Oggy

----->--------->---- Oh yes, really amazing. Oggy

[quote name='bremen' post='1268760' date='Jun 14 2011, 03:33 PM']Do that. Find a compromise between what sounds good on headphones and 'ordinary' speakers. Headphones can be very revealing, but it's easy to get a 'lush' sound on cans that sounds thin and orrible on speakers. There's a competition ongoing at DV247 to win some monitors, good luck![/quote] Hi bremen [u][b]My First Attempt at Bedroom (Cheapo ) Mixing and Monitoring [/b][/u] I tried it! Bought an M-Audio Fast Track (the cheap one, £49.99 on ebay), pair of Sony headphones £14.99 – these I bought so that I could listen to playback via the USB through the M-Audio into the headphones and still have the headphone-out from the Mac connected to the Aux-in on the Panasonic CD player. Doing the last little lot meant that I only had to go to[b] ‘Preferences > Sound’ [/b]on the Mac to swap between the earphone monitoring and Panasonic CD player monitoring via the earphone out connector. I took on board what you said about earphones giving a ‘Lush’ sound so decided to go for cheaper Sony ones that, I’m sure for the price, wouldn’t give such a good quality sound – more in keeping with what I’d hear through the CD player, that was the thinking anyway . I fired up GarageBand and loaded the raw WAV files that the studio gave me, no effects added just straight. I had one off each Guitar, Bass, Snare (top and bottom), Kick Drum, Toms (two) and two drums overhead mic’s. I didn’t load up the Vox track because it was done separately and I don’t know yet how to sync it with the other tracks – more about that later. I had a listen to each track individually first (orrible) and where I thought things could be improved (IMO) made a few adjustments i.e I ended up with 3 copies of the Guitar track and adjusted the volume levels for solo sections, intro and outro, graphics, reverb, compression etc etc until I had a sound that I thought was OK. On one of the tracks I only had the Intro, Solo’s and Outro sections (cut and paste) and added further volume and a wee bit of shorus – the studio recorder sound on the WAV files was pretty thin so this was my attempt so ‘thicken’ it up a bit. I had the overall sound / balance that I wanted in my head and went through all the tracks tweaking, copying, cut and pasting until I was happy. All of the above was done via the headphones. I then set about balancing the tracks to one another and using the pan to position the sounds and get relativity between them all – Oh the fun of it. After about 5 hours, and sore ears from the headphones I switched to listening and making final adjustments through the CD player – with EQ on the player set to Treble 0 and Bass 0. The result is the MP3 attached minus vocals. I’m not sure how the align the vocal track with the instrumental track – I’ll have to play with GaragBand a bit more – failing that it’ll be an overdub track done in the bedroom using the M-Audio Fast Track and my trusty SM58 (complete with sock over it to cut the pop and sssssssssss. Anyway, have a listen and let me know what you think of my first (Cheapo) attempt at mixing and mastering. [attachment=83566:Midnight...611__BT_.mp3] Oggy

[quote name='Jimelliottbassist' post='1273085' date='Jun 17 2011, 07:25 PM']You Me and The Kitty. [url="http://youtu.be/rOROsJrXPno"]You Me and The Kitty[/url][/quote] Excellent. Not my usual cup of tea but I honestly liked it a lot - very well produced IMHO. Oggy

Great - Loved it. Great band, great singer, magic sax playing . Some really good stuff finding its way onto the site - more please. Oggy

[quote name='Oggy' post='1283159' date='Jun 26 2011, 05:43 PM']Nice, Nice, Nice and very Nice - Loved it. Oggy [/quote] My Missus just came in as I was sending my last reply - I said "you've just got to hear this, brilliant, something haunting and retro about it". She listened too the track and said "yes, I really like it; and I bet the singer is good looking " - please just tell me that he isn't . Oggy

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='1282184' date='Jun 25 2011, 03:05 PM']Here's a song recorded on my Zoom H2 from last night's gig. It was loud, and the lows were very subby, but I think it's done a decent job... [/quote] Nice, Nice, Nice and very Nice - Loved it. Oggy

[quote name='woodyratm' post='1269925' date='Jun 15 2011, 12:17 PM']Another thing that i've found can be helpful is to mix it down and burn to a cd and test it in a car and a normal stereo. For some reason my car (stock speakers) shows up some stuff i'd not noticed.[/quote] Hi woody A good few years ago I lived in Torquay; I got friendly (via the local pub) with a guy called Phil Dunne, not a well man at the time, I don’t know if he’s still around. Anyway, it came to light that Phil was the recording engineer who did most of the early Elton John and Chris Rea stuff, really interesting to chew the fat with and listen to his anecdotes – Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll – the stuff of legends. At the time he was engineering the transition between vinyl and tape cassette was well under way. He told me that before they finalised a track he / them / they / the producer would stick it to tape and nip outside and play it on the car cassette player plus get it played at some odd time of night on a radio station (no idea what station) to hear the sound before it was pronounced the finished article. Your idea of testing a master on the car CD player could be – the way forward. I've been having a look at evelbay for studio monitor speakers; second hand prices are very good. Oggy [b]EDIT:[/b] Corrected the spelling for Dunn to Dunne (Recording engineer for early Gus Dudgeon RIP stuff)

Thank you guys for all the advice and suggestions it’s really helpful. Looks as though for the time being I’ll have to persevere with the earphones; I’ll also hook up the CD player and see if that’ll help. When / if I can get some cash together I’ll invest in a pair of ‘proper’ monitor speakers, until then it looks as though Tesco will be doing a roaring trade in CD’s - with me doing multiple cut’s to try and get it sounding (almost) right. Thanks again, appreciated Oggy

[quote name='bremen' post='1268760' date='Jun 14 2011, 03:33 PM']Do that. Find a compromise between what sounds good on headphones and 'ordinary' speakers. Headphones can be very revealing, but it's easy to get a 'lush' sound on cans that sounds thin and orrible on speakers. There's a competition ongoing at DV247 to win some monitors, good luck![/quote] [i]"but it's easy to get a 'lush' sound on cans that sounds thin and orrible on speakers"[/i] Funny you should say that - you've descibed my problem, well one of them anyway . Thanks for the heads-up on DV247. Oggy

Recently I’ve put up a couple of posts about recording, what hardware, software file compatibility between DAW’s etc. I’ve had loads of feedback and advice, much appreciated – It’s helped me get a little further along the road and given me a better understanding of what to do and what’s needed to get a reasonable live demo recording(s) of my band. I’ve been playing around a lot with raw files from a recording session we did at a studio a wee while ago and I’m now getting a real appreciation of just what a recording engineer can (has to) do to get a well balanced, decent sounding recording to a master track – It ain’t easy – lots of skill involved (I can see this is going to take me some time – if ever – to get anywhere close). While I’ve been ‘attempting’ to alter track levels, add effects, mix tracks in relation to one another etc – I’ve used earphone (good quality) to monitor what I’m doing. I hear a lot of discussion on monitor speakers and understand that they can cost a fortune for professional quality ones. Using the earphones, I think, hasn’t done me any favours. After compiling and mixing I’ve created a master and burnt a CD only to hear that the result is somewhat different to what I hear through the earphones when played on a standard, reasonable CD player. With this in mind I’d like to hear some opinions on my next ‘bright idea’. I have a good quality CD player with two very nice compact, separate speakers - Panosonic (Dimensions +/- 12” H x 9” W x 12” D), when playing a ‘shop bought’ commercial CD I get really good reproduction Bass / Mids / Treble. How about I connect the Mac audio out to the AUX input on the player and use that for monitoring – the thinking being that what I hear from the player should be a good approximation sound of what I’ll hear from a Mix burn to a CD. I’ve not tried it yet – lame excuse is - I’ve got to fit a shelf above the Mac. Anyway, thoughts and feedback from you chaps would be very welcome. Oggy

Loads of interesing solutions and advice given on this subject so far, thanks to everyone who's taken the time to reply, it's going to take a wee bit of time to get to grips with it all. Thinking about all this last night in bed - as you do . Eureka, I’m pretty certain that I know what I’m looking for now on the Hardware front – probably doesn’t exist but here goes (enlighten me please). [b]Portable recorder (Main Basic Features)[/b] 4 – 8 inputs (vox mic. / guitar / drums etc.) Volume knob / slider for each input with indicator to control / monitor input level, just so you know that it's recording and not cliping. Each individual input track recorder as separate .WAV file onto memory card in unit. USB interface from unit to computer that would allow pick up and drop of individual track .WAV files from memory card in unit to either a ‘project folder’ on the computer or direct drop into timeline track in Audio software program the on computer. Effects, mixing facility, playback, monitoring – who cares, could do all that stuff in the Audio software program on the computer, I think - perhaps / maybe? Power – Mains, batteries, PSU brick, steam – who cares. So, it’s [b]not a portable recording studio[/b], it’s a multi track portable recording device without all the software bells and whistles - they exist in the Audio editing computer program. Any ideas?? Oggy

[quote name='fatgoogle' post='1261910' date='Jun 8 2011, 09:33 PM']Im thinking the Zoom R16 is something you need. Even though and this is something i wonder myself, because it usb, and im under the impression that with usb you cant record nultiple tracks in the one go. So whats the point in having multiple input usb interfaces. Or can you record multiple tracks with usb now.[/quote] You're asking questions I'd also like answers to - looks like we're both in the same boat. How can you tell a multi input recorder, when it's plugged into the computer via a USB port, what track to record onto??? - beats the @*%t out of me. must be do-able I suppose. Let's hope someone enlightens us both. Oggy

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='1261899' date='Jun 8 2011, 09:30 PM']I've done both Oggy. We generally record onto a Korg D888 8-track digital recorder, and then just drag and drop the WAV files into Logic. 4 mics on the kit - a Rode NT4 stereo for the overhead, a CAD m179 placed to reinforce the snare and hi-hat, and an AKG D112 for the bass drum. Other instruments are either mic'd or go straight in. It seems to work. We have also built things up in parts and with overdubs going straight into Logic Express via a USB device – a simple but great sounding stereo Tascam US-122 Audio/midi module. Either way works though. If you like I can dig out an example of each method and that would give you an idea of what's possible.[/quote] I'll have to start looking at all the equipment you mention - Agghh. From what you've said it sounds as though the Korg 8-track digital recorder would be the way forward (expensive ??) for what I'd want to do, being able to overdub directly into the audio software would also be very handy - for those 'minor corrections' . Some examples would be great, I'll bet it's not only me that would be interested. Thanks Shergold. Oggy

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='1261502' date='Jun 8 2011, 05:39 PM']Having just made the transition from Garageband to Logic Express, the real bonus is being able to use your old GarageBand files, including any sound packs you may have bought. Songs import over with all settings pretty much as they should be. Garageband is actually quite powerful once you start clocking a few workarounds that enable quite sophisticated things to be done, but I have to say that Logic Express is in a different league altogether in terms of flexibility and workflow automation. And I've only scratched the surface so far. Chuffed to bits with it.[/quote] The write up on the net and other user comments agree with you - looks like Logic Express could be on the cards. Are you doing any recording straight into it (like in a studio) or are you transferring files from a portable device that you record onto? Not being nosey, well I am really but I want to get as much knowledge as to how these things are done before I go spending money and regretting it. I'm trying to get my head around it all so that I can make the best decision without it costing a fortune. At the moment all I've done is transfer .WAV files from a Zoom H4n recorder onto GarageBand and manipulate them (balance / EQ / add effects and write them out as MP3's). I'd like to be able to record the band a wee bit better i.e. separate tracks for Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocal, the idea being that each track could then be manipulated in isolation to the others then all mixed / balanced etc etc to produce a better sound overall - I'm just really not sure of the best way to go about it. Thinking about it, I think I'm after a portable recording device that I can take to gigs or practice sessions, record the band as described above (separate tracks for each instrument / vox) then take the files of the device in a format that I can transfer in 'one multiple track lump' and have them appear in GarageBand, Logic Express or some recording software so that I can tidy them up and produce a better sounding finished song. Oggy