VSpaceBoy
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I've been homerecording now for probably 5-6 years. I've never really tried to get my songs to sound "the next level" until recently. (I never cared) Now my band is trying to release our first demo so I'm really focusing hard on getting things to sound good.
Wow.. its like a rollercoaster of crap, mud, brittle hardhness that makes me want to pull my hair out. Its amazing really.. how hard it is to get things to sound good. You'd think it was alot easier.
But! I have been making huge improvements (imo) to the sound in the last few weeks and thought I would share in case it could help anyone.
You know what hit me after chasing the "sound" I was looking for? I can summarize best in an old overused cliche..
are you ready?
Less is more
Yup, thats it. I know, you all were thinking I was going to unviel this great gem of information.. but for me, this IS the gem. See, I realized (finally) that all of my reading of books on the subject has encouraged me (unintentially) to do things way past the intended use. I would read the writers adjectives and colorations on making adjustments and I would translate it differently in my head. (or on the mixer )
Example.. I'd read "Yea, you gotta get some mids out of the bass guitar to take some of the "honk" out, and the lows from the guitar to keep from ruining the low end. Now, this may be very true advice, but when I hear words like "ruin" and "honk" I think to myself.. "Wow, I REALLY don't want those things in MY mix, so I'll take a little more out to make sure."
WHABAM!!
Doing this causes me to constantly fiddle and fiddle and fiddle until I have ruined the sound by sucking all the life out of EVERYTHING with eq, compression, limiting etc. What appears to sound good while I'm making the adjustment, actually ruins it. Then, I'll think that what I did couldn't possibly be the problem so I'll go on to ruin OTHER things.
GEEZ!
So anyhow.. I really started over from ground zero. Making extremely MINOR tweaks (if any at all), using smaller amount of compression etc. NOW.. FINALLY, I actually have some things that sound natural, I hear space between the instruments, I hear punch from the kick drum.. etc etc
So if I can give one piece of advice to ANYONE.. go easy.. VERY easy on EVERYTHING you do.
The only problem with what I have described above?
Now I can actually HEAR how bad my musicianship is..
Wow.. its like a rollercoaster of crap, mud, brittle hardhness that makes me want to pull my hair out. Its amazing really.. how hard it is to get things to sound good. You'd think it was alot easier.
But! I have been making huge improvements (imo) to the sound in the last few weeks and thought I would share in case it could help anyone.
You know what hit me after chasing the "sound" I was looking for? I can summarize best in an old overused cliche..
are you ready?
Less is more
Yup, thats it. I know, you all were thinking I was going to unviel this great gem of information.. but for me, this IS the gem. See, I realized (finally) that all of my reading of books on the subject has encouraged me (unintentially) to do things way past the intended use. I would read the writers adjectives and colorations on making adjustments and I would translate it differently in my head. (or on the mixer )
Example.. I'd read "Yea, you gotta get some mids out of the bass guitar to take some of the "honk" out, and the lows from the guitar to keep from ruining the low end. Now, this may be very true advice, but when I hear words like "ruin" and "honk" I think to myself.. "Wow, I REALLY don't want those things in MY mix, so I'll take a little more out to make sure."
WHABAM!!
Doing this causes me to constantly fiddle and fiddle and fiddle until I have ruined the sound by sucking all the life out of EVERYTHING with eq, compression, limiting etc. What appears to sound good while I'm making the adjustment, actually ruins it. Then, I'll think that what I did couldn't possibly be the problem so I'll go on to ruin OTHER things.
GEEZ!
So anyhow.. I really started over from ground zero. Making extremely MINOR tweaks (if any at all), using smaller amount of compression etc. NOW.. FINALLY, I actually have some things that sound natural, I hear space between the instruments, I hear punch from the kick drum.. etc etc
So if I can give one piece of advice to ANYONE.. go easy.. VERY easy on EVERYTHING you do.
The only problem with what I have described above?
Now I can actually HEAR how bad my musicianship is..
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