I am very sorry, but I have to open this discussion again.
After a lot of hours in Cubase I am finally able to do decent mixes. The thing is - I still have some problems syncing the instruments.
Using cut-slip and time warp methods, I did a 99% accurate drums and bass guitar.
SNARE DRUM
BASS GUITAR
And it sounds amazing!
I also have GREAT sounding solo guitars. Had to do some cleaning in the fast parts but it wasn’t complicate at all. Very accurate as well and naturally sounding.
But I still struggle with rythm guitars. I am starting to think that when I don’t record a perfect take, later edditing makes it sound even worse.
GUITAR (RYTHM) - bad take - one guitar (mic and line input) → both quantized → guitar loop
GUITAR (RYTHM) - very good take - two guitars (one overdub) - raw recording
Surprisingly, the second example sounds MUCH better though it looks that the guitar player strummed too early. So I decided to use raw recording without eny editing. It sounded very good (better than before with those guitar loops). But thanI played the mix in my car and I still thought it sounds fine, until I switched to the radio and heard some mainstream song. It sounded much more tight and accurate. So I need to edit my tracks anyway.
Please, I feel very desperate so I’d be greatful for any advice. I am sure that I am doing something wrong.
Lot of great producers say - listen with your ears, not your eyes. But I think it is more guessing, when you are trying to find a sweet spot by delaying your track by less than 5 ms. I also don’t have top end equipment, so I’d rather do a rough correction and than check the waveform than depending on the sound from my small monitors and studio headphones.