Archive for 'November, 2009'

In Part 1 of this post I exposed 2 of the most prevalent myths relating to home recording floating around out there. You don’t need thousands of dollars of gear including boutique preamps to make pro recordings…it’s just not true (remember Ari Hest). Today though I want to touch on 2 myths that swing the other way slightly. Kind of playing devil’s advocate here. Because the other problem I see out there is people who claim to have all the gear I recommend and they just aren’t getting the results they want, so they blame the gear. Let’s take a look…

Myth #3 – “I have Pro Tools and it’s the industry standard, therefor my recordings should sound amazing!”

You’ll see this one a lot online. People will buy a Pro Tools system and then bash all the other software users out there while at the same time espousing that just because they own and use Pro Tools, they should be making pro level recordings. Now I’m unashamed to say that I love and use Pro Tools practically everyday. I think it is the industry standard for a reason and continues to serve as an awesome recording solution for hobbyists and professionals alike. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, just having a good tool doesn’t guarantee good work.

On this blog and when I do consulting I recommend most people get a Pro Tools system. Read some of my earlier posts to see a lot of the benefits to Pro Tools and why push it. I believe it has all the tools to help you make pro recordings. But that’s it. It won’t record for you and it won’t get a great acoustic guitar tone for you. YOU have to learn how to record, edit, and mix yourself. It takes time and experience, not money. So get the right tool for the job (and don’t pay anymore than you have to) but then learn the tool as best as you can. That is the ONLY way to get a good recording.

Myth #4 – “My recordings sound good to me so they must be good!”

I’m going to be honest with you right now. Just because you think your recordings sound good doesn’t necessarily mean they ARE good. Now how could I say that?! Isn’t music subjective? Well yes and no. I do encourage creativity and innovation. And many styles and sounds we now consider the standard were once new and weird. And you must make music the way YOU want to hear it. It is the only way to satisfy your creative spirit. If we’re all just recording music to meet some standard of perfection then we’re simply a factory churning out clones. But there is an important other side to this coin.

Taking all of that into account, when you make a recording you still need create a balanced and clear representation of the music you have in your head. It will need to be captured in a way that translates well onto computer speakers, iPod earbuds, car stereos, and home theaters. You have a medium in which you will be delivering your art and there are standards to which you must adhere. The problem comes when you have spent hours in your home studio working on a song or an album and it sounds good to YOU. But have you tested it on other speakers? Have you played it for people you trust? Have you compared it to they way your favorite professional recordings sound? These are vital steps to help you actually see the true recording behind your bias mask (we all have this). If you truly care about making great recordings, then take the time to ensure what you are creating will translate well into the real world.

Don’t fall for the myths…

You’re a smart person. You are reading this blog for a reason. Obviously you care about good music and making great recordings. Do yourself a favor and don’t listen to all the myths floating around on the internet or in recording magazines. And don’t espouse those same myths to yourself that will actually hold you back from making the best possible music. Instead focus your energy on getting the right tools, learning them well, and just getting in the studio and doing it.

Today I want to expose a few home recording myths floating around out there. The problem with myths is that they can seem logical or “common knowledge” when really they are a distraction from actually recording, making music, and getting experience in the studio. Maybe you’ve heard some of these myths before or maybe you’re new to all this, either way this post should help. So let’s dive in…

Myth #1 – “The preamps in your audio interface are junk. You need to buy an external mic pre.”

I see this one paraded around all the time on the internet. It seems that no matter what audio interface you have, someone is criticizing the built in mic pres and making claims that if you want to make good recordings then an additional mic pre is a must. There are two problems with this myth: First, it creates an attitude of discontentment in your equipment, leading you to put too much responsibility on the shoulders of more gear when really it should fall on you and your skills. Second, it doesn’t really give a concrete answer to your “problem” since which mic pre to get is also debatable; leading the home recording newbie into a spiral of confusion and self doubt.

The reality is this: the mic preamps built in to your audio interface are more than likely clean, clear, with plenty of headroom to capture an accurate recording. Recording technology is so widely available these days that it does not take much money to create a quality signal path like it did 40 years ago. Sure an external preamp (a tube pre for example) will have a unique “sound” to it, but it won’t simply be “better” than what you have. Just different. And that’s not what you need right now. You need quality components (which you have) that will get the job done so you can focus on making good decisions with mic placement, the tone of your instrument, arrangement, and creativity in songwriting and performing.

Myth #2 – “Home recording = demos. Serious recording takes thousands of dollars and a studio.”

I come across a lot of nay-sayers on the web who think the whole “home recording” industry is a sham and really the most you can do at home with this affordable gear is just make a great demo, but not a pro recording. I think this is just ignorant snobbery. First of all, I’ve already written a post on 3 top major label bands who have recorded great albums (one of them Grammy award winning) at home. Check it out and listen for yourself. Second this myth shows blind belief in the root of Myth #1, that more gear and money spent equals better recordings, which is just not true.

I’ve said it a million times before, but a good recording is only as good as the song, the arrangement, the musician, and the creativity put into it. Sure if those elements aren’t there, or one or two of them are really weak, then you may just end up with an OK demo. But the gear is not the limiting factor…YOU are! A great example of this is famous singer/songwriter Ari Hest. Being a major label musician Ari has spent plenty of time in nice studios with great gear making great recordings. But during some downtime before his latest album was to be released on Columbia records, he decided to toy around with some recordings in his New York apartment.

He picked up a $100 M-Audio interface and a $100 microphone and used Garageband on his laptop to record what later become The Green Room Sessions, an amazing self recorded, produced, and mixed EP which Columbia picked up and released immediately. He pretty much embodies the mindset of “I am what limits my music, not gear”. If you haven’t picked up the EP, you can click through to the iTunes store to get it!

No Excuses…
Don’t let these recording myths hold you back. Just tune out all the noise and instead spend your time making music. You’ll only learn more, get better at it, and have fun. And ultimately isn’t that what making music is all about? Having fun?

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Click here for Part 2 of this post!

Here on the blog my goal is to help musicians like you get the most out of your home recording gear while saving both time and money. Hopefully my posts are helping you do that. Sometimes however you might have a specific question that you’d like answered and I want to do my best to answer those questions here on the blog. Today I have a great question from one of my readers regarding Pro Tools  and whether or not one should switch to it from a different recording program. Check out the video and decide for yourself!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…we live in an era where recording gear is so affordable and so widely available that we should all just get out there and make more music. Turns out we also live in an era where bands are now recording their songs on cell phones. It’s crazy I know. If you haven’t already seen this video I want you to take 3 minutes out of your day to watch a group of talented musicians remove the “I need more gear” excuse out of the recording equation as they make a killer recording on their iPhone. The band is The 88 and the song is called “Love Is The Thing”.

Some Observations…
I want you to notice a few important things presented in the video. All of these line up with the philosophy of recording I try to teach here on my blog and when I do consulting…

First, they were recording in someone’s house. We’re not talking a nice renovated basement studio in a house, just an actual, lived in house. The bass player is sitting on the floor next to some kids toys for crying out loud! I’m guessing one of the band members lives there, but either way it was a convenient and comfortable environment. That goes a long way to making the band feel loose and ready to record.

They used creative and unusual “mic” placement to get a great drum sound. Notice how they placed the iPhone in a little “fort” of pillows. It was catching the reflections of sound off of the walls and ceiling. They made adjustments to the kit (sheet over the snare and toms, played with brushes) and probably moved the iPhone around till they had a sound they liked that was balanced.

Their “studio” consisted of a simple 4 channel audio interface that costs $179. It’s insane to think that for less than $200 you can pick up the Alesis ProTrack that they used. It has a built in stereo mic as well as 2 mic pres for hooking up your own studio microphone. The 88 used the iPhone app FourTrack to record. Also according to their website, they used the actual built in iPhone mic for everything but the lead vocal! Simple, affordable, amazing.

They used Pro Tools to do the final mix. Obviously they were limited in the editing and mixing realm on their iPhone, so you can see they dumped their recorded tracks into their mac, and mixed them down in Pro Tools. This helped them get the right balance and dynamics to make the final song sound clear and punchy.

Wrapping It All Up…
I hope you are encouraged by this video. These guys are living proof that you don’t need expensive gear or a perfect studio environment to make a great recording. What you DO need however is a great song, talented musicians, time, and creativity (all of which these guys had). Put those 4 things together with some basic studio gear and you are ready to go. No excuses. No drama. So get pumped, and as Nike always says…just do it!

In part 1 of this post I laid out four simple tips to help you make better recordings in the least amount of time. If you haven’t read that post yet, go back now and read those first few tips and begin implementing them. You will notice a difference in your recordings immediately! For now, let me share four more tips with you that will help you get better recordings now, not later…

5. Play Cleaner and Simpler

Back in college when I was putting together my first “professional” album as an artist, I hired session players to cover drums, bass, and lead guitar as well as a recording engineer who knew way more than me. One of the things he focused on with me as a singer and guitar player was that I needed to “clean up” my performance when the recording light went on. My guitar strums were so busy and my vocal inflections were a little loose. At first I thought he was just being overly critical of “my style” but I soon learned that the recording sounded much clearer, tight, focused, and rocking. This revolutionized an area of recording for me that today I try to push on everyone I work with in the studio.

If you want your recordings to improve “overnight” then one of the best things you can do is to be very intentional about each guitar strum, piano hit, drum fill, bass riff, and vocal run you lay down. Keep it simple where you can. Keep it consistent where you can. Yes you may lose some of the “live” element of your playing, but part of that nice big studio sound is tight, polished and focused playing. Trust me on this. You won’t appreciate what this one tip can do for you until you commit to it and begin playing differently when you hit record. The final product will that much better.

6. Change Up The Instrumentation

Part of what makes a great song a great recording is that it is interesting to listen to, from beginning to end. The song shouldn’t be static; it should be moving and changing and keeping the listener on his toes until the very end. In essence what I’m talking about here is arrangement. The better the arrangement, the better the song…and the better the recording. What you can do to help out your recordings in this way is to change things up a bit. If you have both an acoustic and electric guitar, use them both. Layer a slightly different part with the acoustic than you did with your electric. Or use a capo to play the chords in a different variation or inversion perhaps.

The idea here is to have a big picture view of your song and your recording. Part of getting a great final mix is to capture your instruments in the best possible way, yes. But the other part is to capture the most interesting and complementary pairings of instrumentation possible for your song. Think of why an orchestra sounds so good, they have so many different types of instruments that complement one another to create a sound that is more engaging than the parts by themselves. That is where music becomes larger than life. Arrangement is the key and you should think about it each time you want to lay down some tracks. Remember, you don’t have to go out and learn a million different instruments or hire session players, but you could try to mix up your tones and sounds from what you do have and not just record the same instrument over and over again without any variation.

7. Use a Comp Track Technique

One sure fire way to cause your singer or bass player to get stressed out in the studio and to waste time is to make him or her re-record their parts until it is as close to perfect as possible. Some people just can’t take the pressure and actually perform worse in “studio” conditions. Instead what you ought to do is take full advantage of your DAW’s ability to comp (composite) tracks together. This will allow to record multiple “takes” of a part, saving each one, and putting no pressure on your performance. Then when you’re ready to edit your song you pick the best parts, lines, even words of a take and mix and match them up to create a final “super” take.

You can use this technique for drums, bass, guitar solos, etc. I do this all the time with vocalists. When it comes to capturing a great lead vocal you want every word and note to be clear, in time, passionate, and authentic. I usually let my vocalist sing through the song once as a warm up, no pressure. (I’ll record this track without them knowing however. Sometimes you’ll get a real gem of a performance in the “warmup” track!) Then I’ll let them record anywhere from 2 to 5 takes of the song all the way through. Sometimes we’ll do a take where we just focus on a challenging part of the song, let’s say a few high notes in the bridge. That way I have more to pull from later. This only takes a few minutes, adds no real “in the moment” pressure on my vocalist, and allows us to comp together a great track later at a time that’s more convenient for everyone. Don’t underestimate the power of this one technique…it’s used on more pro recordings than you can count.

8. Try Something Totally Weird And Crazy

This seems an odd tip to be giving but hear me out. So much emphasis is put on how to record things right. In a way there are certain techniques, rules, or principles that help guide us as we try and capture sound in a real space (or not) and put together a recording that is clear, coherent, and enjoyable to the listener. And a lot of times we (myself included) focus most of our time trying to mimic a certain sound or style we ourselves enjoy. But in reality, recording great music isn’t truly about rules or patterns. So much of what we love about “classic” recordings has to do with the spontaneous, the resourceful, and the radical nature of those recording sessions.

What I’m trying to say is, one thing people have been doing since recording first began and you can do in your home studio each and every time you sit down to do a project is to try something totally different, bizarre, and weird in hopes that you might just stumble upon greatness. Put your mic in an awkward position, record your drums in a gymnasium, use a synth bass line on your emo acoustic song…just do something random and see if it works. Recording music is an art form, not just a vocational skill. Be creative, be daring, be obscure. Push the boundaries just a little bit each time and see what comes of it. If you go “too far” and it takes away from the song, no worries; just back it off and move on. You have nothing to lose by trying…and so much gain if you stumble upon  the next great thing!

Now get to it…

I hope these 8 simple tips help you do one thing and one thing only, make better recordings now! I don’t want you to wait any longer or keep making excuses about why you aren’t ready to record your music. Read this blog and others like it, learn and don’t stop learning…but most importantly, get out there and make music. These simple steps will ensure you get better recordings without spending a lot of money or time, so now you know them…what are you waiting for?

We all want to make better recordings. We pour our hearts out into writing the best songs we can and we want to share them with fans, friends, and family. But there are many factors to making a great recording, some of which just take years and years of doing. This can be frustrating for the new home recording musician as you just don’t have a lot of time to learn. How can you make better recordings right now? In this 2 part post I lay out 8 simple, yet effective recording tips and suggestions to help you capture bigger and better sounding recordings of your songs. Let’s dig in…

1.Replace Your Guitar/Bass Strings And Drum Heads

One of the simplest and most cost effective things you can do to get better guitar, bass, and drum tracks is to change out all your strings and heads before recording. Old strings sound dull and lifeless, the problem is that you are used to the sound if you haven’t changed them in a while. Do yourself a favor and replace the strings before you even press “record.” Your electric guitars will sound fuller and your acoustic will sound brighter, and most importantly you’ll be getting the best out of your instrument before it ever hits Pro Tools. This tip is especially important when recording drums. Take the time to replace each drum head AND tune the drums appropriately before every recording. Your snare will crack, your toms will resonate nicely, and your kick will destroy the bottom end. All the “big boys” do this to get great drum sounds, so should you.

The best way to get a good recording is to make sure the source you are recording sounds it’s best. Seems simple, but honestly this is the most overlooked recording step. People just want to jump right in to picking the best mics and using the coolest recording technique and then using fancy mixing plugins to make their drums and guitars sound huge! When in reality they actually aren’t getting a good drum or guitar sound in real life yet. So first things first…change your strings and drum heads before you even fire up your computer. You’ll be glad you did.

2.Use a Close Mic Technique

When recording in a home studio you don’t have the luxury of perfectly acoustically treated rooms, floating floors and all. In fact you are usually working with less than optimal conditions (i.e a loud refrigerator in the kitchen, cars and lawnmowers outside the window, a/c vents blowing, and even computer fan noise). To help combat these extra sounds we need to implement a close mic recording technique. It works just like it sounds. When recording vocals you get right up on the mic (no further than 6 inches). Same goes for acoustic guitar. When recording a guitar amp, put the mic right up on the grill or within 1 to 2 inches.

What we need to remember is that a microphone is like an ear without a brain. It hears everything equally. So in order to get the mic to “only hear” what we want it to hear (i.e. the guitar track or vocal you are currently recording) then we need that sound source to be the most dominant thing in the mic. To do this, we get pretty dang close to the mic. If you listen back to a soloed vocal track and still hear faint traffic sounds in the background, don’t worry, you most likely won’t hear any of that in the mix with all the other tracks.

3.Double Your Guitar and Vocal Parts

One of the oldest tricks in the book is to double up a part to make it sound bigger. This is most useful for guitar and vocal tracks. The idea is simple. If you record a guitar riff in Pro Tools and it sounds great, then great. But if you then record another take of that exact same guitar part on a separate track something awesome will happen. You will have two identical parts that are the slightest bit off from one another (because you can’t play the same part 100% the same each time) usually by just milliseconds. This plays a trick on the human ear making it sound bigger and fuller. What’s helpful is to take these two “identical” tracks and pan them apart left and right in the stereo spectrum and you now have a big wall of sound guitar part.

You can do similar things with your vocal parts. Simply record a second or third take to match up with your vocals, and use it creatively. Sometimes it helps to double up the lead vocal in the chorus for the “hook” of the song. Makes the vocals standout there. Sometimes it’s cool to double up just a word or phrase here and there for emphasis. Some artists (like the Foo Fighters) use this technique for every single vocal line in all of their songs, just for effect. Either way you use doubling, don’t take the technique lightly. It will instantly enhance your tracks.

4.Record To a Click Track

I know that no one likes to use click tracks. They supposedly steal the “soul” out of your song and force you to create boring, in tempo music that has no creative ebb and flow. Well I hate to burst your bubble, but recording to a click track is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure you get quality recordings that sound professional. There a couple of reasons why:

First, since you are recording at home and probably playing most if not all of the instruments yourself (or your band can’t record all at once) you will need a reference point in your session. Click tracks help you stay in time with the whole band during intros, outros, breaks in the song, tempo changes, etc. Let’s face it, no matter how well your tracks are recorded, if your band isn’t in sync with each other than no tone in the world will help it. Second, click tracks help you bring in song enhancements like professional loops, and time delay effects that will line up perfectly with your live recordings. Even if you don’t think you will use any loops in your recording now, why not leave yourself the option? Without a click track (i.e. a set tempo) it will be impossible to bring in loops or samples without everything getting off.

And finally, recording to a click track makes you a better musician. Most music sounds best when played at a steady, predefined tempo. That is why orchestras have conductors, to keep all the players in time. The best musicians and bands play so tightly and consistently to a tempo (even if it’s in their heads) and that adds an extra layer of professional polish to their songs. By using a click track you will learn how to keep steady timing in your head and your playing/performing will get better. Trust me on this one.

Stay Tuned…

These 4 tips alone will help you get much better recordings right away. Don’t underestimate their simplicity. Remember, recording isn’t complicated, but you do have to know what you are doing. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post for some more great tips to help you save time and get to making better recordings…now!