Eleventh Post First home recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter BigPlay
  • Start date Start date
Hi BigPlay,

Good voice. I like that you can feel the strong emotions in the songwriting. If recorded and mixed well, I think this can be a pretty good song :)

Some tips to hopefully help you along:
- Generally, I hear a lot of reverberation issues. It sounds all the instruments were all recorded in a room with pretty bad acoustics. I also hear a lot of problems in the low-end of the song. If you can afford time and money to acoustically treat the room for better quality recording, do consider doing so and re-tracking the song. If not, just live with what you have and try to milk as much sonic goodness out of the recorded tracks you already have. I'll start with the following few things first.

- The vocals have this very prominent sound of early reflections. Not sure if it's the reverb/delay you use, or if it's inherent in the recording due to the acoustics, but personally I'll tackle this first. If it's due to the room acoustics, you're better off re-tracking it. Else, alter the reverb/delay setting or otherwise lose some of those early reflections.

- Use a HPF on the vocals. Minimally 100Hz. Move it up slowly from 50Hz and you'll hear the low-end cleaning up gradually. Continue moving until you hear it losing body in a bad way, then pull it back some.

- In fact, use a HPF/low-shelf on most of the instruments except those you need the low-end energy from (kick drum/bass).

- There's a strong resonant frequency in the guitar chords (and perhaps all instruments) somewhere near 200-400Hz. Probably caused by bad acoustics. Notch it out.

- Were you trying to do guitar volume swells in the intro? I suggest you re-record it clean without swells, then automate the volume, or use a compressor with wacky settings to achieve that effect. Sounds untidy now.

- Use compressors on the individual tracks to tidy up the guitar playing a bit. The dynamics are a little out of control now.

- Use noise gates or otherwise mask out the noise in the individual tracks for a cleaner mix.

Cheers!
 
It sounds pretty badly recorded to be honest. The song is good, but it sounds like it was recorded with a camera by a friend. I don`t do live recordings myself so I wouldn`t be able to offer much advice, just an honest listener`s opinion. :D
 
Wakeup89,
Honesty is what I need. Thanks for the reply unfortunately I am using some nice equipment just don't have a clue what I am doing yet. LOL

godchauanz,
You have a great ear. I have not treated my room well as in none. So thats next! I did see a video
on one of the recording sites were a guy hung some sound proofing in his closet or on some mic stands and somewhat surround himself in it then sang into it. So I guess I will start there. This is a spare 10 x10 bedroom that doubles as a office and sure I am not sure what else I would do as far as treating the room.

I may post the tracks in the Mix This forum and ask some folks to try to mix what I have. While I try your suggestions myself. I have about 8 songs I wrote and this is the beginning of my first CD. The art of recording may just be hardest part of it all>
BigPlay
 
Hi BigPlay,

My ears are far from great... I'm still learning, like you are, and I'm not even doing it professionally yet. I actually lurk these forums to train my ears - by listening to, analysing and giving critique to other people's mixes. For the real golden ears, there are mastering engineers out there who are capable of detecting 0.1dB changes in levels, and then there are also reportedly people who claim to be able to hear the difference when you swap out the power cord :| With some benefit of doubt, these dudes are the true great ears.

In any case, do try and treat the room and see what you can get out of it, and continue to post your songs up! I think you've got good songwriting, and I'm actually interested to hear more. Just the performance and engineering portion needs work. But please try to post songs one by one, and not all 8 at one go. It's quite tiring to have to listen to 8 songs and provide critique for all. :)

Yes, the art of recording is definitely tough, but I think the art of songwriting is tougher. You can have the world's best audiophile quality recording, but if you song's rubbish, it's rubbish. On the other hand, if you have a great song, it will still shine through a bad recording. Listen to the old Beatles records, poor recording by today's standards, but still great songs nonetheless.
 
You don't need to mix the vocal, you need to redo it to get rid of that unattractive room sound on it. Put up the baffles and quilts around the mic to get a deader sound. Treat the room - that would be even better. The drums are way too dark - EQ's required - cut some low end, reduce some low mids, and maybe try some modest boosts somewhere in the 3K-6K range. I'd play with some judicious muting of that rhythm electric guitar in places too. Right now, it's kind of... incessant.
 
Hey guys thanks for the response,

dobro, yes I thought for sure I would redo the vocals. I am going to try what has been suggested with some quilts when I get back home. Also I am doing some research on the best way to treat my room. I found some treads and pics of how to treat around the mixing room but not so much around the recording area. (My room serving both) My rooms a little 10 x 10 one wall is the entry door and 6" bifold closet door. 2 of the others walls have windows in the middle of them then the other wall I have my recording desk. Just found the Studio building forum I am going to lurk there.
Thanks again
 
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I recored another track of the vocals and posted the tracks in the Mix This forum. If anyone wants to put a mix on the song that would be great. I am sure I could learn from the differences.
Thanks,
 
I can only echo the other advice you've received. Nice singing voice, but the recorded vocal track is not the best. A 10 x 10 room is will cause problems. Read up on room treatment. It sounds like there are a lot of reflective surfaces in the room.

Another thing to consider is, if it's possible, record in a non-square room.
 
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