need help to improve quality

m3t4lhed · #1 11-27-2007, 10:01 PM

ok, we recorded a demo at home recently. the demo is on the myspace site which is right under this post. this was done using a line6 toneport 2. the drums were sampled using drumkit from hell from ezdrummer as live drum recording is expensive and crappy in the city i live in. just wanted some questions answered from fellow TBers who have experience with the toneport and live drums recording

1. is there a way of live drum recording that can be done at home with good quality as studio quality in chennai, india s*cks????

2. hows the bass tone if you can hear it? i think it's good but it can be improved. the preset patches on the toneport are bad and the billion options on the toneport software (gearbox) end up confusing me. is there any good configuration which i can use for recording with the toneport. im not too good with configuring sound so i just need some help with this

3. the quality of the recording is very raw. what home software can be used to improve the quality of the mix?

4. we also tried recording vocals for this song but it didnt sound too good. my vocalist growls and the mix ends up capturing the a very crappy sound. instead of capturing a deep growl it captures a very crappy squeaky growl. when we play live the growls are deep and heavy and when we record the growl it has no depth at all. what can be done to tackle this problem?

5. hows the song?

thanks

m3t4lhed · #2 11-29-2007, 01:31 AM

anyone?

m3t4lhed · #3 11-30-2007, 11:37 PM

no one?

bonzo4880 · #4 12-03-2007, 12:52 AM

1. is there a way of live drum recording that can be done at home with good quality as studio quality in chennai, india s*cks????

Live drums are one of the hardest things to record. I would recommend going with a simple setup - kick/snare/two overheads. Also depends on if you are recording live with the band or multitracking (doing each instrument seperately). If you do it live, you will need some isolation, mainly to keep the drums from drowning out the other instruments(especially in a heavier band like yours).

2. hows the bass tone if you can hear it? i think it's good but it can be improved. the preset patches on the toneport are bad and the billion options on the toneport software (gearbox) end up confusing me. is there any good configuration which i can use for recording with the toneport. im not too good with configuring sound so i just need some help with this

the bass is fairly obscured, it pokes through in spots and sounds decent. i would recommend some EQ and compression. Also remember that EQ can be subtractive as well - you can make something sound louder by turning down something else that is in its way. I would do some low rolloff on the guitars, you can probably find some low spots to cut in the kick drum as well. Experiment with your eq: put on a sizable boost and sweep back and forth, finding the spots that each instrument really 'speaks' with.

3. the quality of the recording is very raw. what home software can be used to improve the quality of the mix?

besides plugins for your software, you just have to upgrade your software/sound card/analog to digital converter. those will all improve your recordings, although not so much after the fact.

4. we also tried recording vocals for this song but it didnt sound too good. my vocalist growls and the mix ends up capturing the a very crappy sound. instead of capturing a deep growl it captures a very crappy squeaky growl. when we play live the growls are deep and heavy and when we record the growl it has no depth at all. what can be done to tackle this problem?

might be the mic, probably some eq as well. experiment.

5. hows the song?

pretty rockin stuff, not my cup of tea, but i listened to the whole thing without turning it off

in general, you just need to experiment with the tools you have and get the most out of them. in mixing songs, your best friends are volume, EQ, and panning. think of a song as a jigsaw puzzle that has lots of different parts that fit in different places. you have to think low end to high end (20hz to 15k) and figure out where each instrument will show through and what you can take away, EQ wise, that doesnt seriously affect the tone of the particular instrument.

geoffkhan · #5 12-03-2007, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonzo4880

Live drums are one of the hardest things to record. I would recommend going with a simple setup - kick/snare/two overheads. Also depends on if you are recording live with the band or multitracking (doing each instrument seperately). If you do it live, you will need some isolation, mainly to keep the drums from drowning out the other instruments(especially in a heavier band like yours).

This is some excellent advice. I'm always impressed by the quality of 4-mic drum setups. For home recording, maybe just get a FirePod or other Presonus interface, a couple basic mics and track the instruments separately. That way you can reuse mics on other instruments. Maybe something like this:

Mics:

2x SM81 - drum overheads (or other similar small diaphragm condensor mics)

SM57 - snare mic, guitar amp

D112 - kick mic, bass cab mic (or just going DI is also a good option)

Remember, these are just examples of mics to use. What I hope to convey the most is the types of mics you can use in order to get the most flexibility.

As for vocals, you could try getting a large diaphragm condensor mic, or maybe use the SM57 also (the SM57 is the same as the SM58 but without the grill). Actually, you might experiment with the mics I listed earlier--try a SM81 stereo pair on vocals, or other two-mic combination. Maybe the D112 to capture the bass of the growls and a SM81 to get the sibilance. Just experiment. Whatever you choose, DEFINITELY get a pop filter.

It's all mixing from there on, but remember, it's a garbage in, garbage out system. First get the music rehearsed, and then the mic'ing techniques down. Then after that you can worry about the mixing. Good quality recording starts at the very foundation of music, not just at the mixing stage.