First home recording Mix/Master sounds naff' help needed!

jsmusic94

New member
Hi there folks. First home production all wrapped up as best I can do it. All instruments recorded at home the gear I used was:

Aston Origin,
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2,
Shure SRH440 Headphones,
Edifier R1280DB speakers,
HX Stomp, (Helix guitar amp)
Logic X,
ALL THE PLUGINS, (I have loads bought outright and no idea how to properly use them)

So, I've been writing for years, and performing professionally live with tribute acts and so on for a long time. But I want to home produce my own music, that's my aim right now. I want to be able to produce good enough home tracks for like YT, Spotify, FB, so I can get a set of tracks together, and help get bandmates interested, and of course make some nice records. I am not naive as to how steep this learning curve is so I need all the help I can get. Of course I work on a tight budget, but I am not afraid of investing in the gear I need if it's necessary. So, here's my first track, I picked the song at random from mine, I'm not sure it's a great single but I'm also not bothered too much since I'm not even sure it's releasable in this state, although I did have fun making it.

My problems I ran into were:

Tracking vocals.

I bought a 'good' reflections filter from Universal Acoustics, but then recorded in a bare, reflection filled room. I've since invested in a pop up tent thing that just about fits into my room to try and treat so I can record in that. But that's still a work in progress. So all the vocals didn't compress well and sounded really tinny. Also, Because I wanted a very airy feel to the singing I moved in too close to the mic. It sounded fine through the Direct Monitoring, great even, but the result was a weird filtery sound which didn't match the bridge, which I had to back off (distance wise) for. So I suppose they're lessons learned but, I must admit I found myself in experiments after learning all this that the Aston into the Focusrite seems a really bright mix, is that a known thing? Or is it just going to be that way until I improve my 'vocal booth' situation?

Reference.

I need monitors. But I'm in a rented house I can't treat acoustically. No good place to put them, and also a bit tight on the budget since I invested in everything else. I cut this corner purely because A: I was hoping to find a friend with a good setup I could pop over and reference with, but then I didn't really contact anybody. B: I bought Waves' Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin to see if I could mix a little in the van on tour, and I saw it had dedicated EQ curves for certain headphones so I got a pair that matched and hoped that would do. I guess problems I hear using those are the same problems that kick in on other devices - Vox sounding squashed and weird etc - I just don't know how to fix them. So I'm not certain this is a worse reference than budget monitors in an untreated room. Anyone else use a method like this? My speakers for my turntable are hi-fi and again in an untreated room, and showed the same issues as my DAW reference so I guess they don't provide much help either. Anyone else found a good monitoring solution in rented house?

Mix/Mastering.

Of course I struggled with this or I wouldn't be here but. I did find the master a lot more squashy and unpleasant than the mix, but my mix was quiet and needed a lot of boosting (I used mostly the Fab Filter L-2 for this). Also I wasn't sure how to shrink the dynamic range, so some sections came out much worse than others, but I wanted some feedback before going back in, going in circles now. Would you automate the master fader to do this on the mix? Or maybe the one on the track when mastering? Any good tutorials on mastering would be useful. In the mix I tried to 'Brauerize' in the box which obviously was far too advanced for me because once I'd set up and calibrated the multi bus compression to 0 on a VU meter (-18db) I could not, for the life of me, get the compressors to do anything, which told me my gain structure was off, but I tried to fix it, then decided to de-calibrate the compressors and just try and get them doing between 1-2db each. And if you're wondering why I even tried It's just because He's mixed a whole bunch of my favourite sounding songs. So I wanted to know what he did, and the idea made sense - separate your bus compression out so you can target like groups with more precision - and it was useful to send BV's and reverb into the stereo field with the D-bus set up, but it's all moot cos' you can absolutely tell Brauer did not mix this track and it caused me more problems than it solved. I understood the concept but had none of the practical experience to make it work. At all.

I know that's a long read. And a massive thank you to anyone who does. The track is attached hopefully and I'd love any feedback. Hope you like the song! If you do that's lucky, and I want it to sound as good as I can. And learn how to do this all properly, from tracking to mastering. Thank you, ever so much for any response. I know it's a long post.View attachment Dancing By - Master 2.mp3View attachment Dancing By - Mix 2.mp3
 
I pulled it down and gave it a listen. Overall, things were pretty nice until the 2 minute mark when the vocals just overwhelmed everything, and sound completely overdriven. I don't know if this was by design or if you just hit the inputs way too hot and distorted the track during the recording. Its like a bit like "I am the Walrus" but the volume doesn't track with the rest of the song. I would remix and drop that section 2 or 3 dB to see if it sits better. If possible, just throw up a mic, rerecord the section and paste it in to replace that section.

Otherwise, the song is good, nice harmony and backing vocals.

Also, one thing that reflection filters can't fix is echoes coming from the front of the mic. They cut rear and side reflections. With a good cardoid mic, those areas are already somewhat suppressed. If you want to try to cut the reflections, try setting up so that a open closet full of clothes is to your back and the mic and pointing that way. The clothes will absorb reflections and the filter will cut the side and back reflections. That will give you more of a dry sound.

As for adding compression and limiting, that's practically a course in itself. Search through the treads for "compression" and "limiters", also check out youtube videos on compressors and limiters. Each has a job and can help you get your track under control.
 
Thank you mate! It was absolutely by design, but you’re right obviously, I think I’ve just acclimated to the jump in volume. The distortion is all coming from FF Saturn though it wasn’t the recording so I can just re set the volume hopefully.
 
As for adding compression and limiting, that's practically a course in itself. Search through the treads for "compression" and "limiters", also check out youtube videos on compressors and limiters. Each has a job and can help you get your track under control.

I would even go on to say OP, limiters and compressors are a black art. While they are a utility for controlling sound, they can also be an effect. You will need to play with them until it works for you. I know I never got an "aha!" moment, I just started getting an idea how to use them over a period of time.
 
Cheers guys. On this I tried to follow the advice of this web article from Waves. Mostly because I had all the relevant plugins. What would you add to it from your experience?

(Can’t post url yet. Google Waves ‘Which Compressor Should I Use For My Mix?’ And that, amongst some YouTube stuff was where I took my cues)

Also, when you say ‘get your mix under control’ is the fundamental aim when deploying a compressor to level spikes in volume? (Excluding using it for colour for this one question) because I’m certainly noticing a big problem with the master I did above is that the kick is squashing everything else against the limiter. Did I need to compress it more? I think on the kick channel I had Waves’ DBX doing about 1db and I level matched to the dry signal and turned up to taste. Would that leave it too peaky? Cheers guys, honestly. Really wanna get better.
 
Just wanted to mention something about those reflection filters we've all heard about. The idea behind the reflection filter and how it's built and where it's positioned near and behind the mic is a fairly simple one....and not really what some seem to think.

The idea is that.....if you control what goes on past the mic back outwards into the room as you sing into it.......the less that is then able to come back around the room as a full reflection back into the front of the mic. Many seem to think that the reflection filter is a protection from reflections entering from the back of the mic and the sides only. While that does have some very small effect........that's not the design or the idea or even the actual result. Think of it as.....the less that goes around to begin with.......the less that comes around back at you. The diffusion happens right after the sound passes the front of the mic......not later on.

Having mentioned this........I can tell you that they seem to be effective.....but only to a degree. Where they seem to work best is in a room that is not too bad to start with. If you have a small annoying reflection.....it could help. If you're fighting your room big time......forget it.
 
Yep, the main mix suggestion I have is the bridge vocal. Bring it down to match the vocal level elsewhere. The tone and style will make it stand out as different.

There's a frequency buildup at about 145Hz. That's very typical of a mix done in a small untreated space. A 1/3 octave 6dB cut there really opened things up.

The master is more than loud enough for most streaming services. You could easily back it off a couple of dB and open up the dynamics.

Compression:

Threshold controls how much of the signal's dynamic range you're going to affect. If I'm going to use compression as a volume control I'll set it so it's barely affecting the lowest parts of the signal.

Ratio controls how much compression is going to be applied to the range selected by the threshold. A very dynamic signal will probably need a higher ratio.

Attack controls how much of the initial transient is going to be allowed through before compression starts. I usually start it super fast then roll it back until I get the effect I like.

Release controls how quickly the level recovers. I usually set this slower for slow songs and faster for fast songs, generally just fast enough to track the signal's natural decay. Or I set it faster for a more aggressive, in your face effect.

Knee controls the transition from no compression to the ratio you chose. A hard knee goes into full ratio as soon as the threshold is crossed while a soft knee rolls into the ratio over a specified dB range. I use hard knee for more aggressive and faster sources, like edgy guitars, and I use soft knee for vocals. Usually.

I rarely use compression on a mix. I try to address my dynamics issues at the track level, sometimes on submixes. I use a mastering limiter to get my final volume.

None of these are rules, they are just how I happen to use compression. Feel free to develop your own style.
 
Thanks to everyone whose commented so far! Getting a clearer idea already. Bouldersoundguy would you rarely use a compressor on a channel then? Are you mostly using eq? And I’m glad to know I can come down in volume. I matched it to a really loud reference track which on second thought whilst it reminded me of my song for the tremolo guitar, it wasn’t a good choice. And thanks Mickster, I think I did have it the wrong way round.
 
I use a ton of compression on tracks, just usually not on the whole mix. I'll often try to "fix" an overly dynamic track with compression before realizing that editing the clip gain is going to give better results. I'll still have the compression on there, but it doesn't have to work so hard when the levels are evened out.
 
Great, I thought about that. Would you maybe chop out the quieter sections and raise the region gain (logic user) to get it more even? Sorry to keep pestering you.
 
Great, I thought about that. Would you maybe chop out the quieter sections and raise the region gain (logic user) to get it more even? Sorry to keep pestering you.

If it doesn't have clip gain automation like Pro Tools, yes, I'd split it up and set the gain for each section.
 
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