During the year-long process of recording, two things stood out as the biggest problems:
- Our drum sound
- Our vocal production
As a rock band, we wanted a powerful, punchy, and thick drum sound like the early-2000s rock bands had at the time.
However, with our limited mixing knowledge, it was hard to replicate.
And when we had finished the production, even with subpar drum sounds, we struggled to get a good vocal sound.
We would set up a vocal session without having a clue what we needed. We had the worst budget microphones.
We had no idea where to position the mic and it often sounded thin and harsh - a far cry from the powerful rock vocals we were looking to emulate.
If you’ve ever gotten a drum recording from a band and you’re immediately exhausted just thinking about how to transform those crappy drums into powerful drum mixes...
...or have found yourself pulling your hair out because the vocals were out of tune and uninspiring then you know how we sounded.
We were that band...
Although I'm still proud of the record we made, I cringe when I hear some of the production quality.
The drums sound thin and boxy, and although our vocalist was an amazing singer, I think we could've done a much better recording job in general.
We thought we could do it on our own, but we failed to ask for help.
It's been fifteen years since that time and throughout the years I've dedicated myself to learning everything I can about mixing music, especially drum mixing and vocal production because I KNOW it's still a huge problem you face.
