So, How Bad Do We Suck?

I agree with everything WATYF said.

From my perspective, I look on this forum as a place to help you make the most out of what you have. Music recorded in a shitty room, with shitty equipment by a guy with halfway decent chops, is not going to sound like OK Computer. However, there are a lot of released albums by indie artists that are "lo-fi" and that may be a more appropriate standard. Badly Drawn Boy, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Bright Eyes, not to mention the Ramones, the Clash, etc are some examples. What I am striving for is a sound that I would buy and not feel cheated by someone who cut corners or didn't care.

Everyone enjoys ear candy, but does that stop you from listening to "Robert Johnson's Complete Recordings"? Great music is great music, period.
 
crawdad said:
My next question is, how do we train these ears to become familiar with the problems of audio? If we could gain that knowledge, hearing correctly could be the most precious resource of all.
Click to expand...
Aye! There's the rub. Training your self to criticly listen and understand what you're hearing and in what context you're hearing it in. And as soon as I figure it all out I'll let you know.
 
My 2 cents.

This is homerecording,people with minimal time,money and equipment.

Not only do most here engineer,they write lyrics,melody,play all the instruments,sing,produce,and master.
What pro does all that?
Not many,if any!

The pros have millions in studios and equipment,and millions in talent and personnel.

Under the conditions of a home studio,it's a miricle if anyone can get within spitting distance of a pro recording.
But yet it's done quite often here.
(Myself excluded!):D

I'm not saying pro,but high quality demo at least.
Some people around here do with a couple of thousand dollars of equipment,what they are hard pressed to do with a couple of million.

And the best part is,we all help each other get better by sharing our knowledge.

I think you guys are cutting yourself short.
The question shouldn't be"How bad do we suck",but"How good are we".

Pete
 
When are you people going to get it? People, it's all about Linear Phase Multiband Compression. If you don't know how to use this, then you're hopelessly meandering around in a sea of audio ignorance.

Okay, I'm kidding.

I read recently somewhere (how's THAT for a source - some speech at an engineer's convention) that 9 out of 10 tunes at any given time on Billboard's Top 10 in the Pop category are distorted.

Okay, I'm NOT kidding about this.





























Maybe I'm off topic, but it's interesting nonetheless.
 
Track Rat--When you get it all figured out, fill me in, OK?:D

Museman--Even sonusman is a champion of the knowledge over gear theory (add talent and good sounding sources to that). My real question is "How good CAN we be?".

This is not a chicken and the egg situation. Since the dawn of recording, people have learned how to make decent recordings with whatever gear they had to work with at the time. The knowledge got passed on and grew with the complexity of the recording format--from 2, 3, 4 and 8 track to 16, 24, 48....etc.

Todays DAWS are packed with more tools than Sam Phillips or Les Paul had in their day. Perhaps there are certain effects and sounds that you HAVE to have an LA 2 limiter or a neve preamp to obtain, but that doesn't mean there aren't other equally good sounding approaches with the gear we have.

Which leads me to....

Khompewter--Thats a great set of articles there. Well done. I think what most of us lack is the experience of seeing the data applied. Its all good to talk about boosts and cuts to get a kick and a bass to work together, but it really helps to see and hear what is being done. Somebody's gonna make a video course with special audio CD examples and I think it will be truly enlightening for us homewreckers. After all, thats how engineers learn. Sure, they may read the data, but then they get to see it being applied by a pro and the light suddenly goes on. In the meantime, we should gather knowledge and post it here in this thread--anything good from any source. It always helps me to review even common principles. Its good to have that kind of thing fresh in your mind.

We don't suck. Theres loads of talent here. Could we all be better? Of course. So lets help each other to do just that. Here! here! Can I get a witness?!!:D can I get an article link? :D
 
chrisharris said:
When are you people going to get it? People, it's all about Linear Phase Multiband Compression. If you don't know how to use this, then you're hopelessly meandering around in a sea of audio ignorance.
Click to expand...

Shhh! Chris, don't give away the secret! Next thing you know, everybody will be making really big, shiny pro recordings like ours! LOL!

Next thing, I suppose youre gonna tell 'em about the BBTTE?
 
Re: Re: So, How Bad Do We Suck?

groucho said:
Personally, I'm always open to learning from people - and I don't particularly care whether they're polite or not (who cares? It's just the web.:)).

So out of curiosity I checked out the audio samples on sonusman's Opal Studios. Interestingly, the very second song sample is a Howlin' Wolf cover with some absolutely hilariously bad-sounding drums! I mean, they sound like they were recorded in a Yuban can. And not bad in a cool, bluesy way - bad in a fake, programmed, "homerecording way".:)

Listening to the remaining songs I heard: some rap (fake drums), an acoustic tune (no drums), some ambient female vocalist thing (very distant drums - mostly a kick and a crash) and a couple of metal/pop-ish tunes with some decent-sounding drums.

I know there's probably several of you who can swear to this guy's talent. And I'm not much interested in debating it (hell, who am *I* to talk - his stuff still sounds better than mine). But the genius that would excuse the arrogance ain't much apparant from those audio samples.

Chris
Click to expand...

Not even ONE of those songs was something I worked on. All of them were produced/engineered by the studio owner.

http://www.theredsector.com/ed/index.html is where you will find sample of my work.

Ed
 
Last edited:
Re: Re: Re: So, How Bad Do We Suck?

sonusman said:
Not even ONE of those songs was something I worked on. All of them were produced/engineered by the studio owner.

http://www.theredsector.com/ed/index.html is where you will find sample of my work.

Ed
Click to expand...

Hey, no fair, these sound good.:)

Ah well, resume the arrogance.

You might talk the studio owner into replacing the crap that's on the webpage with your stuff - it's kind of a world of difference!

Though I suppose that has occurred to you...

Carry on,
Chris
 
Link worked for me. Try tossing a www in the front.

Ed, you did Porterhouse? I l-o-v-e-d Thumbs Up, Little Buddy. Tight, funky jam. Excellent recording... was that you?

Daf
 
dafduc said:
Link worked for me. Try tossing a www in the front.

Ed, you did Porterhouse? I l-o-v-e-d Thumbs Up, Little Buddy. Tight, funky jam. Excellent recording... was that you?

Daf
Click to expand...

I was involved with the initial drum setup, and did a few overdubs at mix time. I mixed and mastered that CD.

I had more to do with the tracking of Prime Cuts, but had to make do in a more hostile recording environment.

groucho, yes, it DID occure to me. :) But if people heard my work, then got him to engineer. Well, you know....;)

Ed
 
From what I can tell the stuff around here has improved a lot over the last year and a half that I have been checking out the MP3 forum. It used to be about 90% crap and I'd say that it's down to 70% crap.

The performances are still the strong suit for a lot of the stuff but that is what music is all about anyway.
 
archers of loaf, pavement, modest mouse, nirvana(bleach), anyone ever hear of these guys? if you have then you know that if their music was recorded "professionally" and sounded "professional" then you would probably not like it very much. it is the "mess" that they create that makes them what they are/were! awesome fucking bands that captured a "real" feeling on their recordings!

AND although i havent posted anything yet, each and every recording of mine gets better and better. it is doing take after take after take and learning what your equip. is capable of doing that will help you to feventually achieve that "professional" sound! along with another grand or two!
 
Getting pro results from a little home studio doing everything yourself is a lot to ask.

I am not a fan of rude, arrogant, and condescending people.

Getting good results from cheap gear is possible, but nothing to be proud of.

Getting close to pro results is way easier with sampled type drums.

What's wrong with chasing rainbows?

-Macle
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top