trying to upgrade my living room studio

[Codyeatruck]

yooo, so i'm looking to add some hardware to my humble little living room studio.

currently, my "studio" is just my macbook pro, logic pro X, a motu 8pre, and my mics.
sennheiser e609 for guitar
shure sm7b for vocals
a set of audio technica drum mics i got for free, a sterling st55 for the drum overhead, and i started recording the kick drum in stereo with one of the audio technicas and the shure sm7b

i'm tired of playing around with my tracks in logic forever. what do i need to get that "final" sound WHILE recording?
i'm thinking definitely a rackmount compressor. maybe a channel strip or mixing board? a tube mic preamp?

i'm also going to be looking for a good reverb soon because i cant seem to get what i want from space designer.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

[oscillateur]

Do you have some decent monitors ? No need to get anything really fancy for an untreated space but some sort of real monitors is a big plus...

[Decibill]

Good monitors for sure. But even before that, what micing technique are you using..? How is the room treated...? Bass traps...? What shape and dimensions are the room...? How are the drums tuned...? What is your recording experience up this point...? If the drums don't sound good during recording, you are fighting an uphill battle. The drums should sound good during tracking and then get better with mixing. I'm a drummer and guitar player. I've been down this road before. The outboard gear will not compensate for the room, drum tuning, mic technique and engineering experience. It is not unheard of to spend days even weeks tweaking drum tuning and mic placement. Your current gear list is more than capable, with the addition of a few more mic's. Can you post what you've done so far...? It will be a lot easier to hear what is missing or at fault.

[Hyphen Nation]

1: Room
2: Monitoros
3: mics
4: Soundcard

[UnicornTrap]

+1 on you need monitors. mixing on headphones can be very deceiving sometimes.

[KaosCill8r]

1: Room
2: Monitoros
3: mics
4: Soundcard

^ This, but most important is the room. Sound treatment is expensive but so necessary.

[zrobb3]

we have a somewhat similar setup, and a couple months ago i got some monitors and its made such a huge improvement. i'd recommend starting there then going for treatment, etc like the guys above me have mentioned.

[Codyeatruck]

hey dudes, thanks for responding!

stuff i've recorded
www.trapezoids.bandcamp.com (these recordings are meant to be kind of lo-fi but i would like them to be better)
www.theinsides.bandcamp.com (i recorded their HELLO ep)

i do have monitors, forgot to mention them. i rock two yamaha hs5(s).
i live in an old school house, built in 1900, now three apartments.
my studio is what once was my 13'x14' living room, completely untreated acoustically.

i am looking to add a compressor to my set up so i can get a nice EVEN level while recording vocals.
when a singer sings a "closed" vowel sound, such as an E, you can't hear it. VS. when a singer sings an "open" vowel sound, such as an AH or O, it peaks.

when i record drums, guitar, and whatnot, my mics never peak above -10dB.
once it's time for vocals, i turn those instruments down -3dB or more, nearly have the mic level turned all the way up on the motu 8pre, and still struggle trying to get a solid, even, vocal track that doesn't just get lost in the mix.

vocals are my main problem. i can live with the sound i'm getting from my drums and guitars, although my kick drum sound could be way better and sometimes gets lost in the mix.
(i just recently started messing with opposite eq'ing on bass guitar and kick drum)

on a semi unrelated subject, in the mixing stage, i have heard that every track needs compression and a high pass filter. is this true?

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

FMR Audio RNC is a really nice budget compressor.

also a mic pre will help u alot w/ recording vocals. i really like the Art MPA. i swapped out the stock tubes for some better ones and it made a huge difference in sound.
the MPA is also on the cheaper side. Golden Age Project Pre 73 is another really sweet one. a lil on the dirtier side sound-wise. its a clone of the preamp section of a Neve something or other 73.

on a semi unrelated subject, in the mixing stage, i have heard that every track needs compression and a high pass filter. is this true?

i dont think this is true at all. not every track needs it. it CAN help tho to roll off some of those VERY VERY LOWS. like 30hz.
every track does not need compression by any means. it all depends on how it sounds.

compression, limiting, etc. really needs to be used correctly or it can fuck your mix up right. subtle is always better than overdoing it.

[friendship]

on a semi unrelated subject, in the mixing stage, i have heard that every track needs compression and a high pass filter. is this true?

I agree with Dr. Sticks. This is not really true, although many people use compression and high passing pretty liberally, myself included.

Think of compression and EQ as problem solvers. Before using them, consider what the problem you need them to solve is. Maybe in one song, you notice that your acoustic guitar has a lot of bright attack (something acoustics excel at) but not much body or sustain. Compression can be a really useful tool here, you can use it to the solve that problem by gently smoothing out the peaks which boosts the relative volume of the rest of the soundwave (the "body"). Maybe you recorded this acoustic with your shure SM7 really close up and you picked up a lot of booming bass tones from the soundhole. A high pass filter might be a helfpul way for you to sweep all that low frequency shit out of your face, which has the additional benefit of leaving room for your bass instrument(s). These are useful ways of using high pass filters and compression.

But let's say you recorded a very strummy acoustic guitar part that you want to put the background of your mix, using the timbre of the instrument to provide percussive support. You might not want to compress at all, since the quality you want from your acoustic is its transient attack, which compression reduces in volume. If you compressed it, it might take away space from instruments that belong in the foreground. Let's also say that you recorded your acoustic from a couple feet away with your Sennheiser and it's a pretty trebly sounding recording. Unless you have a lot of low frequency background noise (definitely plausible) there might not be much if any information in the lower frequencies for you to shelve, so a high pass filter wouldn't be very useful to you.

Your problem with getting enough gain for your vocal recordings does sound like you might need a solid mic pre to drive your dynamic mics.

[John]

I wouldn't compress anything before Logic except maybe one of the kick mics. I find multiple layers of comp on kick to do the trick if you want really consistent or clicky kick. Everything else can be done after tracking, except for the above-mentioned gain or any other toolbox stuff you need to do with a mic preamp.

[friendship]

I wouldn't compress anything before Logic except maybe one of the kick mics. I find multiple layers of comp on kick to do the trick if you want really consistent or clicky kick. Everything else can be done after tracking, except for the above-mentioned gain or any other toolbox stuff you need to do with a mic preamp.

Yeah that's a good point. While you can compress straight to track, I prefer not to unless it's some kind of super mild limiter just to keep from clipping.

[sharpfuzz]

I usually compress/limit my kick and snare to keep them tight and to keep the level in check. For vocals I use an outboard tube preamp and compressor to warmup the voice and to again limit and compress; then in protools add a bit more compression if needed and eq to cut frequencies like 2k for hiss/throat sounds.

The room treated or not plays a big part in to the sound too. too much echo, too boomy, completely dead/no air, etc. its all about tweaking it with blankets or furniture to find a middle ground. Guitars in the closet helps, and isolate the singer if possible.

Work on a headphone setup and mix for everybody. if they cant hear something or hear too much of something its going to affect the way they play.

[wildebelor]

i'm tired of playing around with my tracks in logic forever. what do i need to get that "final" sound WHILE recording?

Firstly, this is somewhat misleading as it doesn't accurately portray anything!
the final sound comes from multi band compression, limiters, eq etc etc etc in the mastering stage - the glue that makes it sound like a 'real' record.
You can get close to a 'final' sound with your mixes, HOWEVER, the key is balance.
I learnt that, given the worst equipment ever, the best producers and engineers in the world are still going to make an amazing mix.
Knowing why your gear has limitations and how to work with and around them, as well as pushing them - is vital.
Don't be scared! Stop reading and spend hours with your ears. And then read some more!!!!
Try to emulate other mixes as exercises and see what did and didn't work - emulation is a perfectly normal and often accelerated way to learning!

You mention you work in logic - I would almost immediately recommend you work in Pro Tools. The interface is straight forward and it's geared towards the tracking side of music, not so much electronic music production.
All DAWs are tools, but I think logic is a blunt knife compared to PT for tracking bands.

[antennafarm]

in addition to all the other great suggestions, i'd have to say make sure you have at least one good mic preamp. check out seventh circle audio for some good kits, or even something as simple as a groove tubes "the brick" ... you can get as pricey as you want with these, of course....