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Subject:Better Sound qualities
Posted by: Dangmnx
Date:12/30/2004 8:47:12 PM
i've been usin AP for acouble months now, and i just wanna kno is there anyway i can make my songs sound just like the ones on the radio or real CD, i brought my mic for 69$ and it sounds good, but now i want it to sound real. as in STUDIO real, anyone can help me holla. thx |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Dodger27
Date:12/30/2004 9:21:19 PM
Hey Dangmnx, I bought two hardware additions to my studio which helped an immense amount. An aural exciter will add breadth and compressed aplitude to your analog recordings, and a vocal effects processor can be used to help with vocals (usually adding some reverb or even some pitch control can help). As far as what I use within AP5.0, I tend to duplicate or triplicate the tracks and pan the primary offset to its side, one in the center with a bit of delay and the third panned to the other side with a bit more of delay still. This gives strength and breadth to all of my tracks. Finally, if the track is a backup instrument, I will tend to pull back on the mid frequencies (where vocals or lead instruments reside) in a parametric EQ so that these tracks don't fight the primary tracks for prominence in the cut. Those techniques boosted my quality 100%. Dodger27 |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:12/30/2004 10:03:00 PM
There are two essential ingredients for getting “studio” quality sound: 1) good equipment, 2) a good ear to use it. On the equipment side: a $69 mic is probably not going to sounds like a mic used in a studio. Neither is the built-in sound from your computer motherboard or a game sound card from Creative. You will also need a good set of monitors and a room that you can trust to give you flat frequency response. Each piece of pro gear you can add will increase your sonic fidelity. You need to be able to trust what you hear. The good new is that you can approach a studio sound with a minimal investment in good equipment (i.e., around $1000 for a pro sound card, monitors, and microphone). The harder part is gaining the experience to use it and the various plug-ins that are available today which emulate their hardware counterparts costing thousands more. On the ear side: The best thing to do would be to intern at a studio and watch a pro engineer at work. It’s very hard to learn mixing and mastering from a book. If you can’t learn from a pro, then reading books on mixing and mastering is a good first step. Listen to the kind of music others are making in the studio and try and dissect why it sounds the way it does. Then try to emulate that in your mixes. You need to place instruments in the stereo field so they don’t interfere with each other. You may even EQ them so they don’t step on each others frequencies when sitting in the mix. Listen with a good set of headphones ( I like Sony MDR-7506’s) to hear the exact placement of instruments in the stereo field on studio recordings you like. You’ll learn a lot from just listening to songs with headphones and concentrating on where the instruments are placed. It’s not an easy process and there is a lot of trial and error but the more you mix and listen to mixes the better you’ll get. If you feel you are not getting anywhere, then you need to sit with someone who can listen to what you are doing and help you understand where you have to change things to make it sound the way you want. There are lots of books with good tips, but there are no secret formulas. Each song is a new journey. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Dangmnx
Date:12/30/2004 10:46:24 PM
ok... so bascially my 69$mic is nothing , i need to get an new moniter, mic. and etc. for 1000$ so my sounds will be pefect? rite/? |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date:12/31/2004 6:27:51 AM
> so bascially my 69$mic is nothing No, not necessarily. Only get a better mic if your not happy with the sound of the one you have. I thought you weren’t happy with it. If you just want to know how to get the most out of the one you have then learning how to mix and use EQ’s and compression will help. You didn’t ask how to get “better” sound, you asked how to get “studio quality” sound. You can’t expect a $69 mic to sound like a $500 or $1000 mic. You don’t have to buy everything at once. I don’t know what type of sound card you have but buying a better mic and plugging it into a bad sound card is not going to help much. I would start by getting a good sound card. That will do more good than anything else you can do. You can start with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 for $99. The Echo MiaMIDI is also good at $179. If you are eventually going to buy a condenser microphone that requires 48v phantom power, you might want to think ahead and get an external soundcard that has phantom power. I use an M-Audio Firewire 410, which has phantom power, 4 inputs and 10 outputs. You might not need that many inputs and outputs. The Echo Gina 3G is also very nice. Only buy what you need. Nothing says you have to buy all this equipment new. Quite often you can get great deals on eBay from people who are upgrading their studio setup. There is an Echo Mia 24/96 (discontinued) sound card on eBay right now for $40! The Firewire 410 goes for around $275 on eBay (its $400 new). Anything from M-Audio’s pro line or from Echo will be a quality card. See what you can afford, then check eBay for a used one. Upgrade your gear a little at a time, learning how to use each piece of equipment as you go. Your sound will get better and better as you learn more and use better components. You are not going to buy $1000 worth of gear and instantly get studio sound. You still have to learn how to use all that new gear. You can learn on cheaper gear so start learning now with what you have. ~jr |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: DKeenum
Date:12/31/2004 10:13:27 AM
Listen to what Johnny says. Start slow, but start. Another thing is to start reading some recording mags: Electronic Musician, EQ, Home Recording. A lot of experienced people put these mags down because they are too simple, but that's what a beginner needs. Also, go to Amazon and look for books about recording. |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: pwppch
Date:12/31/2004 1:46:51 PM
There is no magic solution to getting a "sound". Experiance, practice, trial and error, and just plain hard work. I have heard great recordings made with the simplest and inexpensive tools available. How you use it makes far more difference than how much you paid for it. Recording and mixing is an art and a craft that you must learn. The best place to start is to critically compare your work to something else that you want to "sound like". Listen to the recording you want to sound like. See if you can find any information on the artist and the engineer that worked on the recording - whether the song in particular or previous work they have done. There is no magic bullet solution. Realize that you will never be completely satisfied and that your next project will improve over your last - but not always. Peter |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Weevil
Date:12/31/2004 8:12:02 PM
Yep, this really is one of those how long is a piece of string questions. As with pretty much everything to do with music it’s all contextual. There is no one all encompassing ‘answer’. It all depends on where you are at and where you are trying to go. ...For a start, all the mixing and engineering gear and in the world will not help you if the music you are recording is not very good. The music you hear in the real world is generally well written and extremely well arranged and performed. It’s the garbage in garbage out principle. Stunningly recorded bad music will ‘sound’ only marginally better poorly recorded bad music. Whereas brilliant music can often be recorded very basically and still ‘sound’ great. But like I say it all depends on what you are trying to do and your sensibilities. ...Personally I think you are wasting your time if you are trying to do a ‘real’ recording without at least $1500 of preamp in your chain...A friend of mine will only record music on a computer as a last resort...Whereas another does everything in Protools... You need to develop an awareness of a myriad of issues before you can even start thinking about making informed decisions. I’d suggest lurking around forums like: http://marsh.prosoundweb.com Amid the chaos and in-jokes are some very, very full on people who really know their stuff. It takes time but watch and learn, and try to apply some of the concepts to what you are doing. |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Dodger27
Date:1/2/2005 12:00:57 AM
Hey, the Marsh tip was a GREAT one....joined up and started posting...thanks Weevil. I still would daresay with all respect, hearing Neil Young on an old motorola tape deck playing Needle and the Damage done on a Panasonic Mike would still surpass the penultimately engineered precise looped stuff we have out today. His guitar playing is also not precise and his voice is undisciplined.... A good production is not defined by these things. It's NOT in the equipment, and its NOT in the imitation of the sound. It is in catching the right spirit and human honesty expressed cleanly at the right time. And there are some basic techniques that can boost a newbie's satisfaction so that they will begin to undertake the long and winding dues paying road willingly. When I started photography, I was told all KINDS of BS about what I had to do and what I had to suffer to become a good photographer......I made some great shots in the first month, with just some good basic tips from a "lesser" photographer, and it was those first successes that got me hooked. Thank god I ran into a non-professional photographer to help me out or I would have given it up right off the bat. I think producing your own music is the same to a degree. |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Weevil
Date:1/2/2005 5:11:02 AM
Yep, you would have to go a very long way to meet a better producer/mixer/engineer and a nicer guy than Mixerman. He is truly world-class....Some of the other guys in those forums have worked on some monster records. You could learn more by lurking around there for six months than you could working by yourself for years. ...It’s all about the vibe; don’t ever let the maths overtake the music. |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Burns
Date:1/2/2005 8:36:32 PM
look all u gotta get is a shure mic for $300. a pair of $10 j-win studio earphones. a phantom power for the mic $75-$100 and a soundblaster sound card with an interface so you can plug your mic and earhones ect. that will coast $150-$300. then you gotta eq your vocals to mix with the beat and thats it your good to go. also render as a wave or a high quality mp3. you dont need no school cuase i didnt go to one or get shown by a pro how to do it. i lerned on my own and now i know how to use the equipment like a pro im not saying im the best and i dont have more that i could lern like some little tricks but i came a far way just doing it on my own dont let all these people tell you what u need u can do good with that $69 mic get a poper stoper mic stand and a good sound card and u should be ok u can allways get the good mic and the phantom power later i hope i was of help |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Dangmnx
Date:1/2/2005 9:00:22 PM
thanks man |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Weevil
Date:1/4/2005 7:57:37 PM
look all u gotta get is a shure mic for $300. a pair of $10 j-win studio earphones. a phantom power for the mic $75-$100 and a soundblaster sound card with an interface so you can plug your mic and earhones ect. that will coast $150-$300. then you gotta eq your vocals to mix with the beat and thats it your good to go. also render as a wave or a high quality mp3. you dont need no school cuase i didnt go to one or get shown by a pro how to do it. i lerned on my own and now i know how to use the equipment like a pro im not saying im the best and i dont have more that i could lern like some little tricks but i came a far way just doing it on my own dont let all these people tell you what u need u can do good with that $69 mic get a poper stoper mic stand and a good sound card and u should be ok u can allways get the good mic and the phantom power later i hope i was of help This approach is fine if you are happy making armature recordings. And they may sound just fine to you safely within the confines of your bedroom. But if you think your results will be anywhere near ‘studio real’ level you are kidding yourself. |
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Subject:RE: Better Sound qualities
Reply by: Lionel Richtea
Date:1/4/2005 8:16:33 PM
you know what i am gonna do this year? I am going to make sure that my songs are structured the best they can be. then, i am going to perform them with as much energy and passion as I can muster. for this i will use my '60 dollar' mic and my cheap computer... then , i am going to send these tunes out, and i am going to get someone to PAY FOR THEM TO BE RECORDED, like little palaces... like Prefab Sprout did with Thomas Dolby. believe me, sound quality is not the number one priority. the songs are! imho... work on your content first! the rest comes later dude my stained tuppence-worth peace x |