Common problem in your mixes too?

[Razor]

It sounds to me like you may have a "pile-up" at some frequency (s) that is clouding up your mix. By this I mean that if there is an excess of a low or lower mid freq in your tracking chain, every time you add another track/overdubb that freq piles up. With even a slight bump, this freq attenuation gets added to every track that you record. By the time you get to mix there may be no way of getting it out without over eqing.
This has always been my complaint with Berringer and to a lesser degree Makie boards. A couple of chanels by themselves aren't too bad, but as soon as you have six or more signals going through the same pre's, eq's etc....you can really hear the board's weakness.

Good Luck,

Charles

 

[Gidge]

Im holding a piece of ham in my hand...tell me if it smells bad......cant do it, can ya......just post an mp3 so we can HEAR it......

 

[dobro]

Update - okay, I went down to Little India and bought a big, heavy blanket and hung it from a bamboo pole half a foot from the wall on the top half of the wall behind me. It's improved the sound of the room - there was a slightly unpleasant reverberation on loud stuff before,and now it's gone.

$30 for the blanket and the pole - not a pro rig, but everything sounds better.

The blanket was bought for its mass and cheapness, by the way, which might have something to do why my wife says it makes the studio look like a tart's boudoir. Things just get better and better sometimes...

 

[Henrik]

Let me just comment on the "You get what you pay for"-discussion above:

I think the whole issue here is getting the best possible sound for the smallest possible amount of money. Hey, that's what's FUN about home recording! I just love posts on using bookshelves for diffusors and thick blankets for absorbers. The results can't be compared to pro studios, but still, the results you get are a whole lot better than not making any music at all while saving up a load of money.

Besides, while trying all these DIY tricks, I think you make so many discoveries and experiences that will be useful also when you some day do upgrade to more expensive equipment.

It's fun drooling over top range equipment, and it's also fun eventually buying it and upgrading your studio bit by bit. But don't let anybody tell you that you can't make music without it.

Cheers
/Henrik

 

[elbenj]

I can relate to the problems you are having valdemar, and here are some suggestions on what you can do to improve the capturing of the high frequency content of your material...

First of all...the room should not be an issue...all of the high frequency content should be closest to the source..so..if you want the highs..1) make sure that you are close micing the source..2) Use a direct box and record a DI copy of track as well..
you can get a DI for about $40..3) dont be afraid to crank up the gain on your mic pre!!!..this was a real good one for me...I found that using the level setting method that Mackie recommended just wasnt cutting the mustard....I actually stumbled on this one by accident...i had the trim knob cranked wide open on the channel I was recording ( I was doing a vocal at the time)and I was recording into a DAW. Well..I sang right on top of the mike ,in a control fashion mind you..and wathced the input meters
on my DAW..the outcome was astonishing!...the recording had warmth...it had the crystal clarity..along with a little harnish but..
when I discovered that the trim knob was practically full open..I redid the performance again at what should have been the proper method for setting input level and I was back to the thin and dull sound...what I surmise from this is that this particular mic pre works better when you crank it up a bit and this makes sense from a physics standpoint also..the high frequency content will be the hardest to capture and will suffer the most if the mic pre is not cranked up enough to capture it! Remember, in close micing you are sure to capture the bass content as well as the high frequency content...try pulling the mike back from the source and see what you loose!
4)If you can, try to make your entire recording signal path balanced..if you are going from balanced to unbalanced anywhere in the signal path you are degrading the signal...sometimes this happens within the gear!

This is some stuff you can try with the gear you have now..that Im sure will make a difference...good luck!

 

[LI Slim]

The blanket was bought for its mass and cheapness, by the way, which might have something to do why my wife says it makes the studio look like a tart's boudoir. Things just get better and better sometimes...

Great name for a band!

 

[sjoko2]

i'm not inclined to believe it's the mixer or card. for it to be the mixer or A/Ds, they would need to be roling off a lot of the mid's and highs, not a little, but a lot. generally the mixer and or converters will add distortion that results in graininess or harshness, but not necessarily rolling off the highs. these devices are generally pretty flat.

Late response, sorry.

I'm also sorry to disagree with the above statement, completely.
In gereral a Behringer mixer, especially the cheaper ones, do very strange things to sound. One thing is for sure, you could not possible call it flat, lifeless, dead, not flat.

The better the quality of an A/D, the more extended the higher and lower frequency ranges are. Lower quality converters do not neccissary distort, (Im not saying they don't, most of them do), they just exist in the midrange bands, and that is why they sound hard.

The combination of gear used will sound rather lifeless. Add the microphone collection and a dullish sound is more or less guaranteed.
The first thing I would do is try another card.