better recordings?

as ive recently started recording projects at home ive been finding it doesnt mater how much time i put into my equipment i just cant make it sound pro.

i find my sm57 and a art tube preamp give me a high quality guitarsound i would even use the word professional, but my drum fit sounds thin and my bass is hiding. I use a DAw for mixing mastering and producing Cubase SE (offical) and hardly use any outboard i use a m audio 1010lt which is a pci card with its covnerters housed inside the pc i run into it with a fostex 812 analog desk for preamps and levels ect i just dont get it i know every project situations different but is their a cheap road for my to dish out high quality recordings with? im going to buy a Se electronics 2200 in the next 7days as my teacher recommended i over the rode nt2. im looking for technics to get the best results fast or cheap equipment many thanks Jay... i also intned to but the new line6 DI unit to use on bass as a constant

The answer is simple..

Compare it to this analogy. You have a nice car and you cannot understand why you can't drive like a NASCAR driver. After all, you have a nice car..

See what I mean?

Get CD's of your favorite artists. Listen to them. Try to get that same sound with your equipment. Practice. Do it again. Repeat hundreds of times. Decide if something is missing in your equipment, your playing, your processing, your mixing, your monitors, your microphones, your room, etc.

You cannot simply buy your way to professional sounding recordings any more than buying a race car makes you a professional race car driver.

As lame as it sounds the old addage is true. "How do I get to Carnegie Hall"? Practice.

But the analog would actually be closer to:

"I've driven a Hyundai fast around the highways, so why can't I win a NASCAR race?"

It's experience, location, and yes, even the gear.

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And this is already assuming that you are recording musicians that are really talented and have good instruments and that they are playing well-written and arranged songs that they have rehearsed...but that's even besides the point in the analogy!

just turn left the whole time and then drink busch after the race. keep that in your mind the whole time you are recording and you should be fine.

I do agree that left turns should be made continually during a mix.

If recording "quality musicians" is a prerequisite to good recordings, I'm in serious trouble. Fortunately, to borrow a mathematics phrase, "playing with quality musicians is a SUFFICIENT condition for good recordings, but it is not NECESSARY."

Seeing as I'm positively thrilled with the recordings I'm getting now and that I am a really lousy instrumentalist, I'd say that what really matters isn't so much how GOOD the musicians you record are, but, rather, do they PLAY ENTIRELY WITHIN THEIR LIMITATIONS.

Everyone who hears my stuff thinks I'm pretty good, but that's only because they can't see the incredibly simplistic stuff that I can't play! I only play what I can play, and, as long as I do that (and have my finger on the "undo button"), I can sound just great!

And thank God for that!

Stephen

I had a band in the studio one time where one of the guys played his lead twice and said that was it. Another member must have done his lead fifteen times.

During the next session the first guy showed up early and I remarked on how quickly he got his parts down.

He said that he learned a long time ago that he plays all the time at about 95% of his ability. Doing his parts a hundred times is no guarantee the remaining five percent will show up.

I am the same. If I can't get what I want in the first four or five attempts..it will never show up. Some of us play as good as we can all the time and there is no guarantee parts will ever be better.

Try to make the best with what you can do.

I've been battling with this recently myself and wondering what my recordings are lacking. My first advice would be, read as much as you can on this board! Do some searches for words like 'mixing', 'mastering'. etc. I posted a song recently and asked for advice and have been amazed by the help I've been given. I've learned more in the past 5 days than I have in several years. But I've also learned how much I still dont' know. At first it is intimidating but its also exciting...for me anyway.

But as long as I'm here I guess I'll post the same question. Most of my songs, I'm using Virtual instruments like Reason and Stylus. So I'm still not completely understanding why my tracks don't sparkle. If I'm just mixing down a virtual instrument at 24 bits in Sonar 4, why does it still seem I'm losing clarity? Other well known people on this board have heard my tracks and commented on the loss of clarity and prescence in the high end. Even beyond something that can just be corrected with EQ. I'm kinda stumped. I'm not using compression on these tracks or any master faders and its appearing to others that I am. Strange stuff.

hey echo,

it sounds like your monitors aren't showing you what your tracks really sound like.

back to original post:

I agree that there are tons of books with helpful information. I've spent the past 2 years reading more books than I ever have in my life. Reading is cool and all, but you will learn at a much faster rate by watching someone who really knows what he or she is doing.

I have a friend who is a really good audio engineer. When I go to his studio, I learn more in 2 hours than I do reading an entire book. Sometimes when I share my mixing techiques with him, he looks at me like I'm from Mars. There are so many different ways to achieve great sounds, but a pro can show you practical methods you can use to troubleshoot a song. There really is no substitute for hands-on training. A book can't show you how a compressor on kick drum should sound.