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

Just turn the hi hat down?

The vocals seem a little clouded in places (verses I think, only listened once) Cut a little mids around 500-600k. Maybe dip the upper mids of the guitars in those places.
 
Merlin5 said:
ShortWarning, that sounds great. I love the sswooosh effect ending on floor tom at 0:04. Not really my cup of tea musically but sounds like a strong song and tight band! Mix sounds pretty good to me. But yeah I suppose the drums could be a bit more prominent which might balance out the hi-hat. Good drummer. Was he playing to click? Any quantizing of drums? Regarding taming the open hi-hat, do you think panning it slightly less left might help it be less in your face?
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Thanks a lot!

Funny; the effect is a culmination of a reverse cymbal and what sounds like some weird phasing when I automated the low cut out aggressively to bring the guitar out. I wasn't expecting the extra swoosh but thought it sounded cool so stuck with it. :p

He was playing to a click and it is quantized.

Unfortunately the hi hats are all coming through the overheads and room mic so I don't have any control of the panning or volume (outside of automating it). I knew it sounded bad when we recorded it but we didn't have any other hi-hats. I've recorded him since with another set of hats and it sounds much better.

banja said:
Just turn the hi hat down?

The vocals seem a little clouded in places (verses I think, only listened once) Cut a little mids around 500-600k. Maybe dip the upper mids of the guitars in those places.
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I was worried the vocals were poking out a little too much. I'll have a look.
 
ShortWarning said:
I was worried the vocals were poking out a little too much. I'll have a look.
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Ah, I didn't mean obscured - I meant a touch muddy / undefined. And certainly not through most of the mix, just in occasional places.

I had a probelm with a mix I did where the word 'fire' sung by the singer kind of got lost as the guitars clashed over it. Tried automating some eq and levels but I soon realised that anyone who heard the song more than once would understand the word in the context of the line that was sung, so I let it go.
 
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banja said:
Ah, I didn't mean obscured - I meant a touch muddy / undefined. And certainly not through most of the mix, just in occasional places.

I had a probelm with a mix I did where the word 'fire' sung by the singer kind of got lost as the guitars clashed over it. Tried automating some eq and levels but I soon realised that anyone who heard the song more than once would understand the word in the context of the line that was sung, so I let it go.
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I notice so much rubbish in stuff I've recorded, I let a lot go or I'll be remixing for eternity.

Anyway, recorded for another band, first time recording anything that didn't directly involve my brother. Haha.

Feedback welcome:

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/sweeney-and-the-fellas-attitude/s-yKzkw
 
I've got a question guys. I want to record my acoustic drums at home. Not to the same level as you all do, as I don't have the gear. I was thinking of buying a better mixer than mine, pre-mixing on the mixer itself and recording it all directly into the line-in of my Zoom Q3 camera. This is for quick and dirty recordings of me playing to backing tracks and uploading to youtube. I won't be using a computer and DAW at the moment.

The mixer I'm thinking of buying is the Behringer x1622usb. It has on board reverb effects and compression pots for each of the four mono XLR inputs. It also has a frequency knob for low mids, and I believe reducing that is good for drums. My main question is about the compression dial. It's basic, doesn't have all the things a dedicated compressor has like threshold, release, etc. Do you think a mixer's basic compressor dial will help fatten or warm the sound of my snare and bass drum?

As far as mics, I only have an SM 57, a Unidyne 3 which is like an earlier 57, and one of those flat, black square PZM condenser/boundary mics. The PZM might work as a mono overhead, and although the 57 is a standard snare mic, I've seen it can work for the bass drum if I place it about a foot in front. What do you think?
 
Try the PZM on its own in mono. You will be amazed at the sound.

I'm not sure an SM57 on the snare or Bass drum will bring anything to the Table. I have two PZM (Tandy Ones) excellent mics for the price.

I'm not sure why you just dont get a USB audio interface with Two Mic inputs.

Record stereo Overheads and mix and EQ and compress in the box.

Reaper (Free) will be all you need and a laptop :)
 
Yeah, I've got a Zoom UAC-2 interface with two XLRs, thing is, I don't have a computer at the moment. Hah, my PZM was from Tandy too. :)

I agree that overheads are the most important, but close mic'd snare and bass drum along with the overhead would give better sound, presence, punch and detail, no?
 
Merlin5 said:
Yeah, I've got a Zoom UAC-2 interface with two XLRs, thing is, I don't have a computer at the moment. Hah, my PZM was from Tandy too. :)

I agree that overheads are the most important, but close mic'd snare and bass drum along with the overhead would give better sound, presence, punch and detail, no?
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If you have hard flooring the PZM on the floor about 4ft away would be worth a try.

Miking the snare and bass drum directly will give you more options but more faff for what you need.

A single PZM on a kit placed well will give you good results for what you need and that way you dont need to buy a mixer...
 
easyrider said:
If you have hard flooring the PZM on the floor about 4ft away would be worth a try.

Miking the snare and bass drum directly will give you more options but more faff for what you need.

A single PZM on a kit placed well will give you good results for what you need and that way you dont need to buy a mixer...
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Good point. Yeah I have ceramic tiles over a concrete floor. I'm not sure the PZM on its own will give me quite the sound I'm looking for though. I'll try your suggestion of PZM on the floor and I'll close mic the snare with my 57 since I have two XLR inputs.

Did you get your Tune-Bot Studio? :)
 
Merlin5 said:
Good point. Yeah I have ceramic tiles over a concrete floor. I'm not sure the PZM on its own will give me quite the sound I'm looking for though. I'll try your suggestion of PZM on the floor and I'll close mic the snare with my 57 since I have two XLR inputs.

Did you get your Tune-Bot Studio? :)
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I don't think my alerts are working?

I ordered it from Thomann but it was delayed in the post. I cancelled and will have to get around ordering another when work is not so crazy!
 
ShortWarning said:
Recorded my first session which didn't involve my brother this weekend. It's going to be tricky to make it sound good....:p

Fun and games.

Here's a first mix of another of my bros bands tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/projectmay/new-lc-first-mix/s-PjCdq

Any suggestions? Really need to figure out a way to tame those open hi hats. I used a de esser on them for the last track (which was recorded at the same time) but wasn't really happy with it.
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Sounds great, very American Pie.
Snare needs to be louder though
 
Hey guys, I've got a Zoom UAC-2 USB 3.0 audio interface that I bought last year which I never used, I only opened the box, lifted the unit out to look at it and put it back so it's as new. I bought it because it had low latency which I needed for triggering drums. But anyway, I want to sell it. Not on here obviously, just wanted some ideas of a realistic price and then stick it on gumtree.

I see it retails at about £180 and some places over £200. Any idea what I could try to get for mine? I know it sounds a bit tight fisted but I want as much as I can only because I'd like to buy another Zoom product which is nearly £290. Do you think £140 is acceptable?
 
Merlin5 said:
Hey guys, I've got a Zoom UAC-2 USB 3.0 audio interface that I bought last year which I never used, I only opened the box, lifted the unit out to look at it and put it back so it's as new. I bought it because it had low latency which I needed for triggering drums. But anyway, I want to sell it. Not on here obviously, just wanted some ideas of a realistic price and then stick it on gumtree.

I see it retails at about £180 and some places over £200. Any idea what I could try to get for mine? I know it sounds a bit tight fisted but I want as much as I can only because I'd like to buy another Zoom product which is nearly £290. Do you think £140 is acceptable?
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Not sure you would get that much tbh...maybe 100 ? Put it on for 140 see if you get a nibble
 
I've got a question just about my behringer xenyx 802 gain staging for close micing a snare. I'm using an SM57. From what I understand, you're meant to turn the trim/gain/preamp pot all the way up to near maximum then turn it down until there's no clipping. Well I have to turn mine down quite a lot to halfway or less. Is that normal for a snare drum? I find that if I push the gain or level pots any higher than halfway there's clipping.

I've got the snare mic channel level knob at zero (which is at 12' o'clock), and turned the channel's trim pot down until the LEDs on the far right of the mixer (situated above where it says main mix) only go between 0 and 6 which is allowing headroom but not lighting up the red clipping LEDs. I believe this is how it should be.

Even though it's not showing clipping, there's a separate red clip LED on the snare channel which occassionally lights up when I strike the drum. But still no clipping on the main mix LEDs.

In order to get rid of it, I have to turn the trim down further. Where would you expect the trim pot for a snare mic to be approximately? Near maximum, halfway or lower?

Or should I be considering turning the level pot down below 0 instead of the trim pot?

I've also noticed that reducing the snare mic channel's low EQ knob also helps stop the clip light coming on.

Which leads me to another question. How would you suggest I have high, mid and low EQ settings for the snare? Take mid and low off completely and maybe just have some high? The sound I'm getting is 'ok', I'm definitely getting somewhere but it needs improving. Might be too boxy.
 
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