What's limiting YOUR recordings??

What's the weakest link in your recordings?

  • My recording chain (mics, pres, etc)

    Votes: 156 18.4%
  • My monitoring chain (monitors, phones)

    Votes: 66 7.8%
  • My room(s)

    Votes: 258 30.4%
  • My own ability

    Votes: 368 43.4%

  • Total voters
    848
my room/place of residence is probably my biggest limitation

For one, I don't have a large enough closet space to transform into a vocal booth, and secondly I can only really record during certain times because my sister is always studying. Kinda sucks when you get that late night inspiration and can't put anything down.
 
I'll be honest and say, "talented clientel limits my recordings."

I love recording but, nobody knows and those who do don't have the talent and $$$ to do it.
 
IsuK

Even though I feel I'm getting better I feel at a plateau sometimes. I keep saying it's the cheap equipment I have, but i have heard others with similar that get better mixes, levels, etc. Any help would be appreciated.
honedawg
 
i voted for myself.

i'm pretty sure there are people out there who can get better recordings than i do out of the same gear.

i'm the only part of the recording equation that should be getting better with time and no additional cost. therefore i'm the cheapest but yet most overrated part of my recording experience.
 
My gear and my studio space are both fair so I can't complain about them, better monitors would be nice but what I have work pretty well so as much as it pains me to admitt it, I must be the faulty link in my recording chain. This dosen't seem to be too much of a problem when I'm recording someone else but it's pretty obvious when working alone, sheez mayby I just need to take some music lessons and improve my playing, there is no hope for my voice, better yet mayby I'll just record other people.
 
noisedude said:
Yeah sorry - it took me ten minutes to remember to click 'reply' and by then someone had posted inbetween!! Someday .... lol!

Mark - that's not an option. Have you got a damn job yet??
Wow! You step away from your PC for a couple hours.... I just scored a Digitech Vocalist Performer! I got it from a guy who knows a guy who knows this girl.... any way, I got it for FREE! I am trying it out now. Since I don't have a pre amp, I thought this might be a good thing. I was impressed with it, to say the least. My vocals stand out much better in the mix than ever before, and it has a setting to automatically double the vocal. Plus it adds two voice harmony.... I feel like a kid at Christmas!
 
alamo jones said:
I can only really record during certain times because my sister is always studying. Kinda sucks when you get that late night inspiration and can't put anything down.

That is my largest limitation. I currently have enough gear to record what I want in a good fashion, but living in my parents house that is terribly small with the bedrooms next to each other I can never record. My mom works nights and dad works days so, at any given time someone is sleeping except between 1-5pm. And I will never record vocals at that time because i'm too self consious to sing with them around. So I can record 3-4 hours a day but I can never do my vocals, which takes lots of time for me considering how much I suck at it. So I basically end up putting whisper tracks of crappy vocals, to remind myself the vocal melody for a later time, but by that point i'm not motivated to finish it and end up finding so much more wrong with the song. ITS A VICIOUS CYCLE!
 
strat0tele said:
That is my largest limitation. I currently have enough gear to record what I want in a good fashion, but living in my parents house that is terribly small with the bedrooms next to each other I can never record. My mom works nights and dad works days so, at any given time someone is sleeping except between 1-5pm. And I will never record vocals at that time because i'm too self consious to sing with them around. So I can record 3-4 hours a day but I can never do my vocals, which takes lots of time for me considering how much I suck at it. So I basically end up putting whisper tracks of crappy vocals, to remind myself the vocal melody for a later time, but by that point i'm not motivated to finish it and end up finding so much more wrong with the song. ITS A VICIOUS CYCLE!
I feel for you! I was in the same boat for awhile. I was working days and the wife working nights. I have a 3-year-old I have to baby sit while the wife is at work. You leave her to herself and all hell breaks loose! I finally worked out a deal with the wife to let the neighbor watch her for a few hours every night so that I could record.
 
Rokket said:
I feel for you! I was in the same boat for awhile. I was working days and the wife working nights. I have a 3-year-old I have to baby sit while the wife is at work. You leave her to herself and all hell breaks loose! I finally worked out a deal with the wife to let the neighbor watch her for a few hours every night so that I could record.

You got nothin'. Nothin'!

5 kids, yes... let me spell that F-I-V-E!!!

Talk about TRYING to find quiet time, it doens't exist. There is only the "hour with least decibels" in my house. Let alone the day to day crap , endless amounts of laundry and dishes, rides to social event/school events/friends houses/relatives/stores & shopping (yea, I didn't know they were different either)....

Okay, I'm done ragging.
I...I....I...I just really feel you guys listen :rolleyes: :D
 
I voted for my room.

I'm in a apartment complex so I can't modify that much.

But wait theres more!

My 2 year old son won't let me record alone he always manages to sneak up into my lap and start playing with the knobs on the mixer, banging on the keyboard, and attempting to drive his toy car up and down the piano keys.

Meanwhile the wife wants me to get up and go get this and that or talk about something I have no interest in...

And just when you think I got some time to go in and record something my 3 month old son wakes up wanting a bottle after a 30 minute nap.
 
Man ... I live in a single-glazed house less than two miles from an internation airport ... and you guys want to turn this into a thread moaning about our houses? ;):p:eek:
 
noisedude said:
Man ... I live in a single-glazed house less than two miles from an internation airport ... and you guys want to turn this into a thread moaning about our houses? ;):p:eek:
Sorry! :o I didn't mean to open a can of worms! But you have to admit, your environment is one thing we don't really think about, but it hampers us quite a bit. Especially if there are 6 people always wanting your time.... :eek: I feel fortunate now, that I only have 2, and I was able to get my way! ;)
 
You can always improve every option, but I voted rmy room, because that is clearly the weakest chain in my link.
 
Well, recently the band itself is limiting the recording bigtime.. for some reason 2 bandmembers (vox & guit/backingvox) were drunk as shit @ our last gig last wednesday. It was a f$@#ing desaster :mad:! And by offering the option to quit the gig before all people did leave the building (clearly nobody really digged false/incorrect playing, singing and 2 band members falling over eachother, too drunk to stand up straight), I clearly pissed off the guitarplayer who seems to have said afterwards that he didn't want to continue with the band anymore. So 85-90% of the recording and editing is done and the band collapses.. and it's my first try to record something myself. Until now it went pretty well... until now.

I hope things will work out, I'd really like to finish up this recording. We'll see.. tomorrow we'll meet again in the same venue we played (badly) last week. Option a) we'll 'kiss and make up' or option b) we'll be rolling over the floor trying to kick each others buds.. Not sure yet what will happen. I'll be doing the live sound for a sort of jamsession that evening, so for the venue/organisation I might try to keep things cool.. But it's not up to me alone I'm afraid..
 
Cloneboy Studio said:
The studio I work at lacks any preamps that are good. We had a D8B and are getting a DXB but I can't talk the owner into investing into good preamps. Instead he spent 6k on microphones!

*sigh*

I love the d8b we have it in the studio I work at. Our budgets a little tight so I'm taking my own money to invest in the 5.1 upgrade that way I can run it using pro tools and also our hd24. I want it with pro tools because we have mainly started using it and I love mixing with my hands. I haven't played with the dxb yet after u get it let me know any differences better/worse type thing.
 
mishagolin said:
i voted for myself.

i'm pretty sure there are people out there who can get better recordings than i do out of the same gear.

i'm the only part of the recording equation that should be getting better with time and no additional cost. therefore i'm the cheapest but yet most overrated part of my recording experience.

i also voted for myself!! and I agree.

just like anything, the more practice the better you get. you don't have to have the best tools to be a good carpenter.
 
Me and my room!!!, need more mileage......but I´ve noticed some improvements and I know I can do better........there´s a light at the end of the tunnel........
 
Cyrokk said:
My ears.

An engineer can tell in a heartbeat that I use fake drums even though they sound real to me. And I'm sure any engineer can point to all sorts of crap popping out of my recordings and mixes, but I don't hear it. And I plan to keep it that way for my humble ego, sanity, and pocketbook.

I prefer to be blissfully ignorant.

Just curious as to what drum kit you are using?
 
You mean besides limited talent, energy, ambition & inspiration?

The next things would have to be lack of space and disorganization.

I'm pathetically overstacked with high quality recording gear, with not enough room to break it all out at once. Strategic items are accessible, and that's it. The rest is either covered, padded and double-stacked, or in storage cases or boxes. There's also a huge weight machine in the middle of my studio that doesn't really fit. That's a big problem. My house is full of a lot of stuff; the clutter of a family of 6. Noone in the family is an organized type, except me, and I struggle with it too. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed. We're basically packed and double-triple stacked, everywhere you look, with STUFF! Geez, I must have a thousand VHS tapes, alone! Books! Collections! Toys! Exercise equipment! TV's! VCR's! Technical gear! Recording Gear!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!

I could build a homeless shelter out of Tascam gear. I could support a 3rd world country on what I've spent on gear.

I may also be a hopelessly compulsive pack rat.

The stuff that's really accessible, are the Squier Bullet, the 388, piano, drums, and,... eh,... a 244 and 234 sittin' by, pretty handy. All my other stuff, recorders by the dozen, are not readily accessible. I could take time to set them up,... however,...

today's pre-production is just tomorrow's nasty mess'o wires. :eek:

Or, so it seems. :eek:

Anyway, I should add, that anything that's on the top tier of junk is more or less accessible. That includes an FD-8, 564, FD-4, 424mkII, 488mkII & a second 388 rig. Other stuff may be accessible but not wired up. I have a huge rack of Tascam rackmount components. I have various other gear halfway accessible but not hooked up. Almost e'thing's covered in plastic, when not in use, which is most of the time.

When I have energy, ambition & inspiration, I do have a fair amount of stuff that's at least half way accessible, I must admit. A lot of stuff is not clearly accessible or just packed & stacked. A lot of it I'm sure I just take for granted, havin to step over it every day. Maybe it's more of a lazy streak, than anything, that's limiting my recordings. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhh.
 
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