to get an idea of ther scale of things

[guitarboi89]

would it be possible for someone to send me a fully recorded cubase project so i can see what sort of scale i need to be recording at to provide decent recordings for my friends bands etc
i have cubase sx 2 if that makes a difference

 

[Markaholic]

check out the mp3 clinic from time to time.....theres always some sort of full length project that xfinsterx hosts...called the Public Mix Contest...or PMC for short!

 

[guitarboi89]

thanks

 

[Halion]

The program doesn't really say anything about the size or quality of a project. Some of the best and most complicated albums (lots of automation, strange FX, doubling etc.) are made entirely without a digital sequencer like Cubase. However, if you want to know all that you can do with Cubase, that's another thing, which would take many, many pages, if not books, to explain.

Also, I'd say the sequencer has about the least of all things an effect on the quality of a song. You get "decent" from a decent musician using decent mics into decent preamps used with a decent amount of skill recording on a decent format, and so on and so on, all without using even a single byte.

 

[hueseph]

would it be possible for someone to send me a fully recorded cubase project so i can see what sort of scale i need to be recording at to provide decent recordings for my friends bands etc
i have cubase sx 2 if that makes a difference

Not to mention that a fully recorded song can be Huge! a ten minute song can take up a gig of space no problem. Imagine sending that to someones email. Think about a track for each drum mic plus overheads. That's easily 8 tracks for a simple 5 pce kit, at 25 megs per track, that's already 125 mb. then there's layers of guitars, bass, vox, bg vox, fills, any odd noises you want to add in, keys. All of a sudden your 80 gig drive doesn't seem big enough anymore.

The scope of a project depends entirely on the producer and engineer. The producer knows what he wants to hear. The engineer does what he can to acheive those results. If you are wearing both hats, you need to have a good idea of what you want to hear when it's done. Knowing how to get there is another thing all together. Most of the time it's trial and error but having a bag of tricks to dig through really helps. That means you need to take the time to go to jams, and know every song because in the end you want the result to be the same as the result they want. Take your time before you even get levels on a mic. If you have a plan in mind before you start, things will go a lot smoother.

My two bits.

 

[Bonz]

Reply to Hueseph

This is very interesting because I am currently recording practically everything direct through my board out to Cubase. I have read on this forum time and again that most of you if not all mic pretty much everything. On other forums here especially Mixing/Mastering, I have spend a lot of time trying to determine why I'm not getting anything close to radio quality mixdowns. In one reply, somebody mentioned my room ambience and things of that sort. Going direct eliminates room response. Also, most of my instrumentation is keyboards, V-Drums, guitart and vocals which I patch through the board. Is this where I'm going wrong?

 

[Halion]

Bonz, you forget that by going direct you are not JUST negating the room influence, but also the influence of two very important things:
- Natural various in things like guitar and drums, which can make recordings quite a bit more realistic.
- Air. Even if it's only 2" of air, it's there and it colors your sound in a very good way always.

If you are using the instrumentation that you want to use, then by all means use them. But perhaps you are trying to reach a sound that is not actually coming from your instruments, and you need to start checking out acoustical/non-direct stuff?

 

[Bonz]

I have definantly noticed that although I can get a real nice sound through my guitar tracks, they don't compare with what I get on live gigs. Especially with the V-Drums, here I spend hours attempting to get a real acoustic kit sound. What I have now is probably the closes I'll ever come to it.

I don't saturate my sound with much effects. I use an outboard reverb (M-One) that I love (very quite) and I add the Cakewalk EQ 4band in Cubase on each track. Maybe a touch of delay on vocals if needed to hide my abilities.

Since my board is limited (only 16 tracks) I can't mic everything so I take advantage of the stereo factor for my instruments.

* There is someting to be said for what your talking about because I'm not getting radio quality results from my projects imo and this is a real problem for me right now. I spend more time trying to get the sound right instead of playing & writing the freakin music.

 

[hueseph]

In regards to input: does your mixer actually have 16 physical connections to your computer? If not then really you are limited to only two inputs or however many inputs your sound card/audio interface has. In which case you will have to mix any tracks more than two before they even hit your soundcard. That could be a problem in itself. If you are sending multiple outs from your keys to the mixer, you're really only getting a stereo sub mix to Cubase.

The bottom line is, the quality of your recordings is as good as the weakest link. If your mic is cheap it's gonna sound cheap and there's nothing you can do to make it sound like an expensive mic. If your micing technique is poor, your recording will sound poor. If your synth has cheesy presets, your song is going to sound cheesy.

In regards to drums: take a look at some loop libraries like Discreet Drums. I recently purchased Beta Monkey, which is a drum library of all live drums. They have a lot of styles and the price is very reasonable. http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/

 

[Bonz]

Yep ... I have a Mackie 1604 going into a Delta-66 .. which has 4ins/4outs
Currently I am going out L/R into the breakout box 1/2 and coming out 1/2 into my stereo amp for monitoring and mixing. I am under the belief that what I am hearing from the Stereo is what is coming from CuBase and when I listen through the cans, I'm hearing what is coming into the board. The sound through the phones is very clean and clear but for some reason, I can't seem to duplicate that sound coming out from Cubase.

I'm thinking maybe my soundcard is weak .. or something (not sure)

 

[hueseph]

So, you have 6 physical connections not 16. The mixer has 16 channels but you can only send 6 individual tracks at a time to the delta 66 unless you do a submix. This is of course assuming that you are using all four busses and the tape outs at the same time to send to the delta. When you go from the 1604 to your stereo, you should be running from the "monitor out" to an auxilliary or phono in on the stereo.

 

[Atterion]

So, you have 6 physical connections not 16. The mixer has 16 channels but you can only send 6 individual tracks at a time to the delta 66 unless you do a submix. This is of course assuming that you are using all four busses and the tape outs at the same time to send to the delta. When you go from the 1604 to your stereo, you should be running from the "monitor out" to an auxilliary or phono in on the stereo.

Only 4 analog. The other 2 I/O are S/PDIF on the Delta-66.

If you only require 2 simultaneously recording channels (As you are apperently utulizing now), try this. Route all you're inputs to the mixer, conect the subgroup outputs to you're Delta inputs (1/2). Send the Delta outs for monitoring back to mixer via Tape inputs (Be sure the output level in the M-Audio control panel is set to the proper level to match the Mackie's inputs). Now connect your monitor's to the Main outs (Or ctrl room outs). You can now monitor both live inputs (select Main bus for routing and for routing of any external effects)) and Cubase through the mixer. To enable recording for any given live input, simply assign it to the Subs too, which will send a dry signal with no FX to Cubase. If you use control outs for monitoring, that will free up the main outs to go to the second set of Delta inputs (3/4), and you can simply choose those as the inputs to record in cubase, and will allow you to record fully effected tracks if need be (But with this routing you would need to mute any other inputs feeding the Mackie mains that you don't want recorded, whereas with using the Subgroup method you ain't gotta mute nothing). Hope I didn't confuse you here.