Harshness with ATRAC compession?

[enemyofthesun]

I have done a few demos and noticed a distinct harshness in the sound of the final mix. Is this due to not having a good preamp when I recorded these tracks? I recently bougt a JOEMEEK VC1 and look forward to seeing the differances.

Your input here would be appreciated...

[Ray J]

Is this your first venture into the digital domain? I find my recordings a little harsh, but I don't know if its the ATRAC compression or the fact that this is the first time I use digital stuff. There are a million posts here and other places on how to warm up the sound, most entail buying additional equiptment. A good mic-pre seems to help, I'm far from a sound engineer but I think resolution could be a factor also. Most stand alone units in my price range were using 16-bits, I'm told from friends 20 and 24 bit units can help this situation. But generally most people suggest tube stuff. Tube mic pres, tube compressors, etc. to warm up the sound.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo No suntan Person:

Harshness is a possible result of making your input signal too hot; yeah, man, it's nice to run it near the red line; however, in the past two recording sessions I've had, I've learned to watch the meter; in the record mode, you don't want your vocalist to bounce more than 60% or so on the level indicator; but, then it depends on the pipes of the vocalist; so, you have to experiment; but, better mixes come from medium high input levels rather than blasting the level up near the top. Also, watch the levels on the master fader. If you work at it, you can record without harshness; I'm working on it all of the time.

Green Hornet