Home Recording - Rough Mix Prep

[atomicwash]

My wife recorded my band using Pro Tools. We are both very greenat recording, but feel we have a solid recording/demo. As we prep a rough mix, every stereo we use for playback sounds different - even to the point of backups disappearing or my guitar riff just right in the mix on one stereo and almost gone on another.

Is there a good source to use for dependable playback in prepping to master? Or should we give in and hire someone? We have been struggling with this for a while because we don't know which source to mix to or trust for the final product.

Thanks,

Dan

[gorch]

Sounds to me like a frequency issue. Some speakers hide certain frequencies and promote others.

[dragan]

lots of reasons this happens , but basically compensating for a less than desireable acoustic evironment (like gorch said eq )is the issue. try moving the speakers your mixing through out away from the wall ( if theyre near a wall ) and sit fairly close to them to minimize reflected sound , also mastering the final recording helps a lot , . you are encountering the largest issue with recording, how your recordings translate to the real world . something heavy and absorbent behind you while recording and mixing may help aalso

[tomteriffic]

Common issue. You get the mix awesome on your main speakers and it then sux on anything else. I've lost count of the times that people thought that they were getting "studio monitors" when they bought a pair of Yamaha NS-10's. All the big studios had them, right? And all the big studios used them for "home hi-fi" surrogates, as a "reality check" for what happened on their mains. So the folks would get it awesome on the Yamahas and it would sound ten different kinds of wrong on anything else.

Speaker placement, and, as noted something a bit absorbent on the wall behind the speakers (or free air behind them) and crosscheck against other speakers until you turn blue. If you start with a better pair you'll do less cross-checking and it will be easier to "learn" your monitors. There are some perfectly acceptable "budget" monitors out there, from Mackie, JBL, Emotiva and yes, Yamaha that will give you a good start.

[scottcald]

I'll throw in 2 cents here. Get a good pair of headphones to A/B with the speakers. I like the old standards Sony MDR-7506. They don't overhype bass or treble.

I also agree that there are lots of good monitors these days for not a ton of money. I'd say $300-400 would get a decent pair of monitors. Also, get a pair of the auralex mopads to isolate the monitors from the table or wherever they're sitting.

[kenjones]

Sounds like a phasing issue to me. You might check to make sure that your speakers are in phase. Out of phase speakers can cause parts of the mix to disappear. I am always amazed at how many people's speakers are wired out of phase. Like was said in the post above - check with headphones and see if the problem persists. Headphones aren't great for checking levels or equalization, but are a great way to check for proper phasing.

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_polaritycheck.php

[veatch]

All good responses above.

1> I'd recommend a good reference CD to listen to in your mix position to make sure it sounds good. Chesky Masters is a great one. I also love using Dire Straits Brothers in Arms and Donald Fagen The Nightfly as a quick reference. Some great mastering on those two albums.

2> I'd put the absorption behind you as opposed to behind the speakers. More important, have your wife take a mirror along the walls (or any flat surface) while you are sitting in the mix position. If you can see either monitor in the mirror, put some absorption there.

3> Listen to your mixes in a number of different environments and learn as you go. Mixing is an art - it's its own instrument. It takes a while to get proficient at it, just like playing guitar or writing songs.

4> Check *every* mix in mono first. You'd be amazed what you will hear. Assuming you have a decent set of monitors and have the phase and reflection issues under control, if it doesn't sound good in mono, it won't sound good in stereo.

Hope that helps, and have fun with it!

[killerteddybear]

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[Hardrockracer]

Sound like a panning and frequency/phasing issue to me.

HRR

[Uncle Thor's Hamer]

Note that I am a hobbiest and not any kind of pro at home recording. But I think I've gotten some good results. The prices I mention are an approximate break point between hobby vs better. You could spend a lot more. You can get higher fidelity and more sophistication in your home studio than the pros had in the 1960's, and at a crazy cheap price considering.

First, your recording space has to be at least ok. Some people spend big bucks, but what you want to do is cut down on reflections. Use soft furniture and an area rug if it is all you have. Take pictures off the wall if they have glass. Drapes or a blanket over the window. I've put a foam couch on end and placed the mic close to it, thus allowing only the sound from directly in front to be sensed. Turn the heat or air conditioning off for the whole house. Sit still and really listen for any noises. Check your system for any 60hz line hum.

Use good mics. You can get pretty decent ones for amateur use for $100, but if you go up to about $200 you can get some very sufficient ones for your home studio. Learn the pattern of each mic so you know which ones are directional and which ones will pick up every sound from all directions. Experiment with different positions to get the best tone for your project.

Get a good interface to your computer. In the $150 range you can find stuff that is 24 bit and has decent s/n ratios.

Learn proper gain staging, especially if you're looking to make professional quality recordings.

Add effects later when at all possible. That is, record dry without reverb, echo, compression, distortion, etc.

Take this free online course from Berklee College of Music. https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction

Use a CD of similar style music that you like the sound of as a test reference. Play it through your system and get it to sound as "good" as you can. Now you have a reference to play your mix against. Play your mix through headphones, close-field speakers (which you'll likely use to actually mix and master your recording), your stereo system, your iPod, and in your car.

Make notes about how your mix sounds the very first time you play each track. That is, use your fresh impression to find the good and bad in each track. Same thing with the mix. The first time you play it all back, take notes. Guitar too bright, vocals too quiet in verse 2, etc. After you've listened to and messed with your own music a bunch of times your brain will be compensating and you won't hear it the way a stranger hears it the first time. I like to put a final mix away for a week or two and then listen again.

If you really need pro results, find a pro to do your final mastering.