Help! Fix my lo-fi ... and what does that mean?

[carilive]

Trying to make adjustments to my recordings which have a "lo-fi" quality. Also there is a high end 'noise' to the track. I was also told that I might have too much EQ or compression. Where do I go to make adjustments?

These are very elementary questions, I'm sure, and it may be obvious to you, but I don't know how to tweak it. Any advice would be helpful. I wish I could just take a course, but that is down the road a bit. Here is the song I'm referring to:

http://soundcloud.com/cari-live/sometimes

Thanks!

Cari Live

[macmurphy]

maybe there's something wrong with my ears or speakers or (more likely) my brain, but that recording definitely doesn't sound lo-fi to me.

i did hear some high end noise kind of fluttering around the flute but that sounded more like the result of a reverb(?) maybe? i'm not sure. if it is you

could try putting a high cut filter after it and reducing the frequency until the noise goes away. also nothing sounds overly eq'd or compressed to me.

when using eq if you're boosting a frequency it's best to use a wide Q/bandwidth as it usually sounds more musical, unless you are going for some particular effect.

conversely if you need to cut a troublesome frequency a narrow Q is the best way to go.

with compression, if you find you have too much simply raise the threshold and/or reduce the ratio.

and of course, remember that ignoring everything that people say and doing what sounds right to you is the most important thing of all

neil.

[carilive]

Neil,

Yes, I've got reverb (maybe too much) on the flute. That I can change. Ok, so the high cut filter and reducing the frequency until the noise goes away ... I will look at that. Cool ... and the wide Q/bandwidth to boost frequency and a narrow Q to cut frequency ... I can look for that. I have played with the threshold and the ratio, so I will make changes that way. Could the fluttering sound have anything to do with the placement of the mic?

It's amazing how much I don't know (smile) and you have helped me a great deal. It's hard to not write music today and just work on the production part - I want to play!

So can I ask you, how do you know these things? Experience? Classes? Read the manual?! I listen to the recording and then look for ways to change the sound to what I want. Is that what you do?

Thanks for taking time to listen and giving me some solutions - very cool - maybe I can sleep tonight!

Cari

[fishmonkey]

i only listened through once, but there is definitely a hissy noise that goes through most of the track. from where i hear it come in and out, it sounds like it is to do with the harp-like track. did you record that with mics, or is it a sample instrument?

[macmurphy]

Cari,

i've never miked an instrument in my life so i'm not the one to ask about that there should be plenty folks around here who do though.

i suppose i learned stuff through experience, reading manuals, the internet - this guys stuff is good http://kimlajoie.wordpress.com/ as are Tarekith's guides -

http://tarekith.com/misc.html, books, magazines etc. i have quite an insatiable thirst for music technology in general. i'm a geek. experimenting is also good

- having a good mess around with your tools is a great way of finding out what they are capable of and what sounds you can achieve with them. take anything you learn from any person or

resource as a starting point and build upon that with your own experiments.

talking of hiss, i'm always putting hiss and crackle into my music!

i'm glad i could be of some help

neil.

[carilive]

fishmonkey,

The harp-like track is from my Roland keyboard, through the Behringer XENYX 1204USB USB Mixer. I tend to bypass that mixer and instead go to Ableton Live - might be something to look at, yes?

Thanks for listening - I didn't hear it before. Back to the drawing board ...

[fishmonkey]

definitely bypass the Xenyx if possible.

the most likely cause of the hissy noise is that your gain structure was a bit whacko, i.e. the level was set too low coming out of the keyboard, and then you either boosted the gain using the Xenyx before recording, or recorded it at too low a level and then needed to boost the sound level a lot in Live. then perhaps the hissy noise became even louder after you did some EQing and compression...

it's important to set your output and recording levels right, to maintain a big difference between the levels of any underlying noise or hiss and the actual sound. this is your 'signal-to-noise' ratio. if you do not record with a high enough signal-to-noise ratio, then any processing you do later may make the noise even more noticeable. for example, if you raise the level, compress, or boost the high frequencies with EQ, then the unwanted noise component of the recording will also be raised.

this is especially important with a sparse, quiet sound like that 'harp' track.