sounds good monty..i like it

This is to Monty, or whoever has any kind of experience with recording music. What is the best program out for recording? I'm just starting up to have fun with friends. Also, what is the best mic(s) out right now for a reasonable price.

i would go protools LE. as for mics, what are you going to need them for and what is your price range. I personally have most of my experience with fairly expensive microphones. Jesse knows a thing or two as well.

I'd say mid level as it's not a super serious thing we are doing.

what are you trying to record (instruments) and midrange is too broad. What I may consider mid range, you may consider deathly expensive.

pro tools le (you can download this if you search some torrent sites), and you can also download some sweet, expensive plug-ins to make your recordings that much better.

you can mic so many things with an sm57. it is not going to be the best mic for everything, but you can make a great sounding recording with it if you take the time to figure out what works and what doesn't. it does well on cabinets, and you can do acoustic and vocals with it. i would recommend getting one sm57 and a cheaper (but not cheap) condenser. the condenser would be better for vocals and acoustic, and i'm sure monty can suggest the "best" option for under $200.

also...my singer came to me with two song ideas yesterday. we like to lay them down acoustically, just as he has written them. then we listen to those recordings for awhile to gather ideas and then we possibly work on them as a band.

these are the two we recorded yesterday:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?d5tm32hzzzz
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0kmfr41jzji

no eq, just a bit of compressor and delay on the vox (and the tiiiniest bit of autotune so we didn't have to do as many takes...it's just a demo, right!?!?)

also, what's the best way to get rid of plosives in protools (i.e. without re-tracking)? we used a pop filter about 2-3 inches off the mic, and he stood a little less than a foot away from the mic. but he's really breathy when he sings...next time i think i'm going to place the mic a bit above his head and aim him slightly off of the mic. with the delay, the plosives are painfully obvious...

surely there's a way to remove the plosives without having to track again, right? if it sacrifices minimal aspects of the vocal track, it's ok...we'll track it better when we record the full band version.

Buy an SM57 and a Rode NT1-A. Between those two mics, you can tackle a host of things. The 57 is $100 and the Rode is $200ish.

you cant use PT without the PT hardware. at the very least, you need to buy mbox micro just to run PT. of course if you do buy that, you get the software too.

the 57 is a standard mic, and most studios usually have around 8-10. personally, i never liked the sound of the mic on anything but guitars (and even with guitars i get a better sound from another mic), but to each his own. one of my favorite mics is the AT2020. its a dirt cheap condenser mic ($100) that has a crisp high end and smooth mids. the low end isnt the best, but its really not supposed to be. its my cheapest mic next to my 57, but i tend to use it on vocals (especially for myself), snares, and guitars.

a couple of other good bang for the buck mics are the studio projects C4 mics (overheads, all around stereo micing) and the SM7 (amazing vocal mic used by john meyer, metallica, michael jackson, and many many others, as well as a good kick drum mic. commonly used for radio). there are more, but i own those and can say they are excellent. there isnt a single mic i dont use. they all each serve a great purpose.

remember, mics are an investment. these are mics that you will always find uses for, so for the price, you really cant go wrong.



check out the recording thread.

i'm ok with spending anywhere from 100 to prolly at most 400 but thanks guys. Most of the recording will be drunken rap songs. and the occasional me noodling on the guitar. I appreciate the help!

haha oh, well get a 57 definitely. great for guitars, good for fucking around and getting good consistant quality, and its super sturdy. i actually use it as a hammer sometimes.

Can I get some feedback on the mix of this acoustic song.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/zo6al0



Right now I am thinking I need to compress vox a little more and bring them up a little, then I need to brighten the acoustic guitars. Finally when I get this done I need to bring the volume up to a professional level.

hahaha i always name my temporary/scrap tracks shit like that. like
"faggotballsucker.mp3" "kissmyanus.mp3" "pubic lice.pp3"

dont brighten the guitars. maybe pull it down at around 300-400hz. it could just be my monitors which have a tendency to color that freq. range, but im pretty sure my ears compensated for that by now.
the vocals sound a little thin. honestly, that might be taken care of with some more compression. if not, maybe try pulling it up at around 200hz
the right guitar throws the mix off. it sounds like the left guitar is panned harder than the right and it makes the mix sound like its 25% to the left. i would say match the guitars panning, if they arent already. that could also explain the muddiness, and the dip in the 350hz range might not be necessary.

then again, when i brainstorm what to do with a song before i actually start mixing, im usually off with my frequency judgments.

thanks. when I listen to other acoustic songs the guitars seem to be brighter. The guitars are panned equally. I think the problem is the huge difference in the tone of the guitars. Mine (left speaker) was a spruce top martin. the singers (right speaker) was some takamine.

so somehow my apple preferences shifted the audio balance a little left. i noticed it right after i posted. i have no idea how it ALWAYS fucking does that, but its such a pain in the ass and throws me off.
the right guitar does sound a little hollow in the mids, though
making the guitars brighter is a matter of preference. i love a warm, natural sound, and i personally hate how most mixes are raped with high end in mastering, so my mixes usually lack some highs

i didn't do an individual eq on the guitars or vocals. I just did a master since I used basically the same mics on all of them (u87 on sound holes and vocals, u89 on body). I compressed individually though.

that explains why the natural guitar tone sounds so good. are those your mics? because if they are, thats fucking awesome and i hate you for not giving them to me

naw I have free access to the SU recording studio. They might actually hire me next year because I am the only person who seems to have a clue how to make legit sounding recordings. If they hire me to be an overseer then I will basically be getting paid to record and mix.

you son of a bitch...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/4p5a4l

Updated mix. Thoughts? Suggestions? I would like to hear some thoughts from the untrained ears as well.

It sounds pretty good Monty but I don't know if this is the final yet but the beginning still sounds way too quiet. The vocals sound pretty good just the guitars to me sound thin in some parts.

hmm it sounds like the compression made the vocal track too loud and a bit honky in the 7k range. also, the guitars do sound a bit more thin now, like there were too many mids scooped out.

that could also be because im a douche about high end

yeah i took out 3dB at 160hz on the guitars. I also added 3dB at +12khz. As for vocals I added a little low mids to beef them up and a little more highs. I will probably go back in today and mix again. The monitors in there are KRK KroKs, so they are pretty bad at being a reference point. I actually had to do most of my mix on the AKG headphones in the studio because the monitors suck so bad. So basically mixing at my school studio is a big guess and check game.

i can't wait to get back to austin. I am going to spend this summer working on a side project where I will just write progressive styled 90's emo with using playing dynamics to alter between clean and slight breakup.

hey fags. any tips on recording/mixing bass in drop c?
we recorded his bass direct with garage band and everything sounds fine except when he plays on his low c string. then it sounds muddy and out of tune, whereas it sounds fine unplugged.
lowering the volume and using a compressor helped, but it seems like there may be some key ingredient i'm missing.

any tips would be much appreciated. thanks.

It's because that low C is about 32 Hz and your speakers can't reproduce it.

http://www.myspace.com/messofmineband

Me and my band just finished mixing two of our songs last night, tell me what you guys think (production quality wise and what you think of the songs).

http://www.myspace.com/theorytwo

Bump:

Working on this song. It's been a while since I've done any Happy Punk.