Opinions Wanted (Recording Quality)

[minutePulsation]

Hey all,

I primarily use my machines for audio and I was just wondering if any of you audio guru's could give me any recommendations as to how to bring up the quality of my recordings...

I'm just using GarageBand with a couple plugins and a cable straight from my Gretsch into my Macs.

here's a sample for y'all to judge by.

Cheers

Nestle

 

[Ibanez Strummer]

Hey! Just to start I'm no 'audio guru' like you were asking for but a general musician with a hobbyish garageband approach!

The only flaw I really heard is that when it kicks in at 3.15 the cymbals are too loud compared with the other drum parts so I'd either lower them or raise the snare and bass. Apart from that I just want to ask what plugins you used? I'm guessing there is one for the drums as they sound better than the normal garageband ones? On the whole it sounds a cool track!

 

[zimv20]

yeah, cool track. but you asked about the sonics...

so the issues are evident from the get-go: there's noise and it's suffering from some kind of panning washy thing.

is it only the guitar that's tracked live? are the rest software instruments?

what you're going to find, recording your guitar the way your are, is that your incoming signal will be suboptimal. which is a shame, since it's a nice sounding instrument and played well.

what you're relying on by plugging straight into your mac are the cheap components in the mac, principally the a/d converter, but depending on how the whole thing is gain staged, you may be asking for the mac to give you some gain as well. if you haven't already, read through the primer to become more familiar with these pieces.

the short answer is you should consider spending some $$$ and getting an external component or components. do you always record direct, or is this a function of the tools at hand? personally, i prefer to record guitars through an amp; maybe that's something you're already considering.

....

once you're in the DAW, and hopefully working w/ a well-recorded guitar, there is a whole bunch of additional knowledge (or luck needed to produce a nice track. i consider all these important: engineering knowledge/skills, a good room, a good monitoring system.

if any of those are lacking, the final product suffers. i'm certainly not trying to dissuade you from trying or pursuing musical efforts, but unless you're willing to lower your expectations, you can expect to spend time, effort and money that you've probably not yet budgeted.

....

if what you're really after is a good final product, then i'd suggest you look into booking some studio time. but if part of what you want is the journey and to become a better engineer (which i think is great), re-read my last two paragraphs. good luck!

 

[minutePulsation]

Hey! Just to start I'm no 'audio guru' like you were asking for but a general musician with a hobbyish garageband approach!

The only flaw I really heard is that when it kicks in at 3.15 the cymbals are too loud compared with the other drum parts so I'd either lower them or raise the snare and bass. Apart from that I just want to ask what plugins you used? I'm guessing there is one for the drums as they sound better than the normal garageband ones? On the whole it sounds a cool track!

I think I the issues with the cymbals is the compressor settings I'm using... I'm using Izotope Oxygen 3 mastering and I'm not too good with it yet.

The drums are just the rock drums in GarageBand running through Oxygen for equalization, compressions and reverb.

I also used Trash and Amplitube2 for the guitar and bass sounds.

yeah, cool track. but you asked about the sonics...

so the issues are evident from the get-go: there's noise and it's suffering from some kind of panning washy thing.

The wishy washy things was done on purpose... but if it's appearing to be crappy recording, maybe I should change that... something to consider.

is it only the guitar that's tracked live? are the rest software instruments?

Guitar and Bass are live.

what you're going to find, recording your guitar the way your are, is that your incoming signal will be suboptimal. which is a shame, since it's a nice sounding instrument and played well.

what you're relying on by plugging straight into your mac are the cheap components in the mac, principally the a/d converter, but depending on how the whole thing is gain staged, you may be asking for the mac to give you some gain as well. if you haven't already, read through the primer to become more familiar with these pieces.

the short answer is you should consider spending some $$$ and getting an external component or components. do you always record direct, or is this a function of the tools at hand? personally, i prefer to record guitars through an amp; maybe that's something you're already considering.

I would ALWAYS prefer an amp but I'm living the single apartment life so recording an amp is a little difficult... you are ever so right. Are there any devices you might recommend for apartment level recording?

once you're in the DAW, and hopefully working w/ a well-recorded guitar, there is a whole bunch of additional knowledge (or luck needed to produce a nice track. i consider all these important: engineering knowledge/skills, a good room, a good monitoring system.

if any of those are lacking, the final product suffers. i'm certainly not trying to dissuade you from trying or pursuing musical efforts, but unless you're willing to lower your expectations, you can expect to spend time, effort and money that you've probably not yet budgeted.

I don't really want to lower my expectations... I'd rather up the quality tools needed to meet them.

if what you're really after is a good final product, then i'd suggest you look into booking some studio time. but if part of what you want is the journey and to become a better engineer (which i think is great), re-read my last two paragraphs. good luck!

I am planning on booking studio time for drum tracks but I really want the journey for the rest.

So yeah, like I said mid post, what are some suggested tools? I'm willing to put a bit of cash into this...

Cheers

 

[zimv20]

I really want the journey for the rest.

So yeah, like I said mid post, what are some suggested tools?

cool.

i suggest you get a mic pre w/ a DI and some converters. will you ever track vocals? you'd need a mic pre regardless.

one route is to buy an "interface", which tends to have mic pre's, a/d and d/a conversion, plus some monitoring built in. or you can buy the components separately. the typical component arguments apply here: get everything in a package and save but get screwed when you want to upgrade a piece, or buy everything separate and spend more money but get a more tailor-made solution.

my favorite DI, that i own anyway, is on the phoenix drs-1 mic pre. great, great pre, imho. i've gotten some nice DI guitar sounds on it. the phoenix gear is getting hard to find, though, so i'll mention that it's often compared to this great river unit. i've not used the GR piece, fwiw.

for most of my conversion, i use an apogee rosetta and can recommend the brand. i also use a benchmark dac-1 for monitoring and would consider their a/d unit for conversion.

if you're going for this caliber, i'd also consider lavry, lynx and metric halo, for starters.

....

i'm really big on monitoring, so check out realtraps.com and start thinking about treating your room. d/a and monitors also come into play here; i spent more on room treatment than i did on these (excellent) monitors, and it was well worth the money spent.

....

is that the kind of budget you're looking at?

 

[minutePulsation]

cool.

i suggest you get a mic pre w/ a DI and some converters. will you ever track vocals? you'd need a mic pre regardless.

one route is to buy an "interface", which tends to have mic pre's, a/d and d/a conversion, plus some monitoring built in. or you can buy the components separately. the typical component arguments apply here: get everything in a package and save but get screwed when you want to upgrade a piece, or buy everything separate and spend more money but get a more tailor-made solution.

my favorite DI, that i own anyway, is on the phoenix drs-1 mic pre. great, great pre, imho. i've gotten some nice DI guitar sounds on it. the phoenix gear is getting hard to find, though, so i'll mention that it's often compared to this great river unit. i've not used the GR piece, fwiw.

for most of my conversion, i use an apogee rosetta and can recommend the brand. i also use a benchmark dac-1 for monitoring and would consider their a/d unit for conversion.

if you're going for this caliber, i'd also consider lavry, lynx and metric halo, for starters.

....

i'm really big on monitoring, so check out realtraps.com and start thinking about treating your room. d/a and monitors also come into play here; i spent more on room treatment than i did on these (excellent) monitors, and it was well worth the money spent.

....

is that the kind of budget you're looking at?

That's a little more than I was planning spending (particularly after christmas) but I don't REALLY wanna cheap out on this... which order would you pick those up if you were in my position? Making music is my sanity so I would consider this worth while... I'll just have to cut into the Mac Pro budget