Help me get a good recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nathan1984
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Nathan1984

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So I am using Pod Farm, ezdrummer, and I use sonar 8 for my daw. I don't have studio monitors so my it is hard for me to really judge my recordings with just headphones. I was wondering if someone could give me some good starting points on improving my recordings. I can send some recordings I have, you can listen to them, and tell me what you think I need to do to improve them.
 
It's going to be very hard to get a good recording without monitors. Post your clips in the MP3 Clinic for people to critique.
 
It is very hard to get a decent recording without monitors, I am just using k44 akg headphones, and it never comes through the way I wish it would. I will set up a soundcloud and put them up on there so you can get them.
 
I have the soundcloud account, with some of my better sounding mixs, let me know what you guys think, where they need improvements, suggestions?
 
i am goin to buy a 2channel Behringer Xenyx 1002 mixer and a microphone to start recording at home, but im not sure if the mixer will plug into my laptop? will it connect? lol
 
Just get a 2 channel interface, much much better, then you can do all your mixing in a daw of your choice.
 
lou92 said:
i am goin to buy a 2channel Behringer Xenyx 1002 mixer and a microphone to start recording at home, but im not sure if the mixer will plug into my laptop? will it connect? lol
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Ok first of all this is a mixer. This would be used for DJing or what not, it won't have any inputs to connect to your computer for GOOD sound.

This first question is what are you recording at home? then we can move on from there.

and as for mixing without monitors - yeah it's hard, but depending on the headphones sometimes you can get away with it, if you aren't doing anything professional.

Those headphones are ok. they are bottom line, nothing special just headphones. from a quick glance and what i've heard they aren't gonna be something you would want to mix with. Mid range a little harsh low end eh its ok.

but the thing you can do if you don't have the money is listen to a lot of other songs by bands you want to sound like and see how the guitar sounds through your headphones and compare to what you're doing. It will get you close. that goes for any speakers. Know your speakers/room like the back of your hand
 
and you have to post a link to your soundcloud, jut cut out the www.

otherwise we can't listen :p
 
The guitar tones are a little over powering, and over distorted. You have the right idea.

First off do a little bit of eqing and add a high pass to the guitars, cut everything below like 75 hz. The vocals could come up a bit. and the kick could come up a lot. theres not much low end to the songs.

you're off to a good start
 
I don't have a bass yet, so there isn't a bass track in my music. I plan on getting one some day when I'm not broke lol. Think I should lower the gain then? I was kinda feeling that as well, and I know alot of people say use a high pass filter all the time, but I don't know much about frequencies so I don't ever really know where to put it. As for eq'ing, should I eq my entire mix all together, or individually?
 
Well for one, you don't have to have a bass to make the bass track you can do that midi.

the gain, yes, is a little high. Too much distortion can make everything crazy. try easing up a little on it - less is more. ALWAYS

As far as eqing, you can really crush a mix if you don't know what you're doing, but if you add some subtle cuts and boost when you have an idea it can help a little. High pass or loss pass filters (HP or LP) are EQing. google up on it and see what you find try some stuff out.

if you eq everything individually thats mixing, when you eq the whole mix, in my mind, thats where mastering comes in. which is a whole new ball field
 
Thanks for the suggestions and help. I was wondering, how do you make the bass tracks with midi? I have heard people do that but I am kinda clueless, I don't have a controller or keyboard, is there an easy way to do it without?
 
Well in your DAW you're going to have VST or RTAS plugin inputs. use one of those thats an instrument. Google >> "DAW you use(what software, Cubase, Pro tools, Studio One...) midi instrument plugin"
 
I know where they are, and know alittle about midi, I do use ezdrummer, but it has loops with drag and drop ease. I don't get how to use the keyboard layout. I will have to look it up. I did what you said with the whole low pass/high pass filters. I did my research, and of course as soon as i did that, it lead me to more research and more research and so on lol. Very helpful, my recordings are already sounding much better, at least on my laptop speakers, if only I could get my mixes on my headphones to transfer to speakers the same way lol. KRK here my money comes.
 
KRK here my money comes.
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I would say against this. IMO
I really like the Yamaha HS80m's still love them, would love to have some right now.
If anyone wants to donate some i'd greatly appreciate it.
Im just not a huge KRK fan.
I've heard decent things about them. But nothing over the top. If you can save up some more and go for the HS80m's

even the HS50m's aren't bad, lack a little on the low end. still sound good.

i really need to get off this whole not being a fan of krk cause they are cheap. :[

oh and the piano, it's notes. just double click or single to the right of the piano roll, and it will create notes. so just click along to the song. then quantize.

OH and always make sure you play to a click.
 
James21 said:
i really need to get off this whole not being a fan of krk cause they are cheap. :[
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I never really liked the krk's to begin with. They've always sounded a little bass heavy and I can't stand the flashy yellow and black look. I bought a set of Wharfedale Diamond Pro 8.2a for the same price. A much better monitor IMO.
 
Never heard of those, ill have to give them a look.

Yeah they were bass heavy to me also.
 
I figured that a 5 inch monitor wouldn't be to bass heavy, due to the smaller speaker, I know that my friends krk 8's are real bass heavy. I was thinking about yamaha ns5's, the adam a3x's, fostex pm0.4's, and maybe behringer. I don't want anything to big, I just want something that will give me a flat response that will represent my mix accurately. I wanna know what sounds like garbage and what doesn't you know. I am not to sure what I will settle with yet.
 
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