Need help, been at this recording shit for awhile now

[mrgs711]

alright, im not all new to recording, but with the quality that i seem to be coming out with, i sure as hell feel like one. My main goal is to record a rap song where the vocals at least sit well with the instrumental, but I haven't been able to do that. This is what I'm working with...

Microphone: AKG Perception 220

Interface/Preamp: PreSonus AudioBox

Software: Adobe Audition 3.0

Studio: er...my basement, not padded but the walls are covered with stacked junk and a rug floor, not like a real studio but it seems to have some decent coverage.

Maybe what I've been mixing is the best that I can get, but something tells me it's not. No matter what I try to do it seems like the vocals just always come out harsh and muddy. I've only done stuff I've seen on half assed youtube tutorials like center wave, classic softnee, deesser, etc. I can only assume that my problem might be in three things.

1)The actual recording of the track. People say be a foot away from the mic, people say 2 inches away, people say a lot of shit that confuses me
2)Eq. I hear that this is one way to get rid of that muddy sound, and a lot of people say to cut off the lower frequency, unfortunatley im retarded so i dont know exactly where to cut off and by how many decibels and what type of wave...idk lol.
3)Compression (which ive just recently been trying but have no clue how i should utilize this)

Hopefully this wasnt a completely discombobulated post, but maybe you can get a better idea of what I mean with one of the tracks I recorded.

alright, im not all new to recording, but with the quality that i seem to be coming out with, i sure as hell feel like one. My main goal is to record a rap song where the vocals at least sit well with the instrumental, but I haven't been able to do that. This is what I'm working with...

Microphone: AKG Perception 220

Interface/Preamp: PreSonus AudioBox

Software: Adobe Audition 3.0

Studio: er...my basement, not padded but the walls are covered with stacked junk and a rug floor, not like a real studio but it seems to have some decent coverage.

Maybe what I've been mixing is the best that I can get, but something tells me it's not. No matter what I try to do it seems like the vocals just always come out harsh and muddy. I've only done stuff I've seen on half assed youtube tutorials like center wave, classic softnee, deesser, etc. I can only assume that my problem might be in three things.

1)The actual recording of the track. People say be a foot away from the mic, people say 2 inches away, people say a lot of shit that confuses me
2)Eq. I hear that this is one way to get rid of that muddy sound, and a lot of people say to cut off the lower frequency, unfortunatley im retarded so i dont know exactly where to cut off and by how many decibels and what type of wave...idk lol.
3)Compression (which ive just recently been trying but have no clue how i should utilize this)

Hopefully this wasnt a completely discombobulated post, but maybe you can get a better idea of what I mean with one of the tracks I recorded.

YouTube - Desgaines - Kid's Tale

This was when I had a usb mic, but in honesty it sounds like pretty much what I get out of my perception 220, which is really pissing me off considering what I paid for that, plus the audiobox. If anyone could help me out or at least point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I work really hard on my rap songs and it seems like such a waste if they come out like shit.

This was when I had a usb mic, but in honesty it sounds like pretty much what I get out of my perception 220, which is really pissing me off considering what I paid for that, plus the audiobox. If anyone could help me out or at least point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I work really hard on my rap songs and it seems like such a waste if they come out like shit.

 

[c7sus]

The vocal doesn't sound harsh or muddy on my system, just like it needs a little boost and maybe some reverb and less compression. Sounds bone dry and squished. The vocal is all the same volume, doesn't have any dynamic left in it to my ears.

You might try switching the bass roll-off on the 220. That's the bass cut folks are talking about.

 

[mrgs711]

yeah the dryness is probably from all the presets ive tried using like soft knee, i've been meaning to use a regular compresser myself so ill see how that works, idk about the reverb but ill give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion my dude =)

and if anyone has any other suggestions that would be great too.

 

[c7sus]

I realize the vox in the genre are generally pretty dry. It doesn't have to sound like it was recorded in the men's room, just a very little something to impart some "space". Less compression might help with that too.

Your op was about muddiness, but I just don't get that. Everything has good articulation and just needs a little more presence. Back off the slope and the overall compression so the vox doesn't sound all-the-same-volume and has a bit of dynamic range to it. If you have the headroom left, bump the volume up about 2-3dB and give that a few spins. Also, you might compare the Youtube clip to your DAW clip because the lossy conversion leaves a lot to be desired audio-wise.

In the future, you might want to copy vox tracks and save a dry, unprocessed copy as a safety backup.

 

[benage]

I agree with the help so far, the vocal does sound a little 'band passed' with not much of the top or bottom frequencies, try giving the top end from say 4khz a gentle boost of a few decibels in an upward slope towards 20khz. [Edit: Ive noticed you said you sometimes use a de esser- this could muffle the hi frequencies if set incorectly, check that] I Agee that the vocal is a bit quiet, this may be because you have no reverb or delay on it when you turn it up it sticks out so try adding subtle amounts of these ( experiment with different delay times) and see if this helps.

With home recording, if your talented you can get resonable results reasonably quickly, but to get that last 10% and a studio sound requires you to really learn your craft. Compression is a very major tool in recording and in the long run presets aren't going to help you, you'll have to learn what every button on it does and how it affects your sound, and the same with the other commonly used plug ins and effects.

(Oh and when recording on a mic generally the closer you are the more bass it will pick up so find the distance that works for you.)

 

[mrgs711]

Yeah I definitely agree with what you guys are saying, and sorry about the muddy thing, I don't think that was the right word for it but you know what I mean. I've been relying on presets and what is used the most that I didn't realize that every voice is different and every recording needs a different touch. I'll try to experiment with different compressions and shit and see what I can come up with. It sucks because truthfully I hate mixing, it seems to be more of a pain than anything, what I really like is rapping, but to get the song out obviously I need to mix it, and I dont have the dough to shovel out for a good producer lol.