Can't achieve studio quality...

[bubbagump]

Agreed... but I don't think he really knows what is missing so I wanted to throw it out there as a possibilty. I mean, it could be a lot of things... mics, mic positioning, the room, the amp, too much gain, not enough gain, bad EQ, poor mix, the guitar, the mix is fine but he wants the polish of mastering.... This is a tough question as it is one of those things I could walk into and identify in about five minutes if I were really THERE, but on a forum, we are all really guessing based on the info he has given.

 

[killthepixelnow]

First, get this book at amazon for about 15 bucks:
"Guerrilla Home Recording : How to Get Great Sound from Any Studio (no matter how weird and cheap your gear is)"

Now, some things I've noticed you're doing the wrong way:
1. Don't use your computer speakers to hear the mix.
Stereo or PC speakers are built to please the ear of the listeners, they don't represent the (raw) reality. Geat a pair of decent close-field active monitors (if passive you will have to buy a power amp)

2. Stomp boxes sound like shit. I've been playing with a Metal Zone for about six years and now I hate it. There's nothing like a good distorted sound coming from a tube amp. You don't have to buy an expensive amp head and 4x12 cabinet. Search for an used tube Marshall, Fender or Peavey and use its distortion channel. You'll see the difference. You can go for an hybrid amp too... one who has valves in the preamp and then circuit based power amp. A cheaper solution.

3. Every studio man will name you a mic for recording: Shure SM57. It's relative cheap and it delivers a powerfull sound when recording amps. If you are careless about money you can geat a Sennheisr evolution too.

4. Read books. The one I mentioned is great to understand the entire process of recording, since the very time you plug your guitar to the mixing process. If you want a more guitar oriented book, I'll recommend "The recording guitarist" by Jon Chapel.

Phew, hope this will help you (some reputaton points? lol)

 

[Beck]

I posted this in the other thread that went to Hell, but here it is again, since it's hopelessly buried in the spew over there.

By the way, I run my Yorkies with a vintage Yamaha P2050, but they sound fine with the Alesis RA100, which I also have, but don't use that much.

I didn't read through all the responses (Lucky me, I have a felling), so if someone already went into this, just consider that I concur.

If it sounds fine to you on your monitors, but not on anything else the chief problem is your monitoring system (not that there aren't other problems).

Investing in a decent set of monitors is one of the best things you can do. A speaker system that isn’t flat in an untreated room will give you an inaccurate representation of your recording. The worst thing you can have is a speaker that makes your mix sound better than it is.

There are a lot of good monitors to choose from. I use the Yorkville YSM-1i for nearfield (close) monitoring.

Monitor your mix at moderate levels. Too loud also gives a false representation – more bright and bassy than it really is, due to the Fletcher-Munson Effect.

http://www.allchurchsound.com/ACS/edart/fmelc.html

I’ve known people who struggled for years with hi-fi stereo speakers, many of which aren’t designed to be true, but emphasize highs and bass. What you get when you mix on these is something with too much mid frequency, which sounds dull and honky on other systems.

~Tim