Murlinman @ Mon Aug 06, 2007 12:46 pm wrote: Howdy guys and gals. I have been experimenting, trying to do some mixing/mastering and can't seem to get it right most of the time. Sometimes I get lucky, and it sounds ok, but I want perfection!!!  Either the vocals are too loud or too soft. And I am only mixing 2 tracks...hats off to all you guru's... How long does it take you guys to get a good Master?
Depends entirely on what & who I am mixing and how good the tracks came out originally. If they turned out good, then I can get it done fairly quickly, if not, I will take good tracks & redo & patch in new tracks until I get it correct. Sometimes you may mix, take it to disc, listen on several different sources - car stereo, boom box, home stereo, personal listening device, etc. Note what sounded good & bad on each - you will kind of develop a pattern in which you can go remix & then do it again until it sounds correct!
Quote: Sometimes I only have a few hrs to record/mix/and master and most of the time I have to get all the way to the mastering and find that it needs more gain. And of course when I add gain the mix changes...
Never rush a project, is this your job that it needs to be done in such a hurry? If something don't sound right & you run out of time, put it on the back burner, note all of the recording level settings (gains, eq, etc.), mic placement/position & come back to it when you have some more time. When I worked in the studio, some of our projects would last for weeks (yes full bands), but we also got the occasional karaoke type singer that had already canned music & they would just sing to the disc & some of these would take a few days to finish. Good results aren't rushed jobs.
Quote: Is there any advice anyone could give a noob about the art?
Make sure you try to understand everything about your recording system be it analog tape, digital tape or computer based. Any piece of equipment you may use, try to learn as much as you can either by the manual or asking about specific units or techniques.
Quote: I have read a little about recording and some say that you should Track @ around -6db's and Master @ about -3db's.
I mix until I have a good strong level that isn't clipping any channels & nothing is overpowering anything else. If the vocals are hot, i'll turn the music up or vice/verse. I master through another program that basically (except for some situations) is a set it & forget it for decent home mixes - Mackie Tracktion.
Quote: I have a Tascam dp -01 and there is not any good documentation that came with it.
http://tascam.com/details;9,16,33,19.html
All manuals, FAQ & general beginners recording guide.
Quote: At the top of the master slider is 10. Isn't that where 0 is suppose to be? Somewhere close to the top and it is all - db below that?
The "0" (unity) mark is actually (or should be anyway) approx between the 7 & 8 mark on that fader (and all across the board at that level for that matter).
Quote: I know there is no way anyone can really teach me the art, just trying to get a shove off in the right direction...
Thanks for your time, :wave:
Murlin
Hope that helped a tick.
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