Stereogram
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Vocaroo | Online voice recorder
Short answer: probably lots. I've been trying to do some recording/production on a pretty outdated (and probably inadequate back then) little setup.
What I'm trying to do is record a piano piece I've had going around for years, with a view to adding more to it so it's not just a piano piece, just some kind of electronic-y thing with a funky piano at the heart. But nothing I record sounds good - I'm always hearing boominess down below and annoying rings up top. I'm always having to EQ these out but then the part just sounds devoid of life.
I've thrown together a rough mix now and it still sounds off. Is it as bad as I think, or am I being too picky?
To help I'll tell you everything I have done:
First I recorded myself playing the Yamaha P60 digital piano - but not the audio at this stage, just the MIDI (via a cheap DIN-USB adaptor I got from eBay). I applied a little iterative quantise and fiddled with the velocities before separating the MIDI data into three channels: right hand, left hand and sustain pedal events.
Next, to record I am using a Behringer XENYX Q1202USB desk, into which I have connected a Yamaha P60 (via the headphones out port, with a 3.5mm adaptor into a 3m extender cable, into a 3.5mm jack-to-stereo-phono, into the desk). The left and right channels go into separate mono channels on the desk so I've panned them appropriately before they reach the laptop in digital form. I've also added two "units" (out of 10) of compression on the XENYX's channel strips.
To give me more flexibility I recorded two audio channels - left hand + sustain and right hand + sustain.
For the right hand audio I found myself having to carve two rather large notches away at 163Hz and 490Hz, as well as a low shelf at 312Hz. Then I compressed at 2.6:1, -24.5dB, 100ms release (no attack) plus soft clip. Then I added a little reverb send.
For the left hand I cut a wide notch out at 81Hz, plus a low shelf at 206Hz. Then I compressed at 1.4:1, -50dB, 15.2ms attack, 100ms release.
I routed both of these to a Piano bus, where I added yet more compression (1.5:1, -44.5dB, no attack, auto release) before running it through PSP Vintage Warmer.
To me it just sounds bad though - it's a highly fatiguing listen to my ear. Probably because of all the FX but without it it just sounds a million times worse. It doesn't help that I don't have monitors - just a consumer setup I bought second hand 16 years ago (Technics SB-CS5 speakers, Sansui AU-X111 amp) which I'm sure has something to do with it. I've been using it ever since and just trying to work around it using excess reverb and distortion, telling myself it has a cool "lo fi" sound when it probably just sounds crap.
I also occurs to me that it might be the piano itself - should I try recording a real one? Or get one of those fancy VST ones?
I fully intend to upgrade my setup soon, but if anyone could listen to the sound so far and offer any insight I'd be eternally grateful. Also, if Vocaroo is not a recommended platform for this kind of thing then I'll gladly upload it to something else.
Short answer: probably lots. I've been trying to do some recording/production on a pretty outdated (and probably inadequate back then) little setup.
What I'm trying to do is record a piano piece I've had going around for years, with a view to adding more to it so it's not just a piano piece, just some kind of electronic-y thing with a funky piano at the heart. But nothing I record sounds good - I'm always hearing boominess down below and annoying rings up top. I'm always having to EQ these out but then the part just sounds devoid of life.
I've thrown together a rough mix now and it still sounds off. Is it as bad as I think, or am I being too picky?
To help I'll tell you everything I have done:
First I recorded myself playing the Yamaha P60 digital piano - but not the audio at this stage, just the MIDI (via a cheap DIN-USB adaptor I got from eBay). I applied a little iterative quantise and fiddled with the velocities before separating the MIDI data into three channels: right hand, left hand and sustain pedal events.
Next, to record I am using a Behringer XENYX Q1202USB desk, into which I have connected a Yamaha P60 (via the headphones out port, with a 3.5mm adaptor into a 3m extender cable, into a 3.5mm jack-to-stereo-phono, into the desk). The left and right channels go into separate mono channels on the desk so I've panned them appropriately before they reach the laptop in digital form. I've also added two "units" (out of 10) of compression on the XENYX's channel strips.
To give me more flexibility I recorded two audio channels - left hand + sustain and right hand + sustain.
For the right hand audio I found myself having to carve two rather large notches away at 163Hz and 490Hz, as well as a low shelf at 312Hz. Then I compressed at 2.6:1, -24.5dB, 100ms release (no attack) plus soft clip. Then I added a little reverb send.
For the left hand I cut a wide notch out at 81Hz, plus a low shelf at 206Hz. Then I compressed at 1.4:1, -50dB, 15.2ms attack, 100ms release.
I routed both of these to a Piano bus, where I added yet more compression (1.5:1, -44.5dB, no attack, auto release) before running it through PSP Vintage Warmer.
To me it just sounds bad though - it's a highly fatiguing listen to my ear. Probably because of all the FX but without it it just sounds a million times worse. It doesn't help that I don't have monitors - just a consumer setup I bought second hand 16 years ago (Technics SB-CS5 speakers, Sansui AU-X111 amp) which I'm sure has something to do with it. I've been using it ever since and just trying to work around it using excess reverb and distortion, telling myself it has a cool "lo fi" sound when it probably just sounds crap.
I also occurs to me that it might be the piano itself - should I try recording a real one? Or get one of those fancy VST ones?
I fully intend to upgrade my setup soon, but if anyone could listen to the sound so far and offer any insight I'd be eternally grateful. Also, if Vocaroo is not a recommended platform for this kind of thing then I'll gladly upload it to something else.
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