A good friend of mine and I have started a Black Metal project entitled Onethium, and we are looking for some feedback on some song's we've written and recorded in the last couple weeks. I understand the quality is not the greatest. Any feedback at all would help.

Just finished this one.

The biggest issue is how fake the instruments sound, kind of like you used guitarpro or something to make midi tracks. While I know that you recognize that the quality "is not the greatest," it is important to remember that sound quality is a part of composition. While raw black metal bands may use rough production to great success just as garage recordings may give thrash extra edge, you guys are still way below those kinds of bands in sound quality terms. I don't see anyone appreciate this if the final cut is intended to sound this way.

The vocals are also problematic, there was an unbelievable amount of clipping and popping. I'm not sure whether you know this or not but these are easy problems to fix. Use a pop screen for one. More fundamental though is how the vocals seem very much in the "whisper-growl-super-close-to-the-microphone-so-neighbors-don't-call-the-cops" style, which really lacks power. Try using more volume to improve the vocal tone. On the composition side, things are surprisingly decent in comparison but I had trouble getting through the roughness of it to give a deeper evaluation than that. Some of your transitions were pretty random.

What gear are you two using? How do you record your music? What is your mixing process like? Answering these questions should help you evaluate where you guys can improve on the sound quality.

It is all obviously unofficial. We do not have "proper" recording software really, or equipment. It's practically not much more than a garage recording. I can look into the vocal problem more thoroughly, but with what we have, there isn't much to that can be done to be honest

If you have limited resources you can make your own pop screen, numerous instructions are online on how to do it - just a mesh layer in front of the mic really. What these do is reduce the power of P sounds and other plosive sounds that naturally push out more air, and I noticed they were often overpowering in your songs. If you hold your hand in front of your mouth and say a few words with the letter P in them you will feel why it can be an issue. Can you hear what I mean in "Shemhamforash" with the vocals starting at around 1:25?

There is a ton of stuff you can still do with pretty limited gear and there is free stuff out there too, hard to be specific without knowing what your using though, particularly with the clipping issue. I'd suggest reading through the recording and mixing process threads that are in this subforum because there is a ton of advice there. In the meantime also work with as much free software you can get a hold of. That will give you time to learn about recording and mixing techniques to improve with. At this point you can make substantial improvements without any financial costs, I know all too well how pricey it can be to even get enough entry level equipment to make an album with.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I will see what I can do to fix the issue.

Very interesting art you have.

This is our latest song, we did what we could to take Apteronotus advise into account.

Listening to the last song right now.

Here's what I would concentrate on first:

-Raise the level of the drums, and increase the bass in the kick sound by like 3 times whatever it is now. It sounds too "clicky".
-Try a louder vocal technique, and get further away from the mic (try turning up the recording level if needed).

What kind of microphone are you using right now? Can you give us a run through of what you typically do to record?

Yeah what xpsychoblissx said. Also, while there may be marginal improvement in how much popping is going on with the vocals, they seem even more whispered now than before.

yea i agree about the vocals sounding whispered, which is weird because this time we didn't cup the microphone.

Other Bedroom "band"!

You mean that the vocals are not being whispered? It doesn't sound like any technical issue: It sounds just like weird technique.

Good observation

I believe it's the effect we put on the vocals, we're going to record them again without this effect and hope it solves the problem.

No open anti-christianity. No racism, epic sound, unpopularity, I love it. Great job dude, try workin on the singin a lil though. And add a lil Lord of the Rings touch to your music and then your goin places. Keep up the good work. Im hoping to learn how to play certain instruments and start my own Black Metal project sometime in the future. And i have the most epic and badass lord of the rings themed band name for it too, and its NEVER been used! Keep makin that beautiful music

Alright guys, we just finished this one. This time we went and worked with a friend who helped us through the recording process. We put a lot more time and effort into this one and we hope it shows. Let me know what you guys think.



EDIT: I posted the unfinished one

This one has a more atmospheric/epic feel to it.

This is the last song we wrote for our album Foreshadowing Oblivion, and in my opinion the best song we have written.



You can check out the completed 11 track album here http://onethium.bandcamp.com/, Cheers!