Studio and/or CD quality recording?

[JonPaulP]

OK, so here's a quick one-take test I did to listen if my microphone settings/set-up are correct. I took a listen to professionally-produced recordings to hear the difference, but I wanted to get some opinions.

Is the recording quality good enough for a CD?

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7405329

Thanks for listening!

 

[joeym]

I don't know about the CD quality Jon, but you sound wonderful .....
I find that the EQ is now much better on the voice than your previous recordings. You have the high mids in the right place. There are a couple of pops here and there on "b's" and and "p's". Do you use a pop filter? That's something you can fix though.
Great singing as usual!

Joe

 

[guitar zero]

I was really struck by how fantastic the reverb is on the piano. Is it natural from the room you recorded in, or something you added later? The vocal reverb doesn't sound as good to me. Am I way off?

 

[Texasbbqrock]

Hey

Sound's pretty clear and good to me. This recording is without a mix down and mastering right?

 

[JonPaulP]

I don't know about the CD quality Jon, but you sound wonderful .....
I find that the EQ is now much better on the voice than your previous recordings. You have the high mids in the right place. There are a couple of pops here and there on "b's" and and "p's". Do you use a pop filter? That's something you can fix though.
Great singing as usual!

Joe

Thanks for the constructive feedback as always Joe!! I am glad that you think the EQ settings are better. I tried doing different things from keeping the track as is to increasing the bass. For this one, I increases the highs and the mids, so I'll stick with this formula! I used a pop filter. I didn't hear the pops, thanks for catching that. There's a filter for fixing that isn't there? I'm not sure if I've found that feature yet. What's it called?

I was really struck by how fantastic the reverb is on the piano. Is it natural from the room you recorded in, or something you added later? The vocal reverb doesn't sound as good to me. Am I way off?

Thanks for the feedback guitar zero. Haha, my VST instrument must be really good since you thought it was a real piano! I used a piano VST from EastWest Goliath and added the "Abbey" reverb setting within the PLAY interface.

For the vocal reverb I used the one that came with Cubase. What do you use for vocal reverb? I've been trying to find the perfect vocal reverb, but I've had no luck.

Sound's pretty clear and good to me. This recording is without a mix down and mastering right?

Thanks Texasbbqrock. What do you mean by "mix down"? How do you do that? No, it's not mastered...I haven't experimented with mastering yet. Does mastering really make a big difference? You can master and mix down in Cubase, right?

 

[Dredakyst]

**** see msg below

 

[Dredakyst]

Good stuff sir... I love the reverb on the piano, it sounds very good to my ears... However, i would dial the vocal reverb down a tad and see what would result from that...

somewhere between 0 and where it is now.. should be perfect.

 

[JonPaulP]

Good stuff sir... I love the reverb on the piano, it sounds very good to my ears... However, i would dial the vocal reverb down a tad and see what would result from that...

somewhere between 0 and where it is now.. should be perfect.

Thanks Dredakyst! I'll try lower and the reverb a little. I should do that through an aux send in the DAW, right?

 

[KineticSound]

Haha, my VST instrument must be really good since you thought it was a real piano! I used a piano VST from EastWest Goliath and added the "Abbey" reverb setting within the PLAY interface.

JP,
As usual, you did a great job. I was also fooled into thinking that the piano was recorded live in a really nice sounding room. Well done.

I didn't catch any plosives that were distracting enough to comment on. If you're filtering for that sort of stuff, I would just use an eq plug with a very narrow Q setting & sweep the frequencies until you find the frequency where your plosives reside. Again, I didn't hear anything in there that distorted the mic, but maybe someone is picking up something I missed.

There's a little odd thing around :52 in the way the voice comes out... did you do that, or was it an artifact from a compressor? It comes up a couple times through the song, where the vocal is suddenly a little more restrained.

 

[guitar zero]

John Paul,

Yes i did think it was real piano being played in a really nice hall. Well done. I don't have a vocal reverb I'm super thrilled with. I just bought a hardware reverb unit, but it's not here yet. Right now I just use software plate reverbs with anywhere from 6-25% wet/dry mix. Can't wait to try out the hardware. Great reverb can really take a recording to a new level.

GZ

 

[Dredakyst]

Thanks Dredakyst! I'll try lower and the reverb a little. I should do that through an aux send in the DAW, right?

Correct... From my experience when I aux send the reverb in cubase it makes it more subtle in the background (based on settings). than when the effect is used as a insert on the track.

You also have the option to gage how much you want in the mix on the fly using send.

But it all depends on what you're trying to convey/present to the track. The joy of being a artist with a palette of paint and a blank canvas

 

[JonPaulP]

JP,
As usual, you did a great job. I was also fooled into thinking that the piano was recorded live in a really nice sounding room. Well done.

I didn't catch any plosives that were distracting enough to comment on. If you're filtering for that sort of stuff, I would just use an eq plug with a very narrow Q setting & sweep the frequencies until you find the frequency where your plosives reside. Again, I didn't hear anything in there that distorted the mic, but maybe someone is picking up something I missed.

There's a little odd thing around :52 in the way the voice comes out... did you do that, or was it an artifact from a compressor? It comes up a couple times through the song, where the vocal is suddenly a little more restrained.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, David! I took a listen to 0:52 and I think that's me. Thanks for catching that. I think I'm going to do some vowel modification for the restrained parts.

John Paul,

Yes i did think it was real piano being played in a really nice hall. Well done. I don't have a vocal reverb I'm super thrilled with. I just bought a hardware reverb unit, but it's not here yet. Right now I just use software plate reverbs with anywhere from 6-25% wet/dry mix. Can't wait to try out the hardware. Great reverb can really take a recording to a new level.

GZ

A hardware reverb unit? Is that what many people use? My mixer has a reverb send, but I wasn't sure if it was better to use that or to add it later in the DAW.

Correct... From my experience when I aux send the reverb in cubase it makes it more subtle in the background (based on settings). than when the effect is used as a insert on the track.

You also have the option to gage how much you want in the mix on the fly using send.

But it all depends on what you're trying to convey/present to the track. The joy of being a artist with a palette of paint and a blank canvas

For now, I tried to lower the "mix" setting in the Cubase reverb plug-in to decrease the reverb, but the aux send might work better. I still have to figure out to work with aux sends in Cubase.

 

[Dredakyst]

For now, I tried to lower the "mix" setting in the Cubase reverb plug-in to decrease the reverb, but the aux send might work better. I still have to figure out to work with aux sends in Cubase.

That's one way to do it and if you like, i say you have a winner

Which version of cubase do you have?

I have C4 so what I do is create a FX channel track and it prompts me to select a plug-in. then i'd select roomworks or myFavReverb then its interface pops up.. make the settings/adjustments.

From there go to my vocal track and then for the sends I select the FX track i've created.

then send level will become your "mix" level.

The main advantage is if your computer sucks like mine, then you can used that one send to affect multiple tracks... thus saving resources. For Instance, separated drums tracks, the snare might not need as much reverb as the kick and blah blah blah blah.... but after the blah's you realize you only used one plug-in to affect many tracks... and so on...

But for you mix.. which shouldn't be too taxing on the CPU at all what you have done should be fine...