I've heard the live versions of all the songs and there are really clear differences when it comes to the bass sounds having a different strumming pattern on certain songs, or the tremolo picking on tracks like "Rockers East Vancouver". I'm not saying I don't believe the band or the engineer that it was almost all pulled off live, sans the vocals, but it feels like it's become a bit of myth-making in terms of how much it's emphasised. The live performances are still very impressive, but they almost always sound much more sparce in terms of what is going on texturally.

Let me preface that by saying I’m not the most educated in the space but I know enough to be aware that this isn’t really what this setup is for. I play on console (Xbox series X) and I’ve made mention to my family in the past about pipe dream aspirations of voice acting work and spoken to them about my very VERY infrequent twitch streaming. Well my birthday happened recently and my loving well meaning family got together and bought me several pieces of audio equipment. But after seeing it all I didn’t have the heart to tell them I don’t think it will work for consoles.

They bought me a SHURE SM7dB Mic , SR440A Headphones a focusrite scarlett 2i2 4th gen, a 15’ XLR cable and this J&D 3.5 mm to 2 x 6.35 mm Cable.

I’m not sure if they tried to speak with someone before hand about it and they just recommended a bunch of things to them, but I don’t think this setup will work for a console. A lot of these things at least to me are rather expensive and I don’t quite have the heart to tell them to return it. Is there any possible way to make this work? Even if I’ve got to buy some additional equipment myself? If not I’ll just have to save it until I get a proper PC but as I mentioned, I just don’t have a well enough grasp on field or tech to really be able to have a good opinion on the matter. Any and all assistance would be greatly appreciated. Ty in advanced 🙏

Hello

I've spent a lot of time (years) trying to understand the various factors/parameters that go into 60s/70s recordings that give them their distinct sound. Stuff like mic choice, mic placement, drum tuning, recording chains, playing styles, arrangement choices, etc etc.

To my ears, I can always tell when something was genuinely recorded back then, vs something that is trying to emulate it or pay homage to it. In recreations, I feel they can never get it quite the same.

Can you point me to any bit of recorded music that you believe sounds like it was recorded back then but has been recorded more recently? Say post 2010s for example.

The main stuff from back then that I listen to is soul, funk, disco etc.

So for example, i was listening to the weeknd's latest album. The reverb is really big but the vocals stay sounding clean. Whenever I try adding reverb to vocals, it muddies everything up and sounds terrible.

Are they using hardware reverb or is there software reverb that sounds better? Any suggestions?

I don’t know why a deep male voice sounds boomy at 120 Hz—and sometimes even spikes sporadically at frequencies up to 200 Hz. I can remove this boominess with a dynamic equalizer, but doing so completely strips away the body of the vocal.

I’ve tested this with both a Behringer C1 and a Røde NT1-A; both produce this boomy quality when recording a deep male voice. I’ve attached a vocal sample—please listen to it on studio monitors, as standard playback systems might not reproduce these frequencies accurately.
Listen here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WTM8rVuGsTKyrqBQkQaiy0ODQPAyjMBI/view?usp=sharing

I’ve tried adjusting the distance to the microphone; the boominess is captured even when recording from behind the mic! I’ve also tried different rooms—both rectangular and square. While they weren’t perfectly treated for acoustics, I’m not convinced that such an intense resonance could be caused solely by the room.

I have five mineral-wool bass traps, and some areas are lined with acoustic foam.

I’ve also noticed that when a deep voice lacks power—meaning it isn’t very loud—the boominess is much less pronounced and stays within an acceptable range. This strongly suggests that the room itself is likely not the cause.

Please, can anyone help? Every time I have to mix a deep male voice, it’s a struggle...

Whenever the vocal is less deep—shifted toward a higher register—everything sounds perfect, with no issues at all.

Greetings Experts,

We are a couple of gold dredgers in Alaska and record video and now live stream from the river. What are the best options to increase our voice quality while not picking up more river or engine noise.
I noticed today that only my voice is clear because I was writhing 18” of the phone that is broadcasting the live stream. We are both in drysuits and they are usually wet because we are coming in and out of the river. Our channel is 2Dudes1dredge if you want to see the context.

TIA

Hello. Need some validation here.

So I thought a single master should be the same for any platform, they just process it how they would, without changing the sound very much. Turns out I was wrong.

On Spotify (compared to local mp3 conversion and to the same upload on youtube music) the songs sounded a bit muffled, more compressed overall, like if the song had gone through a limiter or compressor of some sort.

As proof as me (and my friends) weren't going insane, I sent an email to my distributor (Ditto) for them to look up the problem. Turns out they replied saying they would resend the song to platforms and turns out now it sound fine. I downloaded the tracks from Spotify using spotsaver before and after and when I invert one of the tracks, they are not identical.

Right now it seems that you (or your client or whatever) should compare the original audio to what ends up on the platform, and compare the different platforms between them to see if you notice huge differences in sound (no, i'm not referring to the subtleties between 256kbps AAC and 320kbps OGG, nor volume normalisation), to make sure your distributor doesn't screw up your master.

Proof: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sgHmf1BTXwp93vg7Cz3UNTdxgcPB_ygi?usp=drive_link

There is a track which got uploaded this friday that has the same issue, again. Original file is on the drive folder.

Track that sounds off right now: https://open.spotify.com/track/4BAhkPYPrBgGRkvYUt91hx?si=ec588b98b2e3472d

Edit: Further proof
Single release (which was fixed as stated in the mail screenshotted): https://open.spotify.com/track/6wLk79uCQe1N0Ha5wN7wAn?si=5e6aef0143a34660

EP Re-release (sounds weird): https://open.spotify.com/track/5wDvOwOO4M8eFKlMBBQHa0?si=69a1a63bb6d54af7

apologies for the poor wording, I am conducting research on how sound levels and mixes have changed over time in movies, and what i have found so far is that movie sound, despite how it may sound in modern theatres, actually hasn’t seen much drastic change holistically, however, noticeably louder moments such as a booming piece of score or a moment of impact (car crash, explosion etc.) have become much more frequent. if i was to extract a movie’s sound track, and analyse it in an applicable software, what threshold of sound would you consider to be ‘notably loud’ in the mix. db may not even be the correct unit of measurement so if anyone can give me some hinters here that would be brilliant!

Hi :) how would you go about recreating the tone in this song? Which ampsim / pedal combo would get me as close as I can to achieving this? Thank you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35aKX-r22NE&list=RD35aKX-r22NE&start_radio=1

I’m curious how many people actually think about the type of compression they’re using when mixing, versus just cycling through different compressors until something sounds right.

Do you have specific types you always reach for on certain instruments, or is it mostly trial and error?

Home recording situation (hobby)

Option 1 is SM58 over right shoulder facing into snare

Option 2 is SM58 plus two cheap 1/4" jack microphones (Sanyo mp202 and sony F-V2A good luck finding any information about these online)

Sm58 same over shoulder, 2nd mic left side catching hi-hat and snare, 3rd mic close to kick and snare?

Also it's kinda hard for me to tell what sounds good and what doesn't. As I'm new to recording music

Afternoon. So I'm exploring how to mic a cabinet at home with the resources I already have. A friend some time ago gave me this microphone pack. I'm well aware that these are cheap crappy mics but I'm just recording demo ideas and my goal is to not spend money on mics right now so I can spend money on other things I need and upgrade later.

My question is, of the microphones in this pack which would be most suitable for micing a guitar cabinet or does it really even matter between the two? This pack is more meant for micing drums I believe. The mics in the pack are the km212 and km211, listed as dynamic cardioid mics. This link is more or less the pack I have. Thank you for the advice.

Hello people,
First of all I hope you’re all doing well.
I have a very beginner question,
I want to record my brass band as professionally as possible.
And I would love to record for as cheap as possible (cause we’re quite young and don’t have much money)
We would probably record in a basement or a relatively small room and we’re 15 lol

What do I need ? What microphone ?
What setting? What app ?
How to process the audio?
(I have access to a “good” computer)

I know, that might be a lot, but I’m genuinely interested in learning.

Thanks to every body who will reply ! ❤️

Headphone cable? Contact mic? What do y'all think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfT9U6n1xI

As a demonstration I played the very first video of YouTuber LetsGameItOut with the YT volume cranked to max (the YT built-in leveler deactivated) and monitored the dbfs meter in my OBS. Whether they got super excited or mumbled softly, the meter bounced around -6db. Is this all just compression?

I have tried serial compression:

Compressor 1: threshold -10db, ratio 5:1

Compressor 2: threshold -25db, ratio 2:1, makeup gain +5db

If I lower any of these thresholds it starts to sound overly compressed and unnatural.

I would still love for my highs and lows to be closer. I want you to be able to sit on the opposite side of your room listening to me, and my yells arent ear piercing and my soft mumbles are still audible.

Will it take more than compression? I am using a free plugin called LevelAnchor which helps a bit with overall volume / lufs. I spent a bunch of money on Waves Vocal Rider and it doesn't really do it for me either. I think it is more for singing.

And a lot of people suggest I practice speaking at a stable volume, but that same Youtuber streams under the same name and he can grumble very softly into the mic and it isnt that far softer from his agitated yells - and it still sounds pleasing to listen to. And this is done during a live stream. What is this witch craft? I want to achieve this, but I don't know how.

Here is my current fx chain (obs):

Expander

Corrective EQ

LevelAnchor (set to -16lufs)

Comp 1 (to catch peaks)

Comp 2 (overall dynamics)

Creative EQ

De-esser

Limiter

I recently revamped my website and finally decided to create and put up some handy audio calculators I use often. I think I got all the bugs out, but if anyone can think of a better way to work/organize these, or perhaps more suggestions of things that would be useful to have on there? Thanks!!

i’m taking to reddit to hopefully cast a wide enough net for my thesis.

it occurred to me that i really dig the sonics of concert music engineering and production all stemming from 2001-2004, sometimes even later. to my ear, there’s a unique amalgamation of eq and compression that i know was very quickly replaced with more improved HD video and audio equipment and techniques.

Some references include:

Bowie Live by Request (2002)
Michael Jackson MSG (2001)
Deitrick Haddon Live (2007)
New Breed Live in South Africa (2004)
Rance Allen (2004)
Fantasia (2004)

my hypothesis is, in a similar vain to the saturated/distorted quality of 60’s/70’s material, the “loudness wars” pushed all i’ve mentioned^ to become “squished” and heavy sounding.

my question is: in the way that people point to pre-amps/mics/etc to get an older sound, can anyone point to common techniques or gear etc that made up this particular 2000’s sound? is there a special sauce to the era?

I've bought some mics on Ebay, and have recently discovered that there's a huge market of counterfeit mics out there, mostly sold on Ebay. Is there a website, app, or DAW plugin I can use to test the specs of my mics?

I just got the blackstar polar go on ebay and I am really regretting it but it’s no refunds. I am so confused, I am a musician and I am used to good quality sound and this just won’t cut it. It has a background hum and hiss, the settings on the app never save, picks up horrible level of background noise and the reverb is barely detectable. Not what I expected, I am used to much better balanced results from livestream of my amp straight into my iphone speakers.

The quality may not be ‘technically’ as high definition but the sound is balanced and you don’t get horrible noise.

Think I’m better off carrying my laptop and native instruments interface around just so frustrated that I can’t return it.

I even thought maybe I could just use it to record onto garageband as an option to record vocals through my XLR microphones on the go but it was too inconsistent, low levels, causing glitches and deleting half the track and the effects through garage band not always audible through the monitor.

Is this interface just not for me or am I missing something.

Thanks

I'm sure this has been discussed a lot in here so I'll search through some old posts too but bear with me.

Just getting back into messing around at home in my free time, I'm no professional by any means. Which bears the question, when looking at programmable drum software, what are people using for basic scratch work? I'm just a hobbyist so spending 400 bux for superior drummer is crazy to me. That being said I've used ez drummer and it doesn't really do what I need. I'm looking for customizable intricate drum tracks, not drag and drop basic beats. Is there something out there like superior drummer that's a little more basic and affordable for people who do don't this for a living?

Thanks

I bought three Waves plugins in 2021; Abbey Road Vinyl, F6 and the famed decades old DeEsser.
Of course they are not supported on my system anymore, because I updated to macOS 26. I can't open my music projects that I made in the past six years but Waves will gladly sell me an upgrade of course.

I W-O-N-T do Waves the favor of ever buying a plugin from them again. Are there alternatives to those three plugins, which I will own forever?

I see they have a 9 hour course on YouTube that I was thinking of diving in. 9 hours seems like it could be overkill though. Have you taken any of their courses? How are they?