Help Improve my Recording (long)

[NegadivOne]

Hey Ive been recording off and on for a couple of years now with my "band" (basically me and a guitarist). Weve done a lot of recordings and each one gets better than the last as we get more experience recording. I just wanted to know if anyone could help me spot something Im doing wrong or maybe offer some tips on what to do better. My setup is this:

For mics i have a beta52, three sm57's and two cheap audiotechnica p650r's that i use as overheads.

I record with a Fostex vf160 and then edit and mix on my computer.

Basically, first thing is I record my drums in my "studio" (see pics). I use the beta52 for my kick, a 57 on my snare and a 57 between my two rack toms, and a 57 between my two floor toms. Then as i stated above i use the audiotechnica overheads. The mics go directly into my vf160 and from that, i save the drum tracks as wav files and put them on a disk and then put them on my computer. For guitar, we usually go directly out from my guitarists line 6 vetta amp into my vf160, and for bass we record it directly to the vf160, no amp.

I dont really have any money so i cant get better mics right now, but the only thing that i really wish i had is a way to directly connect my vf160 to my computer. Also I used magix music maker software on my computer for a long time and it sucked but it got the job done. lately i have been using cool edit pro, but i just got cubase. Which is better?

I know this was long (sorry) but does anyone have any criticisms or tips? especially what do you think of my mic placement on my drums? I dont have any recordings to put up right now because i just had to reformat my computer and lost all of my songs, but i hope to have something done by the end of the weekend that i can put up.

And FINALLY, I'm going to be recording some stuff for my girlfriend and i need to know which of my mics would be best for recording a female vocalist?

PICS
http://webpages.charter.net/negadivone/Pictures/side1fix.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/negadivone/Pictures/studiogroup2%20001fix.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/negadivone/Pictures/studiogroup2%20003fix.jpg

 

[NegadivOne]

Oh and also, i forgot to mention, as you can see in the second picture, i also have a 6 track behringer mixer that im not using.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

I dont really have any money so i cant get better mics right now, but the only thing that i really wish i had is a way to directly connect my vf160 to my computer.

Honestly I'd worry more about getting rid of that Fostex piece of crap rather than upgrade your mics. I've used those VF16's before (in an emergency) and I thought the converters totally sucked. Also they are 16 bit... which sucks. Finally the metering on them is non-existant.

 

[teainthesahara]

Honestly I'd worry more about getting rid of that Fostex piece of crap rather than upgrade your mics. I've used those VF16's before (in an emergency) and I thought the converters totally sucked. Also they are 16 bit... which sucks. Finally the metering on them is non-existant.

Hmmm....my opinion would be exactly the opposite! The fostex will have little or next to nothing to do with the sound (or lack there of) your getting (unless your actually mixing on it...which you are not). On my webpage, you can listen to a bunch of tunes done with the fostex, in "basement" conditions with similar mic's (alot of 57's, some MXL 603's, a 421 in the kick). They are not totally pro, as expected, but they dont suck ass either! It's pretty much gonna come down to your performance, mics and mixing skills, so post a song and you'll get some more specific advice. Oh yeah...i use symetrix/ART tube mp preamps instead of the fostex preamps (which are not bad, but i think the symetrix/ART stuff sounds better). The fostex preamps are less noisy than the behringer ones...

 

[gecko zzed]

Don't fret about the gear you have.

Instead, read a lot, listen a lot and experiment a lot.

There is heaps of information around about recording techniques, mike placement and so on. Become a student.

Listen very carefully to already-recorded material that you admire. What is it that you like? How are the instruments balanced? Where is the vocal sitting? What effects are they using? Then listen to what you are doing. Is your drum mike placement getting the sound you want?

Experiment: try anything to get the sound you want. Mess around with placement, with eq, with different mikes. Make lots of mistakes.

Develop an ear for your music and what trying different things does. Your ear will be the greatest factor in producing good quality material. Good gear will make a difference, but most (in my view) comes from your ears.

 

[SuicideNote]

You don't have any money but you just got Cubase. Ok.

It sounds like you are doing pretty good with the equipment that you have. Try to get everything sounding the way you want it during the recording process. If you can't get it sounding great on the Fostex you'll have a battle ahead of you when you try to mix it on the computer. One thing that has helped me recently with recording vocals and guitar is to break up the song into manageable pieces. I don't know of anyone who can just go into a studio and sing or play a whole song flawlessly on the first take. Hit record, play the intro, stop. Select a new track, hit record, play the 1st verse, hit stop, etc. This way you can get each part the best that it can be.

 

[Good Friend]

better recordings

If you only have what you have and you can only do what you can do try this. When you record a song try getting the drums and rhythm instruments as lively and correct timing and feel wise first. Record a drum machine shaker or something so you can play live drums to it and delete the mechanical guide track later. See if you can get your drummer to play while you play another element of the beat live with him on a shaker or bongo. This, if done correctly will make your beat lively due to the unity of mechanical time keeping (the guide track youre playing to) and the variety of two people playing together. DO NOT settle for anything less than perfect feel in your basic drum tracks. FEEL, not drumming chops, virtuosity, complex fills.

Once you have that done you will have ten times easier time making the rest of the song work, because you wont be trying to fix rhythmic drags and lulls with overdubs and solos and all that dumb shit people try to fix mixes with.

Next, no matter what you record instrument wise, try to make everything contrast well. Put an electric sound in left ear while an organic sound is in the right ear. But a distant sound in one ear with a dead dry sound i the other ear. Avoid using guitar layering and go for just one guitar that embodies the sound youre after.

Next is singing. The trick of making sing sound its best is to punch in the best takes, and lines without destroying the feel. Use punches to make singing long passages sound smooth and full of breath. But the one drawback that will fuck you in this method is if you cannot maintain consistant volume and feel. Then your vocals will sound like pasted sound clips or something. Create the illusion of endless lung power.

Now when you mix pull everything back. Maybe mute the guitar for the first verse or mute the bass for the first verse. Create silence on purpose so that the listener has somewhere to go over the course of the song. If you are at full volume and emotion from the first note where is there to go? Mute tracks and simplify everything you can while retaining musicality. This will put the spotlight on the things that arent being muted. Listener attention will move from part to part and not just be in a 3 minute drone of wall of sound. You may feel like this is ruining the song, but fight that feeling. Believe it or not the listener does not want to hear the hook over and over and over. They want to be denied the hook (temporarily).

Hopefully this isnt redundant and it can help you without you having to spend 10 grand on 64 tracks when 4 would do if used creatively.

 

[Ford Van]

So Good Friend, you seem to think highly of your songwriting and producing abilities.

Where can we all hear your work?