EQING, COMPRESSION, REVERB

[Synthesizer Patel]

I've been mucking around recently trying to put down a bunch of songs i've got. This is all done at home so not in a studio environment, and i'm coming really unstuck with getting the sound right. I'm recording the parts well - they all sound full and how i want them individually, but putting them all together (whilst it still maintains the general feel of what i want) it is too boomy, and things are competing for space in the mix too much. How in the hell do you get the bass to sound bassy without muddying the mix, whilst having the drums full and up front, without leaving no room for anything else? To explain what i mean I've uploaded a couple of examples - both of the same song.

 

Here:

 

Mixdown Without Piano

Mixdown With Piano

 

I haven't even put half of the stuff I want on this track yet, and that's even before I think about vocals. (I've got chord organ parts, mellotron flute samples which sound great, and combo organ stuff that all works - but gets lost in the mix cos it's currently full enough sonically as it is). Also, for example - at the end of the song (above) you can hear that the bass and drums together - when they are playing alone - are quite funky (or some word like that, ha ha) but that doesn't come across so much in the rest of the song.

 

What I want to know, from anyone - is how do you deal with these issues. How do you suggest I EQ things, Compress, Reverb etc... At present those mixes above only have natural dry room sound (apart from the orchestral stuff at the end, but they're samples anyway) - so, what to do?

 

Anyone got any tips, etc... It's just when i look online (eg on youtube) the people are making the type of music I don't want mine to sound like, so I don't know whether to take any notice of them and just tweak things to suit me, or ignore them completely.

 

Help!

[In a little rowboat]

OK...Ill start by saying I do A LOt of audio engineering. I cant answer many questions without knowing your mic choices, interface, etc...fill us in. How many mics were used on drums? Did you go direct on the bass?? How did you mic the piano and guitar? How do you plan on doing vocals? All these need to be answered before I can give you much.

 

A few generic tips, after listening to your mixes, cool stuff reminds me a bit of Nick Drake...take them however you want. its not all that bad a mix, but you are right it sounds muddy...

 

Kick: Id add a gate, eq out everything over 350 hz, and soft compress it with a quick attack and release...pan it center, dip eq around 220hz (a horrible freq for drums)...

Snare: Eq out everything under 200 hz, add some highs...soft compress it with quick attack and release

Toms/overheads: need some light reverb, eq in some highs, hard pan them (highhat shouldnt be in the middle over the snare and kick)...i like to compress cymbals

Bass: It lacks punch and sounds like it was miced (i prefer Di or a DI/mic blend)...you clear it up some by using a limiter, compression with a slower attack and release, and some eq tweeks around 1500-1800hz, drop the ultra lows (under 100hz)...the bass does not have to be centered...i like it about 10 o'clock, and doubled...

 

Guitars: sounds like there are two...the acoustic needs compression and some eqing to bring out the highs...the electric needs more compression and some reverb, maybe a plate type...

Piano: something is wrong here

Samples: are fine for now...

 

Dropping things out to add more, and panning is going to help you even more after the sounds are processed a bit...have fun. j

[Synthesizer Patel]

Thanks very much for replying.

 

Well, I'll go into some more detail for you.

 

The drums were recorded seperately. I've only got a hi-hat, snare and kick - so I play the beat through using one mic to capture the sound, and then I go back over it all again playing each part seperately. Sounds complicated, I know - but I've not got enough mic imputs into my (line 6 UX2) to do it any other way. Then I use tom samples to make the tom sounds along with hitting the snare without the snare on so that it has a similar feel to the rest of the kit.

 

I am recording everything with an ADK TC - tube microphone, but I also ran the drums through a PreSonus - Pre Tube, which has a GT-12AX7-C Tube put into it, rather than the factory one.

 

The bass guitar is actually a driect input, which also runs through the Pre Tube. The Drive on the Pre Tube is up about 3/4 and the Gain is right down to about 1/8 of the way up. I play it using my picking hand to dampen the strings, and I use a pick. No other effects are on it. You're right, it is kind of muddy, but I want that deep low end sound, maybe not as much as it is - but I'd assume you remove those frequencies from other instrumens to allow it room to breathe a bit. Also, as with everything I recorded myself, there is no reverb of any kind - so maybe I should brighten the bass up and have the reverb working on warming up the lower frequencies, or do it the other way around? I don't really know any of this stuff. The bass is not panned at all - it's smack-bang in the centre.

 

The acoustic guitar was just recorded with the ADKTC mic, i didn't run it through the Pre Tube as well. I did this because I didn't want it so warm. The sound I'm going for here is that I don't actually want it to be so high in the mix - I'm wanting it to work with the drums, which is why it's panned to the left about 40%, as are the drums (forgot to say this).

 

There are 2 electric guitar parts which come in on the second verse. They are ran through the Line6 UX2 - which has this thing called POD Farm, and they are settings from there. Both the settings I used I turned off the amp in the chain, so that they were like direct input instruments - as I didn't think the amps sound convincing, and also I wanted to fiddle around with reverb afterwards, using a better program, rather than be stuck with what I recorded. These I want to be right up front in the mix - although at present, because they have no reverb I have to pan them fairly close to the centre otherwise they sound thin, and this means that they blend with each other a little too much (although I do want them to do this to a certain extent, anyway)

 

As for the piano - that's the real bastard here! It's actually a sampled piano, and it's supposed to sound like a honky tonk / tack piano. So, it's not been recorded by me at all with a mic. As they are midi files, and saved as such I can try other settings - I just wanted to know what frequencies to fiddle about with, reverb etc... to make them sound like a tack piano, and fit in the mix. The piano, again I want to be panned over to the left with the drums and acoustic guitar - it's supposed to be driving the rhythm and heard, but not be a main feature as such.

 

In some ways the sound I've got going is actually close to what I want, especially the one without the piano - however I don't want it to give people a headache, just retain that full bass heavy sound whilst having room for vocals and more percussion.

 

Don't know if that's helped you at all. Thanks for your help so far.

 

Here's another mix, with different piano sound and a mellotron flute coming in on the second verse (and the electric guitars slightly lower and panned differently) - this sounds better, but it's still suffering from everything vying for space.

 

Newer Mix