I recently recorded a composition in Logic that I like very much. Once I bounced the track ( No mastering) I made an MP3 also. First i listened to the track. then I compared to other Itunes MP3 tracks that I collected from European minimal techno and other excellent recordings. Then I listened to a simple track I recorded using a Sony MD recorder with a $50 Mic. Both the Euro tracks and the Simple Sony track have a very vital element that my Logic track is still missing that I notice makes all the difference in the world to my ears and I've been trying to determine what makes this key difference to any and all recordings I hear. By comparison - my track sounds like the life has been squelched out of it...the aural field is narrow no matter what reverb or pluggins or hardware is used - and sounds are getting non-distinct -
compared to the vast spacialness that I hear in the other tracks...( and this is not due to reverb alone either) where each sound swims in a huge aural field and every sound has distinct timber and textural clear quality even mixes all work together and they all breathe with life. Soo too, oddly, does the simple Sony MD recording and there was nothing done to this at all!! AND it's running through the very same hardware, soundcard and Logic.
At first i think it must be in the compression or in the way i used plugins or it is in the lack of mastering...but the more I listen to many CDs and recordings I think no...it's something mysterious...something elemental to the software and hardware itself perhaps...but to my ears this one subject is worth half of all the tips and tricks in the world once i can solve it...because it makes or breaks any track and it will not matter what is used to make that track if it cannot solve this issue - This is my quest to set out to determine what makes the difference. I could listen to any CD now and tell within 5 seconds if the track has this single difference, oir not, and it is not just a digital verses analog issue either.. the electronic music that I really like has mastered this issue and any track that successfully solves this issue - sounds alive and swimming in a huge spacialness and I don't think it is just an issue created by high level reverb either, virtual or hardware or software -...it's something else...something That is key and more basic to the root elements of the software and hardware itself perhaps?? and to me this key trick or tip is THE most important of all for me to figure out right now otherwise I see no reason to record until i figure this out. I could pick it out of any recording now...I would highly
appreciate anyone who could shed some light on this most important for me-subject-thanks in advance!
JBell
