A newbie who wants broadcast quality advice?

[Mark Kaufman]

Yeah that sounds like a "great" return, if there is such a thing. Great marks and comments---only the production held you back. Future looks bright to me...

[timwelchtwo]

Everyone thank you for the kind advice and encouragement. I will check out the websites recommended and look into a d-esser for my vocals. I am wondering if I just sent that song to a mastering website if they could make it broadcast quality? I am also considering doing one of the online mixing/mastering audio classes. Has anyone ever done those things before? Are there some that are better than others? If anyone has any experience in that way I would love some advice.Thanks,Tim

[slideboardouts]

I would be careful with the online mastering websites. Some of them I think are a little less than honest. I have heard of some (and have actually seen a couple myself) that make a bogus bad mix of a track as an example of a "before we mastered it" track so that the "after we mastered it" track sounded that much better. Also, be aware that mixing and mastering are two different but equally important processes. You could send your track to the best mastering lab in the world and they couldn't do squat for it if it was poorly mixed.Personally, I would try to find a good local studio to take it in to for two reasons. 1.) You will have more quality control and 2.) you will get to sit in on the mix and should be able to learn a few things that you can then apply to your set up at home.Check this studio out: http://www.visionsounds.com/This is a studio down the road from me and they have top-notch gear, engineers, and do excellent work. They also do online mastering and maybe even online mixing. They recorded, mixed, and mastered The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's "demo" album and IMHO, the "demo" album that was done at Vision sounds MUCH better than their Virgin release. Same songs for the most part, but the production just sounded better. I would still try to find a good local studio though and have them mix and master it. I think you will get more bang for your buck that way.good luck,-Steve

[mixopenta]

As already said, a great song is halfway there, the rest is having a good arrangement and a good listening environment. Everything apart from these three items is pretty much overrated.With no referral to this particular thread, almost every discussion I see on how to get productions up to snuff, is asking the question "how". The question should rather be "why/when". As in; why/when do I need to use EQ, why/when do I need a compressor on this sound, etc, etc. and the how will automatically follow, or at least be a lot easier to understand.Apart from knowing how to set up a recordable track, setting recording levels, and operate the transport panel in your DAW or other recording equipment, I consider the following as the best starting points to get your production level to where you want it to be:- Get a basic knowledge of how different instruments and their respective timbres are spread out across the frequency spectrum and how they interact, and use that knowledge to build a great arrangement that fits the (already great) song.- Then learn some basic physics of how sound behaves, proximity effects, frequency dispersion, phase issues, etc, to know how to capture a clean good sound with a microphone. Though these things might look intimidating there is really no way escaping it, you can't really expect to make decent productions without knowing them.After you have acquired some insight in these things, not only will the how become clearer, but also when, which is equally important.Having said that, if you're mainly using sample and synthesized based sounds, the less you do, the better it gets. Poor productions based on samples and synths are often proof of overusing EQ and other sound tweaking tools. Here, less is definitely more.You could also try learning by trial and error, but unless you are intelligent beyond human comprehension, this method will take you more than a lifetime to learn by... In the past, when everything was so much easier, a songwriter didn't need to know how to make a good production, didn't need to know how to be his/hers own manager/promoter/web-designer/performer/producer etc etc...Times are changing and sometimes for worse, but sometimes also for the better...

[heinsite]

hey there tim--really liked the hook Youhoo, after listening just once, i notice that the lead vocal is pretty pitchy, no offense please, sometimes my problem too. also, though the lyric got a 9, a couple times they seem cramped, especially in the first prechorus, i'd say it with fewer words in places re: production, can only say the vox need to be clearer, but i'm sure if you got that far with this very nice tune, you can tweek until your ears hear it better balanced--and heck, if it isn't quite "broadcast" quality, plain ol' quality will get it pitched SOMEPLACE imho.must my opinion, not an expert at anything at this point. 1 forward in 3 + years.heinsite out