Karaoke Forums

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?

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...

Is there any advice anyone could give a noob about the art?

I have read a little about recording and some say that you should Track @ around -6db's and Master @ about -3db's.

I have a Tascam dp -01 and there is not any good documentation that came with it.

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?

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

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!



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.



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.



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.



http://tascam.com/details;9,16,33,19.html

All manuals, FAQ & general beginners recording guide.



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).



Hope that helped a tick.

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Thanks for the feedback.

0 is at 8, duh, it all makes sense now...I was missing the part about trying the master out on different devices.  

So a couple more questions if you don't mind me picking your brain...

Would you track canned music as hot as possible?  Chances are I am going to have to punch up the end master anyways, via software, since I am on the low end of the equipment scale...

Also, since I didn't get the FX model recorder, is there a cool little all-in-one multi effects that you would recommend for vocals?

I saw one at the Guitar Center the other day, I forget which brand it was, but it was only a couple hundred....I would need compression, delay, reverb ect...well you know what I would need...

Anyways, thanks again for your time, much appreciated.

Murlin

Is there a way for you to load the canned music, ie karaoke track into the recorder? That would be a better option.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

WOOT!!!  :hi5:

Well live and learn.  I finally figured out how to direct import...Duh...has to be a mono track....

Thanks for the shove in the right direction Jian

All my songs have had the canned music run through the sound card and have lost quality.

Not anymore .....

thanks dude...

One word...

Bounce...

Thanks for the heads up guys...  LOL

Better late than never

One of these days Alice....Yep ..going to try bouncing next.... get it figured out one of these days...

OK so that was more than one word