Studio Clear Quality

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Frejo

New member
Hi HomeRecording.com fellas,

I'm looking for tips & tricks in order to get perfect, clear and crisp vocal quality. Since I havent made more than 10 posts in here, I'm not able to link to an example but try writing "Mario - Stranded" in YouTube and choose the first link and you will see the cover I'm thinking of. Please do.

Here's my recording gear:

MICROPHONE: GA Project 9 FC1 MKII
PRE-AMP: ART PROFESSIONAL TUBE MP
USB SOUNDCARD: LEXICON ALPHA
SOFTWARE: ADOBE AUDITION
LAPTOP COMPUTER

Will I be able to create a similar quality, like the one in the link? And what are the secrets in order to get a quality like that? I could really use some inputs.

Thank you in advance
J.
 
Not sure how much experience you have recording, but my first answer would be 'no' - a $100 mic and a $30 mic preamp are not going to give you the best sound. Let alone - is your recording environment treated for optimal sound?
Back to the experience question - how much recording and mixing have you done? There's a big learning curve.
 
I could not find anything on the microphone you listed.
I think (personally) your expectations may be set too high to be able to get a clear well balanced sound like an experienced well furnished studio has the first time you record with budget gear in your home.

If the mic is a good match for your voice, if you have a similar voice to the singer in that song, if you have an acoustically treated area free from room reflections and background sounds, and if you have a pre-recorded background track that sounds exactly like what you want....then perhaps you can.
 
Thank you for your answers. Regarding my expirience with recording; I have been recording for 3 years but on a very low level. I havent used MUCH time to get deeply into mixing etc. Up untill now I have been satisfied with the quality I was able to make with the 'small' knowledge I had. However now - I feel like I have more time to put into this, and therefore I wanna expand my knowlegde about recording + mixing in order to get more quality songs.

I think my environment isnt OPTIMIZED for recording, as I'm in a normal room - with Windows to the street (not a very loud street but anyway). Also my laptop (which im using to record) kinda has a loud fan so I think my mic also picks that sound up. Ill see what I can do about that

However I think what I'm searching for is more knowledge about volume levels on lexicon alpha + pre amp to get best quality. Plus more knowledge about compression,eq, effects etc in mixing
 
I am most certainly no kind of recording pro, a 'high handicapper' if you will, but I'm perfectly comfortable throwing out advice as if I knew what I was talking about.

It's tough to go cheap in this racket. Your microphone, preamp, A/D/A converters must be as high quality as you can afford: if you buy cheap, you'll probably pay twice... or more. Manufacturers spend a lot of advertising money convincing people that their gear is cheap and good when in fact of lot of it is just mostly cheap. But having said that there is a point of diminishing returns where throwing money doesn't buy you a huge increase in quality and finding that point is a crap shoot... is a Telefunken U47 mic really $8,000 better then a modded Apex 460? Is a FMR Real Nice Preamp really $10,000 worse then a Esoteric Audio Research 824? I can't say but I have my doubts.

In my opinion the best way forward is to tell the community here what gear you currently have, how much you can afford to spend, how many tracks you need, and what you're going to be recording, and then see what people come back with.

Good luck.
 
wheelema said:
I am most certainly no kind of recording pro, a 'high handicapper' if you will, but I'm perfectly comfortable throwing out advice as if I knew what I was talking about.

It's tough to go cheap in this racket. Your microphone, preamp, A/D/A converters must be as high quality as you can afford: if you buy cheap, you'll probably pay twice... or more. Manufacturers spend a lot of advertising money convincing people that their gear is cheap and good when in fact of lot of it is just mostly cheap. But having said that there is a point of diminishing returns where throwing money doesn't buy you a huge increase in quality and finding that point is a crap shoot... is a Telefunken U47 mic really $8,000 better then a modded Apex 460? Is a FMR Real Nice Preamp really $10,000 worse then a Esoteric Audio Research 824? I can't say but I have my doubts.

In my opinion the best way forward is to tell the community here what gear you currently have, how much you can afford to spend, how many tracks you need, and what you're going to be recording, and then see what people come back with.

Good luck.
Click to expand...
There's a lot of truth to this..That being said, I was just " consulting" with a new studio owner the other day about some of this same issues..Advertisers get big named artist/engineers to endorse a " miracle" product and make big claims..But.........they fail to tell you that these people uses other" hi-end products" to actually do the source tracking/recording..!..( ie.." This ------ ( fill in the blank) artist uses a such ------ low cost interface--( fill in the blank) to record this amazing project..They don't tell you about the $4000 plus for the Mic or $3000 for the preamp or $3000 for the AD converters or the $ $2500 for the compressor or.......you get the point.....
 
Probably the best way forward is to post one of your recordings, along with your thoughts on what sounds good and what doesn't. Then you can work on fixing what can be fixed given your recording space and budget. At some point you will need more expensive gear in order to track a higher quality signal, though.

David
 
Yeah, why dont you record yourself and post it here so we can hear the same as you and give you some advices.

From my perspective gear is not THAT important. It will certainly help, but the most important thing is talent. Just as a talented musician can make a crappy instrument sound great, a talented producer can make really good recordings with budget equipment.

I would say that volume levels, effects and mixing are not the kind of advices you need at this moment. The most important part of your recording chain is the SOUND SOURCE. So if you sing poorly in a bad sounding room with a bad positioned mike then no matter how much you tweak your gear, the recording wont be very good.

Try to listen to your own voice and your room. Thats a good place to start
 
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