VS1880 Newbie

[Dave_M]

I thought I'd say hello to the group as an owner of Roland equipment. In my opinion, this message board was a fantastic idea! I intend to check back often.

In the past year I've added the VS1880, a Boss DR-5 rhythm machine and a Boss GT3 to my list of gadgets and toys. I've been having a great time recording various tunes ranging from early Beatles acoustic guitar works to hip-hop, heavily synthesized stuff. The 1880 was relatively simple to learn to use. Most everything gets plugged direct into the board - guitars, bass, keyboards and the drum machine. The only things mic'd are vocals and percussion (tambourine, maracas, etc). Where I'm having problems is the final mix to stereo. It sounds too brassy, lots of high end. To get it to sound right I'm cutting the 8k freq -10db or more. I've been reading around and learned some about compressors and various reverbs. Understanding how to set the internal effects has been challenging to say the least. I'm still not sure I'm using everything correctly. Recently I learned about giving individual tracks their own "space" and have listened to the playback in mono as well as stereo to try and achieve that. I guess my question is the same as everyone else - how do you get a professional sounding mix where the bass is tight but not muddy and the cymbal crashes shine through but not at the expense of the whole song sounding like it was recorded in a tin can. Getting the songs to sound good using various speaker models is also a major challenge! Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Peace,
Dave

[Geeb...]

Hi,

You question is hard to answer as it sort of requires a book length answer with examples and so on... I will give you a couple of tip though...

Adjusting the Eq of anything can often be a bad idea. If you do adjust, stick to MID frequencies unless you have to adjust highs and lows. More of an effect of change is heard from mid frequency adjustment than bass and treble so play around with only one of two Db changes.

Hi and Low pass filters where essential in my opinion in the good 'ol days of analogue multitracks. If you have a track with a hi hat on it's own you could run it through a low pass filter and sweep everything up until you hear that you are actually cutting off the sound of the hi hat itself, be careful. This will reduce the noise resident through that bandwidth with no information. If you were to do the same with the Kick drum but use a Hi pass filter you would hear the two instruments more clearly than before as there are no closely related frequencies left, get the idea? Treating a whole slew of instruments properly treated with Hi and Low pass filtering can provide some much needed seperation in a muddy mix. Pan things around as well and don't be afraid to use the hard edges. Moving things out of each others way is a form of seperation too.

Don't forget that recording a hit hat at just below 0Db will more than likely overload the recorded track. Keep the levels low if you have a reasonably quiet studio. This will reduce the saturation of the instrument when played with other similarly recorded instruments. Keep the levels lowish on recording with sharp or bandwidth challenged sounds.

When you are mixing the final track, try not to have too much going on at once. Select your sounds carefully and make sure that they don't all occupy the same bandwidths. If you find that you are constantly turning up and down the volumes and Eq's to make it sound nice then you are more than likely running a rather too dynamic mix. Applying a stereo compressor over the final mix output can work wonders. I have a VS880 and I know that you can "Insert" an effect on the last output stage of the mix. Find out where it is on the 1880 and select the Compressor/Limiter effect. You may not need to adjust much in the compressor if you have your levels sorted, give it a go. If you find that doesn't help... (it should) then you should try compression certain instruments. The bass is a favourite as are the drums unless you are running Synth drums then you will have to have a listen for yourself. DON'T dynamically flatten everything, you will have to find a happy medium. Listen to similar music on a CD beside you mix, NOT the radio as it's heavily compressed already.

Good vocal frequency: 400-600hz. Lots of people don't know that!!
Good Drum frequency: 2.5k for snap. 400hz and 100hz. Try to use small 'Q' (bandwidth) numbers otherwise you may be boosting 500hz when you think your just boosting 100hz...!

If you get stuck, send me a copy of the mix (MP3, don't be shy) and I will give an opinion.

Regards


Steve...R

p.s. Lots of my mixes end up fluffy and distorted, sometimes I like them that way....!