Recording, so close yet so far away
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Posted on Dec 01, 2008 12:21 am
908beckerboi
Member Since: Nov 30, 2008
So Im a new member here, and i got a question that i been trying to figure out. My question, as blunt as it seems is, how can i get that "Full" sound in recording.
Before one answers, let me tell you what i got. I got pro tools m audio, the m audio 410 firewire, EZ drummer from toon track and a pod xt. I got nothing else, running through my dell and the pod is going direct from my guitar to the pod to the front of the 410. I have no preamps or nothing.
Now from what i know and heard, everything i have is capable of getting a nice recording, however when i record i feel something missing. When i compare it with other songs the guitar as well as the whole recording sounds so lifeless and dry. Im not a recording wiz, so maybe you guys can help a recording newbie like me out with some hints or tips on how to mix and where i should pan certain instruments, or maybe how im connected. I need to obtain that full sound. P.S. i play mainly metal, if that helps.
Thanks in advance
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Dec 01, 2008 11:33 am Microphones, space and time. "That full sound" comes from conservative capture of amazing core sounds. You can "fake it" to some extent, but "air and space and depth" generally come from air and space and depth - Something that's not easily created with a direct signal.
Nothing beats amazing sounding instruments in amazing sounding spaces carefully captured by an engineer that knows how to get out of the way of the sound.
Panning, adding verb - It can help "some" - but there is no substitute for actual space, depth and moving air.
This isn't to sound like I'm against using samples or what not -- But the greatest samples are great sounds recorded in great rooms by engineers that knew how to get out of the way of the sound.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Dec 01, 2008 12:15 pm Getting that full sound is pretty much the life-long pursuit of every audio engineer in the world.
Getting a solid sounding end product out of your studio will be the fruit of any amount of learning and practicing that you can do in all of the phases of recording in your project studio.
Learn your equipment, understand what ALL of the knobs, inputs, outputs do. Learn about compression and all of its related parameters. Learn about the frequency spectrum and how to apply EQ to individual tracks. That should provide a few weeks of reading and experimenting.
There are some good pointers floating around these forums having to do with getting fatter drums, thicker guitars, more present vocals, louder mixes (be careful, though...that's a hot button topic hehehe).
Just start reading and experimenting and your mixes will start improving in no time. Once you get a head full of this information, come back and ask some more pointed and specific questions and we'll do our best to answer.
