Finally got around to recording the band I play with

[SweetDan]

Here's one of the better ones from rehearsal tonight w/the Gypsy Swing band I play with -- Swing St. Vrain -- and the tune is called "Save The Roach For Me". I've wanted to record this group for several years now, never got around to it, but finally my other bandmates discussed wanting to do some recording. So I did. Five of us are currently in the group. The band leader (male) is on lead vocal and lead guitar in this tune, though usually the female vocal is the star of the show. I'm on string bass. There's also a rhythm guitarist (he's got the second guitar solo here, and he's really good) and a violinist.

I mixed this one a little bit - tweaking levels, touches of EQ here and there, a bit of room reverb on a buss, and limiting in the final stage. I plan to do more (and careful) mixing, but we also plan to do more recording too, so I may focus first on the tracking side of things.

I'm still in the "Oh my gosh! That sounds so good!" phase you get into when you've just pulled up the DAW the first time since tracking, not to mention the "I can't believe that mic placement worked!" reaction I'm having too. Needless to say, my ears are likely skewed right now, so I'm curious what imbalances or other weirdness y'all hear in this mix.




"Save The Roach For Me"

EDIT 1: New mix incorporating suggestions on vocal and solo levels, EQ, panning/widening (Sweetwater just posted a thing on mid/side processing I used - https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/easy- ... rocessing/), and a few other minor tweaks:

EDIT 3: same as "EDIT 1", but with the DI lead guitar running through an amp sim (and I deleted prior file):

ssv_20211026_saveTheRoach_roughMix3amp.mp3

EDIT 5 - pruned "rough mix 1", save WJ some hosting costs. You didn't want to hear that guitar DI anyway....




"Sweet Lotus Blossom"

EDIT 2: Here's another tune from the same rehearsal; the female vocal takes the lead here:

ssv_20211026_sweetLotusBlossom_roughMix1.mp3

"Hit That Jive Jack"

EDIT 4: another one; enjoy

ssv_20211026_hitThatJiveJack_roughMix1.mp3

[CrowsofFritz]

Sounds fantastic! That guitar solo was a little loud. It also sounds just like a plain DI. What amp was he using if any?

[JD01]

How did you capture everything on this? Have all the parts got their own mic?

[stratmonkee]

yeah sounds great, great tone on that bass...curios as well as how this was tracked?
I love this , nice job!

[vomitHatSteve]

Everything's coming through pretty balanced.

My nits would be: see if you can get something more panned out from the center. It's a little mono-feeling right now
Maybe roll off some high-end on the female vocals. As BGvox, she's maybe cutting through too well and feeling a little harsh.

Nothing's really broken though.

[rayc]

The main vocal starts out really loud and in my face...it seems to pull back a little.
The band sounds like a classic Aussie Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band...



Cool performance & recording.

[Lt. Bob]

very nice capture there!

Found the vox to be ever so slightly loud but I mean a very very small amount.
Bass sounds good .... so does git .... nice ..... violin seems slightly out of tune.

All in all a fun band I'd love to play with.

[TripleM]

Nice sounding for sure. Everything is well recorded.

To pull back the male vocal, I wonder if a notch cut in the mid-2Ks might help. It's a little crispy, and a cut there might help. I think it might sit better in the mix that way.

I'm not hearing much else I'd change. It was nice.

[SweetDan]

Thanks everybody for listening. I'll try out some of the additional mixing suggestions and see how things sound.

How did you capture everything on this? Have all the parts got their own mic?

Yes, every instrument or voice got their own mic, and we captured it all live, in real time; no overdubs. We rehearse in a "normal sized" living/family room for a house built in the 1970's or 80's, in a rough circle facing inwards at each other. LDC mics on the female voice (Blue Spark) and rhythm guitar (MXL V63M). Handheld vocal mics, not sure what make/model, which belong to the band leader on the violin, male voice, and lead guitar. (More info about lead guitar situation below...) Audix f2 on the string bass.

Listening to each track in solo, there's obviously mic bleed, but I think its' all working out OK in the mix. I don't know if we'd even attempt to make an album tracking this way, but for now we're just trying to capture demo-quality sounds during a rehearsal. Being arranged in a circle facing each other probably helps too, since with each mic facing each performer, the nulls of every mic are all facing the center.

yeah sounds great, great tone on that bass...curios as well as how this was tracked?
I love this , nice job!

It was in more-or-less mic position #3 from the string bass mic placement experiment I did here (viewtopic.php?t=1081), though the mic was less than 1' from from the top of the instrument. (After listening back to this again, I need to run a similar experiment for the violin; I think I could capture a better sound with different mic placement.)

Sounds fantastic! That guitar solo was a little loud. It also sounds just like a plain DI. What amp was he using if any?

Yeah, I started w/HH dynamic mic for the lead guitar (archtop acoustic with a pickup) but couldn't get enough level. I temporarily switched to another LDC but was getting way too much male voice in the signal. (The bandleader was singing and playing guitar at the same time...one of the hardest situations to mic without too much bleed, as y'all know.) Then he suggested that since he's got a pickup on the guitar, we take the DI signal off his amplifier. So he plugged in, I plugged into the DI, and off we went. I don't know the make/model of the amplifier, but I can get that info next time; I'll have to look it up and see if it has a speaker emulation, though I doubt it does.

So at this point in the rehearsal I think we'd switched over to the DI. I need to finish listening to the rest of the session to see how the actual mic'd recording of the lead guitar sounds. If it sounds OK, I hope that the mic bleed is manageable and I can use that in the future instead of the DI.

The main vocal starts out really loud and in my face...it seems to pull back a little....

..... violin seems slightly out of tune....

Yeah, both those are technique things for each of those performers, respectively. But I'm not going to tell them...are you? At least with the loud voice, maybe I can tell the bandleader to not swallow the mic, maybe he'll listen. (Actually, he moves back and forth a lot...this may be a challenge.)

...The band sounds like a classic Aussie Captain Matchbox Whoopie Band...

LOLOL! We may need to add "That Cat Is High" to our set list...!

[musicturtle]

Nice mix @SweetDan. All has been mentioned that I would say, but overall a great capture of the feel of an acoustic band jamming in my living room. Well done.

[Alison]

Love it!! Great sound you have going and fantastic vibe! Made me think of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Great song too. . . Well done!

[CrowsofFritz]

Can you use any amp sims for the DI track? Like a nice Fender sim? If you don’t have one, I have a couple Fender sims I can process the DI track with and give it to you.

[Armistice]

The second guitar soloist is all over the first guitar soloist... but you're probably not going to tell #1 guy that either ...

You can also tell the female singer is usually the star and she's not quite following the lead vocal too closely in spots - perhaps that's part of the charm.

[SweetDan]

New mix posted up top. Sorry, @CrowsofFritz, still the DI on the first guitar, but probably a good idea...I do have an amp sim I can work with (Studio One includes one), so I may try that out.

Speaking of the guitars...

The second guitar soloist is all over the first guitar soloist... but you're probably not going to tell #1 guy that either ...

Agreed. (lol) Not an issue, though; they're all a pretty relaxed, fun group.

@Alison, it turns out one or more Dan Hicks' tunes are commonly in our set list.

Thanks @musicturtle; we literally were in the living room, so if it sounds like you're right there too, then things are going along pretty well.

[SweetDan]

Mixed second good take from the rehearsal, and posted it in the thread starter. @CrowsofFritz I did run the lead guitar DI through an amp sim on this, and went back to the first tune and did the same. (Maybe later I'll attach it, but these files are pretty big and I don't want to use up all @WhiskeyJack's storage and bandwidth , so maybe I'll remove one of the first two mixes of the first tune.)

[vomitHatSteve]

Her voice definitely sits in this mix better

[CrowsofFritz]

I think they all sound pretty good.

[SweetDan]

Thanks.

New file attached up top with DI-less remix of the first tune.

[Lt. Bob]

Love it!! Great sound you have going and fantastic vibe! Made me think of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Great song too. . . Well done!

@Alison awesome .... Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks are among my biggest influences ...... right up there with the Beatles or Hendrix or Steely Dan etc.
I listened to all their albums over and over and over and Where's the Money has to be one of the greatest live albums by anyone ever!!
I still listen to it regularly and marvel at the awesomeness of it all.

[Alison]

Love it!! Great sound you have going and fantastic vibe! Made me think of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Great song too. . . Well done!

@Alison awesome .... Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks are among my biggest influences ...... right up there with the Beatles or Hendrix or Steely Dan etc.
I listened to all their albums over and over and over and Where's the Money has to be one of the greatest live albums by anyone ever!!
I still listen to it regularly and marvel at the awesomeness of it all.

You and I come from the same era! Man, Steely Dan, what an awesome band, intelligent lyrics, precise performance. . .ugh! I think what gets me most about Dan Hicks are the harmonies, I am totally a harmony lover!