Volume-ness

A

AndrewSales

New member
How do I make what I record louder without having a distortion of any type? My sound seems "incomplete" or without depth. When I compare it to other recordings it sounds "fuller" and more expanded. How do I do this?

- Andrew
 
You just asked the question, "how do I make a better recording", which is what we're all trying to accomplish. It's going to take gear, practice, and a lot of time. You're going to have to learn how to listen to music differently so that you can decide how you want it to sound before you start, and I'm not just talking about a vague idea of goodness. Then you're going to have to learn how to make it sound that way.

Start small, and start specific...it's the only way.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Good advice Slack. Sounds like something some other dude on here is always saying. What's his name?......hmmmmmmm...;)

Compression is not the only solution to making this louder. Sometimes, it comes down to getting sound recorded that are proper.

Mastering can certainly help a mix a bit in terms of loudness, and POSSIBLY, expanding the depth. Depth is tricky though, and usually, it is very hard to add depth to a mix that is already done. In the mixing stage it is possible, but then, the mix really relies upon the tracks that were recorded. Those tracks rely upon getting a good sound out of the intrument too, and that is usually dependent upon the player having good technique. Etc......

I agree that you will need to learn to listen to music in a very different way. In the last couple of years, I have talked a lot with Slackmaster about his recordings and offered simple little things to listen for and try out. I can remember that at times, he wasn't hearing where these little things were making a difference, but in time, he starts hearing it, and it helped him find ways to maximize what he uses to record to achieve the sounds he wants. But Slack is correct when he says that you have to work to get the sound you want. You really do. If you don't have an idea of WHAT sounds good recorded you are less apt to record a good sound. Learning WHAT sounds good recorded is really a matter of trial and error because every artist and every song benefits from different approaches to the recording process. What works for one recording just may not be best for another. Without audio examples, it would be impossible for anyone here to offer any suggestions because we cannot hear what may be the problem.

Also, I have no idea what kind of gear you are using. Let's face it man, you are probably not dealing with a lot of great gear, probably more of the "consumer" type of recording gear. Yes, with a lot of experience, you can use this type of gear to get some pretty impressive recordings, but the fact is that better gear usually means much better sound in the right hands. So, your lack of experience and possible cheaper gear are probably the two things holding back your recordings from sounding the best they can.

Maybe take a look through these links to see if you are missing some things while you are recording/mixing:

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19596

https://homerecording.com/mixing_fundamentals.html

https://homerecording.com/eq_and_effects.html

https://homerecording.com/dynamics.html

https://homerecording.com/robots_tips_and_tricks.html

http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000/thecompressor.html

http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000/Compression.html

http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000/reverb.html

http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000/MixingDrums.html

I am sure that will keep you busy for a bit...:)

Ed
 
Hehe,

Thanks for offering your help to me because I'm really desperate. :)

Here are the equipment I use and the process I use to record.

[Equipment]

1.) Roland XP-30 Synthesizer
2.) Samson Mixpad 9
3.) Roland MA-8 Micro Monitors
4.) Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS sound card and external rack

[Recording Process]
1.) Create MIDI on Cakewalk.
2.) Arm and setup several tracks for recording.
3.) Solo tracks few tracks to record (to reduce polyphony usage of keyboard)
4.) Record until all MIDI tracks are recorded.
5.) Export to audio (Tools | Mixdown Audio | Export to Files (.wav)
6.) Drag and drop icon of newly recorded WAV file to cheap, free MP3 encoder: BladeEnc
7.) Open newly encoded MP3 in Windows Media Player
8.) Drop head in grief while listening to crappy sounds

Ok maybe that 8th step isn't always or necessarily included. Anyway, is there anything I shouldn't do, or any program I should get, or anything that I should do, etc.? Again thanks for your help. :)

- Andrew
 
Errrrrrrrrrrrrr....I have spent HOURS typing, editing, rewording, etc....the stuff I linked to above. THAT is my offer of help. Read and you shall learn much.....

Ed
 
I looked through all those articles, and sadly didn't understand a word of what you say. Well, maybe the important words and phrases I only don't understand, such as "turning up all the tracks", "eq," and lots others I found while reading the articles. All I'm recording from is a keyboard so does this mean that there is only one track to "turn up"? Also, is there an article you have that explains what this High, Low, Aux 1 Pre, Aux 2, Pan, Balance, stuff are on my mixer? And how come I don't have an "eq" on my mixer? Is that something on Cakewalk? And why do I have to slightly pull out the Main Output Right and Aux Ret 3/4 (right) in order to have a balance between left and right? Sorry, for having all these questions...

- Andrew
 
You might try upgrading your soundcard first.

Your left/right balance problems could be either that you are recording stereo track from the keyboard and they are mixed within the keyboard with that imbalance, or that your soundcards inputs and not matched very well.

I am not a Cakewalk user, but I will make an assumption that Hi and Lo ARE your eq's, albiet, very limited eq's. You can insert a directX plugin over the tracks, but it would be better if you actually record a track that sounds the way you would want it to sound. Aux 1 and Aux 2 are Auxillary Sends. You can use these to send several tracks of audio to say a reverb plug in and adjust seperately how much reverb each track will get.

Blade Encoder is not considered to be a very good mp3 encoder at 128kbs (it's default compression setting). I use Audio Production Studio with a Fraunhofer codec. Blade will work just fine if you can get it to encode at 192kbs or higher, but, your mp3's will be quite a bit bigger too. Also, Blade uses a command line interface to change it's settings, and I have found that it doesn't always work when you try to change it.

If you think you are going to get great results from recording in the manner that you do, and I mean results that compare favorably to professionally produced CD's, well, your chances are very slim indeed. In addition, you don't seem to have that much experience in recording, thus, you should approach what you are doing right now as part of a learning curve. It is quite possible that the recordings you are comparing yours to enjoyed MUCH better equipment to record with, and engineers with YEARS of experience, and a producer that knew how to get everything jiving. Most of your questions so far have been very broad in nature or showed a lack of knowledge in basic stuff about recording. You might gain more by taking things a step at a time like inquiring in the Cakewalk forum we have heard about how to USE the features in the mixer section of Cakewalk.

http://www.homerecording.com , this sites main page has some more of the basics about recording. Feel free to check it out.

Good luck.
Ed
 
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