My album, how I loathe you. Let me ennumerate the ways.
1. The vocals. When I used to record my voice, I would do it the music playing loud in my headphones. As a result, I moved myself closer to the microphone, but lowered my volume. It wasn't natural. So, for the album, I recorded all the vocals "live" while playing guitar or piano. Unfortunately, I compensated for the volume of the piano by pushing my voice too hard and closing up my throat. I've since discovered a way to more successfully record my voice naturally, but I can't overdub it on to the ADAT, since it was recorded live and the original vocals have bled onto the piano tracks.
2. The bass. The bass was the first thing I recorded, and back then I didn't even know I'd be getting a better one. All the songs are played on my Peavey Milestone II, except "Gravity" which features my new custom built bass. The difference in quality couldn't be any clearer to me. It's so much thicker and well intoned. Every song deserves it.
3. The mix. I was under the impression to downplay the drums, not let the bass overpower the mix, and fit the vocals in amongst the prominent acoustic guitars and pianos. That was wrong. It gives the album a fat middle, but very little highs and lows. I should have pulled the guitars and pianos further back (especially when performing rhythm parts) and created more depth. One song that the mixing is on the right path is "When I Dream About You." I'd like to use that has a starting point.
4. The EQ. My vocals didn't even sound so bad once the right EQ was applied. The only problem was that I transferred all of the tracks from the ADAT to the Akai completely "flat," thinking that I could apply EQ later on with the Akai. But the Akai's digital EQ was shockingly bad. If you boost or cut any frequency by more than just a a few dBs, a horrible fluttery static noise would appear when the volume spiked. It was totally unacceptable, and apparently a design flaw. So I tweaked each frequency as much as I could push it, but my hands were tied. I could have made more out of what I had, but it wasn't meant to be.
