Is recording different from mixing?

D

Dimetre

New member
Is recording different from mixing? Because did a small recording setup this is how it goes:

Software SONAR 3 Producer Edition

computer1
soundcard ----> headphone

computer1
soundcard <==input1 <===mixer1 <=== vocal processor<== mic
<==input2<===mixer1 <===videoke

videoke input is my trak1 and
mic input is my track to

The sound turns up nice when Im using headphones and Windows Media Player though it sounds a little less because When I turn up the sounds volume it the sound turns up less and when I put it in a CD and hear it on a pioneer component the reverb is too much on my voice and the music from videoke is less louder than that of my voice.


Is recording different from mixing? What do I need if I want to Master the sound I created right?

Please help me.

To all those members thats been answering my questions and helping me thank you very much for your help and making homerecording as great as you people. I love this site!!!


Dimetre
 
Dimetre said:
computer1
soundcard ----> headphone
Click to expand...

That will be your biggest problem right there.. check out Blue Bear's article on why you can't mix with headphones:

Check it out

Have a read of it.. in summary, don't MIX with headphones. Buy a decent pair of monitors and you mixes will improve.

I know this sounds wierd, however I trust a pair of $40 speakers which I have at work to tell me what is wrong with my mixes... I mix at home then listen on these, maybe my ears are rested, maybe I listen to too many songs at work ;-) but I'll get a good indication as to which frequency's (if any) need to be looked at and also if I've put too much reverb in a mix. I know this sounds strange, but it works for me.

Hope this helps,

Porter
 
What should I use aside from monitor speakers?

Do I need to mix it in sonar with its equalizer softwares because sonar volume is only from +6db 0 -36db below and as I know 90db is my target volume so that my sound will be perfect? IS 90db should be the loudest volume? or the middle volume? got so much questions anyway thanks a lot with the help hope you still have answers to my questions. Im sorry Im just a newbie with these hehehe. Thanks again!
 
I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the way you use terms "dB" here. What I know, 90dB is standard headroom between your signal and noise floor. To make it simple, say before you make any record, you arm the track, don't play anything, and see how big the noise in the line input monitor in sonar (that's it... the green, yellow and red bar). It has to be below -90dB. If it's higher than -90 (say -50dB or -30dB), then you have narrow headroom between your signal and noise level. Even though you don't actualy hear it when you record, after several process, most of the times it *will* affect the result at the end...

Digital world tends to use "0 dB" as the limit. So -in very simple word- if you want to make loud, your goal is to achieve closest mix to 0dB (that means loudest as possible). But DON'T hit 0 dB... and remember, loudest is not always better. You'll also want fat, wide, airy, pleasing etc sound, right? That's why we call it the art of mixing... :)

Aaah, what am I talking here... :confused:

;)
Jaymz
 
- Recording/Tracking = Capturing all of your sounds accurately and saving them to hard disk in Sonar
- Mixing = Blending the recorded tracks to make a consistent sound picture
- Mastering = Putting a final polish on your finished mixes and bringing their audio levels up to near CD standard.

Sounds like you are recording OK - see James' comments about 0dB and recording levels in the digital world.

When mixing you need to hear exactly what you have recorded. This means that as you create your mix, it should then transfer to any other sound system.

Normal stereo speakers and headphones are both designed to enhance the sound as you hear it. They scoop the mids, boost the bass and sparkle out the high end. This means that as you mix you are making adjustments based upon not just the song, but the lies your speaker/headphones are telling you.

The scooped out mids means you will have added more 200 - 1000 Hz content which will be making things sound muddy, and the added top end is encouraging you to add too much reverb.

A good general rule with effects like reverb and chorus is to mix it in only to the point where you can only just hear it incredibly softly, but so that you miss it if you were to turn it off.

Also - don't go crazy on effects - pick the important instrument for any point in time and use effects to highlight it. The effect then acts like a spotlight against the night sky. Too many effects and you just exploded the sun :)

Now you can spend $$$$$$ on buying what are called "studio monitors" which are designed to give you a flat EQ response all across the sound spectrum. These will help you get more accurate mixes which translate to other systems. Bear in mind though that if you haven't treated your room acoustically, you will still get some peaks and dips in frequency response due to the geometric design. Do a search for "room modes" for more info either on this BBS or in Google.

What Porter says is also quite important - if you really play a lot of music on one pair of speakers you get to know how they modify and manipulate the sound. If you get to know this sound, then you will be able to use these as a good indication of what a final mix will sound like on other systems.

A lot of people actually run split monitor systems which let them play a mix through their $$$$$$$ studio monitors and then flick over to hear what it sounds like through an old boom box or car stereo.

If you can't do this with your setup then just burn lots of mixes, play them in lots of places and make notes about what you hear going on. Remix and retest. When you get to the point where your neighbours are calling the police, your wife is threatening divorce, you are starting to foam at the mouth whenever you hear that damn song => then you will have a good mix that works in most places!

To do a quick and dirty home "mastering" job, you would need to use some sort of mastering compression tool -- most likely to even out the dynamic difference between peak and body of your wave file, (shoot for about 6dB for most pop-rock stuff), a mastering equaliser -- to roll off any unwanted bottom end, add air and sheen to the track, maybe some noise reduction, a mastering limiter -- to bring the overall apparent loudness of your sound up near commercial CD level and then some sort of dither to return the wave file to 16bit if you were recording at a higher rate.

The good news in all of this is that the more you do it, the better your ears will become at recognising different frequencies, the balance between them and the end result will be better mixes much more quickly.

Go and remix - now!

:) Q.
 
Qwerty said:
your wife is threatening divorce
Click to expand...

Speaking from experience here Q? :D

Luckily I haven't had that happen yet. I've just had doors closed pretty loudly.

Porter
 
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