Over the past 12 months I have been focusing on learning my board(Roland VS2400CD) and also getting the sounds I want out of my instruments and amps. I have been working on one song that is still baffling me. It sounds great on every system except my PA system, where it sounds unlike commercial recordings. Though in the car, at home, everywhere else it seems to sound fine. I am not up to snuff on my compression skills and havent really come to grips with panning. I record and mix and try to get the levels perfect while recording each instrument. Anyone else run into this one song syndrome? What did you do to solve the problem?
I suspect a lot of the problem is not knowing the board completely, though a lot seems to come from unfimiliarity with what makes a commercial recording sparkle and have that radio playable sound(other than the $50,000 worth of recording time).
I figure once I learn my board and get the sound I want for one song, every other song will be a snap as I will have that basic 80's type of sound I am looking for(think Alan Parsons, Asia, Toto).
Sound Quality through the P.A.
You say you like the sound you hear of your recording through the car stereo, and through the home system, why not the P.A. system? Try this, go out one night to one of those Karaoke gigs and ask the host to play your song through the system with a nice roomfull of listeners! The true meaning behind "Volume". You may not be at all disapointed when you hear your song's sound quality at a hi sound pressure level.
Mastering is a huge part in
Mastering is a huge part in that expensive commercial sound. Basically, if you were to look at a spectragraph of all your tracks, mastering would make them look somewhat even therefore you get a very even all around sound. Just because you mix the volumes of different tracks you also have to take into consideration the frequency reponse as well. Alot of times people will mix with headphones or bass responsive speakers which is a mistake. You will end up with a muddled sound. Hope that helps for what its worth.