Tips and Advice - Cubase LE4

[Halon451]

Hello all - first post in the forum, and a relative noob to the world of DIY recording. This seemed like a good community and a great source of knowledge as I'm getting my feet underneath me in this recording stuff, thought I would introduce myself.

As per my signature you can see the basic setup I'm running - I am the drummer for my band, and have taken on the role as our default "recording engineer"... something that sprang from meager beginnings back when we just decided to record a few practices on a cheap 4-track. At this point, I've sunk several hundred dollars into it, and have gotten a pretty good idea of how to use it all, yet there's always new stuff to learn, and I'm hoping the collective knowledge and wisdom here can help guide me.

My band plays primarily a dark, heavy style of rock - metal, not necessarily fast, but heavy, sometimes tribal, and sometimes we incorporate other styles into the writing (i.e., blues scales, jazz beats, weird drum loops, etc., you name it). Think Tool meets ISIS, meets Clutch meets.. Soulfly or some similar band.

I'm really trying to get my head around the actual mixing process at this point - I've gotten some very decent mixes thus far (far better than I could have imagined a few months ago), but a few things still bother me.

1. Still unclear as to proper compression settings and where and how much should be applied (currently compressing kick drum, snare). I like a good punchy sound from the kick and crisp throaty kind of snare sound.
2. EQ - any advice on how best to utilize EQ parameters for a good thick sound, and the balance between say - kick drum's low end and bass guitar (have read a few times that they should not occupy the same frequency zone), and ON the subject of EQ - how best to bring out my toms in the mix to give them the full, round attack I'm wanting to hear?
3. Limiters - use of, or lack thereof... not sure if I should apply or not, and if so, how much?
4. Normalization? Seems the jury is quite divided on this depending on which half of the web you're searching...
5. Compression of the final mix - yes or no?

Overall, I believe I can get a very good quality sound from my meager setup, but these above tricks still kind of elude me and at best I've found myself kind of stabbing around at them, sometimes getting it right, sometimes not... in a major way... hehe.

So sorry for the long initial post, just figured I would cover my intro and questions all in one post...

Thanks very much in advance for any assistance!!

 

[RAMI]

.

At this point, I've sunk several hundred dollars into it,

Lol! You say that as if it's a lot of money for gear.

1. Still unclear as to proper compression settings and where and how much should be applied (currently compressing kick drum, snare). I like a good punchy sound from the kick and crisp throaty kind of snare sound.
2. EQ - any advice on how best to utilize EQ parameters for a good thick sound, and the balance between say - kick drum's low end and bass guitar (have read a few times that they should not occupy the same frequency zone), and ON the subject of EQ - how best to bring out my toms in the mix to give them the full, round attack I'm wanting to hear?
3. Limiters - use of, or lack thereof... not sure if I should apply or not, and if so, how much?
4. Normalization? Seems the jury is quite divided on this depending on which half of the web you're searching...
5. Compression of the final mix - yes or no?

I know this is not what you want to hear, but none of the things you listed above has a "setting" that anyone can recommend (though I'm sure some bozo will come into this thread and tell you "how" to compress your snare or kik or "how" to EQ your vocals or whatever).

The fact is, your ears will tell you what you need or don't need. And that comes from practice, practice and more practice.

 

[Halon451]

Lol! You say that as if it's a lot of money for gear.

Ha! True, very true - but keep in mind I'm also just getting started, and cost is a relative term. If I had thousands to toss around I would, but after spending money on my drums, rent for our rehearsal space and other expenses, the hundreds spent (closer to between $1K and $1500 actually) on recording gear is of far greater significance. Unfortunately I do not have an unlimited budget to work with here, so doing the best I can with what I've got.

I know this is not what you want to hear, but none of the things you listed above has a "setting" that anyone can recommend (though I'm sure some bozo will come into this thread and tell you "how" to compress your snare or kik or "how" to EQ your vocals or whatever).

The fact is, your ears will tell you what you need or don't need. And that comes from practice, practice and more practice.

Understand, completely, but there still has to be at least a general ballpark idea for the type of music we are recording that will at least get me going in the right direction, and from there of course I can fine tune it as I get more practice and experience and trust what my ears are telling me... that's all I'm after at this point. Some very basic tips, maybe something of a bell curve of what others do for this type of music, if that makes sense. Thanks for the reply.