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hi,

I want to home-record some rock tracks.

The sound should get a touch of british indie stuff.

My software: Ableton Live 4 and Tracktion
Plugs: Vintage Warmer and T-racks
Hardware: iMac G3, 350 Mhz
Headphones: AKG K 141

Now I want to buy monitors: Syrincs M3-220 on ebay.

A friend has got Bias Peak, so I can master with Peak.

Do you think this would be enough for a pro to mix a CD,
presuming, it's everything she/he has got.
You now what I mean?
I certainly know ears are most important, besides technical skill.

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Comments

anonymous Thu, 08/19/2004 - 07:46

Absolutely.

If you take your time and record the initial tracks well, the mixing will come a lot more easily. Now I notice that you don't have monitors. That would be a good investment when you get the chance. But you can make do, even if you have mix on headphones. Make sure and check your mixes on other systems - the car, your home stereo, put it in your DVD player and see what it sounds like coming from the television. Make sure it translates well in each of these environments. Try keeping your first mixes simple. Don't use a lot of effects, and don't go crazy with EQ. Don't drown your tracks in reverb.

If you do have to mix through your headphones, be aware of the possible problems that can result from that and take steps to avoid them. One of the biggest problems is not being able to detect phase problems. That's because headphones don't provide a true stereo picture. They are two completely isolated speakers, which makes it impossible to hear the phasing.

You can minimize the chance that phasing will be a problem by not recording everything in stereo. And make sure that any parts you do record in stereo are panned hard-right and hard-left.

Any other questions, I'll do my best to help.

anonymous Thu, 08/19/2004 - 11:43

thanx to you.

I gonna use only one simple source for recording:
my UA 700 Interface of Edirol,
with its decent internal channel strip and mic modelling,
and amp modelling for guitars.

I will record voice, guitars and some keys mono and
mix it to my favours to left and right.
Voices right in the middle.

Drums come from samples or from doggiebox.
Bass comes from samples.
Most keyboards come from soft-synth.

What do you think about Syrincs M3-220 monitors?
Are there any tracks I should make stereo, at all?

anonymous Thu, 08/19/2004 - 12:05

It depends on the type of song you're recording and the sound that you want. For some songs, if it is going to be pretty open with only a piano/vocal type song, you'd definately want to use a stereo piano patch from your keyboard or soft synth.

In other songs with more instruments where you want a piano sound, but it isn't going to play a pivotal role in the song, I would use a mono patch.

I like to record strings in stereo most of the time. And of course, when you record drums from your your keyboard or program, you'll need those to be in stereo.

One thing that I like to do to make a song sound more full is to double track a rhythm guitar. You have to be pretty tight on your rhythm playing, but it can really fill out your song. Most of the time I'll record the first rhythm pass. Then I make some slight changes in the sound, usually just a little change in the EQ on the amp or even just a small adjustment of the tone knobs on the guitar. Then play the exact same rhythm pattern while listening to the playback of your original track. Get it right, so it sounds tight. Once you have both tracks recorded, you can pan one of them to left, the other to the right. It gives you a lot of body and it adds life to the song because of the subtle interplay between the two tracks.