I mix in the shed. And that room is super far from treated. Hahaha. But it's pretty dead, and there's no issues with flutters or weird build ups (well, for the most part). And I just have a pair of powered near fields. It's really nothing elaborate. And thanks, I had a really nice Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure I gained about 4 pounds.
Well, you're definitely doing something right even with the lack of treatment! I listened to the latest album quite a bit while I was breaking in my new monitors, and it sounds great in my somewhat adequately treated bachelor apartment "studio".haha
Assuming you have a good mic for it, stomp on the floor, hit random things with a soft mallet (briefcase, pillow, wall, whatever). You can always enhance/tighten up the low end in the mix with a good pultec style eq plugin and one of those transient designer type plugins.
Hey Ben - thanks for sharing the stems for Ghost Towns....really cool to hear those tracks solo'd and always helps me to have some good reference tracks. My guess is that you had a lot more tracks to begin with and combined/rendered some of them into single stems?
That looks awesome! Good work. Glitch cover the ones I use. Luggage works well. Pillows too. And you can layer a synthetic drum underneath it to give it more bass, or roundness, or what have you. I often use a floor tom with a mallet instead of a kick drum. Yeah, I combined a lot. The drums were probably 15 separate tracks. If I uploaded everything individually, the files would be kinda silly.
So I am attempting to mix a track I recorded that has piano. The way I micd it was two ldc by the bench pointing up towards the open top of the upright. It sounded good when we were recording but as I try to mix it I notice a lot of bleed and the low end seems to be lacking punch and mostly has more of an atmospheric sound. When I try to eq it i seem to fix some problems while creating others. Does any body have tips to help me out here? The piano had the sustain pedal engaged most of the song to have that ethereal kind of sound they produce but I am wondering if it is causing some of the problems. I might post a rough track or just the piano if anyone wants to give it a listen and suggest things to me. I am not opposed to rerecording at all but my friend who played the piano would probably appreciate if I examined problems on my end before I have him record again.
Hey everyone, Lately i have bought my first audio interface! ( Yamaha Audiogram 3) I am really excited about starting to record. I already got myself used with Reason 5 but i noticed that you can't add audio tracks.. Is it true that you cant record your your guitar/vocals/etc directly from the audio interface in Reason 5? if yes, what software should i use and if no, where can find the button to add an audio track. I also thought about using the vocoder without any effects but i think that inst the right way to easily record your instruments... right? I hope you can help out a poor fellow that really wants to record his instruments on some computer software.
That's one of the tough things about recording. It's really all about relationships. How things sound solo'd doesn't actually matter all that much. It's getting everything to play well together that's the trick. If you wanna post, I can see what I gather from it. But here's how I generally approach piano: I almost always mic in stereo (but there are rare times when I prefer mono). I usually mic the soundboard instead of the hammers. On an upright piano, this is typically the back of the piano, but I mic it from the front. So down near the legs, aimed upwards, usually about 3 to 4 feet out. I mic the hammers when if the playing is busy and more articulate and I need it to stand out. But that's kind rare. I'm not real good at piano, so it's mostly chords and simple leads. And even still, I usually have more luck with the soundboard and just EQing a bunch of upper mids into it. So it's really not often that I mic it that way. But it also depends on the piano. If it's a really dark sounding piano, I imagine I'd use the hammers more. Not sure if that helps, but that's usually how I approach it.
Yes, Reason is sequencing software. So you can use it to generate sounds with a keyboard, or make synthesizers, or arrange samples. Definitely really useful when working alone. It will give you access to lots of different sounds to work with. But to record straight into something, you need recording software. I use a program called Reaper: http://reaper.fm/ It's inexpensive, and works really well. Lots of options, and there are plenty of tutorials on youtube and the forums to get you started on how to use it. It can all be a little overwhelming at first, but just stick with it and it'll all make sense soon enough.
Thanks for the advice, i'll try some different positions and see if i can't find something that works.
Ben - you're a super nice guy for helping folks out . I can't wait to hear your new records. I'm a big fan and so are my wife, son, and just about anyone I share your music with. I know you're super busy too, but if you or anyone on here has time to give me some feedback on my latest 2 songs/mixes I'd certainly appreciate it. I just recently started this project with a friend of mine since my band recently dissolved. I've been trying to improve my mixing skills reading various books/online material, but I still find that sometimes my mixes don't translate well to other systems....I suppose I'm learning just as much through trial and error. I use Yamaha HS80m monitors....recently added a little Avantone to listen in mono so maybe that will help me some. I've been thinking about upgrading my monitors since I already treated my room with DIY materials. I already have a good preamp, interface, and mics, so I'm fairly certain that it's either just my lack of skill, monitors lying to me, or a mix of both, lol. Anyway, the tracks are up on this little site I put together.... http://9lanterns.com the wavs are here - http://9lanterns.com/Music Oh and I use Reaper too and I love it!
I'm just now making some adjustments with my process and tools, you know, trying to grow. I'm testing out Reaper, and I was surprised to see how affordable the non-commercial license was. Ben, I was looking forward to toying around with the Blockfish compressor that you mentioned (along with the other Fish Filets), but they supposedly don't work on Intel-based Mac systems. I was excited when I found out that others somehow had a workaround with the built in "bridge" function of Reaper, but I still have no success. Not that big of a deal, though. Oh, and one of my friends that does mixing work for a local studio sold me one of his SM7-b mics for cheap. I look forward to experimenting with that.
Make sure you have a good preamp with lots of gain for that sm7. They need almost as much gain as ribbon mics.
Yep. I've already picked up on that. I was trying to run it with the Apogee Duet and the soundwave barely shows a blip of noise when recording. It's not terribly hissy, but I get zero 'noise' like that with my Oktava MK-319. It wasn't really noticeable after everything was mixed, but I wouldn't mind a little more juice. Someone suggested using this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ampaign=none&gclid=CPCG_4X-1bQCFQeDnQodyBoA_A
Overall, I think these mixes sound solid. The only thing I'd really point out is that when they get more dense (all the instruments going at once), it all sounds a bit separate. Like some of the EQs and reverbs are too different. I think that can be nice at times for effect, but I usually prefer to sound like it's all in the same space (not including obvious atmospheric things). On Silken Cords, try adding more high end to the claps and the vocals. Get them in a similar ballpark to the other sounds, in terms of presence and EQ, then perhaps don't mix quite so wide with some of the sounds. And on Blank Space, again, it just sounds kinda separate when everything comes in. All the sounds are nice on their own, I'd just spend time making them feel like they're all one big group. But keep in mind, this is also a personal taste thing. I often record drums with one mic, because I'm not usually real big on everything being super clear. I like some smudging, and I'm fine with hiss and rattle and finger squeaks and all the ugly stuff. Plenty of people like the opposite, so it's really about what you personally want. But that'd be my take.
Oh, yeah. I use a lot of high-gain mics, and the Sytek has always had plenty of gain, so I tend to forget about that element. But yeah, I imagine that would work. I've never used it, but if it's just more clean gain, then I don't see why not.
Ben - thanks a million. You just confirmed for me many of the things I've been hearing and struggling with, but it was really nice for someone with more experience and success with mixing to put it into words. Thanks for taking the time to listen and give feedback. I'll give those ideas a shot.
Another trick to getting certain sounds to gel is to put them under the same compressor or same reverb. I do that a bunch when I want something to sound like a group. And in general, I think mixing is something you will always be learning about. I learn new things every time I mix a record, and I think I always will. I think it's the most difficult part of the recording side of things.
Thanks for the tip Ben. I really appreciate it. Like you, I do want things to sound less separate most of the time. I think I probably went crazy with too many types of reverbs, etc. In some ways, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, lol, but I think I do have an ear for when things sound right (subjective I know). To me, I still think there is lots of room for me to improve these two. When you put things under the same compressor or reverb, do you typically send the individual tracks to that plugin on a track of it's own and blend the dry and wet tracks to taste or do you put that same reverb/comp on each track and just set it the same? I suppose it may depend on the song and what you need to serve it. Just curious - I can certainly try it a variety of ways. No doubt about it - mixing is very challenging.
