Why Can't I Get Pro Tools To Sound Like A Record? Need Help Bad!

[Mount Royal]

Keith:

Consider posting a link to your work as others have done. You might recive some tangible suggestions as to where your problems are. This, in addition to the valuable principles stated by the other respondents, might get you going a little better.

Best wishes,

John Caldwell

[Felix]

read books about the masters. like "Behind The Glass" and "Mixing Engineers Handbook". Get a subscription to Tape Op magazine.

[tom_mac]

sorry to get so basic .......try panning the different sources around . many "muddy"
issues come from trying to sum alot of tones together . try to also use (subtle) amounts of eq to keep frequencys from overpowering .... i.e. the guitar has alot of freq aound the 200 - 600 hz ...beefy ....however, that same range can combine with those in the bass gtr ....and cause confusion ....try to pan and (LIGHTLY)
eq these things ....BTW . grab a few eq knobs on SEVERAL differenet source material. get to know what sounds good.
STAY ON THIS BOARD !!!!!!!!!
most of us are a little pretentious..
but i still find it helpful.

PT can sound more like a record than
you hoped .....just keep trying..
the pleasure is in the journey .

woo hoo...... another tangent from the macman [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Park Seward]

If it was easy, anyone could do it.

Good comment on making space for sounds. Try creating a cut at the primary frequency of an instrument so it has space in the mix.

Don't pound your levels.

Watch out for low mids building up and making your mix muddy. Roll off some of that bass. Remember that if you are micing with a unidirectional mic, you will get a bass rise due to the proxmity effect. Even out that rise.

I like the sound of compression and limiting. I think that makes things sound more like a record.

Good luck.

[Bardstown Audio]

You have very good equipment for front-end tracking, which is very important. However, the most important contribution for quality recording is the room that you record in. You need a good sounding room in order to achieve great sounding recordings.

I would focus my efforts on trying to get the room you have to work with to sound as good as you possibly can.

Kip
Bardstown Audio
www.bardstownaudio.com

[narleysoundz]

Not to be a downer, but when I first got into my studio 8 years ago, I thought to myself gosh I'm a really good musician singer songwritter, all I'm missing is the equipment right? Man was I wrong. After years of butchering bands, my own music, and many sleepless nights of tossing and turning, I can finaly consistently put out a great sounding mix even when the band or musicians are working against me(which is usually the case). It's taken me about 7 years of fulltime involvement to learn how to trust my ears and to eq, compress and effect things in order to create space in a mix and reach the 'G' spot of the music listener. My mixes now consistently rival 80% of the stuff on the radio, atleast tonaly and dimensionaly. The best way to make a great engineer is to work with great musicians, which means 99% of musicians can be left out of the mix. Focus on your original tones, I can't stress enough how important that stuff is. Also getting the right amount of low end into a mix is not an easy thing at first, work real hard on that. And more importantly swallow your pride and get ready for the long haul.

[Barnaby Bristol]

Agreed with all. Gotta say that it is extremely rare that I put out something that knocks my own socks off. "You never finish a mix, you just give up."

[MichaelL]

I think these are all great points that underscore the value of this forum. You really need to become a student of the process and there are some enlightening (and some not-so-enlightening) exchanges in the archives. Spend some time researching past and present topics....there is real value if you can find it.

[major_thom]

just one thing to keep in mind, is if you are doing rock music. id say 98 percent of major label rock albums have samples added in with the drums. if you arent doing this to your mixes its more or less IMPOSSIBLE to compress the drums in a way they are on most modern rock albums. the cymbal leakage is just too much, and youll hear over tones in the drums that sound awful. thats one thing ive learned from experience.

my best advice would be to find out exactly how your favorite albums were recorded. if they were done to analog then dumped into pro tools, you are really trying to do something that cant be done, since your doing it all digital. look around the net try and find what pre amps they used, mics, even mic placments are sometimes discussed in magazines like EQ, and MIX.

[Mt.Everest]

Another thing that was mentioned breifly here, but that I think is very important is referencing pre-mastered mixes that you look up to.

Whatever style you are recording/mixing (rap, rock, pop, etc), try to befriend an engineer or assistant at a studio to make you a copy of pre-master mixes of songs that are out now that you think sound great.

What I like to do is import a pre-mastered cd or dat mix into PT digitally, and then have the track right inside the session of the current song I am mixing. Then every hour or so, I will put the SOLO buttons into NON-Latch mode, make a group of all my tracks, plus a group of the mix I imported. Then you can quickly switch between your tracks and the mix and compare and contrast.

You will really begin to see how important control of the mid range is. Im talking everything from 250hz to 4K. Good mixes have a well balanced mid range presence and control. This is where your music is, but especially in the 600 to 2K area. I used to cut the mids on EVERY track cuz we all hate nasily 1k area. But then Id end up with mixes with that smiley face EQ curve that have no presence or clarity. And I still am far away from mastering the mid range. But thats what I always notice in great mixes, A very well pronounced mid range area that doesnt sound nasily or abrasive. Im still learing how to get those results.

Also dont use Genelecs or other hyped monitors too much. THEY SOUND TOO GOOD.
99% of the people listening to a CD hear it on their cheap AIWA stereo or their car. Play a great mix on a tiny speaker and see how it holds its own.

You need good monitors to hear the subs and the air, but you should always spend alot of time making it work on things like NS10s or radioshack speakers.

MT