Help the Panda, Help YOU.
Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:30 am
Ok, so by no means am I the best, nor the worst for that matter lol. So here I am, one man, all alone, one team of I, against the world, on a site, with a tank of gas, and an electric bicycle.
Anyhow, this is my process, as wrong as I may be, or right. It may help you, or maybe you can help me.
1st.) I have a condenser Mic, so phantom power on, create new audio track, select mono recording, and check the levels, usually having the mic volume about 1/3 of the volume capacity.
2nd.) Import beat into its own track.
3rd.) Turn off speakers, create silence, select the monitor icon so I can hear myself through the headphones, stand about a foot from mic and project my voice past the mic while recording.
4th.) Deselect the monitor option, playback to make sure I’m satisfied, once satisfied, create another track, mono recording.
5th.) Reselect monitor option, proceed to record dubs, or words I want highlighted throughout my verse.
6th.) Once satisfied with the playback, turn the speakers back on, and set speaker volume at about the same volume capacity as elevator music, with speakers at ear level. (It’s important to not exhaust your ears with loud mixing, until you are ready for the loud mixing. Also, try and form a triangle with your head as one point and the two speakers as the others.)
7th.) place everything on mute except track 1 and open up track 1s (main vocal verse) effects input. I place a compressor(using a built in setting, [in case you don’t know, it makes you sound louder by raising your lows and lowering your highs until its even as possible]) and EQ (starting from a stock setting, hitting the knobs till I sound like a million dollars), tweak until it sounds nice.
8th.) Do the same for the dubs, not using the same settings because this Is not my PRIMARY VERSE. Once effects sound nice, I solo the main verse, and dubs, so I don’t hear the beat. I playback to make sure my dubs perfectly line up with the verse, and delete, move, shorten, etc. anything out of place.
9th.) Next I open my mixer and start playing with the volumes, making sure nothing is too loud, nothing is too soft, making sure my dubs are lower than my main verse. I fix the volumes to each track individually.
10th.) Once my volumes are nice, and I’m not longer clipping, I place a protection limiter on the main master volume(just in case I’m missing a sound) and boom. Pretty much done.
11th.) Export track as MP3, stereo flip. DONE
Now the above are steps I take for the simplest recording ever.
I also tem to add an FX channel, with another compressor, a slight reverb, and patch every track through there to combine everything. Adds me the nice all together sound, also increasing the volume of my voice without actually raising any volumes. Another tactic is recording two separate dub tracks and soft panning them each. Soft panning: panning works in numbers on my program, so instead of going to 50 R, which is all the way right (hard panning), I soft pan and go 25 R. same for the Left side. Anyhow, like I said, this is not the right way, this is my way. Explain your way, or give me tips, ideas. If you sound worse than I do, try my way, incorporate something I do into yours, erno, someone needed to do this.
peace
Anyhow, this is my process, as wrong as I may be, or right. It may help you, or maybe you can help me.
1st.) I have a condenser Mic, so phantom power on, create new audio track, select mono recording, and check the levels, usually having the mic volume about 1/3 of the volume capacity.
2nd.) Import beat into its own track.
3rd.) Turn off speakers, create silence, select the monitor icon so I can hear myself through the headphones, stand about a foot from mic and project my voice past the mic while recording.
4th.) Deselect the monitor option, playback to make sure I’m satisfied, once satisfied, create another track, mono recording.
5th.) Reselect monitor option, proceed to record dubs, or words I want highlighted throughout my verse.
6th.) Once satisfied with the playback, turn the speakers back on, and set speaker volume at about the same volume capacity as elevator music, with speakers at ear level. (It’s important to not exhaust your ears with loud mixing, until you are ready for the loud mixing. Also, try and form a triangle with your head as one point and the two speakers as the others.)
7th.) place everything on mute except track 1 and open up track 1s (main vocal verse) effects input. I place a compressor(using a built in setting, [in case you don’t know, it makes you sound louder by raising your lows and lowering your highs until its even as possible]) and EQ (starting from a stock setting, hitting the knobs till I sound like a million dollars), tweak until it sounds nice.
8th.) Do the same for the dubs, not using the same settings because this Is not my PRIMARY VERSE. Once effects sound nice, I solo the main verse, and dubs, so I don’t hear the beat. I playback to make sure my dubs perfectly line up with the verse, and delete, move, shorten, etc. anything out of place.
9th.) Next I open my mixer and start playing with the volumes, making sure nothing is too loud, nothing is too soft, making sure my dubs are lower than my main verse. I fix the volumes to each track individually.
10th.) Once my volumes are nice, and I’m not longer clipping, I place a protection limiter on the main master volume(just in case I’m missing a sound) and boom. Pretty much done.
11th.) Export track as MP3, stereo flip. DONE
Now the above are steps I take for the simplest recording ever.
I also tem to add an FX channel, with another compressor, a slight reverb, and patch every track through there to combine everything. Adds me the nice all together sound, also increasing the volume of my voice without actually raising any volumes. Another tactic is recording two separate dub tracks and soft panning them each. Soft panning: panning works in numbers on my program, so instead of going to 50 R, which is all the way right (hard panning), I soft pan and go 25 R. same for the Left side. Anyhow, like I said, this is not the right way, this is my way. Explain your way, or give me tips, ideas. If you sound worse than I do, try my way, incorporate something I do into yours, erno, someone needed to do this.
peace
