A_Str8

Hahaha Ofcourse not. In fact I listen to Ethan's Cello Piece regularly. It's on his website and if people like nice music they have to give it a try! Where?

lol... Us: Why are you doing this? Don't you see how mad you're making everyone? Htaed: I did this for you! Don't you get it? You guys couldn't agree on anything before. Look how I've unified you. I turned you from a pack of wild engineers who wasted your days chewing on eachothers throats for fun into a single efficient instrument of forum dominance. Now you can truly reek the benifits of your hard work! Us:

If I had seen the thread about vocals being in the "center" first I doubt I would have responded in as much detail here as I did...even though I knew he was a troll.. Yeah, my initial response was short, but it seemed like some of the people replying were considering following his "advice."

Although that Hamlet Chorus sounds a tad bit like I wish I was a little bit taller,I wish I was I was a Baller,..I wish,..etc ,... Now that you say that, I can kinda hear it. I only hear it in the first 2 lines of the chorus though. You're thinking of "I Wish" by Skee-Lo

Htaed - Thanks for taking time away from working and reeking the benefits of your studio to listen to my music. All feedback is welcome. Also, thanks for making us all aware of the gap that is caused by recording music to different tracks. You should go public with that info because I don't think many people know. Your advice on track placement will prove invaluable, and hopefully will help me sell as many albums as you anticipate selling.

More specifically, I've noticed this type of attitude crops up especially when the question deals with mastering..... and I'm talking about all forums and boards, not just HC. Everywhere I go to a forum to ask about DIY mastering, I get the same response: Fuggetaboudit! It's like the people who know have a blood oath to never talk, and the people who ask are always fools to even be thinking about trying it.... If everyone is saying the same thing, it would behoove you to figure out why they are saying it instead of assuming that it's because of some conspiracy to keep knowledge from the masses. The techniques used to master music are not very different from some of the techniques used to mix music. The thing is that mastering, far more than mixing, relies on the experience and ability of the person doing the mastering. There is no magic formula that a ME learns after being admitted to the club. It's all about listening to the music and being able to hear what needs to be fixed. A lot of people who want to self-master go to the different forums asking for instructions and get upset when no one gives a simple and easy method. Don't get mad at the messenger - the simple and easy answer does not exist. If anyone offers a simple and easy way to master, you can automatically assume that they are wrong. Hobbyists and semi-professionals are not without hope though - of course you can try mastering your own material, and if you're good enough, you'll even get reasonable results. There's nothing wrong with doing it yourself, you just have to realize that it will not be the same thing as professional mastering. and for those who don't see what is wrong with the original post . . . So lets say your song is completed but seems to be missing something then you think hey, maybe it's because it needs that mastering everyone is talking about..... If you can hear that the song is missing something, then it is not ready to go to a ME. Fix whatever is wrong. Before you consider the mixing stage complete, it should sound perfect to your ears. A ME can't work miracles. The first thing you should do is try to flatten out the tracks frequency response. This will give the instruments that "blended" feel as though everyone is playing/singing at the same time in the same room. You want to eliminate the gap you feel between the instruments when listening but without them sounding like they're stepping on one another. This is completely wrong. If two instruments clash in your mix, changing the eq of the whole mix will not change that. To fix clashing sounds you would need to change their eq relative to each other. A flat eq curve is generally not a desireable thing and it is not the purpose of mastering. Most songs would end up sounding muddy and unapealing if you were to flatten the curve. It should be sort of bland and midrangey but not muddy Why would you want your music to sound bland and midrangey? Another step to flatten it out a bit is compression. The tricky thing with the compression is, you have to be careful not to overdo it and you don't want your track to sound compressed what so ever. Generally a soft knee is used but rather than expanding or compressing, you set it to flat so you don't really hear it but you get that blended effect brought out even more. What is this flattening he keeps talking about? How can you use compression to flatten a track but not have it sound compressed? In this context, flattened and compressed mean the same thing. If you put a compressor in the signal chain that isn't expanding or compressing, then it isn't doing anything at all. The key is to get rid of that gap you sense between the instruments. If he's talking about the frequency gap, compression has nothing to do with that. Imagine what would happen if you took a track with a bass, a hi hat, and a trumpet and got rid of the gaps. A small amount of reverb breaths live back into the track. You've gotten everyone to sound like they were playing right next to each other with your singer in the center of it all by flattening out the frequency but it sounds like everyone was standing together in a fish bowl. Reverb should not be a part of the mastering process. In most cases, appropriate reverb should be added to tracks during the mixing stage. Besides, if you add reverb to the muddy mess you've made by following the earlier stepes, you will just increase the muddiness. 9 times out of 10, you can simply suck out some of the midrange and suddenly you've matched he sound of legends. Lol, is that how they do it? Generally amplifying it by 3-6 decibels is enough to compensate. How can you generalize about makeup gain when you have no idea what the original level was, much less how the different processes affected it? After taking these steps and finding the settings that best suit your tracks, you genuinely should have songs that sound like they belong on a CD you bought off the Best Buy shelf. Once again - wow. After reading these steps, I would not trust this guy to mix a kick drum solo.

If you can find some of my older posts (I haven't posted much lately) you will see that I am not the type to bash people. BUT in this case, the "tips" given are so far off base that I'm still not even sure that it wasn't meant as a joke. Everyone has to start somewhere - I understand that, but ignorance and cockiness are a bad mix. Also, it's bad enough to advise people to use techniques that aren't good. It's worse when your "techniques" don't even make sense. This has nothing to do with thinking I'm the only one that can get a good mix with cheap equipment or that if it's not expensive equipment it's not worth using. I don't say this to bash or be mean, but honestly, the original post here was nonsensical.

I understand all the points everybody makes about mastering, but I am convinced that a well-above-average finished "home master" is not out of reach.....IF.....a person takes the time and effort to learn the tools and the steps involved. This is true, but if you follow Htaed's steps, you will end up with crap

wow

My computer is hooked up to a stereo as well as the monitors. When I'm listening to music, I use the monitors and the regular speakers. I make sure not to crank the monitors too loud though. I turn off the stereo when I'm mixing, but sometimes use it to double check the mix.

Originally posted by Kiwiburger you could use a Kazoo That's crazy. I gotta add a kazoo to my collection of random small instruments

Originally posted by gsHarmony Supposedly you can disable the 3d desktop in vista and still use the existing desktop But why would you want to? It's gonna look so cool

Originally posted by DarkCide I paid $39 for it. You can't go wrong with that

256MB is way more than you would need. Most of that memory will never be used if you don't run 3d stuff. How good is the deal? You shouldn't spend more than $120 on a graphics card if you won't be gaming, and you can probably get away with spending far less. 128Mb or 64 would be fine. If you plan on getting Windows Vista when it comes out, 256MB might be justified. The OS is supposed to actually make use of your video card's 3d features.

I heard you can get free preamps at Sam Ash. I dunno the details, but I think you need to bring a ski mask and maybe a few other stuff. They give you money too.

Despite what you agreed to, that's poor customer service. However, I doubt you'll be able to get much help from the BBB because it was in the agreement. Try getting in touch with Maxtor. Maybe they'll cover shipping. I've never had any trouble with newegg, but then again I've never had to deal with returns with them

Probably one of those guys that thinks apples are better for recording. G5 my ass