want a better "sound", this is meaningless!!!

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zimzimma

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I've been trying to get da perfect "sound" on my songs for month now, the voice doesn't "fit in the beat" and that's very disappointing. I usually record and do a mixdown (Newb). Everyone uses effects and such things, but i don't know how to do that. I read manuals but i still don't know (pre-sets and settings). I have a conden. mic and a Preamp so the sound should be good.

So i wonder if ya'll can share your experiences of when you record, and of what you do when you record (step by step).


dis is whått i recorded recently.. the beat is noisy so it's not the mic if ya'll wonder.. (u gotta have soundclick);

"http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/donescomusic.htm"

i just put on some reverb, hard limiting, dynamic processing and graphic equaliser as people told me.. but my settings are not good!!! And still i don't know exactly how to manage it!! Give me advices on how i can get better "sound" on my songs.. Tips and advices from "start to mixdown" please, cuz dis is MÄDWACK :(
 
1. Soundclick says the song hasn't "cleared" yet.

2. You might consider posting this thread in the MP3 mixing clinic or (if you need a place to upload it), in the "Listening Room" at www.recordingproject.com.

3. I don't know shiznit about mixing hip hop...good luck
 
Zimzimma, is this a Cool Edit question? Does this thread belong in this forum? It seems to me to be more of a mixing question, right?
 
Yeah, maybe it's a mixing question.. but i'm new to this gam :)

You can delete this thread now! Bye
 
chrisharris said:
1. Soundclick says the song hasn't "cleared" yet.

2. You might consider posting this thread in the MP3 mixing clinic or (if you need a place to upload it), in the "Listening Room" at www.recordingproject.com.

3. I don't know shiznit about mixing hip hop...good luck

that website was hugely helpful..

I now understand EQ'ing and Fading.
 
Zimmaman.....

Reverb and effects are really important, but an epiphany i came across after being bit by the recording bug is "compression". Read up a bit on this, you can find the "compressor in CEP under Effects>Amplitude>dynamics processing. check that out, try 4:12 with a -10db threshold at first, but research to fully understand what your doing. EQ is also important.

Check out this pdf for some good pointers and techniques...

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/OzoneMasteringGuide.pdf

a rule of thumb...compress first eq last...
 
zimzimma said:
Give me advices on how i can get better "sound" on my songs.. Tips and advices from "start to mixdown" please, cuz dis is MÄDWACK :(

Go to a professional studio.
 
chessrock

i don't have acces to a professional studio yet, i must do these songs in my "studio" so they hear it. Then maybe if they like it i'm in :)
 
chessrock said:
Go to a professional studio.
Holy Crap...that was INCREDIBLY helpful!!!! I never knew I could do that.

Let me state that it is AWESOME to receive such support and insight from people who are willing to donate their time and knowledge...like you...chessrock....

I'll assume you're having a bad day and not really a total jackass, HA!!!

(by the way, this was moved here from another forum, so go easy)
 
Dear ChessRock

In being cynical
A margin of wit
Wouldn't go amiss
You little twit.
 
Actually buying a couple of hours from a reputable studio might be a cool thing to do that could answer some questions real quick and would be tailor-made for the specifics of your sound. Then you could apply what you learned in your own studio later. There must be one in your area somewhere.

A session or 2 might save you 3 months of experimenting since it sounds like you have a deadline. It either takes your time or money for studio time (if you don't have time to learn it yourself in a short period like a month). :)
 
chrisharris said:
Let me state that it is AWESOME to receive such support and insight from people who are willing to donate their time and knowledge...like you...chessrock....


I thought my advice was very fitting. I know it may look like I just skimmed over his post and threw out some generic smartass response. :D But actually, I paid close attention to his wording. And I thought my response was fitting and relevent.

To get in to any more detail would require a book's worth of stuff . . .

1) Start with proper mic selection / technique. You get there by experimenting, reading, studying practicing and more practicing. Condensers versus dynamics versus ribbons . . . etc. etc. Harvey's "big thread" in the mic forum is a great place to start for this kind of thing.

Then you move on to gainstaging. Again, more reading and practice involved there.

2) . . moving on to room accoustics, you'll want to study up on some key terms. Namely standing waves, flutter echoe, early reflectsions, decay, size, diffusion, absorption . . .

3) You'll also want to develop an understanding of where the various frequencies of the human voice lie; the sibilant range, the plosive range, etc. As well as how to work a multiband or sidechain comp to effectively deal with those ranges . . . you could fill a whole chapter on setting attack/release times and crossover points, I suppose. Again, more reading assignments for you, and more stuff to practice.

And speaking of frequencies . . . I totally forgot, but you're going to want to go back at some point and study the physics of sound. That's actually a good thing to start out with. It's extremely helpful understanding what sound is . . . how it creates differences in air pressure, peaks and troughs and how all of that relates to the creation of different notes.

. . . And how our ears pass all that stuff on to our brains. That's probably the most important aspect of recording right there. The more you understand how this all relates to the brain and how our brain makes sense of it all . . . then you'll be ready for the big leagues. I'm certainly not there yet, but someday my friend. The more you know about transducers, the more you start to see a bigger picture in all this mess. How the air acts as a medium and how our ears act as transducers for our brains and how our brains act as transducers to our souls. I just made all that up by the way. :D

Understanding things like Sine Waves and Square waves, harmonics and overtones might be a little more advanced . . . and I could certainly use some brushing up on that stuff as that's easily my weak area. I hate to admit this, but I don't know a sine from a square from an octagon wave. :D

4) Then, of course, you'll want to practice feeling your way around a paragraphic EQ if you want to get any good at it. Familiarize yourself with things like shelving, notching, "Q" settings, etc. and really get good at knowing how this all affects the sound.

5)Then there's techniques like parallel compression that are popular with vocal mixing -- this might be easy to grasp but trickier in practice; definitely worth exploring. But compression, in general, is something you'll need to understand and become skilled with if you ever hope to be good with the rap or hip-hop genre. I can't stress that enough.

You'll want to understand attack, release, and ratio setings . . . and something I can't exactly convey in writing, which is "listening" for compression and the effects it has. That's something you just have to hear and learn yourself . . . but think of it in terms of "punch," sustain, and impact. Common non-technical terms we associate with it all. But it all boils down to dynamics . . . and dynamics are where it's at.

Think of it like this . . . if you could look at sound, the dynamics would be like it's texture or symetry.

If you could hold sound, then the dynamics would most certainly determine it's eleasticity . . . it's density . . . it's consistancy . . . even it's viscosity.

Have I gotten in to the difference between opto and VCA compression yet? No? How about knee? Average/peak? Do I even want to get in to limiting just yet, or should that be another chapter? :D

Alright, I'm definitely going to want to get in to reverb at some point. This is a tough one, because there are a lot of spacial and directional cues involved this -- where a voice is going to sit in a 3-dimensional spectrum will be greatly effected by the pre-delay time, so we'll want to get in to that. Then there's diffusion and decay time . . . all of which should occupy at least one good, solid chapter describing them and what their effects are on the perceived size of the accoustic space you're trying to convey or create an illusion for.

And I haven't even gotten in to the creative aspect of it all. Maybe / sort of.

Man, I'm tired already.

Just get a book or something. :D
 
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zimzimma said:
i just put on some reverb, hard limiting, dynamic processing and graphic equaliser as people told me.. but my settings are not good!!! And still i don't know exactly how to manage it!! Give me advices on how i can get better "sound" on my songs.. Tips and advices from "start to mixdown" please, cuz dis is MÄDWACK :(

Make sure to get a dope eq in there, bust out some funky compression, drop some mad reverb, hit it with a fly limiter and lay down plenty of fresh mix automation and your tracks will be the shizzle.

Oh yeah, and upping the soar always helps.
 
chessrock said:
Understanding things like Sine Waves and Square waves, harmonics and overtones might be a little more advanced . . . and I could certainly use some brushing up on that stuff as that's easily my weak area. I hate to admit this, but I don't know a sine from a square from an octagon wave. :D

Sine wave is a single frequency. Square wave is made of odd multiples off the fundamental frequency with decreasing amplitude.

See the attachment for a visual. The plots on the left are what you would see if you zoomed in on the waveform view. Plots on the right are what you would see in a frequency analysis/spectral view. On the bottom right plot you need to multiply the x-axis numbers by 100 as they are plotted as mulitples of the 100 Hz fundamental frequency.
 

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You can also try illmuzik.com, their site is all about hip hop recording/producing/mixing.
 
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