Can you find my biggest bottleneck?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blor007
  • Start date Start date
B

Blor007

New member
Hi,

I'm just wondering what my biggest bottleneck could be, this is my gear:
The styles I would like to record are especially pop-punkrock
(à la Sum41, Greenday, Blink182)

Mixingdesk:
Soundtracs MR-24
http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/mr24.htm

Microphones
4*Shure SM57
3*Shure SM58
Studio Projects C1
AKG C1000
Shure SM94
Shure BETA 52

Pre-amps
Gyratec IX - Dual Microphone preamp

DAC
2*STAUDIO C1000
http://www.st-audio.de/products/dsp2000.html


I'm recording at 48k Because my computer can't handle more.

PC
AMD 3500+
1024 MB DDR2 RAM
300 GB HD

Program
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 for recording
Adobe Audition 2.0 for mixing
Waves 5.0 as plug-in's

Monitors
Yamaha NS10


What is the first thing I should improve/get rid off/buy...
Help would be appreciated ;)
 
Blor007 said:
What is the first thing I should improve/get rid off/buy...
Click to expand...
No mention of your recording and mixing room acoustics or of your ear. As both of those are in the A-list of importance, and as neither one was even mentioned, those are probably your biggest bottlenecks.

In general, the key points in any signal chain are going to the the points where the signal crosses domains (is converted from one form to another):

- the microphone, where the signal is converted from air movement to analog electrical impulse (this includes technique)

- the A/D/A converters, where the electrical impulse is converted from analog to digital (and back again)

- the studio monitoring system, where the electrical signal is converted back to air movement (this includes room acoustics)

- the human ear, where the air movement is converted into brain waves for analysis

Get these four points as good as possible and the rest will fall into place. Slack off on these four points and the rest won't make any difference.

G.
 
How do you like your G9? I built the DIY version not too long ago, Gyraf rocks!

As for your question it largely depends on how much you have to spend and specifically any weak areas that you percieve in your set up. For all I know you might hate your NS10s but be totally happy with what you can achieve with the mics you have!

How are your room acosutics? That's always a priority really.

Not really familiar with that console but I know you have at least 2 channels of shit hot mic pres. ;)

Other than that your interface looks to be a weak link (although a significant upgrade of 8 channels of conversion would need lots of money) and your mic collection could do with beefing up (pair of SDC's? nice LD condensor or even nice LD Dynamic?).

That's an outsider's perspective anyway.
 
My main concern is that I don't know where my bottleneck is.

For all I know I have the most shitty ears in the world...
Or: My recording technique is great but I'm seriously lacking mixing skills ;)

I think that the staudio card might be limiting the overall sound quality, but I'm not really sure and I can't really test it either ;)


Room acoustics:
The room is a 4m*4m recording room which is +- dead.
It has those sponge board thingys at the wall they use in false seilings.
The floor = concrete with a thin carpet on it.
2 corners have rockwoll pieces in them

( I Don't know the english word sorry ;) )
I'll take some pictures of it in the weekend.


@ Kevin: Yeah my dad built the G9 too DIY , did a really nice job.
I'm still not very sure wether it is the psychological effect that is causing me to like the signals of the G9 more, or the G9 just sounds better.


Are there any objective tests I can do for:
Mic Pre's
Room acoustics
DAC
My ear...


Would help me out alot... , thx in advance ;)


EDIT: Maybe some background mp3's for listening to results:

Mid Air Collision
Billy The Kill



Mostly I record the samples of the drum (kick-snare-tom) I'm going to track down:
I Maximize, limit, multiband compress them and then feed them back to the mix for about 40 procent with drumagog.
 
Just judging from your equipment list and setup ... my first guess would be that the rooms you are recording in are less than ideal.

The room is everything. It's the environment ... where the sound happens, and it affects everything. You can't get around it.

And it's also where you "hear" everything, so it's not a given that your ears are bad. You just might not be hearing things as you should / under ideal conditions.
.
 
Blor007 said:
My main concern is that I don't know where my bottleneck is. <snip>
Click to expand...
There are ways of finding out the acoustic properties of your room so you get an idea of what treatment it needs and where. It's a fairly involved subject though so I'd recommend a lot of background reading. Aside from the bickering, the studio building fourm here is pretty useful and Ethan Winer's article is well worth a read (several reads in fact):

http://www.ethanwiner.com/acoustics.html

As for tests for pres, converters etc? well that's pretty tricky unless you can get a load of gear in your room to listen for yourself. There's always the listening sessions although that's of limited use really, it might give you an idea though:

http://www.thelisteningsessions.com/home.htm

As for your ears? well there's no upgrades for those :D I suspect if you have a good sounding room and you take the time to learn to use the gear you have you'd be capable of producing very good results.
 
Are you aware that all of your audio samples except Billy The Kill are clipping? You have limited them up too close to digital "0", so close that in fact they are going over. Far better to let the equipment have a little headroom and space to breath up there. It sounds better if you back off the volume a little.

As far as your bottleneck, it might be the room, but there are others. Seems like you could use one really good vocal mic. Also, do you have any outboard hardware? A good quality reverb unit or two could be helpful, especially since you are recording in a small dead room. You are relying on simulated reverb almost entirely.

This would also help with the boxy sound of the recordings. They sound okay, but closed in. Working on the room acoustics might also help this, along with a vocal mic that is really tailored to your voice. It seems to me you need to open up the room acoustics a bit.

Just my two cents!
 
No offense, but I would say that your first bottleneck is blaming your gear.

Learn to use everything that you have to its fullest. There have been some great albums made with less, just a tape recorder and two mics.
 
Blor007 said:
Hi,

I'm just wondering what my biggest bottleneck could be, this is my gear:
The styles I would like to record are especially pop-punkrock
(à la Sum41, Greenday, Blink182)

Mixingdesk:
Soundtracs MR-24
http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/data/mr24.htm

Microphones
4*Shure SM57
3*Shure SM58
Studio Projects C1
AKG C1000
Shure SM94
Shure BETA 52

Pre-amps
Gyratec IX - Dual Microphone preamp

DAC
2*STAUDIO C1000
http://www.st-audio.de/products/dsp2000.html


I'm recording at 48k Because my computer can't handle more.

PC
AMD 3500+
1024 MB DDR2 RAM
300 GB HD

Program
Cool Edit Pro 2.1 for recording
Adobe Audition 2.0 for mixing
Waves 5.0 as plug-in's

Monitors
Yamaha NS10


What is the first thing I should improve/get rid off/buy...
Help would be appreciated ;)
Click to expand...

Listening to your recording makes me want to blame the room you are monitoring in. Your levels are all over the map. Each track seems to be recorded fine. The mix is off. Start with your monitoring room (since you already have the recording) and treat. Go to someone like Ethan for some info and shape up the room. When you make changes, mix the same song (pick one) and listen on many systems for changes, You probably will lose all the "tubbiness" when you start to correct the room problems. Bad sounding monitoring rooms fool your hearing and create real mixing problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top