flat sounding

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rockabilly

New member
I am using Adobe Audition along with my M-Audio Firewire solo. I was just wondering why my music sounds "flat". Im recording using a shure sm57 and 58.

The mic records to only the left channel. I then copy and paste it to the other channel. Is there any way to make it just record to both?

I am just trying to figure out why the sound recorded sounds so "unlively". Am I not recording in stereo?

Also, when I mix down, and play the product say in my car, the quality comes out crappy. What are the best levels to have the song at? Is there anything special i should do?

Any knowledge? Im still learning at this stuff.
 
The reason it would sound flat is because you are panning exact copies of each other to left and right. That way its almost not stereo. Because you have the same thing coming out of each speaker, its virtually mono, but wider. Recording to both channels at once would have the same effect.

Try playing and recording the same thing twice...one for the left and one for the right. Gives it more life. That way its not an exact copy. You just need to play as tightly as you can. Obviously theres twice the recording to be done but its worth it.
 
would i want to do the same thing with vocals as well?

also, ive been reading about this panning stuff to make it sound more "wide".

ive been hearing about far left, far right, middle, high, low....

in the channels, would i want to put say, the left speaker guitar far left and the right speaker guitar far right?

Then I hear about vocals and drums being center. So would I not want to pan these and just leave them as is?

If you want to hear the songs im talking about,
go to my myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/orlandoriosmusic .

These are actually my first two recordings ever, done recently.
 
legionserial said:
That way its almost not stereo. Because you have the same thing coming out of each speaker, its virtually mono, but wider.
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Almost not stereo???? That is almost right....It is ABSOLUTELY NOT stereo.

Like he said, if the same thing is comming out of each speaker, then it is mono. Copying and pasting the same track to both the left and right channel does not make it in stereo or even almost stereo, and it does not make it wider. It just makes it louder. It is exactly the same as recording a mono track and keeping it centered. It does however take up twice the space of a mono track...so if you are lookin to eat up your harddrive space...keep at it.... :)
 
Depending on how you save your "mix down" and burn it to CD for play in your car, it might be if you save it as MP3, the default quality setting is 128Kbps. This is not acceptable. Up it to 256 or 320. Your best bet would be to output the wave file and burn the wave.
 
If I used 2 mics to record each track, would it be stereo, so I wouldnt have to play twice?

Like if in front of my guitar amp, i have an mic on the left going to the left channel and a mic on the right going to the right channel?
 
If you use 2 mics, yes, it would be stereo, and you will hear a huge differance. However, that is still not the same as if you doubled the track. It will still sound much fuller if you play through and record the part twice and hard pan each track.
 
I guess for rhythm parts that wouldnt be a big deal. But playing complicated solos twice nearly perfectly would definatly be a task..
 
rockabilly said:
I guess for rhythm parts that wouldnt be a big deal. But playing complicated solos twice nearly perfectly would definatly be a task..
Click to expand...
Right. I wouldnt worry about doubling lead guitar parts. Id double the vocals and rhythm guitars...hell...it wouldnt hurt to track the guitar parts 4 or 5 times using different mics and tones.
 
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