was produced and mixed by Dan Sprigg and Chris Sheldon, who between them have worked with Foo Fighters, Roger Waters and Radiohead to name but a few. If that still sounds bad, then maybe Soundcloud or your laptop hasn't done it justice. I'm just guessing.... Thanks for the comments though. At this end, the overall sound is better than the playing! :)
 
Much obliged!

Personally I thought it sounded just fine. I'm not into producing or mixing or anything like that like some people here so I won't pick up the subtle differences as much, but nothing felt wrong at all. The tone was great especially.
 
Crimson Idol said:
Much obliged!

Personally I thought it sounded just fine. I'm not into producing or mixing or anything like that like some people here so I won't pick up the subtle differences as much, but nothing felt wrong at all. The tone was great especially.
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Ha. No worries. As you'll see yourself, a good 60% of it was the original recordings anyway. Have fun with them. :)
 
The main issue is the stereo image which is heavily skewed. The compression issue is that you've compressed the vocals further, or compression elsewhere in the chain that reacts to the vocals. There's a lot of side effects of the compression, clicks and pops. The drums are panned wrong, with severe overweight in the right channel, in contrast to the original mix (and sound more mono than the original). Lack of bass (the instrument) and skewed frequency response - Don't EQ it, leave it as it was, and don't pan it wrong. The low midrange in 'Arry's bass is a huge part of the sound and the absence makes the guitar sound thin. Don't fix what aint broken. Reference to the original track and you'll find the issues easily. My guess is that your monitors are set up incorrectly and/or poor acoustics as the stereo image is so skewed. Listen in headphones as well. You have almost nailed the guitar sound in itself though, but check the guitar panning and levels and maybe a slight bit more lower midrange.

Very nice playing though. :)
 
The one thing that really sticks out from the first moments is the kick drum - it's way, way too loud in the mix, and for some reason, as Yax said, it appears to be well to the right of the stereo image instead dead center as it should be.
 
Yax said:
The main issue is the stereo image which is heavily skewed. The compression issue is that you've compressed the vocals further, or compression elsewhere in the chain that reacts to the vocals. There's a lot of side effects of the compression, clicks and pops. The drums are panned wrong, with severe overweight in the right channel, in contrast to the original mix (and sound more mono than the original). Lack of bass (the instrument) and skewed frequency response - Don't EQ it, leave it as it was, and don't pan it wrong. The low midrange in 'Arry's bass is a huge part of the sound and the absence makes the guitar sound thin. Don't fix what aint broken. Reference to the original track and you'll find the issues easily. My guess is that your monitors are set up incorrectly and/or poor acoustics as the stereo image is so skewed. Listen in headphones as well. You have almost nailed the guitar sound in itself though, but check the guitar panning and levels and maybe a slight bit more lower midrange.

Very nice playing though. :)
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Hey. Really appreciate the feedback. After listening in headphones to the Soundcloud upload, I can hear what you are saying. I'm gonna go back and re-do the master and try to find somewhere that hosts it better. I can, however, confirm that the original Bass and Drum tracks are on a single track each. Neither were tampered with and both were panned centrally. If the Bass drum sounds off, again, it has to have something to do with compression as I could not physically change the positioning of individual drum parts. The whole drum part is one individual track. I'll have a good listen to the individual parts and try again! Thanks for giving it your attention, guys. :)
 
In that case, the source stems you're using are oddly panned, for whatever reason, counter pan them!

After listening more carefully I'd urge you to ease up on the master bus compression (or stem track compression, wherever you happen to compress this track), because the compressor reacts to the snare and kick as well (clicks, pops), so ease up on the compression. In fact, don't process anything else than your own guitar parts (besides fixing the odd panning). No EQ or anything on any of the stems - Just your tracks. And don't compress anything on the master bus - In this case it would be advisable not to, as the source files already are compressed and that you get distortion and stuff from the extra compression. :)
 
Yax said:
In that case, the source stems you're using are oddly panned, for whatever reason, counter pan them!

After listening more carefully I'd urge you to ease up on the master bus compression (or stem track compression, wherever you happen to compress this track), because the compressor reacts to the snare and kick as well (clicks, pops), so ease up on the compression. In fact, don't process anything else than your own guitar parts (besides fixing the odd panning). No EQ or anything on any of the stems - Just your tracks. And don't compress anything on the master bus - In this case it would be advisable not to, as the source files already are compressed and that you get distortion and stuff from the extra compression. :)
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Hey. Changed a couple of things here and there but the original master tracks are still the same. I hadn't used any extra compression on them. I'd used the db Audioware Sidechain Compressor set to 'light comp' in the Master which, along with MP3 conversion probably did it no favours. Listening back to a WAV version I just uploaded to Soundcloud and the various guitar track volumes seem to have a mind of their own?! The solo especially. Yet the original sounds fine. Anyway, thanks for the feedback. :) - https://soundcloud.com/robert-jones-33/rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-1
 
This is significantly better - The audioware comressor was obviously the big villain here, regarding the compression and distortion, it reacted to kick, snare and vocals. Cool! Also good that you've corrected the weird drum panning and overall improved stuff.

A small note for anybody else reading this: It's important to to distinguish between data compression (mp3 conversion) and dynamic compression (the audioware compressor). They compress two different things. The mp3 conversion compresses the data to make the file smaller. Dynamic compression reacts to the level and pushes the volume down, so two very different things.
 
Yax said:
This is significantly better - The audioware comressor was obviously the big villain here, regarding the compression and distortion, it reacted to kick, snare and vocals. Cool! Also good that you've corrected the weird drum panning and overall improved stuff.

A small note for anybody else reading this: It's important to to distinguish between data compression (mp3 conversion) and dynamic compression (the audioware compressor). They compress two different things. The mp3 conversion compresses the data to make the file smaller. Dynamic compression reacts to the level and pushes the volume down, so two very different things.
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Thanks man. I must just reiterate that I changed nothing with regards to drum and bass panning. I've always been aware as to their required positioning in mixes and listening to the individual tracks again - which are nothing more than low quality MP3, by the way, - there is little that can be done to improve them. I read an interesting article on 'Sound on Sound' earlier regarding compression. For what it's worth, they go into great detail as to how data compression can be the culprit of stereo imaging problems and it's negative affect on the dynamic range. The downside of the digital streaming/sharing era. Until we can teleport SACD's I guess it will have to do! I'm guessing you're a muso too? Getting off subject for a second, what's your favourite Maiden moment? :)
 
Yeah, mp3 compression brings up the noise floor a good 30 dB, so it does reduce the dynamic range, but it doesn't really compress the peaks (as mp3 conversion changes the spectral balance, slight level difference will occur) in the way a compressor does- Which is why it performs poor with ultra dynamic music, like "classical", as the quietest sections will be pestered by the high noise floor.
Interesting though about the stereo imaging - 100% sure you didn't accidentally pan the drums wrong by mistake? If it's an online article, please link, I haven't read or experienced this before.
Regarding Maiden though, depends on how you see it - I would probably say when I saw them on the Somewhere Back On Tour. They are always spectacular live, and quite often better than on the albums. Album wise though, would be BNW.
 
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Yax said:
Yeah, mp3 compression brings up the noise floor a good 30 dB, so it does reduce the dynamic range, but it doesn't really compress the peaks (as mp3 conversion changes the spectral balance, slight level difference will occur) in the way a compressor does- Which is why it performs poor with ultra dynamic music, like "classical", as the quietest sections will be pestered by the high noise floor.
Interesting though about the stereo imaging - 100% sure you didn't accidentally pan the drums wrong by mistake? If it's an online article, please link, I haven't read or experienced this before.

Yes, I'm about to graduate from a University audio production program (just one project remains as well as 2 month of working at a radio station and then done). Regarding Maiden though, depends on how you see it - I would probably say when I saw them on the Somewhere Back In Time tour. They are always spectacular live, and quite often better than on the albums. Album wise though, would be BNW.
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Somewhere Back In Time was the greatest gig ever. Best day of my life, well, that and my boy being born! :) Powerslave all the ay for me, though I love all the 80s stuff. Only recently got into AMOLAD. I like the stuff since BNW but I'll always be a 1980-88 man! :)

150% certain on the panning. Can only put it down to the Master compression. You sound very au fait with all this. I'm sure you'll enjoy this article. It's very detailed. Have fun mate. - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr12/articles/lost-in-translation.htm
 
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