Lets talk about the importance of tracking a guitar pass twice (same arrangement) as opposed to simply duplicating a single guitar track. Although you may think its the same it definitely does not achieve the same result.
When double tracking the guitar your goal should be to play the second take as close as possible to the first take. The effect of double tracking will give your sound much more width and richness as opposed to copy & pasting your initial guitar track.
If you zoom in on the wave forms within your DAW you'll notice that each guitar take is distinct. These distinctions is what gives the sound its unique flavor.
When duplicating a track the signals are identical and when played certain frequencies cancel each other out.
Double Tracking vs Duplicating. The Important Difference!
The difference in double tracking is that you get different transient / tones / phase shift from the pick every time you play the same notes. You can't achieve this result by duplicating one recording and slightly moving the duplicated part, it just doesn't sound alive”, it will sound plain and monotonic as shown in the video example. Regardless of how good of a player you are you get rich results by default when double tracking because the reality in lack of the better expression is so fine grained that it's impossible to duplicate any stroke twice. On the other hand if you don't play well you get too much difference in double tracking, which then leads to confusing results when the melody should be same on both takes.”
Monday 31 October 2016
Sunday 30 October 2016
DUAL MIC GUITAR RECORDING TECHNIQUES! (The Fredman Technique And More)
DUAL MIC GUITAR RECORDING TECHNIQUES! (The Fredman Technique and More)
Today we're going to expand our " microphone a guitar amp " article, talking about some advanced technique, that involves two microphones.
Using more than one microphone on the same cabinet means getting the sound from different points and reproducing it in a more accurate way, since every microphone just takes a snapshot of the spectrum tracked from there, and there will be unavoidably some predominant frequency area, and some other that will go lost.
We could add as many microphones as we want, keeping in mind that the more mikes we use, the harder will get to make them all glue together, but it's pretty common to say that using just one microphone is usually not enough to track the body and at the same time the crispness of a guitar tone.
Today we're going to focus on the three most common dual-microphone techniques:
1) the Fredman Technique: used by Van Halen and the producer Frederick Nordstrom, this technique was used on many albums, for example the In Flames' masterpiece "Clayman":
As you can see it's a "Close Miking" technique, which means that the microphones should be 1-2 inches (3 to 5cm) from the grill, and it's usually done with 2 shure sm57, but nothing forbids to try different combinations.
One microphone should be set straight towards the dustcap or its edge, taking the full body of the sound and many low frequencies due to the proximity effect , while the 45° offset one should take the higher frequencies, adding some grit to the tone.
2) the fizz-killing technique : this technique takes advantage of the phase alignment (click on the link for a dedicated article about the phase). It consists in using 2 Shure Sm57, one straight to the edge of the dustcap, the other near. The core of the technique is to back off the second microphone until the phase cancellation doesn't take away only the "fizz", the annoying high frequencies that make our tone sound like a mosquito. Once we get rid of them this way, only the "beef" of our tone will remain, and the sound will be tight and punchy.
3) The Condenser technique: this technique is used mainly with clean and overdriven guitars, and it consists in setting a dynamic microphone near the edge of the cone, to capture only the mids and the lows, and putting a large diaphragm condenser half a meter away, to catch some room, the higher frequencies and the low-roar of the tubes. These two microphones combined will give a very warm and rich clean tone, especially with tube amps.
Today we're going to expand our " microphone a guitar amp " article, talking about some advanced technique, that involves two microphones.
Using more than one microphone on the same cabinet means getting the sound from different points and reproducing it in a more accurate way, since every microphone just takes a snapshot of the spectrum tracked from there, and there will be unavoidably some predominant frequency area, and some other that will go lost.
We could add as many microphones as we want, keeping in mind that the more mikes we use, the harder will get to make them all glue together, but it's pretty common to say that using just one microphone is usually not enough to track the body and at the same time the crispness of a guitar tone.
Today we're going to focus on the three most common dual-microphone techniques:
1) the Fredman Technique: used by Van Halen and the producer Frederick Nordstrom, this technique was used on many albums, for example the In Flames' masterpiece "Clayman":
As you can see it's a "Close Miking" technique, which means that the microphones should be 1-2 inches (3 to 5cm) from the grill, and it's usually done with 2 shure sm57, but nothing forbids to try different combinations.
One microphone should be set straight towards the dustcap or its edge, taking the full body of the sound and many low frequencies due to the proximity effect , while the 45° offset one should take the higher frequencies, adding some grit to the tone.
2) the fizz-killing technique : this technique takes advantage of the phase alignment (click on the link for a dedicated article about the phase). It consists in using 2 Shure Sm57, one straight to the edge of the dustcap, the other near. The core of the technique is to back off the second microphone until the phase cancellation doesn't take away only the "fizz", the annoying high frequencies that make our tone sound like a mosquito. Once we get rid of them this way, only the "beef" of our tone will remain, and the sound will be tight and punchy.
3) The Condenser technique: this technique is used mainly with clean and overdriven guitars, and it consists in setting a dynamic microphone near the edge of the cone, to capture only the mids and the lows, and putting a large diaphragm condenser half a meter away, to catch some room, the higher frequencies and the low-roar of the tubes. These two microphones combined will give a very warm and rich clean tone, especially with tube amps.
Thursday 27 October 2016
Comparing Overhead Drum Miking Techniques
matthew mcglynn
You have two microphones and two hours. How many ways can you mike a drum kit?
I had a good idea of my choices, but I wanted to hear them all together so I would know what works in my room. It's no different from getting to know your own mic locker; each stereo mic placement technique is a tool, and like any tool it is only useful if you know how to use it.
I made a list of seven stereo mic techniques for drum recording, then recorded myself playing the same thing on the same drums in the same room, as heard through the same pair of microphones — in seven different configurations. Following is a detailed comparison of Spaced Pair (omni and cardioid), Coincident Pair (omni and cardioid), ORTF, Mid-Side and
Recorderman.”
The mics in question were a pair of
SE Electronics' 4400a The 4400a is an incredibly versatile large-diaphragm multipattern FET condenser in a very small form-factor. (We are liking this mike a lot; watch for a full review soon.)
The audio samples below are stereo 320kbps MP3s. I recommend listening in headphones, as the differences among the tracks are easiest to hear if the sound of your own monitoring environment is well-controlled.
Listening with the proper mindset
All the following are legitimate stereo miking techniques (well, except maybe for XY-omni). While you might find a favorite here, be aware that the appropriate technique for any session depends on the drums, the room, the player, the song, and the arrangement. As always.
Nonetheless, this test reveals characteristics of each OH miking technique — such as the width of the stereo field, the intimacy of the kit, the amount of room sound in the mix, the susceptibility to phasing or comb-filtering problems — that bear consideration for every session.
XY (Coincident Pair)
XY is one of the two most common stereo overhead miking techniques. For my test, the mics were in a 90° spread, about 55'' from the center of the snare head and 80'' above the floor.
I recorded samples in both Cardioid and Omnidirectional modes.
Neither of these clips presents a wide stereo image. Listen to the closing tom fill — there is little discernible lateral movement.
The image collapses to mono gracefully; this is expected, given that the mic capsules were close together. Listening in mono also reveals that, in stereo, both clips do present a sense of space — it's small, but it's there. If you don't like hearing tom fills that go from one corner of the room to the other, or if you're recording a song for which the drums play a background role, then XY is a reliable choice.
For me, both these tracks have too much boomy low end. I don't much like either of them.
The omni clip has far too much room sound for my taste. In a space that is either deader or tuned, I think omni is a more viable choice for drum overheads; for example, listen to the omni tracks in my old drum overhead shootout , in which an omni mic brought depth and LF without excessive boom or smeary HF.
Note, too, that the height of the XY pair will alter the sound of the result. I think I would have liked this pair better if I'd lowered the mics to a height of about 60 inches (instead of 80" this would have reduced the apparent volume of the room sound, and provided more stereo separation too.
Update:
Reader Malcolm Paterson posted a comment suggesting a stereo widening” technique — subtracting ~6dB worth of the inverted L signal from R, and vice-versa. Here's the result… we'll be playing more with this soon.
The spaced pair is the other of the most common overhead drum miking techniques, although there are an infinite variety of ways to do it.
Perhaps more than any other method tested, the spaced pair approach requires care to avoid phasing problems. As an example, let's say the snare drum resonates at 400Hz. The wavelength of a 400Hz tone is about 33 inches. If one of a pair of haphazardly-placed OH mics is 16.5 inches closer to the snare than the other, then the snare sound will arrive out-of-phase at the two mics, and in mono the 400Hz tone won't be heard.
While it's true that drums resonate at multiple frequencies, phasing problems can nonetheless cause drums to sound thin.
The easiest way to avoid screwing up the snare sound with phasing problems is to put the two capsules of the spaced pair at equal distances from the center of the snare head. This has the added benefit of centering the snare in the stereo image, which is most likely where you want it anyway.
To be fair, this arrangement may well introduce phasing problems with the kick or toms, which is why the OH mic position should always be tested before recording.
The 3:1 rule suggests that the mics should be three times farther apart than their height above the drum kit. In practice, I see engineers worrying more about the distance from the snare than the distance between the mics. Use your ears (and a tape measure too).
Should the mics' capsules be pointed straight down, angled in, angled out, or aimed directly at the snare? It's a matter of taste. Any drums or cymbals that are on-axis — meaning, in the mics' line of sight” — are going to be more clearly heard and probably louder too. Adjust the OH position with an ear toward your final mix.
In this test, the mics were 69'' from the floor, 52'' from the center of the snare, and 58'' apart, with the capsules pointing straight down. I recorded samples in both Cardioid and Omnidirectional modes.
The Cardioid clip gives a wide stereo image. The hi-hat is firmly on the left. The tom fill has some movement, although it seems to start in the middle move to the right. (The panning of close tom mics could of course alter this perception.)
I like the sound of the Cardioid pair; the drums retain their presence without losing the sound of the room. I can hear the space, but I can hear the drums too. It's a good balance.
In Omni, the mics bring in more of the sound of the room, but not so much as in XY. This is probably a result of the fact that in XY, the mics were mostly pointing past the drums. But while this Omni track doesn't offend me, I'd be more likely to choose Cardioid for most applications, and rely on room mics for the room sound.
ORTF is a curious stereo technique with specific positioning requirements: 17cm between capsules, angled 110° apart. I fudged this slightly, owing to haste and my unfortunate reliance on the World's Worst Stereo Mic Bar (produced by On-Stage Stands). Note that the 4400a stereo kit includes a far superior stereo bar that I wish I'd used instead. Alas.
My ORTF pair was 77'' above the floor, 53'' above the snare, positioned so the snare was equidistant from the two mics' capsules.
The sound of this track grew on me over repeated listenings. The drums sound big, but not excessively boomy. The cymbals are well-represented without taking anyone's face off.
The stereo image is not as wide as on the Spaced Pair track, but ORTF sounds more realistic — see below for a head-to-head comparison of ORTF vs. Spaced Pair.
I don't hear any drastic volume changes when I monitor the ORTF track in mono; this suggests a lack of significant phase problems.
I think I'd like ORTF even better if the mics were lower.
Mid-Side
The following two clips are of the same performance; the only difference is a mix-time gain change.
Mid-Side is a stereo technique that promises perfect mono compatibility. It employs a mid” Cardioid mic pointed at the source, and a side” figure-of-8 mic whose null is pointed at the source. The stereo left” channel is the mid plus the side, while the right” channel is the mid minus the side… more or less. (See this video to learn more about mid-side technique)
One of the benefits of mid-side is that adjusting the relative gain of the two signals can alter the perceived width of the stereo image. The louder the side” channel is, the wider the stereo image is. That said, the side channel is comprised entirely of off-axis sounds, which might not sound very good, depending on the instrument and room.
My MS pair was located 71'' above the floor, with the mid” capsule about 52'' from the center of the snare. I produced two samples; the difference between narrow” and wide” is about 8dB worth of gain on the side channel. (The mid channel is about 9dB (RMS) louder than the side channel in the wide” mix, and about 17dB louder than the side channel in the narrow” mix.)
The narrow” mix sounds a lot like XY! The XY track contains more of the sound of the room, due to the height of the XY pair. But the stereo image is similar in size.
Flipping to mono, the narrow” track sounds almost the same as in stereo. There is not much side-channel information in this mix.
The wide” track communicates a greater sense of space, but the change is subtle. And it's not true stereo separation to my ear; rather, the size of the space seems to grow, and the size of the kit seems to grow, but I don't hear the high-hats or floor tom move farther to the outside of the mix.
Mono compatibility is excellent for both these tracks, as expected.
But I'm not fond of this sound. Part of the problem is that the side” channel sounds like a room mic, not like an overhead; I'd rather my stereo image not come at the cost of trashing up the sound of the kit. But as with the Omni samples above, Mid-side would likely work better in a treated room.
The Recorderman” technique is a close-overhead technique that attempts to put both mics equidistant from both the snare and the kick drum. One mic stands about 32'' above the snare, pointing straight down, while the other sits over the drummer's right shoulder, pointing at the snare. Here's a video tutorial
I panned the two tracks hard R/L in this clip, which maximizes the width of the stereo image at the cost of leaving a hole in the middle. Listen to the closing tom fill; it sort of jumps from left to right. But of course this is easy to adjust at mix time.
This clip sounds unlike every other clip on this page. It's punchy, clean, and very dry. All that room sound from the other samples is gone, because the mics are nearly half the distance from the drums as before. (Hello, inverse-square law!)
This sound puts me in the middle of the kit. I love the presence of this sound. The kick drum is tighter-sounding here than in any other clip.
But is it too dry?
Head to head
XY
Mid-side
Recorderman
ORTF
Spaced Pair
The tonal difference is eye-opening. Compare the sound of the cymbal in the first two sections; the XY clip contains much more cymbal ring than does the MS clip. Then hear how the cymbals drop away in the third section (Recorderman) — a much drier, more drum-centric OH configuration.
The ORTF clip sounds tonally similar to Recorderman, but has a wider stereo image. The spaced pair clip is wider still, but introduces a tonal change that I'm not fond of.
XY vs Spaced Pair
The next comparison illustrates the stereo field differences between XY and spaced pair, with both mics in Cardioid mode. This clip contains a 1-bar excerpt from the XY sample, then Spaced, and then the whole thing repeats.
I far prefer the spaced-pair approach. The drum kit, unlike just about every other instrument on stage, is naturally a stereo instrument. (And personally, I do like those big Neil Peart tom fills that go from one corner of the room to another!)
ORTF vs Spaced Pair
The next comparison reveals the stereo field differences between ORTF and Spaced Pair. Just to keep things confusing, this time the excerpts are 2 bars long: a 2-bar clip in ORTF, then Spaced, then ORTF again, then Spaced again.
As mentioned above, the sound of ORTF grew on me. It's not as wide as the Spaced Pair image, but it sounds more realistic. Although I liked the Spaced Pair track in isolation, when I compare it to ORTF, it seems unnatural.
Personal Preferences
The Recorderman” technique has been my go-to OH technique for years, so it is familiar, and a welcome change from what was sounding like excessively room-y overhead tracks. I really like the sound of it, and I like that the mics can be close to the kit without being in the way.
But the ORTF results sounded really good, too, and promises an easier setup. Two mics on a single stand can easily be moved around in space to quickly find a sweet spot for height and angle. I'll definitely be trying ORTF more in the future.
What about Glyn Johns?!
The most obvious missing drum mic technique here is the Glyn Johns” method, about which more can be read here I skipped it primarily because it is not a stereo overhead technique — it's a 4-mic approach for the whole drum kit.
Certainly any of the OH techniques I tried would likely be augmented by close mics on the kick and snare, and possibly tom mics and ambient mics too. But all the techniques I tested give a usable representation of the kit. I'm not sure that would be true with one-half of the Glyn Johns approach.
I also didn't try a Jecklin disk. I've never seen anyone record drums that way, but it sounds like fun. Maybe next time.
Conclusions
A few useful lessons emerged from this process:
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
If the mic placement puts the whole drum kit off-axis, the OH sound will be primarily the sound of the room.
The closer the mics are to the kit, the less room sound you'll hear (and the less preamp gain you'll need).
Avoid phase issues by keeping the snare and kick centered between the mics.
XY and mid-side create the narrowest stereo image; ORTF and spaced pair create a wider image.
Reduce cymbal volume (and room sound) via Recorderman.
As always, the main takeaway is Test and listen!” But you knew that already.
I'd like to hear your lessons, too: is your go-to OH technique dependent on the room, the size of the kit, the style of music? Are there gotchas” not already listed here? When the drummer can't stop pounding the hell out of the cymbals, is it acceptable to simply move them out of his reach?
You have two microphones and two hours. How many ways can you mike a drum kit?
I had a good idea of my choices, but I wanted to hear them all together so I would know what works in my room. It's no different from getting to know your own mic locker; each stereo mic placement technique is a tool, and like any tool it is only useful if you know how to use it.
I made a list of seven stereo mic techniques for drum recording, then recorded myself playing the same thing on the same drums in the same room, as heard through the same pair of microphones — in seven different configurations. Following is a detailed comparison of Spaced Pair (omni and cardioid), Coincident Pair (omni and cardioid), ORTF, Mid-Side and
Recorderman.”
The mics in question were a pair of
SE Electronics' 4400a The 4400a is an incredibly versatile large-diaphragm multipattern FET condenser in a very small form-factor. (We are liking this mike a lot; watch for a full review soon.)
The audio samples below are stereo 320kbps MP3s. I recommend listening in headphones, as the differences among the tracks are easiest to hear if the sound of your own monitoring environment is well-controlled.
Listening with the proper mindset
All the following are legitimate stereo miking techniques (well, except maybe for XY-omni). While you might find a favorite here, be aware that the appropriate technique for any session depends on the drums, the room, the player, the song, and the arrangement. As always.
Nonetheless, this test reveals characteristics of each OH miking technique — such as the width of the stereo field, the intimacy of the kit, the amount of room sound in the mix, the susceptibility to phasing or comb-filtering problems — that bear consideration for every session.
XY (Coincident Pair)
XY is one of the two most common stereo overhead miking techniques. For my test, the mics were in a 90° spread, about 55'' from the center of the snare head and 80'' above the floor.
I recorded samples in both Cardioid and Omnidirectional modes.
Neither of these clips presents a wide stereo image. Listen to the closing tom fill — there is little discernible lateral movement.
The image collapses to mono gracefully; this is expected, given that the mic capsules were close together. Listening in mono also reveals that, in stereo, both clips do present a sense of space — it's small, but it's there. If you don't like hearing tom fills that go from one corner of the room to the other, or if you're recording a song for which the drums play a background role, then XY is a reliable choice.
For me, both these tracks have too much boomy low end. I don't much like either of them.
The omni clip has far too much room sound for my taste. In a space that is either deader or tuned, I think omni is a more viable choice for drum overheads; for example, listen to the omni tracks in my old drum overhead shootout , in which an omni mic brought depth and LF without excessive boom or smeary HF.
Note, too, that the height of the XY pair will alter the sound of the result. I think I would have liked this pair better if I'd lowered the mics to a height of about 60 inches (instead of 80" this would have reduced the apparent volume of the room sound, and provided more stereo separation too.
Update:
Reader Malcolm Paterson posted a comment suggesting a stereo widening” technique — subtracting ~6dB worth of the inverted L signal from R, and vice-versa. Here's the result… we'll be playing more with this soon.
The spaced pair is the other of the most common overhead drum miking techniques, although there are an infinite variety of ways to do it.
Perhaps more than any other method tested, the spaced pair approach requires care to avoid phasing problems. As an example, let's say the snare drum resonates at 400Hz. The wavelength of a 400Hz tone is about 33 inches. If one of a pair of haphazardly-placed OH mics is 16.5 inches closer to the snare than the other, then the snare sound will arrive out-of-phase at the two mics, and in mono the 400Hz tone won't be heard.
While it's true that drums resonate at multiple frequencies, phasing problems can nonetheless cause drums to sound thin.
The easiest way to avoid screwing up the snare sound with phasing problems is to put the two capsules of the spaced pair at equal distances from the center of the snare head. This has the added benefit of centering the snare in the stereo image, which is most likely where you want it anyway.
To be fair, this arrangement may well introduce phasing problems with the kick or toms, which is why the OH mic position should always be tested before recording.
The 3:1 rule suggests that the mics should be three times farther apart than their height above the drum kit. In practice, I see engineers worrying more about the distance from the snare than the distance between the mics. Use your ears (and a tape measure too).
Should the mics' capsules be pointed straight down, angled in, angled out, or aimed directly at the snare? It's a matter of taste. Any drums or cymbals that are on-axis — meaning, in the mics' line of sight” — are going to be more clearly heard and probably louder too. Adjust the OH position with an ear toward your final mix.
In this test, the mics were 69'' from the floor, 52'' from the center of the snare, and 58'' apart, with the capsules pointing straight down. I recorded samples in both Cardioid and Omnidirectional modes.
The Cardioid clip gives a wide stereo image. The hi-hat is firmly on the left. The tom fill has some movement, although it seems to start in the middle move to the right. (The panning of close tom mics could of course alter this perception.)
I like the sound of the Cardioid pair; the drums retain their presence without losing the sound of the room. I can hear the space, but I can hear the drums too. It's a good balance.
In Omni, the mics bring in more of the sound of the room, but not so much as in XY. This is probably a result of the fact that in XY, the mics were mostly pointing past the drums. But while this Omni track doesn't offend me, I'd be more likely to choose Cardioid for most applications, and rely on room mics for the room sound.
ORTF is a curious stereo technique with specific positioning requirements: 17cm between capsules, angled 110° apart. I fudged this slightly, owing to haste and my unfortunate reliance on the World's Worst Stereo Mic Bar (produced by On-Stage Stands). Note that the 4400a stereo kit includes a far superior stereo bar that I wish I'd used instead. Alas.
My ORTF pair was 77'' above the floor, 53'' above the snare, positioned so the snare was equidistant from the two mics' capsules.
The sound of this track grew on me over repeated listenings. The drums sound big, but not excessively boomy. The cymbals are well-represented without taking anyone's face off.
The stereo image is not as wide as on the Spaced Pair track, but ORTF sounds more realistic — see below for a head-to-head comparison of ORTF vs. Spaced Pair.
I don't hear any drastic volume changes when I monitor the ORTF track in mono; this suggests a lack of significant phase problems.
I think I'd like ORTF even better if the mics were lower.
Mid-Side
The following two clips are of the same performance; the only difference is a mix-time gain change.
Mid-Side is a stereo technique that promises perfect mono compatibility. It employs a mid” Cardioid mic pointed at the source, and a side” figure-of-8 mic whose null is pointed at the source. The stereo left” channel is the mid plus the side, while the right” channel is the mid minus the side… more or less. (See this video to learn more about mid-side technique)
One of the benefits of mid-side is that adjusting the relative gain of the two signals can alter the perceived width of the stereo image. The louder the side” channel is, the wider the stereo image is. That said, the side channel is comprised entirely of off-axis sounds, which might not sound very good, depending on the instrument and room.
My MS pair was located 71'' above the floor, with the mid” capsule about 52'' from the center of the snare. I produced two samples; the difference between narrow” and wide” is about 8dB worth of gain on the side channel. (The mid channel is about 9dB (RMS) louder than the side channel in the wide” mix, and about 17dB louder than the side channel in the narrow” mix.)
The narrow” mix sounds a lot like XY! The XY track contains more of the sound of the room, due to the height of the XY pair. But the stereo image is similar in size.
Flipping to mono, the narrow” track sounds almost the same as in stereo. There is not much side-channel information in this mix.
The wide” track communicates a greater sense of space, but the change is subtle. And it's not true stereo separation to my ear; rather, the size of the space seems to grow, and the size of the kit seems to grow, but I don't hear the high-hats or floor tom move farther to the outside of the mix.
Mono compatibility is excellent for both these tracks, as expected.
But I'm not fond of this sound. Part of the problem is that the side” channel sounds like a room mic, not like an overhead; I'd rather my stereo image not come at the cost of trashing up the sound of the kit. But as with the Omni samples above, Mid-side would likely work better in a treated room.
The Recorderman” technique is a close-overhead technique that attempts to put both mics equidistant from both the snare and the kick drum. One mic stands about 32'' above the snare, pointing straight down, while the other sits over the drummer's right shoulder, pointing at the snare. Here's a video tutorial
I panned the two tracks hard R/L in this clip, which maximizes the width of the stereo image at the cost of leaving a hole in the middle. Listen to the closing tom fill; it sort of jumps from left to right. But of course this is easy to adjust at mix time.
This clip sounds unlike every other clip on this page. It's punchy, clean, and very dry. All that room sound from the other samples is gone, because the mics are nearly half the distance from the drums as before. (Hello, inverse-square law!)
This sound puts me in the middle of the kit. I love the presence of this sound. The kick drum is tighter-sounding here than in any other clip.
But is it too dry?
Head to head
XY
Mid-side
Recorderman
ORTF
Spaced Pair
The tonal difference is eye-opening. Compare the sound of the cymbal in the first two sections; the XY clip contains much more cymbal ring than does the MS clip. Then hear how the cymbals drop away in the third section (Recorderman) — a much drier, more drum-centric OH configuration.
The ORTF clip sounds tonally similar to Recorderman, but has a wider stereo image. The spaced pair clip is wider still, but introduces a tonal change that I'm not fond of.
XY vs Spaced Pair
The next comparison illustrates the stereo field differences between XY and spaced pair, with both mics in Cardioid mode. This clip contains a 1-bar excerpt from the XY sample, then Spaced, and then the whole thing repeats.
I far prefer the spaced-pair approach. The drum kit, unlike just about every other instrument on stage, is naturally a stereo instrument. (And personally, I do like those big Neil Peart tom fills that go from one corner of the room to another!)
ORTF vs Spaced Pair
The next comparison reveals the stereo field differences between ORTF and Spaced Pair. Just to keep things confusing, this time the excerpts are 2 bars long: a 2-bar clip in ORTF, then Spaced, then ORTF again, then Spaced again.
As mentioned above, the sound of ORTF grew on me. It's not as wide as the Spaced Pair image, but it sounds more realistic. Although I liked the Spaced Pair track in isolation, when I compare it to ORTF, it seems unnatural.
Personal Preferences
The Recorderman” technique has been my go-to OH technique for years, so it is familiar, and a welcome change from what was sounding like excessively room-y overhead tracks. I really like the sound of it, and I like that the mics can be close to the kit without being in the way.
But the ORTF results sounded really good, too, and promises an easier setup. Two mics on a single stand can easily be moved around in space to quickly find a sweet spot for height and angle. I'll definitely be trying ORTF more in the future.
What about Glyn Johns?!
The most obvious missing drum mic technique here is the Glyn Johns” method, about which more can be read here I skipped it primarily because it is not a stereo overhead technique — it's a 4-mic approach for the whole drum kit.
Certainly any of the OH techniques I tried would likely be augmented by close mics on the kick and snare, and possibly tom mics and ambient mics too. But all the techniques I tested give a usable representation of the kit. I'm not sure that would be true with one-half of the Glyn Johns approach.
I also didn't try a Jecklin disk. I've never seen anyone record drums that way, but it sounds like fun. Maybe next time.
Conclusions
A few useful lessons emerged from this process:
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
If the mic placement puts the whole drum kit off-axis, the OH sound will be primarily the sound of the room.
The closer the mics are to the kit, the less room sound you'll hear (and the less preamp gain you'll need).
Avoid phase issues by keeping the snare and kick centered between the mics.
XY and mid-side create the narrowest stereo image; ORTF and spaced pair create a wider image.
Reduce cymbal volume (and room sound) via Recorderman.
As always, the main takeaway is Test and listen!” But you knew that already.
I'd like to hear your lessons, too: is your go-to OH technique dependent on the room, the size of the kit, the style of music? Are there gotchas” not already listed here? When the drummer can't stop pounding the hell out of the cymbals, is it acceptable to simply move them out of his reach?
How To Record Vocals
Can you record vocal tracks from home and make them sound like they were recorded in a top commercial recording studio? Are there any advantages for recording vocals at home other then, of course saving a lot of money?
The answer is: YES!
You'll be surprised to know that some of the vocal tracks you hear on the radio were actually recorded at a home studio. When it comes to recording a source of sound with a single microphone like vocals, you can get the same sound quality as a commercial recording studio if you take the proper steps.
Vocal Recording Software
Any software such as Pro-Tools , Cubase , Logic , Digital Performer or even the Garage Band software that comes free with your mac will do. Almost all of these software have the same technique for recording audio (or if we want to call it in it's technical term, converting digital audio to a file on our computer). Some voice recording software that you download for free online might not have the capability of recording CD quality tracks(at least: 44.1KHz 16 bit). IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure that the software you use is for music recording.
Choosing the Right Audio Interface for Vocal Recording
Recording vocals requires a sound card/audio interface with high quality Analog to digital converters and a low latency audio driver. This means that you although you already have a microphone input built in to your computer, connecting a microphone directly to your computer won't give you the sound quality you're after. There are many brands that produce high quality audio interface for recording vocals on a budget. For example: M-Audio Firewire Solo ($249), M-Audio Fast Track ($149), Avid's MBox Mini ($269), and many others. When you buy your Audio interface for vocals, always make sure it has an XLR, BALANCED connection Here comes the fun part: Almost any card that you'll buy will have the same sound quality. I know many readers would probably kill me for that sentence, but guys, it's true! Almost all semi-professional audio interfaces are using the same chip made in China and the only difference in the driver is the amount of input/outputs (which doesn't matter to you cause you're using only 1 channel to record vocals), preamp and design. I tested a $149 audio interface with Pro-Tools' 192 A/D converters (worth $4500) and I could barely hear the difference.
Preamp for Recording Vocals
I'll try to explain what a preamp is in a simple paragraph. When you sing to a microphone you create analog sound that needs to be amplified about 1000 times in order to reach zero DB (which is the level of music played in your headphones). For more info, wiki it. All the audio interfaces I mentioned before, have a preamp built in. If you are on a budget under $1000 for your home studio, you are fine with the built in preamp and don't need to buy an external one. If you do want to buy an external one, like a tube preamp to warm up” your vocals, try reading recommendation on Gearslutz However, if you hire a mixing engineer , warming up your vocals with analog outboard gear can be done in the mixing stage - not necessarily in the vocal stage. Again, it would be very hard for you to tell the difference between your built in preamp in a ~$100 audio interface and a high-end preamp that costs $1,000.
Microphone for Vocal Recording
When it comes to microphones there is a noticeable difference with compering a $200-$300 mic and a ~$1000 mic. The materials of the microphone such as the membrane metal type and thickness are crucial for picking up low frequencies as well as high level vocalists screaming into the mic net.
Here's a short guide to buy your first microphone:
You want a condenser microphone, not a dynamic one.
Don't be afraid of buying a cheap microphone made in China… they sound as good as well known brands but cost 30% less.
Don't count on specifications only. Almost all microphones under $1000 aren't being tested individually and the specs are being calculated in factory conditions on a specific mic”.
Here are a few recommendations for good vocal microphones: Audio-Technica AT2020n ($100), Neumann TLM 102 ($700), AKG C 414 XL II ($1,000) or any early edition of this mic… (I LOVE the AKG 414 and so do the StudioPros' musicians!)
One important note: Don't save on the microphone cable. Make sure your are using a good XLR, Balanced microphone cable, not longer than 15′-25′. There's no point in buying a high quality microphone if you're using a cheap cable.
Vocal Recording Tips - Vocal Booth and Acoustics
This might be THE MOST IMPORTANT section of this entire vocal recording technique guide. The acoustics of the room, the place you choose to position your microphone and the distance of your lips from the mic are crucial for getting a good vocal sound. Here's a short vocal sound engineering that will dramatically improve your vocal recording:
Acoustic Space: Try this: Stand 1″ from the wall and try to sing. You'll hear that your voice echoes off of the wall. This happens in rooms that are not acoustically treated. In order to record high-quality vocals, you should reduce the amount of reflections coming from the walls, ceiling and floor. The key is to use heavy item with rough surfaces around the room to absorb the sound. Put a thick carpet on the floor, use a library shelf with books, a sofa, etc'. For more professional acoustic treatment, I recommend 2″ Studio foam Wedges
Vocal booths are huge booths with acoustic treatments that allow you to get absolute silence when recording your vocals. However, those are very expensive, require a lot of space and are pretty ugly :)… Not my cup of tea.
Avoiding the unwanted reflections are crucial for a good sounding vocal track. This is more important than buying the right gear or software.
You don't want to place the microphone close to a wall because of the wall's reflections, but you also want to stay away from all source of noise like computer fans and windows. It's obvious that you better record your vocal tracks in a room that's doesn't have noise from the outside or inside of the house. Remember: any sound will be amplified 1,000 times and might be noticeable when mixing your vocals.
Most Common Mistakes of Recording Vocals
Use a pop filter : A pop filter will help you avoid booming the microphone with the air pressure cause by saying the letters P, B, and others. If you're not sure what I mean, put your hand close to your month and say: Popcorn”. You'll feel the pop of air coming from your month. You microphone doesn't like those.
Your lips should be approximately 2″-6″ from your microphone. The closer you are to your microphone the more bass you'll have. The further you get away from the mic, the lower your vocal would be comparing to the overall noise and reflections in the room.
This last mistakes is very silly, but I've seen it happen so many times, I can't even count. When you sing - don't touch the microphone, don't hold the mic stand and especially don't tap your foot on the floor. (Some people gets very excited when they sing their song…)
To sum up the how to record vocals guide - Part 1
You can record great sounding vocal tracks with semi-professional gear on an independent musicians budget. No matter how good your gear is, it's more important to know how to get the most out of it. Your mission is to provide high-quality sources of vocals. A good mixing engineer will be able to take it to the next level afterward.
The answer is: YES!
You'll be surprised to know that some of the vocal tracks you hear on the radio were actually recorded at a home studio. When it comes to recording a source of sound with a single microphone like vocals, you can get the same sound quality as a commercial recording studio if you take the proper steps.
Vocal Recording Software
Any software such as Pro-Tools , Cubase , Logic , Digital Performer or even the Garage Band software that comes free with your mac will do. Almost all of these software have the same technique for recording audio (or if we want to call it in it's technical term, converting digital audio to a file on our computer). Some voice recording software that you download for free online might not have the capability of recording CD quality tracks(at least: 44.1KHz 16 bit). IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure that the software you use is for music recording.
Choosing the Right Audio Interface for Vocal Recording
Recording vocals requires a sound card/audio interface with high quality Analog to digital converters and a low latency audio driver. This means that you although you already have a microphone input built in to your computer, connecting a microphone directly to your computer won't give you the sound quality you're after. There are many brands that produce high quality audio interface for recording vocals on a budget. For example: M-Audio Firewire Solo ($249), M-Audio Fast Track ($149), Avid's MBox Mini ($269), and many others. When you buy your Audio interface for vocals, always make sure it has an XLR, BALANCED connection Here comes the fun part: Almost any card that you'll buy will have the same sound quality. I know many readers would probably kill me for that sentence, but guys, it's true! Almost all semi-professional audio interfaces are using the same chip made in China and the only difference in the driver is the amount of input/outputs (which doesn't matter to you cause you're using only 1 channel to record vocals), preamp and design. I tested a $149 audio interface with Pro-Tools' 192 A/D converters (worth $4500) and I could barely hear the difference.
Preamp for Recording Vocals
I'll try to explain what a preamp is in a simple paragraph. When you sing to a microphone you create analog sound that needs to be amplified about 1000 times in order to reach zero DB (which is the level of music played in your headphones). For more info, wiki it. All the audio interfaces I mentioned before, have a preamp built in. If you are on a budget under $1000 for your home studio, you are fine with the built in preamp and don't need to buy an external one. If you do want to buy an external one, like a tube preamp to warm up” your vocals, try reading recommendation on Gearslutz However, if you hire a mixing engineer , warming up your vocals with analog outboard gear can be done in the mixing stage - not necessarily in the vocal stage. Again, it would be very hard for you to tell the difference between your built in preamp in a ~$100 audio interface and a high-end preamp that costs $1,000.
Microphone for Vocal Recording
When it comes to microphones there is a noticeable difference with compering a $200-$300 mic and a ~$1000 mic. The materials of the microphone such as the membrane metal type and thickness are crucial for picking up low frequencies as well as high level vocalists screaming into the mic net.
Here's a short guide to buy your first microphone:
You want a condenser microphone, not a dynamic one.
Don't be afraid of buying a cheap microphone made in China… they sound as good as well known brands but cost 30% less.
Don't count on specifications only. Almost all microphones under $1000 aren't being tested individually and the specs are being calculated in factory conditions on a specific mic”.
Here are a few recommendations for good vocal microphones: Audio-Technica AT2020n ($100), Neumann TLM 102 ($700), AKG C 414 XL II ($1,000) or any early edition of this mic… (I LOVE the AKG 414 and so do the StudioPros' musicians!)
One important note: Don't save on the microphone cable. Make sure your are using a good XLR, Balanced microphone cable, not longer than 15′-25′. There's no point in buying a high quality microphone if you're using a cheap cable.
Vocal Recording Tips - Vocal Booth and Acoustics
This might be THE MOST IMPORTANT section of this entire vocal recording technique guide. The acoustics of the room, the place you choose to position your microphone and the distance of your lips from the mic are crucial for getting a good vocal sound. Here's a short vocal sound engineering that will dramatically improve your vocal recording:
Acoustic Space: Try this: Stand 1″ from the wall and try to sing. You'll hear that your voice echoes off of the wall. This happens in rooms that are not acoustically treated. In order to record high-quality vocals, you should reduce the amount of reflections coming from the walls, ceiling and floor. The key is to use heavy item with rough surfaces around the room to absorb the sound. Put a thick carpet on the floor, use a library shelf with books, a sofa, etc'. For more professional acoustic treatment, I recommend 2″ Studio foam Wedges
Vocal booths are huge booths with acoustic treatments that allow you to get absolute silence when recording your vocals. However, those are very expensive, require a lot of space and are pretty ugly :)… Not my cup of tea.
Avoiding the unwanted reflections are crucial for a good sounding vocal track. This is more important than buying the right gear or software.
You don't want to place the microphone close to a wall because of the wall's reflections, but you also want to stay away from all source of noise like computer fans and windows. It's obvious that you better record your vocal tracks in a room that's doesn't have noise from the outside or inside of the house. Remember: any sound will be amplified 1,000 times and might be noticeable when mixing your vocals.
Most Common Mistakes of Recording Vocals
Use a pop filter : A pop filter will help you avoid booming the microphone with the air pressure cause by saying the letters P, B, and others. If you're not sure what I mean, put your hand close to your month and say: Popcorn”. You'll feel the pop of air coming from your month. You microphone doesn't like those.
Your lips should be approximately 2″-6″ from your microphone. The closer you are to your microphone the more bass you'll have. The further you get away from the mic, the lower your vocal would be comparing to the overall noise and reflections in the room.
This last mistakes is very silly, but I've seen it happen so many times, I can't even count. When you sing - don't touch the microphone, don't hold the mic stand and especially don't tap your foot on the floor. (Some people gets very excited when they sing their song…)
To sum up the how to record vocals guide - Part 1
You can record great sounding vocal tracks with semi-professional gear on an independent musicians budget. No matter how good your gear is, it's more important to know how to get the most out of it. Your mission is to provide high-quality sources of vocals. A good mixing engineer will be able to take it to the next level afterward.
Sunday 23 October 2016
Recorderman Overhead Drum Mic Technique
As an amateur recording engineer, you'll likely run into the name Recorderman when learning how to mic a drum kit. Recorderman's approach to placing overhead drum microphones is recommended for beginners because it's easy to set up, and yields good, sometimes great, results in practically every situation.
The name Recorderman” comes from a user on the forums who is credited with popularizing the technique. (Though his approach has been used by engineers for decades. It's largely a two-mic adaptation of Glyn Johns' mic setup)
Recorderman in a nutshell: Use two drum sticks as a ruler to place your mics the same distance from the snare drum, and a cable or string to get them equidistant from the kick beater.
Here's the best video description I've seen, to better illustrate:
Recorderman's approach accomplishes 3 things:
It places the snare and kick drums in the center of the stereo image.
It ensures any close mics on the kick and snare are in phase with the overheads.
It captures a balanced drum kit sound, close to what the drummer hears.
This microphone setup is ideal in a few situations:
When you have limited microphones for the drums: Especially when you only have 2 or 3 mics, Recorderman can still get you an open, balanced stereo image of the drum kit. If you're recording a talented drummer, 2 or 3 microphones in this arrangement might be all you need.
Recording with low ceilings or in a tight space: Drums sound best in a big, open room. Traditional overhead miking approaches tend to capture a smeared” drum sound when used in small rooms, largely because sound reflections off the ceiling interfere with the direct sound from the drums. Recorderman's technique gets the microphones close enough to the drums that this isn't an issue.
When the drums sound killer at the drummer's position: With decent microphones, this setup usually captures a sound close what the drummer hears. If the drums sound ideal right where the drummer is sitting, you should consider a Recorderman setup even if you're in a high-ceilinged space.
The name Recorderman” comes from a user on the forums who is credited with popularizing the technique. (Though his approach has been used by engineers for decades. It's largely a two-mic adaptation of Glyn Johns' mic setup)
Recorderman in a nutshell: Use two drum sticks as a ruler to place your mics the same distance from the snare drum, and a cable or string to get them equidistant from the kick beater.
Here's the best video description I've seen, to better illustrate:
Recorderman's approach accomplishes 3 things:
It places the snare and kick drums in the center of the stereo image.
It ensures any close mics on the kick and snare are in phase with the overheads.
It captures a balanced drum kit sound, close to what the drummer hears.
This microphone setup is ideal in a few situations:
When you have limited microphones for the drums: Especially when you only have 2 or 3 mics, Recorderman can still get you an open, balanced stereo image of the drum kit. If you're recording a talented drummer, 2 or 3 microphones in this arrangement might be all you need.
Recording with low ceilings or in a tight space: Drums sound best in a big, open room. Traditional overhead miking approaches tend to capture a smeared” drum sound when used in small rooms, largely because sound reflections off the ceiling interfere with the direct sound from the drums. Recorderman's technique gets the microphones close enough to the drums that this isn't an issue.
When the drums sound killer at the drummer's position: With decent microphones, this setup usually captures a sound close what the drummer hears. If the drums sound ideal right where the drummer is sitting, you should consider a Recorderman setup even if you're in a high-ceilinged space.
How To Record Vocals In A Bedroom
Recording vocals can be one of the more challenging tracking phase processes you may run into. If it wasn't enough of a tough cookie in the studio, you can be sure it's a daunting task in a bedroom (or a home office or any other room you've set aside for recording fun that wasn't purpose-built for it).
The sad truth is that you can't get pro quality vocals happening at home. But you can improve the sound by a mile if you're armed with a few tricks and tips, and that's what I intend to give you.
The Room
The number one factor in vocal recording is the room. You might've thought it was the mic you're using or the pre-amp you're running it through, but the truth is if you've got a U87 and an Avalon but the room you're recording in is crap, you won't be much farther ahead than a guy using a Behringer mic through an Mbox.
You could buy one of those (often rather expensive) reflection shields that attach to the stand and sit behind the microphone, and this will do you some good, particularly if your mic is omnidirectional. However, most common vocal microphones for both home and studio users are cardioid, so the shield will still help to an extent but the majority of problem reflections will come from the front — that is, the surfaces behind the vocalist's head.
This article isn't about treating your room, which is a great idea if you own your home and you can learn more about doing so on a budget here We're talking about cheap, fast and temporary solutions for the moment. The best thing you can do in this case is to grab a blanket and tape it to a wall or hang it over a reasonably tall and wide bookshelf with some books pinning it down on top.
You want to get as much of the surface on the wall behind the singer covered as you can. Don't neglect the area behind and above the head in particular — if your singer is taller than your bookshelf (or even around the same height), forget about hanging the blanket and tape it to the wall. The thickest blanket you can find is best.
Here's an example that compares a bedroom recording without a blanket, and then with a blanket — I've used a clap, the industry standard reflection measurement technology:
As you can hear, the first sound has a very metallic reflection to it, which isn't particularly pleasant. The second clap shows that you can't eliminate reflections in a bedroom this way, but you can control them and give yourself some room to apply a nicer reverb later.
You'll have the best luck in a carpeted room. If you've got floorboards or tiles, get a rug that covers as much of the floor as possible. You should also ensure your curtains or blinds are drawn as window glass is incredibly reflective. Slat blinds are not particularly good at blocking the reflections because of the gap between each strip, so try to hang a curtain even if only for the duration of your recording session. Again, the thicker the better. In some recording rooms a bit of liveliness isn't a bad thing when the reflective surfaces have been purpose-designed, but in a bedroom you're best of deadening as much as you can and adding reverb during the mixing phase of your project.
Dampening the vicinity behind the singer's head can be enough to reduce reflections to decent level for home demo recording, but if you're full of energy and have more blankets than you know what to do with, put one on every wall and maybe even lay one over your desk surface. The last suggestion involves a lot of work — you need to move your gear, put the blanket down, put the gear back, and then repeat the process when you're done, but a reflective desk can cause a lot of problems.
Positioning
Positioning the microphone can be tricky in a home studio situation. You don't want to be too close to walls or other reflective surfaces such as desks (especially desks, as frequencies, in particular bass, will build up underneath the desktop). On the other hand, you don't want to be in the middle of the room — the frequencies that build up due to non-purpose specific room design are most prominent here, and are known as standing waves.
In a small room, as most home recording environments are, it's tough to get away from walls and from the center of the room. My recommendation is that you put yourself closer to a wall that is dampened with a blanket and face the other side of the room. Get a few feet away from the wall if you can do so without putting the microphone in the middle of the room, and make sure the wall you've chosen is furthest away from your desk or windows. You may want to rearrange the room so your desk is at the window! It might increase the reflectivity of that area of the room, but if you can get far enough away from it, this is better than having nowhere to go because your desk is at one end and the window's at the other.
If you can get a few feet in front of the wall you've chosen to dampen, make sure you can dampen as much of that wall as possible. Using a few blankets is a bit of a pain, but worth it in the end.
Your singer should stand about a foot away from the microphone as a general guide. Softer singers might be better off standing at half that distance, while a loud metal screamer might need as much as two feet of distance. Good microphone technique plays a part in the process, which unfortunately requires the singer has some experience with studio recording. Someone who has sung live for years but has never entered a studio is not going to be much better than a total neophyte, particularly if you're using condensers, as the correct technique differs in both situations. They may have a bit of an advantage if you're recording with dynamics (and I've only ever seen a dynamic mic used for studio vocals a couple of times, and one of those times was because the singer was too loud for a condenser even with a -20dB pad on and low gain!).
It's also advisable to put the singer a couple of degrees off the center of the microphone, where it's less sensitive. Singers like to move their heads, and a centimeter can make too much of a difference at dead-center. Which leads me to…
The Proximity Effect
Almost all dynamic microphones and the vast majority of condensers used in a home studio have a proximity effect, which is to say that the closer the sound source is to the microphone, the more the bass frequencies will be exaggerated. 90% of the time, this is undesirable in vocal recordings.
There are a few ways to combat this — your best bet is to use a singer with good microphone technique and awareness of the various problems that can crop up when they move their little heads too close. When you're dealing with a less experienced singer I've found an effective quick fix is to move the pop filter a few inches away from the mic so they physically cannot get too close to the microphone (you are using a pop filter, right? If not, get one right away!). Be careful, as this may limit their ability to compensate for a sudden drop in volume by moving in a bit closer.
Gain
Most people have a tendency to record vocals too loud, which causes clipping and definitely cannot be fixed in the mix. Unfortunately, if you've got a home studio with typical home studio gear, you don't have the luxury of recording too soft, either. With a studio quality set-up, you can record quietly without danger (usually) of running into noise floor problems.
At home, the equipment and cables are almost always too noisy and you need to record with enough volume to escape that ugly sound.
Every time you set up a vocal recording session, you're going to need to spend time getting the levels right so that the quietest point in the song can be heard loudly enough without introducing clipping when the singer gets a bit more passionate in the chorus. To make matters worse, you need to remember that a singer — be it yourself or someone you're recording — will get louder as they get further into the session and begin to overcome nerves, particularly those singers who are not experienced in the recording studio. So even if you spend twenty minutes getting your levels right at first, there's a good chance you'll need to compensate for it by the time you're doing the real-deal tracking.
Make the Singer Sound Great
At least, to them! Almost all singers are suddenly and magically able to sing better if they hear their voice after is has been processed a bit. Different singers have different needs, but a bit of compression and reverb on the monitoring bus are usually the way to go. If your compression and reverb units are hardware units, make sure you can route your headphone bus through them so the hard effects aren't recorded for good, unless you know what you're doing and don't intend to change it later on.
For those of you with a more basic setup, such as an Mbox, headphone mixes aren't an option. You'll need to satisfy yourself with slapping a plug-in or two on the vocal track and using software monitoring, or going without if the latency is too high for that.
Singers — and have no illusions, every singer from yourself to Rob Halford — will try to overcompensate for the flaws they hear in their voice if confronted with the raw sound from the microphone. Some are better at focusing on the performance and doing less compensating than others, but they all do it. Put some artificial control in place with the compressor and a more natural sounding room with a bit of nice reverb.
Ever seen someone who has never worked in a studio enter a treated dead room or anechoic chamber before? I was surprised to find that many people find it disconcerting. A disconcerted singer is not a very good one, so liven up the deadened sound and you'll notice an immediate improvement.
As it happens, they say this is why people sing in the shower more than any other location!
The sad truth is that you can't get pro quality vocals happening at home. But you can improve the sound by a mile if you're armed with a few tricks and tips, and that's what I intend to give you.
The Room
The number one factor in vocal recording is the room. You might've thought it was the mic you're using or the pre-amp you're running it through, but the truth is if you've got a U87 and an Avalon but the room you're recording in is crap, you won't be much farther ahead than a guy using a Behringer mic through an Mbox.
You could buy one of those (often rather expensive) reflection shields that attach to the stand and sit behind the microphone, and this will do you some good, particularly if your mic is omnidirectional. However, most common vocal microphones for both home and studio users are cardioid, so the shield will still help to an extent but the majority of problem reflections will come from the front — that is, the surfaces behind the vocalist's head.
This article isn't about treating your room, which is a great idea if you own your home and you can learn more about doing so on a budget here We're talking about cheap, fast and temporary solutions for the moment. The best thing you can do in this case is to grab a blanket and tape it to a wall or hang it over a reasonably tall and wide bookshelf with some books pinning it down on top.
You want to get as much of the surface on the wall behind the singer covered as you can. Don't neglect the area behind and above the head in particular — if your singer is taller than your bookshelf (or even around the same height), forget about hanging the blanket and tape it to the wall. The thickest blanket you can find is best.
Here's an example that compares a bedroom recording without a blanket, and then with a blanket — I've used a clap, the industry standard reflection measurement technology:
As you can hear, the first sound has a very metallic reflection to it, which isn't particularly pleasant. The second clap shows that you can't eliminate reflections in a bedroom this way, but you can control them and give yourself some room to apply a nicer reverb later.
You'll have the best luck in a carpeted room. If you've got floorboards or tiles, get a rug that covers as much of the floor as possible. You should also ensure your curtains or blinds are drawn as window glass is incredibly reflective. Slat blinds are not particularly good at blocking the reflections because of the gap between each strip, so try to hang a curtain even if only for the duration of your recording session. Again, the thicker the better. In some recording rooms a bit of liveliness isn't a bad thing when the reflective surfaces have been purpose-designed, but in a bedroom you're best of deadening as much as you can and adding reverb during the mixing phase of your project.
Dampening the vicinity behind the singer's head can be enough to reduce reflections to decent level for home demo recording, but if you're full of energy and have more blankets than you know what to do with, put one on every wall and maybe even lay one over your desk surface. The last suggestion involves a lot of work — you need to move your gear, put the blanket down, put the gear back, and then repeat the process when you're done, but a reflective desk can cause a lot of problems.
Positioning
Positioning the microphone can be tricky in a home studio situation. You don't want to be too close to walls or other reflective surfaces such as desks (especially desks, as frequencies, in particular bass, will build up underneath the desktop). On the other hand, you don't want to be in the middle of the room — the frequencies that build up due to non-purpose specific room design are most prominent here, and are known as standing waves.
In a small room, as most home recording environments are, it's tough to get away from walls and from the center of the room. My recommendation is that you put yourself closer to a wall that is dampened with a blanket and face the other side of the room. Get a few feet away from the wall if you can do so without putting the microphone in the middle of the room, and make sure the wall you've chosen is furthest away from your desk or windows. You may want to rearrange the room so your desk is at the window! It might increase the reflectivity of that area of the room, but if you can get far enough away from it, this is better than having nowhere to go because your desk is at one end and the window's at the other.
If you can get a few feet in front of the wall you've chosen to dampen, make sure you can dampen as much of that wall as possible. Using a few blankets is a bit of a pain, but worth it in the end.
Your singer should stand about a foot away from the microphone as a general guide. Softer singers might be better off standing at half that distance, while a loud metal screamer might need as much as two feet of distance. Good microphone technique plays a part in the process, which unfortunately requires the singer has some experience with studio recording. Someone who has sung live for years but has never entered a studio is not going to be much better than a total neophyte, particularly if you're using condensers, as the correct technique differs in both situations. They may have a bit of an advantage if you're recording with dynamics (and I've only ever seen a dynamic mic used for studio vocals a couple of times, and one of those times was because the singer was too loud for a condenser even with a -20dB pad on and low gain!).
It's also advisable to put the singer a couple of degrees off the center of the microphone, where it's less sensitive. Singers like to move their heads, and a centimeter can make too much of a difference at dead-center. Which leads me to…
The Proximity Effect
Almost all dynamic microphones and the vast majority of condensers used in a home studio have a proximity effect, which is to say that the closer the sound source is to the microphone, the more the bass frequencies will be exaggerated. 90% of the time, this is undesirable in vocal recordings.
There are a few ways to combat this — your best bet is to use a singer with good microphone technique and awareness of the various problems that can crop up when they move their little heads too close. When you're dealing with a less experienced singer I've found an effective quick fix is to move the pop filter a few inches away from the mic so they physically cannot get too close to the microphone (you are using a pop filter, right? If not, get one right away!). Be careful, as this may limit their ability to compensate for a sudden drop in volume by moving in a bit closer.
Gain
Most people have a tendency to record vocals too loud, which causes clipping and definitely cannot be fixed in the mix. Unfortunately, if you've got a home studio with typical home studio gear, you don't have the luxury of recording too soft, either. With a studio quality set-up, you can record quietly without danger (usually) of running into noise floor problems.
At home, the equipment and cables are almost always too noisy and you need to record with enough volume to escape that ugly sound.
Every time you set up a vocal recording session, you're going to need to spend time getting the levels right so that the quietest point in the song can be heard loudly enough without introducing clipping when the singer gets a bit more passionate in the chorus. To make matters worse, you need to remember that a singer — be it yourself or someone you're recording — will get louder as they get further into the session and begin to overcome nerves, particularly those singers who are not experienced in the recording studio. So even if you spend twenty minutes getting your levels right at first, there's a good chance you'll need to compensate for it by the time you're doing the real-deal tracking.
Make the Singer Sound Great
At least, to them! Almost all singers are suddenly and magically able to sing better if they hear their voice after is has been processed a bit. Different singers have different needs, but a bit of compression and reverb on the monitoring bus are usually the way to go. If your compression and reverb units are hardware units, make sure you can route your headphone bus through them so the hard effects aren't recorded for good, unless you know what you're doing and don't intend to change it later on.
For those of you with a more basic setup, such as an Mbox, headphone mixes aren't an option. You'll need to satisfy yourself with slapping a plug-in or two on the vocal track and using software monitoring, or going without if the latency is too high for that.
Singers — and have no illusions, every singer from yourself to Rob Halford — will try to overcompensate for the flaws they hear in their voice if confronted with the raw sound from the microphone. Some are better at focusing on the performance and doing less compensating than others, but they all do it. Put some artificial control in place with the compressor and a more natural sounding room with a bit of nice reverb.
Ever seen someone who has never worked in a studio enter a treated dead room or anechoic chamber before? I was surprised to find that many people find it disconcerting. A disconcerted singer is not a very good one, so liven up the deadened sound and you'll notice an immediate improvement.
As it happens, they say this is why people sing in the shower more than any other location!
Thursday 20 October 2016
Recording & Mixing Bass Guitar
Bass is the backbone of your music, and in many cases - particularly with more modern styles - the whole metaphorical house would collapse without it. Lou Reed once put the importance of bass across rather well. I wouldn't want to hear Beethoven without beautiful bass, the cellos, the tuba. It's very important. Hip-hop has thunderous bass. And so does Beethoven. If you don't have the bass, it's like being amputated. It's like you have no legs.”
Just like building a house, it's essential to build on solid foundations. When done correctly, your bass should work with the rest of the band to provide a punchy and tight solid backbone to your music. Unfortunately for the beginner, recording great bass can seem like a dark art, with many results sounding muddy or unbalanced. Thankfully, like most things, it's easy when you know how. In this article, we'll get you up and running with great results, fast.
Setting Up
It goes without saying that you need a great bass player to get professional results, but it's equally important to set up your instrument first. As described in our post about recording acoustic guitars , we highly recommend you invest in setting your instrument up properly before doing anything else. As an absolute minimum, you should check the instrument action, its intonation, and consider a string change. Finally, and most importantly, always tune the bass before and between takes.
Bass Recording Methods
There are 3 main methods for recording bass guitar: 1. Recording direct using a DI box, 2. Using a Microphone, 3. Using a combination of direct and microphone techniques.
The method you choose depends on a number of factors. Below we'll consider each option in more detail.
Should I DI My Bass Guitar?
Unlike electric guitars, it is common to use a DI to record bass. Although this technique delivers a good solid clean sound, it can also lack life. If you want to capture a more ‘real' sound, there's nothing quite like micing up a bass cabinet. DI's, however, do have other distinct advantages.
They offer a back-up, allowing you to re-amp the signal should you decide to later.
When blended with a microphone signal, DI's can be used to help reinforce any frequencies not produced by the amp.
If you do decide for practical or budgetary reasons to use a DI on it's own, the result can be greatly improved by processing the signal using amp simulation software. Amplifier and Cabinet modelling software has come in leaps and bounds over recent years, to the point where even the stock options with programs like Garage band can reproduce very convincing results.
Recording Bass with a Microphone
For those that have the luxury of a great sounding bass amplifier, the best and most characterful results can be achieved using a microphone. The most important factors when choosing a mic for bass guitar are: (a) frequency response and (b) how well the mic handles high sound pressure levels (SPL). (a) It is desirable to have a frequency response shaped specifically for bass instruments, meaning it has a strong low-frequency response, with a scooped mid and a presence peak around 3-5KHz. (b) When it comes to high SPL levels, dynamic microphones will typically perform best; however, this does not rule out condenser mics entirely…
Can I Use a Condenser Mic on Bass?
As determined above, dynamic mics work great for bass guitars. On the flip-side, they also impart their own particular sound on the recording thanks to their strong, tailored frequency response. For those who prefer a more natural sound, it's worth considering a condenser mic; just make sure you keep the bass amp to a sensible level and consider using a pad if the signal is too hot. A pad can be enabled at the pre-amp or even at the mic if your model has this feature. Pads will typically allow you to attenuate the signal by 10 - 15dB.
Mic Positioning
There is no one size fits all solution here, so it's essential to experiment with position and distance. Listen carefully to determine what sounds best for your application.
First up, try experimenting with mic position relative to the speaker cone. Just like electric guitars, you can easily achieve a bright or warm tone depending on where you place the mic. As a general rule, positioning the mic toward the speaker cone edge will produce a warm tone while pointing it directly at the centre will give you more ‘bite'.
Secondly, microphone distance from the grill will also affect the tone. All microphones are different, so listen carefully for changes using a pair of good quality headphones. As you move the mic further away from the grill, the tone changes from a very dry, focused and non-reverberant tone, to a more natural and ambient sound. The other consideration here is proximity effect, whereby the bass frequencies become more accentuated as a directional mic moves closer to the sound source. Engineers will often exploit the proximity effect to thicken up guitars, but you might find that bass guitars benefit from a little breathing room; somewhere between 4 - 18 inches will usually work depending on preference.
Often overlooked is the floor surface. For example, if you place the amp on a solid floor, the reflections will result in a brighter tone than that of an amp placed on a carpet. Keep in mind that the further your mic is from the amp, the more significant floor and room reflections become. Generally speaking, a microphone placed further away from the speaker grill will be more representative of the overall amp and room sound. In other words, it will sound more natural. Depending on the style of music you're recording, this may, or may not be desirable.
A little info on Polar Patterns
By far the most commonly used polar pattern for recording bass is cardioid. In short, their directional pickup allows for greater rejection of room reflections or other instrument sounds. On the other hand, they also colour the sound more - most notably through the proximity effect described above.
If you want to avoid the proximity effect and capture a more natural tone, consider using an omni-directional polar pattern. As we described in our Recording & Mixing Vocals article, omni directional microphones will produce a more ‘natural' or ‘open' sound, but they will also capture more reflections. If you have a great sounding room, some natural reverb can be desirable; however, for most home or project studios, it is far safer to tame room reflections and add reverb during mixdown.
Recording a Blend of DI and Microphone Signals
Many engineers will insist on using a combination of mic and DI techniques to record bass. A blend of the two allows you to get the best of both worlds. In fact, some engineers will even record up to 3 or 4 tracks for the bass, usually featuring 1 DI track and multiple mics. For example, you could use a specialised kick/bass dynamic mic up close alongside a condenser mic placed further away and then combine this with a DI signal. When mixed together, it can be possible to arrive at a more diverse range of sounds suitable for many styles of music - just make sure you check the phase relationships between these different channels. The key here is to be patient and don't be afraid to experiment. Different bass guitars, amps and the room itself all call for a different approach. The import thing is to trust your ears, and remember that if it sounds good, it is good.
Mixing
In the vast majority of cases, getting a great mix starts with the relationship between your drum tracks and the bass. It's essential to get a good groove between the kick, snare and bass to build the foundations we talked about at the beginning of this article. Before you start any mixing, listen carefully to the groove and timing between the drums and bass. In many cases, the performance can benefit from a little tightening up. This process typically involves cutting, moving, and in some cases, time stretching some notes. Modern recording software has come a long way toward assisting or even automating this process; however, I find that some of this automation can remove the feel of your performance altogether. If you want to preserve the human element of your performance, try and keep editing to a minimum. Sometimes, the best way is to manually locate and edit the offending notes. If you find yourself having to make a lot of changes, it might be better to consider re-recording.
The key point to remember here is that something has to be the main reference point for timing. In the vast majority of cases, the reference point is almost certainly the drums. Listen carefully and assess the relationship between the kick, snare, and the bass; they should work very closely together to form the backbone of your track. If they don't, everything else you do after will be in vein.
Once you are happy with the final performance, you can begin considering how the bass sits within the overall context of your mix. The following are typical processes to consider:
EQ
Where you choose to boost or cut EQ on a bass guitar is essential to producing a controlled and clean low-end within the context of your overall mix. The best results are usually achieved by NOT boosting at the same frequency as your kick drum track. For example, if you applied a boost around 80Hz on the kick drum, try cutting a small amount from the bass at the same frequency and boost further up between 100 - 150Hz instead. It then also makes sense to cut the kick drum track at the boosted bass frequency. This approach will help to control and tighten up the low end.
Some bass tracks can benefit from a small high-frequency boost. If you decide to do this, listen carefully with a good set of reference headphones to determine which frequency gives it some presence or attack without clashing with other percussion tracks. Once again, it doesn't make sense to boost your kick drum attack at the same frequency as your bass; you need to give each track its individual space within the frequency spectrum.
Finally, if you haven't gathered already, making EQ decisions when the track is soloed is like stabbing in the dark. You need to hear the relationship between each instrument to make informed choices. Make sure you regularly reference your EQ settings against the drums and the entire mix.
Note: Check your Mix on Different Systems
With bass frequencies, it is particularly important to check your mix on a range of audio systems. A deep low-frequency bass guitar sound might sound great on a high-quality studio monitor system, but it could be completely inaudible on many consumer audio systems - particularly cheaper earphones. A bass sound with a good balance between low and low-mid frequencies will usually transfer better.
Also, remember that bass frequencies can determine the master fader volume as bass frequencies contain more energy than high frequencies. If you're having trouble getting the bass to sound audible in context with the entire track, try rolling off some low-end, which should then allow you to turn the whole track up without it peaking.
Compression
Compression is typically applied to bass as it helps to maintain consistency. How much you add will likely depend on how the track was recorded. For example, it is common to compress a DI bass track more heavily than one recorded with an amp and microphone. This is because the amplifier imposes a certain amount of natural compression - particularly if you have a valve/tube amp. Any amount of compression added should be enough to smooth out the performance and maintain a solid groove. Be careful not to set your attack too fast, or you will squash precious transients. Equally, make sure the attack is not so slow that it ruins the groove entirely. The release time will also need careful consideration to ensure you maintain dynamic range and groove. Set the release too low, and the compression will be released almost immediately after the signal drops below your threshold. Set this too high, and the compressor will be almost always compressing and could ruin the groove and strip the performance of any dynamic range. If your compressor has an auto attack and release function, you might want to consider using this if you don't feel confident. In any case, the attack and release settings will depend on playing style and the desired sound; trust your ears on this one.
Compression can be difficult to understand, and if you're new to the basic controls, it's well worth researching and fully understanding these before you apply anything. The video below goes a long way to explaining compression fundamentals for beginners - albeit from a drums perspective - but the controls and purpose remain valid.
Reverb
Last but not least, too much reverb on the bottom end can really muddy up a mix. The trick here is to use short reverbs with a little pre-delay to separate the bass from the reverb sound. Any reverb should be just enough to help blend the track in without sounding overpowering. As described in our recording vocals article, you can help to avoid muddy sounding reverb and retain focus by applying a little EQ to the return signal of your reverb.
Conclusion
There are no right or wrongs in most recording applications; there are, however, guidelines that usually yield good results. By following the fundamentals in this guide, you should be well on your way to building a solid base for your track - pun wholeheartedly intended.
Just like building a house, it's essential to build on solid foundations. When done correctly, your bass should work with the rest of the band to provide a punchy and tight solid backbone to your music. Unfortunately for the beginner, recording great bass can seem like a dark art, with many results sounding muddy or unbalanced. Thankfully, like most things, it's easy when you know how. In this article, we'll get you up and running with great results, fast.
Setting Up
It goes without saying that you need a great bass player to get professional results, but it's equally important to set up your instrument first. As described in our post about recording acoustic guitars , we highly recommend you invest in setting your instrument up properly before doing anything else. As an absolute minimum, you should check the instrument action, its intonation, and consider a string change. Finally, and most importantly, always tune the bass before and between takes.
Bass Recording Methods
There are 3 main methods for recording bass guitar: 1. Recording direct using a DI box, 2. Using a Microphone, 3. Using a combination of direct and microphone techniques.
The method you choose depends on a number of factors. Below we'll consider each option in more detail.
Should I DI My Bass Guitar?
Unlike electric guitars, it is common to use a DI to record bass. Although this technique delivers a good solid clean sound, it can also lack life. If you want to capture a more ‘real' sound, there's nothing quite like micing up a bass cabinet. DI's, however, do have other distinct advantages.
They offer a back-up, allowing you to re-amp the signal should you decide to later.
When blended with a microphone signal, DI's can be used to help reinforce any frequencies not produced by the amp.
If you do decide for practical or budgetary reasons to use a DI on it's own, the result can be greatly improved by processing the signal using amp simulation software. Amplifier and Cabinet modelling software has come in leaps and bounds over recent years, to the point where even the stock options with programs like Garage band can reproduce very convincing results.
Recording Bass with a Microphone
For those that have the luxury of a great sounding bass amplifier, the best and most characterful results can be achieved using a microphone. The most important factors when choosing a mic for bass guitar are: (a) frequency response and (b) how well the mic handles high sound pressure levels (SPL). (a) It is desirable to have a frequency response shaped specifically for bass instruments, meaning it has a strong low-frequency response, with a scooped mid and a presence peak around 3-5KHz. (b) When it comes to high SPL levels, dynamic microphones will typically perform best; however, this does not rule out condenser mics entirely…
Can I Use a Condenser Mic on Bass?
As determined above, dynamic mics work great for bass guitars. On the flip-side, they also impart their own particular sound on the recording thanks to their strong, tailored frequency response. For those who prefer a more natural sound, it's worth considering a condenser mic; just make sure you keep the bass amp to a sensible level and consider using a pad if the signal is too hot. A pad can be enabled at the pre-amp or even at the mic if your model has this feature. Pads will typically allow you to attenuate the signal by 10 - 15dB.
Mic Positioning
There is no one size fits all solution here, so it's essential to experiment with position and distance. Listen carefully to determine what sounds best for your application.
First up, try experimenting with mic position relative to the speaker cone. Just like electric guitars, you can easily achieve a bright or warm tone depending on where you place the mic. As a general rule, positioning the mic toward the speaker cone edge will produce a warm tone while pointing it directly at the centre will give you more ‘bite'.
Secondly, microphone distance from the grill will also affect the tone. All microphones are different, so listen carefully for changes using a pair of good quality headphones. As you move the mic further away from the grill, the tone changes from a very dry, focused and non-reverberant tone, to a more natural and ambient sound. The other consideration here is proximity effect, whereby the bass frequencies become more accentuated as a directional mic moves closer to the sound source. Engineers will often exploit the proximity effect to thicken up guitars, but you might find that bass guitars benefit from a little breathing room; somewhere between 4 - 18 inches will usually work depending on preference.
Often overlooked is the floor surface. For example, if you place the amp on a solid floor, the reflections will result in a brighter tone than that of an amp placed on a carpet. Keep in mind that the further your mic is from the amp, the more significant floor and room reflections become. Generally speaking, a microphone placed further away from the speaker grill will be more representative of the overall amp and room sound. In other words, it will sound more natural. Depending on the style of music you're recording, this may, or may not be desirable.
A little info on Polar Patterns
By far the most commonly used polar pattern for recording bass is cardioid. In short, their directional pickup allows for greater rejection of room reflections or other instrument sounds. On the other hand, they also colour the sound more - most notably through the proximity effect described above.
If you want to avoid the proximity effect and capture a more natural tone, consider using an omni-directional polar pattern. As we described in our Recording & Mixing Vocals article, omni directional microphones will produce a more ‘natural' or ‘open' sound, but they will also capture more reflections. If you have a great sounding room, some natural reverb can be desirable; however, for most home or project studios, it is far safer to tame room reflections and add reverb during mixdown.
Recording a Blend of DI and Microphone Signals
Many engineers will insist on using a combination of mic and DI techniques to record bass. A blend of the two allows you to get the best of both worlds. In fact, some engineers will even record up to 3 or 4 tracks for the bass, usually featuring 1 DI track and multiple mics. For example, you could use a specialised kick/bass dynamic mic up close alongside a condenser mic placed further away and then combine this with a DI signal. When mixed together, it can be possible to arrive at a more diverse range of sounds suitable for many styles of music - just make sure you check the phase relationships between these different channels. The key here is to be patient and don't be afraid to experiment. Different bass guitars, amps and the room itself all call for a different approach. The import thing is to trust your ears, and remember that if it sounds good, it is good.
Mixing
In the vast majority of cases, getting a great mix starts with the relationship between your drum tracks and the bass. It's essential to get a good groove between the kick, snare and bass to build the foundations we talked about at the beginning of this article. Before you start any mixing, listen carefully to the groove and timing between the drums and bass. In many cases, the performance can benefit from a little tightening up. This process typically involves cutting, moving, and in some cases, time stretching some notes. Modern recording software has come a long way toward assisting or even automating this process; however, I find that some of this automation can remove the feel of your performance altogether. If you want to preserve the human element of your performance, try and keep editing to a minimum. Sometimes, the best way is to manually locate and edit the offending notes. If you find yourself having to make a lot of changes, it might be better to consider re-recording.
The key point to remember here is that something has to be the main reference point for timing. In the vast majority of cases, the reference point is almost certainly the drums. Listen carefully and assess the relationship between the kick, snare, and the bass; they should work very closely together to form the backbone of your track. If they don't, everything else you do after will be in vein.
Once you are happy with the final performance, you can begin considering how the bass sits within the overall context of your mix. The following are typical processes to consider:
EQ
Where you choose to boost or cut EQ on a bass guitar is essential to producing a controlled and clean low-end within the context of your overall mix. The best results are usually achieved by NOT boosting at the same frequency as your kick drum track. For example, if you applied a boost around 80Hz on the kick drum, try cutting a small amount from the bass at the same frequency and boost further up between 100 - 150Hz instead. It then also makes sense to cut the kick drum track at the boosted bass frequency. This approach will help to control and tighten up the low end.
Some bass tracks can benefit from a small high-frequency boost. If you decide to do this, listen carefully with a good set of reference headphones to determine which frequency gives it some presence or attack without clashing with other percussion tracks. Once again, it doesn't make sense to boost your kick drum attack at the same frequency as your bass; you need to give each track its individual space within the frequency spectrum.
Finally, if you haven't gathered already, making EQ decisions when the track is soloed is like stabbing in the dark. You need to hear the relationship between each instrument to make informed choices. Make sure you regularly reference your EQ settings against the drums and the entire mix.
Note: Check your Mix on Different Systems
With bass frequencies, it is particularly important to check your mix on a range of audio systems. A deep low-frequency bass guitar sound might sound great on a high-quality studio monitor system, but it could be completely inaudible on many consumer audio systems - particularly cheaper earphones. A bass sound with a good balance between low and low-mid frequencies will usually transfer better.
Also, remember that bass frequencies can determine the master fader volume as bass frequencies contain more energy than high frequencies. If you're having trouble getting the bass to sound audible in context with the entire track, try rolling off some low-end, which should then allow you to turn the whole track up without it peaking.
Compression
Compression is typically applied to bass as it helps to maintain consistency. How much you add will likely depend on how the track was recorded. For example, it is common to compress a DI bass track more heavily than one recorded with an amp and microphone. This is because the amplifier imposes a certain amount of natural compression - particularly if you have a valve/tube amp. Any amount of compression added should be enough to smooth out the performance and maintain a solid groove. Be careful not to set your attack too fast, or you will squash precious transients. Equally, make sure the attack is not so slow that it ruins the groove entirely. The release time will also need careful consideration to ensure you maintain dynamic range and groove. Set the release too low, and the compression will be released almost immediately after the signal drops below your threshold. Set this too high, and the compressor will be almost always compressing and could ruin the groove and strip the performance of any dynamic range. If your compressor has an auto attack and release function, you might want to consider using this if you don't feel confident. In any case, the attack and release settings will depend on playing style and the desired sound; trust your ears on this one.
Compression can be difficult to understand, and if you're new to the basic controls, it's well worth researching and fully understanding these before you apply anything. The video below goes a long way to explaining compression fundamentals for beginners - albeit from a drums perspective - but the controls and purpose remain valid.
Reverb
Last but not least, too much reverb on the bottom end can really muddy up a mix. The trick here is to use short reverbs with a little pre-delay to separate the bass from the reverb sound. Any reverb should be just enough to help blend the track in without sounding overpowering. As described in our recording vocals article, you can help to avoid muddy sounding reverb and retain focus by applying a little EQ to the return signal of your reverb.
Conclusion
There are no right or wrongs in most recording applications; there are, however, guidelines that usually yield good results. By following the fundamentals in this guide, you should be well on your way to building a solid base for your track - pun wholeheartedly intended.
Tuesday 18 October 2016
Five Techniques For Stereo Miking Drums
By Matt McGlynn
A single pair of multipattern condenser microphones can provide at least five distinct overhead drum miking choices with surprisingly different sonic characteristics.
To demonstrate these different sounds, we recorded a drum kit with a pair of KSM44A overhead microphones five different ways. The drums, the room, the preamps, cables, and composition remained the same. The only variable was the position of the microphones (and in one case, the polar pattern).
How different can a single pair of microphones, in the same room with the same drums, really sound? As you listen to the tracks below, consider the following:
Width of stereo field
Ease of setup
The XY or coincident pair approach wins points for its guaranteed mono compatibility. Because the two capsules are so close together (coincident”), sound waves from every drum and cymbal impinge upon the two mics' diaphragms nearly simultaneously, avoiding any risk of comb-filtering due to partial cancellation of out-of-phase waves when the two OH tracks are heard in mono.
A consequence of coincident positioning is that the resulting stereo field is narrow, even when the two OH tracks are panned hard L/R. This is a good choice for arrangements in which the drums play a supporting role, or when mono compatibility is critical.
Overhead microphone height is an important consideration in this and every technique. If the mics are very high, the capsules will point straight over the sides of the of the kit, essentially putting the entire instrument off-axis. This will result in an overly roomy sound.
Lowering the microphones, or using an angle less than 90o can result in a more direct sound, although the kick and snare will always be off-axis.
Regardless of height, I recommend mounting the XY array directly above the snare drum, to ensure that the snare is centered in the stereo image.
The M-S technique, like XY, ensures mono compatibility. And like XY, it produces a relatively narrow stereo spread.
A primary benefit is that the perceived size of the space can be changed at mix time, by varying the amount of side” channel in the mix. This is often described as adjusting the stereo width,” but to my ear the drum kit doesn't get any wider. The high and low toms don't get farther apart. The room gets bigger, but the drums sound less direct.
The challenge of M-S is that one of the two microphones is not pointed at the drum kit. The figure-of-8 mic is positioned so the drums are in the mic's null point; the microphone hears only reflected sound. If you are recording drums in a small or untreated room, chances are this reflected sound is not what you want on your record.
But if the room does sound good, M-S is a great way to combine a dry, direct sound — the Mid mic — with as much room ambience as suits the rest of the production.
The Recorderman technique is probably the newest and least-known technique here, although it is conceptually similar to the overhead configuration of Glyn Johns' more-famous approach.
It requires two Cardioid microphones. One is suspended 32” above the center of the snare drum, pointing straight down. The other is positioned near the drummer's right shoulder, pointing directly at the snare drum from 32″ away.
This technique requires that the kick drum is also equidistant from both microphones. This can be checked by taping the two ends of a length of string to the center of the snare and kick drums, respectively. Pinch the string together at the point where it touches the mic above the snare, so that both legs of the string are taut. Move that point of the string in an arc toward the drummer's right shoulder to find the perfect location of the second microphone — at a point where it, too, is 32” from the center of the snare, and equally distant from the kick as is the first microphone.
The two tracks are panned L and R, although not necessarily 100%. Extreme panning of Recorderman overhead tracks can leave a hole in the middle of the stereo field.
Mono compatibility is not guaranteed, except for the kick and snare.
Because the microphones are relatively low, they will hear primarily the drums themselves. Cymbals will be understated, as will the sound of the room.
This is therefore a great way to combat some of the problems that plague live drum recording in home or project studios:
Small, untreated rooms that don't sound great
Untrained drummers who bash their cymbals
Even in large, purpose-built studios, the Recorderman technique is a useful way to capture dry overhead tracks that can be supplemented with more-distant ambient microphones, should the arrangement call for a roomier sound.
With a stereo bar, ORTF becomes very easy to use. Once the two microphones are locked into position — with capsules 17cm apart, at 110o- the single stand can easily be raised, lowered, or angled to tune the array to best suit the size of the kit, the sound of the room, and the desired amount of ambience in the recorded track.
Due to the wide spread of the microphones, it is likely that most of the drum kit will be between them, off-axis. This approach, like mid-side, is less likely to succeed in a small or untreated space, because the microphones will mostly hear reflected sounds. Moving the array closer to the drum kit, whether from behind or over the top, will result in a drier sound.
The ORTF stereo image is wider than XY, MS, or Recorderman, but not unbelievably so. Perhaps because the microphone position simulates human ear position, the resulting stereo field seems very natural and realistic, and generally collapses to mono without significant problems.
AB/Spaced Pair
The AB or Spaced Pair approach is among the simplest stereo techniques to understand, but it presents the most problems in practice.
Because the microphones are far apart, AB arrays are susceptible to comb filtering. The risk can be mitigated somewhat by keeping the two microphone capsules equidistant from the center of the snare drum — but even then, the mic placement should be auditioned (in mono) to reveal possible problems with the kick, toms, or cymbals.
Aside from phase-coherency challenges, AB is a powerful technique, with a large palette of sonic colors. By lowering the array, or angling the microphones in toward the center of the kit, room sound can be minimized. Conversely, there are numerous ways to use an AB pair to capture a roomier, indirect sound: by raising the microphones, moving them further out toward the sides of the kit, angling them to point straight down, or changing from Cardioid to a wider polar pattern.
AB arrays can produce a wide stereo image, simply because drums or cymbals very near one of the two microphones will be perceived to come from only that side of the stereo field.
This can result in an unrealistically large-sounding drum kit, if the overhead tracks are panned 100% L/R.
Head to head Comparison
Drum Miking Cheat Sheet
To minimize room sound, lower the OH microphones and point them toward the center of the kit.
To maximize room sound, raise the OH microphones, angle them away from the drums, or use wider polar patterns.
To minimize cymbal sound, try Recorderman.
To ensure mono compatibility, use XY or MS.
For the widest possible stereo spread, use AB.
Avoid phase coherency problems with kick and snare by keeping them centered between the OH mics.
Dry overhead tracks can be optionally supplemented with room mics.
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
Multipattern LDCs provide even more options.
A single pair of multipattern condenser microphones can provide at least five distinct overhead drum miking choices with surprisingly different sonic characteristics.
To demonstrate these different sounds, we recorded a drum kit with a pair of KSM44A overhead microphones five different ways. The drums, the room, the preamps, cables, and composition remained the same. The only variable was the position of the microphones (and in one case, the polar pattern).
How different can a single pair of microphones, in the same room with the same drums, really sound? As you listen to the tracks below, consider the following:
Width of stereo field
Ease of setup
The XY or coincident pair approach wins points for its guaranteed mono compatibility. Because the two capsules are so close together (coincident”), sound waves from every drum and cymbal impinge upon the two mics' diaphragms nearly simultaneously, avoiding any risk of comb-filtering due to partial cancellation of out-of-phase waves when the two OH tracks are heard in mono.
A consequence of coincident positioning is that the resulting stereo field is narrow, even when the two OH tracks are panned hard L/R. This is a good choice for arrangements in which the drums play a supporting role, or when mono compatibility is critical.
Overhead microphone height is an important consideration in this and every technique. If the mics are very high, the capsules will point straight over the sides of the of the kit, essentially putting the entire instrument off-axis. This will result in an overly roomy sound.
Lowering the microphones, or using an angle less than 90o can result in a more direct sound, although the kick and snare will always be off-axis.
Regardless of height, I recommend mounting the XY array directly above the snare drum, to ensure that the snare is centered in the stereo image.
The M-S technique, like XY, ensures mono compatibility. And like XY, it produces a relatively narrow stereo spread.
A primary benefit is that the perceived size of the space can be changed at mix time, by varying the amount of side” channel in the mix. This is often described as adjusting the stereo width,” but to my ear the drum kit doesn't get any wider. The high and low toms don't get farther apart. The room gets bigger, but the drums sound less direct.
The challenge of M-S is that one of the two microphones is not pointed at the drum kit. The figure-of-8 mic is positioned so the drums are in the mic's null point; the microphone hears only reflected sound. If you are recording drums in a small or untreated room, chances are this reflected sound is not what you want on your record.
But if the room does sound good, M-S is a great way to combine a dry, direct sound — the Mid mic — with as much room ambience as suits the rest of the production.
The Recorderman technique is probably the newest and least-known technique here, although it is conceptually similar to the overhead configuration of Glyn Johns' more-famous approach.
It requires two Cardioid microphones. One is suspended 32” above the center of the snare drum, pointing straight down. The other is positioned near the drummer's right shoulder, pointing directly at the snare drum from 32″ away.
This technique requires that the kick drum is also equidistant from both microphones. This can be checked by taping the two ends of a length of string to the center of the snare and kick drums, respectively. Pinch the string together at the point where it touches the mic above the snare, so that both legs of the string are taut. Move that point of the string in an arc toward the drummer's right shoulder to find the perfect location of the second microphone — at a point where it, too, is 32” from the center of the snare, and equally distant from the kick as is the first microphone.
The two tracks are panned L and R, although not necessarily 100%. Extreme panning of Recorderman overhead tracks can leave a hole in the middle of the stereo field.
Mono compatibility is not guaranteed, except for the kick and snare.
Because the microphones are relatively low, they will hear primarily the drums themselves. Cymbals will be understated, as will the sound of the room.
This is therefore a great way to combat some of the problems that plague live drum recording in home or project studios:
Small, untreated rooms that don't sound great
Untrained drummers who bash their cymbals
Even in large, purpose-built studios, the Recorderman technique is a useful way to capture dry overhead tracks that can be supplemented with more-distant ambient microphones, should the arrangement call for a roomier sound.
With a stereo bar, ORTF becomes very easy to use. Once the two microphones are locked into position — with capsules 17cm apart, at 110o- the single stand can easily be raised, lowered, or angled to tune the array to best suit the size of the kit, the sound of the room, and the desired amount of ambience in the recorded track.
Due to the wide spread of the microphones, it is likely that most of the drum kit will be between them, off-axis. This approach, like mid-side, is less likely to succeed in a small or untreated space, because the microphones will mostly hear reflected sounds. Moving the array closer to the drum kit, whether from behind or over the top, will result in a drier sound.
The ORTF stereo image is wider than XY, MS, or Recorderman, but not unbelievably so. Perhaps because the microphone position simulates human ear position, the resulting stereo field seems very natural and realistic, and generally collapses to mono without significant problems.
AB/Spaced Pair
The AB or Spaced Pair approach is among the simplest stereo techniques to understand, but it presents the most problems in practice.
Because the microphones are far apart, AB arrays are susceptible to comb filtering. The risk can be mitigated somewhat by keeping the two microphone capsules equidistant from the center of the snare drum — but even then, the mic placement should be auditioned (in mono) to reveal possible problems with the kick, toms, or cymbals.
Aside from phase-coherency challenges, AB is a powerful technique, with a large palette of sonic colors. By lowering the array, or angling the microphones in toward the center of the kit, room sound can be minimized. Conversely, there are numerous ways to use an AB pair to capture a roomier, indirect sound: by raising the microphones, moving them further out toward the sides of the kit, angling them to point straight down, or changing from Cardioid to a wider polar pattern.
AB arrays can produce a wide stereo image, simply because drums or cymbals very near one of the two microphones will be perceived to come from only that side of the stereo field.
This can result in an unrealistically large-sounding drum kit, if the overhead tracks are panned 100% L/R.
Head to head Comparison
Drum Miking Cheat Sheet
To minimize room sound, lower the OH microphones and point them toward the center of the kit.
To maximize room sound, raise the OH microphones, angle them away from the drums, or use wider polar patterns.
To minimize cymbal sound, try Recorderman.
To ensure mono compatibility, use XY or MS.
For the widest possible stereo spread, use AB.
Avoid phase coherency problems with kick and snare by keeping them centered between the OH mics.
Dry overhead tracks can be optionally supplemented with room mics.
A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.
Multipattern LDCs provide even more options.
Guerrilla Guitar Mic Technique
By Darwin Grosse
In this article, we are going to take a guerilla” approach to guitar miking techniques, using a small (but versatile) set of inexpensive microphones. It might be easy to discuss guitar recording in a vacuum, and I'm sure you could buy a $10,000 Neumanleyfunken microphone, glue it to a tree, and get an excellent guitar sound. However, most of us have budgets, often kept very tight, and getting a good guitar sound with a limited mic collection is a necessity.
The weaponry
These days, the budget microphone class is really quite amazing. When I began recording (back when Giant Lizards roamed the earth), a decent condenser microphone cost two months' pay. Now, you can get both a large-diaphragm and a small-diaphragm microphone for around the cost of, say, three tanks of gasoline. So, assuming we are willing to stay at home for a few weekends, we can probably scrounge up a budget for a decent mic cabinet.”
Using a theoretical budget of around $500 (your mileage may vary, depending on how patient you are in waiting for sales and the like), I assembled the following microphone setup:
• An MXL combo” with two condenser mics, one large-diaphragm (the 2001P) and one small-diaphragm (the 603S)
• 2 Oktava MC012 small-diaphragm condenser mics, with cardioid capsules
• 1 Shure SM57 dynamic mic
• 1 Behringer ECM8000 omnidirectional measurement” mic
• 1 Behringer Ultra-DI box
• 4 mic stands
• 5 microphone cables
• 2 pillows and a blanket (I didn't buy these—I took them off the bed!)
By scouring the sales rack, looking for used microphones and borrowing your Uncle Howard's mic stands, you can probably trim this budget even tighter. In any case, we will use these tools for an attack on guitar recording.
Frontal assault on electric guitars
Everyone knows how to record an electric guitar—you slap an SM57 in front of the amp and hit Record, right? Well, that isn't always the best plan, but it can be a good start. The trick is to find a sweet spot” on the speaker, and set the mic up to capture that sound.
Generally, the center of the cone won't be a great spot for the microphone, since you can get some funny artifacts from the entire speaker pounding on both the mic diaphragm and body. What I've found most useful is to place the microphone off-center, then to adjust the nose of the mic until it is pointing at the best-sounding part of the speaker cone.
In the case of my Line 6 Spider amp, it turns out that the best sound is found around one-quarter of the way across the speaker. The best way to find the sweet spot” is to have someone play the guitar, and move the mic around while monitoring the mic with a good set of sealed headphones. (In fact, one of the most important items for good guitar recording wasn't listed in the above kit; that is, a Really Long headphone cable.)
Two mics
In some cases, and especially for less aggressive music styles, adding a second microphone will help add air” to the sound. Using the large-diaphragm MXL mic, I add a bit of the room sound so the cabinet is able to speak” a little before the sound is captured. By balancing the close and distance mics you can get a variety of sounds that will help a guitar sit better in a mix, but it doesn't take much. In a recent recording I found that having the ambient mic at -15 dB (while the close mic was at 0 dB) gave just the right amount of presence without adding an obvious roomy sound.
The use of a second, ambient mic is especially useful with jazzy guitar sounds, and almost a must when doing funky wa-wa tracks. However, you need to watch out for phase problems between the two mics; if the result of mono-summing the mics sounds like a phase-shifter stuck in one spot, you have to do a little more work on placement. Generally, moving the ambient mic a few inches in or out will greatly improve the sound.
Multi-speaker cabinets
Multi-speaker cabinets are a bit more challenging. This takes more experimentation with placement while wearing headphones. Get a mic in front of the cabinet, and try out the different speakers—you will generally find that one of the speakers is the beauty,” and you will want to focus on close-miking that one. As for distant mic placement, you will probably want to move the mic back; a Marshall stack takes a little more distance to fully form its sound than a Fender Champ does. I've had situations where a loud player will be ambient-miked as far as 8 feet away!
If you want a clue about good ambient mic placement for an electric guitarist, watch where the player likes to stand while warming up and noodling about. Guitarists tend to, unconsciously, gravitate toward the spot in a room where the amp sounds best. Let the player noodle for a while, then drop a mic in that spot and have him go stand in the corner (where he probably has belonged since grade school).
If you want to get creative, use a DI (direct injection) box in addition to the amp output. This can really help a guitar stand out in a mix, especially for those guitar arpeggios in the middle of a power ballad. The addition of some DI tink” on top of the cabinet's roar can help focus the sound when the instrument is exposed. If you get creative during mixdown, you might even find the direct sound is a great source for some reamplification (see my article elsewhere in this issue).
Flanking the acoustic
The recommended arrangement for the stereo recording of an acoustic guitar is to use a pair of small-diameter condensers bunched around the 12th fret. As with the classic” electric technique, this is a great starting point for a guitar recording. However, in some cases, we need either a lighter touch, or more ambience in the sound, since this standard technique tends to have a very up-front quality that might not fit well for all recordings.
One mic layout that I like is a single small-diaphragm condenser combined with either an omni or cardioid mic over the player's shoulder. This doesn't have the clear stereo nature of the dual close-miked sound, but it has a more delicate sound than pure close-miking, and has a great focus point for panning in a complex mix. As with the near/far mic combo for electric, you don't need to have copious amounts of the distance mic in the mix; often, a small amount of ambience (as little as -15 dB) will give depth to the mix that a reverb effect can't match. Also, if you pan the mics a bit in the stereo space, you can get a very player-friendly” sound for an acoustic solo recording. This technique is especially effective if you have a good-sounding live room in which to record.
Delicate jobs
For the most delicate sound of all, I replaced the small-diaphragm Oktava with the large-diaphragm MXL and started playing around with distances between mic and guitar body to get a good balance between the mics. By focusing up the neck, I caught plenty of the body without boomy soundhole blow.” The player was doing some smart finger-picking, and this setup provided a smooth and warm sound with just the right imaging.
Dealing with acoustic guitar ambience is a lot more difficult than with an electric—the sound of an acoustic won't overwhelm a room like a guitar amp can. This is where the pillows and blanket come into play. By draping a blanket over a mic stand, then altering the distance between it and the microphones, you can alter the effect of the room without eliminating the ambience completely. I will often place the blanket on the body side of the acoustic, relatively close to both the instrument and the mic. This seems to tighten up the sound without making it sound like I recorded the track in an anechoic chamber.
I tend to use pillows to control floor reflection. One pillow placed in the spot of the first floor reflection (halfway between the player and the distance mic) will help sweeten the ambience quite a bit; a second pillow placed just in front of the player's feet will help prevent too many splashy” early reflections. The pillows can also be used to alter the response of an omni mic—for example, having a low-mounted omni with a pillow underneath can give you a rich sound without sounding totally reverberant.
In situations where I want a very wide stereo sound, I've split” two microphones using the blanket-on-a-stand. This will force the ambient sound to remain separated left-to-right, and will create an incredibly wide image without the in-your-face sound of close-miked condensers. If you are double-tracking the guitar, try using the left side of one take and the right side of the other—the results will either sound great or threaten to twist your head off.
12-string
One of the more difficult guitar recording chores (for me) is getting a good 12-string sound. Perhaps it is because of the instrument I use—a cranky old Fender 12-string with a body shellacked as hard as a rock, but with a good feel. I've found that the harsh harmonics of the instrument, combined with a rather honky body sound, make it difficult to get a full yet natural sound.
One thing that I find very useful in this situation is using a soundhole-mounted pickup to get a little clarity in the sound. Using this pickup along with a small-diaphragm mic pointing toward the 12th fret tends to work for most applications. Interestingly enough, I found that using the large-diaphragm condenser for ambience, mounted over the player's head and pointing down, gives a more natural sound than one in front of the instrument. I'll also use the blanket and pillows in this application for a little splash control.”
Debriefing
When you have a modest mic collection, you often have to be more experimental with placement than someone with a brimming mic locker. Better-quality mics can make a difference; they generally have a better sound out of the box” and provide more flexibility with placement.
But as guerilla recordists we have to make compromises due to budget concerns. One important factor is where you do the recording. As with real estate, one of the keys to good recording is location, location, location.” Every condo, apartment, house and studio will have a few spots that are perfect for recording. Spend some time tracking those places down, and you will find that your tracks just sound better. The key to great guitar recording boils down to having a good combination of mics, a good ear, and plenty of time for experimentation.
Darwin Grosse is a recording engineer, producer, and sound designer in the Colorado Rockies.
In this article, we are going to take a guerilla” approach to guitar miking techniques, using a small (but versatile) set of inexpensive microphones. It might be easy to discuss guitar recording in a vacuum, and I'm sure you could buy a $10,000 Neumanleyfunken microphone, glue it to a tree, and get an excellent guitar sound. However, most of us have budgets, often kept very tight, and getting a good guitar sound with a limited mic collection is a necessity.
The weaponry
These days, the budget microphone class is really quite amazing. When I began recording (back when Giant Lizards roamed the earth), a decent condenser microphone cost two months' pay. Now, you can get both a large-diaphragm and a small-diaphragm microphone for around the cost of, say, three tanks of gasoline. So, assuming we are willing to stay at home for a few weekends, we can probably scrounge up a budget for a decent mic cabinet.”
Using a theoretical budget of around $500 (your mileage may vary, depending on how patient you are in waiting for sales and the like), I assembled the following microphone setup:
• An MXL combo” with two condenser mics, one large-diaphragm (the 2001P) and one small-diaphragm (the 603S)
• 2 Oktava MC012 small-diaphragm condenser mics, with cardioid capsules
• 1 Shure SM57 dynamic mic
• 1 Behringer ECM8000 omnidirectional measurement” mic
• 1 Behringer Ultra-DI box
• 4 mic stands
• 5 microphone cables
• 2 pillows and a blanket (I didn't buy these—I took them off the bed!)
By scouring the sales rack, looking for used microphones and borrowing your Uncle Howard's mic stands, you can probably trim this budget even tighter. In any case, we will use these tools for an attack on guitar recording.
Frontal assault on electric guitars
Everyone knows how to record an electric guitar—you slap an SM57 in front of the amp and hit Record, right? Well, that isn't always the best plan, but it can be a good start. The trick is to find a sweet spot” on the speaker, and set the mic up to capture that sound.
Generally, the center of the cone won't be a great spot for the microphone, since you can get some funny artifacts from the entire speaker pounding on both the mic diaphragm and body. What I've found most useful is to place the microphone off-center, then to adjust the nose of the mic until it is pointing at the best-sounding part of the speaker cone.
In the case of my Line 6 Spider amp, it turns out that the best sound is found around one-quarter of the way across the speaker. The best way to find the sweet spot” is to have someone play the guitar, and move the mic around while monitoring the mic with a good set of sealed headphones. (In fact, one of the most important items for good guitar recording wasn't listed in the above kit; that is, a Really Long headphone cable.)
Two mics
In some cases, and especially for less aggressive music styles, adding a second microphone will help add air” to the sound. Using the large-diaphragm MXL mic, I add a bit of the room sound so the cabinet is able to speak” a little before the sound is captured. By balancing the close and distance mics you can get a variety of sounds that will help a guitar sit better in a mix, but it doesn't take much. In a recent recording I found that having the ambient mic at -15 dB (while the close mic was at 0 dB) gave just the right amount of presence without adding an obvious roomy sound.
The use of a second, ambient mic is especially useful with jazzy guitar sounds, and almost a must when doing funky wa-wa tracks. However, you need to watch out for phase problems between the two mics; if the result of mono-summing the mics sounds like a phase-shifter stuck in one spot, you have to do a little more work on placement. Generally, moving the ambient mic a few inches in or out will greatly improve the sound.
Multi-speaker cabinets
Multi-speaker cabinets are a bit more challenging. This takes more experimentation with placement while wearing headphones. Get a mic in front of the cabinet, and try out the different speakers—you will generally find that one of the speakers is the beauty,” and you will want to focus on close-miking that one. As for distant mic placement, you will probably want to move the mic back; a Marshall stack takes a little more distance to fully form its sound than a Fender Champ does. I've had situations where a loud player will be ambient-miked as far as 8 feet away!
If you want a clue about good ambient mic placement for an electric guitarist, watch where the player likes to stand while warming up and noodling about. Guitarists tend to, unconsciously, gravitate toward the spot in a room where the amp sounds best. Let the player noodle for a while, then drop a mic in that spot and have him go stand in the corner (where he probably has belonged since grade school).
If you want to get creative, use a DI (direct injection) box in addition to the amp output. This can really help a guitar stand out in a mix, especially for those guitar arpeggios in the middle of a power ballad. The addition of some DI tink” on top of the cabinet's roar can help focus the sound when the instrument is exposed. If you get creative during mixdown, you might even find the direct sound is a great source for some reamplification (see my article elsewhere in this issue).
Flanking the acoustic
The recommended arrangement for the stereo recording of an acoustic guitar is to use a pair of small-diameter condensers bunched around the 12th fret. As with the classic” electric technique, this is a great starting point for a guitar recording. However, in some cases, we need either a lighter touch, or more ambience in the sound, since this standard technique tends to have a very up-front quality that might not fit well for all recordings.
One mic layout that I like is a single small-diaphragm condenser combined with either an omni or cardioid mic over the player's shoulder. This doesn't have the clear stereo nature of the dual close-miked sound, but it has a more delicate sound than pure close-miking, and has a great focus point for panning in a complex mix. As with the near/far mic combo for electric, you don't need to have copious amounts of the distance mic in the mix; often, a small amount of ambience (as little as -15 dB) will give depth to the mix that a reverb effect can't match. Also, if you pan the mics a bit in the stereo space, you can get a very player-friendly” sound for an acoustic solo recording. This technique is especially effective if you have a good-sounding live room in which to record.
Delicate jobs
For the most delicate sound of all, I replaced the small-diaphragm Oktava with the large-diaphragm MXL and started playing around with distances between mic and guitar body to get a good balance between the mics. By focusing up the neck, I caught plenty of the body without boomy soundhole blow.” The player was doing some smart finger-picking, and this setup provided a smooth and warm sound with just the right imaging.
Dealing with acoustic guitar ambience is a lot more difficult than with an electric—the sound of an acoustic won't overwhelm a room like a guitar amp can. This is where the pillows and blanket come into play. By draping a blanket over a mic stand, then altering the distance between it and the microphones, you can alter the effect of the room without eliminating the ambience completely. I will often place the blanket on the body side of the acoustic, relatively close to both the instrument and the mic. This seems to tighten up the sound without making it sound like I recorded the track in an anechoic chamber.
I tend to use pillows to control floor reflection. One pillow placed in the spot of the first floor reflection (halfway between the player and the distance mic) will help sweeten the ambience quite a bit; a second pillow placed just in front of the player's feet will help prevent too many splashy” early reflections. The pillows can also be used to alter the response of an omni mic—for example, having a low-mounted omni with a pillow underneath can give you a rich sound without sounding totally reverberant.
In situations where I want a very wide stereo sound, I've split” two microphones using the blanket-on-a-stand. This will force the ambient sound to remain separated left-to-right, and will create an incredibly wide image without the in-your-face sound of close-miked condensers. If you are double-tracking the guitar, try using the left side of one take and the right side of the other—the results will either sound great or threaten to twist your head off.
12-string
One of the more difficult guitar recording chores (for me) is getting a good 12-string sound. Perhaps it is because of the instrument I use—a cranky old Fender 12-string with a body shellacked as hard as a rock, but with a good feel. I've found that the harsh harmonics of the instrument, combined with a rather honky body sound, make it difficult to get a full yet natural sound.
One thing that I find very useful in this situation is using a soundhole-mounted pickup to get a little clarity in the sound. Using this pickup along with a small-diaphragm mic pointing toward the 12th fret tends to work for most applications. Interestingly enough, I found that using the large-diaphragm condenser for ambience, mounted over the player's head and pointing down, gives a more natural sound than one in front of the instrument. I'll also use the blanket and pillows in this application for a little splash control.”
Debriefing
When you have a modest mic collection, you often have to be more experimental with placement than someone with a brimming mic locker. Better-quality mics can make a difference; they generally have a better sound out of the box” and provide more flexibility with placement.
But as guerilla recordists we have to make compromises due to budget concerns. One important factor is where you do the recording. As with real estate, one of the keys to good recording is location, location, location.” Every condo, apartment, house and studio will have a few spots that are perfect for recording. Spend some time tracking those places down, and you will find that your tracks just sound better. The key to great guitar recording boils down to having a good combination of mics, a good ear, and plenty of time for experimentation.
Darwin Grosse is a recording engineer, producer, and sound designer in the Colorado Rockies.
Monday 17 October 2016
Recording Bass Guitar for a Great Home Studio Sound
Recording bass guitar is very similar to capturing the sound of the electric guitar. Along with the drums, the bass forms the backbone of most songs and productions, so getting your bass sound right is a vital part of producing good music.
Combined with the kick drum, when it's used the bass guitar creates most of a song's low-frequency content. The bass is a powerful instrument, and the general aim when recording it is to capture the full weight and body of the instrument's low frequencies, along with the mid-frequencies that give the notes their attack and definition.
There are a few different bass guitar recording techniques to think about:
Directly
A combination of the two
How to Record Bass Directly
Capturing the direct signal of the instrument is important when recording bass guitar. Having to use a DI-box depends on whether the instrument you're using has passive or active pickups.
Active: the bass can be connected directly into your audio interface or mixing console
Passive: the bass must first be connected to a DI box (helping to match impedance levels)
Recording direct helps to capture the low end and the note definition of the bass guitar. But it doesn't really catch the sound's body - this requires an amp.
Bass Amplifiers
Bass amps and cabinets will have better low-end response compared to normal guitar amps, to cope with the low notes of the bass guitar and to give the instrument it's punch. Buying separate amps and cabinets can be expensive though, and isn't usually near the top of essential items for a home studio.
A lower-budget option is the combo amp, which combines the amplifier and the cabinet speakers inside one unit. These days you can find small practice combo amps for bass guitars starting around the $70 mark.
But these amps won't be very powerful and so are best recorded at a lower volume. If you're looking for an amp that you can crank up and record at high volume, amps of at least 50 Watts are recommended.
The other option for recording bass guitar is to use a guitar amp. But caution has to be taken when doing this - if the amp is driven at high volumes, the low frequencies can damage the speaker. The best way forward is to record the DI signal for the low-end, and the amp (at a low volume) for the body of the sound.
Microphones for Recording Bass Guitar at Home
Dynamic mics are definitely the best option, as they can handle the loud volumes of a guitar or bass amp. A dynamic mic I always recommend to have in the home studio is the Shure SM58 , and you can get pretty good results using it on a bass amp.
There are mics out there that are specially designed for recording low-frequencies, with kick drums and bass amplifiers being the main two sources.
The AKG D112 is probably the most popular of these mics - it's a large-diaphragm cardioid mic that can handle very high sound pressure levels, and it's frequency response is geared towards capturing these low frequency sounds.
Microphone Placement
When recording bass guitar with an amp, the best place for the microphone is between 1-3 feet away from the amp's grill. This will give you a solid tone with plenty of body, as well as nice definition of the notes played. Moving the mic further away will give you more body and less definition.
You can get good recordings with both cardioid and omnidirectional polar patterns. Directing the mic towards the centre of the cone will emphasize the higher frequencies and give you a more aggressive sound. Moving the mic towards the speaker's edge gives a softer sound.
The Bass Guitar
The way the bass is set up and played can have a big impact on the sound produced. The range of tone that can be generated can vary between the sharp, aggressive style of rock and metal all the way to the softer, gentler tone of reggae and dub.
If you're after a bright, aggressive tone with more note definition, try these tips:
Use newer strings
Play the bass with a pick
Play the strings nearer the bridge
But if you're after a rounder, more mellow tone try these tips:
Use older strings
Play the bass with your fingers
Play the strings nearer the neck
You'll be able to produce a whole spectrum of different bass tones by mixing and matching the setup and the style of playing. Choosing how you want your bass recording to sound is a creative decision - it depends on the direction that you want to take your production in.
Final Thoughts
Recording bass guitar can be easy when you follow a few simple guidelines. Whether recording directly, through an amp, or a combination of the two, capturing a great bass sound can give you a truly solid foundation for you to build your music and your productions on.
Combined with the kick drum, when it's used the bass guitar creates most of a song's low-frequency content. The bass is a powerful instrument, and the general aim when recording it is to capture the full weight and body of the instrument's low frequencies, along with the mid-frequencies that give the notes their attack and definition.
There are a few different bass guitar recording techniques to think about:
Directly
A combination of the two
How to Record Bass Directly
Capturing the direct signal of the instrument is important when recording bass guitar. Having to use a DI-box depends on whether the instrument you're using has passive or active pickups.
Active: the bass can be connected directly into your audio interface or mixing console
Passive: the bass must first be connected to a DI box (helping to match impedance levels)
Recording direct helps to capture the low end and the note definition of the bass guitar. But it doesn't really catch the sound's body - this requires an amp.
Bass Amplifiers
Bass amps and cabinets will have better low-end response compared to normal guitar amps, to cope with the low notes of the bass guitar and to give the instrument it's punch. Buying separate amps and cabinets can be expensive though, and isn't usually near the top of essential items for a home studio.
A lower-budget option is the combo amp, which combines the amplifier and the cabinet speakers inside one unit. These days you can find small practice combo amps for bass guitars starting around the $70 mark.
But these amps won't be very powerful and so are best recorded at a lower volume. If you're looking for an amp that you can crank up and record at high volume, amps of at least 50 Watts are recommended.
The other option for recording bass guitar is to use a guitar amp. But caution has to be taken when doing this - if the amp is driven at high volumes, the low frequencies can damage the speaker. The best way forward is to record the DI signal for the low-end, and the amp (at a low volume) for the body of the sound.
Microphones for Recording Bass Guitar at Home
Dynamic mics are definitely the best option, as they can handle the loud volumes of a guitar or bass amp. A dynamic mic I always recommend to have in the home studio is the Shure SM58 , and you can get pretty good results using it on a bass amp.
There are mics out there that are specially designed for recording low-frequencies, with kick drums and bass amplifiers being the main two sources.
The AKG D112 is probably the most popular of these mics - it's a large-diaphragm cardioid mic that can handle very high sound pressure levels, and it's frequency response is geared towards capturing these low frequency sounds.
Microphone Placement
When recording bass guitar with an amp, the best place for the microphone is between 1-3 feet away from the amp's grill. This will give you a solid tone with plenty of body, as well as nice definition of the notes played. Moving the mic further away will give you more body and less definition.
You can get good recordings with both cardioid and omnidirectional polar patterns. Directing the mic towards the centre of the cone will emphasize the higher frequencies and give you a more aggressive sound. Moving the mic towards the speaker's edge gives a softer sound.
The Bass Guitar
The way the bass is set up and played can have a big impact on the sound produced. The range of tone that can be generated can vary between the sharp, aggressive style of rock and metal all the way to the softer, gentler tone of reggae and dub.
If you're after a bright, aggressive tone with more note definition, try these tips:
Use newer strings
Play the bass with a pick
Play the strings nearer the bridge
But if you're after a rounder, more mellow tone try these tips:
Use older strings
Play the bass with your fingers
Play the strings nearer the neck
You'll be able to produce a whole spectrum of different bass tones by mixing and matching the setup and the style of playing. Choosing how you want your bass recording to sound is a creative decision - it depends on the direction that you want to take your production in.
Final Thoughts
Recording bass guitar can be easy when you follow a few simple guidelines. Whether recording directly, through an amp, or a combination of the two, capturing a great bass sound can give you a truly solid foundation for you to build your music and your productions on.
Sunday 16 October 2016
Miking The Drumset In Your Home Recording Studio
If you're like most musicians, getting great-sounding drum recordings seems like one of the world's great mysteries. You can hear big, fat drums on great albums, but when you try to record your drums, they always end up sounding more like cardboard boxes than drums. Fret not — here are some solutions for you.
The room
The room influences the drums' sound more than it influences other instruments'. If you're looking for a big drum sound, you need a fairly live room (one with lots of reflection).
You may be thinking, "But I just have a bedroom for a studio and it's carpeted." No worries, you can work with that. Remember, you have a home studio, so you potentially have your whole home to work with. Here are a couple of ideas to spark your imagination:
Buy three or four 4-x-8-foot sheets of plywood and lean them up against the walls of your room. Also place one on the floor just in front of the kick drum. This adds some reflective surfaces to the room.
Put the drums in your garage (or living room, or any other room with a reverberating sound) and run long mic cords to your mixer. If you have a studio-in-a-box system, you can just throw it under your arm and move everything into your garage or, better yet, take all this stuff to a really great-sounding room and record.
Set up your drums in a nice-sounding room and place an additional mic just outside the door to catch an additional ambient sound. You can then mix this in with the other drum tracks to add a different quality of reverberation to the drums.
Kick (bass) drum
The mic of choice for most recording engineers when recording a kick drum is a dynamic mic. In fact, you can find some large diaphragm dynamic mics specifically designed to record kick drums.
No matter where you place the mic, you can reduce the amount of boominess that you get from the drum by placing a pillow or blanket inside the drum. Some people choose to let the pillow or blanket touch the inside head.
That said, you can place your mic in several ways (all conveniently illustrated in Figure 1):
Near the inside head: If you take off the outside head or cut a hole in it, you can stick the mic inside the drum. Place the mic 2 to 3 inches away from the inside head and a couple of inches off center. This is the standard way to mic a kick drum if you have the outside head off or if a hole is cut in it. This placement gives you a sharp attack from the beater hitting the head.
Halfway inside the drum: You can modify the preceding miking technique by moving the mic back so that it's about halfway inside the drum. In this case, place the mic right in the middle, pointing where the beater strikes the drum. This placement gives you less of the attack of the beater striking the head and more of the body of the drum's sound.
Near the outside head: If you have both heads on the drum, you can place the mic a few inches from the outside head. If you want a more open, boomy sound (and you have the drum's pitch set fairly high), point the mic directly at the center of the head. If you want less boom, offset the mic a little and point it about two-thirds of the way toward the center.
The kick drum responds quite well to a compressor when tracking. For the most part, you can get by with settings that allow the initial attack to get through and that tame the boom a little. A sample setting looks like this:
Threshold: -6dB
Attack: Between 40 ms and 50 ms
Release: Between 200 ms and 300 ms
Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don't need much added gain.
Snare drum
The snare drum is probably the most important drum in popular music. The bass guitar can cover the kick drum's rhythm, and the rest of the drums aren't part of the main groove. A good, punchy snare drum can make a track, whereas a weak, thin one can eliminate the drive that most popular music needs.
Because the snare drum is located so close to the other drums, especially the hi-hats, a cardioid pattern mic is a must. The most common mic for a snare drum is the trusty Shure SM57. The mic is generally placed between the hi-hats and the small tom-tom about 1 or 2 inches from the snare drum head (see Figure 2). Point the diaphragm directly at the head.
You may need to make some minor adjustments to eliminate any bleed from the hi-hats. This position gives you a nice punchy sound.
Adding compression to the snare drum is crucial if you want a tight, punchy sound. There are a lot of ways to go with the snare. The following settings are common and versatile:
Threshold: -4dB
Attack: Between 5 ms and 10 ms
Release: Between 125 ms and 175 ms
Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don't need much added gain.
Tom-toms
The tom-toms sound best when using a dynamic mic. For the mounted toms (the ones above the kick drum), you can use one or two mics. If you use one mic, place it between the two drums about 4 to 6 inches away from the heads (Figure 3 shows this placement option). If you use two mics, place one above each drum about 1 to 3 inches above the head.
Floor toms are miked the same way as the mounted tom-toms:
Place a single mic a couple of inches away from the head near the rim.
If you have more than one floor tom, you can place one mic between them or mic them individually.
If you want to apply compression to the tom-toms, you can start with the settings that for the snare drum in the preceding section.
Hi-hats
The hi-hats are generally part of the main groove and, as such, you want to spend time getting a good sound. You'll probably have problems with a few other mics on the drumset picking up the hi-hats, particularly the snare drum mic and overhead mics. Some people don't bother miking the hi-hats for this reason.
Hi-hats often sound too trashy through the snare drum mic. If you mic hi-hats, make sure that the snare drum mic is picking up as little of the hi-hats as possible by placing it properly and/or using a noise gate (a dynamic processor use to filter unwanted noise).
You can use either a dynamic mic or, better yet, a small diaphragm condenser mic for the hi-hats. The dynamic mic gives you a trashier sound and the small diaphragm condenser mic produces a bright sound. You can work with either by adjusting the EQ. Try adding just a little bit (4dB or so) of a shelf EQ set at 10 kHz to add just a little sheen to the hi-hats.
Place the mic about 3 to 4 inches above the hi-hats and point it down. The exact placement of the mic is less important than the placement of the other instrument mics because of the hi-hats' tone. Just make sure your mic isn't so close that you hit it.
Compression isn't usually necessary when tracking the hi-hats unless you have a drummer whose volume level is inconsistent. In this case, try using the same snare drum settings.
Cymbals
You want to know one secret to the huge drum sound of Led Zeppelin's drummer, John Bonham? Finesse. He understood that the drums sound louder and bigger in a mix if the cymbals are quieter in comparison. So he played his cymbals softly and hit the drums pretty hard. This allowed the engineer to raise up the levels of the drums without having the
cymbals drown everything else out. Absolutely brilliant.
Because the drums bleeding into the overhead mics is inevitable and the overhead mics are responsible for providing much of the drums' presence in a mix, playing the cymbals softly allows you to get more of the drums in these mics. This helps the drums sound bigger.
Ask (no, demand) that your drummer play the cymbals quieter. Also use smaller cymbals with a fast attack and a short decay. Doing these things creates a better balance between the drums and cymbals and makes the drums stand out more in comparison.
Small diaphragm condenser mics capture the cymbals' high frequencies well. You can mic the cymbals by placing mics about 6 inches above each cymbal or by using overhead mics set 1 to 3 feet above the cymbals.
The whole kit
Most of the time, you want to have at least one (but preferably two) ambient mics on the drums if for no other reason than to pick up the cymbals. These (assuming you use two mics) are called overhead mics and, as the name implies, they are placed above the drumset. The most common types of mics to use for overheads are large and small diaphragm condenser mics because they pick up the high frequencies in the cymbals and give the drumset's sound a nice sheen (brightness). You also may want to try a pair of ribbon mics to pick up a nice, sweet sound on the overheads.
To mic the drumset with overhead mics, you can use either the X-Y coincident technique or spaced stereo pairs. Place them 1 to 2 feet above the cymbals, just forward of the drummer's head. Place X-Y mics in the center and set up spaced stereo pairs so that they follow the 3:1 rule (the mics should be set up 3 to 6 feet apart if they are 1 to 2 feet above the cymbals). This counters any phase problems. Point the mic down toward theFigure 4: Overhead mics capture the cymbals and the drums. drums and you're ready to record.
The room
The room influences the drums' sound more than it influences other instruments'. If you're looking for a big drum sound, you need a fairly live room (one with lots of reflection).
You may be thinking, "But I just have a bedroom for a studio and it's carpeted." No worries, you can work with that. Remember, you have a home studio, so you potentially have your whole home to work with. Here are a couple of ideas to spark your imagination:
Buy three or four 4-x-8-foot sheets of plywood and lean them up against the walls of your room. Also place one on the floor just in front of the kick drum. This adds some reflective surfaces to the room.
Put the drums in your garage (or living room, or any other room with a reverberating sound) and run long mic cords to your mixer. If you have a studio-in-a-box system, you can just throw it under your arm and move everything into your garage or, better yet, take all this stuff to a really great-sounding room and record.
Set up your drums in a nice-sounding room and place an additional mic just outside the door to catch an additional ambient sound. You can then mix this in with the other drum tracks to add a different quality of reverberation to the drums.
Kick (bass) drum
The mic of choice for most recording engineers when recording a kick drum is a dynamic mic. In fact, you can find some large diaphragm dynamic mics specifically designed to record kick drums.
No matter where you place the mic, you can reduce the amount of boominess that you get from the drum by placing a pillow or blanket inside the drum. Some people choose to let the pillow or blanket touch the inside head.
That said, you can place your mic in several ways (all conveniently illustrated in Figure 1):
Near the inside head: If you take off the outside head or cut a hole in it, you can stick the mic inside the drum. Place the mic 2 to 3 inches away from the inside head and a couple of inches off center. This is the standard way to mic a kick drum if you have the outside head off or if a hole is cut in it. This placement gives you a sharp attack from the beater hitting the head.
Halfway inside the drum: You can modify the preceding miking technique by moving the mic back so that it's about halfway inside the drum. In this case, place the mic right in the middle, pointing where the beater strikes the drum. This placement gives you less of the attack of the beater striking the head and more of the body of the drum's sound.
Near the outside head: If you have both heads on the drum, you can place the mic a few inches from the outside head. If you want a more open, boomy sound (and you have the drum's pitch set fairly high), point the mic directly at the center of the head. If you want less boom, offset the mic a little and point it about two-thirds of the way toward the center.
The kick drum responds quite well to a compressor when tracking. For the most part, you can get by with settings that allow the initial attack to get through and that tame the boom a little. A sample setting looks like this:
Threshold: -6dB
Attack: Between 40 ms and 50 ms
Release: Between 200 ms and 300 ms
Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don't need much added gain.
Snare drum
The snare drum is probably the most important drum in popular music. The bass guitar can cover the kick drum's rhythm, and the rest of the drums aren't part of the main groove. A good, punchy snare drum can make a track, whereas a weak, thin one can eliminate the drive that most popular music needs.
Because the snare drum is located so close to the other drums, especially the hi-hats, a cardioid pattern mic is a must. The most common mic for a snare drum is the trusty Shure SM57. The mic is generally placed between the hi-hats and the small tom-tom about 1 or 2 inches from the snare drum head (see Figure 2). Point the diaphragm directly at the head.
You may need to make some minor adjustments to eliminate any bleed from the hi-hats. This position gives you a nice punchy sound.
Adding compression to the snare drum is crucial if you want a tight, punchy sound. There are a lot of ways to go with the snare. The following settings are common and versatile:
Threshold: -4dB
Attack: Between 5 ms and 10 ms
Release: Between 125 ms and 175 ms
Gain: Adjust so that the output level matches the input level. You don't need much added gain.
Tom-toms
The tom-toms sound best when using a dynamic mic. For the mounted toms (the ones above the kick drum), you can use one or two mics. If you use one mic, place it between the two drums about 4 to 6 inches away from the heads (Figure 3 shows this placement option). If you use two mics, place one above each drum about 1 to 3 inches above the head.
Floor toms are miked the same way as the mounted tom-toms:
Place a single mic a couple of inches away from the head near the rim.
If you have more than one floor tom, you can place one mic between them or mic them individually.
If you want to apply compression to the tom-toms, you can start with the settings that for the snare drum in the preceding section.
Hi-hats
The hi-hats are generally part of the main groove and, as such, you want to spend time getting a good sound. You'll probably have problems with a few other mics on the drumset picking up the hi-hats, particularly the snare drum mic and overhead mics. Some people don't bother miking the hi-hats for this reason.
Hi-hats often sound too trashy through the snare drum mic. If you mic hi-hats, make sure that the snare drum mic is picking up as little of the hi-hats as possible by placing it properly and/or using a noise gate (a dynamic processor use to filter unwanted noise).
You can use either a dynamic mic or, better yet, a small diaphragm condenser mic for the hi-hats. The dynamic mic gives you a trashier sound and the small diaphragm condenser mic produces a bright sound. You can work with either by adjusting the EQ. Try adding just a little bit (4dB or so) of a shelf EQ set at 10 kHz to add just a little sheen to the hi-hats.
Place the mic about 3 to 4 inches above the hi-hats and point it down. The exact placement of the mic is less important than the placement of the other instrument mics because of the hi-hats' tone. Just make sure your mic isn't so close that you hit it.
Compression isn't usually necessary when tracking the hi-hats unless you have a drummer whose volume level is inconsistent. In this case, try using the same snare drum settings.
Cymbals
You want to know one secret to the huge drum sound of Led Zeppelin's drummer, John Bonham? Finesse. He understood that the drums sound louder and bigger in a mix if the cymbals are quieter in comparison. So he played his cymbals softly and hit the drums pretty hard. This allowed the engineer to raise up the levels of the drums without having the
cymbals drown everything else out. Absolutely brilliant.
Because the drums bleeding into the overhead mics is inevitable and the overhead mics are responsible for providing much of the drums' presence in a mix, playing the cymbals softly allows you to get more of the drums in these mics. This helps the drums sound bigger.
Ask (no, demand) that your drummer play the cymbals quieter. Also use smaller cymbals with a fast attack and a short decay. Doing these things creates a better balance between the drums and cymbals and makes the drums stand out more in comparison.
Small diaphragm condenser mics capture the cymbals' high frequencies well. You can mic the cymbals by placing mics about 6 inches above each cymbal or by using overhead mics set 1 to 3 feet above the cymbals.
The whole kit
Most of the time, you want to have at least one (but preferably two) ambient mics on the drums if for no other reason than to pick up the cymbals. These (assuming you use two mics) are called overhead mics and, as the name implies, they are placed above the drumset. The most common types of mics to use for overheads are large and small diaphragm condenser mics because they pick up the high frequencies in the cymbals and give the drumset's sound a nice sheen (brightness). You also may want to try a pair of ribbon mics to pick up a nice, sweet sound on the overheads.
To mic the drumset with overhead mics, you can use either the X-Y coincident technique or spaced stereo pairs. Place them 1 to 2 feet above the cymbals, just forward of the drummer's head. Place X-Y mics in the center and set up spaced stereo pairs so that they follow the 3:1 rule (the mics should be set up 3 to 6 feet apart if they are 1 to 2 feet above the cymbals). This counters any phase problems. Point the mic down toward theFigure 4: Overhead mics capture the cymbals and the drums. drums and you're ready to record.
Saturday 15 October 2016
Interesting Tips To Bare In Mind
If you've got a storming vocal on tape you're halfway towards a great production. PAUL WHITE offers some tips on perfecting this most important of recording if all the music you make is created via MIDI, the chances are that at some time or other you'll have to record vocals using the traditional tools of a singer and a microphone. The vocal line is invariably the focal point of a song, so it has to be good, and because the human voice is the natural sound with which we are most familiar, any flaws in a vocal recording are immediately evident. Fortunately, providing you have a vocalist who can sing in tune, getting a good vocal sound isn't rocket science - you just need to follow a few basic guidelines, and perhaps take advantage of a few tricks of the trade to help you get a professionally produced vocal sound.
1. Make sure the singer is well rehearsed, physically comfortable, and under no psychological pressure. Most singers perform best standing up in a room that has a comfortable but not over-warm temperature. If they are distracted by other members of the band or by hangers-on, send everyone but the engineer (and producer, if you have one) out of the studio.
2. Take time to get the vocalist's headphone mix right, and give them a little reverb to help them sing more confidently. If you can rig up a system which allows vocalists to adjust their own monitor level, it will make life a lot easier. A good headphone mix really helps to encourage a good performance.
3. Always use a pop shield between the singer and the microphone. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in unnatural 'pops' on plosive 'b' and 'p' sounds that can't be fixed afterwards. The pop shield may be a commercial model or a DIY job comprising stocking material over a wire coathanger frame (one such design was explained in the Cheap Tricks article in SOSFebruary '95), or even a fine metal or plastic sieve or chip-pan splash guard. Any of these will do the job without affecting the tone of the mic. Foam wind shields are virtually useless in combating pops.
4. Use a good microphone: it doesn't have to be anything too special, but you should avoid low-cost 'bargain' models or those designed for use with home stereos or portable cassette recorders. Professional studios generally use capacitor microphones, but in the project studio a good back-electret mic or even a good dynamic vocal mic can produce excellent results. For more on these different types of mic, see April's SOS.
5. Pick a mic to suit the singer. Singers with thin or excessively bright voices may actually sound better with a dynamic mic, such as the ubiquitous Shure SM58, while those needing more of an open sound would benefit from a capacitor or back-electret mic. If you have several mic models to choose from, try a test recording with each and see which is most flattering to the vocalist.
6. Use the right mic pickup pattern: most project studio vocal recordings are made using a cardioid or unidirectional mic, as these pick up less sound from the sides and rear. However, an omni mic of a similar quality generally imparts a more natural, open sound and that can be useful if you're working with a singer who tends to sound nasal or boxy. If you work a couple of inches closer to an omni mic, you'll get close to the same 'direct sound to room sound' ratio you'd achieve with a cardioid.
7. Put the mic at the right distance, because if you get too close to it you'll increase the risk of popping and the level will change noticeably every time the singer moves slightly.
Cardioid mics also exhibit a bass-boost 'proximity effect' that varies as the singer's mic distance varies. On the other hand, if the singer is too far away from the mic the room reflections will colour the sound, making it seem remote and boxy. As a rule, a mic distance of around six to nine inches (15-24 centimetres) is ideal.
8. Minimise the room's influence on your sound. The mic picks up both direct sound from the singer and reflected sound from the room. Reduce the room's contribution by keeping away from the walls and by improvising screens using sleeping bags or duvets behind and to the sides of the singer.
9. Use mic technique to help control level: if the singer can be persuaded to pull back from the mic slightly when singing louder notes, there's less risk of overloading the recorder or mic preamp, and you won't need to use so much compression to even things up. An experienced singer may also lean into the mic on quieter, more intimate passages to exploit the proximity effect. However, to prevent an inexperienced singer getting too close to the mic, position the pop shield about three inches (7.5 centimetres) from the mic.
10. Where possible, mount the microphone on a stand. Only let the singer hold the mic if to do otherwise would compromise their musical performance. When the singer is hand-holding a mic, particularly if it's a cardioid model, make sure they keep their hand clear of the rear of the basket, as obstructing this area can change both the directional and tonal characteristics of the mic.
11. Don't settle for anything less than the best vocal performance you can get, and don't expect to get it all perfect in one take. More often than not you'll have to punch in and out around phrases that need re-doing, but if you have enough tracks, get the singer to do the whole song several times and then compile a track from the best parts of each take. You can do this on tape by bouncing the required parts to a spare track, but hard disk editing is much more flexible in this respect.
12. Use suitable compression - even well-disciplined vocalists tend to sound uneven against the very controlled dynamics of a pop mix, so it helps to apply a little compression while recording. Err on the side of using less compression than you think you will finally need, and use a compressor that has a reasonably neutral characteristic. Aim to achieve 5-8dB of gain reduction on the loudest signal peaks, and if the compressor has an auto mode, use it.
13. Don't be afraid to use more compression on the vocal track once it has been recorded. When the performance is in the bag you can try both subtle and heavy compression to see which works best with the track, though if you're using a lot of compression you may need to gate the vocal track first. This will prevent noise build-up in the pauses between phrases. It's at the mixing stage that a compressor with an obvious character can be used to make a vocal seem larger than life.
14. Don't gate the vocal while recording. A badly set-up gate can ruin an otherwise perfect take, so save gating until the mixing stage. Use the gate before any further compression, but don't gate so hard that you remove all the breath noises preceding words, as these are part of the character of a vocal performance, and the recording will sound unnatural without them.
15. Don't run amok with the EQ: on most budget desks the EQ only sounds decent when used sparingly or to cut unwanted frequencies. Mid-range boosting usually results in a nasal or phasey sound, so use as little EQ as you can. If you've picked the right mic, and taken the time to fine-tune its position during recording, you shouldn't need much corrective EQ anyway. Of course, there are times when EQ is used for creative purposes, and at such times it's best to use a good-quality outboard equaliser, because the difference between a budget EQ and a really good one is immense. Resist the temptation to pile on too much high-end boost, as this will enhance sibilance, bring up background noise and may make the end result fatiguing to listen to.
16. Use reverb sparingly: vocals recorded in a dry acoustic environment need reverb to give them a sense of space and reality, but don't use more than the song really needs. As a general rule, busy songs need less reverb and slower ballads with lots of space in the arrangement can afford to use more. Listen to some commercial records in a similar style to your own and see what reverb techniques the producer has used.
17. If the vocals are very brightly recorded, they may cause any added reverb to sound sibilant. Instead of de-essing the vocals (which often sounds unnatural), try instead de-essing just the feed to the reverb unit. You can also experiment with the reverb type and tonality to minimise sibilance and spitting.
18. If you do have to de-ess the vocals, try to use a split-band de-esser rather than the simpler compressor with an equaliser in the side-chain, as the split-band approach produces fewer undesirable side effects. It's always best to try to avoid sibilance by moving the mic slightly or by using a different mic, rather than trying to fix it afterwards. Pointing the mic slightly above or below the singer's mouth sometimes helps.
19. When you're using prominent echo or delay effects on a vocal, try to get them in time with the song, either by calculating the delay needed to match the tempo or by using the tap-tempo facility if one is provided. For a less obviously rhythmic echo, try a multi-tap delay with irregular tap spacings.
1. Make sure the singer is well rehearsed, physically comfortable, and under no psychological pressure. Most singers perform best standing up in a room that has a comfortable but not over-warm temperature. If they are distracted by other members of the band or by hangers-on, send everyone but the engineer (and producer, if you have one) out of the studio.
2. Take time to get the vocalist's headphone mix right, and give them a little reverb to help them sing more confidently. If you can rig up a system which allows vocalists to adjust their own monitor level, it will make life a lot easier. A good headphone mix really helps to encourage a good performance.
3. Always use a pop shield between the singer and the microphone. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in unnatural 'pops' on plosive 'b' and 'p' sounds that can't be fixed afterwards. The pop shield may be a commercial model or a DIY job comprising stocking material over a wire coathanger frame (one such design was explained in the Cheap Tricks article in SOSFebruary '95), or even a fine metal or plastic sieve or chip-pan splash guard. Any of these will do the job without affecting the tone of the mic. Foam wind shields are virtually useless in combating pops.
4. Use a good microphone: it doesn't have to be anything too special, but you should avoid low-cost 'bargain' models or those designed for use with home stereos or portable cassette recorders. Professional studios generally use capacitor microphones, but in the project studio a good back-electret mic or even a good dynamic vocal mic can produce excellent results. For more on these different types of mic, see April's SOS.
5. Pick a mic to suit the singer. Singers with thin or excessively bright voices may actually sound better with a dynamic mic, such as the ubiquitous Shure SM58, while those needing more of an open sound would benefit from a capacitor or back-electret mic. If you have several mic models to choose from, try a test recording with each and see which is most flattering to the vocalist.
6. Use the right mic pickup pattern: most project studio vocal recordings are made using a cardioid or unidirectional mic, as these pick up less sound from the sides and rear. However, an omni mic of a similar quality generally imparts a more natural, open sound and that can be useful if you're working with a singer who tends to sound nasal or boxy. If you work a couple of inches closer to an omni mic, you'll get close to the same 'direct sound to room sound' ratio you'd achieve with a cardioid.
7. Put the mic at the right distance, because if you get too close to it you'll increase the risk of popping and the level will change noticeably every time the singer moves slightly.
Cardioid mics also exhibit a bass-boost 'proximity effect' that varies as the singer's mic distance varies. On the other hand, if the singer is too far away from the mic the room reflections will colour the sound, making it seem remote and boxy. As a rule, a mic distance of around six to nine inches (15-24 centimetres) is ideal.
8. Minimise the room's influence on your sound. The mic picks up both direct sound from the singer and reflected sound from the room. Reduce the room's contribution by keeping away from the walls and by improvising screens using sleeping bags or duvets behind and to the sides of the singer.
9. Use mic technique to help control level: if the singer can be persuaded to pull back from the mic slightly when singing louder notes, there's less risk of overloading the recorder or mic preamp, and you won't need to use so much compression to even things up. An experienced singer may also lean into the mic on quieter, more intimate passages to exploit the proximity effect. However, to prevent an inexperienced singer getting too close to the mic, position the pop shield about three inches (7.5 centimetres) from the mic.
10. Where possible, mount the microphone on a stand. Only let the singer hold the mic if to do otherwise would compromise their musical performance. When the singer is hand-holding a mic, particularly if it's a cardioid model, make sure they keep their hand clear of the rear of the basket, as obstructing this area can change both the directional and tonal characteristics of the mic.
11. Don't settle for anything less than the best vocal performance you can get, and don't expect to get it all perfect in one take. More often than not you'll have to punch in and out around phrases that need re-doing, but if you have enough tracks, get the singer to do the whole song several times and then compile a track from the best parts of each take. You can do this on tape by bouncing the required parts to a spare track, but hard disk editing is much more flexible in this respect.
12. Use suitable compression - even well-disciplined vocalists tend to sound uneven against the very controlled dynamics of a pop mix, so it helps to apply a little compression while recording. Err on the side of using less compression than you think you will finally need, and use a compressor that has a reasonably neutral characteristic. Aim to achieve 5-8dB of gain reduction on the loudest signal peaks, and if the compressor has an auto mode, use it.
13. Don't be afraid to use more compression on the vocal track once it has been recorded. When the performance is in the bag you can try both subtle and heavy compression to see which works best with the track, though if you're using a lot of compression you may need to gate the vocal track first. This will prevent noise build-up in the pauses between phrases. It's at the mixing stage that a compressor with an obvious character can be used to make a vocal seem larger than life.
14. Don't gate the vocal while recording. A badly set-up gate can ruin an otherwise perfect take, so save gating until the mixing stage. Use the gate before any further compression, but don't gate so hard that you remove all the breath noises preceding words, as these are part of the character of a vocal performance, and the recording will sound unnatural without them.
15. Don't run amok with the EQ: on most budget desks the EQ only sounds decent when used sparingly or to cut unwanted frequencies. Mid-range boosting usually results in a nasal or phasey sound, so use as little EQ as you can. If you've picked the right mic, and taken the time to fine-tune its position during recording, you shouldn't need much corrective EQ anyway. Of course, there are times when EQ is used for creative purposes, and at such times it's best to use a good-quality outboard equaliser, because the difference between a budget EQ and a really good one is immense. Resist the temptation to pile on too much high-end boost, as this will enhance sibilance, bring up background noise and may make the end result fatiguing to listen to.
16. Use reverb sparingly: vocals recorded in a dry acoustic environment need reverb to give them a sense of space and reality, but don't use more than the song really needs. As a general rule, busy songs need less reverb and slower ballads with lots of space in the arrangement can afford to use more. Listen to some commercial records in a similar style to your own and see what reverb techniques the producer has used.
17. If the vocals are very brightly recorded, they may cause any added reverb to sound sibilant. Instead of de-essing the vocals (which often sounds unnatural), try instead de-essing just the feed to the reverb unit. You can also experiment with the reverb type and tonality to minimise sibilance and spitting.
18. If you do have to de-ess the vocals, try to use a split-band de-esser rather than the simpler compressor with an equaliser in the side-chain, as the split-band approach produces fewer undesirable side effects. It's always best to try to avoid sibilance by moving the mic slightly or by using a different mic, rather than trying to fix it afterwards. Pointing the mic slightly above or below the singer's mouth sometimes helps.
19. When you're using prominent echo or delay effects on a vocal, try to get them in time with the song, either by calculating the delay needed to match the tempo or by using the tap-tempo facility if one is provided. For a less obviously rhythmic echo, try a multi-tap delay with irregular tap spacings.
How To Record Drums
Recording a live drummer can be lots of fun when done right. At Platinumloops, we've recorded many different drummers in many different locations, sometimes in challenging circumstances.
There are a few things you can do to prepare for ‘on location' recording in order to get the best results.
Your two main objectives are to get the best performance from the drummer and also to get the best sound from the drum kit and the room.
Before starting a session, arm yourself with these essential resources.
1 - Moon Gel
3 - Gaffa Tape
4 - Some Really robust headphones with thick enclosures and long cable.
5 - A couple of tuning keys
6 - Some high quality lubricating oil - not WD40
7 - A headphone amp with stereo in and out.
8 - Some deodorant spray - things can get sweaty
9 - Lots of drinking water
10 - A thick rug or piece of carpet
11 - Some earplugs for both you and the drummer
The Recording Situation
An ideal situation for recording drums is for the drummer to be in a separate live room to the sound engineer. This allows the engineer to monitor the microphone inputs without being deafened by the shed builder on the other side of the glass, however you might not have that luxury.
Recording while in the same room as the drummer does have its benefits. First of all, the communication between engineer and drummer is far better, you can be sat right next to the drummer and it makes for much faster workflow and can often make the drummer feel more comfortable and less isolated.
In addition to this the engineer can often hear unwanted sounds within the room much better than from a control room which he/she otherwise might not notice until the session is over.
Communicating From the Control Room
The downside to recording within the same room as the drummer is obvious ear fatigue and the fact that you can only really monitor the mic inputs properly on playback while the drummer has stopped playing.
If you have a separate live room to the control room but no window between the two, you can easily setup a couple of web cams via wireless internet or use tablets and phones so that you and the drummer can communicate visually.
You'll here the drummer through the mic's when he talks and he will be able to hear you if you patch a mic in to his headphone amp.
The wonders of modern technology eh!
Setting Up
I strongly advise that you learn how to tune a drum kit yourself. I used to be a drummer (a very bad one) so I learned the basics of this years ago. There are some brilliant video tutorials on Youtube that helped to improve my drum tuning skills. If your drummer is really good, they'll know how best to tune the kit and how much life is left in the drum skins (heads).
If your room has a nice wooden floor, you're going to want to protect it with a thick rug or a piece of carpet. You can also buy those rubber floor protectors that will prevent your floor from getting scratched by the rough underside of the rug or carpet.
The carpet also prevents the entire drum kit from moving forwards every time your drummer hits the kick drum. If he's a metal drummer he's going to be hitting it pretty hard.
With the kit setup and tuned, get your drummer to play for a while before you even think about setting up the mic's. What your listening for here are two things.
1 - Firstly, mechanical noises from the kit - such as squeaky pedals, drum stools, rattling tom mounts. I can pretty much guarantee at least one of these noises will rear it's ugly head.
2 - The second thing your listening for are noises from the room - such as vibrating furniture, fixtures and appliances.
You might also want to experiment with the placement of the kit. Start off in the middle of the room and then move the kit to either end to compare the room sound, this is where the carpet/rug comes in handy as you can carefully just drag the whole thing wherever you want it.
Walk around the room while the drummer plays to find the sweat spot for the room ambience, this is where we'll place a mic to add hugeness” to the sound if that's what you're after. If you have a stair case or hallway at the end of the live room, try listening to that space for the sweat spot.
We'll do some more of this later when we crack the mic's out, for now it's all about where to place the kit for the best room sound.
Blu Tack to the Rescue
If you're wondering what the Blu Tack and gaffa tape are for, you'll have figured that out pretty much as soon as the drummer starts playing. Tom mounts are notoriously rattly and creaky, especially in older drum kits or cheaper drum kits.
Use the blu Tack to stuff into the gaps on the tom mounts to silence the rattling, you'll be surprised how much you'll use. Blu Tack is also really good because it doesn't leave much of a residue on the drum hardware and your drummer will thank you for that.
When we recorded our Ultra Metal Drum Loops V1 , we used a spectacular sounding Premiere PK Cabria Drum Kit with Sabian and Zildjian cymbals and a Pearl double kick pedal.
Unfortunately the tom mounts rattled and squeaked so badly that we ended up using two full packs of Blu Tack to silence the pesky things - and this was a brand new kit.
For our Power Ballad Rock Drum Loops V1 we used a brand new Mapex M-Birch kit that had a far superior tom mount system that needed no such Blu Tack treatment. The birch kit was much louder and the hardware was easier to use with no nasty noises to content with. We liked this kit so much that we kept it as our stock studio kit.
The Snare Drum
The gaffa tape is essential to use as a dampener on the snare. If you're recording a funk drummer or a rock drummer that wants a really tight and ‘pingy' snare with minimal rattle, you're going to need to reduce the snare buzz. Use a 6 inch piece of gaffa tape across the centre of the snare then add more if required.
If you want a very natural, roomy kit sound, you might be able to get away without dampening the top head on the snare drum. We like snare drums to be tuned really high so that they cut through the mix, but this tends to make them more prone to resonating when playing other parts of the kit.
To counteract this problem use one or two chunks of moon gel to dampen the resonating top skin. It'll still sound good but won't ring on every time the drummer stamps on the kick drum pedal.
The Kick Drum
Use some heavy duty lubricating oil or grease on the Kick drum pedal and maybe even on the hi-hat pedal. Even once the squeak has gone you still might get some rattle from the kick pedal so get the drummer to adjust the tension on the pedal so that you get a happy compromise of playability and quietness.
An ideal situation is to have a few other pedals on hand just in case, but if the drummer is using a double beater that's not very likely.
The squeaky drum pedal has been the cause of many delayed sessions, so it helps if your drummer is able to be flexible with the pedal tension. Better still, ask your drummer to make sure it's perfectly quiet before they arrive. Time is money.
The beater on the kick drum pedal is also an often overlooked factor. Your drummer might not like the feel of a wooden or plastic beater but you might prefer the sharp clicky sound that it gives you.
If this is going to effect your drummers performance, you're going to have to give way and let them use the felt beater. Try adjusting the height of the beater for both playability and sound quality. You want to get as much definition and punch from the kick drum as possible without making it difficult for the drummer to play.
Tom Toms
Tuning toms is an art form in itself. We won't get into the details of how to tune toms, you can find hundreds of instructional videos on Youtube for that. Let's focus instead on how to overcome some common problems you might experience when recording toms.
It's more than likely that your toms will need some form of dampening to prevent them from resonating every time the drummer hits the kick. After you've spent the last hour tuning them to perfection, you'll feel like crying when you hear how crap they sound after you've slapped a couple of moon gel patches on the top skin.
Don't despair. They might sound a bit lame with the dampening on but by the time you've mixed the kit, added a bit of compression to the toms and then a bit more to the overall stereo kit, they'll sound fantastic again and you wont have as many ‘resonating problems'.
One other problem with toms is that you'll usually find one tom is much louder than the others, namely the hi-tom. You can overcome this with tuning but that's going to compromise that cool tone. Your only option is to leave it up to the drummer to try and balance them out with his playing - that, and shed loads of compression during the mix stage of course.
Balance out the Volume
Finally, listen for imbalances in the volume of the separate kit parts. Even after what I just said about the toms, don't be tempted to leave certain problems up to the mix because there are some things you just cant fix.
For example, rock drummers tend be really heavy on the hi-hat and no matter what you do during the mixing stage, you're going to find it difficult to get the snare sounding sharp and bright without inadvertently boosting the already over loud hi-hat that's bleeding through onto all the mic's.
This is where having a quieter set of hi-hats can be a godsend. Your aim is to get your transient levels as even as possible before you even record. If one of the toms is louder than the entire kit try re-tuning it, adding some dampening with moon gel or even replacing it. The same goes for your cymbals. If your crash cymbals dominate the entire drum mix, you're going to have serious problems down the line.
You can always ask your drummer not to hit certain parts of the kit quite so hard but that's like asking Lewis Hamilton not to drive fast.
Mic'ing Up
Now that you've got the kit and room sounding splendid, the next stage is to bring in the mic's. Assuming you've only got 8 audio inputs in your audio interface you'll need to prioritize.
If your drummer is playing a 5 piece kit, you're probably best to use 7 mic's on the kit and one mic in the sweat spot of the room if you want some room ambience in the mix.
If you're after a tight, closed in sound and you're not bothered about room ambience, bring that 8th mic back in and place it on the hi-hat or some other part of the kit you feel is important. Here's how I would mic up a 5 piece kit.
Kick Drum - AKG D112
Room Ambience - SE Electronics Z3300A
This setup means that my hi-hat, cymbals and ride will primarily get picked up by the 2 overheads and the room mic. In most cases this is perfectly fine but obviously we'd have more control of the mix if we had more inputs and more mic's. This just illustrates how to get the most of an 8 channel situation.
Some people don't like to use condenser mic's for recording drums due to the way they struggle with extreme transients, but I make sure the Z3300A is a long way from the kit and all I can say is that it sounds lush is a room ambience mic.
There are a few things you can do to prepare for ‘on location' recording in order to get the best results.
Your two main objectives are to get the best performance from the drummer and also to get the best sound from the drum kit and the room.
Before starting a session, arm yourself with these essential resources.
1 - Moon Gel
3 - Gaffa Tape
4 - Some Really robust headphones with thick enclosures and long cable.
5 - A couple of tuning keys
6 - Some high quality lubricating oil - not WD40
7 - A headphone amp with stereo in and out.
8 - Some deodorant spray - things can get sweaty
9 - Lots of drinking water
10 - A thick rug or piece of carpet
11 - Some earplugs for both you and the drummer
The Recording Situation
An ideal situation for recording drums is for the drummer to be in a separate live room to the sound engineer. This allows the engineer to monitor the microphone inputs without being deafened by the shed builder on the other side of the glass, however you might not have that luxury.
Recording while in the same room as the drummer does have its benefits. First of all, the communication between engineer and drummer is far better, you can be sat right next to the drummer and it makes for much faster workflow and can often make the drummer feel more comfortable and less isolated.
In addition to this the engineer can often hear unwanted sounds within the room much better than from a control room which he/she otherwise might not notice until the session is over.
Communicating From the Control Room
The downside to recording within the same room as the drummer is obvious ear fatigue and the fact that you can only really monitor the mic inputs properly on playback while the drummer has stopped playing.
If you have a separate live room to the control room but no window between the two, you can easily setup a couple of web cams via wireless internet or use tablets and phones so that you and the drummer can communicate visually.
You'll here the drummer through the mic's when he talks and he will be able to hear you if you patch a mic in to his headphone amp.
The wonders of modern technology eh!
Setting Up
I strongly advise that you learn how to tune a drum kit yourself. I used to be a drummer (a very bad one) so I learned the basics of this years ago. There are some brilliant video tutorials on Youtube that helped to improve my drum tuning skills. If your drummer is really good, they'll know how best to tune the kit and how much life is left in the drum skins (heads).
If your room has a nice wooden floor, you're going to want to protect it with a thick rug or a piece of carpet. You can also buy those rubber floor protectors that will prevent your floor from getting scratched by the rough underside of the rug or carpet.
The carpet also prevents the entire drum kit from moving forwards every time your drummer hits the kick drum. If he's a metal drummer he's going to be hitting it pretty hard.
With the kit setup and tuned, get your drummer to play for a while before you even think about setting up the mic's. What your listening for here are two things.
1 - Firstly, mechanical noises from the kit - such as squeaky pedals, drum stools, rattling tom mounts. I can pretty much guarantee at least one of these noises will rear it's ugly head.
2 - The second thing your listening for are noises from the room - such as vibrating furniture, fixtures and appliances.
You might also want to experiment with the placement of the kit. Start off in the middle of the room and then move the kit to either end to compare the room sound, this is where the carpet/rug comes in handy as you can carefully just drag the whole thing wherever you want it.
Walk around the room while the drummer plays to find the sweat spot for the room ambience, this is where we'll place a mic to add hugeness” to the sound if that's what you're after. If you have a stair case or hallway at the end of the live room, try listening to that space for the sweat spot.
We'll do some more of this later when we crack the mic's out, for now it's all about where to place the kit for the best room sound.
Blu Tack to the Rescue
If you're wondering what the Blu Tack and gaffa tape are for, you'll have figured that out pretty much as soon as the drummer starts playing. Tom mounts are notoriously rattly and creaky, especially in older drum kits or cheaper drum kits.
Use the blu Tack to stuff into the gaps on the tom mounts to silence the rattling, you'll be surprised how much you'll use. Blu Tack is also really good because it doesn't leave much of a residue on the drum hardware and your drummer will thank you for that.
When we recorded our Ultra Metal Drum Loops V1 , we used a spectacular sounding Premiere PK Cabria Drum Kit with Sabian and Zildjian cymbals and a Pearl double kick pedal.
Unfortunately the tom mounts rattled and squeaked so badly that we ended up using two full packs of Blu Tack to silence the pesky things - and this was a brand new kit.
For our Power Ballad Rock Drum Loops V1 we used a brand new Mapex M-Birch kit that had a far superior tom mount system that needed no such Blu Tack treatment. The birch kit was much louder and the hardware was easier to use with no nasty noises to content with. We liked this kit so much that we kept it as our stock studio kit.
The Snare Drum
The gaffa tape is essential to use as a dampener on the snare. If you're recording a funk drummer or a rock drummer that wants a really tight and ‘pingy' snare with minimal rattle, you're going to need to reduce the snare buzz. Use a 6 inch piece of gaffa tape across the centre of the snare then add more if required.
If you want a very natural, roomy kit sound, you might be able to get away without dampening the top head on the snare drum. We like snare drums to be tuned really high so that they cut through the mix, but this tends to make them more prone to resonating when playing other parts of the kit.
To counteract this problem use one or two chunks of moon gel to dampen the resonating top skin. It'll still sound good but won't ring on every time the drummer stamps on the kick drum pedal.
The Kick Drum
Use some heavy duty lubricating oil or grease on the Kick drum pedal and maybe even on the hi-hat pedal. Even once the squeak has gone you still might get some rattle from the kick pedal so get the drummer to adjust the tension on the pedal so that you get a happy compromise of playability and quietness.
An ideal situation is to have a few other pedals on hand just in case, but if the drummer is using a double beater that's not very likely.
The squeaky drum pedal has been the cause of many delayed sessions, so it helps if your drummer is able to be flexible with the pedal tension. Better still, ask your drummer to make sure it's perfectly quiet before they arrive. Time is money.
The beater on the kick drum pedal is also an often overlooked factor. Your drummer might not like the feel of a wooden or plastic beater but you might prefer the sharp clicky sound that it gives you.
If this is going to effect your drummers performance, you're going to have to give way and let them use the felt beater. Try adjusting the height of the beater for both playability and sound quality. You want to get as much definition and punch from the kick drum as possible without making it difficult for the drummer to play.
Tom Toms
Tuning toms is an art form in itself. We won't get into the details of how to tune toms, you can find hundreds of instructional videos on Youtube for that. Let's focus instead on how to overcome some common problems you might experience when recording toms.
It's more than likely that your toms will need some form of dampening to prevent them from resonating every time the drummer hits the kick. After you've spent the last hour tuning them to perfection, you'll feel like crying when you hear how crap they sound after you've slapped a couple of moon gel patches on the top skin.
Don't despair. They might sound a bit lame with the dampening on but by the time you've mixed the kit, added a bit of compression to the toms and then a bit more to the overall stereo kit, they'll sound fantastic again and you wont have as many ‘resonating problems'.
One other problem with toms is that you'll usually find one tom is much louder than the others, namely the hi-tom. You can overcome this with tuning but that's going to compromise that cool tone. Your only option is to leave it up to the drummer to try and balance them out with his playing - that, and shed loads of compression during the mix stage of course.
Balance out the Volume
Finally, listen for imbalances in the volume of the separate kit parts. Even after what I just said about the toms, don't be tempted to leave certain problems up to the mix because there are some things you just cant fix.
For example, rock drummers tend be really heavy on the hi-hat and no matter what you do during the mixing stage, you're going to find it difficult to get the snare sounding sharp and bright without inadvertently boosting the already over loud hi-hat that's bleeding through onto all the mic's.
This is where having a quieter set of hi-hats can be a godsend. Your aim is to get your transient levels as even as possible before you even record. If one of the toms is louder than the entire kit try re-tuning it, adding some dampening with moon gel or even replacing it. The same goes for your cymbals. If your crash cymbals dominate the entire drum mix, you're going to have serious problems down the line.
You can always ask your drummer not to hit certain parts of the kit quite so hard but that's like asking Lewis Hamilton not to drive fast.
Mic'ing Up
Now that you've got the kit and room sounding splendid, the next stage is to bring in the mic's. Assuming you've only got 8 audio inputs in your audio interface you'll need to prioritize.
If your drummer is playing a 5 piece kit, you're probably best to use 7 mic's on the kit and one mic in the sweat spot of the room if you want some room ambience in the mix.
If you're after a tight, closed in sound and you're not bothered about room ambience, bring that 8th mic back in and place it on the hi-hat or some other part of the kit you feel is important. Here's how I would mic up a 5 piece kit.
Kick Drum - AKG D112
Room Ambience - SE Electronics Z3300A
This setup means that my hi-hat, cymbals and ride will primarily get picked up by the 2 overheads and the room mic. In most cases this is perfectly fine but obviously we'd have more control of the mix if we had more inputs and more mic's. This just illustrates how to get the most of an 8 channel situation.
Some people don't like to use condenser mic's for recording drums due to the way they struggle with extreme transients, but I make sure the Z3300A is a long way from the kit and all I can say is that it sounds lush is a room ambience mic.
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