Newbie Here - How's my first test recording?

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JonPaulP

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OK, so I'm a total newbie and I'm still learning how to use Cubase and how to acoustically treat my room.

Here's my attempt at a test recording:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=902562&songID=7150189

Let me know how it sounds. The instrumental was made with EastWest Symphonic Orchestra.

It was recorded in an untreated 9x9x9 square-shaped spare room and the microphone (Marshall MXL 2003) was fairly close to the walls. I'm in the process of finding a suitable vocal booth.

Any advice & tips on microphone positioning and vocal processing (e.g., EQ, etc.) would be appreciated!
 
Very good, nice to hear something different.:cool:

The low strings need a faster attack, it would sound more realistic. They tend to sound a little "waaaaaaaah" in the middle. Vocals are great, is that you?
 
DavidK said:
Very good, nice to hear something different.:cool:

The low strings need a faster attack, it would sound more realistic. They tend to sound a little "waaaaaaaah" in the middle. Vocals are great, is that you?
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Thanks a lot for the input, yes that's me! :D

I know what you mean about with the "waaaaaaaah" in the middle. I think it's from the midi sequencer because the regular midi file does the same thing. I'm gonna fix it when I make the midi arrangement for the actual track.

Do you have any tips on the vocal track? I'm trying to get a "studio sound" and hope fixing the acoustics of the room would make some difference.

I played around and did a little guess work with the EQ curves and used the reverb which came with Cubase Essential (Reverb Roomworks SE), but I was told that this particular reverb plug-in isn't as good as a convolution reverb.
 
JonPaulP said:
Do you have any tips on the vocal track? .
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It's a little flat. You're "A" doesnt match the synth "A". Its not bad, but singing a little higher will make it brighter. The vocals could be louder, they sound very good and you can make them up front.

The reverb might be too much. I like the sound, but you sacrifice diction. Maybe use 70 percent of what you have right now.
 
Nice piece!
Great classical rendition of a pop classic!
Very nicely arranged, beautiful voice. Only thing I detect is that you probably boosted the high mids in the voice too much, making it sound kind of thin up there. Your beautiful voice deserves to be fatter with more breast, if you know what I mean. Look forward to hearing more from you!

Cheers
Joe :):)
 
I agree the vocals could be pushed a bit further to the front of the mix. Wonderful singing and nice backups... Reminds me of a few "popular" singers like Josh Grobin and Mario Lanza...but with your own voice/style. I'd love to hear your rendition of Ave Maria... :cool:
 
Thank you to everyone for your helpful comments and advice.

As requested, I made a quick recording of "Ave Maria" to test out some of the stuff I got from your feedback. I put the instruments in the left and right channels and put the vocal mix in the middle. I also boosted the lows and decreased the highs a little bit.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7153207

Let me know how it sounds. Thanks again!
 
For some reason, I still can't get to your first song. But I found Ave Maria ok.

A great rendition. You have a good, strong voice with a lot of character in it.

The Timpani things were a bit too omnipresent, and thus become a bit distracting. I think someone else mentioned a dominance of high mids in your voice, and I tend to agree.

I expect you did the second vocal part as well? This worked well.
 
JonPaulP said:
Thank you to everyone for your helpful comments and advice.

As requested, I made a quick recording of "Ave Maria" to test out some of the stuff I got from your feedback. I put the instruments in the left and right channels and put the vocal mix in the middle. I also boosted the lows and decreased the highs a little bit.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7153207

Let me know how it sounds. Thanks again!
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Sounds great JonPaulP! I think the setup now accentuates your voice very well. :)
 
The vocal harmonies are absolutely beautiful! Your voice is wonderful!
Like Gecko said, the timpanis are a bit too present and I feel the beautiful piano too low in the mix. I still feel the highs in the voice a little bit too aggressive, but maybe that's just me.

This sent shivers down my spine and brought tears to my eyes, because it reminded me of my childhood. Thank you for sharing it! :)

Joe
 
Thank you for pointing out the problems with the highs. I suppose I put a little too much to compensate for the acoustics of the room and was also under the impression that removing the lows would make a better sound. After listening to the clips again, I did find the highs to be a little harsh to the ears.

Attached is a jpg of the curves in my tracks.

I read somewhere that it is standard to layer the vocal tracks so I decided to use 3 tracks for the vocals. Let me know if this technique is actually valid or if you guys have any better suggestions. Also, let me know what I can do to the curves to make the sound better. It always good to get a second set of ears for my own recordings.


joeym, I'm glad the song had special meaning to you!

gecko zzed. thanks for listening. Yes, I did the second vocal part too. Thanks for pointing out the dominance of the timpanis. I remember hearing the timpanis in an Andrea Boccelli recording and the timpanis were indeed in the background.

Thanks ido1957!
 

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Wow Jon, it's good to hear something like this here as it makes a nice change. You've got a great voice and for early recording attempts these aren't bad at all, but I would like to mention a few things that occurred to me while listening, although I'm no expert in this type of music.

For both tracks, the instrumentation sounds too much like digital samples or synth, so you need to really try to warm those up as much as you can. After all, I'm guessing that you're going for as real a classical sound as possible. Maybe try also adding some suitable effects to get them to merge more (in a concert hall type of way). At the same time though, the instrument sounds need to be fairly distinctive to separate them just enough.

It's worth spending plenty of time on the music mix and once you've got it just right, you'll be able to really take up the volume of your voice, without it being overbearing. After all, it's the voice that this is all about really, isn't it? The way I see it, the music should be subtle yet supportive, but your voice needs to soar above it at a decent level. Your harmonies are fabulous, but maybe they need to be spread in the mix a touch more.

I hope I've been helpful in some small way, but get that wonderful voice out there Jon,
Dreamer ;)
 
Don't ya just love it when you hear someone else that makes you wanna quit? Seriously--I hear something so good, I wanna hang it up--for a day or two--then I'm motivated to get better. (And then I remember that I don't do classical or even sing, much less sing like that!)

Yep, that sounds pretty darn good. Thanks for sharing with us--look forward to more!
 
Jon,
As others have already mentioned, I'm am simply blown away by your voice!

Great to hear something fresh. Love the opera. Keep them coming!

David
 
Okay, my 2 yr old is passing the headphones around so everyone can listen. I think she likes it and so do I. :)

My comments are for Ave Maria... I'm a fan of symmetry and find the hard panning to cause some imbalances. I think the body of the voice to get buried with the supporting instruments, like Dreamer7 noted. The air of the vocal shines beautifully and the reverb is sooooo lush. Totally loving the harmonies.

What the heck happened to the Timps at :19?? :eek: :D They get cut short. But you did say this was a quick mix, so no problem.

Thanks for sharing. Your talent and skill are quite impressive and a nice change.

Peace,
 
You guys are great! Here I was thinking that my initial recordings sounded pretty awful and then I get all this encouraging feedback.

dreamer7, thanks for the very useful advice! When I was comparing the synth sounds of my recording to professionally made recordings, there is definitely something lacking. How do you warm up the sounds? Do you think I should add reverb to make the instruments mix more? For the purpose of test recordings, I just added the VST instruments to the midi file without much tweaking, but it would be good to know some techniques for making them sound more realistic. I put one track of harmony in the left track and a different harmony track on the right. Should I put them in the middle along with the main track?

Chilli, I'm glad you and your daughter like it. I'm surprised that you liked the reverb. I used the one which came with Cubase (Reverb Roomworks SE), but someone told me that Cubase's reverb isn't of the best quality. Do you think this reverb is fine, or should I try to get a convolution reverb? Any suggestions for a good reverb plug-in? Speaking of reverb, I was thinking of putting the reverb tracks in the left and right channels while keeping the dry vocals in the middle. Anyone ever tried that before? Do you think I panned the instruments a little too much? I put some of them in the far left or right. What's the best way to make a more balanced sound? Yeah, when I was listening to the recording, I noticed the timpanis cut short too. It may have had something to do with me freezing the vst instruments. They sure do take a lot of CPU and I've had to deal with Cubase crashing a lot.

WhiteStrat, aww you're too kind! :D I know exactly how you feel when I listen to other recordings which sound so nice and professional. Makes we wonder how they do it!

Thanks David, I'll definitely post more songs!
 
JonPaulP said:
When I was comparing the synth sounds of my recording to professionally made recordings, there is definitely something lacking. How do you warm up the sounds? Do you think I should add reverb to make the instruments mix more? For the purpose of test recordings, I just added the VST instruments to the midi file without much tweaking, but it would be good to know some techniques for making them sound more realistic. I put one track of harmony in the left track and a different harmony track on the right. Should I put them in the middle along with the main track?
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JP,
I deal a with a fair amount of MIDI instruments myself, and always like to add some space. Reverb can help smooth things out, but always in moderation. It's all too easy to reach for a great big concert hall reverb that can muddy things quickly. Try starting with a smaller room 'verb and work up from there.

The vocal panning this is personal taste, IMHO. I often pull the same trick you're doing, with one harmony panned to the left and the second harmony panned to the right. I don't hard pan, but enough to provide some separation.
 
JonPaulP said:
I noticed the timpanis cut short too. It may have had something to do with me freezing the vst instruments. They sure do take a lot of CPU and I've had to deal with Cubase crashing a lot.
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Record them.

VSTs can take a lot pf power. What I do is actually record them. That way you can edit them a lot better, like drawing fades on strings etc.

I dont know how you do it in cubase, but you probably solo the track, select it then go to "edit-bounce" or something. It bounces that track to a wav file and frees up the processing power.
 
DavidK said:
Record them.

VSTs can take a lot pf power. What I do is actually record them. That way you can edit them a lot better, like drawing fades on strings etc.

I dont know how you do it in cubase, but you probably solo the track, select it then go to "edit-bounce" or something. It bounces that track to a wav file and frees up the processing power.
Click to expand...

Great advice. I do that with midi/vst instruments in Cubase all the time.
 
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