Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Dudes, I've been recording on and off for let's say 3 or 4 years now. In truth I've been dabbling since around 2005 or so...but only in the last few years with a room to do it in and some decent gear. I'm a home hobby dude...guitar player...mediocre...not a good singer, especially when the mic is on and the REC light is on. I use vst drums and play everything else. I'm fully prepared to wear it that:
a) I'm not a good musician
b) I'm not a good song writer or arranger
c) my performances are mediocre
d) I'm inexperienced (but man, I've done a lot of mixes)
e) my monitoring situation MIGHT be my biggest problem
My problem is that my mixes suck like a vortex of sh1t like 49 times out of 50. I have managed to jag a couple of, to me, and others have said, pretty ok mixes. But most of them suck.
I hear real music and it's effortlessly smooth and balanced. It blends seamlessly with itself and doesn't have a shred out of place...there's no crazy overtones or boom or harshness or deficiency. It's natural and sounds just like it should sound.
Then there's my stuff which pretty much always sounds great...in my Senn 600 headphones and Yamaha HS8 speaks. I can mix a great sound in those cans and on those speakers. But when I hear my stuff elsewhere, as thousands of people have said, and as is a well known problem...it...just...sucks.
What appeared to be well balanced and well crafted is revealed to be...a vortex of poo.
The reverb I thought I had on the vocal has disappeared. It's dry and weak. The guitar fill that sounded perfectly balanced with the track now sounds 10db too loud. The vocal sounds thin and inept. The guitars that I spent an age finding the right sound for now sound harsh...they make my 5 inch speakers that I have rigged to my lounge sound system almost shake with harsh weird, spikey resonance. My stupendous Martin D28 acoustic guitar sounds like a $45 fake Yamaha knock off. It doesn't even sound like an acoustic guitar. It sounds like I strung fishing line between two coat hangers and strummed the contraption with a piece of apple peel. The bass guitar that had sounded right in the pocket now sounds crazily loud in all the wrong places. The Addictive Drum stuff or EZdrummer stuff that comes pre-mixed to a high standard anyway now sounds, unbelievably, like the snare is a dull hammer smashing on my skull and the cymbals are spiking into my ear like sharpened chopsticks.
You get the idea, I'm sure.
I just don't get how I can put on (let's say the Rolling Stone's "Angie"...and yeah I know it was written, tracked, mixed etc by elite geniuses the whole way)...so Angie...I have like 6 sets of headphones...a quick roll call...600's, 880's, 7506, 770's, m50's, m70's, Yamaha 220, Senn 280...I mean I have a lot of headphones...I put on Angie through ANY headphone...it sounds like Angie...the individual characteristics of the headphones can't stop Angie from sounding just like Angie. But...
...I put my song mix on each headphone...and it's an unmitigated BLOOBATH...it lurches in tonal characteristic from one headphone to the next...leaving me a jabbering, twisted mess curled into a ball on the floor wondering what the hell I need to do to make it stop. Here it sounds thin and reedy...tinny and cold...the next headphone makes it sound flabby and woofy and drowned out with honk and wool.
I close my eyes and choose one of the scattered headphones on the floor, plug it in and put on Angie...perfection. Doesn't matter what headphone.
So, I'm at the point where I'm thinking that this gig is not for me. Maybe it's time to sell up the gear and end the torture. I'm just going from one mixing nightmare to the next. I like writing songs and I like recording them pretty much. It's fun and while I'm doing it I feel as if this song is going to turn out good...but it pretty much never does.
I see people pick up guitars, acoustic or electric, on youtube and just play away on camera and it sounds 100 times better than me with my U87 and LA610 combo in my "studio". I just don't get how people can appear to do this at will...and all I seem to encounter is one horrific recording after another. But it's more than that...I think the recordings are decent enough...it's in mixing that I think I truly suck.
I can't get past being able to mix stuff that sounds good on my 600's and HS8's...and that suck everywhere else. And I can't work out how Angie plays good on all headphones...but my mix sounds wildly different on all headphones.
Sorry for the RANTTTTTT
Any tips?
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a) I'm not a good musician
b) I'm not a good song writer or arranger
c) my performances are mediocre
d) I'm inexperienced (but man, I've done a lot of mixes)
e) my monitoring situation MIGHT be my biggest problem
My problem is that my mixes suck like a vortex of sh1t like 49 times out of 50. I have managed to jag a couple of, to me, and others have said, pretty ok mixes. But most of them suck.
I hear real music and it's effortlessly smooth and balanced. It blends seamlessly with itself and doesn't have a shred out of place...there's no crazy overtones or boom or harshness or deficiency. It's natural and sounds just like it should sound.
Then there's my stuff which pretty much always sounds great...in my Senn 600 headphones and Yamaha HS8 speaks. I can mix a great sound in those cans and on those speakers. But when I hear my stuff elsewhere, as thousands of people have said, and as is a well known problem...it...just...sucks.
What appeared to be well balanced and well crafted is revealed to be...a vortex of poo.
The reverb I thought I had on the vocal has disappeared. It's dry and weak. The guitar fill that sounded perfectly balanced with the track now sounds 10db too loud. The vocal sounds thin and inept. The guitars that I spent an age finding the right sound for now sound harsh...they make my 5 inch speakers that I have rigged to my lounge sound system almost shake with harsh weird, spikey resonance. My stupendous Martin D28 acoustic guitar sounds like a $45 fake Yamaha knock off. It doesn't even sound like an acoustic guitar. It sounds like I strung fishing line between two coat hangers and strummed the contraption with a piece of apple peel. The bass guitar that had sounded right in the pocket now sounds crazily loud in all the wrong places. The Addictive Drum stuff or EZdrummer stuff that comes pre-mixed to a high standard anyway now sounds, unbelievably, like the snare is a dull hammer smashing on my skull and the cymbals are spiking into my ear like sharpened chopsticks.
You get the idea, I'm sure.
I just don't get how I can put on (let's say the Rolling Stone's "Angie"...and yeah I know it was written, tracked, mixed etc by elite geniuses the whole way)...so Angie...I have like 6 sets of headphones...a quick roll call...600's, 880's, 7506, 770's, m50's, m70's, Yamaha 220, Senn 280...I mean I have a lot of headphones...I put on Angie through ANY headphone...it sounds like Angie...the individual characteristics of the headphones can't stop Angie from sounding just like Angie. But...
...I put my song mix on each headphone...and it's an unmitigated BLOOBATH...it lurches in tonal characteristic from one headphone to the next...leaving me a jabbering, twisted mess curled into a ball on the floor wondering what the hell I need to do to make it stop. Here it sounds thin and reedy...tinny and cold...the next headphone makes it sound flabby and woofy and drowned out with honk and wool.
I close my eyes and choose one of the scattered headphones on the floor, plug it in and put on Angie...perfection. Doesn't matter what headphone.
So, I'm at the point where I'm thinking that this gig is not for me. Maybe it's time to sell up the gear and end the torture. I'm just going from one mixing nightmare to the next. I like writing songs and I like recording them pretty much. It's fun and while I'm doing it I feel as if this song is going to turn out good...but it pretty much never does.
I see people pick up guitars, acoustic or electric, on youtube and just play away on camera and it sounds 100 times better than me with my U87 and LA610 combo in my "studio". I just don't get how people can appear to do this at will...and all I seem to encounter is one horrific recording after another. But it's more than that...I think the recordings are decent enough...it's in mixing that I think I truly suck.
I can't get past being able to mix stuff that sounds good on my 600's and HS8's...and that suck everywhere else. And I can't work out how Angie plays good on all headphones...but my mix sounds wildly different on all headphones.
Sorry for the RANTTTTTT
Any tips?
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