Newbie about to take the plunge!

  • Thread starter Thread starter maestoso43
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maestoso43

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Hi Friends,

Alright, so I have a digital piano, a Yamaha Audiogram 3 interface, and Cubase. I'm read to start recording my piano music.

I just wanted to ask all you experts out there:

What are some of the common mistakes that rookies make?

What are the common ruts that rookies find themselves in?

What are some of the things that I should look out for?
 
I find newbies tend to do things in extremes...like they'll either barely eq at all or overcompensate while eq'ing (for example). Although I'm not sure that that will have much effect on you since you're just recording your piano! :)

Some people find themselves mixing for too long of a session...you can get ear fatigue, so make sure to keep mixing/mastering sessions shorter rather than longer! Also, don't spend too much time altogether on one song, as you can start to go a bit crazy. To me, it's nice to take a 2 or 3 day break (sometimes even a week) while mixing a song. When you come back, it usually seems more fresh and exciting and you can work better.

Also, keep a sharp lookout for discouragement! No matter how your first recordings sound like, don't stop reading/learning/recording/asking questions here. Every mix, whether good or bad, is a great opportunity to learn things and test new ideas out!
 
Thanks! These are great suggestions! Exactly what I'm looking for!
 
The biggest extreme IMO is reverb. My first recordings were absolutely drowned out in reverb haha.
 
Record with no effects (reverb, EQ, etc) - add them during the mixing stage.
Don't track (record) too loud - you can boost up soft recordings, but can't fix clipping.
 
+1 to keeping levels down. I still find myself having trouble wrapping my head around the meters only going halfway up. Coming from an analog background, my brain wants to see meters hitting the red. I have to check myself now and again.

Oh, and spend time-a lot of time learning how to use a compressor. Many compressors. They are not all the same. Stepping over fully understanding and really using a compressor can kill you right quick. It took me a while.
 
maestoso43 said:
What are the common ruts that rookies find themselves in?
Click to expand...
Accepting shit because at that particular moment, you don't know how to change something or get it sounding better. If I were starting over again now, I would excercise alot more patience. Sometimes I'd just be happy to record a piece, but later {perhaps years later}, realize that it wasn't really what I wanted and that I couldn't not have something to show for hours of recording so I'd accept the take. But I'd always end up remaking it. Have patience.
Try to listen closely when dealing with effects. I used to find that I could never hear the effect when used moderately so I'd whack up the level of effect till I could hear it. It was only at mix time that I'd realize I had a sludge that either needed retracking or burning altogether ! Now I'm really stingy with effects if I use them. You'll know they're there without them calling the wrong attention to themselves.
 
By the way, when you say
my piano music
Click to expand...
do you mean solo piano and nothing else ? Because that will have a great bearing on your approach. A solo instrument won't be as hard to record as four or five + vocals.
 
It took me a long time to really figure out what each piece of gear or plugin actually did. If you have to time and patience, you could spend a day playing around with compression settings on one track. At least then, you would have somewhat of a vivid sense of how attack and release times, compression ratios, and thresholds have an effect on the sound.
 
Also keep in mind that digital piano is especially limited in recording. This can be good for a beginner, because you can focus on other things than the art of micing. But I would avoid expectations of trying to get a recording on par with a grand piano in a nice room.
 
maestoso43 said:
Hi Friends,

Alright, so I have a digital piano, a Yamaha Audiogram 3 interface, and Cubase. I'm read to start recording my piano music.

I just wanted to ask all you experts out there:

What are some of the common mistakes that rookies make?

What are the common ruts that rookies find themselves in?

What are some of the things that I should look out for?
Click to expand...

Hopefully, you've recorded your piece as a MIDI file already, and cleaned up all the mistakes (notes, timing issues, loudness of various notes, over or under sustain pedal use, etc.) Using MIDI properly means making the perfect recording (MIDI recording) of your song, BEFORE turning it into an audio recording.

THEN, you hit the Play button on the MIDI sequencer which plays back the song from your digital piano, which has its audio out going into the Cubase IN port, and you record the audio into a separate AUDIO track in Cubase.

This makes it easier to record, and allows you to focus on the MIX levels and meters, while the sequence is playing and being recorded at the same time.

If you have not recorded your song as a MIDI file yet, do that first, and clean it up.
 
grimtraveller said:
By the way, when you say do you mean solo piano and nothing else ? Because that will have a great bearing on your approach. A solo instrument won't be as hard to record as four or five + vocals.
Click to expand...

That's right. Solo piano, nothing else.

By the way, thanks for all the suggestions, everyone.
 
Toddskins said:
Hopefully, you've recorded your piece as a MIDI file already, and cleaned up all the mistakes (notes, timing issues, loudness of various notes, over or under sustain pedal use, etc.) Using MIDI properly means making the perfect recording (MIDI recording) of your song, BEFORE turning it into an audio recording.

THEN, you hit the Play button on the MIDI sequencer which plays back the song from your digital piano, which has its audio out going into the Cubase IN port, and you record the audio into a separate AUDIO track in Cubase.

This makes it easier to record, and allows you to focus on the MIX levels and meters, while the sequence is playing and being recorded at the same time.

If you have not recorded your song as a MIDI file yet, do that first, and clean it up.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...

Well, I used a USB/MIDI interface to notate my music into a music notation platform (Finale). I have not "recorded" any MIDI, though, into my recording software (Cubase).
 
Use references. Songs you like to sound like. Most mistakes we make is because we dont have a basis, we are kinda of searching in the dark for a sound. Find the sound find the reference.
 
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