Friday 30 December 2016
13 More Tips To Help You Record Narration Like The Pros
1. Place your microphone in the right position.
If you place the microphone too close, you get that distorted clipping sound; and if you have it too far from the narrator, you pick up more ambient noise with the audio being less discernible.
By setting the microphone 6 to 12 inches from the narrator you'll get a crisp clear voice. Also, make sure the microphone's not right next to the computer so it doesn't pick up the fan noise. Scooter also recommended keeping your mic cord away from your power cord.
2. Record a demo to make sure it all sounds right.
A few years ago I was videotaping one of our executives. While he was rambling on I noticed that the mic was turned off. After he was finished, I told that it sounded great and now we'd do it for real. He wasn't too happy.
Record a quick demo to make sure that everything is working as it should. Also, I recommend shutting down other applications that are not necessary at that moment. I've been doing this stuff for years and it never fails that when you work with multimedia you put a strain on your computer's resources which can impact your recording session.
3. Listen to the audio playback with headphones.
Headphones help isolate the audio and you'll be able to hear any problems with the narration better than if you listen with speakers. This is especially true if you're using a laptop because their speakers tend to be subpar and kind of tinny.
4. Don't get distracted with animations and annotations.
If you're recording your audio using the rapid elearning software odds are that you're also syncing animations and annotations with it. I tend to get distracted trying to time the animations with the narration and it is noticeable in my narration.
I usually record the narration first, and then go back and sync the animations. This helps me focus on capturing the best narration possible without being distracted trying to time the animations.
5. Make sure your script is conversational and easy to read.
Practice reading it a few times to make sure it flows right. Look for words or phrases where you might stumble while recording.
As far as the actual script, some people read from the computer screen. I prefer printing out the script. If you do too, don't squeeze everything into a tight paragraph with an 8 point font. Leave enough white space so it's easy on the eyes. Also, make sure that the room is well lit so that the script can easily be read.
In the comments section, Dana Thomas makes a good point about where to place the script while recording That's a major consideration, because you want to be comfortable while reading.
6. Stand up while recording.
You'll feel more energized and be able to breathe better. If you do sit, don't slouch. Sit up straight and keep your chin out. Don't let it drop to your chest.
7. Don't ad-lib.
Stick to the script and don't ad-lib. Odds are that you'll have to do multiple takes. If you ad-lib, you'll rarely have the same break points for editing. Sticking with the script lets you follow along with the audio and find a common edit point on re-takes.
8. Have plenty of liquids available.
Keep your vocal chords hydrated with clear liquids like water or a mild tea. Someone once told me to keep it at room temperature rather than cold. Avoid coffee, carbonated beverages, and milk products.
9. Get rid of the plosives.
Plosives are consonant sounds that create the famous "popping p's." You can buy shields that sit in front of your mic to block out the offending sound. It's easy enough to build one yourself using a wire ring and panty hose. Here's a great tutorial to build your own mic screen
Kat Keesling has some good tips for getting rid of the plosives Many of the comments suggested that you speak over the mic rather into to avoid pushing air onto the mic.
10. Record 10 seconds of silence.
By recording some silence, you have a way to sample just the ambient noise and use a noise removal process to filter it out later. If you happen to have ambient noise (like an air conditioner) you'll be able to filter some of that out. I've also used the ambient noise as a way to fill in gaps of silence so that the audio edits are a bit more seamless.
11. Relax and don't rush your words.
Practice reading the script. Create a conversational tone. Pretend like you're talking to someone rather than just reading a script. If you mess up, leave a noticeable pause and keep on going. It's easy enough to cut the error out of the audio.
12. Mark your retakes.
If you do multiple takes or start and stop, leave some sort of marker. A good simple way to do this is to leave about 5 seconds of silence (so that it's easy to find when you look at the wave form) and then indicate what it is, like slide four, take two…”
13. Dampen the sound.
There were some good comments on dampening the sound behind the narrator to avoid the audio bouncing into the microphone rather than dampening the sound in front. That makes sense to me. Sonnie recommended using two pillows. If it works for assassins who can quiet gunshots, there's no reason it can't work for you.
Thursday 29 December 2016
Record Retro Drum Sounds
Tired of drums sounding big, wide and boring. Turn back the clock with us as we re-create drum sounds from the '50s, '60s and '70s.
Tutorial: Michael Carpenter
The diversity of our auditory preferences always amazes me. Sometimes we want to hear the highest of high-fidelity sounds. Hairs standing on end, ‘voice of the gods' sort of stuff. So sonically pure that our brains immediately start humming in tune with the sensation of ‘good sound'. Then there'll be other times, when we hear a sound that is ‘effective', but hardly what you would call hi-fi. It just sounds cool.
Often we hear old records and intuitively pick up on the ‘retro' vibe. A big part of that is the way sounds were coloured — whether on purpose or not — by the recording process. Yet artists are often really thinking about drum sounds when they come into my studio requesting a retro approach. So let's get retrospective and see if we can deconstruct, reconstruct and bring out the colour of drum sounds from bygone eras.
RETRO PERSPECTIVE
We've become so used to big, glossy contemporary drum production, that we tend to define ‘retro' drums as being the antithesis to that; unpolished, or raw. Certainly, compared to the massaged, layered and controlled techniques of state-of-the-art modern records, this would be true. But when people come into the studio asking for a vintage approach, what they're really asking for is something beyond simply lo-fi; they're looking for character. It's the same with photography. The first thing we do after snapping an image on our phones is apply a filter to it. The quality of the original image is usually good enough in itself, but a filter ‘colours' that moment. Whether we fade it a tad, or add a vignette, it says something about us.
In a musical sense, the artist or producer is asserting a sense of personality on their production, because it says something more definitive about their creation than just a ‘nice' sound.
As much as we'd all like to just fast forward to the bit where I tell you how to get that magical Mick Fleetwood sound. For us to approach this effectively we need some basic info on how the originals were recorded and what we're listening for.
As a producer who is also a drummer, I've been a long-time student of drum sounds and record production. I've found that the more I know about the original approaches, the more authentic my results are when emulating them in a contemporary setting. It's beyond the scope of this article to give you a complete history of Western Pop recording techniques, but
I will break it down into a few very general time frames and fill in a few gaps about the general recording approaches for each era.
STEP 1: THE RIGHT KIT
The most important parts of achieving any of these drum sounds are right at the source. The drum kit needs to be setup and tuned for the style, and the player needs to understand the concept of playing to the mics. For anyone trying to get in the ballpark for the first time, it's worth spending time looking at images on the web of drummers (and their kits) of the era you're interested in.
For sounds up to the late '60s, it was at most a simple four-piece kit, usually with two full heads on the bass drum and almost no dampening, except some felt strips. The snares were almost always five-inches deep, and there were usually only two large crash/ride cymbals that weren't hit very hard. If you're using a kit with a big fat deep snare, a bass drum with a big pillow on it, five toms and six cymbals, you're making your job a lot more difficult. And if your drummer is a basher, smashing out quarter notes on the hi-hats, with a weak snare backbeat and a zillion drum fills, you're going to struggle to get an authentic Motown sound.
The point is that appropriateness will yield plenty of sonic options from any mic combination you use. And don't be scared of how odd your drums might sound in the room. We have a bunch of drums that we keep tuned a particular way (including a kid's toy kit) because we know under a certain combination of mics, they'll sound a particular shade of incredible.
Throughout this article, there are some specific modifications to both the kit and to the drummer's approach that will guide you towards the right combinations of approaches. Still, your best asset will always be your ears. Learn to listen through those old records for your best chance of figuring out why they've become so iconic.
In the '50s, the idea was to position the single overhead mic so it captured the whole kit.
THE EARLY ROCK 'N' ROLL ERA
Key listening tracks:
Lucille - Little Richard
Shake - Sam Cooke
Twist & Shout - The Beatles
It's good to listen to the stereo version of Twist & Shout first, because one channel is actually the close mics, and the other channel is just the vocal spill. Only then listen to the mono version, and you'll hear how much excitement is coming from the sound of the spill into the vocal mics.
The first stop in our way-back machine is just prior to 1960. Looking around the studio at that time, the first thing you would have noticed is that all the musicians were in the live room. No one was lounging in the control room with a DI'd guitar or MIDI keyboard. The complete ensemble was picked up live off the studio floor, balanced in the control room and printed to tape (usually single track, rarely two- or three-track multitrack) as one performance — no overdubs. There may have been only one mic on the whole kit, possibly two.
A big contributor to the drum sound on big band, jazz, and early rock 'n' roll records, was spill. A lot of what you're hearing is the band bleeding into each other's mics, particularly into the vocalist's.
Of course, there were no headphones at this point, so players were balancing their performances purely by the sound in the recording space. Crucially, the drummer had to learn to play to what the microphones were hearing — all of them, not just those over the drums. Whether that meant playing quietly, putting a wallet on the snare, or not hitting the crash cymbals. It was a case of deferring to the engineer's instruction, which the good musicians quickly adapted to. The engineer would say something to the effect of, ‘if you play too hard, and hit the ride cymbal in the chorus, you'll ruin the whole mix.' Critical point number one: play to the mics.
Equally important in the '50s is spill. In the distance, about eight metres away from this drummer's view, you can catch one of the room mics that's emulating the spill from a trumpeter, vocalist, you name it.
Here's another ‘single mic-only' drum position, effective for that ‘Motown' sound…
…and one more mono position — from the top this time — with that floppy wallet snare dampening.
The next thing to remember, is that because of spill, room sound was inescapable in these early recordings. Mics were pointed in all sorts of directions around these reasonably large rooms. So drums were bleeding into the piano mics at the other end of the room, the upright bass mic, the vocalist, the string and horn sections. I've read accounts from engineers at the time where they didn't use the mic that was on the drums because the drums were loud enough in every other mic when balancing down to mono.
Finally, it's important to take into account the quality of the recording equipment at the time. It's sometimes difficult to get contemporary recordists to comprehend that, once upon a time, recording engineers had very little equipment. And what they had wasn't always particularly versatile.
In the '50s, they were dealing with lovely new Neumanns (regularly the valve varieties), reasonably recent ribbon mics (15-20 years in use), and the introduction of dynamic mics. But the consoles were often purpose-built four or eight channel valve consoles, with either no EQ, or very simple bass and treble controls. More advanced EQ functions, like a sweepable mid frequency, were outboard pieces that were patched in when needed, and there were only a few modified radio-style compressors used to keep volume levels in check going to tape.
Engineers were also at the mercy of all of the analogue tape process's artefacts; alignment issues, tape hiss, as well as overloading the tape machine's circuitry and the tape itself.
The expectation was that the sounds would be right in the room, then the mics would pick the sound up and send it through the console as transparently as all those highly-coloured components would allow. The hope was that at the end of the day, playback off the tape would resemble something close to the event. In a nutshell, nothing near the fidelity of a contemporary recording system.
HOW TO GET THAT LATE '50s SOUND:
Apart from making sure we use the absolute right kit, see sidebar Step 1: The Right Kit, some techniques to get close to this sound would include:
Don't use many mics on the drums themselves, perhaps only one over the whole kit.
Remember, at this early stage of drum recording, no one considered the drums as individual elements — kick, snare, toms, etc. One mic was placed in a central position to pick up the sound of the whole kit. Ribbon mics were great for this, as the weight from the bottom end of the kit was emphasised, and the duller top end helped tame the cymbals. Listen for a mic position that gives you a balance of the whole kit.
Then scatter a number of mics of different varieties around the room, pointed in different directions; away from the kit at a distance, into a corner, aimed at the glass on your window, or pointing down at the floor. Imagine there's an ensemble coming into your room, and you're putting one mic up for each instrument. You may use a ribbon mic for where the horns would be. A condenser for the rear of the upright piano. Maybe a dynamic where the singer would be.
The idea here is to simulate spill — open mics around the room picking up the sound of the room, but not in a ‘drum-conscious' way. So experiment with these and see which ones give you the greatest sense of ‘drums in a room'.
Get the drummer to play at the volume he'd need to play if he had a live singer in the room with no foldback. Tell him to back off on the fills and the cymbals, and make it all about the groove.
When listening back to the various mics, only listen in mono, perhaps putting a high-pass filter at 100Hz and a low pass at 8-10kHz on every mic. Don't be scared to submix all the tracks to a mono auxiliary and treat the sound with light compression or even a saturation/distortion type plug in. Balance all the mics up until you get a sound that can be described as ‘character-filled'.
The early '60s added another dynamic kick mic to go with the overhead mic position for a bit more bottom end. It was a closer sound than the previous era, but as you can see here, not too close.
EARLY '60s INITIAL DAYS OF MULTITRACK
Key listening tracks:
Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds
Heatwave - Martha and The Vandelles
The '60s ushered in some pretty significant changes. Though Les Paul and others experimented with sound-on-sound recording in the early '50s (essentially, playing one mono tape into a mixer, and recording another part at the same time to another mono machine), true overdubbing facilities only started to appear on three-track machines in the very late '50s.
The initial benefit was that orchestras could be overdubbed. Tracking sessions soon involved having the ensemble balanced onto one track while the singer, also performing live, was recorded to a second track. The orchestra would then be overdubbed onto the third track — a massive change at the time. As the first four-track machines started to hit in the early '60s, this practice remained intact. Ensembles, including singers, still performed live in one space, and occasionally the additional tracks were used for ‘sweetening' — adding horns, strings or backing vocals. The pre-'60s practice of self-balancing remained.
The first major change ushered in by the rock 'n' roll era was that singers could monitor themselves through ‘monitor speakers' to compete with the louder guitar amps that had also popped up. Drummers started to play harder and used more cymbals to mirror the live experience, prompting engineers to begin looking at new ways to convey this live experience to tape. Basically, everyone got louder.
This manifested in some small but important changes. Large diaphragm condenser mics were replaced as the main ‘drum kit' mic with either a ribbon mic to tame the cymbals, or a dynamic mic to protect the more fragile/expensive mics from flailing drum sticks. A kick drum mic became compulsory too. Though in this early stage the front head was still on the drum, and engineers, concerned with the amount of air pumped out of this bigger drum, placed the mic no closer than a metre from the head.
In the control room, things changed as well. The valve consoles had to be upgraded to handle the four-track recorder functionality. In many situations, a compressor was placed between the bussed output of the console and the tape machine, to protect the tape from overloading. It meant the live tracks were submixed down to one channel, sent through a compressor and then to one track of the tape, embedding those sounds and balance into the mix forever. So a lot of time was taken to get the balances and interaction between the elements and the compressor right before they hit tape.
HOW TO GET THAT EARLY '60s SOUND
Let the drums ring; take out or reduce the dampening in the kick drum, and use a full head on the front of the drum. Tune the drums up a bit higher than you'd expect, particularly the toms. Open up the hi-hats a bit more.
Play a bit harder.
Use two dynamic mics for the kit — one out the front of the kick and one at cymbal height pointing towards the centre of the kit, so that the cymbals are pointing at the side of the mic. Move your cymbal setup around so you only have a crash and a ride.
With this setup, you are again listening for drum kit coverage. By this point, engineers were looking for a little more ‘focus' out of the mics, hence the addition of a dedicated kick mic.
With these two mics, you're getting a better representation of the close quality of the drums.
Place another mic or two — condensers or ribbons — a few metres back from the kit, and point them in the opposite direction.
With these mics, you're strictly imitating the sound of open vocal mics. Pointed away from the drum kit, they'll pick up drum spill and ambience. By themselves they should sound unfocused and ambient. Mixed in with the above close mics, you get that authentic crunch.
Do the high/low-pass trick mentioned above. Submix all the channels into a single auxiliary through a compressor with a moderate attack, release and threshold so the kit glues together rather than pumps. Readjust the balance once you hear the effects of the compressor, as this process will (and should) change your balance.
MID '60s TO EARLY '70s IT'S ALL ABOUT COVERAGE
Key listening tracks:
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Hello Goodbye - The Beatles
California Dreaming - The Mamas & the Papas
As pop music was taking over the world in the mid '60s, there were also massive changes in recording technology. For one, by the end of the decade, stereo pipped mono for pop's preferred format. As pop records and productions grew in creativity, so did the compulsion to innovate.
Producers started to use the extra room on four-track machines for more content. As they discovered reduction mixes (bouncing down a mix of four tracks to another four-track machine to free up more tracks for overdubbing) there became more demand for a clearer focus on the drums. Also, vocalists didn't necessarily track live with the ensemble anymore, which reduced or almost completely eradicated the ambience and spill which had been such a big part of a record's sound up to that point.
Combined with slightly more detailed EQ on consoles, more input channels and routing options, different compressor choices (the earliest 1176 incarnations arrived around this point, as well as The Beatles' heavy use of Fairchild compression), and advances in tape formulations and machines, records just started to sound better. They became much more tonally focused, with a greater sense of the close mics rather than the ambience of single-track ensemble recording. Later, eight-track recording unshackled the engineers, often resulting in a whole tape track set aside for drums!
Add a few more mics for that late '60s sound, and chuck a wallet full of cash on the snare for dampening.
Engineers still shied away from moving the mics as close as we do today — there were all sorts of concerns about overloading mics and consoles by getting too close to the drums. But they did start adding additional mics. Initially it was to represent the kit more faithfully, but became more creative as the decade rolled on. For example, engineers started to put mics somewhere in the vicinity of the toms. Often underneath the rack tom, and another somewhere vaguely over the floor tom. If they felt they weren't getting the presence of the snare, they'd put a mic underneath the snare and add treble to increase the snap of the drum as it headed into its submix, before compression and prior to hitting tape.
Engineers blatantly broke the previous generation's rules of miking up, and just put mics in key places, leading to plenty of experimentation with positioning. Remember, there was possibly a condenser on the overhead and snare bottom, but in every other position a standard dynamic mic was typically used.
As things developed, there were inevitably questions about drum setups and parts. Engineers were always looking for ways to get the maximum sound with the smallest amount of mics, which meant positioning became critical. Engineers experimented with pointing mics at the fulcrum of the kit between the snare and the kick drum, or at the side of the snare underneath the hi-hat, or indeed, a single mic on the floor pointing vaguely at the kick drum and bottom of the snare, often requiring the rack tom and all cymbals be removed.
Drummers were starting to control their drums a lot more — taking the front head off the bass drum and putting a pillow or blanket against the single head for a more focused sound. Placing a wallet or something heavy on the snare to reduce the ringing of the drum. In the latter part of the '60s they even muffled the drums with tea towels or rags to totally control the sound.
In this vital and influential era, it was all about experimenting with both the drums and the techniques used to capture them. Yet undeniably, focus was in, and ambience was most definitely out.
HOW TO GET THAT MID TO LATE '60s DRUM SOUND:
Start using more mics closer to the kit, but not as close as you would for a contemporary kit. Think more about ‘coverage' of the drum sounds. Possibly start with a kick mic (dynamic, right in the drum) a snare bottom mic quite close to the bottom snares (a dynamic or pencil condenser) and a condenser as an overhead. Place dynamic mics underneath the rack tom by about 30cm, and above the floor tom by about the same distance and pointed more towards the snare.
Take off the front head of the bass drum and deaden the sound. Drop the tuning of the snare a little more, but deaden the snare with a wallet or a folded up cloth. Tighten up the snares underneath, and possibly use masking tape (don't use gaffer tape, it'll tear the bottom head) on them to make the sound of the drum resonance free, with a short sharp snap to it. Tune the toms a little deeper, with maximum resonance. Use smaller, more ‘standard' cymbal sizes.
Get your drummer to play at a moderate to quiet volume, laying off on the cymbals. For that Motown/Stax sound, don't be scared to remove all toms and crash/ride cymbals, and just focus on the groove, using only one or two mics in unusual places to capture the whole kit.
Avoid ambience mics completely, and focus more on the closer mics, even keeping the overhead mic moderately low in the overall mix.
Submix all tracks to a mono auxiliary. Insert a compressor plug-in with a faster attack and release, and higher ratio. Adjust the release so the kick drum is pumping against the cymbals. Rebalance the close mics so the kick and snare are upfront and clear and a little crunchy. Add an EQ after the compressor to accentuate the low bottom end, and possibly highlight the high mids (around 4-6kHz) while low pass filtering around 10kHz. Don't be scared to experiment with saturation/distortion plug-ins. Distortion and overdriving equipment was par for the course at this point, and is a key part of the sound of this era.
Mic positions for that tight close mic sound positioning, with kit dampeners in place.
THE '70s & BEYOND 24 TRACKS & TOTAL CONTROL
Key listening tracks:
Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
Jive Talking - The Bee Gees
Close To You - The Carpenters
By the time we hit the '70s, very quickly 16-track, then 24-track became the norm. Recording as an ensemble was no longer needed, as each instrument had its own tracks. The drums were spread out over four to six tracks, allowing for more control in the mixing process. Compressing to tape became less critical. Studios that were once big, open recording spaces started to be partitioned off for a more controlled sound, allowing for increased creative options at mix time. Valve consoles were replaced with transistor-based versions, with greater EQ and routing flexibility, allowing the drums to be sculpted tonally. Drums were made tonally dead, with bottom heads starting to be taken off toms and mics put inside the drums, or gated heavily for greater separation. Drummers devised all kinds of ways to muffle, mute and control every ambience and resonance from the kit, including copious amounts of gaffer tape, or pieces of felt that flopped up as the drum was struck and rested back on the head. Drums were tuned deeper for a fatter tone. Small diaphragm condensers became the norm for overheads and hi hats, and producers were looking for a more hi-fi approach to drum recording. It was all about a controlled, focused, deep, percussive tone that screamed ‘high quality'. Ambience was generally a thing of the past.
HOW TO GET THAT '70s CLASSIC ROCK SOUND
The deader you can tune and mute your drums, the better. Use much smaller cymbals for punctuation rather than explosive accents. Even put some light tape on the ride cymbal to make it a nice dry percussive hit without much wash. Don't be scared to extend the hi-hat stand to its maximum height and drop the height of the snare to get as much separation as possible — or even move the hi-hat a bit further away from the snare. It may be less comfortable for the drummer, but will make the snare sound purer, and make it easier to work with.
Think massive drum kits — four or more toms were the rule rather than the exception. It wasn't unusual to see four mics close to the cymbals, submixed to a stereo pair; a mic on each tom, submixed to a stereo pair; plus a kick and snare track, sometimes with two mics on each submixed.
It's all about the close mics.
Once again, tell your drummer to play to the mics, which often means playing a bit quieter than normal. There are stories of legendary studio drummers who rarely played loudly, instead focusing on consistency of drum hits. Any sort of rimshots on the snare should be avoided — it's all about consistent hits in the centre of the head. The whole effect is a drier, completely focused and controllable tone at all times.
When mixing the sounds, it's all about clarity. Gate the snare and mute the silences on the toms. Sculpt the sounds of the kick and snare. Add high mids to the toms for extra definition. High-pass filter the cymbals and hi-hats aggressively, and keep them reasonably low in the mix. Insert a compressor on the kick and snare, and place one on a drum submix too, but with a low ratio and moderate attack/release. You're just using it to tighten up things rather than change the tone.
POST PRODUCTION
Occasionally you'll want to give contemporary-sounding kits or loops a retro overhaul. Here are a few simple tips to unsterilise your sounds and make them a bit more fun. When dealing with a kit's individual tracks, start by submixing them into a stereo or preferably mono submix and treating the drums as one instrument.
One of the first, most simple tools is EQ. A lot of vintage gear was relatively lo-fi in comparison to today's tools, so a few basic EQ tweaks can overhaul sounds completely. High- and low-pass filtering immediately reduces the fidelity. Finding the right gnarly frequency in the midrange, with a fairly wide Q, can give your tracks a certain ‘honk' synonymous with vintage tone. Experiment and play around, keeping in mind that a lot of these sounds weren't hi-fi to start with.
Next, apply compression. There were so many different levels of compression happening throughout the process. Preamps being pushed beyond their design. Compressors inserted into busses pre-tape. Tape compression itself was a big factor too, often squishing off the transients as records were tracked further into the red. So it's worth experimenting with lots of different ratios and attack/release times, as well as both compression and limiting. For the earlier stuff, you'll be looking at lower ratios, and longer attack and release times — you could use presets in your compressors similar to those you would use on a master bus.
For a mid '60s flavour, set much more aggressive attack and release times to pump the cymbals. This works a treat, especially in combination with a reasonably aggressive limiter to squish the transients. You'll hear a dramatic change to the sound of your tracks, but that's the idea.
For late '60s and '70s, return to more transparent compression to glue the tracks together. Lower ratios and moderate-fast attack and release settings will tighten things up without squishing the sound too much. A little limiting to flatten out the transients will be handy too.
Last but not least is distortion. Everything from tape saturation, to overdriving compressors, to vinyl plug-ins, to distortion pedals. There's a lot of distortion on these pre-'70s records, everything was being pushed too hard — mics, consoles and tape machines. If you listen to Motown records, for example, they're sublimely overdriven. Having a blend control can be handy to dial in just the right amount of grit. But don't be shy about it. This can be crucial for getting your grooves sounding spot on.
THE EXCEPTIONS
Of course, there are always exceptions to every genre. In the early '60s, Phil Spector took to drum recording with a '50s approach. In the '70s, drummers like John Bonham and Roger Taylor tuned their kits to sound like Big Band drummers of the '40s and '50s. Nevertheless this should give you a general guideline to the way engineers captured the drums over a critical period in pop history.
Essentially, when approaching retro drums, you have to break down your own preconceived ideas of how drums should be played and recorded. Once you do that, you can get really creative with the way your drum sounds present in your records. It may just be the thing that separates you from everyone else.
Tutorial: Michael Carpenter
The diversity of our auditory preferences always amazes me. Sometimes we want to hear the highest of high-fidelity sounds. Hairs standing on end, ‘voice of the gods' sort of stuff. So sonically pure that our brains immediately start humming in tune with the sensation of ‘good sound'. Then there'll be other times, when we hear a sound that is ‘effective', but hardly what you would call hi-fi. It just sounds cool.
Often we hear old records and intuitively pick up on the ‘retro' vibe. A big part of that is the way sounds were coloured — whether on purpose or not — by the recording process. Yet artists are often really thinking about drum sounds when they come into my studio requesting a retro approach. So let's get retrospective and see if we can deconstruct, reconstruct and bring out the colour of drum sounds from bygone eras.
RETRO PERSPECTIVE
We've become so used to big, glossy contemporary drum production, that we tend to define ‘retro' drums as being the antithesis to that; unpolished, or raw. Certainly, compared to the massaged, layered and controlled techniques of state-of-the-art modern records, this would be true. But when people come into the studio asking for a vintage approach, what they're really asking for is something beyond simply lo-fi; they're looking for character. It's the same with photography. The first thing we do after snapping an image on our phones is apply a filter to it. The quality of the original image is usually good enough in itself, but a filter ‘colours' that moment. Whether we fade it a tad, or add a vignette, it says something about us.
In a musical sense, the artist or producer is asserting a sense of personality on their production, because it says something more definitive about their creation than just a ‘nice' sound.
As much as we'd all like to just fast forward to the bit where I tell you how to get that magical Mick Fleetwood sound. For us to approach this effectively we need some basic info on how the originals were recorded and what we're listening for.
As a producer who is also a drummer, I've been a long-time student of drum sounds and record production. I've found that the more I know about the original approaches, the more authentic my results are when emulating them in a contemporary setting. It's beyond the scope of this article to give you a complete history of Western Pop recording techniques, but
I will break it down into a few very general time frames and fill in a few gaps about the general recording approaches for each era.
STEP 1: THE RIGHT KIT
The most important parts of achieving any of these drum sounds are right at the source. The drum kit needs to be setup and tuned for the style, and the player needs to understand the concept of playing to the mics. For anyone trying to get in the ballpark for the first time, it's worth spending time looking at images on the web of drummers (and their kits) of the era you're interested in.
For sounds up to the late '60s, it was at most a simple four-piece kit, usually with two full heads on the bass drum and almost no dampening, except some felt strips. The snares were almost always five-inches deep, and there were usually only two large crash/ride cymbals that weren't hit very hard. If you're using a kit with a big fat deep snare, a bass drum with a big pillow on it, five toms and six cymbals, you're making your job a lot more difficult. And if your drummer is a basher, smashing out quarter notes on the hi-hats, with a weak snare backbeat and a zillion drum fills, you're going to struggle to get an authentic Motown sound.
The point is that appropriateness will yield plenty of sonic options from any mic combination you use. And don't be scared of how odd your drums might sound in the room. We have a bunch of drums that we keep tuned a particular way (including a kid's toy kit) because we know under a certain combination of mics, they'll sound a particular shade of incredible.
Throughout this article, there are some specific modifications to both the kit and to the drummer's approach that will guide you towards the right combinations of approaches. Still, your best asset will always be your ears. Learn to listen through those old records for your best chance of figuring out why they've become so iconic.
In the '50s, the idea was to position the single overhead mic so it captured the whole kit.
THE EARLY ROCK 'N' ROLL ERA
Key listening tracks:
Lucille - Little Richard
Shake - Sam Cooke
Twist & Shout - The Beatles
It's good to listen to the stereo version of Twist & Shout first, because one channel is actually the close mics, and the other channel is just the vocal spill. Only then listen to the mono version, and you'll hear how much excitement is coming from the sound of the spill into the vocal mics.
The first stop in our way-back machine is just prior to 1960. Looking around the studio at that time, the first thing you would have noticed is that all the musicians were in the live room. No one was lounging in the control room with a DI'd guitar or MIDI keyboard. The complete ensemble was picked up live off the studio floor, balanced in the control room and printed to tape (usually single track, rarely two- or three-track multitrack) as one performance — no overdubs. There may have been only one mic on the whole kit, possibly two.
A big contributor to the drum sound on big band, jazz, and early rock 'n' roll records, was spill. A lot of what you're hearing is the band bleeding into each other's mics, particularly into the vocalist's.
Of course, there were no headphones at this point, so players were balancing their performances purely by the sound in the recording space. Crucially, the drummer had to learn to play to what the microphones were hearing — all of them, not just those over the drums. Whether that meant playing quietly, putting a wallet on the snare, or not hitting the crash cymbals. It was a case of deferring to the engineer's instruction, which the good musicians quickly adapted to. The engineer would say something to the effect of, ‘if you play too hard, and hit the ride cymbal in the chorus, you'll ruin the whole mix.' Critical point number one: play to the mics.
Equally important in the '50s is spill. In the distance, about eight metres away from this drummer's view, you can catch one of the room mics that's emulating the spill from a trumpeter, vocalist, you name it.
Here's another ‘single mic-only' drum position, effective for that ‘Motown' sound…
…and one more mono position — from the top this time — with that floppy wallet snare dampening.
The next thing to remember, is that because of spill, room sound was inescapable in these early recordings. Mics were pointed in all sorts of directions around these reasonably large rooms. So drums were bleeding into the piano mics at the other end of the room, the upright bass mic, the vocalist, the string and horn sections. I've read accounts from engineers at the time where they didn't use the mic that was on the drums because the drums were loud enough in every other mic when balancing down to mono.
Finally, it's important to take into account the quality of the recording equipment at the time. It's sometimes difficult to get contemporary recordists to comprehend that, once upon a time, recording engineers had very little equipment. And what they had wasn't always particularly versatile.
In the '50s, they were dealing with lovely new Neumanns (regularly the valve varieties), reasonably recent ribbon mics (15-20 years in use), and the introduction of dynamic mics. But the consoles were often purpose-built four or eight channel valve consoles, with either no EQ, or very simple bass and treble controls. More advanced EQ functions, like a sweepable mid frequency, were outboard pieces that were patched in when needed, and there were only a few modified radio-style compressors used to keep volume levels in check going to tape.
Engineers were also at the mercy of all of the analogue tape process's artefacts; alignment issues, tape hiss, as well as overloading the tape machine's circuitry and the tape itself.
The expectation was that the sounds would be right in the room, then the mics would pick the sound up and send it through the console as transparently as all those highly-coloured components would allow. The hope was that at the end of the day, playback off the tape would resemble something close to the event. In a nutshell, nothing near the fidelity of a contemporary recording system.
HOW TO GET THAT LATE '50s SOUND:
Apart from making sure we use the absolute right kit, see sidebar Step 1: The Right Kit, some techniques to get close to this sound would include:
Don't use many mics on the drums themselves, perhaps only one over the whole kit.
Remember, at this early stage of drum recording, no one considered the drums as individual elements — kick, snare, toms, etc. One mic was placed in a central position to pick up the sound of the whole kit. Ribbon mics were great for this, as the weight from the bottom end of the kit was emphasised, and the duller top end helped tame the cymbals. Listen for a mic position that gives you a balance of the whole kit.
Then scatter a number of mics of different varieties around the room, pointed in different directions; away from the kit at a distance, into a corner, aimed at the glass on your window, or pointing down at the floor. Imagine there's an ensemble coming into your room, and you're putting one mic up for each instrument. You may use a ribbon mic for where the horns would be. A condenser for the rear of the upright piano. Maybe a dynamic where the singer would be.
The idea here is to simulate spill — open mics around the room picking up the sound of the room, but not in a ‘drum-conscious' way. So experiment with these and see which ones give you the greatest sense of ‘drums in a room'.
Get the drummer to play at the volume he'd need to play if he had a live singer in the room with no foldback. Tell him to back off on the fills and the cymbals, and make it all about the groove.
When listening back to the various mics, only listen in mono, perhaps putting a high-pass filter at 100Hz and a low pass at 8-10kHz on every mic. Don't be scared to submix all the tracks to a mono auxiliary and treat the sound with light compression or even a saturation/distortion type plug in. Balance all the mics up until you get a sound that can be described as ‘character-filled'.
The early '60s added another dynamic kick mic to go with the overhead mic position for a bit more bottom end. It was a closer sound than the previous era, but as you can see here, not too close.
EARLY '60s INITIAL DAYS OF MULTITRACK
Key listening tracks:
Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds
Heatwave - Martha and The Vandelles
The '60s ushered in some pretty significant changes. Though Les Paul and others experimented with sound-on-sound recording in the early '50s (essentially, playing one mono tape into a mixer, and recording another part at the same time to another mono machine), true overdubbing facilities only started to appear on three-track machines in the very late '50s.
The initial benefit was that orchestras could be overdubbed. Tracking sessions soon involved having the ensemble balanced onto one track while the singer, also performing live, was recorded to a second track. The orchestra would then be overdubbed onto the third track — a massive change at the time. As the first four-track machines started to hit in the early '60s, this practice remained intact. Ensembles, including singers, still performed live in one space, and occasionally the additional tracks were used for ‘sweetening' — adding horns, strings or backing vocals. The pre-'60s practice of self-balancing remained.
The first major change ushered in by the rock 'n' roll era was that singers could monitor themselves through ‘monitor speakers' to compete with the louder guitar amps that had also popped up. Drummers started to play harder and used more cymbals to mirror the live experience, prompting engineers to begin looking at new ways to convey this live experience to tape. Basically, everyone got louder.
This manifested in some small but important changes. Large diaphragm condenser mics were replaced as the main ‘drum kit' mic with either a ribbon mic to tame the cymbals, or a dynamic mic to protect the more fragile/expensive mics from flailing drum sticks. A kick drum mic became compulsory too. Though in this early stage the front head was still on the drum, and engineers, concerned with the amount of air pumped out of this bigger drum, placed the mic no closer than a metre from the head.
In the control room, things changed as well. The valve consoles had to be upgraded to handle the four-track recorder functionality. In many situations, a compressor was placed between the bussed output of the console and the tape machine, to protect the tape from overloading. It meant the live tracks were submixed down to one channel, sent through a compressor and then to one track of the tape, embedding those sounds and balance into the mix forever. So a lot of time was taken to get the balances and interaction between the elements and the compressor right before they hit tape.
HOW TO GET THAT EARLY '60s SOUND
Let the drums ring; take out or reduce the dampening in the kick drum, and use a full head on the front of the drum. Tune the drums up a bit higher than you'd expect, particularly the toms. Open up the hi-hats a bit more.
Play a bit harder.
Use two dynamic mics for the kit — one out the front of the kick and one at cymbal height pointing towards the centre of the kit, so that the cymbals are pointing at the side of the mic. Move your cymbal setup around so you only have a crash and a ride.
With this setup, you are again listening for drum kit coverage. By this point, engineers were looking for a little more ‘focus' out of the mics, hence the addition of a dedicated kick mic.
With these two mics, you're getting a better representation of the close quality of the drums.
Place another mic or two — condensers or ribbons — a few metres back from the kit, and point them in the opposite direction.
With these mics, you're strictly imitating the sound of open vocal mics. Pointed away from the drum kit, they'll pick up drum spill and ambience. By themselves they should sound unfocused and ambient. Mixed in with the above close mics, you get that authentic crunch.
Do the high/low-pass trick mentioned above. Submix all the channels into a single auxiliary through a compressor with a moderate attack, release and threshold so the kit glues together rather than pumps. Readjust the balance once you hear the effects of the compressor, as this process will (and should) change your balance.
MID '60s TO EARLY '70s IT'S ALL ABOUT COVERAGE
Key listening tracks:
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Hello Goodbye - The Beatles
California Dreaming - The Mamas & the Papas
As pop music was taking over the world in the mid '60s, there were also massive changes in recording technology. For one, by the end of the decade, stereo pipped mono for pop's preferred format. As pop records and productions grew in creativity, so did the compulsion to innovate.
Producers started to use the extra room on four-track machines for more content. As they discovered reduction mixes (bouncing down a mix of four tracks to another four-track machine to free up more tracks for overdubbing) there became more demand for a clearer focus on the drums. Also, vocalists didn't necessarily track live with the ensemble anymore, which reduced or almost completely eradicated the ambience and spill which had been such a big part of a record's sound up to that point.
Combined with slightly more detailed EQ on consoles, more input channels and routing options, different compressor choices (the earliest 1176 incarnations arrived around this point, as well as The Beatles' heavy use of Fairchild compression), and advances in tape formulations and machines, records just started to sound better. They became much more tonally focused, with a greater sense of the close mics rather than the ambience of single-track ensemble recording. Later, eight-track recording unshackled the engineers, often resulting in a whole tape track set aside for drums!
Add a few more mics for that late '60s sound, and chuck a wallet full of cash on the snare for dampening.
Engineers still shied away from moving the mics as close as we do today — there were all sorts of concerns about overloading mics and consoles by getting too close to the drums. But they did start adding additional mics. Initially it was to represent the kit more faithfully, but became more creative as the decade rolled on. For example, engineers started to put mics somewhere in the vicinity of the toms. Often underneath the rack tom, and another somewhere vaguely over the floor tom. If they felt they weren't getting the presence of the snare, they'd put a mic underneath the snare and add treble to increase the snap of the drum as it headed into its submix, before compression and prior to hitting tape.
Engineers blatantly broke the previous generation's rules of miking up, and just put mics in key places, leading to plenty of experimentation with positioning. Remember, there was possibly a condenser on the overhead and snare bottom, but in every other position a standard dynamic mic was typically used.
As things developed, there were inevitably questions about drum setups and parts. Engineers were always looking for ways to get the maximum sound with the smallest amount of mics, which meant positioning became critical. Engineers experimented with pointing mics at the fulcrum of the kit between the snare and the kick drum, or at the side of the snare underneath the hi-hat, or indeed, a single mic on the floor pointing vaguely at the kick drum and bottom of the snare, often requiring the rack tom and all cymbals be removed.
Drummers were starting to control their drums a lot more — taking the front head off the bass drum and putting a pillow or blanket against the single head for a more focused sound. Placing a wallet or something heavy on the snare to reduce the ringing of the drum. In the latter part of the '60s they even muffled the drums with tea towels or rags to totally control the sound.
In this vital and influential era, it was all about experimenting with both the drums and the techniques used to capture them. Yet undeniably, focus was in, and ambience was most definitely out.
HOW TO GET THAT MID TO LATE '60s DRUM SOUND:
Start using more mics closer to the kit, but not as close as you would for a contemporary kit. Think more about ‘coverage' of the drum sounds. Possibly start with a kick mic (dynamic, right in the drum) a snare bottom mic quite close to the bottom snares (a dynamic or pencil condenser) and a condenser as an overhead. Place dynamic mics underneath the rack tom by about 30cm, and above the floor tom by about the same distance and pointed more towards the snare.
Take off the front head of the bass drum and deaden the sound. Drop the tuning of the snare a little more, but deaden the snare with a wallet or a folded up cloth. Tighten up the snares underneath, and possibly use masking tape (don't use gaffer tape, it'll tear the bottom head) on them to make the sound of the drum resonance free, with a short sharp snap to it. Tune the toms a little deeper, with maximum resonance. Use smaller, more ‘standard' cymbal sizes.
Get your drummer to play at a moderate to quiet volume, laying off on the cymbals. For that Motown/Stax sound, don't be scared to remove all toms and crash/ride cymbals, and just focus on the groove, using only one or two mics in unusual places to capture the whole kit.
Avoid ambience mics completely, and focus more on the closer mics, even keeping the overhead mic moderately low in the overall mix.
Submix all tracks to a mono auxiliary. Insert a compressor plug-in with a faster attack and release, and higher ratio. Adjust the release so the kick drum is pumping against the cymbals. Rebalance the close mics so the kick and snare are upfront and clear and a little crunchy. Add an EQ after the compressor to accentuate the low bottom end, and possibly highlight the high mids (around 4-6kHz) while low pass filtering around 10kHz. Don't be scared to experiment with saturation/distortion plug-ins. Distortion and overdriving equipment was par for the course at this point, and is a key part of the sound of this era.
Mic positions for that tight close mic sound positioning, with kit dampeners in place.
THE '70s & BEYOND 24 TRACKS & TOTAL CONTROL
Key listening tracks:
Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
Jive Talking - The Bee Gees
Close To You - The Carpenters
By the time we hit the '70s, very quickly 16-track, then 24-track became the norm. Recording as an ensemble was no longer needed, as each instrument had its own tracks. The drums were spread out over four to six tracks, allowing for more control in the mixing process. Compressing to tape became less critical. Studios that were once big, open recording spaces started to be partitioned off for a more controlled sound, allowing for increased creative options at mix time. Valve consoles were replaced with transistor-based versions, with greater EQ and routing flexibility, allowing the drums to be sculpted tonally. Drums were made tonally dead, with bottom heads starting to be taken off toms and mics put inside the drums, or gated heavily for greater separation. Drummers devised all kinds of ways to muffle, mute and control every ambience and resonance from the kit, including copious amounts of gaffer tape, or pieces of felt that flopped up as the drum was struck and rested back on the head. Drums were tuned deeper for a fatter tone. Small diaphragm condensers became the norm for overheads and hi hats, and producers were looking for a more hi-fi approach to drum recording. It was all about a controlled, focused, deep, percussive tone that screamed ‘high quality'. Ambience was generally a thing of the past.
HOW TO GET THAT '70s CLASSIC ROCK SOUND
The deader you can tune and mute your drums, the better. Use much smaller cymbals for punctuation rather than explosive accents. Even put some light tape on the ride cymbal to make it a nice dry percussive hit without much wash. Don't be scared to extend the hi-hat stand to its maximum height and drop the height of the snare to get as much separation as possible — or even move the hi-hat a bit further away from the snare. It may be less comfortable for the drummer, but will make the snare sound purer, and make it easier to work with.
Think massive drum kits — four or more toms were the rule rather than the exception. It wasn't unusual to see four mics close to the cymbals, submixed to a stereo pair; a mic on each tom, submixed to a stereo pair; plus a kick and snare track, sometimes with two mics on each submixed.
It's all about the close mics.
Once again, tell your drummer to play to the mics, which often means playing a bit quieter than normal. There are stories of legendary studio drummers who rarely played loudly, instead focusing on consistency of drum hits. Any sort of rimshots on the snare should be avoided — it's all about consistent hits in the centre of the head. The whole effect is a drier, completely focused and controllable tone at all times.
When mixing the sounds, it's all about clarity. Gate the snare and mute the silences on the toms. Sculpt the sounds of the kick and snare. Add high mids to the toms for extra definition. High-pass filter the cymbals and hi-hats aggressively, and keep them reasonably low in the mix. Insert a compressor on the kick and snare, and place one on a drum submix too, but with a low ratio and moderate attack/release. You're just using it to tighten up things rather than change the tone.
POST PRODUCTION
Occasionally you'll want to give contemporary-sounding kits or loops a retro overhaul. Here are a few simple tips to unsterilise your sounds and make them a bit more fun. When dealing with a kit's individual tracks, start by submixing them into a stereo or preferably mono submix and treating the drums as one instrument.
One of the first, most simple tools is EQ. A lot of vintage gear was relatively lo-fi in comparison to today's tools, so a few basic EQ tweaks can overhaul sounds completely. High- and low-pass filtering immediately reduces the fidelity. Finding the right gnarly frequency in the midrange, with a fairly wide Q, can give your tracks a certain ‘honk' synonymous with vintage tone. Experiment and play around, keeping in mind that a lot of these sounds weren't hi-fi to start with.
Next, apply compression. There were so many different levels of compression happening throughout the process. Preamps being pushed beyond their design. Compressors inserted into busses pre-tape. Tape compression itself was a big factor too, often squishing off the transients as records were tracked further into the red. So it's worth experimenting with lots of different ratios and attack/release times, as well as both compression and limiting. For the earlier stuff, you'll be looking at lower ratios, and longer attack and release times — you could use presets in your compressors similar to those you would use on a master bus.
For a mid '60s flavour, set much more aggressive attack and release times to pump the cymbals. This works a treat, especially in combination with a reasonably aggressive limiter to squish the transients. You'll hear a dramatic change to the sound of your tracks, but that's the idea.
For late '60s and '70s, return to more transparent compression to glue the tracks together. Lower ratios and moderate-fast attack and release settings will tighten things up without squishing the sound too much. A little limiting to flatten out the transients will be handy too.
Last but not least is distortion. Everything from tape saturation, to overdriving compressors, to vinyl plug-ins, to distortion pedals. There's a lot of distortion on these pre-'70s records, everything was being pushed too hard — mics, consoles and tape machines. If you listen to Motown records, for example, they're sublimely overdriven. Having a blend control can be handy to dial in just the right amount of grit. But don't be shy about it. This can be crucial for getting your grooves sounding spot on.
THE EXCEPTIONS
Of course, there are always exceptions to every genre. In the early '60s, Phil Spector took to drum recording with a '50s approach. In the '70s, drummers like John Bonham and Roger Taylor tuned their kits to sound like Big Band drummers of the '40s and '50s. Nevertheless this should give you a general guideline to the way engineers captured the drums over a critical period in pop history.
Essentially, when approaching retro drums, you have to break down your own preconceived ideas of how drums should be played and recorded. Once you do that, you can get really creative with the way your drum sounds present in your records. It may just be the thing that separates you from everyone else.
Wednesday 28 December 2016
16 Guitar Recording Tips From The Stars
When it comes to mic'ing up his amp, Paul Gilbert likes to keep things simple.
When it comes to recording guitar, everyone goes through a slightly different process.
Over time, we all find ways of working with comfortable 'old' setups and often end up discovering what could be considered unconventional methods. These procedural variations also factor as a major part of what creates unique music.
With this in mind, we contacted four star guitarists - John 5, Paul Gilbert, Adam D and Marty Friedman - and asked them how they go about capturing their guitar performances on hard disk or tape. Their methods certainly work for them, and they might just work for you, too.
John 5
Go organic
On my latest album, I took a more simple approach to my amp setup. At the studio where we record, they have loads of amps set up. I used a Marshall JCM 900 and a Fender Tone
Master. We kind of just fire them up and go. I haven't been using a lot of effects, as I've had such a cool, organic sound - that's how I practise at home.
Doubling up
Everybody doubles their rhythm parts, but I always thought, 'Why don't they double their lead solos, too?'. It's really hard to do, especially with any bends and faster sections, and it does take a very long time, but I've been doing it a different way to make things a little easier. For instance, as soon as I've just finished a song, I'll double the lead part right away, while it's still completely fresh in my mind.
Scouting around
Always be prepared, and know what you're doing. It's like when you're in school; you'll want to study before you do a test, if you're going to do any good in it that is. Well, it's the same thing with anything in life, and recording guitar is definitely included.
Limiting factors
Go straight (direct input), or at least try to limit yourself to only one or two pedals or effects, otherwise you'll only mask your true sound and take something away.
Mic 'n' easy
Electric guitar is the easiest thing to record. It's not like drums or vocals. Distorted guitar is especially easy, as it's already compressed. Use a dynamic mic, don't do anything fancy with it - just point it straight at the amp or angle it slightly and it'll sound great.
Tuning and timing
Recording comes down to two things: tuning and timing. Lots of unsigned bands I hear overlook timing. People think AC/DC, Green Day and the Ramones aren't great players because they don't play fast, but they have their timing nailed and their records are really tight and sound great as a result.
Balancing act
Editing parts is OK, but you need to find a balance and know where to draw the line, otherwise you can waste hours. I used to find that, after spending so much time editing, I lost sight of the original feeling that I was trying to create. You should always try to get the best possible performance in the first place.
Underdoing it
You can get lots of distortion from any amp or plug-in - it's not like 1975 when Marshalls just had a volume control. The problem is that jacked up guitars with loads of distortion will sound like mush. Try to get the song sounding good without loads of distortion and overdubs.
SM57's rule
You either call it 'knowing what works' or blame it on laziness, but I always just throw a '57 in front of the cab. I suppose it's a 'stick to your guns' mentality. I default to that every single time.
Back off
Mic placement is pretty crucial. You can get a million different EQ responses depending on where you throw the mic in front of the cab. I personally have the best luck - or at least I think so - when I back the mic off a little bit. I know a lot of engineers throw it right on the grille to get the bass boost, the proximity effect and all that garbage, but I find that if I back it up about six inches, I get a more balanced EQ curve.
Tight fit
Half the battle is playing the part well. Remember the old phrase, 'You can't polish a turd'? If it sucks from the beginning, it'll suck at the end. There's no way around a bad sounding performance.
A little bit at a time
My brain is not intelligent enough to perform a song well in one pass, so a little bit at a time works better. That way, the player can concentrate on what's going on at that specific moment. It's too overwhelming to play a whole song good.
Marty Friedman
Prepare…
Prepare and over-prepare, and then prepare some more. When you're done, practise everything over again, just once more. Then, by the time you get in the studio everything will just flow out of you.
…Or not
Despite what I just said, sometimes I feel that being totally unprepared makes for a really fun, fresh experience. If you have an unlimited amount of time, you can be as unprepared as you want and simply hope to get lucky.
Refined sugar
I'll have one go at an entire solo and even when there are some parts I like and others I don't, I won't punch in and get caught up in little details. I'll just remember the parts I like and then replay the whole thing again. I'll repeat that process, so the final solo ends up being one take. Engineers like doing it that way, too.
No one approach
Steve Vai and John Petrucci of Dream Theater played on my 2006 album Loudspeaker. John came into the studio, where I walked him through the entire track, then got him to play all the impossible stuff I couldn't imagine doing myself. Steve had no direction; I sent him the song and he sent a bunch of tracks back, which I hacked up to my liking.
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter
The free MusicRadar newsletter serves up the week's biggest artist and product news stories alongside exclusive tuition and gear reviews. Sign up here!
Follow MusicRadar on Twitter
When it comes to recording guitar, everyone goes through a slightly different process.
Over time, we all find ways of working with comfortable 'old' setups and often end up discovering what could be considered unconventional methods. These procedural variations also factor as a major part of what creates unique music.
With this in mind, we contacted four star guitarists - John 5, Paul Gilbert, Adam D and Marty Friedman - and asked them how they go about capturing their guitar performances on hard disk or tape. Their methods certainly work for them, and they might just work for you, too.
John 5
Go organic
On my latest album, I took a more simple approach to my amp setup. At the studio where we record, they have loads of amps set up. I used a Marshall JCM 900 and a Fender Tone
Master. We kind of just fire them up and go. I haven't been using a lot of effects, as I've had such a cool, organic sound - that's how I practise at home.
Doubling up
Everybody doubles their rhythm parts, but I always thought, 'Why don't they double their lead solos, too?'. It's really hard to do, especially with any bends and faster sections, and it does take a very long time, but I've been doing it a different way to make things a little easier. For instance, as soon as I've just finished a song, I'll double the lead part right away, while it's still completely fresh in my mind.
Scouting around
Always be prepared, and know what you're doing. It's like when you're in school; you'll want to study before you do a test, if you're going to do any good in it that is. Well, it's the same thing with anything in life, and recording guitar is definitely included.
Limiting factors
Go straight (direct input), or at least try to limit yourself to only one or two pedals or effects, otherwise you'll only mask your true sound and take something away.
Mic 'n' easy
Electric guitar is the easiest thing to record. It's not like drums or vocals. Distorted guitar is especially easy, as it's already compressed. Use a dynamic mic, don't do anything fancy with it - just point it straight at the amp or angle it slightly and it'll sound great.
Tuning and timing
Recording comes down to two things: tuning and timing. Lots of unsigned bands I hear overlook timing. People think AC/DC, Green Day and the Ramones aren't great players because they don't play fast, but they have their timing nailed and their records are really tight and sound great as a result.
Balancing act
Editing parts is OK, but you need to find a balance and know where to draw the line, otherwise you can waste hours. I used to find that, after spending so much time editing, I lost sight of the original feeling that I was trying to create. You should always try to get the best possible performance in the first place.
Underdoing it
You can get lots of distortion from any amp or plug-in - it's not like 1975 when Marshalls just had a volume control. The problem is that jacked up guitars with loads of distortion will sound like mush. Try to get the song sounding good without loads of distortion and overdubs.
SM57's rule
You either call it 'knowing what works' or blame it on laziness, but I always just throw a '57 in front of the cab. I suppose it's a 'stick to your guns' mentality. I default to that every single time.
Back off
Mic placement is pretty crucial. You can get a million different EQ responses depending on where you throw the mic in front of the cab. I personally have the best luck - or at least I think so - when I back the mic off a little bit. I know a lot of engineers throw it right on the grille to get the bass boost, the proximity effect and all that garbage, but I find that if I back it up about six inches, I get a more balanced EQ curve.
Tight fit
Half the battle is playing the part well. Remember the old phrase, 'You can't polish a turd'? If it sucks from the beginning, it'll suck at the end. There's no way around a bad sounding performance.
A little bit at a time
My brain is not intelligent enough to perform a song well in one pass, so a little bit at a time works better. That way, the player can concentrate on what's going on at that specific moment. It's too overwhelming to play a whole song good.
Marty Friedman
Prepare…
Prepare and over-prepare, and then prepare some more. When you're done, practise everything over again, just once more. Then, by the time you get in the studio everything will just flow out of you.
…Or not
Despite what I just said, sometimes I feel that being totally unprepared makes for a really fun, fresh experience. If you have an unlimited amount of time, you can be as unprepared as you want and simply hope to get lucky.
Refined sugar
I'll have one go at an entire solo and even when there are some parts I like and others I don't, I won't punch in and get caught up in little details. I'll just remember the parts I like and then replay the whole thing again. I'll repeat that process, so the final solo ends up being one take. Engineers like doing it that way, too.
No one approach
Steve Vai and John Petrucci of Dream Theater played on my 2006 album Loudspeaker. John came into the studio, where I walked him through the entire track, then got him to play all the impossible stuff I couldn't imagine doing myself. Steve had no direction; I sent him the song and he sent a bunch of tracks back, which I hacked up to my liking.
Sign up for our free weekly newsletter
The free MusicRadar newsletter serves up the week's biggest artist and product news stories alongside exclusive tuition and gear reviews. Sign up here!
Follow MusicRadar on Twitter
Tuesday 27 December 2016
15 Tips For Recording At Home
Get better results when recording at home.
We regularly get questions on how to achieve the best recordings at home. While many Blue users are recording in professional studios, even more are recording in their home office, bedroom, living room, basement or garage. There are a few easy ways to get studio acoustic results, at home. (See our home recording feature in the November issue of Stuff Magazine, on stands now!)
Take your at-home recordings to the next level-
Recording environment: (#1 factor that impacts your recordings)
1. Avoid hard surfaces: Hard surfaces can be your biggest enemy for home recording. Hardwood floors, concrete walls, tiled walls and counter tops are all reflective, bouncing sound around the room like Flubber, creating an echo that can be noticeable in your recordings. Carpet, curtains, rounded/fabric furniture and even inside of clothes closets can help to deaden” the room and create a more acoustically sound environment. Any hard surface is reflective, including slat blinds and windows (glass is extremely reflective). Close those curtains!
2. Reflection shields can be purchased or made to help minimize sounds being picked up from the back and sides of the mic (best if you are using a strictly omni-directional mic).
However, most at-home recording happens with a cardioid (forward directional) microphone. This type of mic is rejecting most noise from the sides and back. However, a cardioid microphone is most sensitive to sounds reflecting from behind the vocalist (see next tip for ways to reduce those reflections).
3. DIY acoustical treatment: The best at-home treatment is to hang a thick blanket on the wall or shelf or bookcase that is directly behind the vocalist, covering as much of the surface as possible. Staying away from desks or other reflective surfaces can be beneficial (especially if you aren't getting the recording results you desire). Did you know? Bass frequencies are notorious for building up under desks.
4. The place not to record: in the middle of the room. This is where frequencies build up and you get standing waves.”
5. Where to record: Back yourself closer to the wall with the hanging blanket and further from the opposite wall. Without sticking yourself in the middle. Clothes closets can also make for great vocal booths. Clothes naturally absorb sounds; they are typically carpeted and there is less room for echo.
6. Shhhhh! Make sure that background noise is minimal or nonexistent. Turn off the AC, and the TV, and the washing machine, and the microwave, and the fan and your fish tank…well maybe just move the poor fish into another room.
Headphones and Monitors:
7. Monitors are great for playback. Headphones are great for recording and direct monitoring.
8. For at-home recording, closed-back headphones are best so that the sound from your headphones doesn't bleed into your microphone. Zero-latency, direct monitoring is critical for multi-tracking (featured on Spark Digital , Nessie , Yeti and Yeti Pro ). If there are multiple people recording or even listening in, consider getting a headphone splitter box.
9. Monitors are basically fancy speakers that playback a little differently. Speakers give color to sound (deeper bass, sharper mids, etc) and are better for the average listener of a mastered track. Monitors give you uncolored sound. This will give you an accurate sound for mixing and editing. Then use your headphones for referencing (aka listening to the audio as it will be heard in the real world).
10. Setting up your monitors: Set up your monitors so that you are one of the points in an equilateral triangle. Measure the distance between your monitors, example: 45 inches, then make sure that you are 45 inches from each monitor. This will be the sweet spot for listening to your monitors.
11. Set your levels correctly. If you are direct monitoring through headphones, be sure to set your headphone volume levels correctly before adjusting the gain. If your headphone volume is too low, you risk overcompensating with the gain and causing distortion or an overly saturated recording.
Microphones Technique
12. Popping P” plosives: Pop filters help to catch these annoying bursts of air that defile your recording (Check out The Pop which can be used with most all of our mics, including USB mics like Yeti ) But if you don't have a pop filter, angle your vocals to the side of the microphone to reduce the direct burst of air away from the most sensitive part of the mic.
Found out how to attach The Pop to your USB mic here
13. Distance from the mic: The proximity effect occurs as you get closer to the microphone, the louder and more saturated your audio will become. Positioning your vocalist approximately six inches from the microphone is a good rule of thumb. Podcasters can be a little farther away, but we wouldn't recommend anything past a foot to start out.
Experimenting to find your best sound is always encouraged.
14. Pattern: Be sure to select the appropriate pattern (on multi-pattern microphones both XLR and USB ). For a single person recording, the cardioid pattern is a good default choice. Omnidirectional will pick up sounds from all around the room, which is great for a chorus or group, but likely not best for one person recording. Here are examples of use cases for various patterns:
We regularly get questions on how to achieve the best recordings at home. While many Blue users are recording in professional studios, even more are recording in their home office, bedroom, living room, basement or garage. There are a few easy ways to get studio acoustic results, at home. (See our home recording feature in the November issue of Stuff Magazine, on stands now!)
Take your at-home recordings to the next level-
Recording environment: (#1 factor that impacts your recordings)
1. Avoid hard surfaces: Hard surfaces can be your biggest enemy for home recording. Hardwood floors, concrete walls, tiled walls and counter tops are all reflective, bouncing sound around the room like Flubber, creating an echo that can be noticeable in your recordings. Carpet, curtains, rounded/fabric furniture and even inside of clothes closets can help to deaden” the room and create a more acoustically sound environment. Any hard surface is reflective, including slat blinds and windows (glass is extremely reflective). Close those curtains!
2. Reflection shields can be purchased or made to help minimize sounds being picked up from the back and sides of the mic (best if you are using a strictly omni-directional mic).
However, most at-home recording happens with a cardioid (forward directional) microphone. This type of mic is rejecting most noise from the sides and back. However, a cardioid microphone is most sensitive to sounds reflecting from behind the vocalist (see next tip for ways to reduce those reflections).
3. DIY acoustical treatment: The best at-home treatment is to hang a thick blanket on the wall or shelf or bookcase that is directly behind the vocalist, covering as much of the surface as possible. Staying away from desks or other reflective surfaces can be beneficial (especially if you aren't getting the recording results you desire). Did you know? Bass frequencies are notorious for building up under desks.
4. The place not to record: in the middle of the room. This is where frequencies build up and you get standing waves.”
5. Where to record: Back yourself closer to the wall with the hanging blanket and further from the opposite wall. Without sticking yourself in the middle. Clothes closets can also make for great vocal booths. Clothes naturally absorb sounds; they are typically carpeted and there is less room for echo.
6. Shhhhh! Make sure that background noise is minimal or nonexistent. Turn off the AC, and the TV, and the washing machine, and the microwave, and the fan and your fish tank…well maybe just move the poor fish into another room.
Headphones and Monitors:
7. Monitors are great for playback. Headphones are great for recording and direct monitoring.
8. For at-home recording, closed-back headphones are best so that the sound from your headphones doesn't bleed into your microphone. Zero-latency, direct monitoring is critical for multi-tracking (featured on Spark Digital , Nessie , Yeti and Yeti Pro ). If there are multiple people recording or even listening in, consider getting a headphone splitter box.
9. Monitors are basically fancy speakers that playback a little differently. Speakers give color to sound (deeper bass, sharper mids, etc) and are better for the average listener of a mastered track. Monitors give you uncolored sound. This will give you an accurate sound for mixing and editing. Then use your headphones for referencing (aka listening to the audio as it will be heard in the real world).
10. Setting up your monitors: Set up your monitors so that you are one of the points in an equilateral triangle. Measure the distance between your monitors, example: 45 inches, then make sure that you are 45 inches from each monitor. This will be the sweet spot for listening to your monitors.
11. Set your levels correctly. If you are direct monitoring through headphones, be sure to set your headphone volume levels correctly before adjusting the gain. If your headphone volume is too low, you risk overcompensating with the gain and causing distortion or an overly saturated recording.
Microphones Technique
12. Popping P” plosives: Pop filters help to catch these annoying bursts of air that defile your recording (Check out The Pop which can be used with most all of our mics, including USB mics like Yeti ) But if you don't have a pop filter, angle your vocals to the side of the microphone to reduce the direct burst of air away from the most sensitive part of the mic.
Found out how to attach The Pop to your USB mic here
13. Distance from the mic: The proximity effect occurs as you get closer to the microphone, the louder and more saturated your audio will become. Positioning your vocalist approximately six inches from the microphone is a good rule of thumb. Podcasters can be a little farther away, but we wouldn't recommend anything past a foot to start out.
Experimenting to find your best sound is always encouraged.
14. Pattern: Be sure to select the appropriate pattern (on multi-pattern microphones both XLR and USB ). For a single person recording, the cardioid pattern is a good default choice. Omnidirectional will pick up sounds from all around the room, which is great for a chorus or group, but likely not best for one person recording. Here are examples of use cases for various patterns:
Saturday 24 December 2016
4 Great Tips For Recording And Mixing An Acoustic Guitar Music And Technology
Recording and mixing an instrument such as an acoustic guitar can be as simple or as complex as you like but most important of all we need to get the sound right at the source to set us up for a good recording. Here at our Manchester recording studio , we have learnt the hard way in our early days, so remember - record a bad sound at source and you are starting on the wrong foot and leaving yourself open to a headache of a mix!
First off, if you have a selection of guitars or access to a number of different acoustics, then make sure you utilize your resources. Choosing the right guitar with the best sound for what you need will save you a lot of time later on when mixing. Think about what role the acoustic is going to play in the track; is it to be placed into a loud and busy mix and be heard through it's top end, or is it the absolute main focus of the track? All of these kinds of questions help us understand what we need form the guitar itself but not only that, it will help your decision in step two now you know what you need form the guitar - choosing you microphone(s) and placement.
Today we'll talk through two of our favorite microphone placements, but don't let this stop you being creative and finding a better way to record your acoustic guitar. Use these ideas as a good place to start and go ahead and tweak away!
The ‘XY' Technique
The first is the popular ‘XY' placement. This involves two pencil condenser microphones crossed over at the 12th fret. They will both be aimed at the 12th fret and at an approximate 90 degree angle against each other. Move this placement up and down the fret board and sound hole to find the best sounding point. Remember, every guitar is different and no mic position will be applicable for two different guitars. The microphones should be around 6 inches away from the guitar, but again, use this as a guide and play about with the distance.
When mixing these signals, pan them left and right for a stereo feel, panning harder for a widest stereo image.
Stereo Technique
The second microphone involves, again, two condenser microphones, however, this time we will need a large diaphragm condenser and a pencil condenser. The large diaphragm condenser will be position facing the bridge of the guitar at around 6 inches away and the pencil condenser at the same distance but at the 12th fret. This allows us to capture a good rich low end from the bridge and bright clarity from the 12th fret. The large condensers can be great for capturing low end due to their structure and size. Like the other technique, spread these signals using your pan tool in your chosen DAW. The great thing about this technique is that you can now balance the low end of your acoustic guitar by bringing in the bridge microphone until you are happy with the sound against your 12th fret position.
Single Large Diaphragm Condenser
For the times where the stereo sound isn't necessary, placing a large condenser approximately 6 inches away from the guitar around the 12th fret can still give great results. The reason we recommend the large diaphragm over the pencil is because in the mixing stage, you have the option to keep or cut the rich and full low end that a large diaphragm condenser offers. Remember, when using this technique, it is important to find the point of perfect balance between the low and muddy sound the bridge can offer, to the clarity and sometimes thin sound the neck can give. You have less room for correction, compared to a stereo technique, when mixing.
Be wary of either side of your frequency ranges
A common problem when mixing acoustic guitars is the control on either the top or low end. Managing harsh top and low end can be achieved with a simple compressor. However, before we continue, we must stress; don't over compress. Keep the ratio below 5:1:1 and make sure you're threshold is only cutting up to 3 to 4 dB maximum. Over compression on an acoustic guitar takes away the dynamics from what can be a beautiful sounding instrument. Always listen back to the guitar in the mix and take some time away, to come back with fresh ears and a fresh outlook.
Use these three techniques and feel free to explore and experiment to achieve the sound you desire. Remember to make the right choices at the very beginning and most of all, have fun doing what can be a very satisfying recording experience.
First off, if you have a selection of guitars or access to a number of different acoustics, then make sure you utilize your resources. Choosing the right guitar with the best sound for what you need will save you a lot of time later on when mixing. Think about what role the acoustic is going to play in the track; is it to be placed into a loud and busy mix and be heard through it's top end, or is it the absolute main focus of the track? All of these kinds of questions help us understand what we need form the guitar itself but not only that, it will help your decision in step two now you know what you need form the guitar - choosing you microphone(s) and placement.
Today we'll talk through two of our favorite microphone placements, but don't let this stop you being creative and finding a better way to record your acoustic guitar. Use these ideas as a good place to start and go ahead and tweak away!
The ‘XY' Technique
The first is the popular ‘XY' placement. This involves two pencil condenser microphones crossed over at the 12th fret. They will both be aimed at the 12th fret and at an approximate 90 degree angle against each other. Move this placement up and down the fret board and sound hole to find the best sounding point. Remember, every guitar is different and no mic position will be applicable for two different guitars. The microphones should be around 6 inches away from the guitar, but again, use this as a guide and play about with the distance.
When mixing these signals, pan them left and right for a stereo feel, panning harder for a widest stereo image.
Stereo Technique
The second microphone involves, again, two condenser microphones, however, this time we will need a large diaphragm condenser and a pencil condenser. The large diaphragm condenser will be position facing the bridge of the guitar at around 6 inches away and the pencil condenser at the same distance but at the 12th fret. This allows us to capture a good rich low end from the bridge and bright clarity from the 12th fret. The large condensers can be great for capturing low end due to their structure and size. Like the other technique, spread these signals using your pan tool in your chosen DAW. The great thing about this technique is that you can now balance the low end of your acoustic guitar by bringing in the bridge microphone until you are happy with the sound against your 12th fret position.
Single Large Diaphragm Condenser
For the times where the stereo sound isn't necessary, placing a large condenser approximately 6 inches away from the guitar around the 12th fret can still give great results. The reason we recommend the large diaphragm over the pencil is because in the mixing stage, you have the option to keep or cut the rich and full low end that a large diaphragm condenser offers. Remember, when using this technique, it is important to find the point of perfect balance between the low and muddy sound the bridge can offer, to the clarity and sometimes thin sound the neck can give. You have less room for correction, compared to a stereo technique, when mixing.
Be wary of either side of your frequency ranges
A common problem when mixing acoustic guitars is the control on either the top or low end. Managing harsh top and low end can be achieved with a simple compressor. However, before we continue, we must stress; don't over compress. Keep the ratio below 5:1:1 and make sure you're threshold is only cutting up to 3 to 4 dB maximum. Over compression on an acoustic guitar takes away the dynamics from what can be a beautiful sounding instrument. Always listen back to the guitar in the mix and take some time away, to come back with fresh ears and a fresh outlook.
Use these three techniques and feel free to explore and experiment to achieve the sound you desire. Remember to make the right choices at the very beginning and most of all, have fun doing what can be a very satisfying recording experience.
Friday 23 December 2016
5 Effective Ways To Record Acoustic Guitar
The acoustic guitar is an essential instrument in a wide range of musical genres including Pop, Rock, Folk, and Country. It is also one of the most common instruments to record, as it is the foundation and backbone of many songs.
Whether the guitar needs to fit in the context of an entire band or solo as the instrument behind a vocal, the tone plays a significant role in the success of a mix.
In order to end up with a good tone for the acoustic guitar at the end of a mix, it is important to properly capture the initial performance.
Many times it's sufficient to throw up a single microphone on the guitar and capture a mono signal. In other cases the acoustic guitar needs to fill out more space in the stereo field.
However, it's not always obvious to decide how the performance should be captured and panned.
Some acoustic instruments, like drums and piano, have a natural stereo width due to their physical size and how they are typically heard.
As an example, it is logical to pan hi-hats to one side and the floor tom to the other side. It is also reasonable to pan the piano based on the musician's perspective with the lower notes on the left and the higher notes on the right.
Because there is no obvious convention as to how the acoustic guitar should be captured and panned, an audio engineer has many options. Here are five ways an acoustic guitar can be captured in stereo.
1) Vertical X/Y at the 12th Fret
When miking an acoustic guitar, a good place to start is placing the mic(s) close to the 12th fret.
This location provides a good tonal balance between low and high frequencies. It also provides a good balance between the rhythmic, percussive clarity for the instrument's strumming and the tonal sustain of the strings.
One way to use two mics to capture an acoustic guitar is to place both mics near the 12th fret.
By using an X/Y configuration, one mic can be angled toward the low strings on the guitar and one mic can be angled toward the high strings. In this case, the lower notes on the instrument will be captured at a higher amplitude in the first mic and the higher notes on the instrument will be captured at a higher amplitude in the second mic.
This technique can be a way to capture a stereo image of an acoustic guitar that resembles an acoustic piano with lower notes panned left and higher notes panned right.
If you already have a piano panned this way in your mix, you could flip the panning on the guitar so that the opposite is happening with the acoustic guitar. This is a good way to balance both low frequencies and high frequencies across the stereo field with multiple instruments.
2) Horizontal X/Y at the 12th Fret
This miking technique is a modification of the vertical X/Y at the 12th fret.
Rather than pointing one mic at the low strings and one mic at the high strings, in this technique one mic is angled toward the instrument's sound hole while the other mic is angle up the neck.
The microphone pointed toward the sound hole will capture a signal with a louder low frequency response. The microphone pointed up the neck will capture a signal with a quieter low frequency response.
This is another method to capture a performance where the spectral balance differs across the stereo field, and can compliment another instrument like piano.
In this case, lower strings and higher strings are not spread across the stereo field. Rather, the spectrum for all strings is spread across the stereo field.
3) Horizontal M/S at the 12th Fret
This technique is conceptually a combination of the previous two techniques.
One uni-directional microphone is positioned toward the neck at the 12th fret and one bi-directional microphone is positioned near the sound hole.
The bi-directional microphone should be rotated so that the front and back are perpendicular to the body of the guitar. A Mid-Side matrix is set up with the bi-directional microphone so that the front captures more of the low strings while the back captures more of the high strings.
Between the two microphones, the uni-directional microphone will capture lower frequencies at a lower amplitude than the bi-directional microphone. Therefore, blending between the two mics allows for control over the spectral balance of the captured performance.
The two signals created from the bi-directional microphone can be used to have more amplitude of the low strings on one side of the stereo field and more amplitude of the high strings on the opposite side.
Depending on the desired tonal balance, the position of the mics could be swapped so the bi-directional mic is near the 12th fret and the uni-directional near the sound hole.
4) Ambient Spaced Pair
One reason to choose a miking technique for the acoustic guitar is to have a spectral balance of tone across the stereo field. Another reason to use a stereo miking technique is to use the stereo field to add spatial depth to the instrument. This can be accomplished by using a balance of close and distant mics.
One version of this would be to use a single close mic near the 12th fret of the guitar and a spaced pair of ambient room mics.
The close mic can be panned to the center of the stereo field. Then the spaced pair of microphones can be panned left and right.
Mixing more of the close mic will push the acoustic guitar up-front in the mix.
Mixing more of the spaced pair will add depth and push the acoustic guitar back in the mix.
This technique can work well if you have a studio with a good room sound.
In many situations, other instruments are given preference to the best room in the studio while the acoustic guitar is recorded in an isolation booth. Whenever possible, spend the extra time to overdub the acoustic guitar in the best room.
5) Player's Perspective
The motivation for miking techniques used with drums and piano comes from the common way that these instruments are perceived.
A similar concept can be applied to the acoustic guitar.
In this technique, microphones can be placed in proximity to the physical location where the performer will be hearing the instrument.
One microphone can be placed near the left ear of the performer and one microphone can be placed near the right ear of the performer.
In this case, the performer's head acts as a baffle or gobo between the microphones to increase the difference in the captured signal. The captured signals by the microphones should provide a natural stereo image because they will be similar to the signals captured by the performer's ears.
Conclusion
In summary, recording an acoustic guitar can be a very creative process for an audio engineer.
There are many different options for capturing the sound of the instrument.
When it comes to stereo miking techniques, don't hesitate to experiment with different possibilities to achieve a tonal and spatial balance across the stereo field.
Eric Tarr
Eric Tarr is a musician, audio engineer, and producer based in Columbus, Ohio. Currently a Professor of Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.
Whether the guitar needs to fit in the context of an entire band or solo as the instrument behind a vocal, the tone plays a significant role in the success of a mix.
In order to end up with a good tone for the acoustic guitar at the end of a mix, it is important to properly capture the initial performance.
Many times it's sufficient to throw up a single microphone on the guitar and capture a mono signal. In other cases the acoustic guitar needs to fill out more space in the stereo field.
However, it's not always obvious to decide how the performance should be captured and panned.
Some acoustic instruments, like drums and piano, have a natural stereo width due to their physical size and how they are typically heard.
As an example, it is logical to pan hi-hats to one side and the floor tom to the other side. It is also reasonable to pan the piano based on the musician's perspective with the lower notes on the left and the higher notes on the right.
Because there is no obvious convention as to how the acoustic guitar should be captured and panned, an audio engineer has many options. Here are five ways an acoustic guitar can be captured in stereo.
1) Vertical X/Y at the 12th Fret
When miking an acoustic guitar, a good place to start is placing the mic(s) close to the 12th fret.
This location provides a good tonal balance between low and high frequencies. It also provides a good balance between the rhythmic, percussive clarity for the instrument's strumming and the tonal sustain of the strings.
One way to use two mics to capture an acoustic guitar is to place both mics near the 12th fret.
By using an X/Y configuration, one mic can be angled toward the low strings on the guitar and one mic can be angled toward the high strings. In this case, the lower notes on the instrument will be captured at a higher amplitude in the first mic and the higher notes on the instrument will be captured at a higher amplitude in the second mic.
This technique can be a way to capture a stereo image of an acoustic guitar that resembles an acoustic piano with lower notes panned left and higher notes panned right.
If you already have a piano panned this way in your mix, you could flip the panning on the guitar so that the opposite is happening with the acoustic guitar. This is a good way to balance both low frequencies and high frequencies across the stereo field with multiple instruments.
2) Horizontal X/Y at the 12th Fret
This miking technique is a modification of the vertical X/Y at the 12th fret.
Rather than pointing one mic at the low strings and one mic at the high strings, in this technique one mic is angled toward the instrument's sound hole while the other mic is angle up the neck.
The microphone pointed toward the sound hole will capture a signal with a louder low frequency response. The microphone pointed up the neck will capture a signal with a quieter low frequency response.
This is another method to capture a performance where the spectral balance differs across the stereo field, and can compliment another instrument like piano.
In this case, lower strings and higher strings are not spread across the stereo field. Rather, the spectrum for all strings is spread across the stereo field.
3) Horizontal M/S at the 12th Fret
This technique is conceptually a combination of the previous two techniques.
One uni-directional microphone is positioned toward the neck at the 12th fret and one bi-directional microphone is positioned near the sound hole.
The bi-directional microphone should be rotated so that the front and back are perpendicular to the body of the guitar. A Mid-Side matrix is set up with the bi-directional microphone so that the front captures more of the low strings while the back captures more of the high strings.
Between the two microphones, the uni-directional microphone will capture lower frequencies at a lower amplitude than the bi-directional microphone. Therefore, blending between the two mics allows for control over the spectral balance of the captured performance.
The two signals created from the bi-directional microphone can be used to have more amplitude of the low strings on one side of the stereo field and more amplitude of the high strings on the opposite side.
Depending on the desired tonal balance, the position of the mics could be swapped so the bi-directional mic is near the 12th fret and the uni-directional near the sound hole.
4) Ambient Spaced Pair
One reason to choose a miking technique for the acoustic guitar is to have a spectral balance of tone across the stereo field. Another reason to use a stereo miking technique is to use the stereo field to add spatial depth to the instrument. This can be accomplished by using a balance of close and distant mics.
One version of this would be to use a single close mic near the 12th fret of the guitar and a spaced pair of ambient room mics.
The close mic can be panned to the center of the stereo field. Then the spaced pair of microphones can be panned left and right.
Mixing more of the close mic will push the acoustic guitar up-front in the mix.
Mixing more of the spaced pair will add depth and push the acoustic guitar back in the mix.
This technique can work well if you have a studio with a good room sound.
In many situations, other instruments are given preference to the best room in the studio while the acoustic guitar is recorded in an isolation booth. Whenever possible, spend the extra time to overdub the acoustic guitar in the best room.
5) Player's Perspective
The motivation for miking techniques used with drums and piano comes from the common way that these instruments are perceived.
A similar concept can be applied to the acoustic guitar.
In this technique, microphones can be placed in proximity to the physical location where the performer will be hearing the instrument.
One microphone can be placed near the left ear of the performer and one microphone can be placed near the right ear of the performer.
In this case, the performer's head acts as a baffle or gobo between the microphones to increase the difference in the captured signal. The captured signals by the microphones should provide a natural stereo image because they will be similar to the signals captured by the performer's ears.
Conclusion
In summary, recording an acoustic guitar can be a very creative process for an audio engineer.
There are many different options for capturing the sound of the instrument.
When it comes to stereo miking techniques, don't hesitate to experiment with different possibilities to achieve a tonal and spatial balance across the stereo field.
Eric Tarr
Eric Tarr is a musician, audio engineer, and producer based in Columbus, Ohio. Currently a Professor of Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.
Wednesday 21 December 2016
5 Stereo Mic Techniques For Acoustic Guitar (Or ANY Acoustic Instrument)
If you record acoustic guitar , then chances are you've either played around with stereo recording or at least thought about it. But maybe you're not sure which techniques to use and the pros and cons of each.
I think I can help.
I've recorded acoustic guitar more than any other instrument, so I've spent countless hours of quality time with my guitar and a pair of microphones. And I've gotten pretty good at getting great acoustic guitar tone.
What is stereo recording?
Stereo recording is simply using two microphones to capture a two-channel stereo” image of the source. By panning the signals left and right, you can create a sense of space and width and depth, simply by using two microphones instead of one.
Stereo mic techniques can be applied to any acoustic instrument - drum overheads, piano, cello, upright bass, choirs. I've used these same stereo techniques on all these instruments.
So even if you don't record acoustic guitar, keep reading. These techniques apply to all kinds of recording situations, and it's good to be familiar with them.
Mono recording (using only one microphone) is still very useful. There are plenty of times where I'll simply use one microphone on acoustic guitar, especially if it's for a bigger production where the guitar is playing a minor role. If the guitar is a big focus of the song, then I'll probably stereo-mic it.
Check out these two articles for more on stereo vs. mono recording:
1. XY
XY is oftentimes my go-to stereo technique. Why? Because it doesn't lend itself to phase issues. Phase issues can occur when multiple microphones pick up the same source. If the microphones are in different locations, then there's a chance they'll pick up the sound at different times.
Imagine taking two identical tracks in your DAW and delaying one by a few milliseconds. (Go try it if you've never done it.) What happens? Things start sounding thin. That's what happens when your two mics are out of phse.
With the XY technique, the mics are essentially at the same point in time, so any signal will hit both microphones at roughly the same time. It essentially gets rid of phase issues.
Pros - stereo image without any phase issues
Cons - not as wide” of an image as other techniques
2. ORTF
ORTF (it stands for some French phrase) is essentially taking the XY technique and flipping them outwards instead of inwards. The idea here is to create a recording that sounds very close to how the human ears hear.
The mics are approximately at the same distance and angle as our ears. On headphones, this technique sounds incredible. It's as if you're sitting in front of the guitar listening yourself. (For specific specs on ORTF, click here. )
Pros - realistic stereo field
3. Spaced Pair
Spaced pair is just like it sounds. You set up two microphones spaced out, facing the instrument. Spaced pair is the most susceptible to phase issues. I almost never get it right the first time. It requires a lot of attention and listening to get it right.
Spaced pair can give you a huge, wide sound, but only if you get the two mics in phase. The way I normally go about making sure they're in phase is to listen to the mics in mono. I'll pan both tracks to the center, and move the mics around until the mono signal sounds nice and full. If the sound is missing a lot of bass and sounds phasey, I know the mics aren't in phase yet.
Oftentimes just moving one mic a few inches will fix the problem. Once the mono signal sounds full and huge, you're ready. The stereo signal will be enormous. Be careful, though. If the guitarist moves or rotates a bit, you might be back out of phase again.
Pros - very wide sound
Cons - very susceptible to phase issues, center” isn't as clear
4. Over-the-Shoulder
Over-the-shoulder is a technique I've only used occasionally. Essentially you put a mono mic in front of the guitar and another mic over the neck pointing down. While this isn't a true” stereo technique, a lot of engineers use this as their default setup for recording acoustic guitar.
I find it to be a bit fickle. The front mic captures the body of the instrument, while the shoulder mic only captures the higher-end sound and pick noise. That means I can't really pan these very wide without it sounding funny.
It can give an interesting stereo image with lots of fret noise, if that's what the song needs.
Guitarists tend to like this technique because it sounds a lot like the guitar sounds to their ears when they're playing it.
Pros - if shoulder mic doesn't work, you can still use the front mic as a mono mic; grabs more finger/fret noise and air”
Cons - not really a L/R stereo technique, tends to capture a lot of pick noise, phase issues are still a concern
5. Mid-Side
Mid-side is the most complex technique, but it's pretty cool. The setup is one cardioid (or omni) microphone pointed at the guitar and another figure-8 microphone facing perpendicular to the first mic.
The mid mic gets recorded to its own track. The side mic gets recorded to TWO separate mono tracks (record the same signal to two tracks), panned left and right. Flip the phase on one of the tracks.
This allows you to adjust the width of the recording. The more you bring up the side tracks, the wider the sound. The more you bring up the mid mic, the more mono” the sound.
What's great about this is you can change the width after-the-fact. If you're mixing and wish the track was wider, you can make it happen. You can't do that with any other technique.
Like the XY technique, mid-side doesn't tend to have many phase issues, because the mic capsules are so close together. If your room is noisy or not very well treated acoustically, then this technique might not be for you, as the sid mic is picking up everything to the left and right of the guitar (your room).
Pros - very little phase issues, mono-compatible, adjustable width
Cons - more complex/confusing to set up, having too many choices may bog you down later, harder to ‘commit' to a sound
I think I can help.
I've recorded acoustic guitar more than any other instrument, so I've spent countless hours of quality time with my guitar and a pair of microphones. And I've gotten pretty good at getting great acoustic guitar tone.
What is stereo recording?
Stereo recording is simply using two microphones to capture a two-channel stereo” image of the source. By panning the signals left and right, you can create a sense of space and width and depth, simply by using two microphones instead of one.
Stereo mic techniques can be applied to any acoustic instrument - drum overheads, piano, cello, upright bass, choirs. I've used these same stereo techniques on all these instruments.
So even if you don't record acoustic guitar, keep reading. These techniques apply to all kinds of recording situations, and it's good to be familiar with them.
Mono recording (using only one microphone) is still very useful. There are plenty of times where I'll simply use one microphone on acoustic guitar, especially if it's for a bigger production where the guitar is playing a minor role. If the guitar is a big focus of the song, then I'll probably stereo-mic it.
Check out these two articles for more on stereo vs. mono recording:
1. XY
XY is oftentimes my go-to stereo technique. Why? Because it doesn't lend itself to phase issues. Phase issues can occur when multiple microphones pick up the same source. If the microphones are in different locations, then there's a chance they'll pick up the sound at different times.
Imagine taking two identical tracks in your DAW and delaying one by a few milliseconds. (Go try it if you've never done it.) What happens? Things start sounding thin. That's what happens when your two mics are out of phse.
With the XY technique, the mics are essentially at the same point in time, so any signal will hit both microphones at roughly the same time. It essentially gets rid of phase issues.
Pros - stereo image without any phase issues
Cons - not as wide” of an image as other techniques
2. ORTF
ORTF (it stands for some French phrase) is essentially taking the XY technique and flipping them outwards instead of inwards. The idea here is to create a recording that sounds very close to how the human ears hear.
The mics are approximately at the same distance and angle as our ears. On headphones, this technique sounds incredible. It's as if you're sitting in front of the guitar listening yourself. (For specific specs on ORTF, click here. )
Pros - realistic stereo field
3. Spaced Pair
Spaced pair is just like it sounds. You set up two microphones spaced out, facing the instrument. Spaced pair is the most susceptible to phase issues. I almost never get it right the first time. It requires a lot of attention and listening to get it right.
Spaced pair can give you a huge, wide sound, but only if you get the two mics in phase. The way I normally go about making sure they're in phase is to listen to the mics in mono. I'll pan both tracks to the center, and move the mics around until the mono signal sounds nice and full. If the sound is missing a lot of bass and sounds phasey, I know the mics aren't in phase yet.
Oftentimes just moving one mic a few inches will fix the problem. Once the mono signal sounds full and huge, you're ready. The stereo signal will be enormous. Be careful, though. If the guitarist moves or rotates a bit, you might be back out of phase again.
Pros - very wide sound
Cons - very susceptible to phase issues, center” isn't as clear
4. Over-the-Shoulder
Over-the-shoulder is a technique I've only used occasionally. Essentially you put a mono mic in front of the guitar and another mic over the neck pointing down. While this isn't a true” stereo technique, a lot of engineers use this as their default setup for recording acoustic guitar.
I find it to be a bit fickle. The front mic captures the body of the instrument, while the shoulder mic only captures the higher-end sound and pick noise. That means I can't really pan these very wide without it sounding funny.
It can give an interesting stereo image with lots of fret noise, if that's what the song needs.
Guitarists tend to like this technique because it sounds a lot like the guitar sounds to their ears when they're playing it.
Pros - if shoulder mic doesn't work, you can still use the front mic as a mono mic; grabs more finger/fret noise and air”
Cons - not really a L/R stereo technique, tends to capture a lot of pick noise, phase issues are still a concern
5. Mid-Side
Mid-side is the most complex technique, but it's pretty cool. The setup is one cardioid (or omni) microphone pointed at the guitar and another figure-8 microphone facing perpendicular to the first mic.
The mid mic gets recorded to its own track. The side mic gets recorded to TWO separate mono tracks (record the same signal to two tracks), panned left and right. Flip the phase on one of the tracks.
This allows you to adjust the width of the recording. The more you bring up the side tracks, the wider the sound. The more you bring up the mid mic, the more mono” the sound.
What's great about this is you can change the width after-the-fact. If you're mixing and wish the track was wider, you can make it happen. You can't do that with any other technique.
Like the XY technique, mid-side doesn't tend to have many phase issues, because the mic capsules are so close together. If your room is noisy or not very well treated acoustically, then this technique might not be for you, as the sid mic is picking up everything to the left and right of the guitar (your room).
Pros - very little phase issues, mono-compatible, adjustable width
Cons - more complex/confusing to set up, having too many choices may bog you down later, harder to ‘commit' to a sound
Tuesday 20 December 2016
20 Vocal Production Tips
Achieving the perfect vocal recording is a complex business. Hollin Jones explains how to get the best out of your recording and your kit…
1: Keep It Dry
It's a good idea to always record your vocals dry unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise. While the character of a guitar sound might come from the amp and pedals, in 99 per cent of cases you'll be better served by recording a completely clean, dry vocal and then adding effects afterwards. There are several reasons for this.
Recording reverb or delay as part of the take can make comping and other edits much harder because you introduce effect tails to the signal which sound odd when cut and joined together. And although you may end up EQ'ing a lot of the frequencies in a vocal up or down, it's best to start with everything present then cut frequencies surgically, rather than starting with a top-heavy take and having to try to add mid and low end back in afterwards.
2: Create Space Pockets
Wherever you record vocals, be it in a spare room at home or in a studio, it's crucial to create a contained space for your vocal performance. Most people won't be recording in an optimum space so there can be a lot of reflections from walls and other surfaces that will colour your recording, and these can be time consuming to remove afterwards using EQ and other tools.
To avoid all of that, a great technique is to use a portable vocal isolation booth such as sE's Space or a similar product. These create a pocket of dead space for your recording which leads to a much cleaner take and also has the added benefit of helping the performer focus on the task at hand, blocking out the view of the room. They can also be used for recording guitars and other sounds, so they're not just for vocals.
3: Consider Mic Emulation
It's common sense that you should use the best mic you can lay your hands on for vocal recording, but not everyone will have a top-end model to call on. The best mics cost thousands but this is beyond the scope of most people's budgets. A good solution is to get a solid all-round performer that doesn't cost the earth: perhaps a Rode NT1 or NT2 or one of sE's many condenser mics or something similar, that has a fairly clean, neutral sound.
After recording you can then try using mic modelling to emulate the characteristics of different mic models without incurring quite so much cost. Waves makes a range of mic modeling plug-ins, and there's Antares' Mic Mod EFX, Universal Audio's Ocean Way plugin and more. You probably won't get exactly the same sound as using a £5000 mic but with some care and attention you can get a great effect.
4: Aim for DSP Powered Monitor Effects
One of the best ways to help a vocalist give a more confident and natural performance is to provide them with some reverb in their headphones. The contrast with trying to sing completely dry can be quite startling when you actually do it. However it's not always quite as easy as it sounds. The problem with using insert reverb for this task is that you will almost always incur at least a small amount of latency as the vocal is processed live through your DAW and sent back to the singer's headphones.
This can be incredibly off-putting for the vocalist, and the fiddling with audio buffer sizes to minimize it can be a hassle too. Some audio interfaces - typically medium or larger sized ones - have onboard DSP-powered effects that can be applied to the monitored signal and provide reverb in the headphones but not incur any latency along the way, as it's processed inside the interface and not the computer.
If you record a lot of vocals this is an important consideration when you're choosing an interface.
5: De-ess with Care
Sibilance is an issue with any vocal recording and although it can be mitigated with a popshield it's harder to block out than plosives. One solution is to use a de-esser plug-in after recording. These are specialised compressors that work on a very specific frequency range to rein in the ‘s' sounds in vocals - used correctly, they can be very effective at cleaning up your vocal track.
However it's vital not to overuse them because they can quickly start to suck the life and energy out of a vocal. If you dial in too much de-essing or set your processor to pull back too wide a range of frequencies you'll find that the vocal starts to sound artificial and overly restrained. The key is to find a happy medium of frequency, de-essing amount and the aggressiveness of the attack and decay, and take out the harshest of the ‘s' sounds without dulling the sound too much overall.
6: Record Everything
One trick that some producers use is to record everything a singer does, sometimes without telling them it's being captured. A good example is recording warm-up or test takes, when a vocalist feels less pressured and more relaxed because they don't think this one is ‘it' and may give a different kind of performance to the one they give when they think they are centre stage.
This doesn't just apply to amateur vocalists, it has been known to work with professionals as well. Sometimes after the session is over you go back to the warm ups or the tests and find whole takes or parts of takes that work better than the ‘real' ones, and then splice them in. Tracks and storage space are plentiful on modern systems so there's no reason not to do this.
7: Sweet Harmonies
Harmonies and backing vocals can add a lot to the overall fullness of a track and it's possible to create these after the fact if you're not able to do it on the same day. Obviously the ideal situation is to get your singer to perform as many of them as possible at the time and then you have more to work with afterwards. But even if all you have is a single lead vocal you still have options.
The simplest trick is to double or triple track the vocal and then mix, pan and EQ the copied versions to enhance the main track. You can also process the duplicates differently, perhaps adding chorus or unison, or other kinds of effects. Some DAWs let you generate harmonies from existing tracks: Cubase is able to do this, and there are plug-ins that can help too. It's also possible to pitch shift duplicated tracks to create harmonies, though this requires more care and effort since not every note will sit properly with the original take.
8: Loop and Comp
When it comes to getting the perfect take it's rare to find a singer who can do a whole song perfectly in one go. That's not a reflection on their talent, just that with modern production techniques there's no reason to settle for anything less than total perfection. You can set up loops to record over different sections of a track and your performer can have several goes at it without stopping, or indeed try variations as the track loops.
You can then use the comping tools that your DAW most probably has to find the best takes or best parts of takes and splice them together - with care - to get the perfect take. This may involve changing the levels of different takes if the singer has moved a little in relation to the mic at different times. You can also overdub of course, punching a singer in only at the specific point they need to replace a line or word, then punching them out.
9: Gate Post-Recording
Gating can be a useful tool in the producer's arsenal but it should be used carefully. Although it might be tempting to use a noise gate during recording, it's not often a good idea.
Gates work by cutting off the signal - closing - when the signal falls beneath a specified threshold. They open again when the signal rises above that threshold, with accompanying attack and release settings to govern how quickly they open and shut.
The problem with this is that since a live vocal performance is an organic thing, with your vocalist moving around a little and varying their volume without you necessarily realising, having a preset gate can result in words or parts of lines being completely missed if the thresholds that have been set don't respond to the actual performance.
A closed gate lets absolutely nothing through. A much better idea is to record everything, including any stray sounds or breaths between vocal lines, and then either apply the gate as an insert so you can tweak it after the recording, or physically cut the sections of silence out from the timeline
10: Pan Backing Vocals
Your lead vocal should always be front and centre, but you can get much more creative with your harmonies, backing vocals or hip hop ad libs. Think about placing them creatively, maybe using panning to send them a little off to the left or right. This makes the track sound much fuller and it also ensures that they complement rather than compete with the lead vocal in the centre.
It's quite rare to hard pan vocal sounds as this can sound a little odd especially on headphones, but with things such as hip hop ad libs it's common to send them off to 45 degrees left or right. To get even more creative, consider automating their pan settings so perhaps one backing line appears off to the left, and the next line off to the right, and so on.
1: Keep It Dry
It's a good idea to always record your vocals dry unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise. While the character of a guitar sound might come from the amp and pedals, in 99 per cent of cases you'll be better served by recording a completely clean, dry vocal and then adding effects afterwards. There are several reasons for this.
Recording reverb or delay as part of the take can make comping and other edits much harder because you introduce effect tails to the signal which sound odd when cut and joined together. And although you may end up EQ'ing a lot of the frequencies in a vocal up or down, it's best to start with everything present then cut frequencies surgically, rather than starting with a top-heavy take and having to try to add mid and low end back in afterwards.
2: Create Space Pockets
Wherever you record vocals, be it in a spare room at home or in a studio, it's crucial to create a contained space for your vocal performance. Most people won't be recording in an optimum space so there can be a lot of reflections from walls and other surfaces that will colour your recording, and these can be time consuming to remove afterwards using EQ and other tools.
To avoid all of that, a great technique is to use a portable vocal isolation booth such as sE's Space or a similar product. These create a pocket of dead space for your recording which leads to a much cleaner take and also has the added benefit of helping the performer focus on the task at hand, blocking out the view of the room. They can also be used for recording guitars and other sounds, so they're not just for vocals.
3: Consider Mic Emulation
It's common sense that you should use the best mic you can lay your hands on for vocal recording, but not everyone will have a top-end model to call on. The best mics cost thousands but this is beyond the scope of most people's budgets. A good solution is to get a solid all-round performer that doesn't cost the earth: perhaps a Rode NT1 or NT2 or one of sE's many condenser mics or something similar, that has a fairly clean, neutral sound.
After recording you can then try using mic modelling to emulate the characteristics of different mic models without incurring quite so much cost. Waves makes a range of mic modeling plug-ins, and there's Antares' Mic Mod EFX, Universal Audio's Ocean Way plugin and more. You probably won't get exactly the same sound as using a £5000 mic but with some care and attention you can get a great effect.
4: Aim for DSP Powered Monitor Effects
One of the best ways to help a vocalist give a more confident and natural performance is to provide them with some reverb in their headphones. The contrast with trying to sing completely dry can be quite startling when you actually do it. However it's not always quite as easy as it sounds. The problem with using insert reverb for this task is that you will almost always incur at least a small amount of latency as the vocal is processed live through your DAW and sent back to the singer's headphones.
This can be incredibly off-putting for the vocalist, and the fiddling with audio buffer sizes to minimize it can be a hassle too. Some audio interfaces - typically medium or larger sized ones - have onboard DSP-powered effects that can be applied to the monitored signal and provide reverb in the headphones but not incur any latency along the way, as it's processed inside the interface and not the computer.
If you record a lot of vocals this is an important consideration when you're choosing an interface.
5: De-ess with Care
Sibilance is an issue with any vocal recording and although it can be mitigated with a popshield it's harder to block out than plosives. One solution is to use a de-esser plug-in after recording. These are specialised compressors that work on a very specific frequency range to rein in the ‘s' sounds in vocals - used correctly, they can be very effective at cleaning up your vocal track.
However it's vital not to overuse them because they can quickly start to suck the life and energy out of a vocal. If you dial in too much de-essing or set your processor to pull back too wide a range of frequencies you'll find that the vocal starts to sound artificial and overly restrained. The key is to find a happy medium of frequency, de-essing amount and the aggressiveness of the attack and decay, and take out the harshest of the ‘s' sounds without dulling the sound too much overall.
6: Record Everything
One trick that some producers use is to record everything a singer does, sometimes without telling them it's being captured. A good example is recording warm-up or test takes, when a vocalist feels less pressured and more relaxed because they don't think this one is ‘it' and may give a different kind of performance to the one they give when they think they are centre stage.
This doesn't just apply to amateur vocalists, it has been known to work with professionals as well. Sometimes after the session is over you go back to the warm ups or the tests and find whole takes or parts of takes that work better than the ‘real' ones, and then splice them in. Tracks and storage space are plentiful on modern systems so there's no reason not to do this.
7: Sweet Harmonies
Harmonies and backing vocals can add a lot to the overall fullness of a track and it's possible to create these after the fact if you're not able to do it on the same day. Obviously the ideal situation is to get your singer to perform as many of them as possible at the time and then you have more to work with afterwards. But even if all you have is a single lead vocal you still have options.
The simplest trick is to double or triple track the vocal and then mix, pan and EQ the copied versions to enhance the main track. You can also process the duplicates differently, perhaps adding chorus or unison, or other kinds of effects. Some DAWs let you generate harmonies from existing tracks: Cubase is able to do this, and there are plug-ins that can help too. It's also possible to pitch shift duplicated tracks to create harmonies, though this requires more care and effort since not every note will sit properly with the original take.
8: Loop and Comp
When it comes to getting the perfect take it's rare to find a singer who can do a whole song perfectly in one go. That's not a reflection on their talent, just that with modern production techniques there's no reason to settle for anything less than total perfection. You can set up loops to record over different sections of a track and your performer can have several goes at it without stopping, or indeed try variations as the track loops.
You can then use the comping tools that your DAW most probably has to find the best takes or best parts of takes and splice them together - with care - to get the perfect take. This may involve changing the levels of different takes if the singer has moved a little in relation to the mic at different times. You can also overdub of course, punching a singer in only at the specific point they need to replace a line or word, then punching them out.
9: Gate Post-Recording
Gating can be a useful tool in the producer's arsenal but it should be used carefully. Although it might be tempting to use a noise gate during recording, it's not often a good idea.
Gates work by cutting off the signal - closing - when the signal falls beneath a specified threshold. They open again when the signal rises above that threshold, with accompanying attack and release settings to govern how quickly they open and shut.
The problem with this is that since a live vocal performance is an organic thing, with your vocalist moving around a little and varying their volume without you necessarily realising, having a preset gate can result in words or parts of lines being completely missed if the thresholds that have been set don't respond to the actual performance.
A closed gate lets absolutely nothing through. A much better idea is to record everything, including any stray sounds or breaths between vocal lines, and then either apply the gate as an insert so you can tweak it after the recording, or physically cut the sections of silence out from the timeline
10: Pan Backing Vocals
Your lead vocal should always be front and centre, but you can get much more creative with your harmonies, backing vocals or hip hop ad libs. Think about placing them creatively, maybe using panning to send them a little off to the left or right. This makes the track sound much fuller and it also ensures that they complement rather than compete with the lead vocal in the centre.
It's quite rare to hard pan vocal sounds as this can sound a little odd especially on headphones, but with things such as hip hop ad libs it's common to send them off to 45 degrees left or right. To get even more creative, consider automating their pan settings so perhaps one backing line appears off to the left, and the next line off to the right, and so on.
Monday 19 December 2016
5 Tips To Improve Your Home Recordings Right Away
This article was written by guest contributor Pat Walsh, lead guitarist of the band Chaser Eight
As most of us are well aware, we're now living in the age of the home recording studio. An old laptop with some inexpensive gear can now produce high fidelity recordings that can rival those made in expensive studios. Still, many musicians who aren't engineers (me included) can find the task of recording and producing a great track a little daunting. Through a lot of trial and error I have learned a few things over the years while producing tracks for my band, Chaser Eight. Here are 5 tips that home recording enthusiasts can employ right now to start getting more polished recordings.
1. Get a Preamp
Plugging a guitar or microphone directly into your recording interface can often produce a very transparent sound that lacks the warmth and volume that a great track requires. There is an easy and inexpensive way to get a better source sound: plug the guitar or microphone into a preamp first.
A decent preamp one can be obtained for as little as $50 and will immediately add volume and warmth to everything that you record. A few technical things to note: First, if you buy a tube preamp, it's best to junk the tube that comes with it and replace it with a better one (doing so requires nothing more than a screwdriver) which you can buy at a guitar shop.
Secondly, keep in mind that the output of the preamp will require a balanced audio cable such as a TSR or XLR cable. Don't try and connect the preamp to your interface with just an instrument cable, even though it will fit into the input.
First plug your guitar or microphone into a Preamp, like The Tube MP pictured above, rather than directly into the Interface for improved sound quality.
2. Dive In And Constantly Use the Web As a Resource
I notice that friends that are new to this will buy large books about home recording before they start actually trying to do any real recording themselves. These tomes can be solid resources, but for the most part, I think it's best to bypass them at first and just dive right in. Trial and error is the best teacher.
Most contemporary recording software programs, like GarageBand, are very user friendly and don't require a lot of time to learn at a basic level. Just start experimenting, and develop your own base knowledge. Once you've done this experimentation, then it's time to use the web to learn specific tasks. The two best sources of information are YouTube and a site called GearSlutz. They each provide oceans of tutorials and advice on virtually every topic with respect to recording. Maybe you've learned how to record drums fairly well on your own, but you are not sure how to properly EQ a snare drum. Go look it up. Maybe you have recorded a good vocal track but you'd like to know a little bit more about using pitch correction effectively? Seek and you shall find. I continue to learn new methods this approach.
Again, don't try and take in all of this information at once. It will overwhelm you and make the task of engineering great tracks seem impossible. Advanced books and the like are actually more useful after you've gotten a lot of hours under your belt, not before.
3. Invest in One Good Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone
This isn't earth-shattering news to most home recording enthusiasts, but I can't overstate its importance: it is imperative to buy a good condenser microphone.
I strongly recommend that anyone mastering their own recordings, even on a shoestring budget, make purchasing a large diaphragm condenser microphone mandatory. The reason I believe in this item so dearly is that in addition to recording vocals, you can also record acoustic instruments (acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, etc.), light percussion (tambourines, bongos, etc.), and a whole host of other things.
I also love to use mine as a room microphone when recording drums. If you start buying separate condenser microphones of various shapes and sizes for all of these different tasks then your wallet is going to take a beating, and the results really won't change all that much. I'm a fan of the Rode NT1A, but if you want to stay under $200 there are plenty of excellent options out there.
This Rode NT1A, a large diaphragm microphone, can be used to record many things besides vocals.
4. Invest In Some Good Mastering Software
One thing that virtually any new home recording enthusiast inevitably says is, my track is done, but it's not as loud or punchy as my favorite band's tunes are.”
Many folks will then turn to professional engineers to master their finished songs. While these consultants often do great work (at increasingly cheap rates), it is no longer required that artists use them. If you are like me and like to record a lot of material, using a lot of outside engineer help is just too expensive.
Nowadays, mastering software is inexpensive, user-friendly, and very effective. I use a product called Ozone by Izotope. You can get it for about $200, and older versions of the product can be had for even less. Other options exist as well, and none of them take very much time to learn. The components of the software, like the Reverb or Compression units, can be used on individual tracks within the recording as well, so these products have many, many uses beyond just mastering the final tune. Of course, professional engineers are going to be better (I don't think Coldplay is going to decide to start mastering their tracks using $200 software), but you will definitely be very happy with the results you get, and they will be on-par with what you hear professionally mastered.
5. Get Decent Monitors, You Don't Need Great Ones
Some home recording enthusiasts fall into the trap of buying excessively expensive monitors for playback. If you happen to be a Rockefeller or a Hilton and can shell out $7,000 for massive monitors with an obscenely powerful subwoofer I'm all for it (and please, let's be friends). But if you are on a budget like me, nothing fancy is required.
My inexpensive M-Audio AV40 speakers, with no subwoofer to speak of, get the job done just fine. The only important thing is to simply know the characteristics of your monitors compared to other speakers. Listen to your tracks (as well as commercial recordings) on headphones, car stereos, and cheap computer speakers and compare what you hear to the sound profile of your monitors. Maybe your monitors don't project certain frequencies especially well so you know to turn those up a little bit when mixing. It is really no more complicated than that. If you follow this rule your tracks will be just as well mixed as the guy or gal who is using an exceptionally expensive monitoring system.
My democracy loving M-Audio Monitors get the job done at a low cost.
As most of us are well aware, we're now living in the age of the home recording studio. An old laptop with some inexpensive gear can now produce high fidelity recordings that can rival those made in expensive studios. Still, many musicians who aren't engineers (me included) can find the task of recording and producing a great track a little daunting. Through a lot of trial and error I have learned a few things over the years while producing tracks for my band, Chaser Eight. Here are 5 tips that home recording enthusiasts can employ right now to start getting more polished recordings.
1. Get a Preamp
Plugging a guitar or microphone directly into your recording interface can often produce a very transparent sound that lacks the warmth and volume that a great track requires. There is an easy and inexpensive way to get a better source sound: plug the guitar or microphone into a preamp first.
A decent preamp one can be obtained for as little as $50 and will immediately add volume and warmth to everything that you record. A few technical things to note: First, if you buy a tube preamp, it's best to junk the tube that comes with it and replace it with a better one (doing so requires nothing more than a screwdriver) which you can buy at a guitar shop.
Secondly, keep in mind that the output of the preamp will require a balanced audio cable such as a TSR or XLR cable. Don't try and connect the preamp to your interface with just an instrument cable, even though it will fit into the input.
First plug your guitar or microphone into a Preamp, like The Tube MP pictured above, rather than directly into the Interface for improved sound quality.
2. Dive In And Constantly Use the Web As a Resource
I notice that friends that are new to this will buy large books about home recording before they start actually trying to do any real recording themselves. These tomes can be solid resources, but for the most part, I think it's best to bypass them at first and just dive right in. Trial and error is the best teacher.
Most contemporary recording software programs, like GarageBand, are very user friendly and don't require a lot of time to learn at a basic level. Just start experimenting, and develop your own base knowledge. Once you've done this experimentation, then it's time to use the web to learn specific tasks. The two best sources of information are YouTube and a site called GearSlutz. They each provide oceans of tutorials and advice on virtually every topic with respect to recording. Maybe you've learned how to record drums fairly well on your own, but you are not sure how to properly EQ a snare drum. Go look it up. Maybe you have recorded a good vocal track but you'd like to know a little bit more about using pitch correction effectively? Seek and you shall find. I continue to learn new methods this approach.
Again, don't try and take in all of this information at once. It will overwhelm you and make the task of engineering great tracks seem impossible. Advanced books and the like are actually more useful after you've gotten a lot of hours under your belt, not before.
3. Invest in One Good Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphone
This isn't earth-shattering news to most home recording enthusiasts, but I can't overstate its importance: it is imperative to buy a good condenser microphone.
I strongly recommend that anyone mastering their own recordings, even on a shoestring budget, make purchasing a large diaphragm condenser microphone mandatory. The reason I believe in this item so dearly is that in addition to recording vocals, you can also record acoustic instruments (acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, etc.), light percussion (tambourines, bongos, etc.), and a whole host of other things.
I also love to use mine as a room microphone when recording drums. If you start buying separate condenser microphones of various shapes and sizes for all of these different tasks then your wallet is going to take a beating, and the results really won't change all that much. I'm a fan of the Rode NT1A, but if you want to stay under $200 there are plenty of excellent options out there.
This Rode NT1A, a large diaphragm microphone, can be used to record many things besides vocals.
4. Invest In Some Good Mastering Software
One thing that virtually any new home recording enthusiast inevitably says is, my track is done, but it's not as loud or punchy as my favorite band's tunes are.”
Many folks will then turn to professional engineers to master their finished songs. While these consultants often do great work (at increasingly cheap rates), it is no longer required that artists use them. If you are like me and like to record a lot of material, using a lot of outside engineer help is just too expensive.
Nowadays, mastering software is inexpensive, user-friendly, and very effective. I use a product called Ozone by Izotope. You can get it for about $200, and older versions of the product can be had for even less. Other options exist as well, and none of them take very much time to learn. The components of the software, like the Reverb or Compression units, can be used on individual tracks within the recording as well, so these products have many, many uses beyond just mastering the final tune. Of course, professional engineers are going to be better (I don't think Coldplay is going to decide to start mastering their tracks using $200 software), but you will definitely be very happy with the results you get, and they will be on-par with what you hear professionally mastered.
5. Get Decent Monitors, You Don't Need Great Ones
Some home recording enthusiasts fall into the trap of buying excessively expensive monitors for playback. If you happen to be a Rockefeller or a Hilton and can shell out $7,000 for massive monitors with an obscenely powerful subwoofer I'm all for it (and please, let's be friends). But if you are on a budget like me, nothing fancy is required.
My inexpensive M-Audio AV40 speakers, with no subwoofer to speak of, get the job done just fine. The only important thing is to simply know the characteristics of your monitors compared to other speakers. Listen to your tracks (as well as commercial recordings) on headphones, car stereos, and cheap computer speakers and compare what you hear to the sound profile of your monitors. Maybe your monitors don't project certain frequencies especially well so you know to turn those up a little bit when mixing. It is really no more complicated than that. If you follow this rule your tracks will be just as well mixed as the guy or gal who is using an exceptionally expensive monitoring system.
My democracy loving M-Audio Monitors get the job done at a low cost.
Sunday 18 December 2016
7 Advanced Guitar Mixing Techniques For An Amazing Guitar Production Audio Issues
Building upon one of my older articles, Top 10 Guitar Mixing Techniques , here are even more tips and tricks to make your electric guitar sound better in your mix.
1. Long Release on Chords - For a longer, more sustained sound for chords, use a long release on your compressor. Think if it this way: the longer the release, the longer the sustain of the chords.
2. Fast Attack to Reduce String Sound - Compression is used to create shape, it's not just used to control the volume. A really fast attack really pushes down on the initial strum, resulting in a more pad-like sound.
If you combine a fast attack with a fast/medium release you'll end up with a chord that seems to wash over you, especially if you hit the chords(and your compressor) hard.
3. Re-amp if Needed - Re-amping means routing your performance from your DAW into an amp and recording it again. If you recorded a great performance through a guitar emulator and you're not satisfied with the sound, re-amping is a great way to give your electric guitar more depth. It's a perfect way to tweak a great performance that has a lackluster sound.
4. Cut at 800 Hz - I always seem to dip a little at 800 Hz, it takes the cheap sound away. Especially if I'm working with cheap guitars.
5. EQ the reverb - Reverb is the number one culprit when it comes to a muddy mix. This trick is applicable to any instrument, but make sure to filter out some of the low-end of your reverb send when mixing electric guitar. It'll still give your guitar space and depth, but without the unnecessary muddiness.
6. Use subgroups - If you're working with many similar guitar track, grouping them together makes mixing a lot easier. This is one of the most important advice I can give. It's simple but extremely important. Bus, route and group your tracks and suddenly your tracks become more manageable.
7. Use the Right Reverb - Take your time to go throw your reverbs. Choosing the right reverb depends on a lot of things: genre of music, speed of song, type of feel.
You can't get a large open vocal sound with a small jazzy -club preset. You're better off with a hall setting. Also, a fast rock song with a cathedral reverb is going to muddy up the mix immediately. So take your time to use the right reverbs for the song.
1. Long Release on Chords - For a longer, more sustained sound for chords, use a long release on your compressor. Think if it this way: the longer the release, the longer the sustain of the chords.
2. Fast Attack to Reduce String Sound - Compression is used to create shape, it's not just used to control the volume. A really fast attack really pushes down on the initial strum, resulting in a more pad-like sound.
If you combine a fast attack with a fast/medium release you'll end up with a chord that seems to wash over you, especially if you hit the chords(and your compressor) hard.
3. Re-amp if Needed - Re-amping means routing your performance from your DAW into an amp and recording it again. If you recorded a great performance through a guitar emulator and you're not satisfied with the sound, re-amping is a great way to give your electric guitar more depth. It's a perfect way to tweak a great performance that has a lackluster sound.
4. Cut at 800 Hz - I always seem to dip a little at 800 Hz, it takes the cheap sound away. Especially if I'm working with cheap guitars.
5. EQ the reverb - Reverb is the number one culprit when it comes to a muddy mix. This trick is applicable to any instrument, but make sure to filter out some of the low-end of your reverb send when mixing electric guitar. It'll still give your guitar space and depth, but without the unnecessary muddiness.
6. Use subgroups - If you're working with many similar guitar track, grouping them together makes mixing a lot easier. This is one of the most important advice I can give. It's simple but extremely important. Bus, route and group your tracks and suddenly your tracks become more manageable.
7. Use the Right Reverb - Take your time to go throw your reverbs. Choosing the right reverb depends on a lot of things: genre of music, speed of song, type of feel.
You can't get a large open vocal sound with a small jazzy -club preset. You're better off with a hall setting. Also, a fast rock song with a cathedral reverb is going to muddy up the mix immediately. So take your time to use the right reverbs for the song.
Thursday 15 December 2016
26 Tips And Tricks For Mixing Better Vocals
I'm Scott Hawksworth, the founder and editor of When I first became interested in music production and home recording, I had no idea where to begin. Now, music production is my passion! I built Recording Excellence to share what I've learned with the world - and with you.
26 Tips and Tricks for Mixing Better Vocals
Vocals are the most important part of any mix (well, unless it's an instrumental with no vocals, but I digress). Unfortunately, vocals are also the most difficult thing to get right” in any mix. In this article, I've put together 26 tips for mixing vocals that you can apply RIGHT NOW. It's not easy to get a great vocal sound (especially if you're newer to mixing), but it IS possible to follow some basic tips, tricks, and rules of thumb to ensure you give yourself the best opportunity to have your vocals shine.
Resist the temptation to only solo the vocal to make EQ or compression changes — These tips aren't presented in any meaningful order, but if they were… this would be the still be the number one tip. No one listens to music in solo, they listen to the ENTIRE MIX. So why would you ONLY work on your vocals without the context of the rest of the mix? Listen to the vocal and make adjustments BOTH in solo and in the mix.
Get it Right at the Source — You'll here this sentiment a lot when it comes to recording and mixing. The biggest tip for better vocal mixing is to make sure you're recording vocals well in the first place.
Use a quality mic (and don't be afraid to change up mics depending on the singer).
Make sure you have a pop filter/shield (seriously, you can get them for cheap).
Record vocals in most sound optimal area you can (doesn't need to be a professional studio, but any place that cuts down on ambient noise and reflections is good).
Use proper miking techniques.
Don't be afraid to ask for a retake (or do one yourself if you're the vocalist) if the performance wasn't as good as you think it could be.
Don't forget to make use of De-essing and Autotune/Pitch Correction when necessary… but don't go overboard - It's easy to go crazy with plugins that remove sibilance (de-essing that's too aggressive can take out some of the sparkle in the highs). It's also easy to go to crazy with Autotune (unless you're mixing for T-Payne or something). They are powerful tools that can and SHOULD be used… but the point is, do so with intention!
Understand vocal ranges and frequencies — It's good to be familiar with these when mixing and especially using EQ. Here's a helpful chart:
If possible, consider the mic used to record the vocal when mixing — If you're mixing something you recorded, you should know what mic you used and be familiar with its strengths and weaknesses AKA the frequency areas that can be problematic. Tackle those first for cuts and boosts!
Consider the singer when mixing — If you're very familiar with the singer (let's say it's you), you might know that they have sibilance at a specific frequency. You know what you'll need to attack first then. You can even figure this out with a new singer just by listening to the first verse or chorus. If it's a problem in one phrase… it's likely to be in another.
Cut before you boost — This is my go to EQ tip , so of course it has application with vocals. It's tempting to boost away, but I'd encourage anyone to make cuts to the vocal first. It's a more subtle, and can yield better results.
Filter superfluous low end — High-pass (low-cut) filters are a tremendous tool to use when mixing anything, and vocals are no different. As such, it can be a solid idea to just roll off anywhere from 80-150Hz (depending on the mix, and the singer!) before you do anything else to the vocal.
Still getting a boomy vocal? Cut some more — Anywhere from 200-350Hz can be good to apply some cuts to.
Still not sounding right? Try even MORE surgical cuts — mid-to-high nasal frequencies when cut can improve a vocal… anywhere from 800Hz to 4kHz can be a good place to focus on.
You can boost a little too, but be smart with it — I like to boost the high-end just a little bit from time to time to give the vocals a bit of a lift. Nothing crazy!
Trust your ears — Okay this is a lame tip, and it's probably cliched at this point (because it can apply to anything in mixing), but it's still worth mentioning. If it sounds good to you, and sounds good across multiple listening platforms… chances are it IS good. Trust yourself, you're the mixing engineer!
Make sure your vocals fit in your mix (especially when it has guitars) — Guitars can sometimes crowd out vocals, so making a cut to those guitars between 900Hz and 3kHz can help solve that issue.
Make your choruses stand out by doubling and panning — Need that chorus to really pop? Double the vocal, pan all the way left and all the way right in the chorus. Voila! Here's a great article to learn more about doubling if you're unsure about it.
Don't be afraid to get creative with panning — In general, you want to keep vocals panned more traditionally… but if the song calls for it (maybe it's conversational, or references space in some way), some alternated left/right panning can be awesome. When I was a young and angry teenager, I loved this Kid Rock song Where You At Rock” (Parental Advisory - explicit lyrics!) which makes use of this technique.
IN GENERAL… EQ before you compress — This is not a hard and fast rule, it can be broken, but I often find myself EQing before I compress. If you're EQing to fix flaws or get a certain sound (which you should be 🙂 ), compression will just make those problems louder and potentially create MORE work for you. If you have mud in the vocal, the compressor will just make that worse (and in fact the mud could trigger the compressor more than you'd like). Avoid those potential pitfalls by just EQing first as a general rule.
If possible, try out different compressors — Not everyone has access to multiple compressors (be they analog or digital), and that's okay. But if you DO have access to multiple compressors, try out different ones on the vocal. See which you like best, and go with it.
Don't compress the life out of the vocals — Compression is a fantastic tool, but excessive compression KILLS vocals. If you're compressing everything hard and start to notice the life seeping out of your mix… dial it back.
Note: In some genres really heavy compression is desirable for the vocal… but the point is, watch out for over-compression!
Be smart and deliberate with the reverb… AKA don't overdo it! — I love so much of the music I'm sent by Recording Excellence subscribers… but I've come across times where artists are using WAY too much reverb on their vocals and it becomes a muddy mess. A little bit can really add some great life to vocals and serve the song well, too much sounds awful.
Really be careful with that effect!
Plates, halls, and rooms, oh my! — When it comes to reverb, using a plate (mono), and some hall or room (stereo) can serve you well. You'll find that stereo hall or room can help big time with glue to keep the tracks tighter. Again don't overdo the reverb.
Smart use of delay can really serve the vocal well — For example, if the vocal is particularly powerful at a point in the song and then suddenly gone the emptiness can be noticeable.
Set up a delay bus and then send a bit of your vocal to it (before the vocal drops out) and let the delays be the thing that let's the vocals drop out more gently.
De-breathing plugins are great, but so is manual chopping — Unless you really want that breath in your music, you should be tackling this issue in some way. Chopping instead of using a plugin is more time consuming, but can really preserve vocal punch.
Utilize volume automation, and ride it a bit — Don't let the compressor do all the work (again it can crush the life out of a vocal).
Side-chains are your friend — Above I talked about how you can use cuts to guitar to help… but if your guitar and vocal won't stop battling it out in the mix, don't hesitate to sidechain that bad boy and duck it out of the way when the vocal is going.
Simplify, man! — There's always a temptation to be fancy when it comes to mixing vocals… but if it's sounding good, why add extra effects and processing if you don't need it? Don't be afraid to just STOP and be happy with the vocal. (P.S. If you got my Simpsons reference , we can be best friends)
Reference your favorite vocal tracks — I'm probably sounding like a broken record to some, but referencing is so key to mixing, I just can't say it enough. Do you know of a song in a similar genre that you absolutely love the vocals on? Listen to it for a moment while you're mixing and try to go for that sound!
So there you have 26 tips for mixing better vocals. Did I miss any? Were there any you disagreed with? Let me know on Facebook or Twitter!
Learn How to Record, Mix and Produce Beautiful Music.
Home recording doesn't have to be a headache. You can immediately up your game when you download my free guide, The Home Recording Cheat Sheet, A to Z - A 26 Point Checklist to Instantly Improve Your Music. Enter your email and I'll send the free guide straight to your email inbox!
Scott
Scott Hawksworth is 's founder and editor. In addition to playing piano for over 15 years, Scott has performed in choruses, bands, and solo. His passion for music led him to learn more about music production and home recording. Scott lives in Chicago with his wife and two cats, Dylan and Sebastian.
26 Tips and Tricks for Mixing Better Vocals
Vocals are the most important part of any mix (well, unless it's an instrumental with no vocals, but I digress). Unfortunately, vocals are also the most difficult thing to get right” in any mix. In this article, I've put together 26 tips for mixing vocals that you can apply RIGHT NOW. It's not easy to get a great vocal sound (especially if you're newer to mixing), but it IS possible to follow some basic tips, tricks, and rules of thumb to ensure you give yourself the best opportunity to have your vocals shine.
Resist the temptation to only solo the vocal to make EQ or compression changes — These tips aren't presented in any meaningful order, but if they were… this would be the still be the number one tip. No one listens to music in solo, they listen to the ENTIRE MIX. So why would you ONLY work on your vocals without the context of the rest of the mix? Listen to the vocal and make adjustments BOTH in solo and in the mix.
Get it Right at the Source — You'll here this sentiment a lot when it comes to recording and mixing. The biggest tip for better vocal mixing is to make sure you're recording vocals well in the first place.
Use a quality mic (and don't be afraid to change up mics depending on the singer).
Make sure you have a pop filter/shield (seriously, you can get them for cheap).
Record vocals in most sound optimal area you can (doesn't need to be a professional studio, but any place that cuts down on ambient noise and reflections is good).
Use proper miking techniques.
Don't be afraid to ask for a retake (or do one yourself if you're the vocalist) if the performance wasn't as good as you think it could be.
Don't forget to make use of De-essing and Autotune/Pitch Correction when necessary… but don't go overboard - It's easy to go crazy with plugins that remove sibilance (de-essing that's too aggressive can take out some of the sparkle in the highs). It's also easy to go to crazy with Autotune (unless you're mixing for T-Payne or something). They are powerful tools that can and SHOULD be used… but the point is, do so with intention!
Understand vocal ranges and frequencies — It's good to be familiar with these when mixing and especially using EQ. Here's a helpful chart:
If possible, consider the mic used to record the vocal when mixing — If you're mixing something you recorded, you should know what mic you used and be familiar with its strengths and weaknesses AKA the frequency areas that can be problematic. Tackle those first for cuts and boosts!
Consider the singer when mixing — If you're very familiar with the singer (let's say it's you), you might know that they have sibilance at a specific frequency. You know what you'll need to attack first then. You can even figure this out with a new singer just by listening to the first verse or chorus. If it's a problem in one phrase… it's likely to be in another.
Cut before you boost — This is my go to EQ tip , so of course it has application with vocals. It's tempting to boost away, but I'd encourage anyone to make cuts to the vocal first. It's a more subtle, and can yield better results.
Filter superfluous low end — High-pass (low-cut) filters are a tremendous tool to use when mixing anything, and vocals are no different. As such, it can be a solid idea to just roll off anywhere from 80-150Hz (depending on the mix, and the singer!) before you do anything else to the vocal.
Still getting a boomy vocal? Cut some more — Anywhere from 200-350Hz can be good to apply some cuts to.
Still not sounding right? Try even MORE surgical cuts — mid-to-high nasal frequencies when cut can improve a vocal… anywhere from 800Hz to 4kHz can be a good place to focus on.
You can boost a little too, but be smart with it — I like to boost the high-end just a little bit from time to time to give the vocals a bit of a lift. Nothing crazy!
Trust your ears — Okay this is a lame tip, and it's probably cliched at this point (because it can apply to anything in mixing), but it's still worth mentioning. If it sounds good to you, and sounds good across multiple listening platforms… chances are it IS good. Trust yourself, you're the mixing engineer!
Make sure your vocals fit in your mix (especially when it has guitars) — Guitars can sometimes crowd out vocals, so making a cut to those guitars between 900Hz and 3kHz can help solve that issue.
Make your choruses stand out by doubling and panning — Need that chorus to really pop? Double the vocal, pan all the way left and all the way right in the chorus. Voila! Here's a great article to learn more about doubling if you're unsure about it.
Don't be afraid to get creative with panning — In general, you want to keep vocals panned more traditionally… but if the song calls for it (maybe it's conversational, or references space in some way), some alternated left/right panning can be awesome. When I was a young and angry teenager, I loved this Kid Rock song Where You At Rock” (Parental Advisory - explicit lyrics!) which makes use of this technique.
IN GENERAL… EQ before you compress — This is not a hard and fast rule, it can be broken, but I often find myself EQing before I compress. If you're EQing to fix flaws or get a certain sound (which you should be 🙂 ), compression will just make those problems louder and potentially create MORE work for you. If you have mud in the vocal, the compressor will just make that worse (and in fact the mud could trigger the compressor more than you'd like). Avoid those potential pitfalls by just EQing first as a general rule.
If possible, try out different compressors — Not everyone has access to multiple compressors (be they analog or digital), and that's okay. But if you DO have access to multiple compressors, try out different ones on the vocal. See which you like best, and go with it.
Don't compress the life out of the vocals — Compression is a fantastic tool, but excessive compression KILLS vocals. If you're compressing everything hard and start to notice the life seeping out of your mix… dial it back.
Note: In some genres really heavy compression is desirable for the vocal… but the point is, watch out for over-compression!
Be smart and deliberate with the reverb… AKA don't overdo it! — I love so much of the music I'm sent by Recording Excellence subscribers… but I've come across times where artists are using WAY too much reverb on their vocals and it becomes a muddy mess. A little bit can really add some great life to vocals and serve the song well, too much sounds awful.
Really be careful with that effect!
Plates, halls, and rooms, oh my! — When it comes to reverb, using a plate (mono), and some hall or room (stereo) can serve you well. You'll find that stereo hall or room can help big time with glue to keep the tracks tighter. Again don't overdo the reverb.
Smart use of delay can really serve the vocal well — For example, if the vocal is particularly powerful at a point in the song and then suddenly gone the emptiness can be noticeable.
Set up a delay bus and then send a bit of your vocal to it (before the vocal drops out) and let the delays be the thing that let's the vocals drop out more gently.
De-breathing plugins are great, but so is manual chopping — Unless you really want that breath in your music, you should be tackling this issue in some way. Chopping instead of using a plugin is more time consuming, but can really preserve vocal punch.
Utilize volume automation, and ride it a bit — Don't let the compressor do all the work (again it can crush the life out of a vocal).
Side-chains are your friend — Above I talked about how you can use cuts to guitar to help… but if your guitar and vocal won't stop battling it out in the mix, don't hesitate to sidechain that bad boy and duck it out of the way when the vocal is going.
Simplify, man! — There's always a temptation to be fancy when it comes to mixing vocals… but if it's sounding good, why add extra effects and processing if you don't need it? Don't be afraid to just STOP and be happy with the vocal. (P.S. If you got my Simpsons reference , we can be best friends)
Reference your favorite vocal tracks — I'm probably sounding like a broken record to some, but referencing is so key to mixing, I just can't say it enough. Do you know of a song in a similar genre that you absolutely love the vocals on? Listen to it for a moment while you're mixing and try to go for that sound!
So there you have 26 tips for mixing better vocals. Did I miss any? Were there any you disagreed with? Let me know on Facebook or Twitter!
Learn How to Record, Mix and Produce Beautiful Music.
Home recording doesn't have to be a headache. You can immediately up your game when you download my free guide, The Home Recording Cheat Sheet, A to Z - A 26 Point Checklist to Instantly Improve Your Music. Enter your email and I'll send the free guide straight to your email inbox!
Scott
Scott Hawksworth is 's founder and editor. In addition to playing piano for over 15 years, Scott has performed in choruses, bands, and solo. His passion for music led him to learn more about music production and home recording. Scott lives in Chicago with his wife and two cats, Dylan and Sebastian.
Tuesday 13 December 2016
7 Quick Tips For Recording Great Amp Sounds
by Rich Tozzoli
Whether you're recording in your bedroom or at a high-end studio, these very simple recording techniques can have a huge, positive impact on the sound you lay down.
1. Put the mic directly on the cabinet.
To get an in-your-face sound, try taking a classic Shure SM57 and jamming it right on the cabinet, just to the right or left of the cone's center. You'll get a little proximity effect, which is basically some added bass response. Use it to your advantage and try to keep the EQ'ing to a minimum.
2. Axis, Bold as Tone
By taking that Shure SM57 (or similar) mic and just slightly changing its angle in relation to the speaker, you're miking off axis.” The tonal character will change a bit; and at this point, experimentation is key. If you can, have a friend move it a little at a time as you listen on headphones or in the control room. You'll hear that magic spot. When you find it, take pictures so you remember the exact positioning.
3. Change your tubes.
If you've got a tube amp, don't just assume the tubes are good. You'd probably change your strings in anticipation of a recording, right? Give your tubes the same consideration.
Always have a second set on hand, and unless you're a complete traditionalist, try a set from a different manufacturer than your originals. All tubes have slightly different attack and breakup, even amps of the same type and rating. Use your ears and don't get lazy.
4. Use more than one mic.
Even if you're recording for yourself, don't settle on using just one mic. If you have to, borrow an extra mic from a friend. It doesn't have to be a vintage Neumann. Place the second mic either on the cabinet next to the first one or farther back in the room. Any functioning mic is worth a try. You'll have more tonal options when it comes time for mixdown.
5. Compress the room.
When that second mic mentioned above is used as a room mic, place it at least 3 feet away from the cabinet —preferably even farther back. Then, when listening back, try applying a massive amount of compression to that room mic. Make sure not to compress the attack out of the notes; just get enough so that it squashes the peaks down a bit. You can always use the compressor's makeup gain to get more volume.
6. Use wide panning.
When it comes time to mix your two amp-mic tracks together, pan the two tracks oppositely; that is, pan one hard left and the other hard right. You'll notice the soundstage in the Left/Right field opening up. Then experiment with putting a very short delay on the room mic, around 30-50 ms. A very nice stereo image can be had using just two simple mics and a delay.
7. Use more than one amp.
If you've got the gear for it, split your signal (either with a stereo FX pedal or DI) and run your guitar into two different amps. Like having two mics, the two separate amp sounds give you more options at mixdown. When recording heavily distorted parts, try to minimize the distortion on a second amp and increase a bit of treble, which helps the pick attack cut through a dense mix.
Rich Tozzoli is a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer, producer and composer. He has worked with artists such as Ace Frehley, Al DiMeola and David Bowie, among many more, and is the author of Pro Tools Surround Sound Mixing Rich is also a lifelong guitarist and composer. His work can be heard regularly on FoxNFL, HBO, and Discovery Channel, and he's recently released the full-length Rhythm Up.
Whether you're recording in your bedroom or at a high-end studio, these very simple recording techniques can have a huge, positive impact on the sound you lay down.
1. Put the mic directly on the cabinet.
To get an in-your-face sound, try taking a classic Shure SM57 and jamming it right on the cabinet, just to the right or left of the cone's center. You'll get a little proximity effect, which is basically some added bass response. Use it to your advantage and try to keep the EQ'ing to a minimum.
2. Axis, Bold as Tone
By taking that Shure SM57 (or similar) mic and just slightly changing its angle in relation to the speaker, you're miking off axis.” The tonal character will change a bit; and at this point, experimentation is key. If you can, have a friend move it a little at a time as you listen on headphones or in the control room. You'll hear that magic spot. When you find it, take pictures so you remember the exact positioning.
3. Change your tubes.
If you've got a tube amp, don't just assume the tubes are good. You'd probably change your strings in anticipation of a recording, right? Give your tubes the same consideration.
Always have a second set on hand, and unless you're a complete traditionalist, try a set from a different manufacturer than your originals. All tubes have slightly different attack and breakup, even amps of the same type and rating. Use your ears and don't get lazy.
4. Use more than one mic.
Even if you're recording for yourself, don't settle on using just one mic. If you have to, borrow an extra mic from a friend. It doesn't have to be a vintage Neumann. Place the second mic either on the cabinet next to the first one or farther back in the room. Any functioning mic is worth a try. You'll have more tonal options when it comes time for mixdown.
5. Compress the room.
When that second mic mentioned above is used as a room mic, place it at least 3 feet away from the cabinet —preferably even farther back. Then, when listening back, try applying a massive amount of compression to that room mic. Make sure not to compress the attack out of the notes; just get enough so that it squashes the peaks down a bit. You can always use the compressor's makeup gain to get more volume.
6. Use wide panning.
When it comes time to mix your two amp-mic tracks together, pan the two tracks oppositely; that is, pan one hard left and the other hard right. You'll notice the soundstage in the Left/Right field opening up. Then experiment with putting a very short delay on the room mic, around 30-50 ms. A very nice stereo image can be had using just two simple mics and a delay.
7. Use more than one amp.
If you've got the gear for it, split your signal (either with a stereo FX pedal or DI) and run your guitar into two different amps. Like having two mics, the two separate amp sounds give you more options at mixdown. When recording heavily distorted parts, try to minimize the distortion on a second amp and increase a bit of treble, which helps the pick attack cut through a dense mix.
Rich Tozzoli is a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer, producer and composer. He has worked with artists such as Ace Frehley, Al DiMeola and David Bowie, among many more, and is the author of Pro Tools Surround Sound Mixing Rich is also a lifelong guitarist and composer. His work can be heard regularly on FoxNFL, HBO, and Discovery Channel, and he's recently released the full-length Rhythm Up.
Saturday 10 December 2016
California Split
Altman's technique
In the early/mid 70s director Robert Altman developed a technique for shooting film - recording sound which achieved a particular type of dramatic realism that has since typified his directorial style. This style is one that centres on the actors' performances which - through improvisation and interaction - drive the narrative; constructing scenes more out of the presentation of characters than the description of action. Of importance to this approach was allowing the performers to work with one another undistracted by the technical procedure of the location shoot (with cameras, recorders, continuity people hanging around, etc.).
As developed by location shooting through the late 60s/early 70s, it was the boom operator who would often be moving around maniacally trying to record everyone's dialogue as they moved around. The actor's would be able to move freely around the camera-tracking, but the boom operator often got in the way. To overcome this, Altman started exploring radio-mikes, which required no wires and only a transmitter-receiver set-up which could be located at a recording desk away from the main action and movement. These small radio-mikes could be concealed quite easily on the body of the performer, allowing the performer to move around in any way whatsoever with the knowledge that all their dialogue would be picked up by the sound recordist. Furthermore, the camera crew themselves could then move further away and zoom in on the action, thus prevent further technical interference.
Basically, a shoot could then involve, say, three cameras and six radio-mikes, recording a scene involving six characters in the one large space. The scene could be played out in its entirety, with all six actors' speech recorded simultaneously yet separately on a multi-track recorder which would be synced up to the three cameras, with each camera framing the action from a different perspective. The whole scene would thus be recorded as a temporal-spatial continuum capturing the precise interaction of intensity, rhythm and energy of the actors' performance as a live event. Later in post-production, shots could then be selected from the three perspectives and intercut accordingly, plus the volume levels of the synch-speech tracks could be individually manipulated.
Ramifications for film language
This approach to filmmaking effects a particular mode of film language. In conventional narrative approaches to filmmaking, the inherently deconstructive process of breaking down the live event into a multiple fracturing of time, space and perspective determines a reconstruction of the scene in terms of focus - ie. the film itself will provide our focal points in order to establish a relationship with the viewer that will allow him/her to read the significance within any scene. In Altman's approach, there is the potential to totally remove that kind of focus, in that the totality of the live event is fully recorded without the multiple fracturing.
Thus, in his post-production, Altman has consistently chosen to absent that kind of directorial focus within the scenes, leaving us to focus in on the scene ourselves and sort out the scene's significance without any readable cues. Technically, this means that :
1. the numerous long-shots leave us to focus on action within the frame;
2. the absence of camera-tracking leaves us to make up the flow and movement of the significant action; and
3. the sound-mix of all characters' speech levels at the same volume forces us to aurally focus on the voice of the `main' characters in amongst other 'minor' characters.
(Of course, directorial presence still exists, but comparatively we have to do a lot more work in focusing in and on the film than we would normally do.)
Sound-image fusion
In conventional realistic drama, mise-en-scene is usually visually articulated through production design, art direction and set decoration. The combination of depth-of-field photography with mise-en-scene will present the totality of the visual, allowing our eyes to wander across the frame and digest the detail, while the levels and components of the scene's sound will be presented often in a chronological selective form, ie. background traffic might initially be introduced only to be dropped in volume to then allow the characters' voices to cover it. A paradigm can be struck thus:
1. the visual (within the frame) is total/static while
2. the aural (in the sound-mix) is fragmented/linear.
General sound design
This film of Altman's contains no non- or extra-diegetic sound, in the sense that all sounds occurring within the film actually have an acoustic spatial location within the film. Due to the recording technique, we can assume that every sound we hear is likely to have occurred in the scene we are watching.
Music `score'
The musical narrative of the film - those raspy boogie piano songs - only temporarily functions as non-diegetic. Two striking aspects of this music are:
1. They sound live, ie. they don't carry the aural texture of a studio recording which privileges silence, separation and a vacuum within which the recording takes place. Those boogie songs themselves contain lots of background noise, and have a strangely loose and unstructured feel about them.
2. We eventually see the location of that music and those songs - the piano player in Reno - which we then relate to our previous experience of the accumulative musical narrative (as the songs were interspersed throughout the film).
For these reasons, even the musical score functions diegetically. However, this is not to say that the songs are merely live on-location recordings. Consider how we 'discover' the source and location of the songs we have been hearing throughout the film. This discovery functions as a centralizing of Reno within the narrative, in that it is where Gould and Segal both come together to reach a peak and then depart and go their own ways. Reno is, in a sense, the climax of the plot, or rather the zenith of those two characters' relationship with one another. The sequence of those songs mirrors the narrative by leading us to a different kind of peak - that of fusing image back to the sound of the music.
Noise & silence
Throughout CALIFORNIA SPLIT, noise (as a multiple of sound levels) and silence (as either an absence, an isolation or a softening of those sounds) work to distinguish the dominant flows of plot and character development. Basically, when there is a lot of sound going on (as at the track, card game and poker halls) the narrative conveys a continuum of character and action. When there is a noticeable type of silence (as in Segal's many reflective moments) the narrative conveys a change of character and action. It is almost as if the noise (of their surroundings and their own babbling) keeps both Gould and Segal from breaking from their compulsion to gamble, while the sudden silences initiate a pause wherein they can reflect on things and make a decision to change their situation. (Well, Segal does but Gould never stops talking!)
Vocal performance
The acting style of Gould and Segal well suits the recording technique for Altman's film in that both actors are garrulous, continually cutting into and talking over one another. This vocal interaction would make the film virtually impossible to post-dub the voices, thus leaving them to make full use of the lip-syncing of the multi track recording.
Even the many non-actors in the film convey an extreme realism by their vocal delivery which is also recorded live in the impossibility of post-dubbing. Their hesitant, fluctuating and often mumbled delivery conveys a richness that could not be acoustically recreated or simulated. (Consider how Brando's mumbles still convey a sense of drama and theatre, or how sporadic mumbling in Italian films is usually impossible to post-dub.)
In terms of a relationship between main characters/stars and the assorted non-actors/incidental characters, the soundtrack does not privilege Gould and Segal above the others. Often the sound of a babbling bar-tender will be just as loud as Segal when he is delivering an important piece of dialogue. At the level of the soundtrack, this has the effect of situating the characters of Gould and Segal firmly amongst the other characters that populate their world of gambling.
In the early/mid 70s director Robert Altman developed a technique for shooting film - recording sound which achieved a particular type of dramatic realism that has since typified his directorial style. This style is one that centres on the actors' performances which - through improvisation and interaction - drive the narrative; constructing scenes more out of the presentation of characters than the description of action. Of importance to this approach was allowing the performers to work with one another undistracted by the technical procedure of the location shoot (with cameras, recorders, continuity people hanging around, etc.).
As developed by location shooting through the late 60s/early 70s, it was the boom operator who would often be moving around maniacally trying to record everyone's dialogue as they moved around. The actor's would be able to move freely around the camera-tracking, but the boom operator often got in the way. To overcome this, Altman started exploring radio-mikes, which required no wires and only a transmitter-receiver set-up which could be located at a recording desk away from the main action and movement. These small radio-mikes could be concealed quite easily on the body of the performer, allowing the performer to move around in any way whatsoever with the knowledge that all their dialogue would be picked up by the sound recordist. Furthermore, the camera crew themselves could then move further away and zoom in on the action, thus prevent further technical interference.
Basically, a shoot could then involve, say, three cameras and six radio-mikes, recording a scene involving six characters in the one large space. The scene could be played out in its entirety, with all six actors' speech recorded simultaneously yet separately on a multi-track recorder which would be synced up to the three cameras, with each camera framing the action from a different perspective. The whole scene would thus be recorded as a temporal-spatial continuum capturing the precise interaction of intensity, rhythm and energy of the actors' performance as a live event. Later in post-production, shots could then be selected from the three perspectives and intercut accordingly, plus the volume levels of the synch-speech tracks could be individually manipulated.
Ramifications for film language
This approach to filmmaking effects a particular mode of film language. In conventional narrative approaches to filmmaking, the inherently deconstructive process of breaking down the live event into a multiple fracturing of time, space and perspective determines a reconstruction of the scene in terms of focus - ie. the film itself will provide our focal points in order to establish a relationship with the viewer that will allow him/her to read the significance within any scene. In Altman's approach, there is the potential to totally remove that kind of focus, in that the totality of the live event is fully recorded without the multiple fracturing.
Thus, in his post-production, Altman has consistently chosen to absent that kind of directorial focus within the scenes, leaving us to focus in on the scene ourselves and sort out the scene's significance without any readable cues. Technically, this means that :
1. the numerous long-shots leave us to focus on action within the frame;
2. the absence of camera-tracking leaves us to make up the flow and movement of the significant action; and
3. the sound-mix of all characters' speech levels at the same volume forces us to aurally focus on the voice of the `main' characters in amongst other 'minor' characters.
(Of course, directorial presence still exists, but comparatively we have to do a lot more work in focusing in and on the film than we would normally do.)
Sound-image fusion
In conventional realistic drama, mise-en-scene is usually visually articulated through production design, art direction and set decoration. The combination of depth-of-field photography with mise-en-scene will present the totality of the visual, allowing our eyes to wander across the frame and digest the detail, while the levels and components of the scene's sound will be presented often in a chronological selective form, ie. background traffic might initially be introduced only to be dropped in volume to then allow the characters' voices to cover it. A paradigm can be struck thus:
1. the visual (within the frame) is total/static while
2. the aural (in the sound-mix) is fragmented/linear.
General sound design
This film of Altman's contains no non- or extra-diegetic sound, in the sense that all sounds occurring within the film actually have an acoustic spatial location within the film. Due to the recording technique, we can assume that every sound we hear is likely to have occurred in the scene we are watching.
Music `score'
The musical narrative of the film - those raspy boogie piano songs - only temporarily functions as non-diegetic. Two striking aspects of this music are:
1. They sound live, ie. they don't carry the aural texture of a studio recording which privileges silence, separation and a vacuum within which the recording takes place. Those boogie songs themselves contain lots of background noise, and have a strangely loose and unstructured feel about them.
2. We eventually see the location of that music and those songs - the piano player in Reno - which we then relate to our previous experience of the accumulative musical narrative (as the songs were interspersed throughout the film).
For these reasons, even the musical score functions diegetically. However, this is not to say that the songs are merely live on-location recordings. Consider how we 'discover' the source and location of the songs we have been hearing throughout the film. This discovery functions as a centralizing of Reno within the narrative, in that it is where Gould and Segal both come together to reach a peak and then depart and go their own ways. Reno is, in a sense, the climax of the plot, or rather the zenith of those two characters' relationship with one another. The sequence of those songs mirrors the narrative by leading us to a different kind of peak - that of fusing image back to the sound of the music.
Noise & silence
Throughout CALIFORNIA SPLIT, noise (as a multiple of sound levels) and silence (as either an absence, an isolation or a softening of those sounds) work to distinguish the dominant flows of plot and character development. Basically, when there is a lot of sound going on (as at the track, card game and poker halls) the narrative conveys a continuum of character and action. When there is a noticeable type of silence (as in Segal's many reflective moments) the narrative conveys a change of character and action. It is almost as if the noise (of their surroundings and their own babbling) keeps both Gould and Segal from breaking from their compulsion to gamble, while the sudden silences initiate a pause wherein they can reflect on things and make a decision to change their situation. (Well, Segal does but Gould never stops talking!)
Vocal performance
The acting style of Gould and Segal well suits the recording technique for Altman's film in that both actors are garrulous, continually cutting into and talking over one another. This vocal interaction would make the film virtually impossible to post-dub the voices, thus leaving them to make full use of the lip-syncing of the multi track recording.
Even the many non-actors in the film convey an extreme realism by their vocal delivery which is also recorded live in the impossibility of post-dubbing. Their hesitant, fluctuating and often mumbled delivery conveys a richness that could not be acoustically recreated or simulated. (Consider how Brando's mumbles still convey a sense of drama and theatre, or how sporadic mumbling in Italian films is usually impossible to post-dub.)
In terms of a relationship between main characters/stars and the assorted non-actors/incidental characters, the soundtrack does not privilege Gould and Segal above the others. Often the sound of a babbling bar-tender will be just as loud as Segal when he is delivering an important piece of dialogue. At the level of the soundtrack, this has the effect of situating the characters of Gould and Segal firmly amongst the other characters that populate their world of gambling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)