Advice needed - can you effectively record at home and then mix in a pro studio?

What's Hot
2»

Comments

  • If you need someone to mix and have funds, we could chat and maybe figure something out. Always up for recording+mixing jobs.

    Bye!

    1reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • camfcamf Frets: 1190
    Cheers Drew, that could be an option. There might be a push from the rest of the band to keep it local so they can maybe attend a final mix, but that might not be practical or even especially desirable. :/
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • camf said:
    Cheers Drew, that could be an option. There might be a push from the rest of the band to keep it local so they can maybe attend a final mix, but that might not be practical or even especially desirable. :/
    Well what I did with @digitalscream and @PolarityMan is they sent me all their projects, and I did mixes and sent them revisions for feedback. Don't necessarily need to be in the same room, and actually it can be counter productive. Especially when you've got a whole band sitting on your shoulders. Something to watch out for if you end up doing it yourself!

    Bye!

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • camfcamf Frets: 1190
    That's what I was saying... bands attending mixes is not a surefire recipe for success or happiness. You'd definitely be in the frame as far as I was concerned. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357

    There's a lot of ways you could go but sometimes the best way is just to hire a room, set up everything and just play live, touching up bits later if need be. Some types of music like metal do benefit from the isolated recorded techniques but other types actually come out better when recorded as a band .... just treat the vocal on the day as a guide vocal and redo that. 

    I wouldn't compress anything to track unless the dynamics are wildly all over the place. 24 bit recording has such a dynamic range it's not necessary and if you get it wrong it can't be undone by a mix engineer. The trick is to get your gain staging right and your mic positioning .... if something sounds wrong don't assume it can be "fixed in the mix"  .... I've made that mistake loads of times when pressed for time and always regretted it. Basically you need to get the multitrack sounding pretty good with no processing ..... if something sounds wrong change the positioning of the mic or the way it's played ... pay attention to phase especially on the drums. Then the mix engineer can actually make it sound great. 

    I've been involved in hundreds of recordings (owned a professional studio for five years ) and I've done all kinds of projects but the last thing I recorded for my own band a couple of months ago was done just by setting up as a band in a rehearsal space and we just played the songs live .... took less than 3 hours to do 8 songs then I re recorded the lead vocal in my dining room with the singer under a dog blanket using a Senn E945 and a £30 Mbox into Reaper ..... Oh and I added some strings. 

    Then I loaded the multitrack  via Google drive to Ivan Williams, a freelance mix engineer and he mixed it for me. The whole recording and mixing came to less than £200 
     
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • CirrusCirrus Frets: 8481
    I've always found the opposite approach to work best. Get in a decent room with a good engineer and bash out all the rhythm tracks with a good drum sound and the proper live sound. Then spend any amount of time doing guitar and keyboard dubs on a laptop at home. Vocals you can either do at home or come back and do in a booth.
    I agree with this wholeheartedly. If you've got a space that sounds great, go for it. But a lot of what gives a record its character happens while recording. It's when you groove and gel as a group. It's when you decide how you want the instruments to sound, record the room ambience that makes them seem real, where a good monitor mix and an inspiring environment can make the difference between something that sounds flat and something that sounds amazing - even if in both cases they're mixed well.

    Even with simple drums, recorded with a couple of mics, the difference between those drums in a cool sounding room and those same drums in a typical home recording environment can be crazy.

    A recording session can focus the mind too - having all the time in the world is nice, but so's knowing you've got to get it right that day.

    And if the studio has some decent gear - mics, pres, eq & compression - and an engineer that knows how to use it, then there's also something exhilarating about hearing the record sound great immediately on playback. Take something like that home, mix it at your leisure, get help from people on here as you mix it, and it's really hard to screw up.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • absolutpepperabsolutpepper Frets: 222
    edited January 2019
    Hi Cam. The best advice i can give is have a go, but as others have already helpfully pointed out there are a few key theings that would allow you to get the most out of a self recording.

    Firstly, the question of the home studio. Like others have said the main limiting factor of recording primarily acoustic instruments at home will be the acoustics of the rooms used. In my experience, it would be preferable to record drums (assuming this isnt a full band live recording) in a pro studio or even a rehearsal studio which has decent separation and has an element of acoustic treatment. If you opt for the home route it may be perfectly possible to get good results but its likely going to either require more time/effort to try and ready the environment or its going to be more time/effort in the mix trying to resolve any inherint issues with the room sound (the second being the least preferable option).

    this brings me on to my second point, getting it right at source. With the kit you’ve listed it will be possible to get some decent quality recordings but you are likely still light on gear to get a great drum sound. Sure it’s possible to record the kit with one LDC like the Aston, however the drum sound will lack a convincing stereo image. If 2 condensers were used you will begin to get that sense of width in the kit but due to limitstions you’ll probably miss some inherent kick/snare out of the mix.

    To achieve a good and workable drum sound i’d recommend looking at having the kit mic’d using the glynn johns technique as whilst this will still limit the ability to isolate and replace drums it does have the benefit of providing a nice stereo spread and decent representation of the toms, cymbals, kick and snare when set up properly. However with everything, getting things right at source is the number 1 issue. With drums, be sure that they are tuned properly, dampened where needed (if applicable), have new heads if required, etc and that mics are properly placed and that gain staging is carried out correctly and that phasing is correct (never forget about phase - dont just rely on plugins...use your ears).

    In my experience if you are handing mixes over to a freelance mix engineer, the best way to get the best result is to give them something where the source audio is the best. When i work for clients who are under a tight budget i often have to assist remotely with helping them get the basics of the recording right - because if the source is good then there is less to fix and also less to ‘improve upon’...and natureally the more time an engineer/producer is fixing a bad recording, the longer the mix takes and usually the more its going to cost.

    there’s plenty more i could talk through so i dont want this to be like war and peace but if you want a chat drop me a pm and we can discuss or i’m happy to take a few calls to set you on the best track (pun intended ;-) )
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Sorry, read a bit more about your kit setup (its early so probably shouldnt have skimmed through that). Glynn Johns may not be needed on such a small, almost cocktail-like setup but there are still a few options i could recommend to get the most out of a kit like that.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • menamestommenamestom Frets: 4641

    Personally, I think the live recording setup could be best.  If you have a decent space you can leave things set up, just get into the habit of of hitting record.  Do rough mixes and listen back, see what works and see what doesn’t.  Aim for some separation but don’t worry about some bleed.  At a certain level I think a live sounding basic mix with tracked vocals can be the most honest representation.  Once you get too complicated you can end up squeezing the life out of a track.    You could post rough mixes here and people in the know can see what might need re recording, I.e.  what sources are not quite right.  If it all sounds workable get somebody else to just mix it.

    Depends on the style of music I guess, you said acoustic so I’ve assumed an open natural sound.  For tighter pop mixes yeah drums elsewhere may be required.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • camfcamf Frets: 1190
    That's what I'm thinking, too. And better to screw it up and know how it stands, than just die wondering. :)

    On the plus side, I have a choice of a few interesting rooms I can use during the day, including a wooden-floored hall. I've also got the time to experiment a bit and I've decent monitors that should help. I've already had an offer of some different ears willing to give a listen to what I manage to record and give me a steer as to whether I'm wasting my time or not. That would be a real reassurance. I've played music for 40 years and I know that my ears are a bit knackered, so that's one reason why I'm hesitant. But logic suggests that my ears will at least, probably, be consistent and by being smart with referencing other recordings as a guide, I might be able to get in the right territory. But being able to access some second or even third opinions would be a real help, so I'm very likely to stick some sounds up for a bit of feedback.  
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • With the gear you have and the plugins available in Logic you CAN get get results... but its down to your experience. If Rick Rubin had your gear then it would sound better that if you had Rick Rubins studio. If you're more of a beginner id check out some of the stuff on the youtube channel Produce Like a Pro.

    And remember, if it sounds right then it is right. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.