How Do I Sound Like This?

P

popsickle80

New member
My goal is to record at home and sound this good or as close as I can. Here are two examples of someone successfully doing it:

You can search these on youtube. I can't post links yet as I'm new here.

"Paradise" - Coldplay Cover by Tanner Patrick - with Lyrics - YouTube
"Paradise" - Coldplay Cover by Tanner Patrick - with Lyrics - YouTube

I realize that mixing is a major component of getting the polished sound. For now I just want advice on the basics of setting up the mic properly and any helpful plugins or settings that will get me close. In other words, before I even touch mixing I want to be confident I'm getting a quality recording.

I will mostly be interested in recording acoustic guitar and vocals.

My gear:

Pro Tools 8 LE
Mics: Blue Baby Bottle, Audio Technica AT2020, CAD CM 217
MBox 3rd Generation
My lovely voice
Ovation Standard Elite LX
Carpeted Small Bedroom 14' x 14' with no current treatment

I realize that treatment can really help things, but I see videos like I linked to and the quality is still amazing. I would be very happy to get a similar sound and it seems this kid doesn't have a fancy treated studio - just a bedroom or similar common room.

If you were attempting to get a quality clean vocal and guitar recording, then how would you go about it with the equipment I have (I noticed the kid in the vid has same mic as me)

  • Mic placement?
  • Gain levels (general rules of thumb)
  • Does the MBox serve as a suitable preamp for this quality of recording?
  • What plugins chains might your run - compression? EQ? Expander Gate?

The things I notice about this kid's recordings are that everything sounds nice and tight with no airy background noises. I can see that he has a Gen II Mbox.

Please don't offer any advice if you know that you can't get a similar quality recording in a non professional setting (aka bedroom or home studio). I want this to be a quality thread with straight forward advice that get's results

Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to your input!
 
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Not sure why you want to sound like that douchebag.

But, you'll get best results from performance, mic technique and room treatment. Once you've got those down, maybe look at mics, preamps and what you can do in the mix. Always try to get what goes into the mic as good as you can - then the rest is simplified.

There are plenty of people on here who get great recordings on the type of equipment you have. Go to the MP3 clinic and listen to Rami's latest hit - he uses an AT2020, I believe, although I'm not sure what preamp/interface he uses.
 
Oh, and to answer your actual questions: -

- Mic should be on a shock mount on a stand with a pop-shield in front of it. Try recording in different parts of your room to find a good place. Treatment will really help here. SE Reflexion filters are quite good at giving a single mic some portable treatment.

- People generally advise to set the preamp level so you're recording peaks at around -12dB in your DAW - I do that and it works ok for me.

- The preamps on such interfaces tend to be very neutral so they do a decent job on all sources. As people get more experienced, they might move to having different preamps for different jobs. I don't know, personally, whether the particulars of this kid's sound is coming from preamp, mic or processing in the mix. I've read that mic choice will make more of a difference than preamp choice. I'd look for advice from others with more experience than I.

- Plugins in your chain depends entirely on what you need. Ideally, room treatment, performance and mic technique will be such that none or very little processing will be required. However, I'm rubbish so use heavy compression, sometimes eq (particularly for a special effect) and reverb to blend in the mix and push the vocal back a bit. I'd worry more about your mic setup and technique than plugins for now.

Do you have any recordings we can hear to offer advice?
 
AND there's a thread where you can post multiple times to get yoru 10 posts so you can post links. Then use the MP3 clinic section of the forum. Note that you've got to listen to and comment on others' works before you will get much response to your recordings.
 
I personally think your example that you would like to get close to sound like shit so I have no idea why you would go for that sound.

But a few things I want to point out:

1. He covers the deficiency of the room in reverb. I guarantee you the dry source on those mics are less than flattering.

2. I doubt he did that live (live to me is shooting through the song in one shot and not lip syncing it). Good lord these kids and their fucking pride.

Your questions:

Man you just have to go at it. I personally think I sound like shit through certain mics that you would probably sound great through. Recommending vocal mics is like recommending condoms, just go bang on them till you find what you like.

Room:

Move your position around in the room, move to a different room, etc...

Plugins:

EQ: whatever you need.
Compression: whatever you need.
Reverb: whatever you like.
Delay: whatever you like or don't at all, whatever.
Any other plugin you think will sound good: whatever you like.
 
Guitargodgt said:
I personally think your example that you would like to get close to sound like shit so I have no idea why you would go for that sound.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought when I googled the video. The recording is nothing spectacular. The guitar sounds terrible, like a really bad Electro-Acoustic DI'd. Yes it sounds pretty polished but it's still a turd. Recorded live? In how many takes, comped together. I did noticed the (14Yrs Old) missing from the title of the video.

As for what to use, use what you have and make the best you can with the tools at hand. That's what people do.
 
Right now, you're kind of asking how to be a great swimmer without getting wet. :) You cannot be taught what you need to know hypothetically in one post or answer from someone. Having said that, you've received some excellent information to get you started. There's so much to learn. The only thing that will give you results fast is making a start ASAP.

You should read all the stickies and posts on the forum about vocal and guitar recording techniques. Get everything set up as best you can, start up your software, and record something.

When you've recorded something you're happy with, or not, post an mp3 of it in the clinic so people can hear what you're doing. Ask them how it can be improved, listen & take criticism on the chin. It's much better to get specific feedback on your actual recordings, than it is to theorize about it.

It takes time to learn everything, like years. The majority of your learning will be self motivated and also very dependent on what you want to do. But if you're willing to invest a bit of time into getting a handle on the basics, you're already well on your way.

Your room acoustics might matter some, but not enough to let it hold you up at this stage of the game.
 
jonny deep said:
Not sure why you want to sound like that douchebag.

But, you'll get best results from performance, mic technique and room treatment. Once you've got those down, maybe look at mics, preamps and what you can do in the mix. Always try to get what goes into the mic as good as you can - then the rest is simplified.

There are plenty of people on here who get great recordings on the type of equipment you have. Go to the MP3 clinic and listen to Rami's latest hit - he uses an AT2020, I believe, although I'm not sure what preamp/interface he uses.
Click to expand...

Thank you for some real advice. Much appreciated. I do not have anything recorded as of yet. I'll check out the MP3 clinic though! Thanks!
 
popsickle80 said:
Hi guys...found this great video on 2-steps to vocal recording. This is the type of advice I was looking for and I'm already seeing results!

Recording Great Vocals In Two Steps - TheRecordingRevolution.com - YouTube
Click to expand...

That's not a bad video, however you can dumb things down too much in the quest of making things "simple for noobs", so when he talks about gain staging (somewhere about 8 minutes in) and starts saying not to record at more than "50% up the meter" rather than super hot, then he's crossed over to the dark side, as far as I'm concerned....

I get what he's trying to do, and the advice is sound*, but he'd have been better served to show a picture of his meter, explain the dB marks on the side, show what "50%" corresponds to, and THEN do his explanation / demo - much better for the noob in the long run, and not a difficult thing to educate on...



* not going to get into the tracking too hot / it doesn't really matter discussion at this point... :thumbs up:
 
jonny deep said:
listen to Rami's latest hit - he uses an AT2020, I believe, although I'm not sure what preamp/interface he uses.
Click to expand...
No, not a AT2020. What is that, a mic? I use an AKG C3000b for vocals.

popsickle80 said:
I wonder how many of you have as many YouTube views as him...hmmm Maybe we shouldn't be hating. Geez. haha
Click to expand...
Just the fact that you think Youtube views actually means ANYTHING tells us that you have no idea what's important. People falling off their skateboards and teenagers farting in their room gets lots of views, too. What's your point??? Completely irrelevant statement to make.

You posted something and wanted help. Nobody's hating, they're helping when they tell you that you should be setting your standards higher.
 
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Get a book and read up on recording.
Rod Norman

popsickle80 said:
My goal is to record at home and sound this good or as close as I can. Here are two examples of someone successfully doing it:

You can search these on youtube. I can't post links yet as I'm new here.

"Paradise" - Coldplay Cover by Tanner Patrick - with Lyrics - YouTube
"Paradise" - Coldplay Cover by Tanner Patrick - with Lyrics - YouTube

I realize that mixing is a major component of getting the polished sound. For now I just want advice on the basics of setting up the mic properly and any helpful plugins or settings that will get me close. In other words, before I even touch mixing I want to be confident I'm getting a quality recording.

I will mostly be interested in recording acoustic guitar and vocals.

My gear:

Pro Tools 8 LE
Mics: Blue Baby Bottle, Audio Technica AT2020, CAD CM 217
MBox 3rd Generation
My lovely voice
Ovation Standard Elite LX
Carpeted Small Bedroom 14' x 14' with no current treatment

I realize that treatment can really help things, but I see videos like I linked to and the quality is still amazing. I would be very happy to get a similar sound and it seems this kid doesn't have a fancy treated studio - just a bedroom or similar common room.

If you were attempting to get a quality clean vocal and guitar recording, then how would you go about it with the equipment I have (I noticed the kid in the vid has same mic as me)

  • Mic placement?
  • Gain levels (general rules of thumb)
  • Does the MBox serve as a suitable preamp for this quality of recording?
  • What plugins chains might your run - compression? EQ? Expander Gate?

The things I notice about this kid's recordings are that everything sounds nice and tight with no airy background noises. I can see that he has a Gen II Mbox.

Please don't offer any advice if you know that you can't get a similar quality recording in a non professional setting (aka bedroom or home studio). I want this to be a quality thread with straight forward advice that get's results

Thanks guys! I'm looking forward to your input!
Click to expand...
 
I listened to that clip a few times. It sounds just "okay" to me.

The guitar sounds thin and amateurish, but that's what many Taylor's sound like to me. If I placed a pencil condenser in front of my Martin dreadnaughts like that they would overwhelm it with low end and sound like ass, even with a capo. If that clip is the guitar sound you are going for it shouldn't be difficult to get with an Ovation. Doesn't sound like he put any reverb on the guitar. The chord at 00:13 really gives up the thin tone of the guitar. It might sound better if he played it without the capo with a different arrangement IMHO. Some compression and EQ might help that guitar sound some. It doesn't have any bottom end to it. He might have gotten away with the thin sound of the guitar if he bothered to add a bass to the arrangement.

The vox sound okay but nothing special. He has decent pitch and isn't coming up flat. Not much reverb on the verses but a touch on the choruses and they are overdubbed. On the "oh-oh-oh" part when he really belts it out and backs off the mic there is some flutter echo and you can definitely hear the room. He's getting some plosives on the "Paradise" lyric too.

The keys are overdubbed and have a fair amount of reverb on the lead line, especially at the end. Could just be the stock sound of the VSTi patch he is using. At the end it sounds to me like he used a lot of reverb on the keys and the vox.
 
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