What's Wrong With This?

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 I've been trying to do some recording/production on a pretty outdated (and probably inadequate back then) little setup.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.
 
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I just noticed that some MIDI sustain events got "lost" towards the end - they got recorded alright, but there must have been an issue when being sent back to the piano.
 
I’m only able to listen on my phone right now, but I’d say it doesn’t sound bad at all! If you want more dynamics, you’ll have to back off the compression a bit. But there is nothing terribly fatiguing about the EQ, and the piano part itself is very cool and very well played!

Here’s what really did bother me— there is a LOT of broadband noise on that track, probably coming from the headphone output of the keyboard itself. You can monk with all kinds of tools to compensate, but the best policy is to fix it at the source. Is the P60 output just noisey? Or is it the mini/3.5mm jack you’re using? Is it heavier on one side (left track) or the other (right)? Bad cable? Some combination? Suss that out first. The rest should take care of itself.

And YES, if you have access to a decent, in-tune piano and the right front end microphones, by all means record yourself on a real acoustic and see how you like that!


GJ
 
Thanks for replying!

I think the noise is a result of me compressing on the desk, pre-recording. I think I'll redo it without that, but the headphone jack is the only direct output the piano has. You're right about the odd panning too - I noticed some right-side panning on the right hand parts but assumed it was because on a real piano those strings would be on the right side of the instrument. However, then I noticed the same on the left hand recording (I panned it left in Cubase so it sounds roughly central).

I think this is down to the volume fader on the piano being dirty (it crackles when you change the volume and sometimes, toward the top end of its travel, the signal sometimes goes mono, which is usually fixed by wiggling a bit). I've been meaning to replace it. The 7mm-3.5mm jack adaptor is also cheap and sometimes needs a wiggle. :(

Is it normal to have to EQ away large notches before it even begins to sound acceptable though? Without it, it just sounds swamped with mud and bass boom. Even now there's still a ringing at around the 2k range that bugs me, but I know if I end up going down that rabbit hole, I'll just end up stacking EQ on top of EQ until there's nothing left - it's something I obsess over and it's stopped me working for years.

Either I'm being so picky that I've lost the ability to objectively listen, or perhaps my "monitoring" setup is a pile of crap - it's probably a combination but it's stopped me in my tracks (no pun intended).
 
Well, you have a bunch of ideas/concepts/problems there that should probably be unraveled one at a time. But if you think of these as demos or song arrangement projects rather than masters, that might be one way to finish some of these ideas without getting bogged down in details.

Don’t forget that proper gain-staging is important too; maybe you shouldn’t crank the front end volume on the P60. Also, before removing/replacing any noisey, scratchy pots or controls, don’t forget to try a healthy dose of Deoxit. It can work wonders.



GJ
 
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