10 Easy recording tips

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ascend
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10 Easy recording tips

Post by ascend »

Someting in another thread alerted me to a text file I had written a couple years back for friends which adresses various recording techniques. As there appears to be quite a few active recording musicians here, I thought I'd whack it up for anyone who might want to learn a bit more without trudging through pages of bollocks or anyone just curious! Thereyago.


10 things to keep in mind in the studio.


1. Record your tracks as hot (loud) as possible [without clipping], and with as few effects as possible. The sound should be up-front and strong. Don't make it sound like a turd under a pillow. With digital recording, the resolution is determined by how much dynamic range you use. If you're only busting the meter at 5, and it goes to 10, you're only getting a portion of the available bit resolution, thus cheating your sound. Track loud, but don't peak the meters.

2. Don't overplay your parts. Always think simpler and more solid. Lots of frilly ornamentation and squeals, pick scrapes, slides, etc can clutter the rhythm tracks. Save that sort of thing for leads. (Of course for some players certain ornaments are part of their style)

3. Compress the signal - but only sparingly. Compression gives you the ability to play loud and dynamic but keeps the tracks under control and allows them to mix with others better. Subtlety is key. You don't want to squash the sound. Just a tad on each track, depending on the sound source. Compression is particularly important with instruments that don't keep a "sane" level. E.G Bass and acoustic guitars. They are very dynamic instruments which require compression to keep them even in the mix. You'll know when you are using too much compression when things start to sound funky.

4. Compare your tracks to some of your favourite CD's. This is an excellent and obvious way to see if you're on the right track or if you're way off. Pro studios do this all the time. It acclimates your ears and gives you a great reference point to work from.

5. Get the best monitors your budget allows. Mixing on speakers with a flat frequency response will help to insure that your mix will sound good on alot of different speaker systems. Keeping in mind that sometimes the better sounding ones can actually ruin the outcome of your final mix. You want monitor speakers that don't colour the sound as that will stop you from getting a true mix. Also the more speakers or reference monitors you have, the better. Cheap car speakers, an old boom box etc. If you can make your stuff sound good on those, it will sound good just about anywhere - Except the South Island.

6. When layering guitars, don't use the same exact guitar tone for each layer. When you multi-track, each track needs to have it's own sonic space, and varying the EQ settings and tone for each track of the same instrument will make the tracks sound much meatier and more complex. Never let instruments occupy the same pan. Pans are extremely important to the stereo spectrum - even the most miniscule change can make a difference.

7. Go light on the 'verb. A common mistake is to smother tracks in reverb, making the recording sound amateurish. Record as dry as you can when tracking, then fly in the 'verb later while you can listen to how it will affect each track and the mix as a whole. This also applies to various other effects.

8. PC recording - GET A SOUNDCARD! No, not a soundblaster! Those little 1/8th inch mic input thingies on your computer are shite! You need something with good (24 bit) A/D converters to take advantage of digital recording at high sample rates. When you go into those 1/8 inchers, the A/D (analog to digital) conversion is generally pretty bad. You can pick up a basic card pretty cheap that will own the best soundblaster. WELL welllll worth the money! Also try to optimise your PC's peformance - remove any programs and crap that take up resources. Make sure the PC is booting with 0 programs on autostart leaving only recording applications and plug-ins.

9. Use mic preamps! Even the most basic preamp will make a world of difference in your mic output and increase your signal-to-noise ratio. Plugging a mic directly into the recorder will ruin your mics potential. You can even bypass the mixer and go straight into the recorder with a good mic pre (as is often done) Even a basic SM57 can sound incredible through a nice preamp.

10. Practice! Recording is an art just like playing an instrument or pretending to be a mongoose. The more you do it, the better you get. See if a real studio will let you come in for a session and just watch. You'll learn more in a couple hours than you would in 5 years of sitting in your home studio!
And now we shall discuss the location of your hidden... rebel... base..

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Post by thehenderson »

--If you can make your stuff sound good on those, it will sound good just about anywhere - Except the South Island.

Amen

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Post by TMG 03 »

I always found the whole recording thing so boring. The waiting time did my head in.

But some great points there. thanks for sharing.
:)

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Post by Tsuken »

Excellent tips, thanks for that 8)
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Post by Kristie »

Awesome tips :lol: But what would be really great, would be tips on speicifically recording accoustic guitars.... Have been doing a little of that at home lately, and not quite getting it to sound how I want it too....

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Post by Polar Bear »

I like to use a couple of dynamics, one close to the soundhole and then one a couple of metres in front or behind. It also helps to be in a room with a lot of wood to get a nice warm sound as opposed to lots of carpet soaking up the sound. This is jsut my personal experience of course.
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Re: 10 Easy recording tips

Post by stuu »

ascend wrote:Even a basic SM57 can sound incredible through a nice preamp
very true. in my experience a 57 is actually one of the more applicable mics for recording dirty gats. lets face it, not many of us have Neumanns, and most of us would get the amps running hotter than the top end mics can handle anyways. still have to get y'all a clip of the tones we got for the album.... watch this space.

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Post by thehenderson »

A 57 is good for guitar, but not great. A nice AKG condenser will pickup alot more detail.

57s are goooood for bass. Just make sure you crank the bass frequency a little to compensate

And I know what you mean about patience and recording and stuff. But when you can do it all yourself at home with your own band, it's actually alot of fun :D

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Post by stark »

Kristie_Amperzahn wrote:Awesome tips :lol: But what would be really great, would be tips on speicifically recording accoustic guitars.... Have been doing a little of that at home lately, and not quite getting it to sound how I want it too....
If there's a lot of carpet and sound-absorbing material around, try putting your chair (or standing) on a large piece of hardboard.

Or try recording in the bathroom or toilet or kitchen.
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Post by oolaef »

*dig. just interested in the answer to the man above's question :)

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Post by ash »

I don't know about cheap vs not cheap, but the ones with RCA sockets or more than two in/out jacks are usually a good place to start.

There is a fancier Soundblaster branded unit in that category that is bound to be better than the plain old Soundblaster Live. Saw one in the big PC shop in Penrose, Ak. I Don't know anything else about it though.

I have a super fancy Wavestation one stashed somewhere... I should get around to installing it one day!
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Post by Sicklehut »

Thanks for that ! I often wondered how you tackled your recording when I listened to your clips ...
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Post by johnny mullet »

Seems to me the big outlay is having to have a topline computer that can store your songs files.

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Post by Bg »

Memory and processing is the big advantage when recording. I'm doing some mixdowns of our band now and could do with another couple of Gb memory, once you start piling in the reverb/compression for each channel it really eats it up - saves having to bounce tracks around. However, its always difficult trying to polish a turd anyway ;)
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Post by johnny mullet »

However, its always difficult trying to polish a turd anyway

Hehehe. :mrgreen: Horrible mental picture though

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