That's the old place. Seems I chose a great time to buy, and a not so great time to sell the old place. Sigh.
Ah...
Hey tell me about it dude. There are piles and piles of bargains around here but the only why I can take advantage of one is by keeping my old place and renting it out. That actually scares the bejeebies out of me... Unless I could rent it to someone I knew really, really well... even then I'd still be nervous as crap.
D
PS D'OH! I didn't even click the link before... "I see." (said the blind man)
PPS WOW!! That really brings home the regional aspect of real estate. I have 1600 sq. ft. and I would get laughed out of town if I asked that much for it... wow... anyway, good luck Bubba. I hope she sells soon.
Yeah, that is filthy dirt cheap for the area as I simply want the place gone (assuming you are saying that is high compared to your area for something similar). Two mortgages suck so bad I can’t even tell you.
Also, folks don't spend the time. A pro drum recording has hours of prep before the actual recording to make sure the mics are in the right spot, the drums are tuned just right, the drums are in the best location int he room they can be, etc. For instance, home guys often skip all this, throw up some mics, and wonder why their drum recordings sound like poo.
i don't wonder. i know. and that's a big reason why. why not do these things, though?
Quote:
There are just lots of folks who settle for good enough.
bingo. i get enough crap for spending the time on this that i do. i can't justify treating this like a profession when it's just a hobby, when i'm already gone at work 60 hours a week, etc. no amount of mic placement in an apartment bedroom can block out when a child comes bursting in the room screaming about some sibling who just threw cereal at someone else. 'rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,' one might call it.
PPS WOW!! That really brings home the regional aspect of real estate. I have 1600 sq. ft. and I would get laughed out of town if I asked that much for it... wow... anyway, good luck Bubba. I hope she sells soon.
i bought my house in 2001 right out of college. 1500 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 floors, fenced, yaddi yaddi for 110k (870/month). (subsequently lost it due to divorce crap)
now, you can't get hardly ANYTHING here for under 200k. a house that would actually comfortably fit my family in this area is closer to 325-450k. funny, my income hasn't quadrupled in 7 years. it's actually gone down, when i've been able to have a job at all. if i could, i would so jump on that. but i can't. you need one of those california types that can move there and buy six houses for the amount that they sold theirs (that's what we had here in the 70's and 80's).
Quite a hot topic here. Thanks again for all the replies. I spent a couple hours this afternoon again with my mix and have improved it (again) by leaps and bounds. If you ever thought that tweaking the EQ a little here and there wouldn’t make much of a difference, you couldn’t be more wrong. Here’s what I did:
1. Listen closely to a CD that has that “sheen” (i.e., almost anything). 2. Use a graphic EQ and pull down different bands till the CD sounds almost as bad as my mix. 3. Use nTrack’s parametric EQ in the master channel and sweep through different frequencies to find which ones need boosting (for sheen). 4. Solo each track, adding the EQ necessary to make it sound the same as it did with the parametric on, but switch the parametric off. Keep alternating between bypassing the parametric and bypassing the track EQ until there is no difference between the 2. 5. Turn the parametric off.
You’d be surprised; most of the changes made to individual tracks were 1dB or less - sometimes it was just a matter of widening the Q of a band that was already boosted.
Now, it’s still not perfect, but if it was 90% there before, it’s more like 97% now.
And I was glad to hear Bubba’s response about taking enough time to get the details right - it’s kind of embarassing how long I’ve been working on this particular track.
Can I post it on the Member’s music page? I can’t host anything from my web page… Thanks again
Well there goes the "You can't do this at home crap..."
You selling your 'new' place already?
D
Ha! Gotcha! I said "most of us"!!! Tmepus may well not be among the set "most of us" !!!!
Incidentally, I can get you a 3,000 sq ft house built in the 1920s to the highest quality standards with absolutely gorgeous wood, Flint Faience tile, etc., for about 50K or less. In a very nice neighborhood, too.
Funny what losing 60,000 jobs or so will do to an area.
Well there goes the "You can't do this at home crap..."
You selling your 'new' place already?
D
Ha! Gotcha! I said "most of us"!!! Tmepus may well not be among the set "most of us" !!!!
Incidentally, I can get you a 3,000 sq ft house built in the 1920s to the highest quality standards with absolutely gorgeous wood, Flint Faience tile, etc., for about 50K or less. In a very nice neighborhood, too.
Funny what losing 60,000 jobs or so will do to an area.
I read a blurb a while back about Flint Tom. Downright depressing... I think a lot of those jobs are here now. This area is becoming the "Detroit" of the south sort of... We've got Hyundai close to Montgomery, Toyota in Huntsville, two Nissan plants not far from here, Mercedes in Vance and just recently Chattanooga landed a big Volkswagen plant. That along with many sub-suppliers. We make nylon yarn for weavers who make airbags at my place of employment. A lot of automotive related jobs within spittin' distance of my house.
Mastering… I had some tracks professionally mastered a few years ago. I’d mixed them in n-track and we were putting out a pressed cd with them so I took them to a mastering studio and attended the mastering session.
The first comment on the process is that the mastering did at a little sparkle to the tracks. I’m not quite sure how to describe it. Hardly noticeable but certainly there.
The other thing about the process was that the guy doing the mastering was able to gently work on the songs so that they fitted together better on the cd - sounded more consistent and even in volume and of similar harmonic content.
His main tool was a multi-band compressor… and a good set of ears.
It was also a last-chance to catch anything before hitting the pressing plant. During the mixing I had become far too familiar with the songs. The engineer was able to hear one or two things that I’d overlooked - just didn’t hear because my ears were too focussed elsewhere.
I was thinking about this thread tonight (cause I’m a nerd) and one item we often miss that adds sheen, especially in vocal tracks, is the fact that in professional pop mixes, there may be like 50 vocals tracks. Back vocals, doubles, you name it, all over the place. Guitars are often doubled… drums are “doubled” by layer sounds (snare and tambourine, shaker and hihats). Again, something the home guy often over looks.
In my case, take a look at the Slang stuff. All the vocal tracks (even ones that sound like a single track) have at least 3 tracks going. One is the “gold” track, one I may pitch slightly and bury, the other is often delayed wide and chorused a tad. It is all really subtle though as you want it to sound big and sparkly, but not phoney. Guitars, all guitars are double or triple tracked. I often either take the guitar and either use two different mics or two different amps for different EQ curves and pan them out as well as a DI track that I may reamp later. Also, in all of this, judicious use of delay is very important as it created depth and space.
Mark, thanks for your input. That definitely answers some questions that I had about the mastering process in general. After it was professionally mastered, did it sound as good as a commercial CD?
Bubba thanks again for your suggestions. The depth and space you mention is something that is lacking (at least somewhat) in my mix. I’ve tried doing some of those delay tricks on vocals, but it always ends up sounding phasey or something; kind of like a chorus effect. You also mentioned “judicious use of delay is very important as it created depth and space”. Are you referring to guitar tracks only, or all the tracks? Can you elaborate a litte as far as settings for the delay? Is the delay in a send or an insert?
After it was professionally mastered, did it sound as good as a commercial CD?
Well, it's difficult to tell as it was my work. Too close and all that stuff. But I think so.
I did canvas the opinion of several trusted listeners who said it sounded like a "proper" cd. The mastering engineer also thought it sounded good (but maybe he says that to everybody!).
Which reminds me of another important point. If the mix doesn't sound great before mastering, the mastering is not going to save it.
I'll see if I can dig out some before and after mixes.
I think I may have sent copies to a few folks here back when we did it. Bill (wox) and Tom seem to come to mind. Perhaps they could comment on the sonic quality.
I am busy out in the studio that I’m planning… I should pay more attention to some of these great topics-and-threads…
Mark A and I traded CD Projects way back when… What a great project Mark A and the Organization he was with put together. I will get it from the old studio and put it in the CD Player again…
Every Project should be a Learning Experience from the previous one… OR something that can be brought forward into the next one… If your prolific with doing projects then selected areas can be brought forward and improved and concentrated on…
I can remember that Mark A asked the monumental question (here on this Board) before and while they were working on selecting their material… I think they chose to spend money on Pro Studio-and-Tracking Time… I’m not sure of all the details they spent money on…
I think that spending money on the right A/D and D/A Converters and a stable Computer and searching for the correct venue and using the right microphones and analogue listening hardware for the project would be Money-in-Hand for the next project…
There is dedication and commitment on the people in front of the mics as-well-as those behind the mics… Arranging studio time and session time is a delicate mater… It can blow an organization of people apart in No-Time… It’s different if there are paychecks involved…
There are lots of details to consider even before any music is made…
I can remember that Mark A asked the monumental question (here on this Board) before and while they were working on selecting their material.. I think they chose to spend money on Pro Studio-and-Tracking Time.. I'm not sure of all the details they spent money on..
Yes, that's right Bill.
We did much of the tracking in a local studio with some of the tracks we'd programmed eleswhere. This was to take advantage of the studio's equipment, to get the experience of the in-house engineer and to focus us all on the recording process.
Tracks were recorded on 24 track 2" tape. They were then transferred to digital and I mixed them at home in n-track. Some tracks had to be re-done in my studio for various reasons.
The mixes were then taken for professional mastering and then pressing.
Artwork was done by one of the singer's art student daughters.
