I need sound/level feedback - my monitors SUUUUUCK

Dionna Blue

Dionna Blue

Accentuate the positive.
These crappity crap crap StudioPro3 monitors are the darkest, muddiest things I've ever heard. I need to know if my headphones are (hopefully) more accurate. If so, the vocals should sound pretty good. I can't do anything with the track so I'm stuck with it flaws and all but any feedback about the levels and clarity of the vocals would be much appreciated. I haven't done any reverb or compression, just a basic mix for levels.

I don't think there are many (any??) R&B cats here so hopefully it won't make you vom. :)
 

Attachments

  • Right Now mixdown.mp3
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I like your singing voice. Nice harmonies.

There is a spot or two where the double tracking could be tighter (e.g., :46).

Vocals sound a little muffled. You might try a boost somewhere between 6K - 12K.

Little skip or edit at 1:31. Other spots too. It's like loops don't come together right.

The snare is really far back in the mix and wimpy.

There is over a minute of empty space past where the song ends.
 
I'm listening on high quality headphones. Agree with teh snare comment by TripleM. But I would not turn it up much.

The rest of the mix - the voices - organ, bass I think are really done well. In my headphones, I really sense a 3-dimensionality to the sound. It's unique. Not sure if things will sound as well on small cheap speakers, but on nice headphones, its a "wow".
 
TripleM said:
I like your singing voice. Nice harmonies.

There is a spot or two where the double tracking could be tighter (e.g., :46).

Vocals sound a little muffled. You might try a boost somewhere between 6K - 12K.

Little skip or edit at 1:31. Other spots too. It's like loops don't come together right.

The snare is really far back in the mix and wimpy.

There is over a minute of empty space past where the song ends.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the feedback. I agree with the tracking. It bugs the hell out of me but for a practice track, I'm not doing the vocals over AGAIN. lol A buddy is supposed to have a plug-in that will align them? So I'll throw that at it and see what happens. I tried "nudge" in Cubase but it wasn't seamless at all. About the vocal boost between 6K-12K---how do I know if I'm boosting within that range?

I can't do anything with the track in terms of individual elements, I can perhaps brighten the sound but that's about it. It's an mp3. I'm not crazy about the track anyway, but it has helped a lot with learning how to use everything.

Not sure what the skip is, I'll listen to it. I think I just didn't set the end locator right sorry about the dead space at the end, thought I fixed that. Honestly, that locator thing in Cubase is maddening---it can't just assume that I want to save everything I just painstakingly recorded? lol
 
Thanks for taking the time, Rick. Naively, I thought since I wasn't mixing a lot of instruments that the monitors wouldn't really matter that much as long as they are ok. Well, of course that was stupid! Especially since I'd rather do a lot of the mixing work myself---if my song comes back with auto-tune on it I will flip my wig. lmaooo

I can't really play around with the compression, reverb and all until I have good monitors so I'll get some this week. Which ones, I have NO clue! Looking at used ones on craigslist, there was a "Pair of powered Tannoy Reveal Active studio monitors, 6.5" woofers and 1" dome tweeters, separate 50 watt amplifiers for each driver..." $150 for the pair, and various Alesis listings. I'm going to check out the Tannoys and take a listen.
 
The Tannoy Reveal monitors should work pretty well for you. I love your voice. Great song :)

If you boost the highs with an equalizer it should sound excellent. I did that here and it sounds beautiful
 
Can I ask what you were driving the speakers with? The specs look reasonable, the reviews say they work pretty well...
 
Dionna Blue said:
I agree with the tracking. It bugs the hell out of me but for a practice track, I'm not doing the vocals over AGAIN. lol

About the vocal boost between 6K-12K---how do I know if I'm boosting within that range?
Click to expand...

On the double tracking you could do a couple of things. Learn how to do punch-in recording on your DAW. Then you can just record over the small bits that aren't tight. Or record several tracks, say 6-8 or so, and edit them together to create two vocal tracks that are in sync.

As far as the vocal boost, I would assume you'd use an EQ plugin for that.
 
Nice voice! You can sing good!

Im listening on a pair of mackies atm. Snare is really really buried. Overall sound is boxy aswell. I would love to hear the instruments pop out at me instead of sound all mushed together! Also if you could remove some lower mid muddines on the vox and add some kinda punch and sparkle would be nice!
 
View attachment Right Now.mp3Thanks,
I worked on it some more and I think it's more balanced now, I'll repost if anyone has the patience to say yay or no if I'm headed in the right direction. Feels like the vocals are too loud now but idunno...I'm sick of listening to the song honestly. I can't bring myself to redo any of the vocals cuz this song isn't "the one". Hopefully the producer can balance it out cuz I am not an engineer. lol

Thanks for the compliment it means a lot. :)


1llogic said:
Nice voice! You can sing good!

Im listening on a pair of mackies atm. Snare is really really buried. Overall sound is boxy aswell. I would love to hear the instruments pop out at me instead of sound all mushed together! Also if you could remove some lower mid muddines on the vox and add some kinda punch and sparkle would be nice!
Click to expand...
 
Since you're asking, I'm guess that this would affect the performance of the monitors? The reviews on Amazon are mixed at best, most of the better reviews from people who use them as desktop speakers, not as good for studio use.

GuitarLegend said:
Yes I knew what speakers you had, I meant what is your audio interface or soundcard?
Click to expand...
 
They work together, you can only get out what you put in. Your speakers appear to have good specs and the reviews as you say are mixed but that would not affect the way WE hear it on our systems. If we hear it a little muffled, it might be that your system is enhancing the highs. That's why we listen to the recording on as many systems as possible to get an overall feel for how it is going to sound generally. Listen to it in your car, on your livingroom stereo, mp3 player etc. You would have to find out what your Alesis IO Express and the Studio Pro 3 speakers are doing to each other. I didnt read a bad review on either of them so its hard to say what you should be spending money on, if that makes sense. It sounds pretty good now but I still sense a bit of drop off on the higher frequency levels above 2500hz or so. I think there is more to your voice that could be brought out with some boost in the higher range.

I was just playing around with it. With an EQ boost around 2-4K the vocals come out much better but it doesnt do the instrumentals any favours. I imagine a good mastering engineer could do things with it but I would take it back to the mix and enhance the higher range on the vocals, leaving all else pretty much as it is.
 
Dionna Blue said:
View attachment 67534Thanks,
I worked on it some more and I think it's more balanced now, I'll repost if anyone has the patience to say yay or no if I'm headed in the right direction. Feels like the vocals are too loud now but idunno...I'm sick of listening to the song honestly. I can't bring myself to redo any of the vocals cuz this song isn't "the one". Hopefully the producer can balance it out cuz I am not an engineer. lol

Thanks for the compliment it means a lot. :)
Click to expand...

I have had this song repeating for a while now. I dont think I would ever get sick of your voice but I know what you mean. Engineering means listening to it A LOT!!! I would love the opportunity to mix this one myself :)
 
The doubling's not on the mark as mentioned already, so I'd redo one of the tracks, trying to match the other one better.

If you don't want to do that, then I'd:

1. ride the faders on the louder notes, or get a bit of compression on them - they jump out - especially when they're doubled
2. reduce the volume on one of the doubles - they don't have to be equal volume, it'd work better if one was a bit lower and with a bit more compression than the other...

There's also probably no need for such a big file when you're recording against a pretty average backing track. Save people's bandwith...

Good luck..
 
Wow what a compliment. Thank you!

GuitarLegend said:
I have had this song repeating for a while now. I dont think I would ever get sick of your voice but I know what you mean. Engineering means listening to it A LOT!!! I would love the opportunity to mix this one myself :)
Click to expand...
 
That sounds like a lot of work. lol I'll dive into that on a project I'm more excited about. Would a mixer make this process easier? I feel like trying to get the sound I want after it's recorded is working backwards and yes that sparkle that I like in my voice isn't very bright and when I boost the levels the sound just isn't the same. I've only listened to it on 1 other system and it sounded much better than through these M-audios as do my commerical CDs so I'm not really sure how to handle that. I guess I could plug the speakers directly into my laptop and see if they sound different? Thanks for all the feedback, I'm definitely taking notes.


GuitarLegend said:
They work together, you can only get out what you put in. Your speakers appear to have good specs and the reviews as you say are mixed but that would not affect the way WE hear it on our systems. If we hear it a little muffled, it might be that your system is enhancing the highs. That's why we listen to the recording on as many systems as possible to get an overall feel for how it is going to sound generally. Listen to it in your car, on your livingroom stereo, mp3 player etc. You would have to find out what your Alesis IO Express and the Studio Pro 3 speakers are doing to each other. I didnt read a bad review on either of them so its hard to say what you should be spending money on, if that makes sense. It sounds pretty good now but I still sense a bit of drop off on the higher frequency levels above 2500hz or so. I think there is more to your voice that could be brought out with some boost in the higher range.

I was just playing around with it. With an EQ boost around 2-4K the vocals come out much better but it doesnt do the instrumentals any favours. I imagine a good mastering engineer could do things with it but I would take it back to the mix and enhance the higher range on the vocals, leaving all else pretty much as it is.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't figured out how to use compression yet. I mean, I know where it is, but I don't know what I'm supposed to hear. I don't know what attack, release and all that is and I cranked it up to exagerate the effect so I could hear what it would do but I didn't hear any change at all...there's also an "auto" feature, idunno if that's something to try or not. I'm still learning (Cubase) That song is my practice dummy so when I can bare to listen to it some more I'll try the compression again. I'm definitely not redoing the vocals. lol (so lazy) Actually none of the doubled tracks are at the same level. There are 2 mains at center and 2 panned, each at a different level so they may need to be spread out more. Is that too many? I guess when I get a better grasp of compression and reverb I won't need that many but I kinda like it that way cuz it allows me to add slight changes to each track hopefully for a fuller sound.

It's all rather exhausting. lol I like singing much better than making songs but ya gotta be well rounded these days.

I didn't realize the file was large, the mp3 converter is set to default. My bad.

Armistice said:
The doubling's not on the mark as mentioned already, so I'd redo one of the tracks, trying to match the other one better.

If you don't want to do that, then I'd:

1. ride the faders on the louder notes, or get a bit of compression on them - they jump out - especially when they're doubled
2. reduce the volume on one of the doubles - they don't have to be equal volume, it'd work better if one was a bit lower and with a bit more compression than the other...

There's also probably no need for such a big file when you're recording against a pretty average backing track. Save people's bandwith...

Good luck..
Click to expand...
 
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