@FrightboxRecording, you're liar. I remember your video about subscriber send guitar DI to you asking "Why my DI tone differs from your?" And you said "Nothing wrong with it" You lied. It was electrical grounding issue and layering sub-voices. You lied to him then and lie now
More and more people spend more and more time watching more and more videos listening to experts who spend more and more time making youtube videos convering the same topics over and over again.
I find TH-cam helps a lot, however the one change I made from when I was starting out to now is that I’ll take the info now as a grain of salt to form my own opinions/knowledge to see what works with my mixes… rather than before when I’d take everything as literally as possible, trying to incorporate everything I watched. Kinda like point #4 in this^ vid. Things like finding my fav compressor for rhythm guitars instead of using exactly what someone on a YT vid said works with his. I could go on and on, but the main thing a lot of these YT vids never say is to just have fun with it. Everything is so technical and critical that even these TH-camrs seem like they’ve lost the fun of trying to make a song sound great! It’s so subjective most of the time as to what a good mix is.
The problem is people aren’t subscribing to the right people. I’ve been here for a while and I’m only subscribed to 4 engineers which has led me to working on big records years later. A lot of people make fun of attending college for this stuff, however they’re the main ones lacking common sense when it comes to knowing what’s what and who’s who… That’s why most can’t see all the recycled, made up narrative, and incompetent junk all over TH-cam. Which is why they subscribe to 100 content creators for the same interest and spend money on their “courses”…
TH-cam's the problem. This whole ecosystem of pure dogshit content fed to you over and over again, this platform and it's current meta is the problem. Pay some well priced courses from some well stablished academies and that's what it will make the difference, not just wandering about like a headless chicken here... I always say the same thing. The majority of Producers here are youtubers FIRST, and producers SECOND. That's the key thing to understand. A lot of people won't give away their secret techniques so easily or would rather do the least bit of effort just so they can put a video on here to make some money.
True. I had that problem, I remember getting (ofc pirated) a TON of plugins, without even worrying on what they did. I ended up just picking up the stock compressor for pro tools and doing it. My teachers did the same, they picked it up and showed how they did with their much more elaborate plugins and then showed us using the stock achieving the same results. I ended up understanding what I needed and only rarely did I ever need to buy plugins, it's just for a specific color, effect, or characteristic that the stock didn't offer
Instead of getting a plugin for each use case, find a saw specific tool that can cover most of them. And when you really need more extensive control, only then consider a plugin. Also basic knowledge of sound design can save you ton of time and money
@@CarlitoProductions Yup, I feel like you should know how a plug in works and what it's purpose is in your recording or mix before purchasing. Glad I didn't waste tons of money on things I didn't necessarily need or know how to use.
Home recordings sound like home recording because the people who record at home are amateurs. It has NOTHING to do with the technology. Let's give recording professionals a shout out
Too many people have no grasp of how the pros find a target saturation point, for example, where the mixing board plus outboard gear is driving the sound to a special rich, resonant tone. They know how to target parts of the song as it builds and to hit that saturation at the appropriate time, but not happening necessarily through the entire recording time. When different equipment is used, or even if the electric grid is fluctuating, their ears are focussed on that goal. It is called a 'dark art' for a reason.
You make many great points! One thing I’ve changed is my approach to editing tracks: If I find it necessary to edit a track too much (timing, intonation, dynamics, eq etc….), I’ll re-record the entire performance. I’ve found that you can edit the life out of a take if you’re not careful. Sometimes it’s best to just take another whack at it! It’s definitely a pain, but I’ve found that it works! Cheers!
Production/recording/editing/mixing in isolation is horrible. I miss playing with my old band so much. Sitting alone up in my bedroom studio has become somewhat depressing. That can lead to procrastination in my case.
@@CaliFornia-yr2rd I started out great at home, but over time it's gotten worse, while at the same time my skills have improved immensely. I have come to the realization I really need the interaction to bounce ideas, or need to hire a producer. I like what I have done in isolation so far and plan to use everything I have done at home as a preproduction template, preparing go into a studio, like Welcome to 1979 (preferably), with real musicians.
@@notsure1135 Naw, I prefer to hire a producer and get involved with some new real musicians again, besides, you can't know someone's mental health and history, so don't try to write it off dude! That's how I'll push ahead, thanks...
I don’t think any of this has very much to do with home recording. Everything you’ve discussed here is all down to learning. The bands that don’t sound good aren’t good bands. Not that they couldn’t be, but they need to learn more about their instruments, their gear, their technique, and on and on. Bands and artists that know what they’re doing sound good because they’ve spent the time. It doesn’t matter if you record in a $1000/day studio or their basement, if you’ve spent the 10,000 hours, you’re going to get a good product.
????? home recording has gotten so much better. it was rare for your average person to engineer their own album at home & have it sound decent. now kids all over the world are learning how to mix & master from courses on the internet. i mix & master for a living & it's incredibly obvious. i remember in the early 00s what home recordings sounded like. i didn't know anyone who made a great sounding record in their home without the help of a pro studio. there was nowhere to access training without going to school!! this video makes no sense! engineers have to stop going on and on about "tons of plugins on every track." so tired of hearing it. if it's not about the plugins like you all always say, what's the problem with there being a bunch of them? if i have hundreds of positive reviews but my master chain has 10 plugins on it, what's that mean for me? am i not a good engineer? do my masters sound bad? home recordings have gotten remarkably better in a HUGE way. it's almost as if you invented a problem so that you could make a video.
I've realized that more and more youtubers are doing this thing where they tell you how home recording is getting worse, that you're doing things wrong, and that the good news is that they can fix all your problems with their paid courses. The biggest reason for conflicting information is that everyone is trying to make money and to do that you need to stand out. Recording engineering TH-cam has become a circus where everyone is trying to sell courses.
That is true as well I purchased one from a different engineer, but at the end of the day is probably robbing my attention from arranging or finishing more songs
I think the answer is simple .. skills. Recording,.mixing,.playing and composing are four seperate skills that cannot be learned overnight. Compound that with DAW's giving anyone access to an unlimited toolbox that they cant use and they usually end up overwhelmed and uninspired.
As a kid when just learning guitar and drums my dream was to have my own private recording studio, now thanks to power of today’s technology i turned my second bedroom of my apartment into a recording studio and I couldn’t be happier! I even turned my walk in closet into a vocal booth!
@@maximusindicusoblivious180 electronic drums running Ezdrummer!.. no complaints yet. 🙂 also covered to room in studio foam to help with noice. I put the studio foam on cardboard boxes and used thumb tacks putting up the foam so I won’t get in trouble with the landlord.
@@timtimmonsmusic E-drums, of course, you're the man! Apartments are tough. I can't get away with playing acoustic guitar, it's in the lease agreement.😢
Having fancy plugins and a treated room won't make bad mixes sound good any more than expensive instruments and amps will make a bad band sound good. The best tools are worthless if you don't know how to use them.
1. Prioritize: Song writing > performance > recording > mixing > mastering 2. People underestimate the importance of proper acoustic treatment. 3. Lack of ear training .
Wanted to say the same thing. Plus, it's not about the mixing or EQ'ing or mastering, AT ALL. (that's a total time waste). it's about the music and arrangement, the ideas, the creativity, the imagination.
i remember when I was recording i got to a point of straight up option paralysis...too many amp sims, too many impulses, too many plugins. I stopped searching. My wallet just couldn't take it.
I know exactly what you mean. Hell...I just went through and un-installed so many plugins that I don't use. Hell some of em I couldn't tell you what they even were lol.
As a private music teacher for the last 30 years…it seems to me that people are actually picking up an instruments less and less these days. Since 2008 I’ve seen student numbers drop and drop. When you have no time investment in yourself to learn an instrument and music it’s no surprise that people think they can get the latest Virtual Instrument plugins in their DAWS and think their going to churn out the next great song and recording. Unless this changes song writing and the personality on the musicians playing on those recordings will not be there. It’s fast food music or impersonated music with no heart and soul.
I've been playing for thirty years. I picked up the guitar in 1994 from a free guitar book at the library and did it the hard way. I'm happy I did it was well worth it😊
@hummarstraful ...and the intermediate level musicians watching those tips and tricks on YT aren't achieving music literacy. Doing so requires mentorship and / or one-on-one instruction.
I noticed that my technique as a guitar player got worse since I started diving into mixing.. before it was only about playing guitar and writing/recording songs and someone else would do the mixing and mastering .. 2 years I started having interest about mixing.. and yeah .. my productions got better but for the price that I got rusty.. now I decided to stop obsessing about the mixing and take it more easy and make guitar and songwriting my priority again .. and have a professional working on the sound of my music .. at least until I am on the level of doing it myself
I felt very frustrated with mixing but now I just don't stress about it. I used to spend days on mixing a song feeling I am getting nowhere. Sinse I started using parametric EQ things got better. I watched some videosand got some ideas on how to use it. And it's usually part of a DAW so don't have to buy any magical thirth party EQ. I can't exactly tell you what instructional videos were useful to me. Don't remember. But I am sure they are out there.
Nailed it. My training was on 2" tape, back in those ancient times, preparation was not optional. And you had to walk to the studio, five miles through the snow, uphill both ways. ;-)
Great video, and as a marketing guy I wanted to acknowledge how well you matched the topic to your "free training" and transitioned to the lead magnet. Smoothly done. Kudos.
You left the biggest factor out and I'd put all my money to bet it's the #1 reason: the listening environment. It's demolishing how easily we can be deceived into thinking we are properly listening to things. Studios where mainstream music is mixed are so far away from what the average home studio can deliver, I would say it's ridiculous. The music production elite wants us to believe gear is the key, but they know they could deliver hits using stock plugins and well known techniques as long as they can hear what they know they should be hearing. You can produce attractive music in a home studio, but it is almost impossible to deliver a mainstream sounding mix, and if you get there by luck, the chances to reach that sound again decrease. Most people don't even fathom what a flat sounding system is like, or solid stereo image, and even some have never heard actual subs. The first time I went to a real studio they gave me a chance to play my mixes there and it was definitely worlds apart from what I heard at my home studio, even having the same speakers. I almost cried. The only solution is to make all things related to accoustics and monitoring more affordable and give it the importance it has. The NS10's legendary story of why they became famous tricks us into ignoring the studio they were played at was the other half (or more) of what made them useful. Put them in a 3x3mts concrete room and it won't matter if you reference songs all the time or that you practice for 20 years, you won't ever stop being frustrated, and let's not even say a thing about acchieving mainstream sounding mixes. Maybe creating collectives where bunches of good producers finance fine tuned studios they can share would be a good thing to make a trend. It would save them years and tears.
Most of what I know today in recording, production, and mixing I did in isolation, still grateful for that. Especially during lockdown, I learned and experimented the most in Pro Tools and Audio in general. I had the time to do so as many of us did. Now, nothing beats working on a team of musicians in the same room feeling the vibe in the exact moment, and letting yourself go with that flow. It's just the best way to be creative. Isolation can be awful at times and it's happened to the best of us regardless of how long we've been doing this. On the other hand, having this many tools at our disposal is awesome but it's also detrimental to our creativity. I've been on a quest to find the best DAW for music production only cause I've seen other creators do incredible things in their respective DAWs but ultimately it depends and relies on our talent and creativity. Use what you got, make it work for you and not against you and you'll eventually see the results.
Ya know, as far as the “isolation” thing goes, I found it difficult to rehearse and gig with a demanding full time job and a family. Also, scheduling with 3-4 other people who also have other obligations was a challenge. It’s so much easier for me to do things myself. Not to mention I get along with myself great so there is no drama. No deadlines. No gigs to drive all day to and get paid next to nothing. But I still have my creative outlet, and this is the ONE thing I have full control over in my life. Going solo was the best decision I ever made. I’m doing this for me at this point in my life. To satisfy my artistic urges. That’s enough for me.
I agree. You are totally responsible for your successes and failures. What he said about drum programming is probably true. So I went out bought a set of drums and signed up for Drumeo. I listen to my favorite drummers and try to determine what type of fills work. Beats usually write themselves to fit the bass line. We need to remember that most of our favorite drummers were in their early 20s when they started recording and they were up to speed in a matter of a few years. If they can do…we can do it.
I just keep it real with jam nights at our local punk bar. This is a real jam night. No house band. No restrictions except that none one does cover songs - we jam on a riff or a beat that someone makes up and we take it from there. No instrument is disallowed. Anyone can sing. It can be as mad or as mellow as we want it to be. Beginners welcome and experts too. No one is left out.
it's not the recording/mixing, it's what you put into it. you've always stressed "get it right at the source". why did those 1960's and 1970's bands that were great sound so good, even when the equipment was dark ages? because they were great musicians. on the good side, it allows old guys like me to play and record and wish I was 17 again. (it's been quite a few decades!!) the bad side is people like me get to play and record!!! love your channel. glad to see it's growing. you deserve far more subs \m/
They didn't record with an effing click track... Except maybe the drummer but everybody else was following the drummer and the music sounded more organic as a result.
@@RealHomeRecording Oh they did. More than you think. At least big names did it somehow. Bohemian Rhaphsody had Freddie counting the whole song, the beatles were using metronomes, they were quantizing their stuff to sound as good as possible. Many songs didn't use metronomes but you can bet your ass they really focused on using clicks. People who say they don't need click tracks are usually people who can't keep tempo and say that the tracks feel robotic with it. Such a lame excuse
Also, back in the day, musicians played, engineers recorded, and producers produced. Everyone had their perspective rolls, which now the lines are blurred today because of the available technologies. With that said, now anyone with any skill at all can do all those things. While the results may be diminished compared to those great old albums that captured great, uninhibited performances, it was also very restrictive and cost prohibitive. It's a double edge sword. Now anyone can gain the means to lay down some tracks, but at what sonic cost. I prefer the present to a degree. I miss jamming with people and bouncing ideas (I will get back to that soon), yet I never thought I would be able to record the things I have on my own, and never though I would be this immersed in technology, being fairly luddite. It's a strange world.
I feel like the primary reason for lackluster results in home recording is mostly due to the fact that hardware can only take you so far. In general, with the digitization of mixing and mastering it's so much easier to get sounds into a mix, but you still need experience and an ear for mixing and arranging compositions. This is a nessisary skill to have great sounding home recordings. The amount of plugins or hardware acquisitions I feel is far less of an issue when there is a lack of experience and knowledge with the fundamentals.
I have been recording since 1981 in my 16-track home studio. In 1990 I took the "Advanced Audio Production Course" at Full Sail in Florida which changed my life and my ability to record professional bands in my 2 bedroom setup and make them sound like they recorded at Abbey Road, Capitol Studio or Sound City. Jump ahead to 2006, I get a serious Pro Tools set-up with a mixing board and the latest version of Pro Tools software. However, home recording has exploded, and the phrase, "You're not a musician if you haven't got a home studio" really applies. The business of running a "professional" recording studio has slowly died and the pandemic has closed the coffin on having a dedicated professional recording studio. Suddenly everyone is a professional "Producer" without the experience or the technical understanding of the basic recording techniques. Second, the biggest issue has become that all the home recordings are producing poorly recorded songs. Also, the songs are not very good and the songwriters are not spending the time to "shake down" the song to a professional level. The music industry is deteriorating to a level that has been unheard of 20 years ago. I love the process of recording and I love working with artists and bands to achieve goals, but it seems that most musicians are too arrogant to ask for help or opinions and they don't want anyone telling them what to do. Right now I am using my setup to record music scores and songs for film. Over the last 5 years, I have had only 4 clients and the money is not there anymore. I have considered shutting down the studio many times and I have stopped taking on band or artist projects because the money is no longer there. Professional studio set-up is a dedication of major cash investment and a large investment in education, time and patience.
I like your view. I have been releasing records since the 90s. When I used all analog gear with the exception of Cubase for tracking my mixes were better. I used my ears. I made more bangers with a sampler (ASR-10 or Emu 6400 Ultra), Mackie 16 channel mixer and some DBX and Alesis compressors than I do with thousands of plugins and pristine virtual instrument libraries. It was more fun to me when it was simple. The talent was in navigation of the limitations.
Awesome video. You brought up some points that I don't hear a lot of people talking about. The one that really stands out is how you mentioned the quality of the recording of source tracks has declined significantly. To go one step further though, it's not just the quality of the recordings that have declined but the performance of the musicians making the recording has also declined. I think if musicians would go back to more analog type recording devices , it might force people to take more time prepping their performances learning how to hear where edits or changes need to be made instead of relying on what their computer monitors telling them . Of course recording in this way is a lot more time-consuming and can be much trickier but in the end can I have super positive effects not just on the quality of the material being recorded but on the quality of the musician doing the recordings
The world can't move backwards sir, it's like telling cars to move back to horse carriage, think about it. The analog era will eventually be forgotten wether you like it or not! It will be in your best interest to embrace all things digital now. The sooner the better, otherwise a time will come when you'll feel like you time-travelled from a stone age or something. And all you will be able to do is to sulk about the nostalgia of bygone days when things used to be good! 😊
I don't agree at all. Apparently Billie Eilish and her brother recorded their Grammy winning album in their home studio, and that was good enough sounding for everyone. People are watching too many "instructional" videos from people who shouldn't be making videos and consequently never get around to doing any recording which by trial and error may end up sounding good all by themselves.
They didn't mixed it or mastered ! They marketed it that way so people would fall for it and feel less... I mean, if they could, why not us? Such a big media lie
Man, you hit the nail on the HEAD. As a mixer, this is what I try to educate those i work with about. One other thing I found is that most don't really learn music anymore. If you don't know music, how can you be a musician? If you are a vocalist how can you understand what you are really singing? Thanks a million!!!
Home recordings are getting "worse" because nobody gives a shit anymore. I'm not spending 2 hours on a snare drum when it can sound like a goat and the same 3 people will listen to it. Music isn't worth anything anymore other than as a hobby to screw around with....
If you're making music to impress other people then that's the reason why you're getting jaded when other people don't care. All the greatest musicians did it because they wanted to hear what was in their heads and then they just so happened to be lucky enough that other people paid them to hear it
@@TheGiantMidget That's a good point, but I think I was working on perfection to keep up with some industry standard of what modern recordings were supposed to sound like. In reality, the song is the important part, and some of my favorite songs are great regardless of how messy or perfect the recording was.
@@toddmoore9138 modern industry standards suck though 😂 i don't know why people chase that, the 70s were the golden era of record production and most of the stuff that sounds good nowadays borrows heavily from that time period. The difference is that in the 70s, pre production was miles better than it is now. People put way more thought into arrangements and instrumentation before they even went near the microphones. The mix was what brought it all together and although a layman doesn't fully understand these things, they do have a sense that there's something magical about these songs that you don't get in a lot of modern music
*DUDE!!* *So glad to hear you say this!* I am so sick of the cliche word " _workflow_ ." All videos talking about the mix using songs as examples that sound awful - Why bother mixing _that_ shit? F*&k the mix! Focus on the song. Create and track a great song, then mixing is easy. *A good mix does not fix a shit song.*
I disagree! Good mixes have made both shitty songs and singers larger than life!!! People make bad mixes in home studios these days because after watching all these tutorials, they forget the most important part of any good mix, a good EAR! They don't train their ears. There's no good mixing engineer with bad EARS!
@@tomgee3361 That's basically what I meant... if an engineer is fussing with the mix too much because the song isn't that good, it's lipstick on a pig. But if the song is good, and as you say, they listen to the song with a good ear... you'll get a good result. Heck, I'd even venture to say, I really good song will hold up if the mix sucks. Keep in mind, most of the song recorded by the Beatles were don't on 4 tracks, eventually 8 tracks. There's only so much G. Martin could do "in the mix." Yet those songs hold up... cause they were great song writers.
The biggest thing is a skill issue. If a person doesn't know how to use a compressor, it doesn't matter how bling their plugins are. If they don't have the ears to make a good mix that can playback well across devices, no amount of money will fix that. It's always been a skill issue and it always will be.
That’s it. People nowadays prefer gadgets to make em sound better faster without dedicating time to the subjects needed to actually learn. Instant gratification era.
"no amount of money will fix that" ....... idk you could just pay someone to mix your track? most professional artists are not mixing and mastering all their own music
@@robthomas793 It breaks my weary brain to see somebody take a conversation about a solo creative having poor mixing skills (under a video of the same topic) and pivot to pros having engineers mix/master for 'em. Sure, I could (probably? maybe?) hire Alan freakin' Parsons to mix for me … but it wouldn't improve *my* mixes one iota.
100% on all of your points. I’m not a pro and I have observed a lot of this stuff too (with myself and others). I now try to work my songs fundamentally much longer first and take my time getting it recorded better. The world around us is moving so fast that the sense of urgency and a common philosophy of quantity over quality imo is the core reason home/indy recordings have gotten worse. The social part of music is supposed to be playing with and for people. It’s a cultural thing that really needs to be fostered and encouraged. As I’ve gotten older interacting socially at all has been tossed out the window because it’s hard to pull people away from their games or phones to actually interact as humans; much less musically. 🤷🏼♂️
1. No amount of gear can salvage a poor performance. 2. Expensive software doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to use it. 3. Modern equipment lowers the bar to entry, but it can’t transform non-musicians into pro musicians. 4. A bad song is a bad song, and a good ear is better than 1,000 plug-ins.
This sounds like practicing. I recently signed up for a guitar course (good to get a mentor) by the Commander in Chief. Long story short I have a practice shedule and routine. I expect myself to practice the exact same things for at least six more months, and they are alternate picking (which takes about 30 mins), simple chromatic exercises, hammers/tapping, basic strumming, and basic sweeping (focused on the right hand). Sometimes its just boring, but, using my handy metronome I'm getting better. Back to recording I have a line 6 UX2 and I still don't use the vast majority of what it does. Im still experimenting with its two inputs because, mic placement is a huge area of research by itself. I have two low budget mics and the results I get can dramatically change simply by means of angling, by changing some parameters, by using the onboard compression (say what you will about line6 but it does DSP on the device. If I record an acoustic guitar I use a dynamic and a conderser mic. If I record an electric I use an amp and a direct input, usually blend both. I have 4 amps, each with knobs, one is the Vypr another is the Spark... Point is, I don't see myself acquiring any more gear or even nosediving into the manuals. I have a ton of structured practice to keep me busy. Even if I have this gear for years the possibilities are just mind blowing. I agree with the overall sentiment. If you don't know what you have, if you don't learn arrangements, if you don't become more proficient with your instruments how can you tell if you have a roadblock worth investing all that extra time researchibg? There is an interesting video where Paul Gilbert is trying out pedals and two things happen: Hes told the Flurb is a completely useless setting, and he plays around with it first just using his ears to get used to it and then goes off making very musical expression with it Another thing that hapoens is he takes a pedal, listens to it and leaves it be. He likes the sound and so he just uses it as is "I almost don't want to touch it". This is Paul Gilbert folks, I think he may know a thing or two about guitar and he decided to simply get to know what he had despite decades of touring and recording under his belt rather than play with the shinies. Anyway, an important thing to consider is every time you make changes, you're basically researching. Yes you can think of it as simply tuning something but usually there's a domino effect. So if you are a gear acquisition symptom sufferer it means you have basically set yourself up to doing unending coursework for the foreseeable future. Even if you got caught up, what energy can you bring to making actual use of it after enduring such self inflicted intellectual abuse? And, could you keep focused long enough to finish or will creativity go out the window when a new shiny comes along? I think, as another random dude from the internet, its about choosing your battles and finding balance. Keep things interesting but don't set yourself up for failure. Never wrestle defeat out of the jaws of victory
I think its unfair to blame people for playing in isolation, for several reasons. For one, some people might not have access to other musicians, or no one that plays the same genres, or perhaps the skill gap between them and other potential players is too large to be negligible (such as you're trying tk start a band but the only people you meet are practically beginners whom hardly practice). Secondly, playing with other musicians requires PHYSICAL GEAR, which is frankly EXPENSIVE! I'm a 100% digital guitarist. The only physical gear i own is my guitars themselves, cables, and my interface. Thats it. If i want to play with other musicians i can't just pack the guitar, amp, and cab and go play. The amp and cab don't exist, because i frankly can't afford them, and even if i could, you'd get a limited range of sounds without also incorporating other gear. This is where modelers can be a savior so you just need a cab, but even a half decent modeler can be several hundred. Lastly, the issue of space. Where are they supposed to play together? People are getting poorer by the year, with more people living from home for much longer today than in any generation since WWII. Most cant afford rent and those who can barely have a small apartment to show for it. Im sure you know this, but playing music with others is loud. Thats why they have designated spaces for it, like studios or rehersal spaces. But if people struggle to pay rent, what makes you think they will budget to pay for practice space on a semi-regular basis? They likely can't, and unlike playing digitally or by yourself you can use headphones thus being courteous to your neighbors, you cant make playing with other quieter (especially if you're a drummer). Theres just so many factors you're dismissing and i kinda think thats unfair in and of itself. I believe anyone who has the ability to play with others will already be doing so if they could.if they are recording in isolation i can PROMISE you it isn't because they want to. It's because they might not have many other options
When I had my home studio after my audio engineering certificate, I learned it's some of the plugin templates. No one try's to edit them but once I begin to add analog gear to my studio, I began getting away from digital once I got the radio sound. Digital is good to get started but eventually you have to get analog gear and create your own settings. Also, I did not do any of my mastering. I sent them to mastering studios that I had friends from college working in. Like actual recording mastering studios, seating in the sessions.
I feel you're just resistant to change. The analog era is passing, and it will do any music maker well to move with such progress, otherwise you'll be left behind, with your income taken away by more modern and progressive types. Most Old school engineers are learning it the hard way.
@@tomgee3361 I'm 50/50 on this because no matter how great technology has become the majors still use analog gear for mixing and mastering. SSL with its combination of digital still is mostly analog. While I love waves plugins and other plugins, they still want completely touch the analog compressor when setup correctly. Tracking vocals is where analog will always have its place in creating music. If you get to try this, this is my set-up which is pretty cheap but works Steinberg interface (I use cubase), ST66 mic or a mic with no lows, grace design, behringer compressor, and set your attack just to hear it catching the vocals and your release high. Then match it against the best digital setup you can find. See which one automatically sets the vocals on top of the mix, I may do the experiment myself just out of curiosity to see how far digital has came in 10 years
Man, editing and automating go such a long way... I've tried everything that I felt could help and speedify my workflow... Vocals with dynamic gates and easy rider, 4 de-essers, etc. But nothing got me the results that simple editing and automation got me. We gotta try out less plugins and spend more time with editing, that's fo' sho'.
Spot on! After good recording technique is achieved, mix automation is what separates the men from the boys, absolutely. I learned this a long time ago watching Charles Dye's Mix it like a Record video. They have a pretty decent sized automation section and it was very helpful in my professional development.
I'm a live engineer....it grew from playing guitar and took over. Home recording has been an interesting outlet for me....but I am a guitar player, I'm not a drummer, bass player, keyboard player and definitely not a singer. In the 70's when I started, on top of the band/musicians there were the recording engineers, production engineers, mastering engineers, graphic artists, printers, pressers....ad infinitum. My head is not big enough to contain all of those "people" and very possibly guitar is the last thinking I think of because it's the easiest thing to do. We are each of us expected to be a whole industry.
I don't work in isolation on purpose. I live in a small town and never get out so I don't know anyone else who makes music in my area...especially metal music. The people I do know won't ever meet up to actually make music with me. I am alone whether I like it or not.
My bestfriend/drummer lives far from me so we always dropbox each other stuff. Ive seen sone bands actually jam online and need to look into that bc it would help
If you have a good take going in and know how to mix properly you can for sure get a pro sound. What I have found is that if it's bad going in it's going to bad trying to correct it let alone people need more time to develop how to mix properly / get things to fit into the mix.
You made some really good points, but some were like saying home cooking doesn't taste like Michelin star restaurant where only the cream of the crops works; Home studio will always have a home taste; Some people have no taste buds and some have no eardrums. ;) Now lets have a moment of silence for all the sound engineers who are working anywhere but in audio after graduating. Also, I disagree that technology makes people lazy, people are not lazy rather than they are tired. Technology does not makes us lazy it makes us tired; we are bombarded with over stimulation, we work 30(+30hschool)-40-50-60 and some 100h weeks to make rent, every event is a festival, everything you do ask you more and more engagement. I really think the lazy people would be lazy despite current or future technology , people are not lazy; they are overstimulated, overworked and exploited. But hey I'm just a burned out graduate with no time so I watch youtube videos on my phone about the things I wish I could do while while I commute.
You're right...a lot of people graduate with audio degrees and unfortunately, never work in audio. A huge problem is that a lot of these schools don't teach you anything useful. They take your money and teach you less than what you'd learn from watch TH-cam videos.
Very interesting take on things there. When I was recording in my young days it was a studio with band members and a couple of engineers and occasionally a producer. There were no screens. It was just a big desk and sound. Everyone was just tuned into the sound without the distractions of visual technology that we have now. Now I record my own music but always involve as many people as I can when I can. For many years I went down the rabbit hole of a monks existence with a life of ungodly VSTs etc etc but came back to the music. Everyone to their own.
I've been playing guitar for 16 years, writing music/lyrics for about 13 years, and got in recording/production for just about 6 years now. EVen released some of my own stuff with well received words on quality (even though I know it can be better). I've learnt a LOT and really focused on my playing, arranging, and quality. Majority of my Software is a paid version of Reaper and stock plugins, a few free plugins (Softube's Saturation knob and a TDR compressor), and like 3 or 4 Waves plugins. To me, the focus was always on working towards getting the source to sound the way I want it. I've worked on so many different setups and tools with my small mic collection on my acoustic guitars/mandolin and electric guitars/bass. I've toyed with mic setups on drums, but I dont have a permanent setup for drums, outsourced to a friend, and have ALWAYS prioritized getting better. Completely agree that good home recordings are an exception because a lot of people, like you said, are hobbyists. Most of them are searching for that "one next thing that'll make their stuff sound amazing" instead of actually progressing their current skillset and readily available tools
No. I disagree. Talent. Music has always come down to talent. Instrument Talent. Engineer Talent. Producer Talent. It is a great thing for an individual to possess one, but a far rare thing for one to possess all three. (As you kinda touched on. ) Now, with so much home studio availability and limitless broadcasting formats, we are experiencing the world of garage and home musicians from around the world, who quite frankly don't have the talent of all 3 fields. In some cases, not even possessing talent in even one field, let alone the main skill, which is their Instrument. There is a reason why the sayings, "Cream of the crop," or "Cream always rises to the top," exist. Because it's true. Not in all cases. There are exceptions with everything, of course. What you are ultimately experiencing is the watering down of the Dairy pale. The cream is getting lost in the mix. That's why (these days) everyone in guitar-web land,.... all sound the same. One of the things about the greats ( guitarists ), they all sounded different. You could distinguish them by tone alone. Are those days gone?
This. I have all the recording tools at my fingertips, but talent is the main ingredient. Recording is a hobby, but arrangement, song writing, and playing always needs to be improved. Eddie Van Halen, I am not.
ALL TRUE. I started recording in 1961, we started with one mike, one basement, and friends that could PLAY MUSIC. .....and THAT is the way to learn. Bill P.
I've gotten tired of looking for plugins and frustrated, I mix to not hurt people's ears. Trying to experience life to have a song to write organically. In pretty sure what you're going to teach is much needed. Going to hit the link. Thanks for being bold and making this a available.
I am a composition major who wants to make music in order to share the way I channel my emotions. I have sued garage band with nothing more than its stock plugins and sound library to make some demos I’m really happy with. This video is oddly reassuring of my methods but also so inspiring to continue further! Amazing video
As an utter beginner I've spend way too much time looking for amp sims that would fit me, plugins and mixing tips. The time I've spent chasing the elusive sound completely outweighed the time I've spent working on my mixing. Now, I'm still a beginner, but with some knowledge, still looking for the best amp sims, plugins, etc. but I have this thought at the back of my head, that picking at such things as the way the guitars are distorted, or how much room drums have, won't let me see the bigger picture. Also the clear mix formula helped me to get rid of almost half of the plugins that I used on my recent project to essentials, and it truly is clear.
Just because technology is better and more accessible, that doesn't mean people's skill has gotten any better. Be it in skill to write songs, or the skill to play, or the skill to record, or the skill to mix. And often people invest only into one at the cost of the others, which is fine - but it's fine if you only stick to your part. If you're all about recording and mixing, then get professional musicians to play. If you are great at writing and playing songs, go to a studio. Few people are gonna be great at everything, and it's fine. Imagine trying to be a car engineer from scratch, making a blueprint (equivalent to songwriting), producing parts (getting your gear), and assembling and doing all the tweaks and everything to finish your work (playing and recording studio and production stuff) and end up with a new car. Sure, there are people who are able to do it in their garage. Most people will still at least have a whole team of people with different people being responsible for being the main person handling a specific step of the process, with the rest only helping, all happening in a dedicated professional workshop, etc... it's okay to identify your role and stick to it and rely on others with the rest of tasks.
Interesting video. Having been working as a sound engineer since the late 80s, transitioning slowly from pure analogue equipment to full digital in the late 90s, I believe I could offer my views. As much as how people praised the sound quality of the analogue gears, I will never ever go back to analogue, it’s just too time consuming, and the end products are often hit or miss. A bit like film vs digital photos, I’d rather go digital right from the go, and if I do want the analogue feel eventually, there are many ways to do that, while it’s quite impossible to go the other way around. Comparing just using my iPhone to make a multitrack recording and mix it to a 24 track Otari with an SSL analogue mixing desk in a multi-million dollar studio back in the 80s/90s with analogue outboards gears, I can guarantee that I will be able to make much better fully mastered tracks with the iPhone now. But after saying that, talent is still the most important element, more so than any equipment. A great singer + a guitarist/pianist doing a beautiful acoustic duet with minimum gear will always sound better than any platinum selling manufactured hits using state of the art gears IMO.
I just got a recommend from YT to your channel and just subscribed. I like your style and personality. I agree with your points on "home recording"; even worse than the downfall of home recording is; the "cookie cutter" of knocking a "music" track or a "song" (not a bad, not good, or it could be better) out to the public.
I'm new to all this, but have had access to a DAW for a couple decades (FL). Started learning 3xosc on my own way back in the day, and can use it now effectively for certain instruments, but have finally noticed it's limitations. Now that I'm taking this serious, I'm focusing on just learning the basics: Eq, compression, synthesizing, sampling. I'm purely using the tools that are available to me. I've thought a long time about this, and to me it seems like chasing plugins is a crutch. People have been making music for years with only the same set of instruments they've had for years. Yeah, maybe they upgrade once in a while, or to get a new color on their melody, but technically I believe they master their tools first before finding the next one. I'm probably wrong on this, but I'm spending the majority of my time just trying to make music via mastering what I got, instead of chasing the next tool. I haven't released and wouldn't say I make quality music, but this feels like the right way to go.
Essentially what we have is style over substance in absolutely everything. People have generally forgotten what led them to take up this hobby in the first place - which were good freakin songs, the rest being almost irrelevant. That is why people focus on the mixing process so much, plus it explains the obsession with endless gear/plugin acquisition. The good news is there a giant hole in the market for actually great written songs sung with human emotion, so have at it boys!
One thing I've learned about editing a track, especially if you're copying and pasting a great take, is to zoom in all the way to properly trim it to the grid! I use to only zoom in partially and think the track was trimmed properly so when I went to copy and paste the timing would be off! No one talks about this edit technique on TH-cam!
When I first started at 16 I had the mindset to go big, get every plugins free or paid, all the samples and whatnot but I didn't start getting better until 25 (Im 30 now) where I ditched them all, stuck with stock ableton plugins (eq, compressor and saturator being the only ones I really use), been using the same oneshot samples since then with the only premium plugins I use is fabfilter Q and L during mastering and my all time fav free plugging voxengo MSED for some stereo control and I felt I've been at the top of my own game ever since. It's really what you do with it in the end and I've always having fun a result because I'm actually making music. It doesn't matter what sounds you do as long as you know where you want them to be in the track. Things just tend to fall into the right place more often than not now :)
hell yea I use a plugin suite from 2005 that is just magically good and doesn't encourage too much dicking around because the UI is so dead-simple. Besides that and the stock ones in my DAW, I hardly touch anything else. The one paid software I rely on is EZDrummer 3 since I can't track my own drums in my living space. Anyhow, if anyone's curious, it's the Kjaerhus free effects suite, still available on internet archive. I challenge anyone to only use the plugs from that suite for a month. Guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.
That's right. In the old days, I started in the 1960's, most all problems were solved by the tracking engineer before the session started so you basically had the finished record when the recorders started rolling. I haven't done it in so long I doubt if I could do it anymore. Everything went to vinyl and it's a lot less forgiving then digital media. I love my DAW! Great tracking is a lost art.
Man Bobby, you have preached! You hit the nail right on the head! Awesome video. The world needs to know this truth about "Home Recording" and the disorganized, lazy work ethics of many home recording producers, including me. Thanks for sharing Bobby.
5 very good points, thank you. There is just no substitute for talent and taking the time to grow from your talent. We’ve come to believe everything we want can be an instant reality, but we simply have to put in the work, if we want quality.
I was quite into low low budget home recording from about ‘05 to ‘10. I was kind of restless and impatient myself so the best “end products” I made was all done with first takes, found a ‘groove’, found an inspiring sound, recorded it and repeated for each track and never had more than four-five tracks running simultaneously. It sounded way way better than I could replicate! Just felt like sharing. Wish that I had the time to pick it up again..
As a home recorder myself it’s taken me forever to collect equipment that is compatible together much less mastering the tools I’ve obtained. We’re also talking about studios that are family owned for generations, such as in Nashville. Collecting gear, & passing down knowledge
Your point about musicians not playing together in the same room is so sad....it's 100% true and i have lost my ability to write GOOD music collaboratively in the same room. All my best results have came from me being by myself and then sending it to vocalists for them to make their part on their own. Kinda sad
It's a journey. I think I started out okay, then got a lot worse before I got a lot better. Most of what you said about chasing sounds and plugins can be an issue, but it's also part of the process of discovering yourself as an artist. You're not going to learn it all over night. It takes years and years. You're also right about collaborating with experts who also took years to learn what they know. TH-cam is a blessing overall. We're just trying to figure it out. You should be driven nuts otherwise you don't care enough.
1] circa 1979 I purchased a British indie Rockabilly LP out of curiosity. Considered a novelty/revolutionary because it was a complete unknown one man home recording on Revox tape recorders, with a limited number of mics & FX boxes. Critics debated "is this the future of recording ???". 2] 1990s I assisted a leading UK car studio photographer. Big money contracts with the automobile industry. He only ever used one camera on a fixed position tripod, and stuck to the same brand of sheet film every day. Basically the same reliable tried and tested gear and technique as pre victorian photographers from well over a hundred years in the past.Most of the work involved hours moving the lights around the cars until he got what looked best in the viewfinder. Then he finally pressed the shutter release, calling it quits for that session. 3] Isolation is not a positive option, but with age and experience it get's harder to trust and rely on other musicians, or bother actively making their aquaintence. Too many time wasters, and even worse flakey druggies and thieves. A local musician's bedroom recording session turned into a horrific home invasion. His dog was tortured to death, and he was badly beaten before his studio gear and valuables were stolen. My UK town has a bad drug and crime problem.
Listening to this while I'm editing my tracks for my first album, looking for some last-minute pointers 😅. What a difference the editing makes though! Also rendering each instrument when it's done to avoid the temptation of fiddling with amp settings or MIDI velocities. Honestly, I've learned so much over time from practicing making music (not just reading or watching videos about it), though I never focused as much on the recording aspect which I used to think I could fix it in the mix. A lot of us home recording musicians don't have the experience from making a lot of bad music and learning from those mistakes, something you probably did in college. Writing, playing, recording, mixing, and mastering are all unique skills, and we don't expect to just suddenly be good at cooking, sculpting, or drawing from watching a few TH-cam videos on the subjects, so why would it work for music. We need just make more, listen to what we produced, and learn to do it better next time. Not everything we create needs to be published (well, we can post to SoundCloud, no one expects to find gold there). And as much as I enjoy doing it myself, I understand I will likely need to pay for it to get professionally mastered (or mixed if I do it wrong). It's important to remove the ego if the skills just aren't there yet.
Wow!🤯 …. Thanks tomorrow is Saturday I get to try again and record, this was better than me trying to find videos about teaching me how to deal with childhood trauma with in an attempt to end my procrastination in the studio. I genuinely feel lighter and ready to Rock! I better get some sleep now
My songs sound like rubbish and I have found peace in discovering that I only enjoy the writing, composing and arranging, so that's all I do. One day I'll pay someone to edit, produce, mix down and engineer them. 40 tracks in, I've uploaded them to SoundCloud and I love my hobby!
Also adding: i see SOOO many people post pics of their home studios. Some of them have crazy amounts of expensive gear. Its shocking, though, how FEW people appear to have treated their recording and/or mixing spaces properly. This makes a WORLD of difference.
Totally agree with all of this, and would add that at the end of the day, if the musician’s performance isn’t great, no amount of gear, software, or recording knowledge will fix it (of course there are exceptions) Home recording gives less skilled musicians the ability to record more easily before they’re really ready for the studio. Which is great, but also means people maybe aren’t practising enough or just can’t hear what they can’t hear.
I'm 62 i learnt in a big Studio started out as a runner worked with Jackson Browne etc watched many engineers and producers on how they set up Reverbs , Compressors, mic placement, its a must!
Been doing writing and recording for almost 30 years off and on. From cheap 4track recorder to expensive studios. Developing the skills in writing, producing, mixing, editing and so on is more important than the tools you use. I’m currently taking a step back by doing a couple projects on older analog 4track to test my skills and it’s a lot harder than one might think. I’m definitely a lot more conscious of the instruments I use and how I record them.
the challenge and often the problem with home recording will always the be the skill of the person behind the computer and the elements that surround that person. In the old days, you had a studio with expensive industry standard equipment and acoustically treated rooms. Add to that a producer, an engineer, prepared songs and of course well rehearsed artists and session players. Each one with a specialized skill combining to bring together a product. Today its usually a one man effort with varying levels of skill and experience, add to the mix one or more of the critical elements mentioned above missing...hence, the way it sounds.
Agree. Poor source material in, poor records out. That's the golden recording rule I grew up with. Then again, I also grew up on analog gear. LOL I can still run rings around everyone with stock plugs, before pondering a 3rd party plugin. LOL It comes down to everything you've said like song-writing, arrangements, recording, editing. All part of the set to a great mix and master. Know your fundamentals and what's truly necessary in the process to get a great sounding record across the finish line.
You are right about this for sure. The majority of Home recordings I hear aren’t all that great. And in my experience, too many tools at the disposal and not using the right tools for the job. That’s what I see. Disturbed did all the guitar recordings for indestructible in the home studio and that was amazing. Yeah they used live drums. So that made it really good. In most of my recordings they sound pro level. The key is using the right tools for the job. Most people don’t do that. They use whatever they can, and make each individual instrument sound great, but they don’t know how to mix and they don’t know how to EQ to have everything sitting in the right place. That’s a big problem.
I “try” to have a very focused central vision that more or less guides my sound design investments. No doubt, there is a saturation of options out there. The ability to import my own samples is vital.
Most of what you said could be boiled down to a simple fact: the typical musician is not a recording engineer. People can have the best tools and the most tools but if they don't really know how to use them....
Years ago when I was first investigating gear for home recording, a friend gave me some advice: Do your homework before you choose a solution. Once you've chosen a solution, stick with it and learn it - learn it's ins and outs. I think I've taken that to the extreme. I still use a Boss Micro BR, and am still learning how to get better results with it.
Great points . It's good to try new things but I find the more familiar we get with the equipment we are using , the better judgement we can make on whether to continue using or upgrade . I think keeping it simple and trying to get the best recordings initially might save us from a cloud of plugins later . Always something to learn in this game that's for sure . Thanks for the vid CAMCURSE
My “prep” time is likely 3 or 4 times longer than my mix time. I try to get the source right, and for the song to sound basically mixed before I even start mixing it. Sometimes customers ask me if it’s already mixed when I send them a RAW bounce.
I studied Audio Engineering in 1987. CDs were just coming out, but the new big thing was going to be optical fibre! Everything audio was going to use optical fibre and there'd be no noise floor, no hiss, no hum, totally clean audio going straight to disc. All the desks 'wired' with optical fibre, all the effects, the speakers, patch leads, cables, even the instruments, and at home, it would eventually be the same. No hiss or hum in your home stereo, everything optical fibre! What happened?
Me too. 89. I recall having to buy a large tape for a 16 track that was very expensive. But The big worry at the time was CDs and digital were killing the tape warmth. Something Neil Young took seriously and layer invented that Pono thing that was a total flop. MIDI was also coming available and we got an ensoniq keyboard sampler with an Atari computer to play with that blew my mind and recording audio to computer disc was deemed impossible!Not sure we ever got the lesson on optical, but digital recording has a lot less hiss than tape so I’m happy with that.
Yes mate - the old school approach is still relevant. A demo track is exactly what it says..a scratch track to craft the song into a production level song. Once the crafting is done, ALL tracks need to be rerecorded to reflect the changes, and recorded to production quality. GIRATS baby, get it right at the source, and then the song is so easy to mix. No amount of mixing, flash plugins, or tech saves a bad or poorly developed song. But a well sculpted song, along with tight kickass recordings almost mixes itself.
I am a retired professor of sound engineering. Great video. I believe mentors are still indispensable, even with a college education. Home studios are definitely the future, and by that I mean only some of them. Most home studios are just too uneducated.
►► {FREE TRAINING} 4 Dead-Simple Ways To Improve Your Recordings & Mixes: frightboxrecordingacademy.com/free-training/
Man great work well done u covered all my frustrations! Ty
Box sings, boxing, music, science/s. There is an identity of hyper-relativity.
@FrightboxRecording, you're liar.
I remember your video about subscriber send guitar DI to you asking "Why my DI tone differs from your?"
And you said "Nothing wrong with it"
You lied.
It was electrical grounding issue and layering sub-voices.
You lied to him then and lie now
More and more people spend more and more time watching more and more videos listening to experts who spend more and more time making youtube videos convering the same topics over and over again.
I find TH-cam helps a lot, however the one change I made from when I was starting out to now is that I’ll take the info now as a grain of salt to form my own opinions/knowledge to see what works with my mixes… rather than before when I’d take everything as literally as possible, trying to incorporate everything I watched. Kinda like point #4 in this^ vid. Things like finding my fav compressor for rhythm guitars instead of using exactly what someone on a YT vid said works with his.
I could go on and on, but the main thing a lot of these YT vids never say is to just have fun with it. Everything is so technical and critical that even these TH-camrs seem like they’ve lost the fun of trying to make a song sound great! It’s so subjective most of the time as to what a good mix is.
The problem is people aren’t subscribing to the right people.
I’ve been here for a while and I’m only subscribed to 4 engineers which has led me to working on big records years later.
A lot of people make fun of attending college for this stuff, however they’re the main ones lacking common sense when it comes to knowing what’s what and who’s who… That’s why most can’t see all the recycled, made up narrative, and incompetent junk all over TH-cam.
Which is why they subscribe to 100 content creators for the same interest and spend money on their “courses”…
*insert newbie producer remaking the same content but dont know what theyre talking about(
@@therearenorulesherewho are you currently following? Producelikeapro, Reid Stefan, Andrew Masters and Colt Capperune come to mind
TH-cam's the problem. This whole ecosystem of pure dogshit content fed to you over and over again, this platform and it's current meta is the problem. Pay some well priced courses from some well stablished academies and that's what it will make the difference, not just wandering about like a headless chicken here... I always say the same thing. The majority of Producers here are youtubers FIRST, and producers SECOND.
That's the key thing to understand. A lot of people won't give away their secret techniques so easily or would rather do the least bit of effort just so they can put a video on here to make some money.
It is not about home, it is about the lack of knowledge and mythomania.
The lack of accurate knowledge
@@JohnnyAllan-vj7sjIs knowledge that isn’t accurate even “knowledge”?
isn't a good professional producer a mythomaniac in the sense that he knows how to tell psychoacoustic lies?
My advice is get a daw and purchase no plugins until you can mix professionally with stock plugins. That’s what I did.
Me too. Glad I did because it helped cut out what wasn't necessary for my workflow!
True. I had that problem, I remember getting (ofc pirated) a TON of plugins, without even worrying on what they did. I ended up just picking up the stock compressor for pro tools and doing it. My teachers did the same, they picked it up and showed how they did with their much more elaborate plugins and then showed us using the stock achieving the same results. I ended up understanding what I needed and only rarely did I ever need to buy plugins, it's just for a specific color, effect, or characteristic that the stock didn't offer
Instead of getting a plugin for each use case, find a saw specific tool that can cover most of them. And when you really need more extensive control, only then consider a plugin. Also basic knowledge of sound design can save you ton of time and money
@@pedrosilvaproductions Exactly! Also, I love when I learn something new or a new trick,most of the time it was so simple like an "Oh Duh" moment!
@@CarlitoProductions Yup, I feel like you should know how a plug in works and what it's purpose is in your recording or mix before purchasing. Glad I didn't waste tons of money on things I didn't necessarily need or know how to use.
Home recordings sound like home recording because the people who record at home are amateurs. It has NOTHING to do with the technology. Let's give recording professionals a shout out
Too many people have no grasp of how the pros find a target saturation point, for example, where the mixing board plus outboard gear is driving the sound to a special rich, resonant tone. They know how to target parts of the song as it builds and to hit that saturation at the appropriate time, but not happening necessarily through the entire recording time. When different equipment is used, or even if the electric grid is fluctuating, their ears are focussed on that goal. It is called a 'dark art' for a reason.
You make many great points! One thing I’ve changed is my approach to editing tracks: If I find it necessary to edit a track too much (timing, intonation, dynamics, eq etc….), I’ll re-record the entire performance. I’ve found that you can edit the life out of a take if you’re not careful. Sometimes it’s best to just take another whack at it! It’s definitely a pain, but I’ve found that it works! Cheers!
It’s in the swing…not about the thing…
@@JonFinnguitarsometimes it's just best to do everything as live as possible. Over and over and over. Like Daryl Hall said " it's called practice"
@@africkinamerican Yeah, I hate editing, so I practise :-) To me, it is easier and more fun to play/sing as good as possible then to edit :-)
Production/recording/editing/mixing in isolation is horrible. I miss playing with my old band so much. Sitting alone up in my bedroom studio has become somewhat depressing. That can lead to procrastination in my case.
I feel you there brother!
I overcome that feeling that made me procrastinate and now I enjoy so much to do it on my own.. it was super boring and frustrating at the begining
That’s on you.
Keep pushing.
@@CaliFornia-yr2rd I started out great at home, but over time it's gotten worse, while at the same time my skills have improved immensely. I have come to the realization I really need the interaction to bounce ideas, or need to hire a producer. I like what I have done in isolation so far and plan to use everything I have done at home as a preproduction template, preparing go into a studio, like Welcome to 1979 (preferably), with real musicians.
@@notsure1135 Naw, I prefer to hire a producer and get involved with some new real musicians again, besides, you can't know someone's mental health and history, so don't try to write it off dude! That's how I'll push ahead, thanks...
I don’t think any of this has very much to do with home recording. Everything you’ve discussed here is all down to learning. The bands that don’t sound good aren’t good bands. Not that they couldn’t be, but they need to learn more about their instruments, their gear, their technique, and on and on. Bands and artists that know what they’re doing sound good because they’ve spent the time. It doesn’t matter if you record in a $1000/day studio or their basement, if you’ve spent the 10,000 hours, you’re going to get a good product.
fr no cap
It doesn't even take me that long to get the sounds I want.
????? home recording has gotten so much better. it was rare for your average person to engineer their own album at home & have it sound decent. now kids all over the world are learning how to mix & master from courses on the internet. i mix & master for a living & it's incredibly obvious. i remember in the early 00s what home recordings sounded like. i didn't know anyone who made a great sounding record in their home without the help of a pro studio. there was nowhere to access training without going to school!! this video makes no sense! engineers have to stop going on and on about "tons of plugins on every track." so tired of hearing it. if it's not about the plugins like you all always say, what's the problem with there being a bunch of them? if i have hundreds of positive reviews but my master chain has 10 plugins on it, what's that mean for me? am i not a good engineer? do my masters sound bad? home recordings have gotten remarkably better in a HUGE way. it's almost as if you invented a problem so that you could make a video.
Came here to say exactly this!!!
Also, hi fire-toolz ! 👋
I've realized that more and more youtubers are doing this thing where they tell you how home recording is getting worse, that you're doing things wrong, and that the good news is that they can fix all your problems with their paid courses. The biggest reason for conflicting information is that everyone is trying to make money and to do that you need to stand out. Recording engineering TH-cam has become a circus where everyone is trying to sell courses.
😂
Totally agree with you
That is true as well I purchased one from a different engineer, but at the end of the day is probably robbing my attention from arranging or finishing more songs
I think the answer is simple .. skills. Recording,.mixing,.playing and composing are four seperate skills that cannot be learned overnight. Compound that with DAW's giving anyone access to an unlimited toolbox that they cant use and they usually end up overwhelmed and uninspired.
fr fr no cap
Playing and composing a great song is hard enough, recording, mixing,and mastering are another set of skills.
So true
As a kid when just learning guitar and drums my dream was to have my own private recording studio, now thanks to power of today’s technology i turned my second bedroom of my apartment into a recording studio and I couldn’t be happier! I even turned my walk in closet into a vocal booth!
Love it!!
🤘🏾
Playing drums in an apartment? How's that working out for you?🤨
@@maximusindicusoblivious180 electronic drums running Ezdrummer!.. no complaints yet. 🙂 also covered to room in studio foam to help with noice. I put the studio foam on cardboard boxes and used thumb tacks putting up the foam so I won’t get in trouble with the landlord.
@@timtimmonsmusic E-drums, of course, you're the man! Apartments are tough. I can't get away with playing acoustic guitar, it's in the lease agreement.😢
Having fancy plugins and a treated room won't make bad mixes sound good any more than expensive instruments and amps will make a bad band sound good. The best tools are worthless if you don't know how to use them.
Spot on.
fr no cap
I will say, that a higher quality instrument / system that produces a better sound is often far more inspiring than crappy sounding instruments.
I couldn’t get pro results in a room that wasn’t treated ijs
The performance and recording are the essence. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
1. Prioritize: Song writing > performance > recording > mixing > mastering
2. People underestimate the importance of proper acoustic treatment.
3. Lack of ear training .
There's no more wrong with a home recording sound than there is with moonshine or blackberry wine. You pros are snobs.
Some of my favorite music is from basement bands with basement recordings. Sometimes less is more. Something real about that kind of stuff.
Wanted to say the same thing. Plus, it's not about the mixing or EQ'ing or mastering, AT ALL. (that's a total time waste). it's about the music and arrangement, the ideas, the creativity, the imagination.
yes, thank you
the snobbish pros have bought into the lie that is designed to cheat people of their money
@@RaptureMusicOfficial Nonsense. If 'Dark Side of the Moon' was recorded on a 4track, it would sound weak. Great songs be damned.
i remember when I was recording i got to a point of straight up option paralysis...too many amp sims, too many impulses, too many plugins. I stopped searching. My wallet just couldn't take it.
I know exactly what you mean. Hell...I just went through and un-installed so many plugins that I don't use. Hell some of em I couldn't tell you what they even were lol.
As a private music teacher for the last 30 years…it seems to me that people are actually picking up an instruments less and less these days. Since 2008 I’ve seen student numbers drop and drop.
When you have no time investment in yourself to learn an instrument and music it’s no surprise that people think they can get the latest Virtual Instrument plugins in their DAWS and think their going to churn out the next great song and recording.
Unless this changes song writing and the personality on the musicians playing on those recordings will not be there. It’s fast food music or impersonated music with no heart and soul.
Your students are dropping because free lessons on TH-cam are getting better and better.
I've been playing for thirty years. I picked up the guitar in 1994 from a free guitar book at the library and did it the hard way. I'm happy I did it was well worth it😊
@hummarstraful ...and the intermediate level musicians watching those tips and tricks on YT aren't achieving music literacy. Doing so requires mentorship and / or one-on-one instruction.
@@jeromewesselman4653 agree.
Doubtful, because if that were true overall, music would be getting better and better and better. @@hummarstraful
The vast majority of people doing music simply aren't that musical . The tools are open to all but the downside is that everyone's using them
But some or most don’t understand them tho
I noticed that my technique as a guitar player got worse since I started diving into mixing.. before it was only about playing guitar and writing/recording songs and someone else would do the mixing and mastering .. 2 years I started having interest about mixing.. and yeah .. my productions got better but for the price that I got rusty.. now I decided to stop obsessing about the mixing and take it more easy and make guitar and songwriting my priority again .. and have a professional working on the sound of my music .. at least until I am on the level of doing it myself
I felt very frustrated with mixing but now I just don't stress about it. I used to spend days on mixing a song feeling I am getting nowhere. Sinse I started using parametric EQ things got better. I watched some videosand got some ideas on how to use it. And it's usually part of a DAW so don't have to buy any magical thirth party EQ. I can't exactly tell you what instructional videos were useful to me. Don't remember. But I am sure they are out there.
This is very very wise
Nailed it. My training was on 2" tape, back in those ancient times, preparation was not optional. And you had to walk to the studio, five miles through the snow, uphill both ways. ;-)
The studio i used to walk to like that had broken glass for a floor and i couldn't afford shoes. Let me tell ya, those were the times.
@@EddieJarnowski 🤣
Great video, and as a marketing guy I wanted to acknowledge how well you matched the topic to your "free training" and transitioned to the lead magnet. Smoothly done. Kudos.
You left the biggest factor out and I'd put all my money to bet it's the #1 reason: the listening environment. It's demolishing how easily we can be deceived into thinking we are properly listening to things. Studios where mainstream music is mixed are so far away from what the average home studio can deliver, I would say it's ridiculous. The music production elite wants us to believe gear is the key, but they know they could deliver hits using stock plugins and well known techniques as long as they can hear what they know they should be hearing. You can produce attractive music in a home studio, but it is almost impossible to deliver a mainstream sounding mix, and if you get there by luck, the chances to reach that sound again decrease. Most people don't even fathom what a flat sounding system is like, or solid stereo image, and even some have never heard actual subs. The first time I went to a real studio they gave me a chance to play my mixes there and it was definitely worlds apart from what I heard at my home studio, even having the same speakers. I almost cried. The only solution is to make all things related to accoustics and monitoring more affordable and give it the importance it has. The NS10's legendary story of why they became famous tricks us into ignoring the studio they were played at was the other half (or more) of what made them useful. Put them in a 3x3mts concrete room and it won't matter if you reference songs all the time or that you practice for 20 years, you won't ever stop being frustrated, and let's not even say a thing about acchieving mainstream sounding mixes. Maybe creating collectives where bunches of good producers finance fine tuned studios they can share would be a good thing to make a trend. It would save them years and tears.
Well said man!
Most of what I know today in recording, production, and mixing I did in isolation, still grateful for that.
Especially during lockdown, I learned and experimented the most in Pro Tools and Audio in general. I had the time to do so as many of us did.
Now, nothing beats working on a team of musicians in the same room feeling the vibe in the exact moment, and letting yourself go with that flow. It's just the best way to be creative.
Isolation can be awful at times and it's happened to the best of us regardless of how long we've been doing this.
On the other hand, having this many tools at our disposal is awesome but it's also detrimental to our creativity. I've been on a quest to find the best DAW for music production only cause I've seen other creators do incredible things in their respective DAWs but ultimately it depends and relies on our talent and creativity.
Use what you got, make it work for you and not against you and you'll eventually see the results.
Ya know, as far as the “isolation” thing goes, I found it difficult to rehearse and gig with a demanding full time job and a family. Also, scheduling with 3-4 other people who also have other obligations was a challenge. It’s so much easier for me to do things myself. Not to mention I get along with myself great so there is no drama. No deadlines. No gigs to drive all day to and get paid next to nothing. But I still have my creative outlet, and this is the ONE thing I have full control over in my life. Going solo was the best decision I ever made. I’m doing this for me at this point in my life. To satisfy my artistic urges. That’s enough for me.
I agree. You are totally responsible for your successes and failures. What he said about drum programming is probably true. So I went out bought a set of drums and signed up for Drumeo. I listen to my favorite drummers and try to determine what type of fills work. Beats usually write themselves to fit the bass line. We need to remember that most of our favorite drummers were in their early 20s when they started recording and they were up to speed in a matter of a few years. If they can do…we can do it.
I just keep it real with jam nights at our local punk bar. This is a real jam night. No house band. No restrictions except that none one does cover songs - we jam on a riff or a beat that someone makes up and we take it from there. No instrument is disallowed. Anyone can sing. It can be as mad or as mellow as we want it to be. Beginners welcome and experts too. No one is left out.
it's not the recording/mixing, it's what you put into it. you've always stressed "get it right at the source". why did those 1960's and 1970's bands that were great sound so good, even when the equipment was dark ages? because they were great musicians. on the good side, it allows old guys like me to play and record and wish I was 17 again. (it's been quite a few decades!!) the bad side is people like me get to play and record!!!
love your channel. glad to see it's growing. you deserve far more subs \m/
They didn't record with an effing click track... Except maybe the drummer but everybody else was following the drummer and the music sounded more organic as a result.
@@RealHomeRecording Oh they did. More than you think. At least big names did it somehow. Bohemian Rhaphsody had Freddie counting the whole song, the beatles were using metronomes, they were quantizing their stuff to sound as good as possible. Many songs didn't use metronomes but you can bet your ass they really focused on using clicks. People who say they don't need click tracks are usually people who can't keep tempo and say that the tracks feel robotic with it. Such a lame excuse
Also, back in the day, musicians played, engineers recorded, and producers produced. Everyone had their perspective rolls, which now the lines are blurred today because of the available technologies. With that said, now anyone with any skill at all can do all those things. While the results may be diminished compared to those great old albums that captured great, uninhibited performances, it was also very restrictive and cost prohibitive. It's a double edge sword. Now anyone can gain the means to lay down some tracks, but at what sonic cost. I prefer the present to a degree. I miss jamming with people and bouncing ideas (I will get back to that soon), yet I never thought I would be able to record the things I have on my own, and never though I would be this immersed in technology, being fairly luddite. It's a strange world.
The gear back then was still leagues ahead of today
@@user-yk4gd1fl4zin a backwards dystopian way, youre right.
He said, with a gaspy vocal fry. I've been using GarageBand for the last 29 years and honestly I think it works amazingly well.
I feel like the primary reason for lackluster results in home recording is mostly due to the fact that hardware can only take you so far. In general, with the digitization of mixing and mastering it's so much easier to get sounds into a mix, but you still need experience and an ear for mixing and arranging compositions. This is a nessisary skill to have great sounding home recordings. The amount of plugins or hardware acquisitions I feel is far less of an issue when there is a lack of experience and knowledge with the fundamentals.
It also helps if you capture a great performance.
fr fr no cap
I have been recording since 1981 in my 16-track home studio. In 1990 I took the "Advanced Audio Production Course" at Full Sail in Florida which changed my life and my ability to record professional bands in my 2 bedroom setup and make them sound like they recorded at Abbey Road, Capitol Studio or Sound City. Jump ahead to 2006, I get a serious Pro Tools set-up with a mixing board and the latest version of Pro Tools software. However, home recording has exploded, and the phrase, "You're not a musician if you haven't got a home studio" really applies. The business of running a "professional" recording studio has slowly died and the pandemic has closed the coffin on having a dedicated professional recording studio. Suddenly everyone is a professional "Producer" without the experience or the technical understanding of the basic recording techniques. Second, the biggest issue has become that all the home recordings are producing poorly recorded songs. Also, the songs are not very good and the songwriters are not spending the time to "shake down" the song to a professional level. The music industry is deteriorating to a level that has been unheard of 20 years ago. I love the process of recording and I love working with artists and bands to achieve goals, but it seems that most musicians are too arrogant to ask for help or opinions and they don't want anyone telling them what to do. Right now I am using my setup to record music scores and songs for film. Over the last 5 years, I have had only 4 clients and the money is not there anymore. I have considered shutting down the studio many times and I have stopped taking on band or artist projects because the money is no longer there. Professional studio set-up is a dedication of major cash investment and a large investment in education, time and patience.
I like your view. I have been releasing records since the 90s. When I used all analog gear with the exception of Cubase for tracking my mixes were better. I used my ears. I made more bangers with a sampler (ASR-10 or Emu 6400 Ultra), Mackie 16 channel mixer and some DBX and Alesis compressors than I do with thousands of plugins and pristine virtual instrument libraries. It was more fun to me when it was simple. The talent was in navigation of the limitations.
Couldn't agree more.
Awesome video. You brought up some points that I don't hear a lot of people talking about. The one that really stands out is how you mentioned the quality of the recording of source tracks has declined significantly. To go one step further though, it's not just the quality of the recordings that have declined but the performance of the musicians making the recording has also declined. I think if musicians would go back to more analog type recording devices , it might force people to take more time prepping their performances learning how to hear where edits or changes need to be made instead of relying on what their computer monitors telling them . Of course recording in this way is a lot more time-consuming and can be much trickier but in the end can I have super positive effects not just on the quality of the material being recorded but on the quality of the musician doing the recordings
The world can't move backwards sir, it's like telling cars to move back to horse carriage, think about it. The analog era will eventually be forgotten wether you like it or not! It will be in your best interest to embrace all things digital now. The sooner the better, otherwise a time will come when you'll feel like you time-travelled from a stone age or something. And all you will be able to do is to sulk about the nostalgia of bygone days when things used to be good! 😊
I don't agree at all. Apparently Billie Eilish and her brother recorded their Grammy winning album in their home studio, and that was good enough sounding for everyone. People are watching too many "instructional" videos from people who shouldn't be making videos and consequently never get around to doing any recording which by trial and error may end up sounding good all by themselves.
1:40. that's the exception, not the rule.
I think you’re missing the point. “Home studios” aren’t the problem.
They didn't mixed it or mastered ! They marketed it that way so people would fall for it and feel less... I mean, if they could, why not us? Such a big media lie
they are overrated industry plants, and also grammy doesnt mean anything anymore
No live drums
I was wrong about you. I apologize. You’re now my number one guy to watch. I don’t trust the others anymore 🎉
0:06 this is how heavy it's been weighing on his mind
it’s be HEAVY on my mind too 😣
HEAVY PAPI 😏
@@Hanospeakshey bud
😂😂😂
Man, you hit the nail on the HEAD. As a mixer, this is what I try to educate those i work with about. One other thing I found is that most don't really learn music anymore. If you don't know music, how can you be a musician? If you are a vocalist how can you understand what you are really singing?
Thanks a million!!!
Home recordings are getting "worse" because nobody gives a shit anymore. I'm not spending 2 hours on a snare drum when it can sound like a goat and the same 3 people will listen to it. Music isn't worth anything anymore other than as a hobby to screw around with....
If you're making music to impress other people then that's the reason why you're getting jaded when other people don't care. All the greatest musicians did it because they wanted to hear what was in their heads and then they just so happened to be lucky enough that other people paid them to hear it
@@TheGiantMidget That's a good point, but I think I was working on perfection to keep up with some industry standard of what modern recordings were supposed to sound like. In reality, the song is the important part, and some of my favorite songs are great regardless of how messy or perfect the recording was.
@@toddmoore9138 modern industry standards suck though 😂 i don't know why people chase that, the 70s were the golden era of record production and most of the stuff that sounds good nowadays borrows heavily from that time period. The difference is that in the 70s, pre production was miles better than it is now. People put way more thought into arrangements and instrumentation before they even went near the microphones. The mix was what brought it all together and although a layman doesn't fully understand these things, they do have a sense that there's something magical about these songs that you don't get in a lot of modern music
*DUDE!!* *So glad to hear you say this!* I am so sick of the cliche word " _workflow_ ." All videos talking about the mix using songs as examples that sound awful - Why bother mixing _that_ shit? F*&k the mix! Focus on the song. Create and track a great song, then mixing is easy. *A good mix does not fix a shit song.*
I disagree! Good mixes have made both shitty songs and singers larger than life!!! People make bad mixes in home studios these days because after watching all these tutorials, they forget the most important part of any good mix, a good EAR! They don't train their ears. There's no good mixing engineer with bad EARS!
@@tomgee3361 That's basically what I meant... if an engineer is fussing with the mix too much because the song isn't that good, it's lipstick on a pig. But if the song is good, and as you say, they listen to the song with a good ear... you'll get a good result. Heck, I'd even venture to say, I really good song will hold up if the mix sucks.
Keep in mind, most of the song recorded by the Beatles were don't on 4 tracks, eventually 8 tracks. There's only so much G. Martin could do "in the mix." Yet those songs hold up... cause they were great song writers.
The biggest thing is a skill issue. If a person doesn't know how to use a compressor, it doesn't matter how bling their plugins are. If they don't have the ears to make a good mix that can playback well across devices, no amount of money will fix that. It's always been a skill issue and it always will be.
That’s it. People nowadays prefer gadgets to make em sound better faster without dedicating time to the subjects needed to actually learn. Instant gratification era.
"no amount of money will fix that" ....... idk you could just pay someone to mix your track? most professional artists are not mixing and mastering all their own music
@@robthomas793 It breaks my weary brain to see somebody take a conversation about a solo creative having poor mixing skills (under a video of the same topic) and pivot to pros having engineers mix/master for 'em. Sure, I could (probably? maybe?) hire Alan freakin' Parsons to mix for me … but it wouldn't improve *my* mixes one iota.
100% on all of your points. I’m not a pro and I have observed a lot of this stuff too (with myself and others). I now try to work my songs fundamentally much longer first and take my time getting it recorded better. The world around us is moving so fast that the sense of urgency and a common philosophy of quantity over quality imo is the core reason home/indy recordings have gotten worse. The social part of music is supposed to be playing with and for people. It’s a cultural thing that really needs to be fostered and encouraged. As I’ve gotten older interacting socially at all has been tossed out the window because it’s hard to pull people away from their games or phones to actually interact as humans; much less musically. 🤷🏼♂️
1. No amount of gear can salvage a poor performance. 2. Expensive software doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to use it. 3. Modern equipment lowers the bar to entry, but it can’t transform non-musicians into pro musicians. 4. A bad song is a bad song, and a good ear is better than 1,000 plug-ins.
This sounds like practicing. I recently signed up for a guitar course (good to get a mentor) by the Commander in Chief. Long story short I have a practice shedule and routine. I expect myself to practice the exact same things for at least six more months, and they are alternate picking (which takes about 30 mins), simple chromatic exercises, hammers/tapping, basic strumming, and basic sweeping (focused on the right hand).
Sometimes its just boring, but, using my handy metronome I'm getting better.
Back to recording I have a line 6 UX2 and I still don't use the vast majority of what it does. Im still experimenting with its two inputs because, mic placement is a huge area of research by itself. I have two low budget mics and the results I get can dramatically change simply by means of angling, by changing some parameters, by using the onboard compression (say what you will about line6 but it does DSP on the device.
If I record an acoustic guitar I use a dynamic and a conderser mic. If I record an electric I use an amp and a direct input, usually blend both. I have 4 amps, each with knobs, one is the Vypr another is the Spark...
Point is, I don't see myself acquiring any more gear or even nosediving into the manuals. I have a ton of structured practice to keep me busy. Even if I have this gear for years the possibilities are just mind blowing.
I agree with the overall sentiment. If you don't know what you have, if you don't learn arrangements, if you don't become more proficient with your instruments how can you tell if you have a roadblock worth investing all that extra time researchibg?
There is an interesting video where Paul Gilbert is trying out pedals and two things happen:
Hes told the Flurb is a completely useless setting, and he plays around with it first just using his ears to get used to it and then goes off making very musical expression with it
Another thing that hapoens is he takes a pedal, listens to it and leaves it be. He likes the sound and so he just uses it as is "I almost don't want to touch it".
This is Paul Gilbert folks, I think he may know a thing or two about guitar and he decided to simply get to know what he had despite decades of touring and recording under his belt rather than play with the shinies.
Anyway, an important thing to consider is every time you make changes, you're basically researching. Yes you can think of it as simply tuning something but usually there's a domino effect. So if you are a gear acquisition symptom sufferer it means you have basically set yourself up to doing unending coursework for the foreseeable future. Even if you got caught up, what energy can you bring to making actual use of it after enduring such self inflicted intellectual abuse? And, could you keep focused long enough to finish or will creativity go out the window when a new shiny comes along?
I think, as another random dude from the internet, its about choosing your battles and finding balance. Keep things interesting but don't set yourself up for failure. Never wrestle defeat out of the jaws of victory
I think its unfair to blame people for playing in isolation, for several reasons. For one, some people might not have access to other musicians, or no one that plays the same genres, or perhaps the skill gap between them and other potential players is too large to be negligible (such as you're trying tk start a band but the only people you meet are practically beginners whom hardly practice). Secondly, playing with other musicians requires PHYSICAL GEAR, which is frankly EXPENSIVE! I'm a 100% digital guitarist. The only physical gear i own is my guitars themselves, cables, and my interface. Thats it. If i want to play with other musicians i can't just pack the guitar, amp, and cab and go play. The amp and cab don't exist, because i frankly can't afford them, and even if i could, you'd get a limited range of sounds without also incorporating other gear. This is where modelers can be a savior so you just need a cab, but even a half decent modeler can be several hundred. Lastly, the issue of space. Where are they supposed to play together? People are getting poorer by the year, with more people living from home for much longer today than in any generation since WWII. Most cant afford rent and those who can barely have a small apartment to show for it. Im sure you know this, but playing music with others is loud. Thats why they have designated spaces for it, like studios or rehersal spaces. But if people struggle to pay rent, what makes you think they will budget to pay for practice space on a semi-regular basis? They likely can't, and unlike playing digitally or by yourself you can use headphones thus being courteous to your neighbors, you cant make playing with other quieter (especially if you're a drummer).
Theres just so many factors you're dismissing and i kinda think thats unfair in and of itself. I believe anyone who has the ability to play with others will already be doing so if they could.if they are recording in isolation i can PROMISE you it isn't because they want to. It's because they might not have many other options
When I had my home studio after my audio engineering certificate, I learned it's some of the plugin templates. No one try's to edit them but once I begin to add analog gear to my studio, I began getting away from digital once I got the radio sound. Digital is good to get started but eventually you have to get analog gear and create your own settings. Also, I did not do any of my mastering. I sent them to mastering studios that I had friends from college working in. Like actual recording mastering studios, seating in the sessions.
I feel you're just resistant to change. The analog era is passing, and it will do any music maker well to move with such progress, otherwise you'll be left behind, with your income taken away by more modern and progressive types. Most Old school engineers are learning it the hard way.
@@tomgee3361 I'm 50/50 on this because no matter how great technology has become the majors still use analog gear for mixing and mastering. SSL with its combination of digital still is mostly analog. While I love waves plugins and other plugins, they still want completely touch the analog compressor when setup correctly. Tracking vocals is where analog will always have its place in creating music. If you get to try this, this is my set-up which is pretty cheap but works
Steinberg interface (I use cubase), ST66 mic or a mic with no lows, grace design, behringer compressor, and set your attack just to hear it catching the vocals and your release high. Then match it against the best digital setup you can find. See which one automatically sets the vocals on top of the mix, I may do the experiment myself just out of curiosity to see how far digital has came in 10 years
Man, editing and automating go such a long way... I've tried everything that I felt could help and speedify my workflow... Vocals with dynamic gates and easy rider, 4 de-essers, etc. But nothing got me the results that simple editing and automation got me. We gotta try out less plugins and spend more time with editing, that's fo' sho'.
Spot on! After good recording technique is achieved, mix automation is what separates the men from the boys, absolutely.
I learned this a long time ago watching Charles Dye's Mix it like a Record video. They have a pretty decent sized automation section and it was very helpful in my professional development.
Say it louder for the people in the back!
I'm a live engineer....it grew from playing guitar and took over. Home recording has been an interesting outlet for me....but I am a guitar player, I'm not a drummer, bass player, keyboard player and definitely not a singer. In the 70's when I started, on top of the band/musicians there were the recording engineers, production engineers, mastering engineers, graphic artists, printers, pressers....ad infinitum. My head is not big enough to contain all of those "people" and very possibly guitar is the last thinking I think of because it's the easiest thing to do. We are each of us expected to be a whole industry.
I don't work in isolation on purpose. I live in a small town and never get out so I don't know anyone else who makes music in my area...especially metal music. The people I do know won't ever meet up to actually make music with me. I am alone whether I like it or not.
My bestfriend/drummer lives far from me so we always dropbox each other stuff. Ive seen sone bands actually jam online and need to look into that bc it would help
Pantera made Reinventing the Steel away from each other sending files.
If you have a good take going in and know how to mix properly you can for sure get a pro sound. What I have found is that if it's bad going in it's going to bad trying to correct it let alone people need more time to develop how to mix properly / get things to fit into the mix.
You made some really good points, but some were like saying home cooking doesn't taste like Michelin star restaurant where only the cream of the crops works; Home studio will always have a home taste; Some people have no taste buds and some have no eardrums. ;)
Now lets have a moment of silence for all the sound engineers who are working anywhere but in audio after graduating.
Also, I disagree that technology makes people lazy, people are not lazy rather than they are tired. Technology does not makes us lazy it makes us tired; we are bombarded with over stimulation, we work 30(+30hschool)-40-50-60 and some 100h weeks to make rent, every event is a festival, everything you do ask you more and more engagement. I really think the lazy people would be lazy despite current or future technology , people are not lazy; they are overstimulated, overworked and exploited. But hey I'm just a burned out graduate with no time so I watch youtube videos on my phone about the things I wish I could do while while I commute.
You're right...a lot of people graduate with audio degrees and unfortunately, never work in audio. A huge problem is that a lot of these schools don't teach you anything useful. They take your money and teach you less than what you'd learn from watch TH-cam videos.
@@FrightboxRecording yikes...
Very interesting take on things there. When I was recording in my young days it was a studio with band members and a couple of engineers and occasionally a producer. There were no screens. It was just a big desk and sound. Everyone was just tuned into the sound without the distractions of visual technology that we have now. Now I record my own music but always involve as many people as I can when I can. For many years I went down the rabbit hole of a monks existence with a life of ungodly VSTs etc etc but came back to the music. Everyone to their own.
You trying to tell me amateur home recordings don't sound professional?...damn!
I've been playing guitar for 16 years, writing music/lyrics for about 13 years, and got in recording/production for just about 6 years now. EVen released some of my own stuff with well received words on quality (even though I know it can be better).
I've learnt a LOT and really focused on my playing, arranging, and quality. Majority of my Software is a paid version of Reaper and stock plugins, a few free plugins (Softube's Saturation knob and a TDR compressor), and like 3 or 4 Waves plugins. To me, the focus was always on working towards getting the source to sound the way I want it. I've worked on so many different setups and tools with my small mic collection on my acoustic guitars/mandolin and electric guitars/bass. I've toyed with mic setups on drums, but I dont have a permanent setup for drums, outsourced to a friend, and have ALWAYS prioritized getting better.
Completely agree that good home recordings are an exception because a lot of people, like you said, are hobbyists. Most of them are searching for that "one next thing that'll make their stuff sound amazing" instead of actually progressing their current skillset and readily available tools
No.
I disagree.
Talent.
Music has always come down to talent. Instrument Talent. Engineer Talent. Producer Talent. It is a great thing for an individual to possess one, but a far rare thing for one to possess all three. (As you kinda touched on. ) Now, with so much home studio availability and limitless broadcasting formats, we are experiencing the world of garage and home musicians from around the world, who quite frankly don't have the talent of all 3 fields. In some cases, not even possessing talent in even one field, let alone the main skill, which is their Instrument.
There is a reason why the sayings, "Cream of the crop," or "Cream always rises to the top," exist. Because it's true. Not in all cases. There are exceptions with everything, of course. What you are ultimately experiencing is the watering down of the Dairy pale. The cream is getting lost in the mix.
That's why (these days) everyone in guitar-web land,.... all sound the same. One of the things about the greats ( guitarists ), they all sounded different. You could distinguish them by tone alone. Are those days gone?
Seasons come and go..
This. I have all the recording tools at my fingertips, but talent is the main ingredient. Recording is a hobby, but arrangement, song writing, and playing always needs to be improved. Eddie Van Halen, I am not.
Very good perspective on plugins (and discussion in general), I'm glad I found this channel!!
ALL TRUE.
I started recording in 1961, we started with one mike, one basement, and friends that could PLAY MUSIC.
.....and THAT is the way to learn.
Bill P.
Great video! I strongly agree with ALL of your points. The "producing" part is so important: get the song right before you start recording.
Glad I went the hardware route and kept clear... of the way of the plug in.
I've gotten tired of looking for plugins and frustrated, I mix to not hurt people's ears. Trying to experience life to have a song to write organically. In pretty sure what you're going to teach is much needed. Going to hit the link. Thanks for being bold and making this a available.
I am a composition major who wants to make music in order to share the way I channel my emotions. I have sued garage band with nothing more than its stock plugins and sound library to make some demos I’m really happy with. This video is oddly reassuring of my methods but also so inspiring to continue further! Amazing video
As an utter beginner I've spend way too much time looking for amp sims that would fit me, plugins and mixing tips. The time I've spent chasing the elusive sound completely outweighed the time I've spent working on my mixing. Now, I'm still a beginner, but with some knowledge, still looking for the best amp sims, plugins, etc. but I have this thought at the back of my head, that picking at such things as the way the guitars are distorted, or how much room drums have, won't let me see the bigger picture.
Also the clear mix formula helped me to get rid of almost half of the plugins that I used on my recent project to essentials, and it truly is clear.
Just because technology is better and more accessible, that doesn't mean people's skill has gotten any better. Be it in skill to write songs, or the skill to play, or the skill to record, or the skill to mix. And often people invest only into one at the cost of the others, which is fine - but it's fine if you only stick to your part. If you're all about recording and mixing, then get professional musicians to play. If you are great at writing and playing songs, go to a studio. Few people are gonna be great at everything, and it's fine. Imagine trying to be a car engineer from scratch, making a blueprint (equivalent to songwriting), producing parts (getting your gear), and assembling and doing all the tweaks and everything to finish your work (playing and recording studio and production stuff) and end up with a new car. Sure, there are people who are able to do it in their garage. Most people will still at least have a whole team of people with different people being responsible for being the main person handling a specific step of the process, with the rest only helping, all happening in a dedicated professional workshop, etc... it's okay to identify your role and stick to it and rely on others with the rest of tasks.
Interesting video. Having been working as a sound engineer since the late 80s, transitioning slowly from pure analogue equipment to full digital in the late 90s, I believe I could offer my views. As much as how people praised the sound quality of the analogue gears, I will never ever go back to analogue, it’s just too time consuming, and the end products are often hit or miss. A bit like film vs digital photos, I’d rather go digital right from the go, and if I do want the analogue feel eventually, there are many ways to do that, while it’s quite impossible to go the other way around. Comparing just using my iPhone to make a multitrack recording and mix it to a 24 track Otari with an SSL analogue mixing desk in a multi-million dollar studio back in the 80s/90s with analogue outboards gears, I can guarantee that I will be able to make much better fully mastered tracks with the iPhone now. But after saying that, talent is still the most important element, more so than any equipment. A great singer + a guitarist/pianist doing a beautiful acoustic duet with minimum gear will always sound better than any platinum selling manufactured hits using state of the art gears IMO.
I agree 100%
I just got a recommend from YT to your channel and just subscribed. I like your style and personality. I agree with your points on "home recording"; even worse than the downfall of home recording is; the "cookie cutter" of knocking a "music" track or a "song" (not a bad, not good, or it could be better) out to the public.
I'm new to all this, but have had access to a DAW for a couple decades (FL). Started learning 3xosc on my own way back in the day, and can use it now effectively for certain instruments, but have finally noticed it's limitations. Now that I'm taking this serious, I'm focusing on just learning the basics: Eq, compression, synthesizing, sampling. I'm purely using the tools that are available to me. I've thought a long time about this, and to me it seems like chasing plugins is a crutch. People have been making music for years with only the same set of instruments they've had for years. Yeah, maybe they upgrade once in a while, or to get a new color on their melody, but technically I believe they master their tools first before finding the next one. I'm probably wrong on this, but I'm spending the majority of my time just trying to make music via mastering what I got, instead of chasing the next tool. I haven't released and wouldn't say I make quality music, but this feels like the right way to go.
Essentially what we have is style over substance in absolutely everything. People have generally forgotten what led them to take up this hobby in the first place - which were good freakin songs, the rest being almost irrelevant. That is why people focus on the mixing process so much, plus it explains the obsession with endless gear/plugin acquisition. The good news is there a giant hole in the market for actually great written songs sung with human emotion, so have at it boys!
I agree!
I fully agree.
One thing I've learned about editing a track, especially if you're copying and pasting a great take, is to zoom in all the way to properly trim it to the grid! I use to only zoom in partially and think the track was trimmed properly so when I went to copy and paste the timing would be off! No one talks about this edit technique on TH-cam!
When I first started at 16 I had the mindset to go big, get every plugins free or paid, all the samples and whatnot but I didn't start getting better until 25 (Im 30 now) where I ditched them all, stuck with stock ableton plugins (eq, compressor and saturator being the only ones I really use), been using the same oneshot samples since then with the only premium plugins I use is fabfilter Q and L during mastering and my all time fav free plugging voxengo MSED for some stereo control and I felt I've been at the top of my own game ever since. It's really what you do with it in the end and I've always having fun a result because I'm actually making music. It doesn't matter what sounds you do as long as you know where you want them to be in the track. Things just tend to fall into the right place more often than not now :)
hell yea I use a plugin suite from 2005 that is just magically good and doesn't encourage too much dicking around because the UI is so dead-simple. Besides that and the stock ones in my DAW, I hardly touch anything else. The one paid software I rely on is EZDrummer 3 since I can't track my own drums in my living space.
Anyhow, if anyone's curious, it's the Kjaerhus free effects suite, still available on internet archive. I challenge anyone to only use the plugs from that suite for a month. Guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Very thought-provoking video. I do agree to a certain extent that recording will never fully be able to compete with professional studio recordings.
That's right. In the old days, I started in the 1960's, most all problems were solved by the tracking engineer before the session started so you basically had the finished record when the recorders started rolling. I haven't done it in so long I doubt if I could do it anymore. Everything went to vinyl and it's a lot less forgiving then digital media. I love my DAW! Great tracking is a lost art.
Bobby, I can’t find anything wrong with this video. Very well thought out, very well said. I can’t help but agree.
Man Bobby, you have preached! You hit the nail right on the head! Awesome video. The world needs to know this truth about "Home Recording" and the disorganized, lazy work ethics of many home recording producers, including me. Thanks for sharing Bobby.
5 very good points, thank you. There is just no substitute for talent and taking the time to grow from your talent. We’ve come to believe everything we want can be an instant reality, but we simply have to put in the work, if we want quality.
I was quite into low low budget home recording from about ‘05 to ‘10. I was kind of restless and impatient myself so the best “end products” I made was all done with first takes, found a ‘groove’, found an inspiring sound, recorded it and repeated for each track and never had more than four-five tracks running simultaneously. It sounded way way better than I could replicate!
Just felt like sharing. Wish that I had the time to pick it up again..
As a home recorder myself it’s taken me forever to collect equipment that is compatible together much less mastering the tools I’ve obtained. We’re also talking about studios that are family owned for generations, such as in Nashville. Collecting gear, & passing down knowledge
Your point about musicians not playing together in the same room is so sad....it's 100% true and i have lost my ability to write GOOD music collaboratively in the same room. All my best results have came from me being by myself and then sending it to vocalists for them to make their part on their own. Kinda sad
It's a journey. I think I started out okay, then got a lot worse before I got a lot better. Most of what you said about chasing sounds and plugins can be an issue, but it's also part of the process of discovering yourself as an artist. You're not going to learn it all over night. It takes years and years. You're also right about collaborating with experts who also took years to learn what they know. TH-cam is a blessing overall. We're just trying to figure it out. You should be driven nuts otherwise you don't care enough.
1] circa 1979 I purchased a British indie Rockabilly LP out of curiosity. Considered a novelty/revolutionary because it was a complete unknown one man home recording on Revox tape recorders, with a limited number of mics & FX boxes. Critics debated "is this the future of recording ???". 2] 1990s I assisted a leading UK car studio photographer. Big money contracts with the automobile industry. He only ever used one camera on a fixed position tripod, and stuck to the same brand of sheet film every day. Basically the same reliable tried and tested gear and technique as pre victorian photographers from well over a hundred years in the past.Most of the work involved hours moving the lights around the cars until he got what looked best in the viewfinder. Then he finally pressed the shutter release, calling it quits for that session. 3] Isolation is not a positive option, but with age and experience it get's harder to trust and rely on other musicians, or bother actively making their aquaintence. Too many time wasters, and even worse flakey druggies and thieves. A local musician's bedroom recording session turned into a horrific home invasion. His dog was tortured to death, and he was badly beaten before his studio gear and valuables were stolen. My UK town has a bad drug and crime problem.
Listening to this while I'm editing my tracks for my first album, looking for some last-minute pointers 😅. What a difference the editing makes though! Also rendering each instrument when it's done to avoid the temptation of fiddling with amp settings or MIDI velocities.
Honestly, I've learned so much over time from practicing making music (not just reading or watching videos about it), though I never focused as much on the recording aspect which I used to think I could fix it in the mix. A lot of us home recording musicians don't have the experience from making a lot of bad music and learning from those mistakes, something you probably did in college. Writing, playing, recording, mixing, and mastering are all unique skills, and we don't expect to just suddenly be good at cooking, sculpting, or drawing from watching a few TH-cam videos on the subjects, so why would it work for music. We need just make more, listen to what we produced, and learn to do it better next time. Not everything we create needs to be published (well, we can post to SoundCloud, no one expects to find gold there).
And as much as I enjoy doing it myself, I understand I will likely need to pay for it to get professionally mastered (or mixed if I do it wrong). It's important to remove the ego if the skills just aren't there yet.
I think you really nailed it, especially that we are no longer collaborating on all aspects of music production.
Wow!🤯 …. Thanks tomorrow is Saturday I get to try again and record, this was better than me trying to find videos about teaching me how to deal with childhood trauma with in an attempt to end my procrastination in the studio. I genuinely feel lighter and ready to
Rock! I better get some sleep now
My songs sound like rubbish and I have found peace in discovering that I only enjoy the writing, composing and arranging, so that's all I do. One day I'll pay someone to edit, produce, mix down and engineer them. 40 tracks in, I've uploaded them to SoundCloud and I love my hobby!
Also adding: i see SOOO many people post pics of their home studios. Some of them have crazy amounts of expensive gear.
Its shocking, though, how FEW people appear to have treated their recording and/or mixing spaces properly. This makes a WORLD of difference.
I agree. If you record well you won't even need much mixing. The recording (mic placement 👍) is very important.
I'm a dance music producer but this video helped me realize a lot of things.
Thanks man.
Good video! Good points. One of the most important elements to sounding "pro" is very accurate timing. You need for steady natural timing.
Totally agree with all of this, and would add that at the end of the day, if the musician’s performance isn’t great, no amount of gear, software, or recording knowledge will fix it (of course there are exceptions)
Home recording gives less skilled musicians the ability to record more easily before they’re really ready for the studio. Which is great, but also means people maybe aren’t practising enough or just can’t hear what they can’t hear.
I'm 62 i learnt in a big Studio started out as a runner worked with Jackson Browne etc watched many engineers and producers on how they set up Reverbs , Compressors, mic placement, its a must!
Been doing writing and recording for almost 30 years off and on. From cheap 4track recorder to expensive studios. Developing the skills in writing, producing, mixing, editing and so on is more important than the tools you use.
I’m currently taking a step back by doing a couple projects on older analog 4track to test my skills and it’s a lot harder than one might think. I’m definitely a lot more conscious of the instruments I use and how I record them.
Jamming in a room with other guys or gals is what it’s all about, getting into the zone , you can’t replace that.
the challenge and often the problem with home recording will always the be the skill of the person behind the computer and the elements that surround that person. In the old days, you had a studio with expensive industry standard equipment and acoustically treated rooms. Add to that a producer, an engineer, prepared songs and of course well rehearsed artists and session players. Each one with a specialized skill combining to bring together a product.
Today its usually a one man effort with varying levels of skill and experience, add to the mix one or more of the critical elements mentioned above missing...hence, the way it sounds.
Agree. Poor source material in, poor records out.
That's the golden recording rule I grew up with.
Then again, I also grew up on analog gear. LOL
I can still run rings around everyone with stock plugs, before
pondering a 3rd party plugin. LOL
It comes down to everything you've said like song-writing, arrangements, recording, editing.
All part of the set to a great mix and master.
Know your fundamentals and what's truly necessary in the process to get a great sounding record across the finish line.
You are right about this for sure. The majority of Home recordings I hear aren’t all that great. And in my experience, too many tools at the disposal and not using the right tools for the job. That’s what I see. Disturbed did all the guitar recordings for indestructible in the home studio and that was amazing. Yeah they used live drums. So that made it really good. In most of my recordings they sound pro level. The key is using the right tools for the job. Most people don’t do that. They use whatever they can, and make each individual instrument sound great, but they don’t know how to mix and they don’t know how to EQ to have everything sitting in the right place. That’s a big problem.
I “try” to have a very focused central vision that more or less guides my sound design investments. No doubt, there is a saturation of options out there. The ability to import my own samples is vital.
Most of what you said could be boiled down to a simple fact: the typical musician is not a recording engineer. People can have the best tools and the most tools but if they don't really know how to use them....
Years ago when I was first investigating gear for home recording, a friend gave me some advice: Do your homework before you choose a solution. Once you've chosen a solution, stick with it and learn it - learn it's ins and outs.
I think I've taken that to the extreme. I still use a Boss Micro BR, and am still learning how to get better results with it.
Great points . It's good to try new things but I find the more familiar we get with the equipment we are using , the better judgement we can make on whether to continue using or upgrade . I think keeping it simple and trying to get the best recordings initially might save us from a cloud of plugins later . Always something to learn in this game that's for sure . Thanks for the vid CAMCURSE
My “prep” time is likely 3 or 4 times longer than my mix time. I try to get the source right, and for the song to sound basically mixed before I even start mixing it. Sometimes customers ask me if it’s already mixed when I send them a RAW bounce.
YES!!! This is the way to do it.
@@FrightboxRecording interesting video, BTW
I studied Audio Engineering in 1987. CDs were just coming out, but the new big thing was going to be optical fibre! Everything audio was going to use optical fibre and there'd be no noise floor, no hiss, no hum, totally clean audio going straight to disc. All the desks 'wired' with optical fibre, all the effects, the speakers, patch leads, cables, even the instruments, and at home, it would eventually be the same. No hiss or hum in your home stereo, everything optical fibre!
What happened?
Me too. 89. I recall having to buy a large tape for a 16 track that was very expensive. But The big worry at the time was CDs and digital were killing the tape warmth. Something Neil Young took seriously and layer invented that Pono thing that was a total flop. MIDI was also coming available and we got an ensoniq keyboard sampler with an Atari computer to play with that blew my mind and recording audio to computer disc was deemed impossible!Not sure we ever got the lesson on optical, but digital recording has a lot less hiss than tape so I’m happy with that.
Yes mate - the old school approach is still relevant. A demo track is exactly what it says..a scratch track to craft the song into a production level song. Once the crafting is done, ALL tracks need to be rerecorded to reflect the changes, and recorded to production quality. GIRATS baby, get it right at the source, and then the song is so easy to mix. No amount of mixing, flash plugins, or tech saves a bad or poorly developed song. But a well sculpted song, along with tight kickass recordings almost mixes itself.
I am a retired professor of sound engineering. Great video. I believe mentors are still indispensable, even with a college education. Home studios are definitely the future, and by that I mean only some of them. Most home studios are just too uneducated.
one of the best content that I've watched in years on internet!! i'm on your side bro. thanks for this video😇