scizz wrote:1_i noticed that its much better to have a hot mix averagely compressed and eq'd before recording cos if everything's recorded flat out the mpc and mic its a pain in the **** to mix and then master to a pro level volume.
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OK, no offense but there's no such thing as a 'pro level'. I do know what you mean, but this is really a mastering issue, worry about your mix first. Some engineers like to mix with a comp or limiter across the mix bus to give an idea of what the master will sound like but unless you are very experienced this is not advisable. If your track isn't loud enough when listening back, I'm not trying be smart, but turn up the volume. Preserve the tracks dynamics until mastering and as hard as it maybe for you to do give the mix to someone experienced in mastering to master it.
scizz wrote:2_i'm running the mic (nt1-A) thru a mackie dfx-6 mixer(as a pre-amp) then gate(berhinger) then compressor and then limiter (tc-electroic m-one) and finally into the multitrack using the buit in pre-amp, the mpc outs are connected directly to the recorder.(btw the beat is partially compressed in the mpc)
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What MPC do you have, 4000?
You say you are running the mic signal through the mackie pre and finally through the mutitracks pre. This is an unnecessary gain stage which adds more noise to your signal, although this may sound nice and be what you want. If not, I would advise listening to the mic with the same vocalist in the same room thruogh both pre amps and see which one you prefer. It may be quite hard to hear diferences in pre amps and generally you'll have to train your ears, this is just practice. Decent/unflattering monitoring helps alot aswell.
As for the gate, berhinger, in my experience tend to produce quite noisey products, personally I avoid putting any audio through behringer gear. You may find better results from manually cutting the silences from the vocals in your mutli track. If you listen to the output of your berhiger gate, with the volume cranked up, and compare it to the TC electronic compressor you should see what I mean. (I'm just guessing here, I don't know either piece of gear but generally TC electronic are of a better build quality.
scizz wrote:3_ PROBLEM: the mic sounds better but i spend 2 hours adjusting the dynamics of the mic for each mc (we're 3) and that's for each beat.and the mic compression is not right yet.
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Think about what you are trying to do with the compressor. At the recording stage you just want to eliminate and large peaks that the vocalist may have so that you don't have to turndown your input gain just for a couple of words in the track. Be very careful when recording with compression as you can't undo it. You can always go back later and compress more. Spending two hours setting the compressor before you record you run the risk of tiring the vocalist and the initial enthusasim for the track is gone. When some one come to you to record and they're in 'a zone' or whatever, you need to be able to capture that. Spaend two hours setting a compressor can be very tediuos for those waiting and in my experience I'd rather capture a really sweet performance then a really nice sounding mediocre one. Think about the records you love, why do you love them, the sound quality?? Perhaps, but for me it's the energy, the emotion. I worry about capturing that first and foremost.
Actually there's a perfect example of this on my soundclick below, I've just discovered soundclick so there's only one tune on there (this is an unfinished mix) but I'm not at all happy with the vocal sound on this, it was recorded two years ago through a Neumann U87, into a Tascam 2424 using Audient pre amps, this was good, then it was bounced in to protools via an analog connection from the Tascam, then bounced to 16bit, burned to CD and sampled into a Roland SP808 just to mess around with also along the way it was badly compressed and distorted!!!. When we finally came to mix the track, we realised we'd lost the original mutitrack DVD!! No problem, we'll record it again, at this point i'd learned a lot more about recording and was able to get an even sweeter sound from the U87 through a Focusrite 440 pre amp and also working with the MC for a long time I've realised that placing the mic slightly lower than mouth level gave a more chesty sound (this is a nice trick for lessening an 'essy' vocalists esses. Or similarly if you want a more nasal sound raise the mic a little) Anyway, the MC just couldn't give the same performance as the original, we just couldn't get it as good or better, sure the sound quality was much better but fck that, we used the original even though it was fcked. I did my best to try to restore some dynamics and quality but of course this isn't as pure as getting right from the mic.
What mic are you usingand where are you recording(type and size of room) ?
scizz wrote:4_QUESTION: am i doing something wrong by adding: GATE-COMPRESSOR-LIMITER on the mic in this order (let me remind u im a perfectionist and i like the mic sounding just right when recording, each mc has to be right where he's suppose to in the beat)
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This is a really good approach, to get it sounding right for the mix when you are recording, so many people don't do this, they just record and say we'll fix it later. However, using a compressor and a limiter might be a bit overkill, again you are introuducing another possible noise source for no apparent reason. Think about what you need to do with the vocal and compression, do you really need a limiter? If so, I'd personally do it later, sounds pretty excessive, turn the beat down if the vocals aren't loud enough and you can spend more time focusing on it later. Try to perserve some of the dynamics of the vocal, this is especcially important in Hip Hop as so many vocals are very straight and not very dynamic anyway.
scizz wrote:5_the turntablist: what to add on the tables for dynamics when recording i got the vestax pmc5 pro 3 mixer but i think its better to compress the cutz using a rack. am i wrong? if not should i add anything else?
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Your limiter should work well on the cuts, just to shear those spiky peaks a bit and not to ruin the dynamics. Although, personally I compress the sht out of cuts to give them that in your face feel, this is a preference thing. Mess around and see what you like.
Anyway hope i was of some help, let me know how you get on,
Peace,
Dos
