Be Prepared – Recording Part V
As a producer, I’d have to say one of the main things that keeps me on the productive track, is having the recording rig plugged in and ready for when inspiration strikes. Early on in my days of making demos, it seemed like every time I decided to try and record something, I ended up spending an hour plugging in cables, running lines and practically setting up from scratch most of the tools that I needed to do the job. Some gear would work, some gear wouldn’t and by the time I had everything plugged in and working, I could barely remember what it was I wanted to record. The inspiration had past and my level of productivity was nowhere near what I knew it could be.

While thanks to computers, recording has become extremely portable today, it is still important that you have your tools ready for when inspiration strikes. Maybe you don’t have a dedicated area just for recording? Maybe your computer doubles as an office system or as your laptop that you carry everywhere? To give yourself a better chance of capturing those moments of musical inspiration, it is vital that you remove as many obstacles from your path as possible so that you can record these ideas when they come.

Patched and Wired
I suppose the biggest setback in accomplishing this “always plugged in / always ready” system is going to be the number of channels on the audio interface or the audio mixer that you own. For example, If you are a keyboard player that sings, I would hope you have an interface or a mixer that allows you to have all of your gear plugged in at the same time. That way you’re not recording your keys and then switching everything around to record a vocal track. Having all your tools plugged in and ready at a moment’s notice is what the studio environment is all about.

While most major studios will have a large patch bay for making these connections on the fly, in a home recording environment, unless you have a ton of gear, it should be possible to have most of your instruments plugged in and ready to go with a decent sized mixer or audio interface for your computer. If you don’t have enough input channels to go around, then patch bays are not that expensive and they will enable you to have all of your gear plugged in and ready to go on the fly. Proper patch bay setup is an art in and of itself and a testament to the effenciency of a well designed recording facility.

Template Connections                 
To speed things up in the software environment, create templates so that you are not reinventing the wheel every time you launch the application. For my templates in Cubase, when I create a new project from a template, I have a set of channels already named and created, the effects that I typically use on those channels already inserted and a set of group channels already created for summing multiple channels such as drums or synths all into one group. Most importantly I have a software connection setup for every physical instrument that is plugged into the interface.

If you don’t have all of this done and you are planning on working a big project; these little tasks add up to quite a lot of time wasted that could have been spent recording music. The software is a major part of your recording environment and with a bit of forethought you can have it setup and prepared just as much as the room you’re recording in. Your template should mimic your physical gear setup, so have it setup to match everything you have plugged into your rig. It takes allot less time to delete a track you’re not going to be using than it does to set one up from scratch.

Guitar Ready?
To enable the immediate recording of guitars, amp modeling tools such as the Line 6 Pod are invaluable in speeding up the process. Software based modeling applications are becoming more and more popular as well, so in terms of getting a rocking guitar tone up in a matter of seconds, there shouldn’t be an issue if your guitar is in play ready condition. If you do use an amplifier, get a dedicated microphone to have in front of it, plug it into your interface and leave it there. Then at most, you’ll just be waiting on the amplifiers tubes to warm up while you arm the record button on the track.
For acoustic guitars, I keep a couple of microphones setup and ready in a stereo placement so that I can hit record and start laying down ideas with quality results at a moments notice.

Drum Ready?
Another element that I’ve found extremely valuable in terms of getting a song off of the ground is the professionally recorded drum loop. While my drummer has a growing distaste for these things, they truly do mean the difference at times between me being inspired to write a song, or not writing a song at all. There are a number of companies whose main function is recording and mixing a drummer in a major studio and then breaking up the performance into useable loops. These loops can then be manipulated by tempo and even by pitch to your preference. Most are royalty free situations and though they may not always make it to your master CD; they are certainly suitable enough for the writing process to keep you productive when your drummer is not available.

If by chance you are a drummer with the notion of recording yourself, then you above all should know the value of having your gear setup and ready to record on a moment’s notice. The time that it takes to prep, place microphones and be ready to record a drum kit is in the range of hours, so preparing ahead of time if possible can be a huge advantage.  It’s a big demand of space and gear and a challenge to be sure to have a rig like this setup and ready but I’ve actually corresponded with a few drummers that have such a setup always ready to hit record.

For my personal studio, to at least marginally help with this obstacle; I actually purchased a small set of drums that I could have setup and ready to go before the drummer ever shows up with the rest of his gear to complete the kit (cymbals, snare, kick pedal etc). This can mean the difference between spending the afternoon setting up for a session or a full day of actually recording music.

Rig Ready
All in all, this is just a few ideas for having your “rig ready”, so that when ideas come to mind you can easily bring them out of your head and into the world. Everyone’s situation and preferences will be a bit different but hopefully this blog will give you some ideas that you can apply to your own needs as a producer. Having the tools you need ready to work, will make you 1000% more productive and you’ll find the experience of recording your own music more enjoyable and more focused on the music and not the gear.

You’ll be spending less time untangling wires and finding plugs to power up with and more time bringing your music to life. More than likely, you may need to take a trip to your local music store for additional cables and accesories but the difference it makes in your productivity will be well worth the effort. Happy Recording! – John Orr Franklin

Recording Part 4

In the last blog I posted, I covered how instruments all have their space within the frequency spectrum. The other spectrum that we’ll discuss in this blog is placement within the stereo field. Unless you’re mixing your songs in surround sound you’re dealing with a basic two channel stereo field. Proper placement of your instruments within the stereo field can make a huge difference in overall quality of your mix. Obviously you have your basic left and right variables to work with but through the use of reverb and proper microphone placement you can also achieve a front to back placement of an instrument within the stereo field resulting in a truly three dimensional mix.

Where Will It Reside?
The first choice to make when you’re preparing to record an instrument is ultimately where you foresee the instrument being placed in the mix. If you hear the instrument emanating from a single place on the left side of your mix then a monophonic recording of the instrument will probably suffice. If you want the instrument to be on the left but slightly distant in the mix, then you may still decide to use one microphone but to achieve a natural sense of distance you may want to back the microphone away from the instrument when you record it. Experimentation is the key here and the proper placement can actually depend on the other instruments that are present in the mix and where they are placed as well.

Front to Back
Another way to give you the control on the mixing desk where you can make this decision later, is to actually place two microphones on the instrument. One at one distance and another microphone at another distance further away. Later you’ll be able to blend these two microphone sources to find just the right blend that gives the proper front to back placement in the mix. Using this example it is also possible to accomplish something similar using digital reverb instead of a second microphone. Essentially, the more reverb you add to a single instrument source the further back in the mix it will sit. When using reverb to accomplish this it’s important to find the right balance in terms of volume of the instrument. The more reverb you add to an instrument the more amplitude you’re adding to the instrument overall so the volume fader will probably need to come down as the reverb level goes up and vice versa. Finding and hearing this balance takes a little practice but in time you’ll  get the feel for floating the instrument front to back or in and out of focus much like adjusting the lens on a camera.

Left to Right
Using two microphones you can obviously do more of a, left and right, stereo microphone placement, instead of the front and back placement I described before. There are stereo microphones that you can buy off of the shelf that accomplish this quite well and anytime you are using two microphones to accomplish a stereo recording you will always attain a more natural stereo sound if both microphones are identical. As always, it is not a rule that you must use identical microphones but essentially when you use two different microphones it’s really like hearing something using two different ears, resulting in a somewhat unatural effect. In fact some of the best results I’ve ever had utilizing stereo microphone techniques has been by mimicking the human head when placing the microphones.

What I mean by this is essentially seeing each microphone as if it were an ear on someone’s head and then placing the second microphone accordingly. This technique consistently gives me a very natural sounding stereo field. Mixing one microphone hard left and the other hard right you end up with a mix that sounds as if you are sitting exactly where the microphones were placed in front of the instrument.  Again there is plenty of room for experimentation in stereo microphone placements but sometimes simple is good and this helps you to move things along without getting too caught up in the minutia of the project.

The Third?
As for the third dimension, is it possible to add a feeling of instruments being stacked upon each other? This one is somewhat sujective but it comes across as more of a feeling in my opinion. The ears and the brain, whether you realize it or not, do indeed place sonic elements on top of one another based more or less on the volume of the instruments. The over all balance of your mix should create a naturally layered or stacked sense of ambience. This is somewhat of a contrived concept based on recordings that have come before but again using nature as the example and based on the arrangement of instruments within the recording, it should be possible to determine how the layered ambience of a specific arrangement should feel. Again, completley subjective and always an open concept for more hours of experimentation. Once you get a mix that “feels natural” you’ll just know it.

Nature is the Example
With just a bit of practice these few techniques for stereo placement will have you well on your way to some decent stereo recordings. Keep in mind that the overall mix is in stereo and not every instrument in the mix should be recorded in stereo. Even though you’re creating an artificial environment of sound, the laws of nature still apply in order to achieve a natural sounding recording. The ears can always tell when something is artificial or not quite right. So keep these things in mind when you’re prepping to record your next masterpiece.

Recording Part 3

One aspect of recording music that took me a few years of experience before I truly comprehended it and even longer before I understood how to achieve the right results by using it, was the role of the audio spectrum and the placement of instruments within this spectrum. While it’s easier to put on paper and explain what it means, it really takes years of training your ears to recognize when a recording is missing, conflicting or lacking in a certain range.

What is the Spectrum?
Well, in simplest terms it’s the bass and treble controls on your basic stereo system. If you‘ve ever worked with a graphic equalizer then you should have a really good visual grasp of the concept of the audio spectrum. Depending on the type of instrument, it will have its own unique harmonic qualities that give it a range and place it somewhere within the spectrum of tones that a human ear can recognize.

Scientists have actually discovered that objects even the size of planets have a resonating frequency within the audio spectrum, they are beyond the realms of human hearing but they exist none the less. Every object in the universe possesses a resonating frequency that places it somewhere on the musical scale. Luckily, in audio recording we’ll only be dealing with the frequencies that a stereo speaker can reproduce and not all of the frequencies that are present in the cosmos. Still, it’s something to think about the next time you’re rearranging your furniture. In music, most of the tonalities we’ll be dealing with are represented on an 88 key piano.

From low to high it’s easy to recognize the differences in tone between say a bass guitar and a crash cymbal of a drum set. Each instrument resides in its own place within the audio spectrum. Guitars have their place much like the strings of a violin or the human voice itself, all of these instruments possess a unique frequency range that a skilled recording engineer must recognize and contend with in order to achieve a proper balance in audio mixing. There is an awesome interactive chart that you can review here  that shows many instruments and where they reside on the tonal scale.

The Challenge = Achieving Balance
The true job of an audio engineer is to make the decisions and adjustments necessary to balance this tonal scale for the benefit of the song or composition they are mixing. From looking at the chart one can surmise that many instruments share the same range of frequencies and therefore when they are all represented within the same composition, they will actually begin to fight each other. In many cases, tonal equivalent instruments can even cancel each other out all together, to the point that they can’t be heard at all.

If you’ve ever been to hear a rock band live and thought that the sound was bad, think about the audio spectrum and it’s easy to understand why. Guitars, the human voice, and snare drums all reside in the same frequency range and when you place them all within the same box (ie. the club) and turn them up really loud; chaos can ensue and many times does. The principles of balance is what it means to mix a song. Some instruments will require more focus than others and some instruments may even be deemed unnecessary depending on the song when compared to other instruments that are represented in the mix. Deciding on the instrumentation of a song can drastically alter the feel and the emotion of a piece of music and it is just as much a part of the artistic process as writing a lyric or tuning the guitar.

Tried and True Formulas – Instrumentation
One of the best examples of a formula that works in harmony is the drum set itself. The drum set is a set of percussive instruments that when combined, fill from low to high, the entire audio spectrum. From the low frequencies of the bass drum to the high frequencies of the high hats, the kit represents probably the greatest challenge to an audio engineer for this very reason. It is an instrument that spans the entire audio spectrum and if not balanced properly, can drastically effect the quality of a recording. The balance and skill required by the drummer performing on the kit can also drastically determine the size of the job an audio engineer has to contend with when mixing the drum kit. A truly musical drummer will recognize and do much of this themselves in the performance.

The four piece rock band is another tried and true formula that potentially balances the audio spectrum. Bass guitar, drum kit, guitar, and voice all blend together nicely (if done right) and have the ability to fill the spectrum in a harmonious manner. Well, harmonius to those that enjoy rock music anyway. Taste is entirely another subject all together.

On a grander scale the orchestra is indeed the pinnacle of mans ability to harness the audio spectrum. The orchestra came together long before the days of recording or amplification and just the layout of how an orchestra assembles on a stage is a testament to our understanding of the audio spectrum and where the instruments are spaced within it.

Let it Go
In a nutshell this is what mixing your song is all about on a technical level. The real key is harnessing this knowledge, using it, while at the same time, forgetting it so that you can just do the work necessary for the song that you are working on without getting lost in the minutia. Much like learning anything, there are building blocks involved. One must learn the language to truly begin to speak it well. So take the time and teach your ears how to recognize and evaluate the audio spectrum in detail. Then you will have an entirely new understanding of what’s going on within your mix. Above all else, don’t be afraid to experiment. While many things are tried and true, there is always room to discover more possibilities that exist within the audio spectrum of the cosmos.

Environmental Variables

The last blog I posted covered acquiring all of the various components for your studio system and this one is going to talk briefly about the environment in which you choose to record your tracks in. Not all tracks should be recorded in the same location so there are a few considerations still to make before you hit that record button.

Pick the Location

Before you can determine the best microphone placement for an instrument you’ve got to decide on the placement of the instrument itself. So before you setup and plug in your first microphone you should take a moment and look around your house, apartment or studio and use your ears for a moment to determine if you’ve scouted out the best location for recording your next track. Maybe there’s some spots that you haven’t thought of using that could serve a purpose for recording that perfect vocal or guitar sound. While your control room may remain stationary, your microphones should be allowed to roam throughout your dwelling.

What comes to mind first for many people, if you’re task is recording vocals, is the shower. This can indeed produce some interesting results and may be the sound you’re looking for on a particular track. I’d suggest you experiment with other areas. Maybe there’s an area of your home that has a large vaulted ceiling or a stairwell that could provide a more interesting effect. The other end of this spectrum is to place your microphone in a closet and make a vocal booth that has no reflections and a small tight sound. Just picking a part of your house with a different type of flooring to record in can make a huge difference in the sound that goes into the microphone. Experimentation is the key here, regardless of the instrument you are recording. All I’m saying is that you should listen around to your options before you end up sitting in front of your desk with the microphone. Although, sometimes that works just fine too. A couple of observations that I can share that are my opinion only, wood paneling warms up vocals unlike other hard reflective surfaces such as dry wall and acoustic guitars simply shimmer when recorded in a room with a tile floor.

Noises Out

We hear allot about sound proofing but there are concepts around this science that are not always immediately thought of or talked about as much. Typically when you hear someone talking about sound proofing they are generally talking about keeping the sound inside the room so that it doesn’t disturb the neighbors or even your roommates. Yet when I think of sound proofing, I’m generally more concerned with keeping noise from getting into the studio and not so much about the sound of the music getting out. The neighbors barking dogs, traffic, airplanes, and even bird noises can all find their way into a microphone that is plugged in and hot in the room. If you’re in the midst of recording a quiet acoustic guitar passage with two microphones on in the room, the dog next door can quickly ruin the entire session and you may have to wait until the noise stops before you can produce any results. Sound proofing windows, doors and any other openings then becomes a vital task.

I came up with my own solution for my studio. Since I didn’t want to permanently alter or close in the windows, I instead came up with the concept of sliding window treatments. These treatments help considerably with the noise from the outside world but they are still not as ideal as a properly built sound proofed wall. Let’s face it, most of us don’t have the luxury of reconstruction to that degree. The solution I came up with was to purchase barn door track from the internet and instead of doors, I hung plywood that I then covered with Auralex acoustical tiles. This solution still allows me the ability to open the windows and let in the natural light when I want or close them up and keep the room a bit quieter when I’m recording. It also provided some absorptive surfaces that keep reflections in the studio to a minimum. I essentially sacrificed complete silence for functionality of the windows, a trade off that I’m pretty satisfied with for my home studio. There are many ways to upgrade this type of construction and the more density you add to the structure the more sound that will get contained. Unfortunately, the more density the more weight that the track will need to support.

Don’t be afraid from time to time to let the ambient sounds from outside into your recordings. There was one evening the summer before last that the frogs were creating a huge noise outside. So much so that I stuck a condenser microphone out the door and recorded a few minutes of it. I recorded about four tracks of the frogs and layered them to make it dense and added some reverb to the tracks as well. This tracking session ended up becoming the beginning of the song “Chrysalis” on the Transformation CD.

Noises In

Other noise problems that can pollute your recordings that you’ll need to contend with, also come from inside your house. Refrigerators are extremely noisy and their hum will infiltrate any recordings that are done in their proximity. So before you get that great sounding acoustic guitar track on the tile in your kitchen; you may need to turn up the thermostat on the fridge. Just don’t forget you did it and ruin your groceries.

Your air conditioner or furnace is another major noise maker and unfortunately, the best solution here is literally to shut it off before you hit the record button.

It may seem like these noises wouldn’t amount to much but in a multi track environment, with ten different tracks running that have the same room, the noises gets multiplied and they end up on every channel. What you end up with is 10 air conditioners and 10 refrigerators playing back with your audio.

Temperature

Another thing that I’ve noticed, and this may sound fairly picky but the temperature in your environment can change the way things sound as well. I noticed a huge difference one summer here in Texas when our Air Conditioner went out and it reached temperatures upwards of 90 degrees inside my studio. I just had to get this idea down so I went on sweating it out. A few days later when the AC was running again, I went back and listened to the session, man was I surprised. The recording really sounded different, heavier, almost denser than usual. So if you’re looking for a certain heaviness in the air for a song, you may try cranking up the heat and see if you can tell a difference. Keep a close eye on your computer equipment when the room gets warm. It probably won’t agree with it.

Let it roll

All in all, home recording is a “use what you have” scenario so make sure you’re making the most of all of the variables that you can control and learn to be patient with those that you can’t control. It’s possible to get as creative as you want with where you decide to record an instrument but you may want to invest in some really long microphone cables if your control room is not portable or if your house is rather large.

Keep thinking outside the box and create some ambience without the need for artificial reverbs! – John!