HELP! Why dont my live parts blend with the synth?

P

Professa Plum

New member
I'm doing a hip-hop project using synth for most tracks, but live guitar and bass, and vocals. My problem is that the live parts dont blend in very well with the synth. They sound like they are sitting on top, rather than in the mix. I'm using sm-57 into darla. I would think it was the mic, but the direct-recorded guitar and bass have this same problem, although it is less noticeable on the bass tracks. they seem to fit in better. Is this something to take care of in the mixdown, or am I doing something wrong? Thanks
 
Professa,

I'm going to go out on the limb with this. But I'm thinking that your problem may be due to a few things (or maybe all). Without hearing your tracks, it sounds like it could be:

1. You recorded your guitar and bass parts with the mic so close that the sound is "in your face too much" (because there is not space between you and the sound. Solution: experiment with recording with the mic a little futher back from speaker OR add a touch of "instrument-appropriate" reverb to the tracks to push them back a bit.

2. You could be experiencing latency from your soundcard or recording program. So your bass and guitar tracks are slightly out of time with the synth tracks. The could be ahead or behind. It depends on which you recorded first. Solution: play around with the delay feature in your digital audio program and push the guitar and/or bass track backwards or forward in time by a few milliseconds until they sit right.

3. If you recorded the guitar and bass with the SM57 (which by the way is not at all appropriate for bass in my book, unless you're going for something very different) then you may be hearing the limited frequency range of the mic making your tracks sound different than you want them to sound.

Just a stab in the dark. I hope this helps.

Rev E

[This message has been edited by Rev E (edited 05-24-2000).]
 
no no no...you see i only used the mic for the vocals...guitar and bass direct-in. thanks for your response but i dont think that you understand (i didnt do a great job of explaining) how it sounds...hmm. so the 1 and 3 are out because i didnt even use the mic for 'em..and I understand what you mean by the latency i used to experience this problem when using the regular stock computer soundcard, thats why we upgraded! and i know its not this, ...let me think of how to describe...oh blah i dont know its like add synth track to synth stuff its all well and good everything sounds great--add guitar, bass, vocals, whathaveyou its on time it goes with the beat it just sounds like its not a part of the song...it stands out, sits on top...oh i dont know what im saying. hrm.
 
Sounds like an ambience mis-match to me ... that and equalization. Always a problem when mixing MIDI with Digital audio. If you can't tweek the MIDI using Synth effects, mix it to digital audio tracks and then mixdown. Just a suggestion.

Regards,
PAPicker
 
Yes, I think also that you need to play about with some reverb.

If you're DI'ing the bass and guitar, that try to apply reverb to them first to see if you can push them back in the mix a bit.

If that doesn't work, try it on the synth part.

Or both (with different reverbs)

Have fun!

PS I have had a similar problem to this when recording a guitar line over a completely programmed backing - back then I didn't have reverb, I got round the problem by just putting a load of effects on the guitar - ended up sounding synthy anyway...
 
Professa,

Maybe you could post an MP3 to let us hear what you're referring to. Now that you've given a bit more explanation, I still think that some reverb or other effects to push those instruments back a little. DIing instruments into a recorder gives a similar effect to extreme close micing.... It's in your face! So you still have to push the guitar and bass back to taste, unless the dry, in-your-face sound is what you're going for.

Mixing is also the art of blending things together, which can be difficult when you have signals from different sources. I have another thing for you to try. Try putting everything through a compressor at the end. It doesn't have to be compressing things very hard (1:5 ratio, high threshold). The idea would be to get everything to have the same sonic fingerprint by coming out of the same processor. This may be a way to blend things together.

I have another few questions: Do you record your synth parts with their effects that's on the patches in the synth(s)? When I record synth parts, I never print the effects from the synth program unless it's EXactly what I wanted (or I will turn that effects down to about halfway to leave room for options later). If you print the effects from the synth, you've already reduced your blending options. So record the synths dry if you're not doing that already. Then everything is dry and you can do all your processing from the computer and everything will probably blend better.

Rev E
 
i'd post an mp3 but the modem at my home computer don't work right now...But thanks for all your responses, I think if i put them all together it'll all work it. Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top