n00B help please. :)
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Posted on Oct 09, 2007 11:56 pm
pokerzen
Member Since: Oct 09, 2007
Hi all;
My first post here ... I'm looking forward to hanging out in this place. Looks like a lot of knowledge around here.
So anyway ... I've been involved with music in one way or another for a long time. I'm 30 now ... I have about 15 years guitar experience, good vocalist, and was a DJ for about 10 years too.
I've wanted for a long time to set up a recording room in the home and I've finally been able to. I don't have much mind you ... well actually ... here's a list of what I'm working with:
a)Mackie DFX6 non-powered mixer
b)Older PA system. 700watt amp and a pair of speakers rated at about the same. (I'm not real knowledgable about the science all this stuff.)
c)ShureSM58 mic.
d)Cheap-*** Yammie guitar which I'm using a stick-on pickup for right now. The Taylor is coming in a year or two.
e)Creative Labs soundcard for capture ... comes off of the line out from the Mackie.
f)Software: Audacity, Frooty Loops, Hydrogen (drum machine ... not that great in my opinion.)
So anyway ... you can see that I'm not working with much ... but I at least have everything I basically need I think. I've only had this stuff for about 1 month now ... but I do catch on pretty quick to things. Everything works fine ... both to play live over the PA, and also to record that sound and edit it.
The growing pains I'm having are in the areas of sound dynamics and sound editing. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping my mixes from sounding 'muddy'. I know I'm not going to get a perfect outcome with the setup that I've got ... but I was hoping that maybe there could be some tips or tricks on say ... the sequence of audio editing. What effects should I be primarily concentrating on when I'm working with multiple tracks, some PC-generated such as the drum machine, and some from live feed. And so on. :)
Anyway, thanks in advance for any help.
pz
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BleakA small pie will soon be eatenMember
Since: Aug 26, 2004
Oct 10, 2007 12:31 am Hey pokerzen, Welcome to HRC.
Off the bat i'd encourage you to get a new sound card. When i first started i spent $500 on the latest and greatest SB out there and it was utter rubbish for recording.
Everything else looks like it'll do.
[quote]
The growing pains I'm having are in the areas of sound dynamics and sound editing.[/quote]
I hate to sound cliche but this really is an area that requires LOT's of practice and is still largely subjective in as much different people have different tastes.
There are, however, a few things to look out for.
If you look in the tips section you'll see some great tutorials regarding where certain instruments like to sit in a mix in terms of frequency and Eq. Really helpful stuff.
Here's a starter
www.homerecordingconnecti...tory&id=154
Quote:
What effects should I be primarily concentrating on when I'm working with multiple tracks
Well, none, initially! Maybe some cheeky verb on the Vox but it's best to get a mix 'sitting' right first. Then adding effects and then get the mix right again and so forth although,again, people have different techniques.
Drum machine's are a funny one. I sometimes use an external device and sometimes i just plain old tap away at a midi controller. Up to you
Get stuck into the Tutorials. All the answers lie there in :)
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Oct 10, 2007 09:11 am Your muddiness can come from the room, if you're recording with mic. The room can have areas of resonance, that can multiply and really thicken up a certain range. Low end is often a real problem.
Take a gander at Reaper, for your software. Real easy to use, very feature laden, and has some very nice plugins included, including multiple EQ and great dynamic plugs.
I guess it would help to know what tracks are getting muddy. If the vocals, then the room definitely has a part to play. If it's the guitar, then the pickup can have a huge affect, one of which is being placement. Where the pickup is placed on the body of the guitar plays a huge part of the sound it's picking up.
Also, the mic may have some to do with it. Voice and acoustic guitar both fair better with a condensor mic, either large or small. It'd be worth looking up some of the inexpensive line of LDC or SDC, like MXL, behringer, and somewhat better, Audio Technica, studio projects, Rode, and others.
And, like Bleak says, the EQ articles in the tips section cover a bunch of the EQ life, like what lives where in the audio spectrum, and what frequencies can be changed to help certain tracks.
Oct 10, 2007 12:51 pm Thanks guys, that's tons of info already to keep me busy for a day or two. (I get pretty obsessive about stuff when I'm learning / problem solving ... I'll likely do nothing for 24 hours but drink coffee and read the linked how-to tutorials. :)
Question on the room dynamics ... I'm in a bit of a bind ... in that I like the room I have for sitting and playing in ... it's laminate floor and mostly bare walls ... so you can imagine that when I'm jamming by myself I'm pretty much enveloped in this cocoon of sound. It's awesome ... but also would be contributing to this muddy problem I'm talking about.
So I'm thinking about making a type of collapsable "booth" to be in when actually recording ... is this worth pursuing do you think? ... and if the answer is yes ... are there any suggestions as to what material I should use? I figure building a basic frame with some hinges and then covering it with something like corkboard (?) would improve things.
Also ... re: new soundcard ... let's pretend for real that I don't have tons'o-cash ... where is my money best spent on this? Do I really need to get some external USB soundcard with all sorts of bells and whistles ... or are there cheap mass-produced alternatives which also just happen to work really well with home sound recording?
TX again guys!
pz
Oct 10, 2007 12:59 pm Before going to any collapsible booth, try decorating the room a little hang some heavy quilts on the wall, or those heavy felt wallhangings of dags playing poker and whatnot...it's good sound absorption...some stocked bookshelves for diffusion...a bare room is an open invitation to standing waves...ARGH!
Tune the room, man, tune the room!
Instead of the wall hangings, if you are handy at all, try building some of these: www.homerecordingconnecti...story&id=50
pjkPrince CZAR-mingMember
Since: Apr 08, 2004
Oct 10, 2007 01:04 pm Quote:
I'll likely do nothing for 24 hours but drink coffee and read the linked how-to tutorials. :)
Knowledge is power!
Re: the room, yes, i'm pretty sure the room would be the cause of your muddiness (or at least contribute). Reflecting walls definitely will contribute. Your mind is trained to not hear the problem so much, but when listening to it on tape, it's much more apparent.
I hung packing blankets on part of my walls. They're on parts of two adjacent walls, kind of forming an arc from one wall to the next. It's working quite well. I keep them about 1 ft from the wall.
Others have built the gobo walls, moveable sound deadeners, with great results, so that's not a bad option either. I got the blankets free, so I wasn't going to pass that option up. Plus I can take them down when I wish.
For firm wall options, you can use rigid fiberglass, the pink sheets, though you'd want to wrap them in something to keep the glass fibers in check. Also, there's mineral wool, though I've not used it. just paneling with corkboard on it would work too. Anything with some density would help the low end.
For the soundcard, Line6 makes the UX1 and UX2 for small $$$. They're being used by quite a few posters on here (HRC) with great results. There's modeling included with these devices, so you can alter your voice / mic / preamp, or also your guitar sound. If you're just doing recording by yourself, or one person at a time, that would be a great option.
If you're looking at more than 2 inputs, then the choices can change, though I think you're just looking at 2 inputs for now.
