making songs sound "good"

[satchvai]

I have an M-box and have been using 6.7 for a few weeks now. I am recording direct with a line 6 POD 2.0 for guitar and a Digitech BP80 for bass. I use drum loops from Drums on Demand and Betamonkey. My question is, how to I make the tracks I record sound "good." Ability has nothing to do with it, as I am a good guitar player, it's just that when i record the tracks everything just sounds lame. This is the first time I've ever really tried mixing, so i'm sure that has alot to do with it. I try to EQ, but the cymbals end up ear-piercingly high and the guitar is sometimes lost, and the bass and bass drum become dominant. When I roll off the bass frequencies, i lost alot of the thumpiness, but it still dominates the mix and leaves the guitars in the background. It is really frustrating right now, as it seems like my recordings sound no different than when i recorded through my sound card with ACID 4.0. What can you guys recommend?????

[Matt Whritenour]

what are u using for monitors?

[spkguitar]

I recommend study:
Guide to EQ

Mixing Engineer's Handbook

The Project Studio Handbook (online)

and then practice, practice, practice.
Use the best tools that you have at your disposal; your ears. If it doesn't sound good to you, then it isn't good. Take the knowledge from above and make it sound good. You may, as LK/Matt mentioned, also need to re-evaluate your equipment/listening environment.

[satchvai]

i'm using creative I-trigue speakers (2 3-driver sattelites and a subwoofer) out through the front headphone jack. The guide to EQ link looks pretty interested. I've printed it and will examine it closer. It seems like in order to see how the mix is working, i need to burn it to a disk and play it in my home system. It always ends up sounding different than at the computer. it just frustrates me!

[bb_aus]

i'm using creative I-trigue speakers

chuck them in the bin

[Haggis]

fix your room, spend as much money on that as your monitors.

[Nilesh]

It takes more than a good soundcard to get a good recording. You agree that you are a good guitarist, so now try to be a good engineer. Digizine will be a good place to start.

http://digidesign.com/digizine/archi...03/groundwork/

happy reading! And dont expect overnight results. Work your way up.

get your basics right, and then you can look into fixing your monitoring system and room correction etc.

best of luck

[macr0w]

i'm using creative I-trigue speakers (2 3-driver sattelites and a subwoofer) out through the front headphone jack.

You've got your monitors coming out of the headphone jack?????

[Nilesh]

mmmmmm...looks like you need some quick fix with your monitors. Invest in a pair of MSP3's or 5's (Yamaha) or a pair of M-audio monitors. They will not be too heavy on your wallet and will do a decent job for you. Make good quality balanced signal cables and connect your main outs to the monitors.
(you still have to read digizine though! )

[chrisk23]

this is a great guide to studio basics in general

http://web.archive.org/web/200302161...diocovers.com/



p.s.---i agree, ditch those crap speakers and pick up some mid-priced flat-response powered monitors (alesis,fostex,behringer)---