Mastering Guitars and Bass and reducing noise!

[get2sammyb]

I am doing all my recording and mixing in Cakewalk Home Studio 2002. What I am tending to do is record my guitar and bass bits chop them up (so they are all at right timing etc) and export them individually. I will then import them into Goldwave to edit the volume and sound etc. but I am not getting what I want.

1. The guitars sound way too dull. How can I make the sound brighter?

2. The bass does not sound too bassy - but clicky. How can I make it more... err bassy.

3. There is loads of background noise. How do I get rid of this?

Ideally I am looking for an alternative to Goldwave for touching up the sound, can anyone reccomend anything. I must admit freeware or shareware will be VERY welcome. I am not looking for anything brilliant - just something that does a job.

If you can help with the specifics as well, it will be appreciated!

[ryanlikestorock]

It sounds like you're having a problem getting the right tone out of your instruments when you record them. Rarely does software colour the sound this much like you describe. Are you using a pre-amp? That might be your problem.

[get2sammyb]

No I am using like the crappest methods ever for my recording. I am coming out of the headphone socket into the micropphone port.

Circumstances I can't change so please dont tell me how crap it is.

I realise software cant colour anything too great. The noise reduction is the most important thing to be honest. I just thought there might be some tricks of the trade to achieve the other things I mentioned.

[ryanlikestorock]

When you listen to the headphone jack, do your instruments sound like you describe?

I've done the very very DIY thing before and it's possible to make it sound decent, without too much noise. If your amp has a line out jack, you might want to use it instead of the headphone jack...

Or, use a mic instead of recording directly into the computer. That might help too.

[get2sammyb]

Ok I'll try some different methods. As for the mastering software. Can you help?

[get2sammyb]

Basically the sort of software I am looking forward is with good noise reduction tools. And something that can help add warmth and feel to the sound. Just to nicely finish it off. Any other options are bonus.

Visiosonic PCDJ CD Enhancer was decent software I found but I cant get it from anywhere. But anything like that.

[ryanlikestorock]

I've been using Cool Edit Pro and it's working well. The noise reduction on that program is okay, but I rarely use it. Maybe someone else has some better suggestions.

[get2sammyb]

Thanks for that. I'll look into anything?

Cool Edit Pro is worth a look I guess.

[sonicpaint]

Do you have a line in on your sound-card? Most sound-cards do. I think the biggest mistake your making right now is trying to record from the mic input on the soundcard....that amp in the sound-card is brutal and I'm willing to bet that's the biggest problem your having right now.

Years ago when I got my first computer and started recording this is what I did for recording guitar. I had a distortion pedal that I used as a pre amp and fed the line out from the pedal right into the line in on my sound-card. That's it. I'd suggest using a bass pedal of some sort to achieve the same results. Stay away from the "mic in" on the sound card though.

hope this helps,
sonicpaint

[get2sammyb]

Thanks for the help but I have managed to get the guitars and bass sounding great by just messing around in Goldwave. I cant do the noise reduction though.