A generic "what will improve my sound" thread. Pop music

[gjm]

haha nice! i just uploaded a new one called soft that is probably the best i've been able to do. so it's a good picture of where i'm sucking at.

if only I could suck as good as you do...

[Jekblad]

Oh I'm hyped on the ukulele in 'I Met You'.

Fwiw on the uke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7U_ftO ... ata_player

@gjm thanks man! I've worked a lot to get here, really trying to bring it home, the pro sheen. It suks when Ur so happy with a mix and you compare it to a real recording and it's SO far away. Some of it can't be helped of course but I think I can get closer.

Tone I'm totally going to try that trick. Sounds fun. Still working on my guitar rig skills too, just for believable tones. I'm great a noise. :-/

[gjm]

@gjm thanks man! I've worked a lot to get here, really trying to bring it home, the pro sheen. It suks when Ur so happy with a mix and you compare it to a real recording and it's SO far away. /

Got it. Spent this year to date trying to record 1 single nylon strung guitar in a way that I am happy with, but when I compare it I am left deflated.

[rcpunker]

Oh I'm hyped on the ukulele in 'I Met You'.

Fwiw on the uke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7U_ftO ... ata_player

That's classic !

[rcpunker]

After reading this article of Jack Johnson's mix engineer,it all comes down to the correct mic (I know, you all know that already).
But, if you have time, give it a read....
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may08/a ... k_0508.htm

[invol]

Hey all!

Should I get a real mic?
Waves for tracking?
Izotope for mastering?


What I really need is an education in mixing, need to start reading again. Engineers handbook is on the shelf at home. Thank you for any positive suggestions!

Start with good sounds, and record good sounds - good mic, good pre, good converters, good levels. Good monitors for making good decisions. Quality composition and sound selection make mixing easier. Get a good reverb plug-in for your style, for sure. Good plug-ins help for sure, but they only improve what you feed them. Waves, URS, Flux, Sonalksis.... they are all good.

Cheers,
Brian

[Jekblad]

a good mic and a good pre is where it start eh?

well fwiw guys, this is the best i can do with what i got.

ALL NEW vocals, tuned, eq'd etc. i feel like my sibilance problem is greatly reduced with proper gain levels, mic technique, and making sure melodyne doesn't screw it up. i have an older version of melodyne, UNO, doesnt do very well with the "S" sound.

http://soundcloud.com/jeffreyheart/soft-1

i'm pretty happy, but not sure if i'm in love.

[invol]

Melodyne is only pitch and time related. You need a dedicated de-esser. There are some freebies (spitfish?) floating around or you can buy one from a number of companies.

[Jekblad]

It is pitch and time related, and when it tries to tune sibilance it sounds awful.

Multiband compressor has a de-esser preset that has been working for me

[solacerodgers]

Few things to add treat your room first I can hear the lack of any accoustic treatment in the track and second check out focusrites VRM techonolgy it comes on a few of there a/d's and even a small cube it will take the "room" outof the equasion when mixing and help you get to a better end result. A new mic and pre will do nothing if you dont have a good solid base to start with and simple things like treatment and upgrading cables will do wonder for a small price. I know your working on a limited budget this is why I am suggesting things you could fix today for cheap. Also Spitfish a 100% free de-esser from a code writer from magix samplitude/sequoia would be my next download. http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.p ... &subItem=5

This has a preset just for you already in in called cheap condensor mic and you should be able to start there and tweak a little for a improvment right away.

I actually wrote my final thesis for my music class at Berklee on he topic of free plug-ins and how to improve your mixes/masters on a small budget and came across some other very well written plug-ins that had better internal resampling and processing then some of the top names out there I will go dig and see if i can find you a copy to browse.

Now as for mixing I dont think that should be your first priority to learn more about it should be audio editing and this includes things like DC offset removal, fixing waveform errors by redrawing, noise reduction, de-essing ect on a track by track basis before you begin to mix them as track noise builds up as you start adding them and that little hum of your cpu fan in the background might not be noticable on 1 track but stack 5 takes and all the sudden you have a pretty serious problem.

All the best

[Jekblad]

Thanks for your response! This is great stuff to check out.

It seems the link in your profile is dead...
The editing stuff is new to me, any links to get me started? Dc offset etc