Investment in equipment?

[mladendomic]

If in your home studio
you had a good mic for vocal and instruments,
good room,
solid near field monitors,
pretty fast PC with software gadgets of all kind ...

what would be the first thing to buy/invest in order to maximally raise the quality of your recordings?
Would you go for reducing some more noise? Better professional compressor? Instructions in mixing skills...
what would - in your opinion - be the first *professional* missing piece of equipment to make a difference and maximally shift your sound results?

The truth is I think my recordings need more clarity, but I don't know how to get it!

[andygabrys]

well the first thing i would do is spend some cheap money on tutorial videos. I have a feeling great mic technique is going to be a win.

Also finding clarity in recordings can be IMO a matter of finding what to take out. even great instruments in a great room through a great chain have resonances that might have to be dealt with. Probably less noticeable as the whole chain gets better.

I would look at tutorial videos from people like Fab Dupont - puremix.net
I have a number of their videos. Fab does a lot of selective eq on stuff to just make things clearer, and his use of compression is very musical I think.

http://www.puremix.net/video/transparen ... ssion.html

http://www.puremix.net/video/how-to-eq-vocals.html

http://www.puremix.net/video/mixing-a-p ... -eyed.html

are three that I found very enlightening, and I keep returning to them.

If all the stuff in these videos is second nature to you and you do it all to the same level of proficiency, then you might look at more gear.

keep in mind this is my opinion, but what I saw living in NYC hanging around commercial composers:

everybody usually ended up with monitors with 7" or 8" drivers that were about $1,000 USD a pair or more. JBL 4326, Mackie HR824, Dynaudio BM5. Most had a second pair of NS10's or similar, sometimes HORROR-TONES (auratones).

Most of their rooms were professionally sound treated, as they were in commercial spaces, and the rooms were all bigger than bedrooms.

Most people had the equivalent of ProTools HD, and usually at least one nice channel - Avalon 737, or a Neve or Brent Averill, or Great River. Not too many compressors, a lot of in the box compression, but decent preamps for sure, and decent / very good A/D and D/A conversion.

and then a couple of decent mics - SM57 to AKG 414 to U87 kind of range.

If your ears and techniques are super tuned, and all your stuff gear is that level, not to much to look towards. even if your gear is much less than this - get the tutorial videos, and just keep writing. I bet you can make a 50% gain just by following those videos. Its working for me.

like Mazz is prone to say "its the EAR not the GEAR".

[Len911]

If you start with a dry recording of mic, preamp and a/d converter, and that makes the cut for "clarity", then the problems with clarity are down the line as far as effects, mixing and processing. I don't know what "good" mic means, it could very well mean that you may not have the "right" mic?? A good allrounder imo, might be the Beyerdynamic M88, it's well priced, it is a large diaphragm 1.25", hypercardioid. Open, nice freq response, not as hyped or bumped in the presence freq., won't pick up a lot of the room sound. But you might need the presence boost?? And as Andy says, mic technique is also important. A/d converters aren't usually a big problem these days, unless you are super duper hearing taster,lol! I'd stay away from the cheap tube preamps and such, that'll kill your clarity and resolution. I think you need to troubleshoot in sections, it very well could be in the mixing and not making a space for each instrument.

[eeoo]

1. The instrument and the performance.
2. The room
3. The "right" mic for that track, placed musically

If those three factors are solid and it still doesn't sound like what you hear in your head then you start looking at conversion and pre-amps and go from there.

IMHO of course...

eo

[andygabrys]

maybe it would help to define what kind of recordings you are doing, and what aspect of them need more clarity?

are you recording only live instruments?

or do you use a lot of samples?

is it the basic recordings that seem dull to you?

or is it your mix that seems dull and its hard to pull the sparkle out of what you have recorded?

and why not post what you are actually using:

DAW
any outboard gear
monitors
mics
samples

its easier to make a recommendation if somebody can relate to the exact stuff you are using.

[mazz]

I checked out a few of your tracks and they sound pretty good. I'm not sure what you are asking as far as clarity, but I think maybe you just need to work on your mixing a bit more.?

As Andy said, a bit more info on what you are looking for in terms of clarity would be good. Are you looking for better basic tracks or mixes? Or both? And yes, what gear are you currently using and how is it set up? Maybe you just need to move your speakers or get some acoustic treatment.

[mladendomic]

well the first thing i would do is spend some cheap money on tutorial videos. I have a feeling great mic technique is going to be a win.

Also finding clarity in recordings can be IMO a matter of finding what to take out. even great instruments in a great room through a great chain have resonances that might have to be dealt with. Probably less noticeable as the whole chain gets better.

I would look at tutorial videos from people like Fab Dupont - puremix.net
I have a number of their videos. Fab does a lot of selective eq on stuff to just make things clearer, and his use of compression is very musical I think.

Thank you for this one. I agree with you that for me the first thing to do is to learn how to use whatever gear I already have. So I took your advice and for $89 bought 3 months period of using puremix. I will learn, I will!

everybody usually ended up with monitors with 7" or 8" drivers that were about $1,000 USD a pair or more. JBL 4326, Mackie HR824, Dynaudio BM5. Most had a second pair of NS10's or similar, sometimes HORROR-TONES (auratones).

Most of their rooms were professionally sound treated, as they were in commercial spaces, and the rooms were all bigger than bedrooms.

Most people had the equivalent of ProTools HD, and usually at least one nice channel - Avalon 737, or a Neve or Brent Averill, or Great River. Not too many compressors, a lot of in the box compression, but decent preamps for sure, and decent / very good A/D and D/A conversion.

and then a couple of decent mics - SM57 to AKG 414 to U87 kind of range.

Till now I managed to gather:
Mics: Rode NT1-A, Sure SM58, Beyerdinamic Opus 69S, Audio-technica ATM610;
Monitors: a pair of KRK Rokit 6;
Presonus FP10 (older type) which I use as preamp, too;
DAW: Samplitude Pro X Suite.

If your ears and techniques are super tuned, and all your stuff gear is that level, not to much to look towards. even if your gear is much less than this - get the tutorial videos, and just keep writing. I bet you can make a 50% gain just by following those videos. Its working for me.

like Mazz is prone to say "its the EAR not the GEAR".

Very true. Thank you, Andy!

[mladendomic]

If you start with a dry recording of mic, preamp and a/d converter, and that makes the cut for "clarity", then the problems with clarity are down the line as far as effects, mixing and processing. I don't know what "good" mic means, it could very well mean that you may not have the "right" mic?? A good allrounder imo, might be the Beyerdynamic M88, it's well priced, it is a large diaphragm 1.25", hypercardioid. Open, nice freq response, not as hyped or bumped in the presence freq., won't pick up a lot of the room sound. But you might need the presence boost?? And as Andy says, mic technique is also important. A/d converters aren't usually a big problem these days, unless you are super duper hearing taster,lol! I'd stay away from the cheap tube preamps and such, that'll kill your clarity and resolution. I think you need to troubleshoot in sections, it very well could be in the mixing and not making a space for each instrument.

Useful comment, thank you. I just don't have enough knowledge, I can see now. I need some good instructions and plenty of practice.

[mladendomic]

maybe it would help to define what kind of recordings you are doing, and what aspect of them need more clarity?

I just compare professionally recorded music from public sources with the sound I get in my little factory. And I don't have a sane idea of how to make my music sound so clear and clean as them. I watch and listen, and I try to implement those facts, but something is missing. I guess the price is essential. When TAXI listing says: "home recordings are fine", they don't mean "it's OK to record on cheap equipment".

are you recording only live instruments?
or do you use a lot of samples?
is it the basic recordings that seem dull to you?
or is it your mix that seems dull and its hard to pull the sparkle out of what you have recorded?
and why not post what you are actually using:
DAW
any outboard gear
monitors
mics
samples
its easier to make a recommendation if somebody can relate to the exact stuff you are using.

Usually I'm the only musician (guitar, bass guitar, harp occasionally) playing live instruments. The most is MIDI: EZ drummer, Hypersonic, Camel Audio Alchemy, Edirol Orchestral, Groove Agent 2....) I don't use samples at all!
The overall recording just seem dull. It seem it's not enough to just use MIDI instrument. You still have to polish it to make it shine.
I numbered my gear earlier in one post.
Maybe I just don't pay enough attention to small, seemingly irrelevant details. I don't change strings on my guitar before every recording session, I don't pay much attention to where my mic is heading, I believe that books on my shelf will do a job instead of real studio dumpers (or whatever they are called) ... maybe those things are more important than it seem to me. After all, it's only my home studio, right? And I am a proud amateur!

[mladendomic]

I checked out a few of your tracks and they sound pretty good. I'm not sure what you are asking as far as clarity, but I think maybe you just need to work on your mixing a bit more.?

As Andy said, a bit more info on what you are looking for in terms of clarity would be good. Are you looking for better basic tracks or mixes? Or both? And yes, what gear are you currently using and how is it set up? Maybe you just need to move your speakers or get some acoustic treatment.

Right! That's exactly the answer I needed to hear.
I believe my gear is good enough but I have to learn to use it in more useful way.
When I bought a pair of KRK Rokit 6 monitors, my "technical marks" from TAXI went from 4-5 to 7-8-9. So the gear obviously has something to do with the quality of end results.

Thank you all for your comments, now I will study those instructional videos for a summer and I know they'll be useful!