Muddy Sounding Recordings!

S

surfingcheckers

New member
Hey guys I've been recording in my basement for a while with my band and I do all of the recording, mixing, etc. I definitely have improved with each new recording and am starting to hear little things that make each recording sound better and better. However, lately I have been hitting the same problem as all of our recordings our starting to sound muddy and almost 'far away' from the listener. If anyone has any tips on how to record or mix differently to avoid this it would be greatly appreciated!
 
It can be one or a dozen out of around eight billion different things.

A relatively detailed list of what you're working with and how you're working it would be somewhat of a start...
 
1. good equipment
2. good mics & placement
3. good plug-ins for EQ-ing tracks.

This is all basic stuff. Even if you have good tracks, they can become muddy if you do not have the ear to configure them right in the mix.
Engineering is an art. Either you got it or ya don't.

Don't feel bad if ya don't. Just find someone who can.
 
Congratulations! you have reached the first step of acknowledging that your recordings sucks.(not many people are there yet). Now all you need is to learn how to make them better, which takes time and expierience.
 
as massive master said it could be any number of things and letting people know what you are using is a great place to start...but i have found in the past that alot of times "muddy and "far away" could just be too much reverb. verb will muddy a good recording..imo..take that out of your mixdown and see if anything clears up..if it does then you have a starting point..if not, then as stated earlier it could be any number of things..hope this helped even a little
 
eqeqeq.jpg
 
"Muddy" and "far away" are two different things. Muddy tends to mean that you have too many instruments hogging the same frequency ranges. Solo a single instrument, then start bringing them in one at a time until the problem starts, and you will see which instruments are getting things muddy. Usually, it's midrange instruments like guitars and keyboards.

As bigtee says, too much reverb can give you a far away sounding track. Especially if you have a fast attack and a slow decay coupled with too much gain on the reverb unit/plugin.

Learn how to use an equalizer. They can be your best friend or worst enemy. And mix without reverb first, get everything sounding good and in it's own space, then dab in the reverb.
 
Hey guys i just read everything and I just want to clarify everything for you;
1. I haven't used reverb on any instruments except a bit on my snare track and a little on the vocals.
2. I have read a lot of forums online and seen videos about eq's and I feel I'm starting to understand how to seperate each instrument and allow them to 'own' their own frequency ranges. However, I know I'm not a pro at doing this yet either because it takes time to get a feel for it.
3. I am using a Pearl Forum 5-piece Drum Set with Sabian Crashes and a Wuhan China. I also am playing an Ibanez SA Series played through a 150 Watt Line 6 Spider II Amp. I am recording all of this using Nady DM70's and an Audix f14 bass drum mic. I also have two CAD CM217 Condensor Mics as overheads. I am recording the guitar with a DM70 facing a 45 degree angle to the side of one of the cones in my amp and a condensor facing at about a 30 degree angle towards the same cone. I am recording all of this through a Yamaha MG10 Mixer and into my computer through Cubase LE4.

And to clarify the sound of the overall mix it definitely is not too much reverb because as I said before I made sure to record nothing with reverb and only added a slight amount to the snare and vocals afterwards.
 
okay...are you recording all the instruments at one time..or doing the rhythm section first..ie: bass and drums then bringing the other parts in? Whats in the basement? i know it sounds weird but all this will come into play...if the basement is just wide open ...those condensor mic's as overheads may be picking up alot of "open space"..and if tracking all the instruments in the same area at the same time it would give that far away feel..i always keep the drums and bass in a sep. room...doing the bass direct...its hard to say where the muddiness is coming from other than stated earlier about eq..hope this helps somewhat..if not..let me know...somewhere somehow there is a fix:)
 
hey bigtee I'm recording the drums in a seperate room in my basement that me and my dad soundproofed last year. We record each instrument seperately and record the drums to a click track. Then record the bass. Then the first guitar. Then the second. and then we do vocals last along with other lead guitar parts or other sounds we want to add in. So in Cubase the drums have a bass drum, snare, and overhead track, and each guitar has the condensor and the dynamic mic track to control/eq.
 
surfingcheckers said:
hey bigtee I'm recording the drums in a seperate room in my basement that me and my dad soundproofed last year.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "sound-proofed"? How did you accomplish that?

and each guitar has the condensor and the dynamic mic track to control/eq.
Click to expand...

Do you mean you recorded each guitar track with 2 mics? If so, there's nothing wrong with that. Just be on the lookout (or hear-out) for phasing issues.
 
to answer the sound-proofing question my dad built a seperate room into my basement so that we could record in it, and we put soundproof material in the ceiling and sound proof insulation in the walls. I've also draped heavy carpets on the walls and across corners to try to absorb some sound.

and yes i recorded the guitars with two mics and I paid special attention to phasing when i was placing them so as to make sure the guitars didnt sound thin
 
I think he's asking "what sound proofing treatment did you use".

Carpets in excess will absorb a lot of the high end from the room and really nothing else. So this in turn will take a lot of the liveliness out of the recording.

Things like egg cartons are not sound proofing. They take whatever liveliness in the room out. Consider taking down these draped carpets and see if the sound has any less of a muddy feel. They aren't stopping any sound transmission anyway.

Good luck.
 
wow...im at a loss..not that this is a solution but do you have anyone or you sitting behind the console when listening thru headphones while recording is in progress..i know its a silly question but sometimes guys just hit the record without listening..im guilty of that myself in the past...just hearing what a musician is playing instead of listening..one more quick question..how is the computer..pretty quiet..i know some older computers could be very "noisy" while processing...i myself run a tascam 1641 multitrack interface into cubase le4 and never really have a problem...understand im just trying to help you narrow things down at this point with the hope of you finding what it is..im sure you checked all your cables thru the enitre chain:D...let me know what happens
 
hey bigtee i completely understad you're trying to help and i really appreciate it. I usually listen to my drummer play through headphones while recording to make sure everything is going okay and i have a brand new dell computer so it is extremely quiet. I have tried taking the carpets and dont really notice a difference so that's probably not the reason.
 
try cutting everything below 250hz on everything except kick and bass guitar as a start...that should clean things up a bit....
 
so i just recently had my computer's hard drive crash and hence i have no more music files on it. However, at my band's myspace here there is all of our music. And if you listen to the last song called Flatlined you'll hear what I am trying to explain. Thanks for all the help guys! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top