Comments on: 3 Things I Wish I Had Known When Recording My First Albums

By: Diego Pozo

Diego Pozo — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:02:49 +0000

thanks for putting “i just went for it. i took action.” in your conclusion.

By: Joe Gilder

Joe Gilder — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:36:37 +0000

Your story sounds very similar to mine, Lukas. Welcome to HSC, and thanks for the comment!

By: Lukas

Lukas — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:31:05 +0000

That’s my first comment here (hopefully not the last one), so I just want to say how much I appreciate your effort in putting all this priceless information for everyone to read. Keep it up!

Regarding the things I wish I had known when I first started – I wish I had known about audio interfaces… What I did in the past was simply plugging the mic directly into souncard in my PC and boosted the signal in Windows Control Panel. Obviously levels got hotter, but so did the noise. Not to mention that A/D conversion was something I had never heard about either. Going even further back in time – my first recordings were made on a dictaphone and a boombox. Quality was so crap but I had the time of my life. I made like 3 albums (oh, my beloved cassette player…).

Since I got myself a proper set-up I have been struggling to finish one EP.
I’m not saying I got bored or anything, I actually think it’s the hunt for pristine quality (so obsessed with it) that is stopping me from simply getting the ideas down. Ah, I will take your advice and I promise to make a studio work schedule, set a deadline and so on.

Regards, Joe!

By: BC Fortenberry

BC Fortenberry — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:14:58 +0000

When I was starting out, it was much easier to get my head around EQ than it was compression. It’s good to read as much as you can on the topic, but I couldn’t agree with Joe more. It’s best to learn by doing.

The name compressor refers to the fact that they compress the dynamic distance between the loudest and softest sounds in a piece of audio. It’s like an automated volume control that pushes loud sounds down and soft sounds up. The threshold and ratio controls dictate how fast the reaction occurs and how much reaction there will be.

It takes a while for most new engineers to hear how the parameters on a compressor translate in real sonic terms. My advice: Take some time to play with the controls on your compressor and really explore how they effect the program material. You won’t break anything!

By: Travis

Travis — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:26:05 +0000

Joe, I would love to see an ebook on EQ and Compression. This is the part of the recording process that I understand the least. With the way you so easily and practically explain things, I’m sure the ebook would be a huge help to all of us lowly, aspiring readers.

By: Skip

Skip — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:21:35 +0000

Joe
Thank you for what you are doing. It is inspirational. This article, in particular, speaks directly to me and my circumstance. My mission is to get past the fear and intimidation that is inherent in ProTools and get off my arse and just do it!
S

By: WILLIAM JONES

WILLIAM JONES — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:08:58 +0000

I’m looking forward to an ebook on the subject. I’d like to know more about the subject definitely. I need to get crackin’ at recording music no matter how limited I might be at certain aspects of the craft. I have over 20 years experience with recording. But I’m still not as good at it as I would like to be.

By: justin brock

justin brock — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:54:56 +0000

I have – and they sound awful!

Working on a reply to your email.

By: Joe Gilder

Joe Gilder — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:51:04 +0000

Roger that.

By: Joe Gilder

Joe Gilder — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:50:21 +0000

Thanks Justin! I’ll try to put out some helpful material to get you up and running. In the meantime, I’d say dive right in and start recording your songs!