Nitebob wrote:
So I started recording again, with the eye on some international songwriting competitions. I noticed however that my recordings in general sound very muffled, like it's recorded through a pillow :-[.
No matter how I try to EQ I just can't seem to get it so that it's to my satisfaction.
Any pointers here?
The good news is that it's not your equipment or software. The other good news is that you're not alone because this is problem that many home recordists struggle with.
The main culprit here is almost always too much low end (bass) build up across all the instruments. It is also likely an arrangement problem; arrangement being the way certain parts and sounds "fit together" and interact.
The first thing I would do is get rid of the VE20 pedal, despite your feeling that it is not the culprit. This way you can eliminate a potential complication and simplify your methods before you start adding things into the signal chain. Set up your condenser, record a test recording of a guitar or yourself singing and see if it still sounds muffled. Use no EQ or compression. Just mic-> cable -> interface. The Behringer mic is not the highest of quality but it shouldn't be muffled but in fact should sound quite bright. Most cheaper condensers are designed to be bright.
Another problem may be your monitoring environment. If your room is light on the bass, you may be either pushing the bass up to feel it or may be leaving bass-heavy sounds untreated because you can't hear it. A good pair of headphones with an extended bass response might help. The long term solution is to treat your room acoustically and possibly even move your workstation to a different part of the room with more bass.
Lastly, once you can actually hear what's going on, you need to be critical of the low end in all of your tracks. The high pass filter can be your friend here, as mentioned. The other option is to choose sounds that don't conflict with one another. If your guitar is too bassy and is conflicting with the kick and bass guitar, tweak your amp and apply an HPF or low shelf. There is only so much space in the audio "hosepipe"!
Cheers ?
