THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US NEWBIES AND PROs

Y

yesdog

New member
MY brother is a professional recording engineer. I do drum tracks at my house and send to him to mix. we use the same software. I went over for a lesson with him. He told me record my drums and mix until I think it sounds good.
I go over with my laptop and plugged into his system and showed him my handy work.
ME- I hade four compressor settings on four different tracks,aux track yet another compressor and reverb, on the master track a leveler.
The profesional- He used a touch of EQ on each of my drums ( my drums are on seperate tracks 8 ) and some light EQ they sounded amazing. here are some pics of the difference of a pro and a rookie
 

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i must respond...

if you did all the mic'ing and that, what makes you think that you are any less? yea... you compressed this and that 'poorly' (matter of opinion), but who cares? sounds to me like he had something good to work with and only needed to EQ things a bit. sounds to me like you knew what you were doing to mic them properly. besides... compression can be used for good things... as EQ can... as minimal touch ups can... as dry as a bone can... it's all about application... but nice work on mic'ing them properly and playing them properly in the first place... to me... that's 80 - 90 percent of the work.

s
 
A race car mechanic who knows what he's doing can make your POS sedan burn rubber all the way down the street.

It's all in knowing what to do....
 
One of the things I notice in various forums is that some people are more into gear than actual recording.In other words,they feel like they have to use it just because they got it and the only thing keeping their recordings from being great is the next piece of gear that they don't have.
 
acidrock said:
One of the things I notice in various forums is that some people are more into gear than actual recording.In other words,they feel like they have to use it just because they got it and the only thing keeping their recordings from being great is the next piece of gear that they don't have.
Click to expand...
This is by far the biggest problem out there.


I was lucky enough to get a job working under old pros. My first day on the board they yanked my compressors and 'verbs.

Them- Why are you using those?

Me- 'Cause you're s'posed to.

Them- Orly?

Me- Ya, rly

Them- You chowda' head. Use that stuff when you hear a problem that needs it.

Me- Ooooohhhhhhhh....




You learn 10 times faster once you know that processing has very little to do with it. You stop banging your head on a wall going "Why aren't these compressor settings making this professional?!" and you start focusing on how to make the dry recording professional in the first place.
 
Chibi Nappa said:
This is by far the biggest problem out there.


I was lucky enough to get a job working under old pros. My first day on the board they yanked my compressors and 'verbs.

Them- Why are you using those?

Me- 'Cause you're s'posed to.

Them- Orly?

Me- Ya, rly

Them- You chowda' head. Use that stuff when you hear a problem that needs it.

Me- Ooooohhhhhhhh....




You learn 10 times faster once you know that processing has very little to do with it. You stop banging your head on a wall going "Why aren't these compressor settings making this professional?!" and you start focusing on how to make the dry recording professional in the first place.
Click to expand...

Everybody - I see :cool: :D
 
Chibi Nappa said:
You learn 10 times faster once you know that processing has very little to do with it. You stop banging your head on a wall going "Why aren't these compressor settings making this professional?!" and you start focusing on how to make the dry recording professional in the first place.
Click to expand...

It always comes back to this.

My personal turning point was when I bought UAD plugs,which I love and don't regret buying.What turned me off were people complaining they couldn't get a gazillion instances of plugs and all the talk of fifty tracks with EQ,compression,delay,verb,blah,blah,blah.When I questioned this in a reply to a thread the response I got was"I don't want to be limited by technology".:eek:I realised technology had stopped being a tool and had now become a crutch.

I also now know that my biggest limitation was and still is my lack of talent musically.My music is nothing to brag about but it's much better than when I started and the less is more approach is a big part of that.I'd rather retrack than turd polish

Now don't get me wrong,I'd love to have a ton of great gear,and crappy gear doesn't do a lot of justice to music,but after a certain point the returns on your money start to diminish.

Much like going on a diet some people would rather take a magic pill than do the actual work.
 
moresound said:
Ya big difference huh? and what did you learn from this?
Now are you sure all he did was to add a little EQ? In your first post you said that he added EQ twice, I didn't know if you meant to type something else.
Is the verb on the drums natural,your addition,or your brothers?
Click to expand...

I tried to remember what he did. His version has my drums more natural and not as many effects. He works so fast , its like watching a chef. A dash of this and a touch of that. I am still learning. I am currently using samson drum mics. and it was recorded using a zoom R16 as an interface. The DAW I am using is digital performer6 by motu.
Thanks for listening. We did add a touch of reverb to the snare.
 
That's interesting that you got(tracked) the drums and then your brother mixed them to sound that good with only Samson mics.
I guess that says a lot for you, your brother and the MICS.
Now is that Samson all around the set?
Truth of the matter is I use the Samson CO1 (i believe that's the model ) for over heads when I'm doing live sound in a multi band situation and they do an alright generic job.
 
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