sunshear1

harmacist

Howya lads,
I'm a quintessential bedroom studio nerd, looking for some pointers
I've some reasonable gear for recording and mixing(Boss 1180CD and Behringer Active Truth monitors ) but can't nail a decent mix on it...
Am I overlooking somethin obvious or do I need "professional help"??
Cheers,
Steve
www.myspace.com/sunshear1

eoin5

Check out the recording forum. Read the sticky on how to record stuff.

harmacist

Cheers... I'll take a peek

Moved

squibs

Need more info - what exactly is wrong with your mixes?

harmacist

Hi squib
Well they're a wee bit muddy methinks-
the different guitars( and sometimes other lines)seem lost in a foggy overlap> I'm not sure is it a lack of decent EQing thats failng to seperate the different tracks??
Have a listen at the myspace.... www.myspace.com/sunshear1
Cheers

Paligulus

harmacist wrote: »

Hi squib
Well they're a wee bit muddy methinks-
the different guitars( and sometimes other lines)seem lost in a foggy overlap> I'm not sure is it a lack of decent EQing thats failng to seperate the different tracks??
Have a listen at the myspace.... www.myspace.com/sunshear1
Cheers

How are you doing the drums? (Midi or is that a real kit). What are you doing to the drums during mixing?

Listening to a Light Like This - Sounds pretty damn good to me.

squibs

A Light Like This - drums too low and they sound bad
Teenage Kix2 - soulds like proximity effect on the mic (were you "eating the mic"?)
The other two sound fine - 5 years from now is very nicely mixed.

harmacist

Cheers for taking a listen lads-
The drums are one of the the preset kits on a boss1180 standalone recorder-i've nothing by the way of FX applied during mixing. I can't master importing other drum loops so maybe i'll have a lash at using one of the other preset kits instead and have a bit of a rerecord on the singing for the 2nd tune;

Paligulus

harmacist wrote: »

Cheers for taking a listen lads-
The drums are one of the the preset kits on a boss1180 standalone recorder-i've nothing by the way of FX applied during mixing. I can't master importing other drum loops so maybe i'll have a lash at using one of the other preset kits instead and have a bit of a rerecord on the singing for the 2nd tune;

So I'm guessing they're drum loops, as in WAV files of different beats?

The reason I'm asking is that your mixes sound (well the drum sounds do anyway) muddy like mine, when I was using .WAV loops for drums. Then I switched to Midi and started using EZdrummer. This switch alone added a huge amount of clarity and definition to my mixes, even before I started adding EQ, compression, distorsion etc to the individual parts of the drum.

I think you should look into doing this as everything else in your mixes sound really good, and no ammount of tweaking with the other components (guitar, bass, VOX) will give you the same level of improvement.

Cheers

harmacist

Paligulus wrote: »

So I'm guessing they're drum loops, as in WAV files of different beats?

The reason I'm asking is that your mixes sound (well the drum sounds do anyway) muddy like mine, when I was using .WAV loops for drums. Then I switched to Midi and started using EZdrummer. This switch alone added a huge amount of clarity and definition to my mixes, even before I started adding EQ, compression, distorsion etc to the individual parts of the drum.

I think you should look into doing this as everything else in your mixes sound really good, and no ammount of tweaking with the other components (guitar, bass, VOX) will give you the same level of improvement.

Cheers

Hey thanks I might try give that a shot- My technical knowhow is slightly on the pants side... I've yet to get to the midi section on the studio manual!!
I might even just upgrade the studio to one with better drum samples!
Cheers!

studiorat

Have you tried mixing on a different system, that would tell you if it's the gear or not. Personally I find most people are having problems because of the room they are working in. If the rooms not right then any amount of gear isn't going to fix it.

Simple things like having the speakers too close to the wall etc. will make the best gear sound bad. Comb filtering blah!

Listening too loud will also result in a muddy mix.

Ethan Winer has a good video on setting up a listening room he seems to know what's going on. Have a look

Home studio set up

Oh Yeah,
Try setting up the mix first using no fx and getting the song happening. Then have a listen to see what needs looking at, then and only then start using EQ and Compression etc. Tweek the tracks in place rather than using solo each time. Over use of EQ etc. will destroy the mix.

harmacist

studiorat wrote: »

Have you tried mixing on a different system, that would tell you if it's the gear or not. Personally I find most people are having problems because of the room they are working in. If the rooms not right then any amount of gear isn't going to fix it.

Simple things like having the speakers too close to the wall etc. will make the best gear sound bad. Comb filtering blah!

Listening too loud will also result in a muddy mix.

Ethan Winer has a good video on setting up a listening room he seems to know what's going on. Have a look

Home studio set up

Oh Yeah,
Try setting up the mix first using no fx and getting the song happening. Then have a listen to see what needs looking at, then and only then start using EQ and Compression etc. Tweek the tracks in place rather than using solo each time. Over use of EQ etc. will destroy the mix.

There's a lot of decent stuff on that guys site. Nice one!

studiorat

he's a nice man.

harmacist

Aye, like the funky eccentric uncle I never had.