How do you get that "pro studio" sound....at home?

I think next time I record something, I'm going to one of the treated rehearsal rooms we have in the city, couple hours for €20, and see how I do there..

Cheers
Joe

Hey Joe, if you want to build something for your house pretty cheap, check out the pic below. You will be amazed! If you want to hear what a $10.00 fleece jacket used as a sound booth and difference mic placements sounds like, click here. I tested 8 mics doing this. Tremendous difference.

View attachment 100460
 
This thread is great - it speaks to so many of the issues I think everyone starting out experiences.

I 'overdub' starting with a Hydrogen drum track, then bass, then guitars and the vocals last. The one thing I don't redo 10x times (at least) is the drum track. Everything else I have to fight my tendency toward mediocrity and stay in time, in tune and not in the red. Oi.
Practice, swap it up, practice, swap it up, practice - then buy more gear. Rinse/repeat!
 
As others mentioned, you are competing against some "Hollywood magic" there as well as some accomplished musicians and recording folks. Kind of a tough place to start making comparisons.

I'd second the suggestion to really close mic the guitar and vocal. Then you eliminate the room hollowness and can work on hearing just what the instrument and voice sound like. Then adjust the mics until the recording best represents what's actually being played and sung. After that start tweaking EQ, compression and reverb to give each their own space and fatten the sound.

Pretty sure you get better home recordings the same way you get to Carnegie Hall. ;)
 
Place some Gobos (sound treatment/absorption panels) around you. You'll have to experiment on best locations. It's a good thing you don't have carpeting on the floor (better to put sound treatment on the ceiling). Check out the Warren Huart videos on micn acoustic guitar. Also check out AimTVSydney video on different singing positions into a mic. These vids are on youtube. Just keep experimenting on different locations in the room and different mic techniques. You should be able to get a decent recording.
 
I just recently starting micing my guitars and I feel like we have a similar issue, somehow I just don't get all that definition and warmth others do and I'm guessing it's cause of acoustics just like everyone is saying. (though to me you also look pretty far from the mics, ESPECIALLY the guitar one, staying a few inches back from the vocal mic is one thing but you're gonna want that guitar pretty close to it's mic) and I'm not saying this is the best way to fix your problem or anything, but instead of getting a better mic or trying to treat my room, I've just started using saturation plugins to add warmth. A plug-in that mimics mic placement is called "proximity", if you look up "proximity vst" you should find it, when I add that with a good saturation tool, (Saturation knob, Head-Crusher) I tend to like what I hear. However my sound is experimental and sort of... psychadelic rock, so I admittedly get some lo-fi distortion going on when I do this, I just tend to like it in my tracks, you may not dig it in yours. Proximity isn't a saturation tool though, it will just make it sound like you mic'd it closer than you really did, may be worth a shot.
 
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