volcomicity87
New member
Hi Guys,
I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to audio engineering and the like, so if it shows (horrifically) - please bear with me, your patience on this is much appreciated
I've just been drawing to an end a DJ-set (mixed digitally with software) that I've been working on for the last few months or so. It's sounding much better than I had planned on (definitely a perfectionist on that front), however on closer inspection - I think it could be taken down a few notches by the overall audio quality - hence my coming here for the advice of a few craftsmen in the know!
I think for the better part this drop in quality is down to me using VirtualDJ 'Pro' v7.0 (or treating the process with utter nonchalance, in other words! sorry about this.. ). All the tracks are in 320 kbps and I have a soundcard which helps to give a reasonable latency/quality, but played on a sound-system I think the overall quality would definitely take away from the mix in a big way (unless I do a little magic before putting it out there). So...
1) Should I just give up on VDJ pick up a new mixing software (if so, which would you recommend)? Is the audio quality going to suffer to such an extent to make it absolutely necessary, or can I record in WAV and do some mastering to make it reasonably acceptable (given that this is just sort of a hobby, and I doubt I'll be "going pro" anytime soon)?
2) What would be the general process (or mastering techniques) necessary to get the mix upto a decent level?
Ideally, I'm aiming for the 'warm' sort of sound that can so often be missing from digital recordings. As a general sort of outline, I was thinking about using audacity to normalize all the files to about 3-6db below peak to give a bit of headroom, and decreasing the mid-high EQ ranges 1-2db whilst increasing the low ranges about the same, as a method that has a mechanism currently beyond my understanding (I read it up in an article called 'Warming up your Mixes' on mpc-tutor.com - for anyone that would like to know where I plucked that from! lol).
After that I was thinking about using the 'PSP Vintage Warmer' compressor to touch it up a bit.. (unfortunately I'm not sure exactly how I'd go about that either?). On a whole, I'm just aiming to do the set as much justice as possible considering how excited I am about it
Does this sound like a good plan-of-action to you guys? What advice could you give (if any)? Thanks for your time, your advice is massively appreciated on this!
Ryan
I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to audio engineering and the like, so if it shows (horrifically) - please bear with me, your patience on this is much appreciated
I've just been drawing to an end a DJ-set (mixed digitally with software) that I've been working on for the last few months or so. It's sounding much better than I had planned on (definitely a perfectionist on that front), however on closer inspection - I think it could be taken down a few notches by the overall audio quality - hence my coming here for the advice of a few craftsmen in the know!
I think for the better part this drop in quality is down to me using VirtualDJ 'Pro' v7.0 (or treating the process with utter nonchalance, in other words! sorry about this.. ). All the tracks are in 320 kbps and I have a soundcard which helps to give a reasonable latency/quality, but played on a sound-system I think the overall quality would definitely take away from the mix in a big way (unless I do a little magic before putting it out there). So...
1) Should I just give up on VDJ pick up a new mixing software (if so, which would you recommend)? Is the audio quality going to suffer to such an extent to make it absolutely necessary, or can I record in WAV and do some mastering to make it reasonably acceptable (given that this is just sort of a hobby, and I doubt I'll be "going pro" anytime soon)?
2) What would be the general process (or mastering techniques) necessary to get the mix upto a decent level?
Ideally, I'm aiming for the 'warm' sort of sound that can so often be missing from digital recordings. As a general sort of outline, I was thinking about using audacity to normalize all the files to about 3-6db below peak to give a bit of headroom, and decreasing the mid-high EQ ranges 1-2db whilst increasing the low ranges about the same, as a method that has a mechanism currently beyond my understanding (I read it up in an article called 'Warming up your Mixes' on mpc-tutor.com - for anyone that would like to know where I plucked that from! lol).
After that I was thinking about using the 'PSP Vintage Warmer' compressor to touch it up a bit.. (unfortunately I'm not sure exactly how I'd go about that either?). On a whole, I'm just aiming to do the set as much justice as possible considering how excited I am about it
Does this sound like a good plan-of-action to you guys? What advice could you give (if any)? Thanks for your time, your advice is massively appreciated on this!
Ryan