Step by Step Recording Thread.
- Thread starter Prages
- Start date
Im using an old Alesis HR-16 drum machine, probably behind the times but it works ok and you can pick them up super cheap.
Awesome thread by the way Prages. I know this is a lot of work for you, and i appreciate it.
Prages
User Error
Alright, I hate the guitar tone on this thing. I've got a single 16 ohm Celestion Greenback that I'm in the process of swapping into one of the speakers of my 412, so I'll mic the Greenback. I'll also play around with my amp and pedal settings and see if I can't find something I like more.
I hope to get all 3 guitar parts redone this evening.
I hope to get all 3 guitar parts redone this evening.
Can you save the 2 so I'd like to see the sound difference between the two speakers?
Prages
User Error
Well, it's not going to be a head to head comparison, because I did do some knob tweeking too, but I have redone all the guitar parts already with the Greenbacks, and a little less gain, and they sound WAAAYYY better to me right now. Of course, my ears are fatigued from having headphones on and cranking a Bassman all night, but I think the differences are going to be pretty obvious.
The Greenback is a much rounder, warmer sounding speaker. I've read reviews of the G12K85s that have said something along the line of "The worst sounding speaker for overdrive that Celestion has ever made" and after doing this little swap, all I can say is "I believe it". Yeah, I fiddled with some knobs, but the differences are so drastic that there's no denying the speaker played a huge part.
Of course, now I'm trying to figure out how to get the money for a new 212 cab loaded with Greenbacks or G12H30s for the Bassman.
This cheap 'vintage' amp is costing me a fortune.
Well, it's not going to be a head to head comparison, because I did do some knob tweeking too, but I have redone all the guitar parts already with the Greenbacks, and a little less gain, and they sound WAAAYYY better to me right now. Of course, my ears are fatigued from having headphones on and cranking a Bassman all night, but I think the differences are going to be pretty obvious.
The Greenback is a much rounder, warmer sounding speaker. I've read reviews of the G12K85s that have said something along the line of "The worst sounding speaker for overdrive that Celestion has ever made" and after doing this little swap, all I can say is "I believe it". Yeah, I fiddled with some knobs, but the differences are so drastic that there's no denying the speaker played a huge part.
Of course, now I'm trying to figure out how to get the money for a new 212 cab loaded with Greenbacks or G12H30s for the Bassman.
This cheap 'vintage' amp is costing me a fortune.
They have a way of doing that
I like my greenbacks for the bassman, though...
Prages
User Error
Alright, it's starting to come together now.
I redid all three guitar parts last night after I swapped out one of the G12K85s with a Greenback. I also backed the gain off a little bit on my Barber DD and upped the volume just a touch. The combination did wonders for the guitar tone. The tone is still gainy, but it's much smoother and warmer while still being punchy.
After the parts were recorded, I added a touch of compression. I didn't use much, since the recorded signal is already pretty compressed due to the OD. If you put too much compression on an overdriven guitar part, it dulls it up quite a bit. The key is to put just enough to take out any spikes in the signal.
Then I did a complete mix of the song. Here's what my mix looks like.
In the mastering phase, I always use a little EQ, compression, and multi-band limiter. I've found that it normally sounds better to me if I do a little limiting before I actually import the track to my mastering software, so I used the dreaded Waves Ultramaximizer with a threshhold of -3 and an output of -1. What this does is flattens off everything louder than -3 DB and gives you a peak of -1db.
Then I mix everything down to a stereo wave file.
I redid all three guitar parts last night after I swapped out one of the G12K85s with a Greenback. I also backed the gain off a little bit on my Barber DD and upped the volume just a touch. The combination did wonders for the guitar tone. The tone is still gainy, but it's much smoother and warmer while still being punchy.
After the parts were recorded, I added a touch of compression. I didn't use much, since the recorded signal is already pretty compressed due to the OD. If you put too much compression on an overdriven guitar part, it dulls it up quite a bit. The key is to put just enough to take out any spikes in the signal.
Then I did a complete mix of the song. Here's what my mix looks like.
In the mastering phase, I always use a little EQ, compression, and multi-band limiter. I've found that it normally sounds better to me if I do a little limiting before I actually import the track to my mastering software, so I used the dreaded Waves Ultramaximizer with a threshhold of -3 and an output of -1. What this does is flattens off everything louder than -3 DB and gives you a peak of -1db.
Then I mix everything down to a stereo wave file.
Prages
User Error
Now I open up my mastering software. I use T-Racks 24 Mastering Suite. Open the stereo mix that you've just created and play with the settings for the EQ, compressor, multi-band compressor and output limiter. This is a preset that I've created, and I just have to tweek it a little bit to get it sounding good to me.
Most people say that this should be your last step. I prefer to do fade outs and editing out the silence at the beginning after I've mastered though. I do this in Wavelab Lite.
Open the mastered wave file and delete the silence.
Then I check my peak level. In this case it was -.7 db. That's good. It's almost as loud as it can be without clipping. However, since I like to master everything too loud, I go ahead and normalize that to -.2 db.
Now fade out the end.
And, we're done.
I'll upload the new guitar tracks and the final master as soon as I get to work.
Most people say that this should be your last step. I prefer to do fade outs and editing out the silence at the beginning after I've mastered though. I do this in Wavelab Lite.
Open the mastered wave file and delete the silence.
Then I check my peak level. In this case it was -.7 db. That's good. It's almost as loud as it can be without clipping. However, since I like to master everything too loud, I go ahead and normalize that to -.2 db.
Now fade out the end.
And, we're done.
I'll upload the new guitar tracks and the final master as soon as I get to work.
Prages
User Error
Here are the new guitar tracks.
Rhythm Guitar 1
Rhythm Guitar 2
Lead Guitar
And the final mix/master.
Can't Help Myself - Remix with new guitar tracks
Rhythm Guitar 1
Rhythm Guitar 2
Lead Guitar
And the final mix/master.
Can't Help Myself - Remix with new guitar tracks
Awesome job.
I like how you keep things dry and punchy. I hate it when people put so much reverb on a recording that it turns to mush.
In a couple of days I'll probably be putting up a recording forum here (I have some other reorganization in mind too) but I was thinking of having a permanent "Tutorials" sticky in there...this thread (and Punchys Midi drums one) would be an awesome start...
I like how you keep things dry and punchy. I hate it when people put so much reverb on a recording that it turns to mush.
In a couple of days I'll probably be putting up a recording forum here (I have some other reorganization in mind too) but I was thinking of having a permanent "Tutorials" sticky in there...this thread (and Punchys Midi drums one) would be an awesome start...
Prages
User Error
Awesome job.
I like how you keep things dry and punchy. I hate it when people put so much reverb on a recording that it turns to mush.
In a couple of days I'll probably be putting up a recording forum here (I have some other reorganization in mind too) but I was thinking of having a permanent "Tutorials" sticky in there...this thread (and Punchys Midi drums one) would be an awesome start...
Thanks.
I do sometimes get a little heavy handed with the reverb, but for this song, I really wanted it to be punchy. Notice though, that there is a touch of reverb on every track except for kick drum and bass guitar. There's a lot of reverb on the snare, and a fair amount on the vocal tracks. The rhythm guitar tracks just got a hint of reverb. The lead guitar track got a little more. There's also a little bit of delay on both the lead vocal track and the lead guitar track.
One little step that I didn't even document was that I gated the guitar track at the intro and beginning of the 2nd verse. It didn't make a whole lot of tonal difference, as you can hear by listening to the raw Rhythm Guitar 1 file, but gating everything below -8 db or so takes out any noise between the chord strums, and makes them sound almost choppy, which is what I was going for.
Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
Great info here...especially the mastering and post mastering stuff. I have never done either of those things.
BTW - what is some good software to convert a .wav to an MP3? I did mine just by burning a CD with the .wav file, then ripping it with Media Player into a MP3, but it was still a bit hefty size wise (too big to drop in Bloody Velvet - they have a 7MB limit). I tried a free piece of software on the net, but the quality of the MP3 was bad..
BTW - what is some good software to convert a .wav to an MP3? I did mine just by burning a CD with the .wav file, then ripping it with Media Player into a MP3, but it was still a bit hefty size wise (too big to drop in Bloody Velvet - they have a 7MB limit). I tried a free piece of software on the net, but the quality of the MP3 was bad..
Prages
User Error
I'm using MusicMatch Jukebox, which I think became Yahoo!Music in August 2007. One of these days I need to switch over because since Aug 2007 when I rip CDs it no longer fills in the track or artist info.
See if there's a quality setting in Media Player. I usually convert mine at 128 kbps for uploading. It's roughly 1 mb per minute that way.
See if there's a quality setting in Media Player. I usually convert mine at 128 kbps for uploading. It's roughly 1 mb per minute that way.
Prages
User Error
The mastering really makes stuff sound better.
I'll have to upload the unmastered track tomorrow so you can compare the two. Mastering not only loudens the track, but it fattens it, while making it more clear and punchy.
Of course, it's really easy to get carried away with the compressor and multi-band limiter and turn your master into a bag of crap.
Nice job man.... I couldn't help but be reminded of that backing track you posted ... one of the chord progressions in this song is similar.
Prages
User Error