Hear & Identify
1) The first fault that I noticed was a technical problem where the beginning of the track when it sounds like the track has not been bounced correctly and 1/2 a beat has been missed off the start. This is easily done but also easily prevented. if you are working in Logic you can use the cycle bar to show where you want the bounce to start and end. If the bar isn't accurate this will give you problems like this which be be very obvious or in this case quite discrete. Some artists will use this to their advantage and purposely miss things off to give a particular effect on their music.
2) Another technical fault I noticed is that the whole track is panned too far to the right. This is a mixing problem. Somewhere in the mixing process the main mix has been panned to the right resulting in a stereo recording that can be heard more in the right ear or the right speaker. This can again be easily fixed to make sure that your recording is completely centralised. In Logic on each channel there is a virtual panning knob and to the amount you bring it too each side is where you are going to hear it in the speakers. This also is a common technique used on purpose to fill out a track and enable the listener to hear each instrument in a different part of speaker or headphones. A common panning technique used for your average rock band is to pan the lead guitar to the left and the rhythm guitar to the right, then pan the bass in the centre. The drums are usually panned in the way you would hear if you were to be sat at the drums. Bass, snare and high tom in the centre, overheads about 45% either side of centre and floor tom too the right. This way you hear the sounds in a completely different way and it also prevents a muddy sound where you have too many similar frequencies all in the same area.
3) Between bar 32 and 36 the kick drum is lost in the mix. This could have been for many reasons such as the regions could have been muted when the track was bounced down or in the mixing process these could have been turned down. Personally I think the track isn't loosing quality in terms of the music because of this because its on a change in the song and it works quite well. People would use this in there music to give a sense of change if the rhythmic chord progression doesn't change much. This is a good way of telling the listener we are moving on the song. This could have been prevented by check back through the mixer making sure nothing is out of place in the mix. Just before bouncing down final versions of songs its common that the mix engineer will go back through each instrument one by one checking for the last time that nothing is out of place and this may have caused a track to be left muted. Double check through the mixer before bouncing a final version.
4) Another production fault I came across was the unwanted sounds at 00:02 and 00:03. There is what sounds like guitar strings and a cough that has leaked into the microphone on one of the takes while recording. Firstly this can only occur when recording audio and there are way in which this can be prevented. When recording vocals or any instrument depending on the microphone it will pick up sound around you which is why it is important to make sure you are in a quiet room with no one else around who is going to be making noise this way you can prevent sounds coming from other sources. Also it is important that you make sure that your artist is ready and is comfortable to do a take otherwise they might end up 'coughing' into the recording which you dont want. A glass of water is a great way to keep the throat clear so you can move on with your recordings cough-free. This on a very rare occasion is used in professional recordings sometime there will be sounds they are purposely sampled in but a noise like a cough if it had made it's way into a released recording it's usually because it has gone unnoticed. Depending on the artist this is sometimes added into recordings. A good example of this is Muse - 'Map Of Your Head' at 1:35 'Matt Bellamy' singer gulps which is very unmissable. Interviews have proven that this was left in on purpose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_UcMogYvXs5) The last technical fault that I noticed was that throughout the entire track the bass guitar is way too low in the mix this is a common problem with some amateur mixes as a lot of the time they are either mixed on a pair of headphones or on a set or stereo 'lounge speakers' as I call them. These types of speakers colour the sound and give you an untrue enhanced bass sound which is why when you play it back through studio monitors that are giving a true representation of the sounds the bass is very quiet. This is because the coloured speakers are making you think that the bass sound is too high therefore you are adjusting to that by turning the bass down resulting in bass that is too quiet. in this example is is quite extreme where you can hardly hear the bass at all. This is a common fault that is heard in recordings, less often in professional recording but more in ammatur and semi-pro. It is predominantly down to mixing through speakers that give you a coloured and untrue sound. The way to overcome this problem not entirely but to a standard where you can get a better rounded mix is to listen to it on a variety of different speakers. In the car, studio monitors, headphones, iPhone and iPhone headphones and this will give you a better idea of the sound that you are really producing in terms of levels.
6) Now onto the faults in the musical performance. The first thing I noticed were the sharp vocals at 1:42 from the lead vocalist. Singing sharp or flat is a very common symptom of many things in singing even when the singer is perfectly capable of singing these notes. There are many reasons why even the worlds best singers do sometimes fall sharp or flat while singing. When you are performing live you just have to brush it off, blame the sound guy and move on but when you are in the studio there is really no reason to sing a song out of tune in any way. In the recording studio your artist shouldn't be pushed for time or stressed in any way to perform a take of singing. This is very important as stress can lead to bad performance. I think it is also important to make sure your artist is fully warmed up and in the position to sing. These are all obvious reason but sometimes they can make a great recording sound awful. Even if all these elements are in place it might just boil down to a bad take. Sometimes it takes a few listens to really know if it was a good or bad take especially vocally and sometimes you can spend a few days deciding if something needs to be redone. With vocals I think it's really important that you leave the studio with perfect takes and even if you come back a few days later and realise one line was off as it could completely ruin an artist's reputation if you were to release a track with singing that is out of tune.
7) Again in out of tune singing. The lead vocal of the 'hear and identify' harmony was flat. For the same reason as before it is very important that you don't have sharp or flat takes in singing as it is so noticeable and so unexpected from a studio recording. The harmonies in vocals are done to elaborate on one particular line to make the vocals sound bigger and nicer using two or more voices. When you have one person singing their note sharp or flat it can potentially ruin the entire harmony. Singing harmonies takes practise especially with a large group of people with many notes. These days it is so easy to correct notes and take out frequencies that are unwanted.
8) Finally, the last thing I noticed was a note sung right at the very end which was a little out of place. This may have been a bit of recording that was meant for the bin and very delete and therefore gone unnoticed. This comes down to quality checking your project before bouncing it otherwise small fault like this will creep into recordings. Also staying away of what goes in and out of logic while recording and keeping your project tidy and organised because when you getting 80+ track of audio recording things can easily get jumbled especially if you have a lot of engineers and artists all trying to tweak things as well.
Hedley Marks
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