I tried a friend's extremely expensive camera recently and was *stunned* by the quality. Photos looked incredible before any post-processing, and miles better than any other photos I had ever taken. The detail, color, and depth of field was just beautiful without me doing anything. Has anyone had a similar experience with a microphone? I'm sure someone will say "I get great vocals with a 58, it's all about the song", I get that, and I love cheap gear. But has a high-end microphone ever reset your expectations or just made your life so much easier that you thought...holy shit?

https://youtu.be/baWTjg1QqS8?t=160

At 2:45 it sounds like he had to stop and come back later and do the rest of the vocals with a different mic or preamp or something. Just suddenly a completely different vocal sound. I've been hearing this song my whole life and why is it suddenly bothering me so much right now

This is a strange one, I know. I am looking into doing system tuning with the computer programs, in my case Open Sound Meter because I can't justify a Smaart license yet. I know that a measurement microphone is necessary because of it's flat frequency response. I've done enough looking around to know that a Dayton EMM-6 is the go to (and probably my next mic purchase) but I was wondering if in a pinch, a sm81 on the flat response setting, could be used as a measurement mic for rough system tuning.

What is the current best quality AI stem separator you've used?

I am using it for some vocals.

These things are pretty much widely available now but I've always hated the sound of them. What is the best you've heard or used?

I think I have preferences for somewhat scooped mids and lowered highs. Certain instruments just sound disgusting to me, like accordion and saxophone, I like bass, oud and clarinet.

Modern Metal sounds like refrigerator with tonal elements. Funny, occasionally when I hear refrigerator it makes me audio hallucinate metal-core music.

I suppose others too have their own. I have theory it's largely anatomical, perhaps shape of ear, way ones neuron pathways and brains are developed..

I think there might even be differences in tonal scale sensing, eg 'eastern' scales sound more natural and 'resonant' to me.

My guitarist friend plays acoustic guitar with piezo pickups trough portable amp with drive - and he likes the sound, it's power he says - me it gives headaches bc it sounds to me like 'agony growls of c3p0 in meat grinder' and I have headache understanding how he can't hear that..

There must be some kinda 'diagnostic' clusters of hearing preferences - and they kinda overlap with music genres to some degree.

It's something between music theory and audio engineering - from neurology..anatomy pov.

Hi all, hoping someone can help me out here. We have some tunes out on Spotify and they exceed Spotify’s default loudness (I think I read they normalize to -14 LUFS integrated). Either way, I know it exceeds the threshold because if I turn volume normalization off, our songs get louder (death magnetic gets MUCH louder in comparison). So if Spotify is turning down our volume because it’s louder than the threshold, why do we end up quieter than a lot of recent releases?

Would increased dynamic range between song sections make this happen? Excess low end? I don’t think either are the case here but it’s all I can think of.

I've been watching new plugins for years, and it's been a pleasure for me to try new ones. But nowadays, everybody makes a new plugin every day, vibe coding with some LLM or whatever.

I'm surprised that they can even ask for money for something we can also make by just kindly asking another LLM (they say prompting). But it's okay for people to try new things and make their dreams come true with those tools.

What makes me anxious is that I also stopped trying new plugins from even bigger brands, because I don't know about the code behind the plugin. So I just stick to the plugins that I've been using for years, and when I try new ones, they're always from the brands that I already kind of trust.

I'm pretty sure there are other people like me, and I genuinely think that this is going to hurt the industry in the long term.

Just wanted to share my ideas and hear about yours.

Cheers.

Screenshot of Kevin Parker in his stu

I googled "reddit sound treatment" and it led me here. Thought someone might know. Thanks.

I do the the audio for our podcast. now we have a recurring guest with a lisp which is in my ears not uniform, because some sibilants are very harsh and some are a little bit "lispy". she is using a sm7b and there are sibilants at about 2900khz and 6000 khz. when i am using a de-esser the same way i do it for the other speakers or if stacking de-essers, it just don't work for my ears, because some the super-harsh sibilants get smoother but the lisps get even more obvious.

i am not sure what to do, because in real life her lisp isnt so obvious in my oppinion. just a little bit. but in my recording, after bringing everything to -14lufs it is very obvious if i dont tame it.

what i have done till yet is to boost the middle-high frequencies (then the lisps sound more like a real "s" should sound) and then to gain-automate every too harsh sibilant and lower it -5db manually. the result is for my ears very nice but it is extremly time-consuming (the podcast length is 90 minutes). my question is if there is a way to automate this via a plug in or ai or an audio engineer technique i could learn?

Hey everyone! I’m trying to get that deep, “bigger” vocal sound where the formant is shifted down while still keeping the Auto-Tune sounding smooth and natural.

I’ve tried lowering the formant after tuning the vocal, but sometimes the transition between notes sounds weird or artificial, especially when the vocal moves between different pitches like gargling noise.

For those who use Auto-Tune with formant shifting, what’s your workflow to make the formant changes sound smooth and consistent? Do you adjust the formant before or after Auto-Tune? And do you use any additional plugins or processing to smooth it out?

Any tips or recommended settings would be appreciated!

I recently took my amplifier out of the storage and bought myself a pair of DT770 X's.
I used to have a pair for DT 990 and the sound profile is the same really, not very bassy.

So I sat down and went through my playlists to see what the songs sounded like and some were worse than they previously were with my bassy HyperX Cloud Alphas.
But deadmau5 songs like Strobe, I Remember etc just sound orgasmic honestly. What is it that makes them sound so good? I've tried to put myself into how synthesizers work etc but I barely understand it at all. Even with these DT770s that barely have any bass at all I can still feel the bassline incredibly well when listening to his songs whereas other songs it gets completely overshadowed by even the vocals.

Maybe a dumb question, but I have been doing post the last five years working with spoken word content. My employer has a few studios they use, I dont remember they exact condensor mics they are using (I'm remote out of state).

Every once in awhile I get a recording where I'll have a lot of squeaks produced by the speaker after fricatives /f/ and /th/, and also /nasal+s/. Usually occurring in the 500Hz-3800kHz range. It's nothing I can use a filter for, I have to spectrally scrub everything out manually.

I'm just curious if this actually from speaker production or the way the equipment is processing their signal, maybe enhancing or artifacting a sound we don't usually hear with natural speech?

Just randomly saw this video pop up in my YouTube recommendations and subsequently tried and failed to find a single post about it anywhere on the internet except for the very YouTube channel that posted it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW8Z98pXuSE

What are our thoughts on this?

Hi! Are there 3rd party brand omni capsules that would match my oktavas? Because Oktava is russian, I am looking for a substitute, but is it possible at all? (Noob here).

Even in school I would hear it all the time “don’t forget, your filters/eq affect your phase!” But from a wave physics standpoint, how does it physically impact the phase of my tracks? More importantly, how do I fix this issue?

I have InPhase and I use it occasionally to correct phase issues on drum kits or multi-mic recordings of a guitar cab but only when it’s very obviously affecting the synergy of my tracks. Most of the time the phase is such little of an issue I don’t treat it. Something my very old school professor reminded me of is that back in the day the only thing you had is to flip it 180 degrees or not. I try to not stress over phase because of that.

Thanks in advance for educating my dumbass y’all <3

Did anyone here take part in these sessions?  I'm not an engineer and can't speak the language of you that are, but as merely a music fan, I can't think of a more sonically perfect record, certainly not recorded in 1993.  To my ears, the production is leaps and bounds above "Momentary Lapse..." and leaps and bounds above many records.  It has to be in my top 5 rock recordings.  I don't know of too many 1993 recordings that resonate with me.  Aerosmith Get A Grip (Bruce Fairbairn) sounds great.  Def Leppard "Adrenalize" (Mike Shipley) is great, but just sounds like Hysteria 2.0. 

I get that it's Gilmour and Wright and Mason and Bob Ezrin so what else do you expect, but there's a sonic perfection in this record.  The ambiance in this recording is not like much I can think of.  Other Floyd or Gilmour records recorded at Astoria) don't come close.  Somehow, they captured lightening in a bottle with these sessions.  

The choral vocals on "Keep Talking" are fantastically mixed. 

"What Do You Want From Me" could easily have been a Dark Side cut.

Gilmour's clean tone on "Take It Back" and "Coming Back To Life" is to me, the best it ever sounded. 

I think Richard Wright may be one of the most criminally underrated 'background' musicians and anyone who ever wants to know how much he contributed to Pink Floyds sound should check out his 1978 solo album "Wet Dream", which no other member of Pink Floyd contributes to.  His return to the band and contribution to the sound is ever-present here.  

Anyone agree?

I’m sure a good chunk of us are Los Angeles based. Now that mixing has become a main source of income, I would really like to establish a relationship with an audiologist! Any recommendations would be appreciated!!

TLDR: want a ‘brighter’ tube mic that isn’t as veiled as something like the Avantone CV-12, and takes EQ well. Used mainly for vocals and guitars. Budget of between 400-1500 dollars. Don’t mind buying used.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a ‘brighter’ tube mic, as I am trying to expand my mic locker and don’t have a solid tube mic. I recorded using an Avantone CV-12 today, and my vocals sounded like there was a blanket thrown over them. After a quick high shelf, to my ears it took the EQ well and added brightness while still retaining the smooth highs. However, my understanding is that that is just a function of the rounded transients and even order harmonics natural to a tube mic architecture.

On the other side of things, when I recorded my acoustic guitar it sounded absolutely atrocious. Like a giant moaning while dying in a cave full of shaving cream. I tried various positions and distances and I landed on about a foot away from 12th fret, but even then it wasn’t great. I had to push a 1073 eq pretty hard to add the brightness back in, but then I felt that I had just lost the entire character of the tube mic.

I am looking for a tube mic that won’t be so veiled, and I live in CT where the Telefunken factory is and I’ve been eyeing some of their tube mics but even their mics can stretch out of my budget. As a young engineer building up his studio, I’d be comfortable being a little financially irresponsible and spending 1400-1500 if it’s really worth it, but preferably not that much. I also don’t mind buying used off of reverb if there is a higher price mic recommended that will bring it within budget if bought used.

EDIT: I listened to the recording again in my home studio and it definitely sounds brighter, especially the vocal. Must've been bass buildup in the room I listened in initially, also there was HVAC running which affected the recording. I feel like I could eek some more highs from the guitar, but as many people noted that's probably proximity effect. I made a very short video of the recordings with timestamps so you can hear everything for yourself.

Thank you!

Mostly see music audio engineers always complaining how it’s so hard to find work. Wonder if it’s the same for audio engineers in film and tv or video games? Mostly seeing if shifting from music to Post is feasible. I’m based in LA. Thanks for any advice.

Hey everyone , writing here regarding my new job-path and wondering if I can have a reassurance .
Im (F,32) recently graduated as a music producer and sound engineer , and in 3 years at uni we’ve covered pretty much everything regarding mixing (EQ, all sorts of compressions, stereo widening, FX , etc etc etc), mastering (in its endless depth and nuances) and mic types (polar patterns , positions, angles. characteristics , patching , etc).
How hard for me would be to volunteer in theatre with their sound systems and gear ? I really want to enter live sound industry and it was my dream to work in theatre, so I’m looking for a genuine opinion if my knowledges that I gathered in uni are enough to feel confident in live sound industry . I’m afraid my lack of experience with live sound consoles would be a big trouble .
Many many thanks !

I’m searching for help cuz I’m stuck on the vocals sounding like shit despite good mic and vocal chain and the vocals are not heard in the mix, i need serious help cuz i’ve been stuck like this for several months and I’m not progressing

I don’t have funds for new monitors or Slate’s Emulation stuff where you can “mix” on NS10’s or car audio, which is fine. Im curious if there’s a workaround anybody here does to get a ballpark range of what it‘d be like mixing with NS10’s or Avantone/Auratone Mixcubes?

I figure that slapping a multiband EQ on the master bus that‘a an approximation of the EQ response chart of the respective monitors would be too good to be true.

TIA

I have been dabbling in the recording of my own music for quite some time now. I'm starting to get closer to the sound I'm going for, but it's hard not to overdo it sometimes with mixing and mastering.

Whenever I first come up with a song, there's a certain organic magic to the early recordings, but it usually ends up losing a bit of that by the end.

On the other hand, when I listen back on the "magic" early versions, I can hear some unpleasant qualities on multiple listens.

I was always a huge fan of lo-fi albums such as Bee Thousand and Slanted and Enchanted. The rawness of those albums wasn't necessarily intentional, but was a limitation of the tools/budget at their disposal. Would those albums have been as great if they'd been recorded with the digital tools we have now?

My questions is: how do we strike a balance between being able to more easily make things perfect, while at the same keeping that organic and raw sound? And are there any tricks of the trade that people can use to achieve a raw but also polished sound?

I joined this sub because I am trying to learn about the industry to help my daughter.

She is 15 and interested in pursuing live production, music tours, theater, etc.

I assume this would mostly be part time work and she would have to have a second part time career? Or at least have a second area of focus such as studio production?

We are both of course worried about AI in the coming years.
She feels live production will still have a life as performers and venues will still insist on "human ears" and stage signals for the foreseeable future.

Most musician earplugs are in SNR.

SNR is always higher, often by 5 or more. Should you be looking at the NRR instead? If some earplugs have an SNR of 17 but an NRR of 11, shouldn’t you infer that the real reduction you’re getting is 11 dB?

I’m confused on the two, because concert earplugs usually have an NRR below 15, even if the SNR is around 20.

Then what about the subtract 7 and divide by 2 rule for NRR? That makes no sense, as a 17 SNR/11 NRR would then only supposedly reduce by 2 dB.

I know it’s two different regulations, but that shouldn’t matter for the decibel reduction. There’s only one actual decibel reduction when you’re wearing the earplugs, so which one is it?