Home recording studio tips

NEWS FOR SONGWRITERS:

2009-09-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is now accepting entries for the 2009 competition. Now is your chance to share in $150,000 (US) in cash and prizes - including $25,000 (US) cash for the grand prize winner alone and the best judges for any songwriting competition in the world. For entry information and a complete list of judges please visit - http://www.songwritingcompetition.com

10 TIPS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR VOCAL RECORDINGS

2009-08-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

These tips have been compiled from personal experience and through various resources from award winning recording artists. Although these tips are from a professional recording studio they still apply to the home recording enthusiast. Hopefully these tips will save you some time and aggravation in a recording session that way you can focus on the performance which is what its really all about.

1.Prepare

Quite often alot of vocalists i meet have never taken any formal training even taking it for granted but i can tell you from experience it always helps and never hurts. They can help the singer to sing in tune, control their voice, learn proper breathing control, get more in rhythm. In the past I've gone to the trouble of hiring a vocal coach to come to the studio to help a new vocalist especially if they are having vocal issues. Ask the singer(s) if there any recommended microphones they have used on past recordings. It might be wise if there are any past recordings of the artist to give a good listen to to see how you might be able to improve upon.

2.Warm up

I'd recommend at least 30mins of vocal exercises although its not uncommon for people to warm up for 45 to 60mins. For a typical vocal recording session i don't try to exceed the 2-3hour mark possibly sooner since the voice tires easily. You don't want to burn out the vocalist on the first day unless they can nail the tracks cold right away.

3.Breathing Control

The majority of an excellent vocal performance rests on breath control. Breathing exercises again are the key.

4.Sore throat? Sorry no recording today

you can cause alot of harm to your voice even permanent damage in some cases if you try to sing with a sore throat. If you have a cough or cold or sore throat don't sing at all just rest until you are better. Did you know that every time you cough your vocal cord slam together making them raw which can cause swelling and laryngitis then your really screwed.

5.Get plenty of rest

Make sure you get plenty of rest prior to the recording session. If you don't it can affect how long you can sing before you voice gets tired, and how well you can control it in general.

6.Ear training can help sing in tune

As a singer you have to be able to sing in tune. A vocal coach can give you ear training exercises to help develop perfect relative pitch.

7.Be aware of the rhythm

You need rhythm as a singer. If you are by yourself you can try a metronome or drum machine. karaoke is excellent for this.

8.Proper Nutrition for the vocalist

You should really try to avoid dairy products several weeks before the recording. The dairy products create alot of mucus in your throat that can interfere with singing. Avoid drugs and alcohol since they can make you believe you are better than you truly are on your tracks and they can dehydrate your throat. Always have liquids preferably nothing with sugar in it since it also dehydrates your throat. Water is ideal.

9.Sing in key

If you are straining to hit notes your vocals will sound weak, pitch will sound off and you can damage your voice. You can prepare for this in practice by singing the song in as many different keys as possible.

10.Understand how studio singing differs from live singing

In a studio the vocal tracks have to be more precise and are more demanding. In a recording the mic can pic up all kinds of sounds like sibilance, scratching, breathing and moving around. On the other hand you don't have to belt out the tracks as hard as you do in a live setting.

I would recommend a pop screen between your mouth and the mic which reduces sudden bursts of air from consonant sounds like "p"s. Another way to control these is to turn your head slightly away from the mic but this is a last resort since its difficult to time it jut right.

When you sing softly move a little closer to the mic and when louder a little further away to control the dynamics.
make sure you have the right microphone for the job. There are some great dynamics but i usually prefer condenser or ribbons mics for this. If you have a chance test out a bunch other them that way you will understand how it affects your voice. All mics accentuate and de-emphasize certain frequency(s).

In a studio setting sometimes it feels a little alien not being in front of people when singing. It may help to visualize people or an audience in front of you to help you focus on the emotion of a song.

In my next post i will gather some tips together for cures and remedies for singers illnesses.

5 more quick tips for beginners at micing

2009-08-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

1. Listen closely to the sound source

Spend time listening closely to the sound source(s) during the playing while moving your head around.(tip:keep your eyes closed). What you are trying to do is pick out that sweet spot that every instrument has. This sweet spot is affected by the room as well. Once you've found that sweet spot place the mic there. Usually in textbook recording procedures they tell you to place the mic in the dead center and sometimes that works but not always. Don't be surprised if its off center or a foot away or more. That's especially true for guitar and bass amps.

2.Adjust to the room characteristics

Every room has unique ambient qualities. If you don't understand the physics of how sound moves in a room that's ok. Most people record in a less than perfect environment and still can get a great recording. You can take advantage of the ambient space's character by experimenting where the instruments are placed in what part of the room. This may sound trite but it can make a massive difference if you record in a corner vs being in the middle of the room.

3. Avoid extra noise/distortion

Unless you have a specific punk/grunge distorted sound you are after you should avoid distortion. if the signal is breaking up then try to first lower the gain of the mic preamp(or turn down the gain of the mixer's input's trim control). If that doesn't solve the problem it could be the mic itself. The mic could be overloading. If the mic has a pad you can try switching it on but if it doesn't then you most likely will have to move it further away from the sound source.

4.Experiment with different mics

You can always try several mics simultaneously for one sound source. Typically most people use several mics on the drums alone. Although you could use 1 omnidirectional in the drums. Personally i place -1mic for the snare, 1 mic above or below the toms, 1 mic near the high hat, 1 for kick drum, and 1 above the cymbal area. I have also seen several people place multiple mics on a piano as well. So why not guitars, vocals and bass as well? The only thing you nee be careful of is phase cancellation(where 2 signals cancel out each other a positive and negative voltages). Luckily alot of mic preamps and mixers have phase reversal switch's.

5. All rules can be broken

When i first started out i got a textbook on micing procedures and i still i think everyone should learn these because it gives you the fundamental skills to build on. But you can also read articles for cool tips in recording mags or cool blogs like this one(shameless plug nudge nudge). But you also need to do lots of experimentation. After a while especially if you have your own recording space where you be using alot you need to get to know the room's characteristics and adjust accordingly.

Most of the mic placement strategies I've laid out for you in these blogs post are mainly text book but I've also added my own experiences as well. But just because i use a particular mic for guitar micing(shure sm57 for guitar amps) or you read about your latest musical hero using a particular mic for vocals it doesn't mean you have to use it as well. Try using a kick drum mic for bass guitar micing or a bass mic on a kick drum and see what happens. Unless you have a really expensive mic(like a AEA R84 ribbon mic) dynamics and condensers are very sturdy.

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO MICROPHONES

2009-05-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Microphones are considered by many as the forefront of the war on recording. If they don't do their job properly your recording is ruined right from the start. It wont matter how good your mixer or effects are, if you don't get a great sound to tape your done before you start. One of the universal similarities of all microphones digital or analog is that they convert sound waves to equivalent electrical signals. The good news is they aren't that complicated as long as you apply a few basic principals.
There are only really 3 general types of mics Dynamics, condensers and ribbon mics, but can be further divided into categories. For home recording you'll mainly only use 2 kinds. Dynamic mics and and condenser mics.
The most common dynamic mics are the shure models SM57, SM58, Beta versions, Sennheiser MD421,441, Electro-voice RE20, and the AKG D12/D112. These don't require any external power

Condenser mics are a little more pricier than dynamics and are a little more fragile but they have a better transient response due to the thinner diaphragms. The signal created is lower though and in order to increase it requires a built in amplifier circuit(power) usually supplied by the mixing board(called "Phantom Power") but can also come from a preamp or individual power supply/converter. The size of the diaphragms in the condenser mics have a big impact on the sound. Larger ones are usually better and are considered to have a smoother,fuller sound. The popular large diaphragm condenser mics used in studios include; 1)AKG414 2)NeumannU87,U67,U47 & TLM103. Popular small diaphragm condensers include:1)Sony C-55 2)Audio Technica AT4051 3)Sennheiser MKH40

Condensers are not always better than dynamics. It depends on the application of them. In my experience Dynamics are generally used for micing guitars,snare drums, and basses. While small diaphragm condensers are used for drum overheads,hi-hats,percussion and acoustics while large diaphragms are used for vocals and piano.

When considering the right type of mic you also need to understand the "Polar Pattern" of the mic which shows you how the sound is picked up by the mic around it. 0degrees is from the front and 180degrees is from the rear. The graph shows a 360degree pattern. If you can visualize looking at a mic from the top down directly to its center you could picture how the sound is picked up around the mic. The most popular is the "Cardioid" pattern which is heart-shaped. This pattern is great because you can target a particular instrument in a live recording and reduce leakage from other instruments. All you have to do is direct the front of the mic towards the instrument and position the rear(where the sound is barely picked up ) towards the instruments you want to minimize the recording of. The sounds that are picked up from the sides of the cardioid mic are altered or colored sometimes though so make sure the instrument being recorded is in the sweet spot of the mic. For another option you could use a hyper cardioid but the drawbacks are that they are more sensitive and pick up more bleed through from other instruments.Hyper cardioid mics are great for recording more ambient sounds

Omnidirectional mics pick up sound from all directions evenly in a 360degree pattern. Picking up alot of the room (ambient sound) also causes a big increase in the low frequency response the closer the mic gets to the sound source. Due to this most omnidirectional mics have a high-pass filter (HPF) that reduces some of the bassiness. On the plus side it can make your vocals sound fuller. Some of more expensive mics have switches that allow you to switch between different pick-up patterns.

Other accessories to consider are:
1)shock-mounting used to reduce low frequency rumbling
2)windscreens(pop filters) used to reduce blasts of air usually caused from the letter "p"
3)sibilance filters which are basically low pass filters that remove the "ess-ing" in vocals speech

For further tips on the art of micing the next post will be on mic positioning.

Tips for Micing an Acoustic in an Apartment

2009-05-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

So you've got some decent gear (mixing board, monitors,digital editing) and you now have some great mics for your vocal and acoustic tracks. Your guitar sounds great but..... so does your refrigerator every time the compressor kicks in or every time an ambulance drives by.

Now you understand why pro studios go to lengths they do to create an acoustically isolated room.
No extraneous ambience! The way I see it you've basically go t 3 options being 1)acoustic 2)electronic 3)digital or you combine all 3.

The best method(free method) is acoustic. You need to isolate your recording area be it a separate room like a bathroom or even a closet. Maybe you can find a friend to operate the equipment while you are playing. If that doesn't do the trick then you can try controlling the noise made by an AC unit or traffic by using some sort of portable barrier like a screen from a office cubicle or a screen with material over top of them. You can also change the type of mic as there is always more than one way to skin a cat.You might consider using a small directional(cardioid) condenser mic like an Oktava MC012($99)which gives you options for your guitar instead of a large-diaphragm(omnidirectional/bidirectional) mic like a KSM44 which picks up more ambient sound. You could also try using a good acoustic-electric and avoid using a mic altogether

Electronically your options are to connect a noise gate between your mic and recorder.I personally have used an Alesis 3630 for years and it was excellent in its price range.If you have a mixer it would be plugged into the insert points of the channel on where your mic is incoming.You will have to experiment with the settings as they will be different from vocals to guitar. you will have to set the threshold which directs when the gate will open and let the signal through.Any sounds below the threshold get blocked by the gate. These can be difficult to use if there are big differences in quiet and loud parts of the song(wide dynamic range).

Your digital option is to use a noise gate plug-in on your digital editing software. You can use the plug-in in real time recording(works as you are recording) or by using the noise gate plug-in after you've already recorded to tape. If you choose to use the later way it is easier to isolate the quiet and loud segments of your song. For example if your Intro is quiet you can use a separate noise gate setting than for your loud chorus. In this category I've used Cakewalk Sonar6 noise gate/de-esser and it worked great. This was included in the software and not an extra purchase option.

The best scenario is to try and reduce any noise before recording to tape and aim for the best S/N ratio you can get then try using then use the digital noise gates if needed. Sometimes I've spent hours editing trying out different plug-ins and wondered if it wouldn't have been easier and less time consuming to just fix it before going to tape. But in the end the solution must fit the circumstance and only you can decide whats right for you.
Good Luck!

Computer Monitors Can Interfere With Guitar Recordings

2009-05-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Did you know that single coil guitar pickups can pick up radio frequency(RF) interference in computer based studios causing it to whine and groan? A CRT computer monitor create these RF's when they are pointed directly at the guitar player. So what do you do if you are trying to get some recording done with a computer?
You can:

1)You can use flat panel monitors to get around this

2)learn shortcuts on the comp keyboard to activate the program and turn off the monitor until the recording is done

3) If you are doing an overdub a lot of programs have a auto punch- in feature. You just have to preset the 2 points you want to start and end the recording at

4)If there is another warm body in the room you can get around all this by just moving the guitar to a new location. This is the best solution if you have multiple overdubs and don't want to wreck your creative flow when recording.(I know myself enough to know that when i get into those creative grooves its best i get it done before it gets interrupted)

HOME STUDIO ESSENTIALS Part 2

2009-05-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

In my last post we discussed some of the gear that's at the heart of a basic home studio setup. In this post I'll show some studio set-ups and signal-flow diagrams that are the most common.

The first setup I'll go over is a typically for a solo artist that wants to do it all themselves aka a la Trent Reznor or Beck. In this situation you already have some gear and can expand from the basic DAW(digital audio workstation). You could be using a drum machine or sampler or both, a bass guitar or bass samples, keyboard, guitar and doing vocals with a mic. The most cost efficient solution is to buy a PC with a decent sound card with the best A/D(analog to digital) converters you can afford. Desktops are better than laptops because you get more bang for your buck with more storage space, usually get more RAM and is cheaper. Sound cards you must be very careful which one to get. I remember my first sound card that I got for my cakewalk 7 home studio software back in the day. I remember installing it correctly and it worked for 2 days before it literally started smoking. As it turned out my computer had no damage. The next card i bought was an excellent MOTU 2408. I have used Motu products for the last 12 years and have seen countless pro studios use them especially in post-production for syncing the tape to video. Its hard to go wrong with them. These are 8 in 8 out cards though and might be a little beyond your budget. There are still great entry products with 2 to 4 I/O's. for under 100$ even below 50$. Just make sure they are compatible with your processor speed in your CPU, are compatible with your software and have A/D converters that are at least 24bit 96kHz. You also need to consider in type of inputs. Are they 1/4" or 1/8" which are usually the most common.

The second setup it really bare bones and what id recommend you should start with since you can start making music immediately and you get the most bang for your buck. Later you can add on to it and expand it however it suits you. Just so you know in advance there are some serious limitations with this. If you really get to know the software and understand the fundamentals of recording and then take the recording to a pro mastering studio you can still end up with a pretty decent demo.

You could also substitute a computer based DAW for a standalone one like Rolands vs840. That way you could have a more stable platform for recoding and do away with all the hassles of computer based recording. It has inputs for instruments, audio effects, you can mix all the tracks to stereo. Of course it has a few shortcomings compared to a PC DAW. A PC is easier to use for editing, the # of tracks is greater, it can have more effects and instrumentation like a drum machine.

Ultimately you will have to decide based on your budget what works best for you. In the next post I'm going to do some case studies on home studios. Hopefully that will give you a little inspiration and show the heights to which some successful musicians have taken small home studios

HOME STUDIO ESSENTIALS Part 1

2009-04-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

In the world of recording arts there truly are limitless combinations of gear but if your goal is to sound as close to a professional recording as possible then that narrows it down considerably. If your have a tight budget like most home recording studios then that narrows it even more.
In part-1 I'll give you a short list of gear that's pretty much essential to start a beginners studio. In part-2 I'll give you some ideas of different options for when you want to grow your studio
including diagrams. Since you want to make every dollar count you should try and buy used gear that is in excellent condition. As an example i bought a shure sm57 11 years ago for half the price it was in the store and it is still being used to date. through the local buy& sell or through the Internet on places like craigslist. If you live in the greater Toronto area Long and McCuade or steve's are a few examples that sell used gear.
In this post I'll run through the most basic components for a beginning studio. I'll compare the pros and cons and the approximate costs of each one . Since every musician or budding engineer has different scenarios that they have in mind if one of these layouts doesn't suit your situation one of the other 2 will. I wont go too much into detail about all the technical aspects of each piece of gear which i will get to in next weeks post. So lets get to it.

Microphones-My favorite hands down is the SHURE SM57 or SM58 dynamic microphone. For about 150$ used you can get an excellent mic that sounds great(due to its bump in the mid range frequencies) for pretty much any instrument or for vocals. It is pretty much the standard for live mics as well. Don't let this low cost mic fool you it is used in professional studios across the world. I've mainly used it for vocals, bass guitar, electric or acoustic guitar and for close mic drumming mainly for the snare or toms. A good multipurpose alternative is the sennheiser 421 or 441 condenser microphone

Mixing board- For this particular piece of gear the options seem intimidating. Digital or analog board? How many channels is enough for a decent recording ? What kind of inputs do i need for my gear. What you should consider is how many instruments or mics you will be recording simultaneously. How much sound processing you want to use when doing a mix down.
A mixing board could be 2 tracks like in a zoom mrs-4b 4track digital or tape recorder (around 100$ all the way up to a 100,000$ 48 channel monster)You could also just run the instruments directly to a digital recording workstation(Roland vs840 about 200$used) or into a computer with an inexpensive piece of software(sonar home studio7 130$new). Both of these options have internal mixing boards. Many more articles will be written in the future on these 2 options specifically

A Recorder- This is what the audio tracks will go on so make sure you have the best d/a conversion possible if digital or the best s/n ratio is tape based. This could take the form of a 4 track digital mini disk or cassette based recorder. This could also be a hard disk based system either stand-alone or a computer based system.

These 3 components are what i consider to be at the heart of a studio. A few other pieces of gear that are a close second are an effects processor, a compressor/limiter, and a hard disk editing& midi sequencing program

Effects processor- These bad-boys can also be digital or analog. A good digital effects processor should have a good d/a converter and minimum 32 bit anything less sounds a little grainy to me(unless that's the effect you are going for) but these processors can have a compressor,limiter,noise gate, distortion, flange, delay, reverb etc etc. When i started out I used one processor for putting effects direct to tape like reverb on a guitar or a gate on the bass and then during mix-down i would use maybe a reverb on the vocals and the compressor on the whole mix or a single instrument .(lexicon mp550) comes to mind

Compressor/limiter- This has got to be one of the most underrated and misunderstood pieces of gear. This is more of a personal choice but i consider it essential because i use it on every recording i do now. I use them quite often on bass tracks so they so they don't pop out of the mix too much unless that's what you want. Then i also use them again on the final mix down. Personally i prefer analog which to me has a smoother transition points and is more noticeable in a good way than digital. There a few decent low cost digital compressors out there( lexicon mx 300 for about 250$) comes to mind

Hard disk system- I put this as a separate entry because of the vast capabilities that they offer and the low cost .You ca literally have an entire studio in one program as long as you have the right combination of sound-card, software and computer system. They have audio editing capabilities that are just too tempting to pass up. You can make loops, control all you midi gear, make an entire record yourself, they usually come with one or several drum machines and audio effects plug-ins by the hundreds just to give you a few examples.

In the next post or Part2 i will do a rundown with diagrams of 3 popular studio setups that could be usable for a full band recording or a one man solo project

Coutesy photo is of Bassman studios