Having trouble getting the sound I want.

[Gex]

Hey all.

Right now, I have a Mac Pro (Garageband), a PreSonus Firepod, Fostex monitors, An old SM57 Shure mic, and an Radio Shack dynamic mic.


I cant get the sound I want out of this for some reason.

When I listen to records, it sounds so "in your face" like . . the speaker that you hear the music coming out feels like the actual guitar speaker, or the bass woofer, or whatever. It all sounds focused and tight, and right there in your face.

I cant get a sound like that at all. All the stuff I record sounds distant I'm really frustrated, because the results are about as good as they were back when I had just a single mic plugged into the mic jack on my old Winbook laptop.

It sounds very distant, and very bedroom-ish. Its not impressive at all. It sounds like I am recording at bedroom volumes, even when I'm decently loud. (not real cranked, just jam volumes)

Whats wrong here? could it be my old microphone is busted? It feels like it has no high end, or low end, and its far from smooth.

Or. . do I need some sort of tube mic preamp? I thought the presonus firepod already had preamps. . .or do I need a compressor?

I've fiddled and fiddled with the features, and I cant seem to get the sound the way I want.


ALSO, when I import my songs to itunes to burn onto CD so I can listen in my car, it adds all these annoying "ticks" that completely sabotage the recording. I'll post a recording of the best efforts of mine to record in just a second.

Thanks in advance.

[BigBazz]

Try messing around with mic positioning and amp volume..

You could get a condensor, its much easier to get a good and big sound from a condensor mic imo.

[Ibanut]

Dude you will never get your cd to sounds like a professional sounding cd..They track using high end and vintage pre amps. They use $500,000 dolloar consoles (SSL) to track thru. Some of the mics they use cost $2000 and up. They use vintage compressors by UREI etc. Double tracking a guitar can help make it sound thinker but to compare a professionaly tracked cd to your is wrong... There is a reason a good engineer gets $150 hr and up. You can make a good sounding cd from home but it takes great recording gear to do it and an ear for mixing. Good plug ins dont hurt either. If you can you should tour a professional studio and actually see what goes on there and check out the gear they use.

Also the cds on the radio are mastered by the best engineers in the world. a good mastering suite can cost $150,000 .. Some of the speakers they use to master run $25,000 each.

Try the doubling of the guitar tracks 1st. track it once then play it again on a seperate track the same way with a different guitar/amp .

[HSH]

I use Garage Band, too. I'm no engineer, but you can use the built in AU Peak Limiter to keep the peaks down so you can record the track as hot as you can. You can mix, then export your mix to iTunes (make sure your volume slider on the bottom right is set as high as you can without getting into the red), then import it into Audacity or similar and "master" it, adding compression and/or limiting to get the mix hot without distortion. I would have to read up on things, like I say, I'm no engineer, but it sounds like your mix needs more level. As far as the click goes, did you turn off the metronome in Garage Band? There are free AU plugins you can download for Garage Band that will give you more effects, as well. MonstaChorus, Cow Delay, etc. Fun stuff.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Ibanut

Dude you will never get your cd to sounds like a professional sounding cd...

Be that as it may, you can get damned close with some affordable equiptment.

Gex, think you could post some MP3 clips of your recordings? If I could hear the tone you're getting I could maybe help steer you a bit.

[Wolfram]

I take it you have used multiple mics and panned them left and right?

[mccabekyle]

I would suggest maybe adjusting your mix. You should make sure that all of your instruments are "sonically separated" from each other. People don't always realize that any given number of tracks in one mix are competing for the same frequencies, so if you have really bright guitars, then you might have to compromise with darker cymbals. Same with vocals and keyboards. There's a balancing act required to keep everything sounding 'loud and clear' - not muddy and dense. Think about that when tweaking EQ's for different tracks.

Compression is also a good tool. Although it rarely gets overlooked, it often gets over used. This is something that should really be employed with a "less is more" approach. I use it mostly for drums and vocals in order to get the last hit or phrase to "roll off" in a natural fashion.

Volume is another thing that should be addressed. As musicians, we tend to focus too much on whatever instrument we are the most attached to. In my case (obviously), it's the guitar. And just about every recording I make is going to have the guitars way too loud until I sit back and listen to it with a different set of ears that aren't so focused on what the guitar sounds like, but what the entire orchestration sounds like as a whole. I know that's hard as hell to do, but you gotta try!

At the same time, I'm no expert, so...