Tracking at home then mixing in a Pro-Studio

libertad

New member
Hello guys. I always appreciate the knowledge shared on this forum.

I'm gearing up to record an album and I don't have a huge budget. I have a home recording set-up, including a drum kit, drum mic kit, 16-channel Audio Interface and various other inexpensive mics. I use an older version of Sonar Studio on a PC.

What I am thinking about is attempting to capture the best possible sound I can using my home studio. Then take the audio files to a professional mixer in town to do the mixing. I have been recording for years, but really my knowledge of mixing (especially mixing with automation) is extremely limited. Mixing is something I want to learn and get good at, but for this project I don't have enough time to learn.

Has anyone here done this sort of thing? Is it a wise idea? I want to get the most professional sound possible, but I am slightly fearful that my recording techniques won't match up to pro-studio quality. Do you think a good mix engineer could work with home recordings and apply some magic?

Also, this may be a dumb question, I am kind of old school and don't exactly understand "stems". My Sonar program seems to save every track as a WAV file. But I ran into trouble with this before when another musician wanted his "stems" and they didn't exactly align in his fancy new-school ProTools program. Is there anything I need to know in advance for preparing "stems" for a mix engineer?

I'm more or less just thinking out loud with this scatterbrained post, but I'd love to hear any thoughts. Thanks!
 
The studio will want all the stems to start at the same place so there’s no alignment for them to do. Either start tracking everything at zero or bounce all your tracks to files that align.
 
The studio will want all the stems to start at the same place so there’s no alignment for them to do. Either start tracking everything at zero or bounce all your tracks to files that align.

Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking. In Sonar I can drag the beginning of a clip to zero, which can probably be done with any DAW, I assume.
 
The use of the assumption of 'magic' scares me...

I mix others home recordings often, and the end result depends on how well it was recorded. Many do not have the gear, rooms with appropriate treatment that I have in my studio, especially when it comes to drums. Then it is more time spent enhancing and dare I say replacing drums because they do not sound worth a shit. It can end up costing more to attempt to fix than it would to record it right from the start.

That being said you stated that you have recording experience. But is your room good for recording drums? I only ask that as that will likely be your first weak point especially if your mics are not the best to use for the situation.

I totally understand the budget thing man. But unless you know a guy willing to work with you and guide you through the tracking stage? I would seriously look into just going to a studio.

And again, I have no idea what you have so anything I say is just guessing... Not having any idea of the genre, gear or rooms, I can't do anything but guess..

Maybe send some tracks and I can give a real opinion?
 
Thanks! That's kind of what I was thinking. In Sonar I can drag the beginning of a clip to zero, which can probably be done with any DAW, I assume.

You don't want to drag everything over, you want them all to start at the same 'zero' location. If you track a guitar lead starting at 2:01, and drag it over to 0:00, it'll start at the beginning of the song, not at 2 minutes in.
 
You don't want to drag everything over, you want them all to start at the same 'zero' location. If you track a guitar lead starting at 2:01, and drag it over to 0:00, it'll start at the beginning of the song, not at 2 minutes in.

Yep. I mean no. Don't drag anything. All exported tracks for any individual song must start at the exact same time.
 
Usually when the stems are rendered, they start at zero. Usually, but you have to know how your DAW works. So export a few, make sure they render from zero. If they do, then you are good.

But let me say this, make sure your stems sound good. I am of the opinion that, your environment when tracking, if it sounds good, it sounds good. The acoustics are everything. If you track well, your mix will be great! If you track like shit, then ...

I don't think your struggle is getting the stems to the mixer, but getting good stems to the mixer. Make sure you find a place that has the sound you want.
 
A great mixer can make most recordings work, just don't expect to get a certain sound that's not present in your recordings.

I.e.: if you want the guitar to sound a certain way, try to record it in a way that the sound is already there. If you need to put certain special effects on an instrument, that's okay, but then record both the clean signal and the wet signal to different tracks.

If your room doesn't sound very good: use close micing to get as much of the direct instrument sound as possible. E.g: add more mics to cymbals directly instead of relying on the overhead mics alone (always use your ears tho, too close a mic on a cymbal can sound unnatural). You can always add one or 2 room mics on separate tracks, so the mixer can decide whether it's usable.
You can also make most rooms sounds decent with some basic acoustic treatment. (e.g. putting up mattresses, pillows ,blankets.. on strategic locations) As a general rule: bigger rooms are better, less parallel naked walls (/floor/ceiling) are better. Don't record too close to walls/corners.

Apart from that, much depends on the style of your music.
You can always send me a PM, I'll listen to your recordings and give specific advice on your recordings.
 
Usually when the stems are rendered, they start at zero. Usually, but you have to know how your DAW works. So export a few, make sure they render from zero. If they do, then you are good.

How I would recommend testing this would be to open an instance of Audacity and just drop all your .wav files directly in there.
If they line up correctly, then you're good to go.

When it comes to getting professional result with home recordings, whether or not you can do it is gonna vary from instrument to instrument.

Guitars and bass - these are usually pretty simple to do. Point a decent dynamic at a loud amp, and you'll have passable results. Bonus points if you do a clean, dry DI channel that they can re-amp if needs be.

Vocals - kind of tricky in that if you want studio results, you need a somewhat treated room and a decent mic. That said, "a somewhat treated room" can be two mattresses in a corner.

Drums - drums are hard. Every time I've done hybrid recordings, drums are always the first thing we take to a professional studio or offload to someone who I know has a good room, good mics, and the skills to play the part. (i.e. a certain now-banned Ramones fan. :( )
 
A "stem" is usually defined as a submix often rendered(pre-mixed and bounced or recorded to another track ) "group" such as a "drums" stem which would be just the mixed drums on one track, and/or drums and drum fx, reverb, etc. Since creating a submix is still mixing per se anyone who receives a bunch of stems is going to be limited to what you are supplying them to mix. In other words if you give only premixed tracks then that's going to limit what can be done. As far as seeing if someone can do better than what you can do with your own setup, I think it might be good idea to do a single song mixed to the best of your abilities and have your intended mixer do a mix of the same song with just the original raw tracks with you there to give them the info on what you want to feature, etc and compare to your own efforts.
 
A "stem" is usually defined as a submix often rendered(pre-mixed and bounced or recorded to another track ) "group" such as a "drums" stem which would be just the mixed drums on one track, and/or drums and drum fx, reverb, etc. Since creating a submix is still mixing per se anyone who receives a bunch of stems is going to be limited to what you are supplying them to mix. In other words if you give only premixed tracks then that's going to limit what can be done. As far as seeing if someone can do better than what you can do with your own setup, I think it might be good idea to do a single song mixed to the best of your abilities and have your intended mixer do a mix of the same song with just the original raw tracks with you there to give them the info on what you want to feature, etc and compare to your own efforts.

Exactly. If you want the best from a home studio with limited treatment and not so good mics, you will want to share 'all' individual tracks.

If you were to reply and send me your tracks, I would be able to give you a better idea of what is possible. I suggest you do send tracks to someone who has the tools or ear to be honest with you.

That being said, I barely have time to keep up with the amount of projects I have going. But I would be willing to take a listen and direct you accordingly. That kind of why I stick around here...
 
..Also, this may be a dumb question, I am kind of old school and don't exactly understand "stems". My Sonar program seems to save every track as a WAV file. But I ran into trouble with this before when another musician wanted his "stems" and they didn't exactly align in his fancy new-school ProTools program. Is there anything I need to know in advance for preparing "stems" for a mix engineer?

I'm more or less just thinking out loud with this scatterbrained post, but I'd love to hear any thoughts. Thanks!
Did you get it sorted out? There is also the options to mark' split and pair down unneeded content (heads and/or tails) you don't need included in the song project tracks -Very significant if in the case of continuous multiple takes (breaking up a live recording is typical good example.
 
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