davie

The regular built-in soundcards aren't recommended for serious recording and audio. You will experience latency issues. You should look into getting an audio interface, it is basically an external sound card or device that you connect using USB connection. They are specifically designed to handle instrument and microphone inputs and they have low latency. Focusrite, Presonus and Roland are some popular brands that make audio interfaces.

I'm not a drummer myself, but I've been engineering drum recordings for a number of years. If you're dragging consistently throughout the entire recording then most likely its a latency issue. Latency can be a combination of delay in both the output (monitoring) and the input (recording). This can easily fixed using time shift in editing and is a legitimate reason to do so. If the song has a slow tempo, its actually more difficult to have precise timing, because the gap between beats is wider so any timing issues with be more noticeable. Are you recording along with a click track? It should help with timing. If you are, then make sure the click track is loud enough so its not drowned out by the track or masked by your own drum hits.

There's a difference between sound treatment and soundproofing. In order to do legit soundproofing (isolating sound) on an existing room is very difficult. You would need to tear down the walls and insulate the insides. You can do some makeshift soundproofing like sealing windows and doors, thick curtains for windows, replacing doors with more solid ones, which might help somewhat. Sound treatment, aka sound absorption, which is placing acoustic materials inside the room, isn't exactly soundproofing, but it might help reduce the loudness of a room, which in turn may make things somewhat quieter. A room with a lot of hard surfaces will reflect sound more and may be perceived as louder. Reduce these hard surfaces and the room will naturally get quieter. Just a simple thing like a floor rug might reduce the reverbation/echo by a lot. Making do-it-yourself acoustic panels using Roxul (safe and sound) is a pretty cheap solution. I've made 8 acoustic panels (4' x 2' size) myself and they helped a lot. Will probably cost around $100-150 in materials/supplies to make a set of 8. This is very affordable considering that acoustic panels retail for like $80-100 each. Moving blankets are sometimes commonly used too (I occasionally use them), but too many blankets will absorb mostly high frequencies and make the room sound dull. Acoustic panels made from materials like Roxul will absorb frequencies more evenly throughout the spectrum, resulting in a more balanced room sound. This is what people call broadband absorption. What are the dimensions of your room?

I'm not sure if I remember how the tele sounded exactly. It was probably 10 years ago. lol But one thing I noticed in my jazz bass is that the brass saddles give more of a humming quality in the higher overtones, which imo made the attack sound more defined. Have you ever considered using Graphtech Tusq? Its a very interesting material. It's probably the one material that maximizes overall tone. I use both Tusq saddles and nut in my Yamaha 'strat', which is my main tracking electric guitar. It's originally a budget guitar, but I made it more usable with some custom mods.

I used to own a tele. I think I had both steel and brass saddles on it at different points. I think brass saddle might give the guitar a slightly brighter attack. I had the 3 saddle version, which looks nice aesthetically especially with brass, but the intonation wasn't as accurate as guitar with 6 saddles. I also switched the saddles on my jazz bass from steel to brass. It definitely changed the attack, it is brighter sounding to me.

This is an interesting topic. Although I started playing guitar since I was a teenager, I hardly prioritize being "technical". I play more based on vibe and feeling rather than complexity or virtuosity. My philosophy when it comes to performing music, is to serve the song or music first, and not necessarily for making the musician look good. To me its about using fewer notes but also the most appropriate notes to taste, not playing as many notes as possible. I don't really consider electric guitar as my primary instrument these days, but I do occasionally have electric guitar parts and I try to apply this philosophy in my own songs.

To discuss lesson details, rates and scheduling, please visit https://www.daviekuan.com/lessons

What is up with this ranking system? wasn't the reputation score enough? feels a bit convoluted at this point.. Are we going for a D&D RPG Alignment system or something? lol Can you have high rank but negative reputation?

I haven't logged in for about a week and suddenly I'm a 1/14 newbie.. 😒

As Felipe said, the Reaper built-in pitch correction plug-in 'ReaTune' should be good enough for you to get by. Another better but fairly affordable plug-in would be Waves Tune or Tune LT, they usually have them on sale for around $30.

Interesting issue. How old are the strings? Are they new? It's possible for a older strings to lose volume and sound less crisp over time.

I haven't done any singing wearing a mask. But in general I have an easier time breathing while wearing a basic surgical mask as opposed to a cloth mask.

Phil doesn't seem to be active on the forums anymore. But I'll try to give you my feedback on it. I think it sounds pretty good. Not much I would change. Maybe the boost the high-mids on the vocals to make it a bit more in front of the rhythm guitar. Something more of a recording/production decision, I'm hearing the rhythm guitar moderately panned to the right? I feel like you could get some more openness in the mix if you try hard panning the rhythm guitar and balance the left side using either a double or miked in stereo. Again, another production suggestion, maybe the second half could use the introduction of hand percussion (eg. shaker) or something, the song doesn't seem to progress enough sonically during the second half, especially for a song over 4 minutes. I think the singing works well in this track and within the context. A minor detail I noticed in the vocals at 1:19, which sounds like it could be a mic plosive or rough edit on the Be of Could Be. Maybe double check that part, re-record that phrase, or automate some EQ to attenuate it. I hope this helps.

Hey guys, I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Hopefully this year will be better than the last (seriously..) I also re-released my song 'Winter' for this year. If anyone is interested in checking it out you can stream it here https://smarturl.it/daviekuan-winter Keep on singing and all the best!

I think you might possibly be a tenor. Especially judging from your 'opera style' clip

The way you sound to yourself in your head versus the way you sound in playback or recording is very different. This is basically due to the perception of sound of the voice being altered by the resonance and vibrations within the head cavity. It's a phenomenon that many novice singers experience. It's normal. If you listen to yourself more you will eventually get used to it. The playback or recording sound is actually closer to your actual sound.

I don't think it requires a very powerful computer to record with acceptable latency. I think any computer with an Intel i5 processor equivalent or greater will be good enough. Both my desktop and laptop use i5 and the latency was never an issue. I get around 8ms of latency. Just make sure you use a decent audio interface with good and up-to-date drivers.

There are some people need to play an instrument while singing to actually sing well. It can help the singer get a sense of rhythm. Sometimes they may be kinesthetic learning types and it need a sense of movement to help them. I myself am more of a kinesthetic learner actually. A good example of a famous singer who simply needs to play their instrument while singing is Diana Krall. I think most of her records are done with singing and piano together at the same time. Similar to what DM mentioned, an instrument can also be a pitch guide, it helps to at least hone in on what key you are singing in.

Hey guys, I hope everyone is doing well. Haven't made a post or released a new song in a while. Just wanted to share with you my latest track called "Lonely Haze". SONG LINK

Interesting vocal, pleasant tone. The glissando into the notes can be an interesting style, but can become overdone and get tiring to listen to. I would recommend working to hit the notes more without sliding onto pitch. Aim directly at the intended pitch. See how that works out.

Canadian here, If cost is an issue then I would recommend buying something used. However not everyone is comfortable meeting up with people on classified ads like kijiji. There is a major music retailer in Canada called 'Long & McQuade', they have stores in every major city. Edmonton actually has 5 store locations. They sometimes have good deals on various instruments and equipment. They may also have used guitars at a discount. You or your friend can check out and browse their 'gear hunter' section on their website, that's where they list all of their most discounted items. One benefit of buying from them is store warranty and return policy, even on used products. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Specific frequencies can be compressed using a multi-band compressor, which is basically a compressor combined with an EQ. I don't think you necessarily need to use one. It's more of an advanced mixing tool. I would try experimenting with EQ first. You can also vary the tone by adjusting how far away from the bridge you are picking and also switching between fingerpicking and plectrum (guitar pick). Playing close to the bridge will give you a tighter tone, farther away will give you a looser tone. Fingerpicking with give a less pronounced attack compared to plectrum.

Loose tone? I guess you mean a bass tone with less attack? You can do it by turning down the tone knob on your bass guitar. That's what I do sometimes too. This will reduce the high frequencies of the bass, which in way makes the instrument sound lower or deeper as a result.

Hi ksl Welcome back from your hiatus. There actually aren't many choices for multi-pattern mics in the lower price range. The cheapest one I know is probably the Studio Projects B3 (~$160). There are other moderately priced ones such as the Rode NT-2a ($400) and Audio Technica AT2050 ($230). I don't have any personal experience with these models but I assume they have similar sound quality to each of their base models (B1, NT1-a, and AT2020, respectively). I do have the Studio Projects B1, its not the best mic out there, but it is good value for the price, I would use it in a pinch for a guitar recording. Hope this helps.

I've seen the grill covers for the SM81 on ebay. They're pretty expensive, I think they were used by some singers back in the day as stage mics. While I was recording my "Winter" song, I actually had to use 2 pop filters together to pull off using the SM81 as a vocal mic. Without them plosives would be unmanageable. I've tried the M5 on vocals before too, it sounds pretty good IMO, but similarly, you need to mitigate the plosives. I have a few SM57's but I don't use them on anything except for snare drum and toms. It is a decent mic for loud rock vocals though. Might be a good backup mic when you're forced to record something in a bad sounding room because of its off-axis rejection.