Whats next?

[TheMusicBucket]

My ultimate goal is to be able to record every genre of music at the best quality possible. A lot of this has to do with technique, mike placement, proper mixing, but a big part in this is also gear.

My personal setup: I have three mikes, a senheiser 609, aidix i5, and a sterling audio ST 31.

I'm in the process of buying more mikes, specifically for drums, but whenever my band records my bandmates bring more mikes anyways, so thats not really what this post is about.

Right now I just plug these mikes straight into a Presonus Firestudio Project, then straight into my iMac with garageband.

When I read about other people's setups, they also have various external preamps, and compressors that are added to the chain.

I have none of these but I can get the tracks sounding very balanced and full when I play them in garageband, but when I export the files to disk, they sound a lot quieter and muffled, its really frustrating because I have no idea how to remedy this situation except to over-EQ things to makeup for the loss of brilliance when the tracks get mixed down and exported. This is really time consuming and frustrating because then mixing becomes at best guess-work and trial and error. I've tried turning normalizing off in Garageband preferences and this helped a little bit, but my recordings are still extremely quiet alongside regular recordings.

I've thought about upgrading to Logic Express or Logic pro, but I'm not sure if this problem is inherent with garageband or if there's something I need to upgrade on the signal chain to get the desired results.

Any help is greatly appreciated .


EDIT: As with anything like this, its something that will get put together over time. So I'd like to keep induvidual purchases under $1000.

[rty13ibz98]

what plugins are you using on the master buss? a nice brick wall limiter will get your recordings louder. don't slam the levels to get it loud, but mix to about -6db on your master buss to ensure no digital clipping and use the limiter to get the level up. this way you will still have dynamic range and volume. if you slam the limiter(i use the waves L3), you will get consistent level, but no dynamic range and the mix will be extremely fatiguing to the ear.
i feel that you should get away from garageband and use a better DAW, something that supports VST, AU, RTAS, or TDM plugs. a new world of tone sculpting will open up.

my normal 2 buss effects bin in sonar is:

stereo neve 1081(waves veq 4)
uad 1176ln
sonnox oxford inflator
waves ssl comp
waves paz analyzer
waves L3 multimaximaizer
waves paz analyzer.

i use the neve for its mojo and it's ability to glue the mix together eq wise. the 1176 does more of it, but glues it with compression. the inflator makes it bigger and more harmonically rich. ssl comp glues it even more and adds sheen. the first paz is to see how the mix is responding before the limiter and sees what frequencies are lacking or too dominant. the L3 is a multiband limiter that i use to compress the more dominant frequencies to make for a smoother mix and get the levels nice and hot. the second paz is to see how well the L3 is working on the entire mix.
alsways added first at the start of the project so you can make decisions in process instead of at the end. all except for the L3. that is turned on after most of the mixing is already done(rough mix). i constantly check back and forth to make sure i don't clip my master buss in order to keep from clipping into the L3. that makes mixes breathe better and not slammed into digital sausage.

rich

[TheMusicBucket]

I had fun researching all those terms haha, and those are definitely some things I want to look into once I get better at mixing. But my problem is that I can get stuff sounding -awesome- in garage band but when I export it it sounds muffled and very quiet, especially if I export as mp3 or aac file. If I just export the song to disk, it doesn't muffle it nearly as bad, but it is still very quiet.

If I import the file back into garageband and boost the levels on the whole file, then export again, there is still no increase in volume, it doesn't make any sense lol.

I know GB isn't the best program, but its free and so far I haven't run into any limitations other than this.

[rvai]

I´m no expert to this thing but jus one question, are you mastering the mix?

[nato101010]

I suggest (for drums) some Shure SM 57's. You can find them for like 130$.

[TheMusicBucket]

Originally Posted by rvai

I´m no expert to this thing but jus one question, are you mastering the mix?

If by mastering you mean spending hours EQing and messing with compressors/levels to get it balanced and semi-professional sounding then yes lol. My frustration is just that the exported files don't sound anything like what it sounds like when I play it back in garageband.

I've done some googling and it seems like I'm not the only one that has the problem of exported files being too quiet, but so far I haven't been able to find a definite solution. I'll upload a video demonstrating the problem, its quiet mystifying :/.

[rty13ibz98]

like i said...
brick wall limiting on the master buss is what will get your levels to compete with commercial releases. one of the most popular is the L3.

what type of plugs does garageband support?


rich

[rty13ibz98]

Originally Posted by rvai

I´m no expert to this thing but jus one question, are you mastering the mix?

sounds like your referring to multiband compression into a brick wall limiter, right?


rich

[rty13ibz98]

Originally Posted by nato101010

I suggest (for drums) some Shure SM 57's. You can find them for like 130$.

um...maybe for snare only.

there are tons better mics for the kit than the sm57. sure it'll work, but so will a computer mic. sm57's are versatile, yes, but i would advise them for drum kit work, other than snare. most professionals would agree.
i don't think this really anwers the OP's question either.

i personally like the audix i5 over a 57 anyway...for every application where you use a 57. i own 2 57's and 4 i5's if that is an indication.

rich

[TheMusicBucket]

Originally Posted by rty13ibz98

like i said...
brick wall limiting on the master buss is what will get your levels to compete with commercial releases. one of the most popular is the L3.

what type of plugs does garageband support?


rich

Garage band supports AU(audio units?), I'll look into it.

[nato101010]

Originally Posted by rty13ibz98

sure it'll work, but so will a computer mic.

Ok, i have one questions here (btw, not trying to start a war, I'm just a n00b). What's a computer mic?

[teokiatuan]

a mic that's built into the computer...usually of very poor quality

[rty13ibz98]

Originally Posted by teokiatuan

a mic that's built into the computer...usually of very poor quality

hit right on the head!

rich

[rty13ibz98]

Originally Posted by nato101010

Ok, i have one questions here (btw, not trying to start a war, I'm just a n00b). What's a computer mic?

not trying to start a war either(i am not known to do so. on this site or any other=]), but why are you trying to give recording advice (via the sm57 on drums, not that the sm57 won't work, but it is my last choice on drums except for snare drum). it just comes down to experience in order to give advice.

rich

[TheMusicBucket]

Sort of found a solution..

I imported the exported muffled garage band file into the free program called Audacity, then used EQ, normalizers, and a leveler effect(?) to beef up the sound, exported it, and BOOM. Got a much brighter and fuller sound, and that was just after a few clicks and not fine tuning anything.

I find it surprising that a free program like audacity has vastly superior export-capabilities than garageband :/.