Are my recordings good enough for mixing?

[Kerfoot32]

Hey guys I've been learning home recording for almost a year and I've collected lots of gear and techniques. I would like for my band to release our album sometime next year and I'm tracking it myself. I'm gonna mix some of it but most of the mixing and all of the mastering will be done by a professional that I'm gonna pay. I guess what I need to know is if my recordings are good enough to be mixed. I'm gonna give you some links to samples and I just want to know if my tracking techniques are good enough and if my tracks I get at my studio are good enough to be mixed for a professional project.


here's an entire song i recorded, unmixed of course
Little Miss Perfect raw by Kerfoot32 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

here's a drum track. plain, unaltered, straight from the home studio (ignore the singing in the background lol)
raw drums by Kerfoot32 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

here's my guitar amp miked in my studio. unaltered. listen to it all. theres lead and rhythm
raw guitars by Kerfoot32 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

here's plain vocals recorded in my vocal booth
raw vocals by Kerfoot32 on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Thanks!

 

[RawDepth]

I am no professional, but I have been getting good results over the last 6 or 8 years.

Your tracks seem to have that amateur sound to them, the same as mine did at first. This is generally caused by the room itself (and compounded by poor technique.) As it has been suggested a million times on this site, you should invest heavily into room treatment to control those ugly reflections that can ruin a track.

If you send those tracks to a pro studio, there is only so much they can do to tweak them into sounding better. Even then, you may not be happy with the results. They are likely to end up sounding like "tweaked" amateur tracks.

Great recordings start with great tracks. Well made tracks are far easier to mix than poor ones. Once you have seriously good tracks, they practically mix themselves. Your goal is to get the raw tracks to sound almost "finished" before you've done anything to them. The less you have to bend, mold, and shape them, the better they will sound in the finished product.

A lot of time and effort goes into improving every minor detail while tracking. Some studios spend hours or even days getting each track as close to perfect as possible.

If you find you cannot achieve the sound you want, you may do better by reversing your plan...Pay a studio to do some of the tracking for you and bring them home on a thumb drive to mix yourself. Only concentrate on the instruments that are the most sensitive to room acoustics. For instruments that don't cause much room reflection, or those that can be recorded via direct box, you can track yourself at home with fewer problems.

Hope this helps.

 

[mjbphotos]

You might want to ask someone here if they would be interested in mixing a song for you - get a better idea of what it will sound like. Why do you NOT want to try mixing it yourself?

 

[Doctor Varney]

I like RawDepth's suggestion. Record in a proper studio and take it home to mix yourself. As long as the recording is good, you can use any of the popular mid-low priced DAWs to mix it. You can even use mastering tools to get you going at first. That would not only be cheaper in the long run, but how can you expect anyone, professional or not, to polish a turd? The adage of computing is: "Garbage in, garbage out".

Not that your recordings sound like garbage to me though. I'm just relaying the principle... and I think your music is really good.

 

[Kerfoot32]

Well I do mix and I actually mixed that song I sent you (it's lower on the soundcloud page) but I'm not a professional and I wanted a professional to do it. Do you think you can tell me what's wrong with my recordings? Like, which ones need the most work and some tips to improve them? I spent a lot of money on my mics and stuff and I want to be able to achieve good tracking sessions on my own. I dont want to give up and just have someone else do it.

 

[Doctor Varney]

Well I do mix and I actually mixed that song I sent you (it's lower on the soundcloud page) but I'm not a professional and I wanted a professional to do it. Do you think you can tell me what's wrong with my recordings? Like, which ones need the most work and some tips to improve them? I spent a lot of money on my mics and stuff and I want to be able to achieve good tracking sessions on my own. I dont want to give up and just have someone else do it.

If you search through this forum, chances are you'll come upon some golden nuggets of advice. I spent the morning digging around here and feel more enlightened for doing so.

I'm no expert myself but I do know there are a wealth of articles on the internet, so get searching. Also, I'm sure there are some good books written on the subject out there for you to study.

 

[Kerfoot32]

I've done all that. But it's hard for me to know if my tracks sound good enough or not. That's why I posted here. There's not much I can do to improve the sound of my vocals except for adding more blankets to my vocal booth. I do drums and guitar in my friend's barn which is owned by his parents. So I can't totally remodel it with treatment. It has bits of rugs all over the floor and walls. Idk where to start. Should I get one of those big plastic walls in front of the drums? Could someone please tell me which instrument sounds worse and what's bad about it? Thanks!

 

[mjbphotos]

You need to do lots more reading. 'Rugs all over the floor and walls' and 'more blankets to my vocal booth' is not the answer to better recordings!

 

[grimtraveller]

But it's hard for me to know if my tracks sound good enough or not. That's why I posted here.

Do you like them ?

I do drums and guitar in my friend's barn which is owned by his parents. So I can't totally remodel it with treatment. It has bits of rugs all over the floor and walls

You go for now with what you have. You'll progress and hear things differently as you gain more experience.

Idk where to start.

You already have started by asking the questions you have. Although I didn't like the timbre of the voice, that's just a personal thing. I personally don't think the tracks sounded bad, especially considering they hadn't been mixed yet. In a way, it's the person that's going to mix the songs that will tell you whether or not the tracks are ready.

 

[Pahtcub]

Your band also has timing issues that would take a lot more time to fix in post than just getting the band tighter in reality.

 

[RAMI]

There's not much I can do to improve the sound of my vocals except for adding more blankets to my vocal booth.!

Actually, that would be the opposite of what you should do.

You're looking for advice, so I'll give you one that might help. A "booth" is the worst place to record vocals in, other than a closet. Blankets make it even worse.

Like 2 or 3 people already mentioned, there's a lot of reading and experimenting to do. You say you've done all that, but if you're still using a "booth" and blankets, you haven't done enough reading/experimenting yet.

This isn't like learning how to use an "app" on an Iphone. It takes years to get right. You just have to keep practicing and learning. But even with all the knowledge in the world, you won't make good recordings if the band's not tight.

 

[Armistice]

I'm not sure a 7 minute track is a good starting point for learning the skillset, to be honest. I'd be working on something shorter and simpler.

Specifically the drums sound very average - I'm not a drummer so I can't give you specific advice on recording them. The guitars in the band track sound like they come from a Boss pedal straight into your DAW - very fizzy, no grunt - how they recorded? What amp, mic, effect?

The band track shows numerous timing issues as others have pointed out.

The guitars in the guitar track. The "lead" section sounds very mosquito to me and you haven't executed it well enough for the recording to matter - you need to hit those notes cleanly. Learn how distortion affects harmony notes, even accidental ones, and what "beating" is....

The rhythm sounds better up until the lead comes in again at which point it becomes flat. There are numerous threads about recording distorted guitar. Start reading them is my advice.

The vocal track on its own... lacks what I'll call vocal discipline... very slurry for want of a better word... lots of the in between notes are off pitch. It's a difficult thing to sing however - this is not about enunciation, it's about timing...

The end result of all your individual issues here is always going to be messy, so I'd work on playing better as your first priority. Go into the MP3 clinic and listen to the work of some of the regulars there... Rami, Greg_L, Heatmiser and many others - listen to the sounds they use/get and the skill with which they execute the musical passages... and compare it to where you are and you'll learn something.

Keep going, there's no shortcut... just practice. To some extent you're trying to fix too many things at once here. Simplify.