I’ve talked about acoustic treatment a lot here on Home Studio Corner. Why? Because it’s one of the most important components of your home studio (if not the most important).
Everything you do in a studio is centered around audio waves, right? We’re in the business of capturing, manipulating, and reproducing audio waves.
While we audio cowboys are in the process of wrangling in these unruly audio waves, they’re bouncing all around our room. The more reflective surfaces your studio has, the more unwieldy the audio becomes.
Acoustic treatment is like Ritalin™ for your studio. Audio waves have ADD. They bounce around the room like crazy until they finally run out of energy…then they do it again.
Okay. Enough analogies. 
An Undercover EQ
Regardless of your involvement in audio, whether your a casual hobbyist or a full-time professional, your music has a slim chance of sounding decent if you don’t have acoustic treatment.
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One of the things I love most about recording music is that there are no rules. One guy decides to use a cardboard box as his kick drum sound…and it sounds awesome. Another guy decides to sample in the sound of a screaming cat and blend it with the cymbals. (Okay, I’ve never seen that, but I bet it’s awesome.)
You’re free to do whatever you want. Maybe that’s why so many people record music as a hobby. They spend 40 hours a week being told what they can and can’t do, but in the studio they can do whatever they want. The only real rule is that it needs to sound good. Ah, recording…
But there is one “rule” I almost always follow when mixing drums…and it almost always works. So, of course, I want to share it with you.
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If you’re just starting out with recording, this is a question that you ask a lot. You’re working on a song and it’s sounding awesome in your studio. After burning a CD, you take it to your car, and you can hardly hear it. So you drive around the neighborhood, banging your head against your steering wheel because you can’t figure out why it’s so quiet.
You go back to your studio and turn everything up as loud as it will go, but now all the tracks are clipping. So you decide to give up and go watch TV.
This is a really common question I get from readers here on HSC. The problem is that the music you listen to on CD’s and on the radio has been mastered. Mastering entails all sorts of things, but, in very general terms, it’s simply taking a finished mix and making it as loud as possible without harming the sound of the mix.
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You’ve heard me talk about “getting it right at the source” before. And you’ll hear me talk about it again and again, because it’s SO important.
The sooner you can get rid of the “fix it in the mix” mentality, the better your recordings will be. This is certainly not a new concept, but it’s something I personally need to be reminded of regularly.
That’s where Ronan Chris Murphy comes in. He posted a video last week on his always-incredible Ronan’s Recording Show where he discussed some interesting things he has learned from his adventures in video recording that apply REALLY WELL to the world of audio.
It’s one of those “light bulb” moments that helps you understand the phrase “get it right at the source” in a whole new way.
Head over to Ronan’s site and watch the video. You’ll be glad you did. Here’s the link: Learning my own audio lessons while shooting video.
(Also, be sure to follow @RonanCMurphy on Twitter.)
Do you use percussion in your recordings?
You may think I’m talking about something like congas, which certainly qualify as percussion, but I almost never use congas in my recordings. However, I DO use a lot of percussion.
Mainly I use:
- Shaker
- Tambourine
- Hand claps
- Finger snapping (yes, I did this on one song on my album)
- Cymbal swells
I’ll use one (or even ALL) of these on just about every song I record. Why? Because they add an extra layer to the song that you just can’t achieve by throwing on another guitar track. Oftentimes these simple little elements can be the missing piece that takes that song to the next level.
Is percussion obvious in my mixes? Nope. If you use percussion right, it will sit in the mix, and you won’t even notice it unless you’re specifically listening for it…but you’ll miss it if it’s not there.
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Remember last Monday when I had the “epic” webinar with all those panelists pictured above? Well, I WAS able to record almost the entire thing, and I’ve got a replay here for those of you who either couldn’t make it or want to listen again to all the pearls of wisdom these gentlemen shared with us.
The first couple minutes got chopped off, but the rest is there. Enjoy!
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You can also download the mp3 here. [1:19, 47.5 MB]
As you’re listening, here’s the list of panelists again and their corresponding websites. Be sure to subscribe to all of them. It will be well worth it.
The Boys from the Home Recording Show
Allen “Big Al” Wagner – @allenwagner – Big Al is the host of the Project Studio Network, blogger at Home Studio Guru and owner of Big Toe Studio in Vancouver, Washington.
Slau Halatyn – @SlauBeSharp – Slau is a New York–based engineer/producer and owner of BeSharp Studio. He’s worked with Grammy Award–winning musicians in the jazz, rock and classical world. In January 2009 he created the “Sessions With Slau” podcast in which he chronicles recording sessions, gear reviews and equipment shootouts on a weekly basis—OK, not weekly but monthly—sort of, barely—actually, whenever he manages to find the time.
Sean Yee - @keyofgrey – Sean runs the ever-informative blog KeyofGrey.com. Sean is one of the first bloggers I met in this crazy world of audio bloggers.
We spend a lot of time on mixing in the HSC Production Club. Almost five weeks, actually. All on one song, diving headlong into every little detail that goes into getting a good mix.
One of the very first Production Club members, Matt from FingerWorkout.com, sent me some before-and-after mixes. These are songs he had recorded and mixed before joining the Production Club, then after going through all the material, he went back and re-mixed them.
He was thrilled at how much better all of his mixes were sounding, and I was tickled to death just listening to the improvements.
So, since I’m launching a brand new Production Club this week, I thought it would be fun to share those mixes with you. (Thanks for sharing these, Matt!)
Audio Samples
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Well, it’s that time again. Registration is open for the HSC Production Club.
I’ll give you the link in just a second to go check out all the details on how YOU can sign up, but first, I want you to hear from a few people who have already gone through the Production Club.
You can hear what they’re saying here:
Audio Testimonial
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Click here to listen in a new window.
So there you have it. These are just a few of the Production Club “alumni.” We’ve had a blast.
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I’ve talked about acoustic treatment a lot here on Home Studio Corner. Why? Because it’s one of the most important components of your home studio (if not the most important).
