Archive for 'January, 2010'

It’s crazy to think that a month has already passed us by since we began this challenge. If you’ve been taking the challenge with us, you should be pretty far along at this point. Ideally you’ve got all your tracks recorded, cleaned up, and ready for mixing. If not, no worries, these videos aren’t going anywhere so you can go at your own pace of course.

Today we are going to cover some basic mixing techniques. Now, mixing is a complex art that can take years to perfect, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump in and get after it! All of today’s popular DAWs (Pro Tools, Logic, Sonar, Cubase, etc) come with a wide array of professional mixing plugins for you to use, and they sound great. So fire them up, watch this video (it’s in two parts) and make it happen!

Just a reminder if you’re just joining us…below are the 5 weeks of this challenge with links to each video. Enjoy!

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mixing tips and technique

Part 1

Part 2

Depending on how you work with Pro Tools you may end up importing a lot of files into any given session. These could be drum loops, tracks from another session, or sound effects from an external sound library. Whatever the case may be, when you import audio into a Pro Tools session you want to have a few import settings in place to insure you get not only the best possible quality of conversion (if your audio requires it) but also the best file structure so you don’t lose anything down the road.

It’s All In Your Preferences

Pretty much everything you can tweak in Pro Tools is done from the Preferences box. You want to become very familiar with this as you dive deeper into this program. To access the Preferences in Pro Tools simply navigate to the Setup menu and choose Preferences.

You’ll see a dialog box with a handful of different tabs up top. Here is where you can change anything from the colors you see in the Edit and Mix windows to how long the clip indicator stays lit on your tracks. For now we want to click on the Processing tab.

Keeping Things Where They Belong

Over on the left you’ll see a section called Import. Here is where you need to make just two brief adjustments. The first thing I highly recommend is that you make sure the box labeled Automatically Copy Files On Import is checked. This tells Pro Tools to do exactly what it says. By default, when you import audio into your session, Pro Tools is simply playing that audio from where it is on your computer. If the file is deleted at some point, then it will no longer show up in your session. That is not cool, trust me on this one.

Instead check that box so that the next time you import something it will put a copy of it in your sessions Audio folder, allowing it to stay nice and safe with all your other recorded audio. This is especially important when backing sessions up. You want all your audio to be there in one place.

Choose Your Quality Bar

The very last option in the Import section is the Sample Rate Conversion Quality. Some imported files may come in a different sample rate from the one you’re using in your session. A drum loop, for example, may have been recorded at 48khz but your session may be at 44.1khz. Pro Tools has to convert the loop in order for it to play at the right speed. This menu determines how good that conversion is.

There is a drop down to the right that gives you a handful of options. Just choose TweakHead and be done with it. It doesn’t matter that it’s the slowest since this is a one time conversion to get the audio into your session.

One and Done

That’s pretty much it. Once you’ve made these switches in your preferences, Pro Tools will remember them for each session you create on that computer. You don’t even have to remember what you learned today once you’ve done it! It’s a one and done deal as I like to say. Enjoy!

Here we are in the year 2010, an unprecedented age of technology and accessibility, where the prices of computers and recording equipment have dropped tremendously…while at the same time the power and feature set of both have skyrocketed. It doesn’t get any better than this people. That being said, I believe we are living in a point in history where I can firmly say that every musician in America should have and use a home studio. With a complete powerhouse of a studio available for under $500, there is absolutely no excuse. Let’s take a brief look at three reasons why.

Home studios help you write music

I’ve written before that I believe the home studio to be the ultimate songwriting tool. Having the power and ease to be able to dump your ideas into something like Pro Tools is incredible. It not only allows you to remember what you are writing, but it actually helps you create music you never would have thought of.

Many artists today are using their home studios to help write their newest albums. Linkin Park, Fall Out Boy, T-Pain are just a few top label artists who begin their hit song writing in front of a computer with just an idea or two. Mike Shinoda  of Linkin Park mentions in an interview that “most of the songs on our first album were written on my Pro Tools setup, and we still use our Pro Tools rigs to demo ideas.” Which brings me to my next point…

Home studios help you demo your songs

If you are a singer/songwriter or are in a band and are preparing to do an album, your home studio demos can speed up that process and help you get a more polished final product. Demos allow you to try arrangement and production ideas before you really sit down to record the album.

Shinoda says of demoing in Pro Tools. “Demos generally begin…as a basic sketch with a scat vocal. Then we meet once a week to listen and vote on the songs. The good ideas can be quickly bumped over to our communal Pro Tools system, where we develop them further. It’s a very streamlined, organized system, and because we generally have so much music, that’s exactly what we need to keep track of what we’re working on.”

Home studios help you collaborate

Combine the power of the personal computer, the affordability of today’s DAWs, and add to that the accessibility of high speed internet and you have a perfect storm for music collaboration. More than ever musicians are working on recordings with other musicians around the world…at the same time!

The best example of this in recent years is the “band born online”, Pistol Youth. Bradley Carter (of New Zealand band Steriogram) wanted to collaborate on something new so he decided to write and record a 6 song EP with three other friends in three different countries! The guys never met up during this entire process. You can check a video interview here.

Now this is an extreme example, but it shows the power and opportunities afforded you if you have a basic home studio setup.

This is the year

If you don’t already have a home studio, or maybe you do and you just haven’t tapped into it’s full potential…make this the year that you step out in confidence that you can have the right tools (for not much money) to create more music in 2010!

We’re back and better than ever this week with part 4 of the One Song One Month Challenge. If you’re just joining us then welcome. We’re in the middle of writing and recording an original song in one month. Sound like fun? Then join us! Check out the videos below to catch up…

Here is how the weeks are broken up for our challenge:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mixing tips and techniques

Today I want to take a quick look at doing some basic edits to your tracks and cleaning your session up to get ready for mixing. Even in a simple session like the one I have, you’re going to want to do some edits and comping in order to get your tracks sounding perfect. Let’s take a look…

Flat out, I am not a gear junkie. I think recording gear is way cool, but I just don’t care to waste my money on most of it. I use a couple of decent mics, an audio interface, a keyboard controller, an affordable pair of studio monitors, some budget pres, and my DAW of choice, Pro Tools. That’s about it. To be honest it’s not much different than the $500 setup I recommend to musicians all the time. But today I want to mention a piece of gear that has saved me many times in the studio and I keep in my bag of tricks just in case…

The (not so) secret weapon

You ready for it? It’s simply a Tube MP external pre/DI from ART. Specifically I have the Studio V3 model that comes with some EQ presets built in. This little metal box is interesting. On the surface it’s a simple stand alone microphone preamp. It has a budget tube inside that you can drive to mix in with the solid state signal giving you a “warm” and “colored” sound. Now I’m not generally one to recommend (or buy myself) external preamps when the ones built in my audio interface do the job wonderfully, but here are 3 things this little box does that I find make it a valuable weapon in my arsenal.

It adds some punch to bass guitar

Since I picked this guy up a few years ago I have recorded practically every bass guitar part through it. When you drive the Input knob you really get a slight distortion (from the tube) to the signal that I think gives the bass guitar some life in the mix. It’s a common technique to run the bass track through an amp modeling plugin during mixing, but it’s nice to add some punch on the way in, so to speak.

It let’s me split my guitar signal

These days I like to both mic a guitar amp and capture the dry guitar signal when recording, allowing me to re-amp the dry signal later. The Tube MP helps me do this flawlessly. I plug the guitar cable directly into the Tube MP, then I use it’s dual outputs to run one out to the guitar amp in the tracking room (which is miked up) and the other signal straight to Pro Tools. What I get is the miked and dry signal recorded easily at the same time without any fuss.

It gives me that extra gain I need

One feature I’ve come to use on occasion is the gain boost switch. One push of a button and you get an extra 20db of tube gain. Why is this great? Well sometimes what you’re recording is just too quiet, and perhaps the pres in your audio interface just don’t give you enough gain to get a decent signal level into Pro Tools. So pull out your Tube MP plug it into a line input on your box and BAM, you’ve got more gain in no time.

You know the best thing about it?

Truly the best thing about my secret weapon is the price. You can get this puppy for as low as $48. That’s the real secret. People are spending $500 to $1000 every day for a “mid range” mic pre…but you…oh no. You my friend can drop less than $50 and have yourself a great sounding mic pre, bass DI, signal splitter, with gain boost and tube circuitry! Now that’s a revolution in recording!

Looking to get the most out of your Pro Tools system? Do your sessions tend to slow down when you get a few tracks in there? Do you get error messages a lot? Here’s a simple tip for you that will help. Buy and use an external hard drive alongside your internal system drive. This can be either firewire or USB 2.0 (depending on what ports your computer has) and can come in any size of course.

How will an external drive help?

Here’s the idea: your main system drive is where your operating system, programs/applications, and plugins are installed. When you record in a Pro Tools session, you are saving the audio onto your hard drive. As you begin laying down more tracks, Pro Tools is trying to not only operate the software and plugins off of your system drive, but it’s trying to read from and write audio to the same drive. This tends to bog the drive down causing errors or slow system performance.

The solution is to use a separate hard drive designated as your Audio drive. You install Pro Tools and all your software on your main system drive like normal, but when you create a new session you save it to your external drive. Now when you record audio it will be writing to one drive while your system drive is free to run Pro Tools. It’s a beautiful thing.

Other perks

Not only will having an external drive help system performance, it helps your mobility. If you record on a friend’s system or in another studio you can bring your drive and record the session there while leaving your main computer at home. Then just bring the hard drive back home, hook it up, and Pro Tools will read the session perfectly.

Some Options

Here just a few options for good external drives to look into. At the end of the day all that matters is that it works with your computer and is quiet!

Western Digital 500GB – $89
Lacie 1TB (i.e. 1000GB) – $109
Super portable Western Digital 320GB – $89

We find ourselves in the middle our month long challenge…that is to write, record, and finish a song in the month of January. At this point you should have a session created with your main instrument of choice recorded along with some drum loops or rhythm of some kind. If you’re just joining us you have plenty of time to catch up. Just head to week 1 and week 2 by clicking the links below and enjoy!

This week we are going to tap into the power and convenience  of using virtual instruments to fill out our arrangement a bit. Just a brief disclaimer: to really take advantage of all that your DAW has to offer by way of virtual instruments you need to use a keyboard controller of some kind. I wrote an article on it a few weeks back so be sure to check it out to get some ideas.

Just another reminder, here is how the weeks are broken up for our challenge:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mix and bounce for the web

Enjoy the video…and hey, feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. I’m here to help!

In last week’s edition of the One Song One Month Challenge I showed you how to import drum loops into your session quickly and easily. Some of you had a great question however: “How do you audition loops that aren’t already in your session…say on your hard drive somewhere?” I figured I’d make a quick video showing you the fastest way to do that in Pro Tools. Enjoy!

At the Recording Revolution, I write a lot about focusing on the music and improving your skill at production instead of fussing over buying new gear or using what the “pros” are using in their studios. At the end of the day, what matters with a recording is how things sound, not what was used to make them sound that way. Listeners don’t care what microphone you recorded with, or where you recorded for that matter. They DO care however that it sounds awesome.

So Here’s My Challenge

That all being said, here is a potential challenge for your music making in 2010. Use only what you have at your disposal (i.e. don’t go out and buy more mics and preamps if you don’t need them) and try to use the most basic setup possible. For many of you that means just use your $100 mic and your audio interface’s built in preamps. For some of you that may mean, putting that tube pre purchase on hold for a year.

The goal here is not simply to shun gear, but more importantly to encourage productivity. Prove to yourself that you can capture great recordings with one mic and mic pre, before you get caught up in the hype of gear lust. The gear won’t save your recording…you will (if you know what you’re doing).

Don’t Get Me Wrong

I love gear. It’s just that the industry wants you to always be looking for that next thing for your studio. It’s a trap. Unless you got into this to collect recording equipment, your goal should be to make great sounding music. To do that you only need to spend $500. Then you need to learn that gear, take a chance, and dive in.

So in 2010, use what you got and see what you can accomplish. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Drop me a comment or hit me up on Twitter. Here’s to more music making!

Welcome to Week 2 of the One Song One Month Challenge! Hopefully you joined us last week as we started 2010 with a bang of creativity and productivity! The goal of this challenge is to get you moving in your studio right away, eliminate excuses to making music, and to set a realistic deadline to complete something. If you can produce a song in one month, you can complete an album in a year! Nice!

As a reminder here is how we are breaking down the five Fridays in January:

1. Starting Your Song – Creating a session, setting tempo, initial recording
2. Rhythm – Using loops and drum machines to fill out the track
3. Virtual Instruments – Using MIDI tracks to enhance your arrangement
4. Editing – Comping vocals and overall cleanup
5. Mixing – Basic mix and bounce for the web

This week we are going to build on that original riff you recorded by adding some drum loops and taking a peek at using virtual drummers. I hope you’ll enjoy this video and get motivated to keep working on your song!