Vocal Quality

[EvanE]

I have some decent equipment but lack the knowhow to use it, anyone wanna tutor me on a Behringer 2600 compressor/gate and a PreSonus Tubepre, I've read the users manuals and yada but, would like some good tips on how to produce professional quality and not somethin muddy or distorted

[scrubs]

Originally Posted by EvanE

I have some decent equipment but lack the knowhow to use it, anyone wanna tutor me on a Behringer 2600 compressor/gate and a PreSonus Tubepre, I've read the users manuals and yada but, would like some good tips on how to produce professional quality and not somethin muddy or distorted

Well, unfortunately, those are not anywhere near "decent equipment" and will not likely produce "professional quality" recordings, especially if you don't know how to use them. Not that decent demo quality results can't be achieved, but you have to be realistic.

I suggest reading up on levels/gain-staging and compressors here.

[thajeremy]

Originally Posted by EvanE

would like some good tips on how to produce professional quality and not somethin muddy or distorted

not muddy??? cut some lows in everything but bass tracks...

not distorted??? dont let your tracks clip during tracking....

other than that, good luck....Scrubs is right...dont expect much from the gear you listed, however, I do understand that this is HOMERECORDING.COM. Most home recordist start small and build their gear list as they have spare cash.

A good tip on future gear purchases....anything that doesnt say Behringer is an upgrade.....but again....we have all been there....

[Fletcher]

Evan... there are no shortcuts to "practice"... if you can get to sit down with a pro from time to time and watch them work... watch the flow of the way they work and adopt what works for you from that observation then you're in a good place... but the bottom line is to just keep slamming into the material and work your balls off to get the results you would like to achieve.

Hardware wise you're in a pretty good place for the "working your balls off" part as the stuff you spoke about in your post will make the process hard as hell to accomplish... but for being on the front end of the learning curve that is a good thing [what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... etc., etc., etc.].

Mixing a record is like cooking a meal... if you start with great ingredients the meal will come out better with less effort... seeing that you're starting with a cheap cut of meat and some week old vegetables you're going to have to start to learn to get creative in the kitchen before you can put something that actually resembles food on the table... but with practice comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes the ability to attain your goals.

Best of luck with all you do.

[2lim]

Ummm what mic are you using? Just curious, because you can probably get a very useable sounds out of vocals using that compressor and that preamp if you have a decent mic.

Simon

[Jamie Carr]

Originally Posted by thajeremy

A good tip on future gear purchases....anything that doesnt say Behringer is an upgrade.....but again....we have all been there....

AMEN! I've got one effects rack that's Berhinger,....it's crap. Lots of noise in the circuit,...complicated to use,...and gives a "thin,cheapy sound"

But,....you get what you pay for I guess.

[mixsit]

Steps in getting as close to 'clear/quatity; 1) Like Scrubs said -Look up proper gain staging. 2) Dial out the 'tube on the Presonus -check the manual, I don't remember if that's the 'gain or 'drive. 3) Keep all the other stuff that is not needed for tracking out of the signal chain.
Do the least harm.

[Cult_Status02]

Oh yeah!! I forgot major studios waste their money when they could just do all their recordings with $300 worht of recording! Read up on the aforementioned topics, and look through some books at Borders, they have some pretty good info in them.