Nanosecond (original)

[paulman]

I just finished tracking this (though I'll probably give the drums another go at some point), and did a fairly quick mix and master. I want to get some thoughts on this before I go down the rabbit hole of mixing. It's meant to be kind of a cinematic experience, love song as horror movie. Other than whatever things you might pick out on your own, I have questions about the following: How do I make the bass runs from 2:10 to 2:40 stand out? I've put a limiter on the bass track, and I boosted it around 300hz, which helped for those particular notes, but it still doesn't stand out as much as I want it to. Also, I'd like opinions on whether my guitar noise is too self-indulgent, if maybe the solo is too long. If you're someone who doesn't like feedback and noise, than you're probably not the one to tell me. But someone like Bubba, who loves the Pixies like I do, could either appreciate it or tell me that it's too much. All lead guitar on this was done with an EBow on the harmonic setting, and I like to press and beat the strings with it to get the sounds that I get. The last specific thing that comes to mind is whether the guitar harmonies under the vocal at the end are distracting from the vocal. They're kind of loose, half-improvised.

I still don't have a real amp that works yet, but I used a demo of Amplitube's Mark IV model for every guitar track on this. I like it a lot better than Line 6.

[Greg_L]

There's a weird static scratch noise in the right channel that coincides with the snare hits during the verse starting around 1:33. WTF is that? Do you have a distortion plug on the drums?

Speaking of scratchy static, what's up with those guitar tones? Is that a purposeful artistic choice? The rhythm guitars' raunchy tone kind of works, but yikes.

As for the bass, it stands out as it is. I can hear the little run things just fine. But it doesn't sound very good. That's not a good bass tone IMO. You don't need to boost it at 300. You should probably be boosting it around 3k. It needs more attack.

I like the noisy wreck that is the guitar solo. I think it's a little too wanky though. You were on the right track, but I think you got a little carried away. It's really missing actual feedback, but you use what you gotta use.

The distortion effect on the drums in the breakdown is a little too heavy IMO.

The vocals are pretty good most of the time, but sometimes your melody goes out in left field and doesn't really seem to jive.

[paulman]

I like the noisy wreck that is the guitar solo. I think it's a little too wanky though. You were on the right track, but I think you got a little carried away. It's really missing actual feedback, but you use what you gotta use.

That's exactly what I wanted to know. Probably should cut it by a third. Yeah, I hate that I can't get feedback. It's a huge drawback for me with sims.

Yes, the raunchy Weezerish sound is what I like. I'd prefer it came from a real Mark IIc+ and not a Mark IV sim, but it's generally what I go for with distorted rhythms. I'm still not great at mixing heavy songs, though, which is why I posted this before putting a lot of effort into it.

Not sure what you're talking about with the verse drums, but I'm unhooked from my monitors now and just have my laptop speakers. So I'll listen for that later. And I'll see about dialing back the distortion on the break, or maybe mixing in a dry version with it.

[paulman]

As for the bass, it stands out as it is. I can hear the little run things just fine. But it doesn't sound very good. That's not a good bass tone IMO. You don't need to boost it at 300. You should probably be boosting it around 3k. It needs more attack.

The bass amp I'm using is phenomenal, but I have no effing clue when it comes to the settings. It's an Aguilar DB680, which is the crown jewel of bass amps. I have it because I'm recording a bass album for a friend, and he left it at my house. The tones he gets are amazing, but I haven't learned how to tweak the tones on it myself yet. It's also his 5-string bass I used, and I don't know what the knobs are for. So I'm pretty much flying blind with that.

[rayc]

https://www.tseaudio.com/software/tseBOD
Try this on the bass - it's a clone of the Sansamp - Minrerman popped it up for all, it is also available in hardware cheaply as the BDI21 by Behringer.
I like the song, the solo/lead tone but I'm not fussed on the fizziness of the rhythm guitars.

[vomitHatSteve]

I kind of like the bass tone. It's got that fake SID chip kind of sound; I got a Test Drive vibe from it. Bass runs are loud enough.

+1 on that distortion on the drums being a problem. When it comes in after the solo, it kind of makes sense, but it shouldn't be constant.

I'm not super-impressed by the guitar tone. There's no real body to the rhythms, just static.

I would cut the solo at about 3:57.

[miroslav]

I like the bass too...reminds me of some Alan Parson's stuff...but yeah, the guitars are just really annoyingly scratchy.
That's a pretty nasty distorted guitar sound. Whatever you're using...dial it way down.

Even the lead has some of that scratchy edge. Maybe that's what you want, but TBH, I find the texture too irritable on the ears...so I would tone that down too...otherwise the playing was fine.

Maybe fatter drums too.