That was then, but this is now.....

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grimtraveller

grimtraveller

If only for a moment.....
In mixing, what processes and practices that you are OK with now, do you wish you'd been aware of when you first started ?
 
Are you writing a recording self-help book?
You have a bunch of question threads going on. :)


grimtraveller said:
In mixing, what processes and practices that you are OK with now, do you wish you'd been aware of when you first started ?
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When I first started.....?

Everything. :D
 
Tracking good sounds to begin with. I learned it the hard way, and now live by it

No matter how many times it gets said, people still insist on fixing things in the mix, and the software world encourages mediocre tracking techniques. Like drum samples, for example. Awesome drum tracks were recorded for decades without sample replacement. Now n00bs don't even try to record drums without a pile of samples and triggering plug-ins. Or they just point and click their drum tracks. The art and skill of capturing a good drummer on a good sounding kit is just about dead. It's dying in rock studios and it's totally dead in the home recording realm.
 
What Greg said.

And, equipment barely matters. As long as your preamps and mics don't completely suck (even the most mediocre will do), the recordings should be good. If they're not, good equipment won't help. I never got much equipment because I was broke, but I spent more time drooling over stuff than recording.
 
I think I speak for most home recording folk when I say, if we had the room, the equipment, and the money to record a drum kit properly, we'd love to! I fully intend to learn how to do it properly at university
 
Yep, what Greg & Aaron spoke of it's tops.
I started out with poor gear but well rehearsed preformances of songs. It worked OK.
I scrambled to buy more gear, (at a budget & 2nd hand), to get my stuff down better & ended up with marginally better recorded poor performances.
I'll sketch a song in a hurry - always have but now, with slightly better gear I find that spending the time to rehearse the performance & then recording it simply works best for me so that the mix becomes a process of combining a set of performances rather than trying to make something that covers up faults, mistakes & combines fragments.
After that - decent monitoring (from speakers to the room) was something I discovered rather late on.
 
Greg_L said:
Tracking good sounds to begin with. I learned it the hard way, and now live by it

No matter how many times it gets said, people still insist on fixing things in the mix, and the software world encourages mediocre tracking techniques. Like drum samples, for example. Awesome drum tracks were recorded for decades without sample replacement. Now n00bs don't even try to record drums without a pile of samples and triggering plug-ins. Or they just point and click their drum tracks. The art and skill of capturing a good drummer on a good sounding kit is just about dead. It's dying in rock studios and it's totally dead in the home recording realm.
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i agree with this so many people are to quick to sample drums instead of capturing them as they should be. i am someone that hates drum replacement plug ins and the excuses that come with them. the point that i might consider replacements is either in a live situation or if you have been giving an awful recording to mix. if your in a studio situation then you have the the time and the space to get everything to sound good from the get go don't be lazy!!!!!!!
 
greg_l said:
tracking good sounds to begin with. I learned it the hard way, and now live by it

no matter how many times it gets said, people still insist on fixing things in the mix, and the software world encourages mediocre tracking techniques. Like drum samples, for example. Awesome drum tracks were recorded for decades without sample replacement. Now n00bs don't even try to record drums without a pile of samples and triggering plug-ins. Or they just point and click their drum tracks. The art and skill of capturing a good drummer on a good sounding kit is just about dead. It's dying in rock studios and it's totally dead in the home recording realm.
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The lost Greg post!!!!! :D
 
aaronmcoleman said:
And, equipment barely matters. As long as your preamps and mics don't completely suck (even the most mediocre will do), the recordings should be good. If they're not, good equipment won't help. I never got much equipment because I was broke, but I spent more time drooling over stuff than recording.
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Well...I'll expand on that and say that when yoou get your recording chops down...better equipment DOES matter.
Before you know what you are doing...a $5k preamp isn't going to save you, and you may not even notice the difference. ;)

There is a reason why pro studios have high-end gear, and it's not just because they have & like to spend more money than we hom-rec guys! :D
 
i would say the best thing to do i go to the source. get a good sounding kit with some good sounding mics and you will get good sounds providing you have good mic placements. all the rest is not necessarily needed as plugins these days are that good.
 
Br3n said:
...all the rest is not necessarily needed as plugins these days are that good.
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Really....??? :D

What exactly is "all the rest" that you feel is not necessarily needed?
eatpopcorn.gif
 
all these external units. there necessarily needed. if you have something that you like then yeah but compressors, gates, reverbs, etc. you can get such good plugins that the external units are not needed. granted they look good when someone walks in a studio but you can do without. aslong as you have a good set of mics then you can get a good recording.
 
Well...there's good plugs...but I can guarantee that there are hardware units that will blow away ANY comparable plug...
...they just cost more than plugs.
Unless you've hands-on tried all level/manner of gear from hardware to software, from the cheapest to the expensive, and you were able to really compare them...
...I would not be too quick to make broad statements about what gear is better/worse or needed/not needed. ;)

I'm not saying this is you...but there's been a million recording newbs who get a computer and some basic stuff, load up on some plugs, and then all of a sudden they are convinced that they have it all figured out about what gear is good/best...etc.
That said...I agree that it doesn't take much these days to be able to record...but that's just the first step. How far you wanna go with it and your overall goals...that's up to the individual.
 
i wouldn't presume to make statements over whats better or worse, needed or not needed because everyone is different and everyone goes about things differently.

yes agreed there will always be hardware better than plugs at the mo but the way its going all digital it wont be long before plugs over take the hardware. but for the home recordist who hasnt got all the money in the world plugs are the way to go i think.
 
Appropriate subtractive EQ across various tracks, to carve out spaces for different instruments/vocals/etc., instead of cranking up the EQ on a problem track(s) to try and make it stand out better in the mix.

That was a biggy for me.

Less is more.
 
Br3n said:
i wouldn't presume to make statements over whats better or worse, needed or not needed because everyone is different and everyone goes about things differently.

yes agreed there will always be hardware better than plugs at the mo but the way its going all digital it wont be long before plugs over take the hardware. but for the home recordist who hasnt got all the money in the world plugs are the way to go i think.
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Well...digital has been around for quite awhile now, and analog hardware hasn't been disappearing. :)
If anything, analog is stronger than ever, though I agree, for the low budget home recordist, digital and plugs are much more accessible.
See...if all you have is plugs, then plugs are YOUR go-to tool. However, if someone has quality hardware, most opt for using the hardware.
I'm not against digital or even using plugs (I do), I'm just suggesting that you saying that plugs are now "that good" that hardware is not necessarily needed anymore, is possibly a myopic perspective stemming from your own recording environment.
I'm saying...if you look beyond that...hardware is in big use and is not going away just because we now have plugs, but if you want to focus primarily on the more typical home rec users, then I agree, plugs rule, and whatever hardware people have besides preamps...is minimal and often the lower-budget fare....and that's cool.
 
Well for me, it's quite a few things.
But as Greg mentioned getting it tracked right, both sound and preformance is key, offcourse this sometimes can be hard to do, say if you don't own a place to record or end up with limited resources in a studio. Or lack of practice.
But lacking in the recording process will bite you in the ass no matter what. (experienced to this day :D )

I have a few more thing that I know now that I did not know then:

Drums, need to be higher in the mix than what I first thought, (I hear this in quite a few other amateur recordings as well)
Watch out for that bass, if you like thick full bass tones like me, (Fender Pre, with tapewound strings) be prepared to have to do some eq cutting or at least watch out for the level, it really muds up the mix real fast.
other things that comes to mind.
Fitting things together eq-wise, cut eq rather than add, specially in the low mids.
Less is more.
 
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