recording too harsh?

[timandjes]

I was into recording pretty heavy about a year ago but have been pretty much out of it since then. I wanted to practice recording just to keep from totally forgetting everthing so I hooked up my electronic Yamaha DTXpress drumset into my Art Tube and recorded one of the keyboard songs in the drumset. I had my meters set not to peak out in the red zone. Then I played a drum track and recorded it as track two. I compressed and added effects, listened to it on my pc & it sounded great. I mixed down and took the cd out to the car and it's really harsh and raspy like there's too much treble. I took it to my computer @ work and listened to it and like my computer @ home, it sounds great???

Aside from obviously needing more practice, any quick ideas on how to correct? The one thing I remember I had in my final mix last year that I don't have now is something called a dbl limiter or something like that I downloaded. I'm not sure if that would help.

I'm using
ntrack
audiophile 2496 soundcard
art tube pre amp
windows 98 se

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Welcome to one of the fundamentals of mixing - translation.

If it sounds like crap in your car compared to similar mixes that you like, then it's simply a bad mix.

Your problem boils down to monitoring. Without an effective monitoring solution, it's hard to make good mixing decisions. This is why we have reference amps and monitors - tools used to create a mix that will translaste well onto any system it's played back on.

For instance, perhaps your computer speakers are light on the high end, so when your mix is done and sounds perfect on your computer speakers, it ends up sounding top-heavy everywhere else. And so on and so forth. Studio/reference monitors help to alleviate this situation by providing a more predictable frequency response that makes it easier to spot problems with a mix, thus allowing you to create mixes that translate well. Once you get a monitoring solution and learn it, it becomes relatively easy to mix and be assured that it's going to sound decent on a home stereo, car stereo, AM radio, whatever.

Your only solution at the moment is to listen to your mix on as many sources as possible. This is a real crappy way to mix because you'll be running out to your car or to the stereo all the time...it's very difficult, but it can be done.

So the problem here is more of a fundamental one, and not related to n-Track really. You should be down in the Mixing/Mastering forum.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Track Rat]

I think Slack is onto your problem. It sounds to me like a monitoring issue.

 

[timandjes]

That's probably true.... I use Roland MA-8's and everything sounds really bassy with them....