Bristol Posse
Okey Dokey
my 2 cents
practice like crazy before even recording, don't try to make up the guitar noodling and vocal ad libs at the point you are trying to record the song (unless you have years under your belt as an amazing live musician) unrehearsed material will just sound like.... well unrehearsed material recorded in a bedroom. have as clear an idea of the song and the arrangement before you even turn on the DAW to record a final version. This doesn't mean not using the DAW as a writing tool to use scratch tracks to play against and get a sense of how things work together, I'm talking about at the time you want to record the good/final takes.
once you've recorded some stuff don't just jump into trying to mix it sit back and listen to it raw. What do you like or not like about it, don't assume you can fix what you don't like in the mix, ask your self how you could have recorded it better and then do that. Do not accept half assed recorded tracks that you then try and correct with tons of processing, they will make your final mix sound half assed and over processed
For example if you like the sound of your acoustic guitar as you, the player, hear it but when you record it with a mic from 3 feet out in front it doesn't sound right then try and record it how you hear it. put the mic over your shoulder near your ear so it "hears" the same thing you do. see how that works, be creative to ensure the sound you capture with the mics is as close as the sound you want to hear in the final mix as possible.
When using EQ etc make sure you reference back to the unprocessed sound frequently (bypass is your friend). Make sure whatever you are doing with signal processors is making the sound better. And watch your levels when you compare. If it is louder with the signal processor on it will always give you a false sense of sounding better initially
Don't use EQ or other processing on solo'd tracks. Trying to make every track sound awesome is a waste of effort. the whole mix needs to sound good collectively. Making every track having a really huge bass sound may sound good in solo mode however put them together in a mix and you find yourself swamped in low end mud. Try and make everything have a super bright top end will sound great on individual tracks, put it all together and you've now got really harsh grating sound in your mix that is painful to listen to.
Figure out what is important in carrying the part and cut away what you don't need. Guitars for example have a lot of low end. If you want the bass to stand out it can often be more beneficial in terms of getting clarity from the bass to cut the low frequencies out of the guitar rather than trying to make the bass louder
These were some "Ah hah" moments I've had
YMMV
practice like crazy before even recording, don't try to make up the guitar noodling and vocal ad libs at the point you are trying to record the song (unless you have years under your belt as an amazing live musician) unrehearsed material will just sound like.... well unrehearsed material recorded in a bedroom. have as clear an idea of the song and the arrangement before you even turn on the DAW to record a final version. This doesn't mean not using the DAW as a writing tool to use scratch tracks to play against and get a sense of how things work together, I'm talking about at the time you want to record the good/final takes.
once you've recorded some stuff don't just jump into trying to mix it sit back and listen to it raw. What do you like or not like about it, don't assume you can fix what you don't like in the mix, ask your self how you could have recorded it better and then do that. Do not accept half assed recorded tracks that you then try and correct with tons of processing, they will make your final mix sound half assed and over processed
For example if you like the sound of your acoustic guitar as you, the player, hear it but when you record it with a mic from 3 feet out in front it doesn't sound right then try and record it how you hear it. put the mic over your shoulder near your ear so it "hears" the same thing you do. see how that works, be creative to ensure the sound you capture with the mics is as close as the sound you want to hear in the final mix as possible.
When using EQ etc make sure you reference back to the unprocessed sound frequently (bypass is your friend). Make sure whatever you are doing with signal processors is making the sound better. And watch your levels when you compare. If it is louder with the signal processor on it will always give you a false sense of sounding better initially
Don't use EQ or other processing on solo'd tracks. Trying to make every track sound awesome is a waste of effort. the whole mix needs to sound good collectively. Making every track having a really huge bass sound may sound good in solo mode however put them together in a mix and you find yourself swamped in low end mud. Try and make everything have a super bright top end will sound great on individual tracks, put it all together and you've now got really harsh grating sound in your mix that is painful to listen to.
Figure out what is important in carrying the part and cut away what you don't need. Guitars for example have a lot of low end. If you want the bass to stand out it can often be more beneficial in terms of getting clarity from the bass to cut the low frequencies out of the guitar rather than trying to make the bass louder
These were some "Ah hah" moments I've had
YMMV
