muffled sounding mix

[4-Man Takedown]

All mics use a preamp, 57 just doesn't use phantom power, which is probably what your thinking of.

The main problem is probably that the close mics are not in phase with the overheads. The kick usually gives me the most trouble, it would probably help to get a standalone pre for that and flip it's polarity, but multiple inputs would probably be the best bet since you can flip the polarity in a DAW on any tracks. Untill then if you have no money, you could always try to make a reversed polarity cable for the kick mic. I'm not 100% how to do that, but it wouldn't be too hard to find out.

Also, check out the thread about phase somewhere around here, my wording may not be right and that should help clear things up.

 

[jake-owa]

I believe phase issues are my main problem. I used 6 mics to record the drums and only 2 were not close. I did use compression and EQ to get the drums sounding pretty good actually. I would say that the drums turned out the most clear sounding for the most part. My next upgrade is going to be another sound card with more inputs, i just have to get the money together for it.

for the guitar, i ended up using 1 sm57 next to the cab, but i think i should have worked on the guitar player's tone before we started. I ended up duplicating the guitar tracks, panning them hard, and switching the phase on one of them. This did make the guitar more spread out and "in the mix" instead of right upfront in your face.

That guitar will completely dissapear in mono BTW.

Instead, clone, pan and nudge one forward a few ms. You will still have phase problems in mono but at least they won't think you have a two peice band.