Recording Dillemma

[Greykitkat36]

Ok so we layed down a few tracks on my Tascam 424mkIII Portastudio. We recorded live with everyone except the bass. The bass will be added later, but I recorded everyone live directly. This is a problem, because I think to record bass we needed to record through buss. Am I wrong?? Also, the mix sounds weird. When it gets turned up loud its distorted. I need some advice on mixing and blending the tracks together so that they sound good. Like maybe someone can explain the highs and lows and mids that help on a certain instrument. The drums sound perfect in the recording, but one guitar seems too distant while the other is too loud. I need some help.

 

[Greykitkat36]

why is noone helping?

 

[guitarmncat1]

Hi, I don't know if this will help, but might point you in the right direction. I presume you've recorded onto 2 tracks only for a stereo image -- this is an art by itself to get an acceptable balance between instruments. When playing back, try to balance the left and right signals so that you get equal volume both sides without overloading either the channels or the stereo buss. It's better at this stage to have your eq pots at centre(zero eq) position to avoid overloading at certain frequencies. If distortion is still a problem, try reducing the eq at the affected frequency as opposed to boosting other frequencies as this will make matters worse. You should still have 2 tracks spare which you can use for adding bass guitar, and maybe re-record the quiet guitar again.

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Meow-man:}

First thing that struck my brain was, Are you mixing through cans?

If so, don't do so -- you need to set up your balances via monitors. What you hear in the cans, is not what you'll get when you mix to stereo in preparation for a CD. But, I'm sure you've heard that before on this forum.

Next thing, how many tracks are you bouncing? The more you bounce the higher the chance of getting into more "Dillemma." The word "" looks like a Vlasic?

Bass can be recorded onto a track a number of ways. You have to find the best way as it fits into your rig. One way is to run bass through an RNC and from the RNC into your track input to record it and keep its level from blasting other tracks.

I think if you search a bit here, read a bit here, and experiment MUCHO with your gear, you will soon start to get better mixes.

Green Hornet