Disappointment

[longnailsareok]

Through a series of incredibly fortunate circumstances, I was able to get practically unlimited access to the recording studio at my school. (Univ. Oklahoma). My brother's taking a class in which they get their own key. I went last night and recorded a few songs, which sounded great at the time.
The next morning, I'm sadly disappointed.

The recording quality itself is awesome, guitar sounds absolutely fabulous, but the vocal is just bad. Both my brother and myself are complete novices at recording, and he's doing all this for free. Now, I realize that your voice always sounds different recorded than what you think it does, and that a song will probably never sound as good recorded as it does in your head, but how much of that can I control? Intonation was just...sorry...in a few places, but not consistently. Is there a way I can help that? Louder track in headphones? Softer? I had varied success with the one-ear method

Also, I realized this morning that there's just way too much reverb, but again as a novice, I didn't have any idea what was appropriate, and when you've been listening to something for 3 hours your ears get fried. Is there a good formula or recommendation anyone has?

 

[mshilarious]

Just gotta practice singing with the cans.

For reverb, yes I have a recommendation. Next time you're in the studio, put 2 or 3 reverbs on every tracks at 80% wet. Do that for 3 hours. Burn that track and listen to it 4 times a day for a week.

After that, you'll have it out of your system. Then, in the future, just turn up the reverb until you can hear it. Then turn it back down a little.

 

[guido #2]

Man, if I had a nickel for every kick-ass mix I did that made me wanna puke the next day.....

That's just the way that it is. It's called "experience"
keep at it!

 

[cpc]

it seems like this topic has come up alot in one way or another the past few days.

 

[BabyGrand06]

Exactly

Just gotta practice singing with the cans.

For reverb, yes I have a recommendation. Next time you're in the studio, put 2 or 3 reverbs on every tracks at 80% wet. Do that for 3 hours. Burn that track and listen to it 4 times a day for a week.

After that, you'll have it out of your system. Then, in the future, just turn up the reverb until you can hear it. Then turn it back down a little.

Funny how that seems to happen to everyone! Good advice

 

[Dogman]

Track dry, and add effects later. That way, you always have the original, if you screw it up.

 

[ethos]

when i first started recording, it sounded like shit.
i thought it was my equipment. nope. equipment is great, i just had no idea what i was doing.

im happy with them now. i still have a long way to go, but theyre 80 times better.
it'll come.

when you listen to your favorite songs, listen to them from a producers point of view.
listen to how they have things panned, listen to the amount of reverb, volume of voice to beat etc...

it will all fall into place evuntually, just stick with it.
have fun, and good luck.

.peace.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

it seems like this topic has come up alot in one way or another the past few days.

Maybe it's because there are many musicians who simply shouldn't be trying to be sound engineers at the same time!

 

[cpc]

Maybe it's because there are many musicians who simply shouldn't be trying to be sound engineers at the same time!

that would be a good option if we all had our own personal sound engineers at our disposal. unfortunately we have to do it ourselfs

 

[noisewreck]

For reverb, yes I have a recommendation. Next time you're in the studio, put 2 or 3 reverbs on every tracks at 80% wet. Do that for 3 hours. Burn that track and listen to it 4 times a day for a week.

After that, you'll have it out of your system. Then, in the future, just turn up the reverb until you can hear it. Then turn it back down a little.

Hahaha! That was great!

I've gone in the other direction. Now I put a wash of reverb, and then put a nice extreme distortion after the reverb on the same send... what a nice crunchy mess it creates! Yum.

@ longnailsareok: (Don't listen to what I just said above... unless you're into noise, and I have a feeling you're not). As for things not sounding as great as you thought they did... that can happen, specially if you listen to it on the headphones, and then the next day you listen to it on proper monitors. It's important to take frequent breaks, because your ears get used to the sound, and after a while you think it sounds great... which is fine when you're in the writing stage, but when mixing, you need to make sure that your ears are sharp, so don't abuse them.

 

[Simman]

Some things to try while you track your vocals that may help some with the "intonation" issue. Put some reverb in the headphones and cut some bottom end.

To combat the preponderance of reveb in your mix (push or final): Put the effect outputs into open channels in the board, push up the faders until you can hear the effect, then back it down about 2db.