M
moelar2
New member
I know mastering is a critical part of the recording/producing process.
Here's what I do:
I use a mackie CFX [live] mixer as a submixer to go into a vs840ex. I use behringer compressors [despite everyone's hatred, i DO like them; its better than 3630 and just as good as the 266xl]. Additionally, I use Event 2020 for monitoring. Here's my deal, I get really good sound - better than what most novices would get with the gear I have. As far as mics, I have a few 57's, two oktavas mc012, rode nt2, and other cheap samson mics. When I go to mix, the sound is very clean. I dump it to pc via rca outs, convert it to the meager 1/8" input on my pc and use cool edit to do any level adjustments. I don't really mess with it too much there. My problem is this: When I use the above process, the sound is good, but i feel like its too dead in front of you. In sounds good, and ironically the stereo image is well preserved, but when i listen to other cds, it sounds like they aren't so dry-ly infront of you, almost as if they've been pushed back a bit, while maintaining its gain.
Another thing i noticed is that when I do a live recording of a jam session by merely placing an xy pair of mc012's from the board directly to consumer tape deck, the sound is fat! its not clean, but its very fat.
The potential variables I think exist are:
1 cheap soundcard
2 NO mastering??
3 1/8" conversion does not reproduce frequencies adequately
The only variable that seems to make sense is #2 - the mastering. This is because I've actually dumped the live recordings from the TApe out into the pc, and it sounds relatively good.
I know that I obviously dont have pro gear. However, I'm a faithful believer in working with what you got - after all, when you have a studer console, 2" reel to reel, and a perfectly controlled environment, its almost hard to go WRONG. The true trick is coming up with good results using gear that most cast away as "cheap, imitation, semipro" stuff.
COMMENTS???
Here's what I do:
I use a mackie CFX [live] mixer as a submixer to go into a vs840ex. I use behringer compressors [despite everyone's hatred, i DO like them; its better than 3630 and just as good as the 266xl]. Additionally, I use Event 2020 for monitoring. Here's my deal, I get really good sound - better than what most novices would get with the gear I have. As far as mics, I have a few 57's, two oktavas mc012, rode nt2, and other cheap samson mics. When I go to mix, the sound is very clean. I dump it to pc via rca outs, convert it to the meager 1/8" input on my pc and use cool edit to do any level adjustments. I don't really mess with it too much there. My problem is this: When I use the above process, the sound is good, but i feel like its too dead in front of you. In sounds good, and ironically the stereo image is well preserved, but when i listen to other cds, it sounds like they aren't so dry-ly infront of you, almost as if they've been pushed back a bit, while maintaining its gain.
Another thing i noticed is that when I do a live recording of a jam session by merely placing an xy pair of mc012's from the board directly to consumer tape deck, the sound is fat! its not clean, but its very fat.
The potential variables I think exist are:
1 cheap soundcard
2 NO mastering??
3 1/8" conversion does not reproduce frequencies adequately
The only variable that seems to make sense is #2 - the mastering. This is because I've actually dumped the live recordings from the TApe out into the pc, and it sounds relatively good.
I know that I obviously dont have pro gear. However, I'm a faithful believer in working with what you got - after all, when you have a studer console, 2" reel to reel, and a perfectly controlled environment, its almost hard to go WRONG. The true trick is coming up with good results using gear that most cast away as "cheap, imitation, semipro" stuff.
COMMENTS???
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