DIY Recording FAQ

so u're sayin there's no local album dat impress u yet?

i kinda like malaysia's love me butch's guitar tone. but the drums & bass wasnt deep enuff.

heard sum thai bands' album oso not bad. they got weird sponsors like shampoo manufacturers. unlike local bands total DIY self finance.

lotsa overseas ang moh bands under indie label sounds gd in their indie album. y local bands' albums always cant reach dat kinda standard? not enuff time? not enuff $$? not enuff experience ppl? not enuff gd equipment? wats ur view on dis?
 
if your saying that, you aint looking in the right places, open your eyes and ears!

hey relac. i was asking blueprint whether if theres any local material dat impress him.

i havent heard lotsa local stuffs. juz wonderin y dose ang moh indie label bands can sound good even though they r not signed to major labels yet.

mayb u can share ur view on it? issit lack or $, time, expertise? or the ppl or culture?

juz like to hear from ppl in the industry. tks for sharing
 
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why they sound good?

any one can sound good. if your music is inf by shit it wont help but these days you can buy or d.load any music.

the main thing is recording it well. if its the best song ever but not recorded right it will loose its power. the most perfect drum sound recorded wrong sounds like shit. thats that.

also, this will sound stupid but its true, the studio must be a good place. i mean the atmos must be relaxed and the staff must know how to use the toys.

you write your thing and you will never write some tune that every one likes. if your happy thats the point. write for your self and let the rest buy it if they want. if you write some thing that you dont like your hart will not be in it and you wont work hard.

if you want to record let me know. i have worked in studios for 15 years, in uk japan and now singapore. if your in a young band and have played on stage you will prob know who i am, but i will not tell you yet.

you want to record
 
Dime : hey sorry for the late reply, been real busy finishing up recording my last 3 bands for this year.
to answer your Zoom H4 question , read this thread :
http://soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?t=31038

in fact if you "stalk" my previous posts, you'll see the few questions I've answered. you'll probably be able to learn abit from there
http://soft.com.sg/forum/search.php?do=finduser&u=4335

sef : well , if you're asking me if there's any local album that impresses me, I've never really thought of it that way. cos whatever answers that comes to my head will be biased. like for example, B Quartet's Smitten Bard CD is recorded by a good friend of mine, I'll be like "I liked that cd, i bought it from agingyouth, but i'm not like a big fan of the band, i was buying the cd more to show support for my friend's recording, and with respect to the band instead of just asking for mp3 pirated rips from my friend straight right?" so you're not asking for a fair opinion here, you're asking for my biased one haha. but yeah, B Quartet are amazingly humble guys in real life. they got my respect.

love me butch's guitar is cool, if you ask me, the way it sounded in the recording sounds just like how they do on live stages (I filmed love me butch at Rouge club and baybeats.) makes it all sound "Real" y'know haha.

as for my view on how "local bands albums can't reach that standard" , actually if you think about it, the local scene support has boomed, last time it was really rare to have any local band to be featured on TV / radio / newspapers. and I , as a normal consumer (not very involved in the scene) , live my everyday life reading papers and flipping radio/tv channels, can hear "LOCAL BANDS" without even TRYING TO! last time there were only a few recording studios, probably less than 10 or 15. today there's 30+ and still increasing. and almost every kid knows how to record/mix. even got to know a 14 year old who's into recording/mixing recently. I was still fiddling around in windows's sndrec32.exe when I was 14 man. (i'm 24.) I don't think local scene "cannot make it" , never did. it's going on a smooth upward hill. not a steep mount everest, but a small bukit timah hill kind of slope progression. we just gotta keep doing what we do best. bands keep writing good songs. studios keep the competition up to improve the sound. more jamming studios around singapore so we bands don't have to travel from one end to the other side of singapore just to have some decent practise (wth man, damn them public transport cost increase). slowly there'll be people/companies with more "Financial power" to support local bands/musicians. and i'm sure it'll all work out in the long run.

90cents worth
 
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hey dude thx man.seems like all i gotta to do now is find the proper equipment.btw you got a studio right?might wanna record a demo.the home recording is like a gauge for my band mates.i so wanna hear my own music.got all the songs laid out and written.just need to record and let ppl hear it.if only recoeding was easier.like drying the laundry.haha.lol
 
dimebag : i don't have a studio man. I do mobile recording , same like bedroom recording except I do it at ppl's bedrooms or jamming studios or anywhere else and I bring home to mix (or I do some mixing at coffebean/macdonalds) but err yeah I'm fully booked till feb. so you might wanna try someone else if it's urgent , do drop by one of my other site at www.bandpitstop.blogspot.com

cheers
 
Recording

i have a studio, well i work in one. how many tracks do you want to record? whats your budget.
 
from uk not been to uk.

blueprint....................

i am from the uk and went to work in japan then came here.

i was trained by some of the best sound engineres in the world but that does not mean i am now one of them. i was just awarded 3rd best in sing and 18th in asia, but thats all bull! i know people who where not on the list for asia who i rate well above me and the number 2 for singapore is a fool. NO NAMES so please dont ask me who. (cos we dont want to upset james from soft - hi james)
 
yeah but................

i do but then you will know who i have worked with. i will look for some of the ones you wont know.

do you want bands of electronic? or both i guess.

ron???
 
i'm curious myself to hear your work, otpp. we can all learn alot from listening to someone more experienced and qualified such as yourself! do put something up for us, anything at all =)
 
ok..........

i will prob put it on myspace unless some one tells me how to do it here. i did not even knoe you could add music on soft.
 
otpp : "but then you will know who i have worked with. i will look for some of the ones you wont know." errr whats with the anonymity? i don't really care if you recorded president or LKY really. in audio, it's "audio". no celebrity treatment.

i'm more interested in the bands ones, cos it's more on "recording". and "mixing".
 
seriously... to record a bands/music.... i always believe in capturing the feel of the songs rather then going into too technical stuff. well.... if the song got no life, your music is a failure... if the songs got no souls... the music is a failure....
 
its getting the best of both...............

you MUST get the feel of the song 250% right but then after that you also have to use the right effects.

FX are not to make it sound 'better' just keep it right to full volume, make any changes the band (my bosses for that bay) want and just to tidy it up.

all the best FX in the world cant help you if you have a bad recording or if you just use them wrong. the worst thing you can do with FX (for bands any way) is use too much FX. keeping the natural sound of the amp from mic is vital. the player put his sound that way for a reason!

and blueprint, i am recording a singapore band called 'the pinholes' this sunday (13/1/2007) so that cd will be all ocer in a few weeks. do you know them?

i have worked with famous and not famous people but like you say, who cares! i do it for the music. i worked in a bar doing live sound for a year just because i liked the way the bar was run. the bar (in singapore) was just a place where any band could just go and play no matter who they where. alot of you may of been in to gigs there.

any one know who i am yet???
 
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FX??? well. for bands, i seriously keep FX at a minimum. always get the raw sound right before going into mixing. FX is for me to feel the gap of the songs. for mixing, i only have 4 must use plugs.... compressor/limiter, reverb, delay and autotune(sometimes). :)

I'm not a professional so maybe some can define professional recording and studio to me. :) ask this many time but nobody reply. is siting behind a SSL/Large consoles make you a professional or having the craft to work on any equipment(maybe just few preamps, DA, Mics and a good software) as long as it's decent enough to make it work?
 
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