General Noob Questions.

[ste20man]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has some advice for me. There are 3 things at the moment that I'm not sure of.

Do you use compression all the time. I have guitar audio that has a lot of headroom. Do I need to compress it? I think I got a good recording, and there were no wild peaks. In general, is it better to leave thing un-compressed. Does it sound more live / interesting?

With EQ, in general, if you can cut frequencies in say, a pad, without hearing any difference, should you do it? As long as it's character remains, should you get rid of all the frequencies that you don't hear to make room in the mix?

I'm still on my first mix and am having problems with the bass and how it's sitting. It's not cutting through enough. It's not too muddy but I would like to hear it more. I'm using Trillian aet the moment but it doesn't have the prescence when it's in the mix.

I find myself moving the fader up bit by bit and then doing that somewhere else to compensate for the rise in volume. then eventually starting again.

Can anyone give me their views or point me to an online reference that you would consider the best you've come across. Something that everyone would agree, this is where you want to be reading.

Currently reading 'Secrets of the small studio' by Mike Seior which is seems to be very good.

That probably a lot of question but I really want to progress and this site by far the best I've found. Always good advice. i'm always reading but I'd also appreciate any help, cheers, Ste.

 

[bigwillz24]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has some advice for me. There are 3 things at the moment that I'm not sure of.

Do you use compression all the time..

yes

I have guitar audio that has a lot of headroom. Do I need to compress it? I think I got a good recording, and there were no wild peaks. In general, is it better to leave thing un-compressed. Does it sound more live / interesting?.

depends on what you want if you think it sounds good as is leave it if not try compressing it to see if it sounds good to you.

With EQ, in general, if you can cut frequencies in say, a pad, without hearing any difference, should you do it? As long as it's character remains, should you get rid of all the frequencies that you don't hear to make room in the mix?..

Again it depends on you there is no right or wrong answer here

I'm still on my first mix and am having problems with the bass and how it's sitting. It's not cutting through enough. It's not too muddy but I would like to hear it more. I'm using Trillian aet the moment but it doesn't have the prescence when it's in the mix...

Compression and EQ would fix the problems with the bass

I find myself moving the fader up bit by bit and then doing that somewhere else to compensate for the rise in volume. then eventually starting again.

Can anyone give me their views or point me to an online reference that you would consider the best you've come across. Something that everyone would agree, this is where you want to be reading....

cant be of help here you see everyone has a differant view but something everyone will probably agree on is you using your ears and deciding what sounds good to you.

Currently reading 'Secrets of the small studio' by Mike Seior which is seems to be very good.

That probably a lot of question but I really want to progress and this site by far the best I've found. Always good advice. i'm always reading but I'd also appreciate any help, cheers, Ste.

The book I learned from in school was Modern Recording Techniques. Looks like there on the 7th edition I was taught out the 5th.

 

[Massive Master]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has some advice for me. There are 3 things at the moment that I'm not sure of.

Do you use compression all the time. I have guitar audio that has a lot of headroom. Do I need to compress it? I think I got a good recording, and there were no wild peaks. In general, is it better to leave thing un-compressed. Does it sound more live / interesting?

Other than when you're looking for a specific effect or a particular 'flavor' from the compressor, you compress things that have a dynamic range that's too wide to fit the dynamic range of the mix.

Personally? I compress as little as possible and then as little as possible. Less is more.

With EQ, in general, if you can cut frequencies in say, a pad, without hearing any difference, should you do it? As long as it's character remains, should you get rid of all the frequencies that you don't hear to make room in the mix?

If you're cutting frequencies that aren't there, you aren't cutting anything. The same things goes -- If you need to EQ it to tailor the source to the mix, go for it. Certainly don't go cutting frequencies willy-nilly -- I've heard plenty of mixes sound incredibly dull and/or anemic just from needless cutting of "inaudible" frequencies.

I'm still on my first mix and am having problems with the bass and how it's sitting. It's not cutting through enough. It's not too muddy but I would like to hear it more. I'm using Trillian aet the moment but it doesn't have the prescence when it's in the mix.

Low end is always the toughest part to fix (in the mix, in the room, in the monitor calibration, etc., etc., etc.). But the sound of the source itself is the most important part (bass guitar with old strings for example -- It ain't gonna happen if you're looking for that piano-like "ping" that only comes from 4-minute-old strings).

 

[ste20man]

Thakns for your andwers, make a lot of sense. Appreciated!

 

[Richard Monroe]

OK- here's old school thought- Many, many truly great recordings were made before compression was invented. It didn't hurt Judy Garland a bit. The day somebody decided that everything had to be squished to generate maximum gain before clipping was the day that the dynamic range of music began to die. Some parts of music are supposed to be loud. Some parts are supposed to be quiet. Let it do that. Sometimes compression can be useful as an effect, and sometimes you need it to rein in something (or someone) that's out of control. Using it all the time will create the boring, repetitive, monotonous drivel you can hear by just turning on the radio. If that's the sound you want, go for it.

Cutting frequencies is not something you do for no reason. First, just because you can't hear it doesn't mean it's not there. It may just mean your monitors suck, or your ears suck, or both. Personally, I'm a hearing disabled recording artist, and I occasionally cut frequencies I can't hear, because I can *see* them. I'll bet Beethoven would have killed for wave form imaging and sweepable EQ. In general, you cut frequencies for about 3 reasons:

1. As Massive Master said, to bring them in line with the rest of the mix.

2. Because they are *noise*, not part of the desired source/signal.

3. Because 2 or more sources are competing for the same acoustic frequency bands, and you need to carve out a place for each of them to live. In other words, pulling them apart, so you can hear them as separate sources, instead of one ball of mush.

Anytime you cut a frequency band for no reason, something good is taken away that you may never be able to put back. That's just my opinion. I hope it makes sense.-Richie

 

[ste20man]

That does make sense Richie. It's a massive job to learn things from the bottom up in regards to mixing etc. I underestimated how much there was to learn about this subject. I've done a few recording in a pro studio and I've now got utmost respect for the sound engineer. It's a really enjoyable process though and all the advice I'm getting is really helpful.

Where you mention no.3 - competing frequencies - I'm having trouble with my bass and kick at the moment, a muddy bottom end. With all of your advice and the amount of reading I'm doing at the moment hopefully I'll be able to put up a track that canbe viewed and analysed here on the site. Cheers for your ideas, Ste.

 

[Oz Rocker]

Hey Ste20man, here's a few more tips for you related to Mike Senior's book:
Book Review: 'Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio,' Plus Tips from Author | Guitar World.

 

[ste20man]

Thanks so much Oz.

I'm working my way through Mixing secrets of the small studio right now. It is solid. Senior writes so well that I'd recommend it to anyone who's just geting to know how you should go about recording at home. I'm about 70 pages in and he has covered topics ranging from treatment of your room to monitoing to cleaning up your project(timings/pitch etc so you can soley concentrate on mixing).

It cost me £21 and I can say that I've got my monies worth even if I stopped reading now. An amazing book.

I've recently found the gearslutz and SOS website and found that they are great references. I'm going to record vocals today and am really exited. I'll be posting a 'finished' song soon enough for peoples ideas and mixing critique.

I've a question for you guys. in the book, Senior says that you should have a different set of monitors for different purposes so you can reference different tones, so you can A/B them and get a feel for the music. Say an Aurotone for the mids so you can get a great picture of that frequency bands.

What I am wondering is this. I have a pair of KRK Rokit 5's which I think are great but I would love to know how my music sounds coming through different kinds of monitors(high end to low). Is there an online servie where you could send a .wav file to a company and they would run and re-record the clip through several different speakers and then send you back each of the different 'sounds' from each of those monitors?

I guess when emulating different monitors that the KRK's would colour the sound because they are KRK's, but could the company build an algorith that accounts for that fact into the recording process that they do, can they compensate for this fact?

Probably a stupid question but one I'd be interested to know if it were available.

Cheers, Ste.