Well bevins, I am gonna take a wild guess here and say that you were recording with a -10db recording level. I say this because your whole mix came in at about -4 on my consoles meters. All of my MP3's come in at about +8 - +10, which would suggest that since I record everything at +4 db, there would be a 14db difference between -10 and +4. This is assuming that you are filling out your meters when you record. Got it?
Okay, in digital, -10 pretty much sucks. My ADAT's sound awefull at -10 record levels. The tracks tend to sound flat, no character, and when trying to mix a bunch of them together, I can never seem to get any kind of dynamic mix. Now, can you imagine what another 14db of headroom can do??? Not only will you get a hotter signal, but it would seem that +4 record levels have much better resolution from the A/D and D/A converters. I tend to think, although I am not sure that this is fact, that at -10 record levels, you actually only get about 12 to 13 bits of resolution. Or at least, it really sounds like 12 to 13 bits of resolution would sound. In digital, you actually don't get full bit resolution untill to fill out the meters. So, if you were to devide the dynamic range by the potential bit resolution, each bit in a 16 bit, 92db dynamic range digital system would equal about 5.57db per bit. So, in the case that you are handicapped by 14db to start with, you would only get at best about 13 bits of resolution, assuming that you are getting full metering the whole way. Now, 13 bits as your max is going to deliver an okay sound, but, not really too terribly exciting. Things will tend to sound a bit "boxy", and flat. So, I may not have the math right, and maybe you are still getting full bit resolution (but I seriously doubt this) but, your recording sound like mine would if I recorded everything at about -14 on the recording deck, and at -14 on the mix down deck on my +4 system.
Aside from that.
I sounds as though the keys really have quite a bit of low end presence in the mix. Particularly in the 200-250hz range. This would be a symptom of monitors that do not extend very low in the sonic range, which just so happens to be just about every near field monitoring system I have ever heard. So, since your monitors lack extended low end, you are trying to get it with eq, forgeting the fact that your monitors lack this frequency range, not your mix. The solution is to mix intentionally with less tone in this region. This can be tedious, but, it is a fact that every recording engineer in a studio using near field monitors faces. It is the same for me as it is for Bob Clearwater, and thus for you. We all must mix with less low end than we think we really need.
Also, you could be monitoring too loud which would lead to hearing fatigue, which would cause you to start getting rid of frequencies that are very important to a clear sound, primarily, the 2-5kHz region. I was fooled by this myself many times when I started mixing. After a couple of hours of loud monitoring, it would seem that the mix was too edgy, too bright, so I would start taking away the high mid range stuff. Well lo and behold, the next day I would listen to the mix and it would sound flat, with no real sparkle, but those low mids would sure be there!!!
I always say that with digital, you have to watch your low end!!! I will say it again here. With digital, you have to watch your low end!!!
(I just like saying that). If you were to really listen a lot to professional recordings through your monitoring systemm, you would find that none of it has that much information as you do in the low mid area. So, you have to train your ears to listen a bit differently.
I am wondering also what you were using for pre-amps. It sure sounded like Mackie. This is just a wild guess, but all of the sounds kind of had that sort of sterile Mackie sound to them. If it wasn't a Mackie, I will put my money on them being solid state pre-amps of some sort. While solid state pre-amps are actually kind of nice in the analog realm, they don't really do much for me in the digital realm. A little to brittle, and sterile. You may want to try out
an ART Dual MP unit. Also, you will need to make sure that you are recording at +4 for this to be much benefit to you. If you ARE recording at +4, then you need to strive to get much hotter record levels. At least with a tube mic pre-amp with seperate input and output controls, you can hit the input really hard and get a little tube compression (this is the best compression money can buy!!!), then adjust the output of the pre-amp to get really hot record levels. Often, when I am recording vocal tracks, they never go below -6 on the meters. So, I am at least getting 15 bits of resolution on the A/D converter the whole time. Also, you can tickle 0db while recording. 0db can either mean that you are at the maximum record level, or are exceeding the maximum record level. If you are exceeding it, you WILL hear digital distortion, unless it is a high frequency transient blasting through, in which case, the distortion would not really last long enough for you to hear it provided that it was not too terribly hot. In any case, you can really clip a good tube mic pre-amp and still not hear distortion, even though technically, you are distorting the signal. Analog distortion tends to add warmth to a signal. The technique of slamming the record level on analog tape is widely used by top engineers to get a very "in your face" sound to tape. If you are careful about keeping the proximity effect out of your microphones, you will get some really great sounds to tape.
Anyway, the mix really wasn't all that bad. Dump some of the low mids on the keyboard stuff, turn down the lower voices a bit, add a hint more reverb sizzle to the higher voices, throw a good compressor over the whole mix and BANG, you have a winner here.
Good luck.
Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio
www.echostarstudio.com
P.S. Only fair that I let you hear some of my mixes. You can critique mine also....
www.echostarstudio.com/downloads.html Peace.
[This message has been edited by Dragon (edited 10-11-1999).]
Don't be scared by the Soprano's voices, its me, I'm normally a tenor.... There is four people, two tracks each.There is only two musicians, don't listen to the musical abilities listen to the mix and let me know what you think. It sounds flat, no dynamics and is muffled. I need help.
