Nur Ein III Round Two "Unnatural Disaster"

[Billy's Little Trip]

my browser skipped from BLT to Cock

That's a very short skip

Dang, I wish I had a nice cum back.

[ujnhunter]

good songs everyone... i think i enjoyed them all... Nur Ein!

[jb]

A few comments, for the songs where something occurred to me to say.

1. Ross, I'm buying a pair of those goddamn headphones. Your mix sounds great on both my nearfield monitors and my ipod earbuds. This song is great.

2. 15-16 Puzzle, this is so rad.

3. Frank-- the bridge thing cracked me up, although I do think that the meta-joke in the middle kind of cancels out the rest of your lyrics, which seems a shame. Disregarding that, the song fucking rocks harder than anything Brainpipe, [EDIT: wait, I meant Brain Socket] ever did.

4. Octothorpe-- I dig it, but in headphones the buzzy synth on the right gets a tad tiring to my ear. I would enjoy # tracks more if there were a nice thumpy kick drum in them, I think.

5. Andrew Reist, man, you need a better mic. Your arrangement is nice and clean and clear, but then the vocals sound indistinct. Also, investigate some delay or reverb on the lead vox, and maybe try some doubling. It seems, to my ears, to be the major deficit in your production.

6. ADD-- This is so beautiful. I am a complete sucker for the repeating bass pattern, layered composition, the chorus patch, this kind of song in general, and Jeff Music in particular. This was the best use of peer pressure that Frank and I have ever engaged in. Your music makes me strive to measure up.

7. Ken-- I like the bell synth patch. I know conventional wisdom is to keep the vox centered, but there seems to be a stack of things in the middle. Maybe take that main guitar riff out of the center? This is like, old school indie rock man. Like Pavement or Sebadoh. First listen I was like, meh, but second listen I totally dig this. The chorus is great! Hey, harmony! Oh yeah I like that synth at the very end a lot too, I wish it didn't end there-- that synth would totally be a great lead-in to some awesome second bridge or something.

8. JBB-- My song can be, but doesn't have to be, about George W. Bush, looking forward to the period following his imminent removal from power. The translation of my mix is shitty. The vox are not locked in rhythmically, I think due to latency and general incompetence on my part. Lots of other production problems, but I am very happy with the songwriting. Time pressure is great for making me come up with lyrics, although it's not fun at all. I was sweating and swearing about the songwriting/recording process recently, and my girlfriend said "I thought this was your stress-relief activity." Ha.

[starfinger]

Disregarding that, the song fucking rocks harder than anything Brainpipe ever did.

is there some other brainpipe, or are you talking about me and h.inc?!

-craig

[Reist]

5. Andrew Reist, man, you need a better mic. Your arrangement is nice and clean and clear, but then the vocals sound indistinct. Also, investigate some delay or reverb on the lead vox, and maybe try some doubling. It seems, to my ears, to be the major deficit in your production.

And like Adam said you need to work more on recording/mixing your vox.

I'm pretty sure there's more quotes I could put up, but I'm lazy. It's apparent that I need to work on the vocal mixing/micing. I'm pretty sure a large part of it is the mic I'm using, as it's made for overhead drum micing, which is very different than vocals.

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

[ken]

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

Of course. What mics do you currently have?

I can't recommend the Studio Projects B1 enough for a good first vocal mic.

Ken

[jb]

Disregarding that, the song fucking rocks harder than anything Brainpipe ever did.

is there some other brainpipe, or are you talking about me and h.inc?!

-craig

Whoops, I meant Brain Socket.

[Märk]

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

For a dynamic, I'd say a Shure SM58. For a condenser (make sure your recorder/mixer/whatever has phantom power, though) maybe an MXL 992

[Reist]

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

Of course. What mics do you currently have?

I've got two ICM 417s and an Apex 770. I use the ICMs for overhead micing and vocals, and the Apex for snare and amp micing. I'm pretty sure neither type is good for vocals.

[starfinger]

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

i love my sennheiser e835.. it's a dynamic mic, and people will tell you to get a condenser, but for me this keeps problematic room acoustics from destroying my take.

-craig

[Billy's Little Trip]

I'm with Mark, Andrew. Shure 58 is cheap, durable and versatile. I like my condensers, but they pick up way more than is necessary, in my "usually wrong" opinion.
Also, some kind of tube pre amp or tube simulator plug in.

Honestly, I think if you simply ran your vox through a tube pre and some sort of ambiance FX, they'd be fine even with the mic you're using.
I can't remember the plug in that Ken turned us on to some time ago, something like, "Klausnhymer" LOL. Drawing a blank, sorry. But they have a free plug simply called "chorus". It has several mic simulators in it. The one that I really liked was called "Fat Rodes" which is a condenser simulator. You can record with an SM58 and get the fat sound of a condenser without all the unnecessary crap.

[ken]

Yeah, you should probably be using that Apex mic for your vocals rather than the CAD. Maybe you just process your vocals badly. Do you compress them?

Ken

[Ross]

Anybody got suggestions for a good vocal mic? (by good I mean it works well and is reasonably priced )

Of course. What mics do you currently have?

I can't recommend the Studio Projects B1 enough for a good first vocal mic.

Ken

I love my B1 - it is also great on my acoustic guitar.

[Reist]

Yeah, you should probably be using that Apex mic for your vocals rather than the CAD. Maybe you just process your vocals badly. Do you compress them?

Ken

I've tried using the Apex for vocals, but it sounds kind of buzzy and distant (from what I remember). I lightly compress the vocals because I sometimes jump in volume - that's probably just lack of skill.

I'm being lured by the SM58 - it's been two years since I've bought a mic, so maybe now's the time to go for one. Would you say that the SM58's a step up from the Apex?

[Ross]

Yeah, you should probably be using that Apex mic for your vocals rather than the CAD. Maybe you just process your vocals badly. Do you compress them?

Ken

I've tried using the Apex for vocals, but it sounds kind of buzzy and distant (from what I remember). I lightly compress the vocals because I sometimes jump in volume - that's probably just lack of skill.

I'm being lured by the SM58 - it's been two years since I've bought a mic, so maybe now's the time to go for one. Would you say that the SM58's a step up from the Apex?

I used the SM57 (the 58 without the ball on the end) for my vox for awhile but had trouble getting them to sound "present" - the B1 helped a lot.

[jb]

Yeah, you should probably be using that Apex mic for your vocals rather than the CAD. Maybe you just process your vocals badly. Do you compress them?

Ken

I've tried using the Apex for vocals, but it sounds kind of buzzy and distant (from what I remember). I lightly compress the vocals because I sometimes jump in volume - that's probably just lack of skill.

I'm being lured by the SM58 - it's been two years since I've bought a mic, so maybe now's the time to go for one. Would you say that the SM58's a step up from the Apex?

For another $21 you can get that B1 that Ken's so in love with.

[Billy's Little Trip]

The thing I like about the SM58 is that it's delivers a very mild sound that doesn't jump all over the place from quiet and loud singing. Some of my vocal mixes are still annoying, but that's due to my poor EQing techniques and monitoring during mixing that is an on going process for me.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I used the SM57 (the 58 without the ball on the end) for my vox for awhile but had trouble getting them to sound "present"

That is the difference between the 57 and 58. The 57 is an instrument/cabinet mic. But it is cool to use a 57 for back up vocals because it gives a different sound that's behind the lead vocals.

[Reist]

Would you guys say that ...

For live situations - SM58 > B1
For studio - B1 > SM58

That's the impression I'm getting from stuff I've read today. Are either multi-purpose mics, or are they both mostly useful for vocals?

[Billy's Little Trip]

Would you guys say that ...

For live situations - SM58 > B1
For studio - B1 > SM58

That's the impression I'm getting from stuff I've read today. Are either multi-purpose mics, or are they both mostly useful for vocals?

I'd say that's pretty spot on. Although my B1 sits in it's fancy little gig bag on a shelf in my studio. Maybe I just hate the sound of my own voice coupled with the sound of computer fans and jets passing over at eleventy thousand feet.
I'd probably feel different in a better recording environment.

[ken]

I would say this:

The SM58 is a great live vocal mic.

The SP B1 is a decent studio mic.

No one mic is going to be perfect for every voice, instrument, or room. That is why you have multiple mics. There are a lot of good dynamic vocal mics and a lot of good condensers. Another good dynamic is the Audix i5, sounds really good on snare! Or the CAD M179 condenser which is great on vocals or toms.

I was ecstatic the day i bought my first 58 and 57. i used the 58 on all my 4 track vocals for years. I rarely use it now that I have other mics.

Another thing to consider is that the same mic will sound totally different with a new preamp. Have you thought about an ART Tube MP or M-Audio AudioBuddy?

Ken

[frankie big face]

3. Frank-- the bridge thing cracked me up, although I do think that the meta-joke in the middle kind of cancels out the rest of your lyrics, which seems a shame. Disregarding that, the song fucking rocks harder than anything Brainpipe ever did.

Well, Brainsocket was a short-lived alias and, if it weren't for me already being FBF in this competition, I would probably call this a Brainsocket song in the same way you occasionally become Abjure! I'll probably make an edit of this song without the "meta-joke" but I thought it was a fun way to meet the challenge. Glad you like the lyrics. It was fun to write quasi-boastful lyrics.