Recording Thread
 

there's a bunch of random threads around pertaining to the topic, so why not just have one big one. Talk all things recording, go.

I'm having trouble with something, pertaining to mixing. What can I do to make the guitars sound further back and more like a recording that you would hear on an album, instead of having them sound right in front of you, without adding reverb and not bringing the volume on each track down too much? Sorry for the run on sentence haha

any help is appreciated

thanks

when i record guitars, i usually double them in the choruses to make them sound bigger. and then i mix them to be just a little louder than the bass guitars, typically. www.cootiecatcher.bandcamp.com has some examples of stuff i've done so you can hear what i mean.

Compression can help. Although I hate compression, you still have to use it.

Couple things you can do, first layering guitars helps the most to really make your guitar sound "full" which i think is what youre looking for. To do that you can either:
1) put 2 or 3 mics(if you do a third try and make it a ribbon or condenser that you put away from the cab) up and double track most things
2) take the guitar DI and shoot it back through different amps after the initial recording is completed (this is called reamping and one cheap way to get the guitar DI signal is to just take one of those boss tuner pedals and take the bypass out to your interface if you dont want to buy a DI box) - you can also take a plugin like line 6 podfarm and shoot the DI through that if you dont have a ton of diff amps at your disposal
Don't underestimate the power of EQ, you can make the guitars sound "beefier" by boosting 2-300, make em sound "brighter" by boosting 2kish, "heavier" by cutting some mids, play around with that. Yeah you also have to compress the guitars at least to some extent this way they're at least all at the same volume throughout your track

My recording techniques have been, well amateur at best. Fully understanding that I'm about to sound like an idiot, could someone please explain what "Compression" is, why its needed (or useful) and how its done?

this. better yet, can someone post a video or mp3 or something of a recording with and without compression? like a comparison type of thing?

Compression is applied when a track fluctuates in volume often, ie vocal track. It makes the loud parts not as loud and the quiet parts slightly louder, as to make the track more even sounding. Also useful on kick drums for punchiness, and a bit on guitars and bass for a more even/tight sound. Basically just play around with it, but I would say almost always use it on vocals no matter what.

gotcha, thanks man

Compression is one of the hardest tools in audio. It can also crush the life out of music.

Do you guys use compression while recording? I usually just apply a smidge of it on my preamp while tracking and apply an accurate compression during mixing. Didn't know if this is just something I do or if other people do it as well..

Most definitely, if over used it makes everything sound completely crushed. It's all about balancing the track without smushing the audio.


Yeah, sometimes. I'll use a little compression while recording on some drums and vocals but i mostly save it for post-recording mixing so you aren't screwed if you used too much.

Recording itself is an extremely tough process to understand (in my opinion)
Are you directly plugging into something like an M-box or a Ux2?
If you are, try to use a program/vst like Guitar-Rig or Amplitube to find a sound you want.
then record it, tweak the Eq's a bit on the program and record the exact same part.
THEN pan one hard left, and the other track hard right.
From there you can do your compressing and mixing.
Try to save your Compression for after your recording so if you fuck up even a little bit you don't have to re-record the whole thing.

Aaaand, if you're recording with mics, and are only using one mic at a time. Try to find your designated sweet spot, which could take a long time. Remember that what you're hearing while standing in front of your amp isn't always what you will hear with the mic in the same location. There are a plethora of free online resources for mic placement which IS important.
But for all purposes here I'm going to assume you have that down.
After recording the track, again record another, and another if you have to.
Put one Left, Right, and center. Adjust the volumes of each, then Compress it and add desired reverb amount to each.

I'm also not a professional (if you couldn't tell) so take my advice with a grain of salt and learn from experiences.

any recommendations on a good interface out there? I'm currently using a Presonus Firestudio Project and I've outgrown it, looking to get something more professional.

Also, to anyone looking to get a good and cheap ribbon mic, get the Cascade Fathead. picked one up the other day, sounds fantastic on vocals and guitar.

In my opinion the best bang for your buck interface is the apogee ensemble, you can probably snag one for around 13-1600 off ebay which might be a bit expensive but theres really not many other options people would consider better than it. Only problem is it only has 4 mic pre's down from the 8 on the presonus, so youll have to invest in some other mic pres to run through the other 8 channels of AD/DA it comes with. Other options that are a bit less pricey are MOTU makes a decent one as does Mackie(called onyx something cant remember the name off the top of my head).

What's your Budget like?