My first Mic CAD u37

yea actually the vocals was a rough take, they did it long time back just to get the feel of the song. I sent it to my friend after mixing, he also was not happy with the vocal part. I changed the piano to FL Keys Rhodes. To get the right atmosphere. still working on it.

"well, I posted a bad vocal take and I changed the keyboard sound from a sampled piano to a synthesized rhodes, so I guess I wasn't that serious about what I psoted and asked for help with... I'm not sure why I asked you sicne I was planning on changing every last thing to ebgin with"

Professor Compressor says:

just make up your fucking mind, get some takes and make it sound good already, stop puttering around and DO IT. and don't ask anymore questions until you are sure about the aprts, the isntrumentation and the vocal take.

Boom, I kep trying to explain this to people who elarned to play from records and the radio, there are no such thing as chords. You don't copyright chords to a song, they're just harmony, only the melody defines a sogn and any chord that works musically can be subbed... all his substitutions worked and eh sang the toes so he naively just rearranged the song. While a specific chord sequence or drum groove might definethe original recorded version of a song to a fan, the song is pretty much just the melody with or without the lyric. 8 million songs have sued that sequence of suspended and add9 chords Nikhil played ebcause they are easier to play than the striahg tmajors and minor, requiring less figner movement in 1st position! They are incountry, pop, rock, whatever uses a guitar. Throwng thsoe suspensions in is soemthing guys do all the time ebcause tis easy.

Actually it was my friend who asked to change it. I saw his reply later after uploading the song and posting it. Sorry for that. And I'm making a song which was my favorite song since childhood. This time I'll post it after everything is done and fixed up. And I'll be singing it.

just get it where you think the arrangement's where it oughta be and there's a solid vocal even if its not aa final take and then upload that, we'll talk arranging then. From there we can talk about the mix. Before you even try mixing much lets do arrangement and then i'll give you the crash course in setting up the tools to polish what's there and get it working together. There are no wrong ways, but there are definitely some different approaches tos tarting a mix you might wanna try. I have a methodologythat works for me and i can get you started and explain the basics so you can use your ears from there. We're going to set up some channel comrpession, isntrument groups with parallel bus comrpession across the groups and do some mix bus compression to start. A vocal trick you may not know is to shelve out some low end before you de-ess or compress or do anything else. You wilL likely EQ later, but you want the compressor to grab transients in teh presence and detail ranges not the boominess so taking it out first makes more efficient use of that dynamics processing. I will generally use a simple EQ like a pultec simualtion or a tilt/baxandall sort of thing, I leave an insert space for a de-esser if I need it, then a VCA style comrpessor for peak limiting and follow that with soemthing overt like an 1176 or LA2A type of thing set to smash but run it parallel so ti not sucking the lfie outta the vocal, then I will sue the channel EQ or if I ened more detail I'll use fruity EQ2 or Fab Filter. We'll also set up 2 to 4 ambience sends and some echo sends that go to the ambiances but not into the mix bus (or minimally in the mix bus so they are msotly hitting reverb when you feed a track into them). We will be gating and expanding reverbs to get them to pusle with the meter and we will be EQing them too. We might be EQing those delays as well f needed. You will also be high-passing anything that doesn't have sub-bass as a component of its music sound. Low tones thata ren't musical eat dynamic range and bandwidth and make your mix muddy.

cool😎, thanks. I'll be on it.

I edited that, see if it makes sense or if you need me to explain terms

also, bookmark this:

http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-bpmtempotime.htm

we're going to crash course this and see how it goes.... might not go well with you because you don't have any legit monitoring, just whatever ehadphones came with your interface. Stereo iamge and dynamics are just easier to hear on speakers in my experience.

I got it, though I'm googling some technical words to understand the precise meaning.

I'm gonna grab a notebook and write down all the stuff you say..

there's a lot of science to this... mostly electrical engineering and acoustics, but its not essential to really understand all of it if you just sit down and patiently make it sound good, but it can be tricky to know where tos tart. Knowing what's wrong without the science requires a magical gift or experience, usually both. Some people have an isntinct for it and know very little about what the processing is doing but they just get it. They turn knobs until tis right without having any diea what's going on. I've seen people like that, they are savants. I don't think that's you. You're not a natural sound engineer. Althugh to be fair you don't have good monitoring... my worst recordings and mixes strting out were done at home with monitoring thatw asn't so hot while doing my own music. A lot of my other really abd mixes weren't my fault, i did what teh clients asked tog et paid and ruined music thatw as coming together alright ebfore they showed up and started making demnds that had mroe to do with their egos than the sogns, but i digress. My big tracking and mixing epiphanies really happened when i was set up with great monitoring and could really hear what everything was doing. Hering it all working gave me new ideas on how to use the tools and it helped me udnerstand methods I'd been told about ahnging out at the abr with more experienced guys LOL A lot of mixing is really subtle, same with recording with a microphone, subtle little changes thata re a big deal in context. Hearing stuff in cotnext is genuinely when you hear an improvement, soloed moving the mic an inch back or adding some compression will just sound different. All these little changes add up and become drastic. When you get to the end of the process you should really hear your processing working only by disabling a processor or two and eharing the mix fall apart.

right now I am spitting flames, a plugin I sue on every mix stopped working after the most recent forced windows update... there's no susbtitute for it that I can get behind anywhere in my library, I like THIS ONE and I can no longer open any of my mixes without losing this one essential component in the lows. I have tried everything Ic an think of like unisntalling and reinstalling, reinstalling the windows update and I still get the same error message which I KNOW is update related. I fucking ahte computer music. its cheap but it sucks. You really wanna learn music you shoudla started on an old tascam cassette 4 track. HAHAHA

yea, I don't have a proper monitoring. I'm using these to listen to the music http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00IVI3QLI/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=733112647&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B01CI78CAM&pf_rd_m=A1VBAL9TL5WCBF&pf_rd_r=FNGB33HD373J5E5YEFNX

We can't tell that I'm not a natural sound engineer until I get a proper monitoring setup😁. But I'll try my best to make it sound good. Btw, what's the name of the plugin?

yeah, you might as well time out and save for seakers if you're mixing on earbuds... don't even bother. Not only will you not be eharing whats there but you are hurting your ears. Stop putting those thigns in your ear holes, man. Theya re worse for your top end hearing then playing in a loud rock band without ear protection. At best you are getting fatigued working on music ebfore you even get very far. Just stop, now. Over ear ehadphones are safer, they're further from your ear drum... open abck over ears are even safer still because some of the sound vents, they're more accurate and speaker-like too. So if you must get headphones buy a pair of open abcked AKGs. You're not a DJ. You can use the earbuds to overdub if the AKGs have too much spill, but really? get some fucking speakers. If you wanna go simple just buy a pair of yamaha powered HS speakers. the 5s are probaby too small, my experiences with 5" woofers were 100% negative ine very room at any volume elvel. Weird lower mids, no real bass. Good for hooking to your TV though. 6.5" and elarer woofers are the way to go.

Get those evil things out of your ears. Sound is not meant to be right up against your eardrums. Its not how thigns sound in teh world and tis not good for your hearing.

OK, real talk… A bit too hung over to catch up on the whole thread but I didn't read the last two entries.

Along with seconding everything Jim mentioned and forgive me if this has already been covered but-

For all the talk about different DAW's and plug-ins one of the most powerful tools comes with even the cheapest systems. EQ. If I hear too much or not enough of anything I think EQ before I think about adjusting the levels. Like learning how to low cut would have made things much better on that track.

Mic placement & solid EQ work will get you a loooong way. It's not given enough pride of position in my opinion. It's glitz over grit out there. Particulary in the plugin word. It ain't magic, it's practice not a "wizard one knob" plugin or DAW feature.

That's a simplistic explanation but that might be for the best right now so as not to clutter your head.

That said give equal or more (like 10 times more) attention to learning to perform well- be it theory, guitar practice, singing, etc. Not a damn thing I could do for ya even with all my lil' gadgets if you hired me out except to make the lacking musicianship more apparent.

ohh, that's sad. Can I use these atleast? http://www.amazon.in/Philips-SHL3060BK-00-Monitoring-Headphone/dp/B00NN7D85G?tag=googinhydr18418-21&tag=googinkenshoo-21&ascsubtag=94886aa6-3adc-44bc-98a4-53be0f446a68

Ok, I'll not use that earphones now.

Logitech Speakers << I have these computer speakers

just stop and tool up, then just sit and elarn your tools and stop putting stuff out and asking for advice until you have a working udnerstanding of what everything does. Do the diligence and come back in a few months. You're not ready to get technical. Put some elgit work in. Make 100 bad recordings and mixes. You'll know when you hit a watershed moment. Or you won't and then it emans you should quit. I'll teach you stuff because I feel abd for young people coming up in an environment with cheap and free tools but no mentorship because there aren't that many commercial recording facilities left and especially not many doing itnernship or hiring tape-ops and tea boys and shepherding them through all the steps to independence like when me and Xaq were learning in the 90s. But do your bit. I didn't have the balls to ask questions until I worked on my own enough to know what to ask my boss. "why does my mix sound unprofessiona;" is not an intelligent question. Okay? Its tons of reasons starting with the arrangement like i said in teh first place. Pick a discipline and focus. You wanna engineer? Do some of your own stuff, sure, but record other musicians whoa re more accomplished. Do it free and let them worry about the music and you just learn the tools. Get good recordings and see if you cna get a decent balance.

But firsta nd foremost, get rid of the earbuds. And stop rushing through everything. Take your time, take breaks. More breaks and thinking than actual lsitening. Then work fast, lsiten more, walk away for a day. Do a lot of thinking.

Today is the last day of my vacation. I have my college from tomorrow. And I'm not working. Me getting the right gear is quite impossible unless I get another website to build. And I don't think I'll get any now. I'm trying to do my best with what ever I have. I don't have time to work in a studio as I'll be home at 6:30PM from college.

you cna do it with anything IF you kow what you're doing and you don't expect top40 polish... if you don't it helps to have the bare bones tools. I didn't suggest you work ina studio, I doubt you've played in enough bands and amde enough friends in highschool to get a job in what few studios have survived the digital music revolution. Getting those gigs in the old days was networking. But I am suggesting without that gig you need to gain experience on your own with good tools or lweor your expectations and slow down your timetable for musical development. Stay in school. if you're too tired to get a job on top of that, fine. just don't expect magic from what you have so far. And slow the heck down. Nothing happens overnight even if you're getting schooled by the cheif engineer at a big commercial studio or an indie label owner or whatever. It takes tiem tog et good at. by time I mean forever. I ams till elanring, everyone is. When you think you've got it down then the truth is you don't. I worked a job at an inide label and studio through college. I slept very little. You're young, you will never have more energy than you have RIGHT NOW. The job fudned my gear purchases, paid the rent, teh bills, taught me about music production AND taught me office management and bookkeeping. Iw as tired. That's why they invesnted coffee.

okay. Actually I didn't even step into a studio until now. I believe that we can improve skills slowly. By making songs and arrangements...etc.

Fer real. Time is limited. Come with something you've put in the work on before posting. It's only fair to those who your asking advice from.

Fer real.

I'm always happy to help whenever I have time. However, if that time is spent critiquing things that you did in an hour or two then it's wasted.

I spent 6 hours composing, arranging, doing sound design, & recording a song yesterday. 1 song...& both my client & I are professionals. No day jobs (tho that can change anytime, lets be real)

That kinda thoughtful attention is what's required sometimes- definitely required for anyone new to all of this

One thing and one thing only will improve your music and your ability to record it. Repetition. Practice.

When I first started out recording I worked for free (that's a complicated topic, it's important to get experience but not lower the perceived value. Something that's to common in the arts)

I worked day and night for years. So glad I did.

-Less time online shopping for your next by – that's just fetishizing gear and a total waste of time if you don't have the scratch (or will) to move on it anyway. Less time on here typing about music & not playing it.

-Practice songwriting, learn the theory behind the songs you like, & record yourself & anyone else any chance you get. The hard scrabble will always win.

I used to record people's live sets for gas money, beer and drugs... I got a lot of experience, built my reel up and.... wait, did I say for DRUGS, umm sorry kids, stay off drugs. i emant to say HUGS. yeah, hugs. Anyway, i got to ahng with some talented guys. Some downbeat magazine cats who could fucking play. Being a closet jazz fan it was a thrill and it was worth devaluing my services. Also, the ajzz guys weren't out there telling ym usual clientelle Iw as working for cheap for them. They were their whole clsoed circle and it was on the sly.