getting that commercial sound

[elementsrtyte]

yo, so i've been puttin tracks together , now with home-studio-recorded-vocals and I've been trying to get the quality to that commercial feel. I can't seem to get that feel down. I'm using a decent $200 condensor mic and using firewire 410's preamps. could it be my hardware thats limiting me?

or is it the way that I should be compressing? I compress and eq all the vocals individually, but I never mess with the overall mix. Should I being something different?

I ran through the recording tips and I found some new tips to help me get closer to that goal, but i'm still not there yet.

Post your tips and tricks here!

 

[Shonsteez]

Dude theres tons of factors - im on an eternal pursuit to maintain a level of commercial excellence in my recordings and trust me, that shit will never end to a certain degree.

The hardware u use is vital to your sound but also knowing how to use the most basic of tools properly such as EQ and Compression can make a world of a difference....Plus, its naive to expect your joints ever to stack up side by side to a commercial release since even the best mix needs proper professional mastering.

 

[divineaspex]

are u trying to get your vocals to sound pro, or your beats?

 

[spartan265]

both i'd assume. either way ill agree to the loads of factors part. we could be here all day breaking down what makes material sound commercial. an easy first step though is a software called izotope ozone. its basically a mastering vst. wack it on the master fader and tweak the genral sound of your track to your liking. its very powerful and gives you a great sound. a good place to start is its presets. then tweak to taste from there till you get the hang of it.

 

[Formant024]

we started buildng our own discrete pre-amps, took out the weakest link in the setup, the console...eh yeah , were never finished lol

you gotta look at priorities though, nearfields and I/O are you're main tools, then comes knowledges (
you can do magic on any daw)

 

[The Arkitekt]

Here's my simple answer to this question...

First you need one of these:

Then you need one of these:

 

[Shonsteez]

The Quaker Oats guy? Naw u dont need himmm....

 

[TheMost]

Here's my simple answer to this question...

First you need one of these:

Then you need one of these:

Agreed

IM a artists i make beats i play guitar, ill touch some mixing but to get that pro sound id rather let the pros do it

 

[StressWon]

like Steezo said, you need to know what ya doin at some level,,,and Formant is right. Use any DAW to make that hot ish as long as you know your levels. I suggest copping a good book on home recording. I have a great one, but I forget the name. I'll post it later. Definitely helps.

For starters...try to cop the waves plugins bundles. (if u are using software for such things) eVERYTHING YOU NEED (caps) is there.

 

[The Arkitekt]

yea word. Waves Mercury bundle is justice. Try to get the Waves SSL bundle too

 

[LDB]

Agreed

IM a artists i make beats i play guitar, ill touch some mixing but to get that pro sound id rather let the pros do it

Most hit the nail on the head with this one....if you truly want your music to sound like the commercial pro shit you hear on the radio there's really no other way. There are very few "top dawg" mastering facilities around and all the big boys use one of them.

Not saying you can't have good recordings other ways, it's just that the majors don't take chances with possible mediocre facilities. When it's time to compete they don't chance the sound.

 

[2nd_Man]

yea, been reading up on gear, home recording, audio signals etc etc coz its about time i learnt it all

it seems theres a common consensus among the articles on professional quality

if you were to plot quality against money, the curves exponential
meaning to get a decent quality you dont need a big budget, to get the top quality, to reach the last 10%, you gotta spend a whole lot more money

so basically, if your after the real pro quality you gonna need what Arkitekt says

 

[slik da relic]

i feel and agree with everything thats been said... but ive heard a few current hip hop cds and they def sound like u can get the same results at home... especially since a few of them are done in home studios anyway... if ur not bringin Alicia Keys thru, keep practicin and bang em out at home.

da relic

 

[7thangel]

not to say every commercial track sounds all that good sonically, but way too many want to get the same results with mediocre equipment, converters, rooms, and monitors. obsolete computers. and a lack of the most important elements, experience and talent in the areas that make shit sound polished/radio ready/commercial/pro (recording, mixing and mastering).

even on tight budgets, most have separate recording/tracking, separate mixers and a different studio, and a mastering engineer/house. add to that, several versions redone over and various mixes (radio, tv, 'net, etc) and quality control (like a label, a & r, etc, for better or for worse)

 

[Relic]

ya, sad but tru, although home recording can make a song that sounds just as good if not better than songs "Back in the day"..
Well that pro thing that is NOW just cant be done at home. I think we have all tried.
Closest Ive heard around here is Nomics aka The Ill Fellas.
I dont know how he gets his beats so loud and clear just at the crib..

 

[The Arkitekt]

ya, sad but tru, although home recording can make a song that sounds just as good if not better than songs "Back in the day"..
Well that pro thing that is NOW just cant be done at home. I think we have all tried.
Closest Ive heard around here is Nomics aka The Ill Fellas.
I dont know how he gets his beats so loud and clear just at the crib..

Well he's probly been doing it for a long ass time, i'm no engineer but i'm sure people that know what their doing i.e. the big engineers with a lot of experience can crank out a commercial mix on some KRK's if they learn the monitors well enough. That's why I posted the pic of Bruce Swedien before the pic of the studio. You need a shitload of experience, actually correction, you need good experience. Goes for anything you wanna get good at.

 

[7thangel]

there are plenty of good to legendary people doing things like mixing in their home, but they also had their rooms properly treated, and i don't mean puttin' aurelex willy nilly on the wall. plus they have the gear to go with their experience to get their results. they may have had the tracks sent to them from ocean way studios, etc.

it's not impossible, but the 3 way process, that are passing through the same equipment (ssl, neve, api, millennium, massey, dangerous, studer etc) will tend to sound somewhat similar sonically (shit, it could pass through an api 2500 in all 3 phases) and finally made to sound good on any system, mono or stereo, hyped up home stereo unit or ns10's.

in all honesty, very seldom can people do everything good to exceptional. you're (no one in particular) already making the music doing all the tasks and playin' all the instruments (i.e. vst drums, guitar, piano, bass, etc), then you're gonna mix it, then possibly master it, distribute it, promote it, sell it, make and design a website and publicity, the artwork, and so on. at some point you (we) have to delegate some of these tasks in order to truly maximize the creativity of the music itself and not get bogged down and possibly lose focus, something i see a lot when shit comes to the mixing stage with a lot of dudes/chicks makin' tracks.

there is a reason why some folks are strictly recording engineers, mixing engineers or mastering engineers, it takes a different skill set and you have to really feel it and like it, and not just the end of the task, because if you don't like it when shit's tedious, annoying and frustrating, you'll never get to that end

 

[Shonsteez]

Well said dude. Theres simply no easy way out of this one.

 

[Relic]

there are plenty of good to legendary people doing things like mixing in their home, but they also had their rooms properly treated, and i don't mean puttin' aurelex willy nilly on the wall. plus they have the gear to go with their experience to get their results. they may have had the tracks sent to them from ocean way studios, etc.

it's not impossible, but the 3 way process, that are passing through the same equipment (ssl, neve, api, millennium, massey, dangerous, studer etc) will tend to sound somewhat similar sonically (shit, it could pass through an api 2500 in all 3 phases) and finally made to sound good on any system, mono or stereo, hyped up home stereo unit or ns10's.

in all honesty, very seldom can people do everything good to exceptional. you're (no one in particular) already making the music doing all the tasks and playin' all the instruments (i.e. vst drums, guitar, piano, bass, etc), then you're gonna mix it, then possibly master it, distribute it, promote it, sell it, make and design a website and publicity, the artwork, and so on. at some point you (we) have to delegate some of these tasks in order to truly maximize the creativity of the music itself and not get bogged down and possibly lose focus, something i see a lot when shit comes to the mixing stage with a lot of dudes/chicks makin' tracks.

there is a reason why some folks are strictly recording engineers, mixing engineers or mastering engineers, it takes a different skill set and you have to really feel it and like it, and not just the end of the task, because if you don't like it when shit's tedious, annoying and frustrating, you'll never get to that end

Im going to let the auralex willy nilly on the wall comment go ..lol..Hey Im tryin here!!
You make good points and I know your not talking to me your making general statements but you may as well be because all that hits home and your right!
Problem in my situation has been Im the only one in my unit trying at all to learn shit(thus most of the "unit" has been eliminated), so there isnt the ability to farm the work out to other members of the crew.
At this point it become a money spending venture if I need to get a true pro sound, trying to do everything does in fact burn you out to the point where this shit isnt any fun anymore(and its not).
Honestly Im thinkng downshifting to hobby instead of trying to work shit lol.

 

[LDB]

Im going to let the auralex willy nilly on the wall comment go ..lol..Hey Im tryin here!!
You make good points and I know your not talking to me your making general statements but you may as well be because all that hits home and your right!
Problem in my situation has been Im the only one in my unit trying at all to learn shit(thus most of the "unit" has been eliminated), so there isnt the ability to farm the work out to other members of the crew.
At this point it become a money spending venture if I need to get a true pro sound, trying to do everything does in fact burn you out to the point where this shit isnt any fun anymore(and its not).
Honestly Im thinkng downshifting to hobby instead of trying to work shit lol.

I'll be bangin' on my shit until they plant me! I think of me making music as one big hobby with the potential of turning a profit. That way I eliminate most of the frustration and continue to enjoy my isolation time! I think of it like going fishing alone. THERE'S NOTHING LIKE IT!

Keep doing what you do man...if you stop trust me....you'll go crAzy because if it's in you...IT'S IN U!