Tracking & Mixing & Mastering

lurgan liar

lurgan liar

Jimmy Page XXVIII
Ok what kind of levels should i be recording my tracks at -!2 Db, or -6 Db, or 0 Db ......and then trimming / adjusting the volume levels after that?...i'm using 16 bit and calkwalk sonar

once i get the volumes sorted out , can anyone offer any advice on FX / EQ / PANNING / LIMITERS / COMPRESSERS

Because all the recording that i have done so far sounds ok, but i still haven't figured out the mixing down process and mastering to give the song that final "sheen"

I know that i should be recording everying in Mono, then once I have everything sounding the way i like it to convert to Stereo....

Then i transfer my song to Sound Forge and add additional Reverb and then NORMALIZE it .....Is this the way to go and if not ....what SHOULD i be doing???

Ps i usually record drums, bass, 3 guitars , and then vocals.....for my band ;)
 
lurgan liar said:
Ok what kind of levels should i be recording my tracks at -!2 Db, or -6 Db, or 0 Db ......and then trimming / adjusting the volume levels after that?...i'm using 16 bit and calkwalk sonar

once i get the volumes sorted out , can anyone offer any advice on FX / EQ / PANNING / LIMITERS / COMPRESSERS

Because all the recording that i have done so far sounds ok, but i still haven't figured out the mixing down process and mastering to give the song that final "sheen"

I know that i should be recording everying in Mono, then once I have everything sounding the way i like it to convert to Stereo....

Then i transfer my song to Sound Forge and add additional Reverb and then NORMALIZE it .....Is this the way to go and if not ....what SHOULD i be doing???

Ps i usually record drums, bass, 3 guitars , and then vocals.....for my band ;)
Click to expand...

The way I record, most things are averaging around -12dbs. Plenty of headroom at mixdown and no risk of clipping. There are different schools of thought on this but it works well for me.

You don't necessarily record everything in mono. Some things sound good in stereo too (drum overheads, acoustic guitar etc). You're right though in that once you've mixed all of your recorded tracks they are mixed down to one stereo track.

Reverb is something I usually add at the mixing stage, different verbs sound better on different sources. Occasionally I'll add a bit of reverb to a master insert just to make everything sound like it's recorded in the same space. This is all done prior to mixing down to the one stereo track though.

Normalising is bad. It does nothing more than what pushing up a fader or turning a volume knob does except it adds more in the way of shitty artefacts and crap to your audio.

Pro studios will send their mixes out to a mastering house to give it a bit of polish and get the volume up a bit. There are a few things you can do at home but it's not the same thing as mastering.

If you want to get the volume of your stereo mixdown up a bit use a limiter. The Kjaerhus Classic Master Limiter does an OK job seeing as it's a freebie:

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-master-limiter.php

If you overdo it things will start to sound pretty crappy so go easy with it.

Funnily enough there seems to have been a fair bit of discussion on "home mastering" around here lately.
 
Installation

Thanks for the tips

Any idea how i might install it...i can't see it when i open sonar and sound forge ...??? :confused:
 
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