Everything from pre-production and ambience to communication and comping...
By Dave Martin
Though I kinda hate to admit it, the bass track isn't usually the most important thing on the record. I've been a bass player for close to 35 years now, so that is a rather painful realization. But I've resigned myself to it, and reluctantly accept that the singer (well, the lead vocal) is what will determine the success or failure of a recorded song. This article will discuss some of the things I've found to be helpful in the quest to record great vocal tracks. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, just things that have helped me (and the singers I work with) to do the best that they can do.
Most of us don't have the luxury of having a producer sitting next to us, making decisions and guiding the singer towards the perfect performance—I'm usually the producer
and the engineer (as well as the assistant, the janitor, the caterer, the billing department, and the guy who gets blamed whenever things go wrong). So I'm writing under the assumption that you're in pretty much the same position. Why do I emphasize this? Because while some of what will be discussed below are engineering functions, others are part of the producer's role. I'm combining the two, because that's the way that it usually works in my world.
Pre-production
Admittedly, I seldom (or never) get to spend enough time on pre-production with the singers I work with. But there are a few things that I've learned that are of paramount importance. The first is that you have to make sure that the key of the song is right for the singer, and the second is that I want to have a copy of the lyrics in front of me before we start recording.
I used to be surprised when someone would come into the studio to record a song that they'd written (and often performed many times in public) when the reality was that they simply could not hit the notes in their own melodies. Not any more, though—I've seen it happen too many times. When time (and budget) allow for pre-production meetings, I'll listen to the song with the singer accompanied only by a single instrument (usually acoustic guitar or piano). I can see what the highest note in the song is as well as the lowest note. In a perfect world, both the highest and lowest notes are comfortably within the singer's range. In a less than perfect world, we might have to look at changing something. I would much rather change the key than the melody, since the melody is half of what defines the song (with the words being the other half, of course), but even that can be problematic. Sometimes it's possible to change how the singer is singing; here's why that can work, using my own voice as a (bad) example.
The lowest note that I can hit is a low D (sometimes a low C, early in the morning). The highest note that I can squeak out is a high B or C. Does that mean that I've got a two-octave range? Shoot, no—I'm a pretty terrible singer, and my usable range is a heck of a lot smaller than that—less than an octave. But (and here's the key), the ‘usable' part of my range changes depending on how loud I'm singing; if I'm singing quietly, the lower part of my vocal range is usable, but my voice cracks if I try to sing high notes. If I sing loud, I can't sing as low, but I can sing a lot higher. And there's also head voice (which I can't do at all, but some singers use all the time).
If a singer can't hit the notes singing in their usual style, pre-production is the time to experiment with other approaches—louder, quieter, breathier, with more growl, or whatever.
The goal is to make the singer sound his best, and thereby present the song in the best possible manner. By the way, for the far more common projects where I don't have any pre-production meetings with the singer, I have to try and do this on the fly at the session. This takes valuable time, but it has to be done to get the best performance of the song.
I also try to get a copy of the lyrics before the singer goes in to sing (I also want a chart of the song, but that's a discussion for a different time). The reasons for wanting the lyric in front of me are twofold—well, really threefold. The first is that it speeds up communication (discussed below); the second is that if I want to try having the singer use a different timbre on some parts of the song, I want to avoid exchanges like, Why don't you try singing, um… I think it's the third line of that verse with a breathy, sexy sound?” You mean the line when I sing ‘I hope you die tonight, you filthy scum!'?” Umm, yeah. Sing it like you're in love…”
The third reason I want lyrics in front of me is that it means that the singer will also have lyrics in front of them when they sing; it's a lot more common than you'd think to have the singer simply forget some of his own words.
Studio ambience
You know, we've all read about those singers who recorded their hit song while surrounded by their necessities—their lava lamps, their incense, their ginseng tea and their aromatherapy candles; they want the darkened room, along with (I suppose) their bunny slippers, their spiritual advisor and the studio to be at 71.5 degrees and 42% humidity. Well, good for them. Really.
I tend to take a different approach, however. To begin with, I want light—enough light so that the singer can see their words, and, if they're singing with a band, enough light so that all concerned can see each other. I've never been able to see that building a womb for the singer results in a performance any better than their performance while standing in the middle of a well-lit recording studio.
For that matter, I know that most of us who read Recording don't usually have the luxury of a purpose-built recording studio, including me; for 10 years, my studio was in my house (well, in a basement for about 8 years, and in a garage for two more years while I built Java Jive). During the course of those 10 years, singers worked in closets, bedrooms, laundry rooms and bathrooms. And you know what? They sang great! I pretty much make sure that the vocalist has someplace to set their water (tea, coffee, or whatever), a music stand, a chair to sit on while they listen to playbacks, and off we go. Don't misunderstand, though—I will try to make the singer comfortable, but I have never seen the need to go overboard.
Communication
I believe that the single most important skill that an engineer/producer can develop is the ability to communicate with the singer. Since engineers are not, as a rule, known for their gregarious nature, people skills aren't necessarily a high priority for them. Yet they should be, since knowing how to make the talent comfortable while drawing the best possible performance from them is a major issue.
Remember that when the singer is out in the room, you are more than just the engineer—you're also the cheerleader, the advisor, the person who has to tell them when they're not good enough—and the person who tells them when they are good enough. You have to do all of these things while taking care of more technical tasks like keeping the recording levels correct, making the headphones right for the singer as well as keeping order in the control room. Oh—and don't forget that you also need to keep things moving; nothing will sap the energy from a vocal session faster than stopping after every take to listen to what you just recorded. So you have to learn to make decisions fast; before you hit ‘stop' at the end of a line, you have to already know whether the recorded pass was good—and if not, you need to know what was wrong with it (and more important, how to fix it).
Every singer is different; some want to hear constant praise—to the point that even when you have to tell them that they didn't do good, it needs to be phrased as a compliment: Hey, you did a great job on that second chorus! Let's do the second verse again to bring that up to the level of the chorus....” Others work better with kidding, jokes and even out-and-out insults; Jeez, I guess since that's the best you can do, we should move on.” The trick, naturally, is to recognize which is which—before you start in with the insults.
In some respects, I look at the practice of recording vocals as a conversation between the singer and the producer; I'll typically have them sing through the song (or a section of the song), and we'll quickly talk about what worked and what didn't. Then (when necessary) we'll do another take—or part of a take, recording only the lines that needed fixing. I mentioned earlier that I really like to keep things moving; by that, I mean that I don't want the singer standing out in the room with only silence in his headphones while those of us in the control room discuss; it can get really lonely out there, and those with insecurities will find their insecurities magnified by the silence. So I try to keep a dialog going, if for no other reason than to allow the singer to feel that they're part of the recording process.
The decline in the use of tape has advantages and disadvantages when recording vocals. One major advantage is that we no longer have to wait for the tape to rewind. And one major disadvantage is that we no longer have to wait for the tape to rewind! With a DAW, you can stop recording, say, Again, please” and be back at the beginning before the singer can take a breath. This is not good. Despite what I just said about keeping things moving, there can be too much of a rush; you have to give the singer time to have a sip of water, stretch, or just take a few deep breaths. Rewinding tape gave the singer time to do those things while the producer chatted with them about the next thing to do. Since that small break time is no longer forced into the process, the producer has to be aware of the need for it, while not taking so much time that it impedes the recording process. This is a fine line, one that only experience will teach.
Comping whole takes versus punching
I've mentioned a couple of times the need to make decisions as you go; this segues nicely into a short discussion of method. DAWs make it easy to record multiple takes of songs, takes which can be combined (or composited—‘comped' for short) into a final performance after the singer is finished. This isn't a new thing, by any means; Michael Wagener told me once about having to record more than 20 takes of a (rather famous) singer's performance in the 1980s, and then having to sort through them all to try and create a finished vocal track.
Bob Olhsson said that in later years, Motown would do the same thing, but with a difference—at Motown, once all of the vocal passes were comped down to one track, the singer was given a copy of the track to learn. Then, another session would be scheduled, so the singer could try to beat the comped track. And Bob tells me that most of the time, they would beat it. Unfortunately, while comping has become ever more popular on contemporary recordings, the practice of allowing the singer to try and beat the comped performance has fallen out of favor.
I'm not a huge fan of comping, and here are some reasons why: First, it takes a lot of time (that most of my clients can't afford), second, you can't know if every line of the song is actually good until you do the comp, and third, it's hard for a singer to maintain the same level of energy when singing tracks multiple times—especially when those tracks are sung on different days. Matching levels and processing isn't an issue (that's why recall sheets were invented), but when the energy level changes line by line, I find it to be really distracting. (Anyone remember that Mariah Carey song that was rumored to be comped together from more than two hundred takes? It was awful...).
So here's my usual approach: I'll usually have the singer sing the whole song a few times as I'm getting levels and tweaking the headphones and they're warming up and getting used to the headphone mix (though I do record each pass). Once we're at the point (ideally, fairly soon) that I think we've gotten mostly usable vocals, I'll go back and have them sing any sections (verse, chorus, whatever) that I thought weren't as good as they should be. And then, if there are single lines, or parts of lines, that I think should be better, we'll go back and punch them in.
And this is why I want a lyric sheet in front of me—I use it to make notes as the singer is singing. My notes can be as simple as making a mark to the left of each line that I like, or that I don't like. Or I can underline the lines that I thought were exceptionally good (or exceptionally bad) as we record the vocal pass, so I can have some sort of visual cues to remind me of where we are.
Once I suspect that the vocal track is acceptable, I'll have the singer relax (while still out in the room and wearing their headphones) and we'll listen to what we've done. While listening, the singer and I will be following along on our respective lyric sheets; once we've listened either to a section or to the whole song, we'll go back and fix anything that caught either of our ears. Only when we both think that we have a good track does the singer take off the phones and listen in the control room. We might go back and work on some more problem spots after this final listen, or we might agree that we're done with that song. In either case, the final approval from the singer (who is usually also the client) only comes after listening over the speakers rather than just on headphones.
When punching in single lines or sections of a song, it's important that you give the singer enough time to hear where they are in the song; this might be a couple of seconds, or it could be as many as 10 or 15 seconds—the song will dictate how far you need to go to get an audio landmark. I'll tell them, Sing when you hear where you are, and I'll punch what I need,” and start the track. This is a most important part of overdubbing vocals in my experience; if a singer waits to sing until you go into record, matching the old and new vocals is almost impossible. By singing along (and having them try to match their old vocal pass), the singer's breaths will be where they should be, the texture and timbre of the old and new tracks will come closest to matching, and the volume of the old and new tracks will be matched.
How much time does it take to record keeper vocals?
Obviously, it takes as long as it takes. Most of us have read about artists who spend weeks or even months working on their vocals, but in the real world of tiny budgets and tight deadlines, we have to make decisions and move on. Even when doing vocal overdubs, I've had singers who nailed the whole song the first time they did it; so the minimum time would be about 3 minutes for a 3 minute song. The maximum that I've spent on a single lead vocal for any song is about three and a half hours. After that, the singer will be starting to get tired—for that matter, my brain will quit working, too. In any case, after singing for three hours, even with short breaks, the singer's voice will have changed, making the matching different takes problematic. For most of us, if you're still working on the first song after two or three hours, you might have to consider either (A) saying It's done, you're great!” or (B) moving on, and coming back to the song at another time.
Showing posts with label practical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label practical. Show all posts
Monday, 26 September 2016
Friday, 26 August 2016
Practical Recording Techniques
by Bruce Bartlett
We can't afford to record in your studio, so we'll record at home and you can mix it”. Sound familiar?
In a tough economy, an increasing number of musicians don't have the money to spend several days or weeks in a studio at the hourly rate. What's more, a lot of artists need time to develop sonic ideas by trial and error, and can't afford to do that on studio time.
Some performers shun the studio for other reasons. I get too nervous in the studio… I'll just record myself with a portable recorder and let you overdub the other instruments.”
Many musicians own DAW setups — or flash recorders — and can do their own tracking at home. But some lack the expertise and equipment to make clean recordings in the first place.
They might hand you a load of barely usable tracks, and expect you to make them sound good.
While a number of musicians have mastered recording skills and can produce great-sounding tracks, some don't know what they're doing. They need your help. If you want to put your name on their album or demo, you want to work with them so they'll record the cleanest tracks possible. Then you'll spend less time fixing sonic errors and more time being creative.
We'll look at two approaches to improve the end product:
teach your customers how to record at home effectively
use plug-ins and editing to improve their recordings.
Offer Advice to Record-at-Home Musicians: Talk with your clients to make sure they can supply you clean tracks. Try to find out their skill level so you don't insult them by telling them stuff they already know.
The advice you give home recordists is the same as you'd give to a novice recording engineer in a pro studio. You can discuss the following points wIth the band members, or simply give them this article to read.
First tell your customer that it's difficult or impossible to remove reverb, compression and distortion, so make sure to keep those under control. The same goes for background noise.
I'll describe specifically how to keep a handle on those problems.
Listed below are some suggestions for musicians to follow when recording. These tips apply both to 2-track and multitrack recordings.
Get rid of noise sources: Turn off the furnace or air-conditioning when you record. Maybe record in the basement — it tends to be quiet because it's surrounded by earth and cement blocks. Wait for trains and planes to pass. Seal cracks under doors with towels; maybe cover windows temporarily with plywood sheets. Have an electric guitarist rotate or move around to find a spot where hum stops.
Improve room acoustics: Hang some mattress foam, packing blankets, sleeping bags or comforters on the walls or on mic-stand booms. Put a roll of fiberglass insulation in each room corner to act as a bass trap. Or buy some pressed fiberglass panels and put one across each corner. One source is
Mike fairly close: If you place a mic or stereo recorder too far from the instruments, it will pick up lots of muddy-sounding room acoustics which can't be removed in the mix. Try to stay no farther than 1 foot from the mics or recorder.
Don't clip the signal: Check the recording levels not only during regular playing, but also during loud accents. Aim for -6 dB maximum level on peak-reading level meters. Some keyboard patches are louder than others — try all of them when setting levels.
Monitor the recording: Put on headphones and listen to what the mics are picking up. Often you can hear background noises much easier with headphones than without. Play back recordings to check balances between instruments and vocals.
Turn off effects: Some recorder-mixers automatically insert compression or other effects when you record. Make sure they are disabled.
Suggestions for Better Multitrack Recordings
Avoid ground loops: Connect recording equipment, keyboards and instrument amps to the same outlet strips. First make sure that the outlet's circuit breaker can handle the current of all that equipment. Use direct boxes between electric instruments and the mixer, and flip the ground-lift switch to the position where you monitor the least hum.
Use good mics: Borrow or rent some if you don't have any. A basic mic collection includes a cardioid dynamic mic for guitar amps and drums (like a Shure SM57), a small-diaphragm cardioid condenser mic for cymbals and acoustic instruments, and a large-diaphragm cardioid condenser for vocals.
Minimize leakage: In other words, try to make each mic pick up only its own instrument. To do that, mike close with cardioid or supercardioid mics — about 8 inches away or less.
Record bass and keys direct. Overdub quiet instruments and vocals after recording the loud instruments. You might place the band members in a circle so that adjacent mics aim away from each other.
Use effective mic placement: Ask your recording engineer how to mike various instruments, or refer to articles and books about that topic. (I've received acoustic-guitar tracks made with the mic close to the sound hole, and had to EQ like crazy to get rid of the boomy sound.)
Suggest that the drummer remove the front head of the kick drum, put a pillow or blanket inside, and use a hard beater to get a tight, snappy beat.
Figure 2. One method of miking a kick drum.
Use a pop filter on vocal mics: To prevent breath pops, place a hoop-type pop filter a few inches in front of a vocal mic. You can improvise one: try a coat-hanger wire curved like a shepherd's crook, with a nylon stocking stretched over the loop. You might use a foam windscreen as a last resort.
Solo and export each recorded track starting from time zero: That way, all the tracks should line up when imported into the studio's mixing software. Disable any effects plug-ins when you export the tracks so that the studio can use only their own plug-ins.
Name each track's wave file by the song and instrument: For example, Road Runner Blues-lead ”. Or Soul Spice-high harmony 2nd ”. That avoids confusion in the studio when it comes time to sort out the tracks.
Ways to Minimize Time in the Studio
Some musicians do want to record in the studio because the sound they get is so much better than they can get at home. They need to know how to make the recording process as efficient as possible so they don't run up a huge bill. You might offer these suggestions:
Record yourself with a simple DAW or recorder-mixer to work out production ideas at home. See what works and what doesn't so you don't need to experiment in the pro studio.
Bring lyric sheets and charts with each song's arrangement. Work it out at home, then bring in charts as a memory aid in the studio. Make copies of the lyrics and arrangements for the engineer.
Consider recording fewer songs. A 10-song album costs about half as much to record as a 20-song album. 10 great songs are better than 20 songs with filler.
Practice until you can play without mistakes. Obviously, that saves studio time that is spent fixing errors.
Consider punching-in rather than fixing problem spots with editing. Often it's faster to re-record a botched musical phrase than to correct it with copy-paste edits or volume changes.
If you have changes you want to make in a mix that you auditioned at home, note the time of each change. Finding a time location is a lot quicker than finding a particular lyric in the second bridge!
Fixing It In the Mix
So far you have advised the band on ways to record well at home. Eventually they will hand you a hard drive, flash card or CD s containing their tracks. It's your job to take those raw recordings, clean them up, and add EQ and effects to make a super mix. Let's go over some tricks to achieve that goal. First we'll clean up the individual tracks.
Delete or mute parts of each track where nothing is playing: Those sections contain leakage and noise. Either slip-edit the beginning and end of each clip, or highlight unwanted sections and delete them. Another method is to use volume envelopes or automated mutes to silence the parts you don't need.
Gate drum tracks to reduce leakage or to tighten up the sound: Here's a typical procedure. Play and solo a tom-tom track that has a gate inserted. Gradually increase the gate threshold until the background leakage goes away, but you still hear the tom hits. Set the attack time fast, like 1 msec, and set the hold time for the desired amount of sustain on each note.
Some gate plug-ins have a setting called lookahead time”. If you set it to 10 msec, for example, the gate opens 10 msec before the transient hit occurs. That lets you use a longer attack time (rise time) without losing the transient's attack.
Highpass filter every track: Insert a highpass (low-cut) filter in a track. Set Q to 1.7 and play the track. Start with the filter frequency at 20 Hz , gradually raise it until the sound thins out, then back off a bit. That removes noise and leakage below the lowest fundamental frequency of each instrument and vocal.
Fix clipped notes: Suppose a kick-drum hit is clipped and sounds crackly. Find the full-amplitude spike where the clipping occurred. Zoom way into the waveform until you can see the individual waves.
One solution is to delete the clipped waveforms and add short fades into and out of the hole" that is left.
Another solution is to create a clip (region) of those waveforms and lowpass filter the highs in that region. Some DAWs let you redraw the waveform in a smooth curve to remove the clipping.
Here are audio samples of a clipped kick-drum signal before and after editing:
Filter out hum and hiss: Some EQ plug-ins have a hum-filter preset which inserts a comb filter starting at 50 or 60 Hz Others have de-noise processing. A simple lowpass (high-cut) filter works well to remove hiss in a guitar-amp track. Try a Q of 1.7, and gradually bring down the filter frequency to the point where the sound gets dull, then back off.
Delete breath pops: Find a pop or thump in the vocal track. Zoom far into the waveform there until you can see the longer wavelength of the pop signal. Then highlight and delete it.
Add short fades into and out of the deleted section. It's amazing how well this works.
Enhancing Stereo Recordings
Some musicians record themselves with a portable stereo recorder. Here are some tips to improve a recording made on such a device.
Use an analyzer/ EQ program such as Harmonic Balancer: This program can work wonders on stereo mixes that have a bad tonal balance. Har-Bal analyzes and displays the spectrum of a mix so you can pull down any over-emphasized frequencies that color the sound ().
Cut frequencies below 40 Hz : There might be low-frequency rumble from trucks or air conditioning in the stereo mix.
Maybe add reverb: Homes don't have reverb with a long decay time, so you might add just a little reverb with 1.5 - 2.0 seconds RT60. That gives a more commercial" feel. Try to filter the lows out of the reverb signal so the bass and kick don't get muddy.
Add compression: If a singer really belts the loud notes, tame them with compression.
Widen or narrow the stereo stage: Plug-ins are available that create mid/side (sum/difference) signals from the left-and-right stereo signals. You can vary the amount of difference signal to expand or shrink the stereo image.
There you have a number of tips to enhance your customers' tracks and to optimize those tracks when they record them. Recording at home and mixing in the studio is becoming more common, so it helps to develop skills for this type of record production.
We can't afford to record in your studio, so we'll record at home and you can mix it”. Sound familiar?
In a tough economy, an increasing number of musicians don't have the money to spend several days or weeks in a studio at the hourly rate. What's more, a lot of artists need time to develop sonic ideas by trial and error, and can't afford to do that on studio time.
Some performers shun the studio for other reasons. I get too nervous in the studio… I'll just record myself with a portable recorder and let you overdub the other instruments.”
Many musicians own DAW setups — or flash recorders — and can do their own tracking at home. But some lack the expertise and equipment to make clean recordings in the first place.
They might hand you a load of barely usable tracks, and expect you to make them sound good.
While a number of musicians have mastered recording skills and can produce great-sounding tracks, some don't know what they're doing. They need your help. If you want to put your name on their album or demo, you want to work with them so they'll record the cleanest tracks possible. Then you'll spend less time fixing sonic errors and more time being creative.
We'll look at two approaches to improve the end product:
teach your customers how to record at home effectively
use plug-ins and editing to improve their recordings.
Offer Advice to Record-at-Home Musicians: Talk with your clients to make sure they can supply you clean tracks. Try to find out their skill level so you don't insult them by telling them stuff they already know.
The advice you give home recordists is the same as you'd give to a novice recording engineer in a pro studio. You can discuss the following points wIth the band members, or simply give them this article to read.
First tell your customer that it's difficult or impossible to remove reverb, compression and distortion, so make sure to keep those under control. The same goes for background noise.
I'll describe specifically how to keep a handle on those problems.
Listed below are some suggestions for musicians to follow when recording. These tips apply both to 2-track and multitrack recordings.
Get rid of noise sources: Turn off the furnace or air-conditioning when you record. Maybe record in the basement — it tends to be quiet because it's surrounded by earth and cement blocks. Wait for trains and planes to pass. Seal cracks under doors with towels; maybe cover windows temporarily with plywood sheets. Have an electric guitarist rotate or move around to find a spot where hum stops.
Improve room acoustics: Hang some mattress foam, packing blankets, sleeping bags or comforters on the walls or on mic-stand booms. Put a roll of fiberglass insulation in each room corner to act as a bass trap. Or buy some pressed fiberglass panels and put one across each corner. One source is
Mike fairly close: If you place a mic or stereo recorder too far from the instruments, it will pick up lots of muddy-sounding room acoustics which can't be removed in the mix. Try to stay no farther than 1 foot from the mics or recorder.
Don't clip the signal: Check the recording levels not only during regular playing, but also during loud accents. Aim for -6 dB maximum level on peak-reading level meters. Some keyboard patches are louder than others — try all of them when setting levels.
Monitor the recording: Put on headphones and listen to what the mics are picking up. Often you can hear background noises much easier with headphones than without. Play back recordings to check balances between instruments and vocals.
Turn off effects: Some recorder-mixers automatically insert compression or other effects when you record. Make sure they are disabled.
Suggestions for Better Multitrack Recordings
Avoid ground loops: Connect recording equipment, keyboards and instrument amps to the same outlet strips. First make sure that the outlet's circuit breaker can handle the current of all that equipment. Use direct boxes between electric instruments and the mixer, and flip the ground-lift switch to the position where you monitor the least hum.
Use good mics: Borrow or rent some if you don't have any. A basic mic collection includes a cardioid dynamic mic for guitar amps and drums (like a Shure SM57), a small-diaphragm cardioid condenser mic for cymbals and acoustic instruments, and a large-diaphragm cardioid condenser for vocals.
Minimize leakage: In other words, try to make each mic pick up only its own instrument. To do that, mike close with cardioid or supercardioid mics — about 8 inches away or less.
Record bass and keys direct. Overdub quiet instruments and vocals after recording the loud instruments. You might place the band members in a circle so that adjacent mics aim away from each other.
Use effective mic placement: Ask your recording engineer how to mike various instruments, or refer to articles and books about that topic. (I've received acoustic-guitar tracks made with the mic close to the sound hole, and had to EQ like crazy to get rid of the boomy sound.)
Suggest that the drummer remove the front head of the kick drum, put a pillow or blanket inside, and use a hard beater to get a tight, snappy beat.
Figure 2. One method of miking a kick drum.
Use a pop filter on vocal mics: To prevent breath pops, place a hoop-type pop filter a few inches in front of a vocal mic. You can improvise one: try a coat-hanger wire curved like a shepherd's crook, with a nylon stocking stretched over the loop. You might use a foam windscreen as a last resort.
Solo and export each recorded track starting from time zero: That way, all the tracks should line up when imported into the studio's mixing software. Disable any effects plug-ins when you export the tracks so that the studio can use only their own plug-ins.
Name each track's wave file by the song and instrument: For example, Road Runner Blues-lead ”. Or Soul Spice-high harmony 2nd ”. That avoids confusion in the studio when it comes time to sort out the tracks.
Ways to Minimize Time in the Studio
Some musicians do want to record in the studio because the sound they get is so much better than they can get at home. They need to know how to make the recording process as efficient as possible so they don't run up a huge bill. You might offer these suggestions:
Record yourself with a simple DAW or recorder-mixer to work out production ideas at home. See what works and what doesn't so you don't need to experiment in the pro studio.
Bring lyric sheets and charts with each song's arrangement. Work it out at home, then bring in charts as a memory aid in the studio. Make copies of the lyrics and arrangements for the engineer.
Consider recording fewer songs. A 10-song album costs about half as much to record as a 20-song album. 10 great songs are better than 20 songs with filler.
Practice until you can play without mistakes. Obviously, that saves studio time that is spent fixing errors.
Consider punching-in rather than fixing problem spots with editing. Often it's faster to re-record a botched musical phrase than to correct it with copy-paste edits or volume changes.
If you have changes you want to make in a mix that you auditioned at home, note the time of each change. Finding a time location is a lot quicker than finding a particular lyric in the second bridge!
Fixing It In the Mix
So far you have advised the band on ways to record well at home. Eventually they will hand you a hard drive, flash card or CD s containing their tracks. It's your job to take those raw recordings, clean them up, and add EQ and effects to make a super mix. Let's go over some tricks to achieve that goal. First we'll clean up the individual tracks.
Delete or mute parts of each track where nothing is playing: Those sections contain leakage and noise. Either slip-edit the beginning and end of each clip, or highlight unwanted sections and delete them. Another method is to use volume envelopes or automated mutes to silence the parts you don't need.
Gate drum tracks to reduce leakage or to tighten up the sound: Here's a typical procedure. Play and solo a tom-tom track that has a gate inserted. Gradually increase the gate threshold until the background leakage goes away, but you still hear the tom hits. Set the attack time fast, like 1 msec, and set the hold time for the desired amount of sustain on each note.
Some gate plug-ins have a setting called lookahead time”. If you set it to 10 msec, for example, the gate opens 10 msec before the transient hit occurs. That lets you use a longer attack time (rise time) without losing the transient's attack.
Highpass filter every track: Insert a highpass (low-cut) filter in a track. Set Q to 1.7 and play the track. Start with the filter frequency at 20 Hz , gradually raise it until the sound thins out, then back off a bit. That removes noise and leakage below the lowest fundamental frequency of each instrument and vocal.
Fix clipped notes: Suppose a kick-drum hit is clipped and sounds crackly. Find the full-amplitude spike where the clipping occurred. Zoom way into the waveform until you can see the individual waves.
One solution is to delete the clipped waveforms and add short fades into and out of the hole" that is left.
Another solution is to create a clip (region) of those waveforms and lowpass filter the highs in that region. Some DAWs let you redraw the waveform in a smooth curve to remove the clipping.
Here are audio samples of a clipped kick-drum signal before and after editing:
Filter out hum and hiss: Some EQ plug-ins have a hum-filter preset which inserts a comb filter starting at 50 or 60 Hz Others have de-noise processing. A simple lowpass (high-cut) filter works well to remove hiss in a guitar-amp track. Try a Q of 1.7, and gradually bring down the filter frequency to the point where the sound gets dull, then back off.
Delete breath pops: Find a pop or thump in the vocal track. Zoom far into the waveform there until you can see the longer wavelength of the pop signal. Then highlight and delete it.
Add short fades into and out of the deleted section. It's amazing how well this works.
Enhancing Stereo Recordings
Some musicians record themselves with a portable stereo recorder. Here are some tips to improve a recording made on such a device.
Use an analyzer/ EQ program such as Harmonic Balancer: This program can work wonders on stereo mixes that have a bad tonal balance. Har-Bal analyzes and displays the spectrum of a mix so you can pull down any over-emphasized frequencies that color the sound ().
Cut frequencies below 40 Hz : There might be low-frequency rumble from trucks or air conditioning in the stereo mix.
Maybe add reverb: Homes don't have reverb with a long decay time, so you might add just a little reverb with 1.5 - 2.0 seconds RT60. That gives a more commercial" feel. Try to filter the lows out of the reverb signal so the bass and kick don't get muddy.
Add compression: If a singer really belts the loud notes, tame them with compression.
Widen or narrow the stereo stage: Plug-ins are available that create mid/side (sum/difference) signals from the left-and-right stereo signals. You can vary the amount of difference signal to expand or shrink the stereo image.
There you have a number of tips to enhance your customers' tracks and to optimize those tracks when they record them. Recording at home and mixing in the studio is becoming more common, so it helps to develop skills for this type of record production.
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