can you get me FM radio quality sound from mbox?

[hellofargis]

*** mbox pt/le 6.4 on imac g4 700 mHz ***

just starting out, so be gentle. basic question: can a basic mbox/protools setup produce tracks that have an FM radio quality sound? so far I'd say I'm better than AM for sure, but not at FM, if you know what I mean. if I put one of my tracks on an itunes-created mix cd, there's no doubt at all which one is the amateur one. it's all just a bit weak and tinny -- although still quite impressive for such a small, inexpensive setup.

I'm a one-man band. I use iDrum for the drums, then a basic electric bass plugged right in to mbox, then an acoustic guitar using some pretty good mics (including studioprojects c1, which I totally love), then some digital piano, then voices. about 6 tracks total usually.

what I'm wondering is if I should just do my recording, editing, and mixing, and then send it to a mastering house. or is protools and its plug-ins powerful enough to do the job if I'm willing to put in the time to learn about sound engineering? (I don't want to buy any more gear if at all possible).

thanks!

[Bixby]

While you can certainly produce some decent-quality stuff with the Mbox (especially if you drop a bunch of cash on good plugins), it does come down to the quality of what you're putting into the box. And you'll be severly limited if you don't want to spend additional money on good mics, good A/D (not to mention D/A, and a proper monitoring system), etc.

There's a reason most "hits" are recorded in studios with million-dollar consoles, tons of outboard, etc.

Mastering is an art in and of itself. While you can get pretty fast and decent results with an L2 or PSP plug, there's much more to it. Get Bob Katz's book.

And I almost guarantee once you get a taste of high-quality outboard, you'll want to spend more money on it...

[Chris Coleman]

can a basic mbox/protools setup produce tracks that have an FM radio quality sound?

Why on earth would you want that? By the time mixes hit the air they're mangled almost beyond recognition. If you want "FM quality sound", then you'll need to buy the exact processors that FM stations use, including pricey ACG units from Orban, etc...but again - why?

I'll answer the question that you're actually asking - Yes, one can kick out fine product with an mbox...but it all comes down to you and your skills, talent, willingness to learn, etc. I don't know any of those factors, so I'm affraid I cannot answer whether or not you specifically will be able to produce quality product, regardless of the tools used.

so far I'd say I'm better than AM for sure

Given that AM is mono and sounds even worse than FM radio, I'd hope you're "better" than that.

[silverlode]

"can you get me FM radio quality sound from mbox? "

GOD I hope so!!!

[RadioMoo]

Huh?!? I work in radio, and I know firsthand how the music is treated: converted to a 384 .mp3 to run in the automation system, then run through automatic gain control, eq, maybe psychoacoustic bass and/or "presence" processing (yes, it's what you're thinking) multiband compression, sometimes wideband sometimes multiband band limiting and clipping.

Did you ever notice how different a song sounds on your system from the way it sounds on the air? That's what you're shooting for...and the Mbox can give you pretty good results once you get the hang of it.

PS. Don't smash the $#!+ out of it when you master it, like everyone seems to do now: I just heard "Livin' La Vida Loca" followed by Rod Stewart's "You're in my Heart." Amazing how a thirty year old song with an acoustic guitar opening can come blasting out of the speakers compared to the more recent upbeat tune with heavy limiting that preceded it.

[Shelob9]

NO. And trying is counter productive. RadioMoo described a pretty typical way of doing things for a commercial radio station. I have worked in independent radio and things are done much diffrently. Th biggest diffrence being alot less compression, also most of the time things actually get played off CDs. Even if you were to recreate the typical comp/lim of commerical FM radio it would all go to hell when said compression was reaplied if it were to be played on the radio.

Now in terms of comparing your tracks to the rest of your itunes collection, this is a double edged sword. Possible? to an extent. Advisable? depends. I tend to spend a good bit of time being really tweaky with the limiters on my group buses and master fader to get a decently hot and consistant level so my tracks do not stand out as being weak when played against other tracks. That said I don't compress the [bleep] out of it like on FM or most CDs beacuse that sounds even ****tier when done with the kind of gear I can affford then when it gets done proffesionaly.
That said I ALWAYS do this in such a way that it can be undone before being sent off to be mastered correctly. Once its in a bounce it is really hard to undo comp/lim. But if you can print a bounce with out the master comp/lim to be mastered later you can have the best of both worlds.

I guess my point is that no you can't do a proffesional mastering job with your mBox but if you need to you can do a good job of aproximating it. If the material is to be profesionally mastered of course you want to avoid doing any damage yourself by attempting it yourself. But you don't want people to listen to your demo or low budjet CD and be turned off by a lack of apparent loudness before they even bother to dig your tunes.

Hope this made some sense to you/ was helpful.