Opinions? Some help would rule!

[keevhren]

First off, hello, im new to the forums. Hopefully I can get some help/tips from people here who know whats up and how to make the best of recording...

I've embarked on my latest recording experience, have added some new equipment since last time, and would appreciate any and all help provided. Thanks in advance!

I am running the following equipment:

Software:
-Sonar 5 PE
-Windows XP service pack 2

Hardware:
-Alesis Multimix Firewire 16 Mixer
-M-audio Mobile Pre USB
-M-audio BX5a studio monitors (this is the main upgrade since my last attempt, and has paid off I would say, its much easier to tell how things sound on them than on regular speakers)
-Nady DMK 7: 4 DM70s, one DM80, and 2 CM88's
-Audix i5 mic


The drums are a standard 5 piece kit, and I mic'd it as follows:
-Snare had the Audix i5
-3 toms, all with DM 70's
-Bass drum with DM80
-two overhead CM88's placed facing the two forward crash cymbals
-the final DM70 was used on the hi-hat

I recorded the first take on the multimix 16 to get drums down... two guitar scratch tracks were recorded also, and once the drums were done I changed over to my mobile pre usb to record bass. For the bass I mic'd the cab with both the DM 80 and the audix i5

Here are the samples thus far:

Only Drums

Drums and Bass

Drums, Bass, and Scratch tracks

NOTE: some people have said the links aren't working, this may be due to the files being stored on my school filebox account. Since i have no other way to upload music, I have resorted to posting the above samples together on a myspace page located here: http://www.myspace.com/keevhrenstudios


And finally the main questions I have that hopefully you can lend your opinions too.

1. For the drums, I have done practically no editing whatsoever on the actual tracks. Is it a good idea to cut out the dead part of tracks and to just leave the actual hits? I've heard differing opinions from people, some say it sounds better left alone to let the bleed between microphones give it a wholer (is that even a word?) feel to it.

2. I am not completely satisfied with how they sound on their own, mainly I wish the snare and bass drum sounded better. I've used drumagog before but still dont know much and havent explored it enough to know how to get great results. Should I look into doing this or perhaps use other effects (EQ, Reverb, etc...) to try to make them sound more to my liking?

3. The next step is obviously guitars, and there are anywhere from 2-4 tracks per song (4ish on this particular song) and I want to get it to all blend well without losing any of the drums or bass in the background. Any tips on how to accomplish this?

4. If anyone wants to play around with the files (drum and bass thus far) whether its drumagog or running the files through much more professional gear that I'm sure some of you have at your disposal I'd be more than willing to upload the bounced wav files or whatever I may need to do to get them to you.

Last night i watched one of the gearwire video's on mixing drums and started playing around with eq and gating, mainly on the snare and bass to make it all sound better, but yeah, any help would be greatly appreciated.

We recorded a total of 7 songs, and obviously have to do all of the guitars and vocals still, but I figured it would be best to just get this out there right now.

Thanks for reading, sorry its a bit long but hopefully detail helps to pay off and not make this is pointless thread.

Take care and I look forward to hearing everyone's responses, even if its just criticisms or whatnot.

-Robert

[Traveler]

Well, everyones desired drum sound will be different, but I can give you some insight to how I mix my drums (I use sampled drums btw, but they are completely multi track and unprocessed, so the process will be no different then mixing the real thing).

First off, I find cymbals to often overpower drum mix's, so I often bring down the overheads and hi hat mic, overheads to around 60 or 70% of the close mic's, and the hi hat to maybe half the volume of the overheads, I like a lot of of the open room sound in my hi hats, as the close mic is often harsh.

As far as the bleeds are concerned, I like to keep them in tacked, some may want to gate them out, and sometimes I will as well (if a snare is rattling too loud from the kick for example).

When equalizing my drums I like to keep my kicks very deep and my snare very punchy. For me, that means giving the kick a very low end boost, around 30 to 70hz or so, this is probably lower then most go, but works perfect for my style. For snare, I typically like to give it a mid end punch around 250hz, this is where the you might want to watch out for the kicks bleed however.

Compression I normally go light on, nothing too punchy or distorted, just a light compression to give a tighter sound.

Again, this is just how I typically go about things, every mix will be different, and everyone will have a different desired result, but hope it helps!