Desperately Seeking Sound.

  • Thread starter Thread starter entheogen
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entheogen

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I record solely with my PC and my problem is that, no matter how much EQ-ing i do, my songs end up sounding like absolute trash. Usually i record to six seperate tracks (kick drum/toms/snare, cymballs/percussion, bass guitar, guitar, samples/loops/, vocals.), the drums (and seldomly some basslines) are currently programmed in FruityLoops, guitar/bass and any other instrument is recorded through a shure sm-58 into Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. On their own, each track sounds wonderful, however, when i mix them together they always end up sounding like aural mud. I am desperate for a thorough mixing tutorial online, advice/tips/tricks on technique and suggestions on what software would be good to use for mixing, as the clue i thought i had, is rapidly evaporating.

to reply personally: shayne@confined.org

thank you, in advance.
 
What are you using as your mic preamp???? U using the mic input on your soundcard????? cause if U are, thats probly the reason why you are getting such a crappy sound because the preamps on soundcards suck.......... A remedy for this would be to get a mixin board or a standalone mic pre.

Plus, you should never need to eq something, make sure to get the sound U want BEFORE U hit that record button, just play around with various mic placements

Sabith
 
entheogen, here's a link to an article another member here wrote concerning that same "trash" you're mentioning. Now, keep in mind that this guy (his name is "sonusman") has superduper ears and has been doing this for ages, and he also got so good that he couldn't stand being here anymore, but his points are still very valid...

(boy, that was a bunch of useless typing!...)

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=19596


You may find some answers to your question in the same forum this little "book" was put into, check it out. The Mixing/Mastering forum is probably where you'll wanna put other questions of this nature...

Hope this helps!

:D
 
Thanks.

Sabith: Recording wasn't the actual problem, i can record it fine, getting the sound i'm after etc, it's just AFTER i have finished recording, mixing all the seperate tracks just creates this 'mush', instead of the nice spacial sounds i'm hearing on ,even, independently produced albums. thanks for your advice nonetheless.

Kelly: the link is much appreciated, i'l check it out immediately, and keep my posts for the mixing forum.

cheers.
 
If info on mastering is what your after, then you HAVE to check this sight out. It's another recording Forum that had a very long discussion on this topic that I think your going to find most helpful.

http://www.audioforums.com/
When you get there click on the Forums Tab at the top of the screen, then go to the "Prodution Tips and Techniques" Forum, then the "Mastering Unit" Topic.

- tkr
 
harmonically speaking.......

You can recognize a tone by its main sound(i forget the technical tem) and its harmonics.

If you put many sounds together, you get too many harmonics happening at the same time, so it is harder to differentiate one sound from the other , hence the term mud.

If you are into synthy sounds that use a lot of sine waves to create the sound, then many sounds together, and your music will sound like, well, a harmonica.

What you should do is eq the sounds, so that you get the harmonics, but remove all unnecesary sound , so that when you put everything together, it will sound clean.

Believe me, it's like magic. You can actually make the mistake of making it sound too clean actually.

A good starting point to experiment with is;

rolloff some of the high end in your kick drum. A kick drum has no business having 12khz content, or even 6 khz content.

Roll off some highs from your bass guit. But don't mess with the 500-800 range, which mainly gives bass guitars their snap(unless you don't want the snap, of course)

remove the lowend from your snare. A snare can still sit without so much 80-800 hz content.

remove some lowend from your guitars and pianos and pads, so that they don't interfer with the bass and kick

Also don't cut the same frequencies out of the pianos, guitars and pads and others. If you boost some 1.2 khz in your piano, the boost something other than 1.2 khz in your guitar etc. etc

I used to have this problem until a very helpful member of this board listened to my music and guided me through the process of eq.

I hope I have convinced you and not confused you that eq is the way to go.
 
enth,

do yourself a favor and read the thread Kelly pointed out, its a good starting point...basically you need to use EQ and panning and dynamics processing to give each instrument its own place in the mix....if you could listen to individual tracks from a great mix, they might not sound all that great....frequencies from each have been scooped out or boosted so that they all fit together like a good puzzle...Using the smaller amount of tracks should be relatively easy....the first thing to try (if you hadnt already) is the cut the low end on most of the tracks besides the kick and the bass....then do complimenting boosts/cuts on the kick and bass....pan the tracks around where they feel good and you should have the start of a decent mix....try N-Track for recording and mixing...well worth the price....
 
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