It is clear that booking studio time and spending hourly fee's to record your music is pretty much a thing of the past. Thanks to technology musicians can, with minimum recording equipment and relatively very little money produce great sounding recordings from the comfort of their bedroom studio's.
However, to make your bedroom studio production sound like it was recorded in a big studio and have that "big sound" is till a tricky endeavor that requires attention. Here are some basic tricks that can help you towards that goal.
If I have to pin point one major area in the production process that is crucial and extremely important in your music sounding big is the recording of the drums. If the drums are not recorded cleanly and featured prominently in the recording the whole song is going to sound weak and small. Short of having stand alone drum sequencers like the MPC series or even live drums, which is the best way to go for your drum recordings, if you are using drum sounds from a keyboard module here is one usual mistake you need to watch for. Avoid dubbing all your separate drum parts on one track.
Since it comes easy to sequence your drum parts on one track, we tend to leave it as is and end up having a weak sound as a result. Just because it sounds good in your studio doesn't mean it going to produce a big sound in the end.
The trick is to give each drum part two separate tracks and record them in stereo. For example when recording the hi-hat, record it on two separate tracks and pan the tracks left and right. The same with all the other parts; the bass drum, snare, toms and cymbals. Now you have ten or more tracks of just the drums, you then adjust the levels accordingly and dub the tracks to the final left and right tracks. This should give you a prominent drum sound on which you can build the rest of your song. The drums are the driving rhythm force of your song, so don't hesitate to give them a good sound level.
Once you have a good sounding drum tracks, here are some simple tricks to give your other instruments instant body and presence. Again the same rule applies here, double or even triple track the same instruments. Foe example if your song requires a background guitar chord parts, play the same part twice on two different tracks and pan them left and right. Bingo, that's an immediate body and presence for your song. You can use this same trick to guitar licks as well. That illusive "big sound" doesn't have to be so if you use the techniques I described above. Hope this has been helpful and good luck with your recordings.
Ermias Kebede is primarily a musical artist. You can sample his music as well as find more production tools on his website: http://www.etkglobal.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ermias_Kebede

Hello everyone!!

I'm new to this forum,my name is Ken Sutton..... I'm a Mixing and Mastering Engineer and owner of WaterFall Records./ SweetKenny Sound.

I know many of you want to get that BIG SOUND and realy don't know how.
you can get that sound with just a little work and some TIME.The key is to LISTEN,LISTEN,LISTEN!!!!!

You don't need to spend any money to do this cool!


WaterFall Records Learn to Record Page
Setting up a Mixing session
by Kenneth Sutton

After you record your song and you like what you have recorded, you need to mix your song. Mixing is very easy and is not hard at all; the trick to mixing is listening. Set back and Listen to your song. You'll then begin to hear and get an ideal of how you want it to sound.

Play with the Levels in your song, some things sound better in a mix if they are lower than others, don't be afraid to take things out and put them back in at different times.

To set up your tracks in a mix is up to you, there is no right or wrong way to mix a song.

But, to make things fatter in your mix there are some things you can do, like doubling tracks, in most software programs this is as quick as a click of the mouse. Go up to where it says Edit and click it. In your dropdown window you should see Doubling Tracks. Click that and you should get a new track. (Make sure you highlight the track you want to double.)

You can also send your tracks to an AUX track and have all your Drum parts in a mix, and still have control of all your drum parts.
Sub Mix

Here you can add EQ, Compression etc. To do this, you will need to set up a send. A send is just what it says; you are going to send your track to another track.

In your track, (lets say Guitar) click on your Send button, (or Buss) and lets call it 'Buss 1-2'.

Now open up a new track called AUX, set your fader to 00dbs, and where it says 'Input' on the Aux track click Buss 1-2.

Play your track to hear the Guitar, set your levels to your liking. (If you don't hear your Guitar or see a level in the Aux fader, go to your send and set it to 00dbs). With Aux Tracks you can do the same thing with Effects, just send the audio track to the effect.


EQ'ing

There is a lot you can do with EQ, also known as 'Coloring' . But too much can hurt a song, so don't over EQ!.

Kick Drum EQ. 4-band.

Gain: -20dbs
Fq: -13.0 khz
Gain: -2.0 dbs
Fq: -4.20 khz
Q: - 2.40
Gain: -3.0 dbs
Fq: 160 hz
Q: 1.90
Gain: 0.0 dbs
Fq: 210 hz

Drum Kit EQ. 4-band.

Gain: 4.0 dbs
Fq: 11.0 khz
Gain: -3.0 dbs
Fq: 4.40 khz
Q: 2.60
Gain: 2.0 dbs
Fq: 460 hz
Q: 0.98 hz
Gain: -2.0 dbs
Fq: 190 hz


Bass Guitar EQ. 4-band

Gain: 1.0 dbs
Fq: 6.00 khz
Gain: -1.0 dbs
Fq: 620 hz
Q: 2.6
Gain: -3.5 dbs
Fq: 200 hz
Q: 3.50
Gain: 1.5 dbs
Q: 95 hz


Vocal EQ.4-band

Gain: 3.0 dbs
Fq: 12.0 khz
Gain: 2.5 dbs
Fq: 5.20 khz
Q: 0.94
Gain: -4.0 dbs
Fq: 850 hz
Q: 1.40
Gain: 2.0 dbs
Fq: 290 hz.

Compression.

I like to use a 4:1 ratio on most everything but in some I use a 8:1 ratio on Guitars,Kick Drum,Bass Guitars.

Make sure you put the Compressor on before the Eq because if you do it the other way around you'll lose the top and mids when the compressor emphasizes the spot that you Eqed.If you compress frist,then add bottom,then you're gonna hear it better.

I hope I have help'ed some of you in mixing your song.
If any of you need my help just send me an email and I'll help out.

Good Luck! and Happy Recording.

Ken Sutton.

__________________
Ken Sutton
WaterFall Records. / SweetKenny Sound.
www.waterfallrecordings.com
www.sweetkenny.com

Great info Kenny! I am recording right now myself and soon to get to the mixing and mastering aspects of my tunes. I will definitely keep everything you said under my hat! Thank you for the great posts.