Archive for 'mono'

Part 6 of 31 - Want a bigger sounding mix with more width and clarity? Then pick one stereo track to stay stereo and fold the rest down to mono. Ironic, isn’t it?

Mono Tracks Are The Secret

I always thought big wide stereo tracks were the goal. Have stereo piano, stereo guitar, stereo drums, stereo loops, etc. That much stereo should equal one big ole’ mix, right?! Wrong. The secret to wider mixes is simple: use mostly mono tracks. A bunch of stereo tracks just cover each other up and wash out your mix.

Part 3 of 31 - To make great mixes you need to listen to great mixes. More than that you need to steal specific ideas and production decisions from the pros and try to impliment them in your own tracks.

Pick Three Things

It’s one thing to like a pro mix, it’s another thing all together to identify specific elements of that mix that you want to “borrow”. Be specific and write down three things you want to try on your next mix. It won’t ever sound exactly the same, but it gives you some direction and goals to shoot for in the mix.

As you may well know, there are countless ways to record an acoustic drum kit well. That’s part of the fun and challenge of drum recording. The people at Focusrite put together a video earlier this summer featuring a few different drum mic techniques that I thought might be interesting and helpful to you all. Take a look at the video and then I’ll sum up some take away points below.

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Today I’m answering a handful of random recording and mixing questions covering a wide variety of topics. One of my TRR readers, Luis Garcia, who teaches recording in Peru sent in a list of questions from his students and I thought everyone might be interested in hearing the answers as well. We cover it all from de-essing to mastering and everything in between.

Here’s a fun mixing exercise: go listen to your favorite music. But don’t just lazily listen and enjoy it, listen with a purpose. Specifically today I want to give you three things to be listening for when you crank up your favorite tunes. I want you to investigate these recordings/mixes like they are a crime scene, looking for clues to how they got a great mix. Once you’ve solved the mystery, you can implement what you’ve learned in your own mixes. Let’s dive in.

Where Did They Pan Things?

One of the best things you can do is to decipher what panning decisions were made in the song in question. You’ll learn this the best by listening in headphones and then writing down what you hear. Where did they pan the guitars? What about the drums? Are the cymbals and toms out wide or closer to the center? Is the percussion up the middle with the snare drum or out wide? Are the harmonies up center with the lead vocal or out wide?
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You know what they say about assuming, don’t you? Yeah, I don’t either. I do know, however, that people everywhere (myself included) are making some dangerous assumptions when recording and mixing that can come back to bite later. Whether it’s from bad teaching on the internet or lazy habits formed in the studio, these assumptions can be toxic for your recordings.

1. These Tracks Will Sound Better When They’re Mixed

There’s a growing tendency today to think that mixing is where tracks really start to sound good. This is a problem because it comes out in the recording process. You’ll be tracking your band, moving mics around, getting solid takes, doing the best you can. But when you listen back and perhaps things sound lack luster, bland, uninspiring, you might be tempted to think, “It’s ok, mixing is where these tracks really come alive.”
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Mixing drums with a wimpy sounding snare? Before you reach for EQ or sample replacement, consider this one move that could instantly make your snare sound fat, punchy, and huge. It takes two seconds to do and has a 50/50 shot of totally improving your snare sound with no processing whatsoever. It’s called flipping the phase (or polarity I should say) and today’s example will blow your mind.

Sometimes the best way to make your drums sound better in the mix is to make them sound worse. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out for a second. One thing I find myself doing a lot with drums is to take one moment of the song and strip down the drum sound completely. I try to make them sound less polished and more amateur. Then when the regular processing comes back in, it sounds that much fuller.

Do you find yourself layering guitar parts in your sessions only have them wash together, sounding vague and mushy? Today I want to show you a simple way to bring some clarity and width back into your guitars. With nothing more than a little EQ we can subtly get that separation and focus you want when you have a dense mix of guitars.

If you’re like me, you are constantly challenged when it comes to recording great sounding acoustic drums. And for good reason. With so many elements to the kit, it is consistently the hardest instrument to capture with punch, power, and realism. But did you know that recording a mono drum overhead will help you get better sounding drums, faster?

No Phase Issues With Overheads

The biggest problem with stereo miking drum overheads is dealing phase issues. More specifically when your sound source is hitting two microphones at slightly different times you get tracks that are out of phase and create some cancellation of the sound source, resulting in thin weak recordings. Of course this can be avoided with careful placement and measurement. A great way to start is the recorderman method or the Glyn Johns technique.

But what’s even easier is to simply throw up one overhead mic to capture the entire kit, rather than two. You have absolutely no phase issues because you aren’t trying to capture an instrument with two mics, but with one. I know it sounds obvious, but this is a no brainer when you want punchy, clear, and artifact free drum overheads.
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