B
Broken_Hal0
New member
Hey everyone!! Well I wanted to write a post that is kind of asking questions to some things I know some of the answers to but yet need some clarification.
First of all ,Il post some of my newer tracks that are on www.reverbnation.com/trinityproject , draw attention to the last songs "jasey Rae"which is a song I just recorded drums to and thats all . "Studio tracking" is a one day effort I put in just to do some song writing. I do all of the instruments in my original recordings as well as all the mixing and post work 'n' such.
Im sure alot of us are in the newer demographic of music where mixing "in the box" is a standard. With all of the plug ins available it can be insanely over whelming as to what to use and how much of it to use , as well as all of the possible combination's . I have invested alot of time and money into my studio and am using waves mercury bundle through sonar v 8 . I am using a creamware ad / da system running 96 khz . Along with all the plug ins with that mentioned I also have the available host dsp plug ins with the creamware card.
So what is it that we should really be looking at spending the most time looking at? I know that mic technique is crucial ,my drum mixes are finally starting to sound good after over 5 years of trial and error. If you listen to the drums I over dubbed into "jasey rae" I found myself focusing on the kick mainly . I use two mics , one on the inside (6 inch port) and a large diaphragm condenser close to the outside skin for extra attack. In total I am using 9 mics for drums (hi hat , Snare top / bottom , 2 toms , 2 OV and two kick mics) . My technique is to track with minimal compression then add onto each separate track as I see fit. I find most times taming the snare is quite hard , I end up comping hard (like 5:1 fast attack) then placing a limiter on the end of it. I am using waves plugs so sometimes I also end up using a wide transient limiter to tame the snare as well.I usually buss my snares , kicks , overheads and toms to their own respective buss then route them to a final drum buss. Then again there I tend to comp the crap out of them and place an L2 limiter on the end. I know from experience it is best to be your own judge on what is right but I still hope that some of you guys out there could let me know if there is anything I am missing. Before I forget , I tend to gate my snares and definitely my toms and kick on their busses to remove spill. Also I send the snare to an effect send that is gated to a reverb , only letting so much through for effect.
So with drums out of the way Il move onto my guitar tracking , which kills me the most.As of right now I run a modest set up which involves a peavey JSX 2 x 12 , an L.T.D Ec 1000 At and an MSX Carbon copy delay. Im using the standard 57s for recording but sometimes will shove a kick mic in the cab for effect. But for intensive purposes Il just run with my 57. I find myself always questioning the overall "loudness" of my guitar tracks , where I feel like they are to in there but when I try some compression or EQ I lose the sound I was looking for . I tend to not have too many lead guitars in my music so I find to have alot of rhythm section. I double take or quad take almost everything and pan them respectively to my liking so I always have options to work with , plus a dry take is always sitting along with it just in case.Im sure alot of you understand what I mean when Im talking about my problems with guitar tracking. It doesnt sound "in there" or "flush" with my other elements.Is this an Eq issue?? I generally track at -10 - -5 DbVu . The jsx has such a good tone I find I am not eq ing that much , but that might be the fatal flaw which is hindering me.
Bass on the other hand seems to find me not using many plug ins at all. I track into the system using an Envoice Mindprint Envoice MkII (good example of bass recording on the song "remember me" ) In the system ,I do slight Eq to remove some mud , as well I run an insert from the kicks into a compressor on the bass which I run very lightly (1.5 - 1.7 : 1 ) this drops the attack of the bass on kick hits which lets the kick drum cut a little better) other than that I use a bbe enhancer to crisp it up a bit then its usually sent to a waves c1 comp comped at round 5:1 attack and release dependent on music content of course.
Lastly in this post I want to ask the question of spacing within the mix.When I say that I mean phase / anti-phase and that sort of thing.I work in a totally un treated envrionment using only blankets or things that will absorb lower frequencies. I find when I analyze my music , I run into phase issues.This is something quite new to me and I think IMHO that it is a huge problem that alot of us face which , if you don't know how to recognize it , will have you pulling your hair out for days (years for myself) . I do alot of my phase correction in the box but that only goes so far. SO what is it that we are looking for that will help us solve alot of these issues.
Well these are a few things that I m looking for advice on , or acknowledgment that I am doing it right!! My recordings are continually getting better and I know I will hit a threshold due to the fact my studio holds its own limitations sonically speaking.I hope that some of these questions and techniques are what other people are looking for answers on.
And to all the new guys just starting into recording ,just remember that just because it costs alot of money doesn't mean it is your magic button. I sometimes find myself over looking the 1200 dollar fancy unit and using some old free ware plug I found on the internet.My best advice that I have for all of this is to do the absolute best with the tools you have in front of you.
www.reverbnation.com/trinityproject
Not looking for song reviews , just recording techniques are displayed in the songs.
Neil
The Little Studio
Canada
First of all ,Il post some of my newer tracks that are on www.reverbnation.com/trinityproject , draw attention to the last songs "jasey Rae"which is a song I just recorded drums to and thats all . "Studio tracking" is a one day effort I put in just to do some song writing. I do all of the instruments in my original recordings as well as all the mixing and post work 'n' such.
Im sure alot of us are in the newer demographic of music where mixing "in the box" is a standard. With all of the plug ins available it can be insanely over whelming as to what to use and how much of it to use , as well as all of the possible combination's . I have invested alot of time and money into my studio and am using waves mercury bundle through sonar v 8 . I am using a creamware ad / da system running 96 khz . Along with all the plug ins with that mentioned I also have the available host dsp plug ins with the creamware card.
So what is it that we should really be looking at spending the most time looking at? I know that mic technique is crucial ,my drum mixes are finally starting to sound good after over 5 years of trial and error. If you listen to the drums I over dubbed into "jasey rae" I found myself focusing on the kick mainly . I use two mics , one on the inside (6 inch port) and a large diaphragm condenser close to the outside skin for extra attack. In total I am using 9 mics for drums (hi hat , Snare top / bottom , 2 toms , 2 OV and two kick mics) . My technique is to track with minimal compression then add onto each separate track as I see fit. I find most times taming the snare is quite hard , I end up comping hard (like 5:1 fast attack) then placing a limiter on the end of it. I am using waves plugs so sometimes I also end up using a wide transient limiter to tame the snare as well.I usually buss my snares , kicks , overheads and toms to their own respective buss then route them to a final drum buss. Then again there I tend to comp the crap out of them and place an L2 limiter on the end. I know from experience it is best to be your own judge on what is right but I still hope that some of you guys out there could let me know if there is anything I am missing. Before I forget , I tend to gate my snares and definitely my toms and kick on their busses to remove spill. Also I send the snare to an effect send that is gated to a reverb , only letting so much through for effect.
So with drums out of the way Il move onto my guitar tracking , which kills me the most.As of right now I run a modest set up which involves a peavey JSX 2 x 12 , an L.T.D Ec 1000 At and an MSX Carbon copy delay. Im using the standard 57s for recording but sometimes will shove a kick mic in the cab for effect. But for intensive purposes Il just run with my 57. I find myself always questioning the overall "loudness" of my guitar tracks , where I feel like they are to in there but when I try some compression or EQ I lose the sound I was looking for . I tend to not have too many lead guitars in my music so I find to have alot of rhythm section. I double take or quad take almost everything and pan them respectively to my liking so I always have options to work with , plus a dry take is always sitting along with it just in case.Im sure alot of you understand what I mean when Im talking about my problems with guitar tracking. It doesnt sound "in there" or "flush" with my other elements.Is this an Eq issue?? I generally track at -10 - -5 DbVu . The jsx has such a good tone I find I am not eq ing that much , but that might be the fatal flaw which is hindering me.
Bass on the other hand seems to find me not using many plug ins at all. I track into the system using an Envoice Mindprint Envoice MkII (good example of bass recording on the song "remember me" ) In the system ,I do slight Eq to remove some mud , as well I run an insert from the kicks into a compressor on the bass which I run very lightly (1.5 - 1.7 : 1 ) this drops the attack of the bass on kick hits which lets the kick drum cut a little better) other than that I use a bbe enhancer to crisp it up a bit then its usually sent to a waves c1 comp comped at round 5:1 attack and release dependent on music content of course.
Lastly in this post I want to ask the question of spacing within the mix.When I say that I mean phase / anti-phase and that sort of thing.I work in a totally un treated envrionment using only blankets or things that will absorb lower frequencies. I find when I analyze my music , I run into phase issues.This is something quite new to me and I think IMHO that it is a huge problem that alot of us face which , if you don't know how to recognize it , will have you pulling your hair out for days (years for myself) . I do alot of my phase correction in the box but that only goes so far. SO what is it that we are looking for that will help us solve alot of these issues.
Well these are a few things that I m looking for advice on , or acknowledgment that I am doing it right!! My recordings are continually getting better and I know I will hit a threshold due to the fact my studio holds its own limitations sonically speaking.I hope that some of these questions and techniques are what other people are looking for answers on.
And to all the new guys just starting into recording ,just remember that just because it costs alot of money doesn't mean it is your magic button. I sometimes find myself over looking the 1200 dollar fancy unit and using some old free ware plug I found on the internet.My best advice that I have for all of this is to do the absolute best with the tools you have in front of you.
www.reverbnation.com/trinityproject
Not looking for song reviews , just recording techniques are displayed in the songs.
Neil
The Little Studio
Canada
