Mixing with programs on laptop? Quality is terrible

L

Lizadiane88

New member
My question is very simple. I'm not hooking up any amps, instruments, etc. The software I use is wavepad sound editor and audacity. Yea they are terrible but I can't afford much right now. I have a decent microphone (editors keys studio series SL150) I mix my vocal track after recording and the music track separately and use headphones when recording. For some reason, when I mix the two tracks together, the quality is terrible and my voice sounds disconnected from the music. I tried using the reverb effect but I can't use too much of it or it'll alter the quality of the track itself. I am not totally broke but anything more than fifty bucks I can't do. The only reason I use these programs to mix my vocal track with a music track is because they are extremely easy to use and I figured them out within an hour, maybe less. I'm not an audio engineer, but I'm learning the basics of it (kind of) I'm just a musician who already has the music but now I'm just having issues mixing the two together. Either it sounds disconnected altogether or the quality suffers or both. I don't know the terms used in these programs, the dry, the wet gain, etc. I just mess around till I find something i like. Are there any other easy to learn programs that won't alter the effect and will mix a little more easily? Thank you
 
How loud is the music track?, That is, if you have the music track's fader at 0, does it come very near 0dB on the output meter? If so turn it down about 18dB before doing anything else. Then when you record your vocal set the record level so it averages about -18dBFS.

Unfortunately, being a cheap USB mic that uses stock drivers, it appears you can't actually change the recording level at the correct point in the chain: before the converter. You can only change it after the converter in the digital realm where it's too late to avoid certain problems. But maybe you'll be lucky and your recording level will be about right without having to alter the settings in the control panel.

Once you get the record levels sorted come back for some tips on mixing a vocal with a prerecorded backing track.
 
@ bouldersoundguy, thank you for the tip! The tracks have clipping but I know how to get rid of that so the volume idea might actually be a great idea. Thank you :-)
 
Lizadiane88 said:
The tracks have clipping but I know how to get rid of that
Click to expand...

If the clipping occurred at the converters you can't get rid of it. Sure, you can turn the clipped recording down, but it's still clipped.
If this is the case, try moving back from the mic a bit. Obviously room ambience is going to become a greater factor if you do, but it's better than clipping a converter.

If the actual recorded level is fine and the clipping is a result of processing, just turn everything down in the mix.
 
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