Several mixing questions.......

[ANDtheMC]

Wassup people?

Few questions....
- What's the difference between recording/mixing mono and normal? What's the advantages of each?
- Compression seems to muddy the sound or make the vocal sound very constrained... Like they're speakin' from the grave (exaggerated but that's the effect, it seems like) but at the same time, it makes it sound cleaner.... Does that mean I'm using it wrong cuz I like/want the life of the sound there but I want it to sound clean at the same time... It almost sounds like I have to sacrifice one for the other... What am I doin' wrong?
- When recording vocals, I like the live sound so I up the highs a lot 'n lower the lows in the EQ... But a lotta the times, it seems like that basically destroys what the de-esser does... Once again, am I doin' somethin' wrong? Cuz I like the rawness of the vocal when the highs are up but on the "s" and "f" sounds, it makes it tough to listen to.... It's probably cuz the mic is kinda cheap (Studio Project B1).... If someone can give me some advice, it would be much appreciated.....

And this is for rap vocals..... Just thought ya'll might want to know.... Thanks again......

 

[chessrock]

I think a good place for you to start would be to do some reading up on this stuff.

I'd recommend the following link as a good place to start. There's a lot of stuff to sort through, but some of the stuff in the "basics" section can help get you started; familiarizing yourself with basic recording/mixing terminology and concepts, etc. ;

http://www.theprojectstudiohandbook.com/articles1.htm

One word of warning, though: Some of the pieces in there are written by complete morons, but most of it is pretty good. You also might pay a visit to the "Newbies" section on this site. Lots of guys like yourself trying to get a grasp of this stuff, and it might be a good place for you to comiserate.

.

 

[LeeRosario]

the topic is reoccuring on the forum, so you may have to do some detective work to find what you are looking for.


But in short, I wouldn't nessessarily think of it as a "difference" between mono and stereo, but rather a progression from mono into stereo.

You generally track with everything centered to weed out all the phasing issues that occur when blending multiple tracks over one another. It's the easiest way to tell when frequencies aren't working together. That helps set you up for a good, clean and defined blend in the mix phase of a project.

The saying goes that if you can mix well in mono, then you can mix great in stereo. And if you can mix well in stereo, then you can do very well in surround. Each simply progresses into the other.

It's for that reason that I always beleive that a logical and prudent organization in how someone builds a mix means everything. For example, keeping in mind everything that entails a tracking session, overdub session, mixing session, mastering, etc. Makes things wicked easy and stress free.

If you begin to tell yourself, "ok, I'm just going to record all my tracks first. Scew the mixing until I have everything recorded for the song", then you start believing in a logical order.

- Compression seems to muddy the sound or make the vocal sound very constrained

exactly. Depending on the compressor, you'll see that change. A very transparent compressor can compress all day without showing any signs of altering your track. It purely does what it does without the druggy sideeffects.

Limiters on the other hand, are the most evasive means of restricting dynamic range (compressor on high ratio settings), without too much of a change in sonic clarity. Generally. It depends on the limiter as well.

The simplest and most general way to compensate for the muddying effect would be in the EQ. Either that, or reconsider your compression settings.

- When recording vocals, I like the live sound so I up the highs a lot 'n lower the lows in the EQ... But a lotta the times, it seems like that basically destroys what the de-esser does... Once again, am I doin' somethin' wrong? Cuz I like the rawness of the vocal when the highs are up but on the "s" and "f" sounds, it makes it tough to listen to.... It's probably cuz the mic is kinda cheap (Studio Project B1).... If someone can give me some advice, it would be much appreciated.....

You're not nessessarily doing anything wrong. You're using the best of your intuition to get a sound that you want. It's just a matter of taking time to evolve your craft.

When you do it long enough, you'll eventually evolve into things like mic selection and why that matters, your front end, room, approach and how that matters.

Like I said, feel free to do some detective work on here. Tons of info you can use.

 

[flatfinger]

Standardized compressor setting question answer:

What effect are you going for??? first decide that, then read everything you can in order to "crack" compressors. ( read the tuitorial in southside glens sig), then realize that every unit is slightly different so there are really no cookie cutter settings that are like one size fits all. It is different for each piece of material so you do need to have an idea about the theory; I mean, why else do they get the "engineer" tag???


If you trying to change the way the Attack- decay-sustain-release envelope sounds on a individual instrument then set a peak detecting threshold to be rigtht in the middle of the action(in between where the signal rises in initial attack , them modulates down to an average value) choose a hard knee, then mess with ratio, attack and release time.

If your just trying to mush a mix together a little and be subtle , use a soft knee, RMS detecting, low,low ratio and set the threshold to cause slight gain reduction of a few db.

and also if you read about cookie cutter settings and they don't include a target for gain reduction they are even more meaningless than most!..

...................... or just twiddle the knobs till it sound good

 

[ANDtheMC]

Thank you everybody... Anymore tips and instructions?