***The Official Home Recording Studio Thread***

ShortWarning said:
I spent the weekend on this and ended up making it sound worse. Argh, the frustration.

I'm just going to make those tiny tweaks (instead of remixing) and be done with it. Haha.
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Sounds like a sweet kick drum. You wanna think about using a sidechain compressor to duck the bass under the kick and it will pop out of the mix once again in all its glory without you having to compromise the tone of the bass or EQ the bejeezus out of the kick.

Heres a tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLfW_UGRpSo

Overall you have done a pretty good job in that soundcloud if that's your mix. SexyGreyFox's tweaks above should be enough, along with the sidechain. Are you using any maximising mastering effects like Ozone or Kuassa Kratos 2 yet? Make sure you don't mix into these! Get a good mix first then apply them.
 
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Lt_Red said:
Sounds like a sweet kick drum. You wanna think about using a sidechain compressor to duck the bass under the kick and it will pop out of the mix once again in all its glory without you having to compromise the tone of the bass or EQ the bejeezus out of the kick.

Heres a tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLfW_UGRpSo

Overall you have done a pretty good job in that soundcloud if that's your mix. SexyGreyFox's tweaks above should be enough, along with the sidechain. Are you using any maximising mastering effects like Ozone or Kuassa Kratos 2 yet? Make sure you don't mix into these! Get a good mix first then apply them.
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Thanks for your feedback, really appreciate it.

In the end, I just shortened the reverb trail on the snare and I changed the parallel distortion on the lead vocals (for some reason when bussed it was causing a weird slight delay so I ended up duplicating the vocals and distorting them).
I did mess the kick and got it to pop out of the mix but I then the mix would distort when limiting (I could have limited less I know). I've left the kick as it is and it does bother me but I felt like I was having to compromise other parts of the mix for it. With that being said, I didn't try side chaining. Should I open up the session again? I've spent soooo long on it already. Argh. Haha.

As far as mastering is concerned. I bounce down to a stereo track, open a new session then tweak that. I do use Ozone as the final limiter.

This is what I went with in the end:

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/drawing-16-44/s-skL5K

It's barely different to the last one I posted tbh.
 
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I've been busy :)

I moved the kit in the Vee of the corner and applied more Bass trapping floor to ceiling at the back along with some more acoustic panels...

Moved the heater and setup my Vox amps for stereo recording...

Created a Acoustic cloud ...Built it myself :) Should prevent ceiling reflections when my Overheads arrive.

Feedback welcome:-)


Before

SXMwV6Yl.jpg

After

DDLMQlTl.jpg

The first pic shows an obvious imbalance with the side wall and no wall the other side so I moved the kit to get balance around it. I also removed the the Bass front skin to allow better positioning of the Kick drum mike and easier experimentation.

Big 10cm thick slab of acoustic foam covered with Acoustic transparent material.

RsBX7gSl.jpg

PpoGDy9l.jpg
 
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easyrider said:
No mate.. Been playing with the Shure Kit set and 2 x PZMs....The PZM's were ok but I don't think I have the best room for them...

Considering this set...Seems amazing both in value and sound quality judging by reviews...



Oktava MK-012-20 MSP8

http://www.oktava-shop.com/category-5/Oktava-MK-012-20-MSP8.html

Comes in at £572 and offers 4 mics in one... Should offer me some more options when recording more than just drums.

MK-012 small diaphragm - cardioid, hyper cardioid, Omni-directional; MK-102 large diaphragm - cardioid
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I've got the Oktavas and the Sontronics. Due to your circumstances and for what they cost get both, the STC's really are dirt cheap, but imho work far better for overheads. Don't get me wrong, the Oktavas are good, but they're quite a warm sound which doesn't give quite the 'sheen' for cymbals that the STC's do. The Oktava's are more versatile given their changeable capsules, but not quite as good for that particular job. :)
 
SexyGreyFox said:
Can't you up the volume of the bass drum?
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I did try but by the time it was making any difference I was boosting by +4.

The problem is there's too much going on in the kick range (I always have this problem really) in the end after spending so long on it I didn't have the time or desire to start going back and cutting to clear up the kick.

I'm going to be a lot more careful with it next time I record a track.
 
Rather than this one thread, I wish there could be a sub forum, maybe under sound city, where we can discuss everything to do with home studios and audio recording. To me, it doesn't really come under music, TV and books as that is more to do with consuming media not producing it.
 
Here's my modest lot tucked away in my log cabin:

Primary System running Reason 8 over 3 screens. I have two crappy M-Audio "monitors", I do most of my referencing over headphones using a set of KRK KNS8400's. Scarlett 18i8 for the interface, Nektar Panorama P4 for the master keyboard:


Secondary System is a Surface Pro running primarily S-Gear for guitar amp simulation using a Scarlett 2i2 as a buss powered interface, which makes it mobile. S-Gear is running inside EnergyXt's modular environment allowing me to add VSTi's to the signal chain. I mostly use Guitar Rigs stomp boxes (bypassing the amps) and some leveling in there and then take the effected and the clean signal side by side into the main PC for recording and further processing in Reasons rack, but S-Gear is where the primary amp models are at and what I use when playing live:


Tucked away in the background there is a Novation X-Station, sweet bit of kit but windows 10 drivers are atrocious.

Axes are on the wall... Gibson Epiphone Accoustic, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Heartfield Talon 2, Spanish nylon string and an Ibanez SDGR powered bass:


Tone control using a Line6 FBV Shortboard 2 for MIDI and sequencer control.

 
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Thanks, it suits my purposes.

I really like some of the soundproofing work easyrider has done, where did you get the zig-zag stuff you have mounted on your walls?

The log cabin has pretty good acoustics but I may get some of that stuff because it just looks cool as hell :)
 
Lt_Red said:
Thanks, it suits my purposes.

I really like some of the soundproofing work easyrider has done, where did you get the zig-zag stuff you have mounted on your walls?

The log cabin has pretty good acoustics but I may get some of that stuff because it just looks cool as hell :)
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Got the tiles from http://www.acoustic-foam.co.uk/

Ordered through amazon for prime delivery

29 quid for 24 tiles...

:)
 
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