Thread: Looking for Tracking / Mixing Advice

Wow - so much great info. THX!

Vocals - yep - timbre of my voice. Nothing I can do about that - lol. Definitely not clipping. I've been thinking I might actually throw some more saturation on my voice just to g ahead and make it sound intentional.

Drums - they're ezd and I am just now really digging into howto seperate all of the tracks and appropriately mix them. I read somewhere that I should start setting levels with the overheads and then the snare and that seems to make some sense to me - which is not done on this track - but is a by-product of this conversation. Of course - that won't always be the correct way but in some instances I can see the benefit of gettting the "room" right first with the drums. Panning - I'm hopingh will also resolve itself now that I am beginning to get a much better grasp on the broader mix picture. And I understand too what you're saying about the effects return. I really need to work on that aspect - on the entire mix - and not take it for granted - which I am realizing I have done.

Acoustic gtr - - I like the duvet idea. lol - neighbors walk by the window all the time - now they can really wonder about us. lol. Actually - that "joke" inspired an idea to try to "soften" tthe 10x20 hardwood floor and slat and plaster room I am in. I'm going to build some soft baffles to set around me while I'm recording the gtr. and I am spending more time "placing" the mic. I'm going to try setting the mic much further away from the guitar than I have been and runt he mic a little hotter to see what I get.

I can't thank you folks enough for all of the great insight. I'll have a remix/retake in a few days.

Thank you again - -and if you hear or think of anything else - I can take the brutal truth really well - - I want and need to make this work. Your thoughts are hugely appreciated!!

Tim

Originally Posted by zydeceltico

..... that "joke" inspired an idea to try to "soften" tthe 10x20 hardwood floor and slat and plaster room I am in....

ah...that's your problem right there. Soft baffles is the way to go in that case. And I would mic up closer not further if anything. The further away the mic is, the more you're going to negate the effectiveness of your baffles, and capture more of the room - which is exactly what you don't want.

Hi all - It' been a busy two days. I've taken all of your advice and attempted to get a more productive direction. I haven't remixed the first song yet because I had to write another one. This one was supposed to be a swampy blues thing - replete with slide acoustic. Wow - that was a bugger to get tone with. I would love some feedback on the acoustic again after having tried to put many of your ideas in to practice and also on the overall mix, balance, etc. It is not a final as my ears are failing me at this hour. But I would be very grateful for your opinions on general balance and eq. I haven't eq'd the acoustic at all and it did make a difference I think. I just hope there's not too much super-ringy that I am missing.

The song is Storm's A Comin at www.soundcloud.com/timbrogdon

Thanks in advance,

Tim

Dude! That is some mean Dobro going on there.

ah...that's your problem right there. Soft baffles is the way to go in that case. And I would mic up closer not further if anything. The further away the mic is, the more you're going to negate the effectiveness of your baffles, and capture more of the room - which is exactly what you don't want.

There's nothing wrong with having reflective surfaces in your room. It's foolish to think you need to be in a padded room in order to get good sound. Nothing sounds good in an anechoic chamber. Any major studio will have "Live" and "dead" ends to their room. Having everything entirely dead is unnatural.

The slide guitar sounds pretty good. This is through an amp? I would have to guess yes. You should mix in some mic on that thing. Just a suggestion. I love the sound of a Dobro.

I think it would be a good idea to try your best not to eq. It's just adds too many possibilities for problems. I think you're just thinking too much. Try backing the mic away a bit. Don't worry about getting the room sound in there. People sing and play in rooms. That's the way it is. Maybe your room isn't perfect. That's ok. Man they have reverb plugins that emulate rooms.

Vocals in this song are better. I think there may actually be some dropout going on in "Time is On My Side".

At any rate, the songs are great. There have been plenty a popular release with terrible sound. Nothing against Phil Spector. You've got the talent part down. That's 90% of the work AFAIK.

Time version VI sounds great BTW.

Thank you for the much appreciated compliments Hueseph! The guitars in Storm are a mid-quality Takamine acoustic run mic'ed w/ a sm75 and then split in the daw to a clean track and the other tthru a maxxed tweed sim in GR5, an old epiphone big-bodied thing that I have patched and reglued several times mic'ed witth a RODE NT1a, - I love the tone of it. The electric at the end is a 56 Les Paul Jr thru an orange sim that I really tweaked in gr5 .

I ended up close micing (6"? maybe) the 57 on the bridge of the Takamine and the epi was 2 feet off the bridge with the rode. The jr is just di.
Padding or not - I ended up trying both and found that - in my room - baffling helped for the big strumming and no padding helped with the slide. I guess I'll just have to experiment for every song - which is understandable to find the right tone.

Phil Spector! HA! My favorite - obviously - Wall O Sound - -course everything has air these days - -and it's cool and inspiring - but a huge learning curve for me - so again - Thank You for all of the invaluable advice.

I put my final mix submissins for Storm w/ and w/out vocals up on www.soundcloud.com/timbrogdon if anyone cares to take a listen. I've been learning a ton here. Thank you!

Tim

Take out the silence at the beginning of your tracks. It's not pro. Storm w/vocals sounds muddy like the other track I listened to. Eq out some mid range on the EQ. It is competing with the vocals a little bit also there so that will clear it up some. Like I said on sound cloud a bit of brightness on the acoustic guitars wouldn't hurt I think. The actual song/playing is friggen awesome though.

I get the impression you're compensating for inaccurate monitoring with eq on the mix. Try playing some professional recordings you know well on the monitors until you get used to how they sound, then do a mix. Every now and then compare your mix to the pro recordings. Try to match the tonal balance.