Mixing Down Questions from a Newbie

R

Reg3n

New member
hi guys ..I really am a newbie in recording and am really glad to have found a forum to ask my questions. Finally there are experts whom i can ask from :) . Pls forgive my seemingly stupid questions. haha.
I have a Yamaha AW0-16G and have done a few recordings but the end result always sounds like a cassete tape recording :eek: ( so much for my investment in equipment ). I have no training whatsoever regarding studio recording and have only picked up stuff along my way to using the machine. The main differences i hear between my recordings and commercial ones are that the latter sounds much smoother and full and the music seems to come from both sides of my ears instead of the middle like my recordings (when using headphones). My first thought when i discovered the difference was PANNING~! . so there i went to try panning my guitars to the right and keyboards to the left, it sounds better but still lacking. Then i realised that its not really cos of panning? because in commercial music, the same guitar sounds is coming BOTH from the left and right, instead of my recordings that seems to come from the center of my head. what did they do? So questions began popping in my head.

1) did they duplicate the guitar into 2 tracks and one pans max left the other pans max right? is that the same as 1 track without panning? ( forgive me if this question sounds stupid cos i really dont know)

2) if i use the effect "chorus" will i get the left/right effect?

3) will it help if my instrument input is stereo? wads the difference between a stereo input to my tracks and a mono one?

Hope someone can reply me soon.. these questions have been frustrating me for quite a time now as i have no one to ask. I have sift through the threads but the only ones that helps me a bit was "Mixing and Mastering" posted by jb2004, but i am clearly not at his level yet.
 
If the same, identical thing is coming out of both speakers, it will sound centered. There are lots of techniques to get the sound you're talking about. One is to record the same part again ("double tracking"), but you have to be able to play it VERY close to how you played it the first time. Then, pan the two performances to different sides.

Another technique is to make a duplicate of the original, pan the original and the dup to opposite sides, and delay the dup by a few milliseconds (no more than about 30). Look up the "Haas effect" to see why this makes it sound "panned" to the side of the original - to cope with the Haas effect, you can raise the volume of the delayed side. Bear in mind I don't mean "echo" delay - you can achieve this with some delay effects, but what you actually want to do is just play the same thing on the duplicate track slightly later, not get the arena thing goin'. Also beware of comb-filtering here - another one to look up.

It doesn't really make sense to "input a guitar in stereo" - the guitar only sends one signal, and amps are typcially miced with one mic. You COULD double-mic the amp, and it might be worth experimenting with, but that's likely to be a much longer road than double-tracking or delays.
 
mostly yea, it's double tracked.

they just take the time and make sure to do it right.
one of the pro's around here also said he sometimes has one person play a git part, and splits the signal and sends it to 2 or 3 different amps at once.
 
It sounds as though you really need to get a primer on mixing. There are a lot of techniques, but some basic ones would certainly help you on your way. You want every instrument to have it's space in the finished product. You'll use a variety of techniques of which there is not enough room here to speak of. Check out a book on basic mixing techniques to get you going. The AW16G is capable of making some real nice recordings, if you know what you're doing.
 
Everyone else forgot to say welcome to the forum so I'll do it. If you can narrow things down a little (like which instrument, vocal etc..) and describe the problem(s) in detail you will get much better answers. Don't be afraid to experiment and try efx, thats why recording software has an undo feature.
 
Thanks Lots Guys~! :p Will take all of your advice.. glad to have found this forum. Will be back with more questions soon~! haha :D
 
There's actually a similar question I posted here about a week ago (Mixing and Mastering) and it has some good links to mixing articles from Blue Bear Sound. I found them very helpful in making my mixes sound.... well.... "less" like my basement. It actually helped quite a lot.

Also, double tracking guitars and / or duplicating and then delaying (slightly, like said earlier about 30ms max) has a great effect. I found that this also works well with vocals, depending on your desired effect.

Again, take a look at the mixing article from Blue Bear.

Cheers
 
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