We’ve look at how important it is to record a quality instrument and to really know what that instrument sounds like. Next? Microphones, right?
Hold on there, cowboy. There’s another HUGE variable that comes into play. Before you ever set up the microphone, you need to have a good understanding of what’s happening to the sound BEFORE it hits the mic.
The first step is the instrument itself. The second step is the room.
Acoustic guitar. It can be your favorite instrument to record, or it can be your arch nemesis. Some days you think you’ve got it figured out, then you listen to that guitar part you just recorded, and it sounds boomy, muddy, harsh, tinny, lifeless — pick one.
The word frustrating comes to mind. I know. I’ve been there. What’s the deal?
Well, for one thing, the acoustic guitar is an acoustic instrument. Aside from the human voice, a lot of us simply don’t record a lot of acoustic instruments. We use virtual instruments and samplers. If we need a piano sound, we use a piano plug-in. If we need an orchestra sound, we use an orchestra patch in our favorite sampler.
If you’re like me, then a lot of your recording sessions in your studio involve you wearing several different hats. For me, I’m a musician, so I’m always recording myself. The problem is studios tend to be noisy. I like to get as far away from the computer and hard drive as I can. That means moving across the room.
The problem, of course, is that now I’m very far away from the computer. I have to do what I call the “recording dance”, where I scurry back and forth between the microphone and the computer. This gets old really quick.
When you’re in the zone to record, and you’re feeling very creative and musical, it’s no fun to stop, take off your headphones, and walk back over to the computer to stop recording and set up a new take.
This is especially frustrating if you make a mistake two bars into the first song, and you have to stop everything and start over. You’ll find pretty quickly that you’ll lose that “zone” that you were in, and playing the music then becomes a chore.
Nobody’s good at everything. Whether it’s the work that you do for a living or your work in the studio, there are some things that you’re better at than others. That’s no surprise, right?
But what are those specific things that you are really good at in the studio? And what are the things that you’re not-so-good at?
If you remember that old TV show called “The Weakest Link”, at the end of the show this British lady would stand up and say, “Joe, you are the weakest link. Goodbye.”
That poses an interesting question. What should you do with the weaknesses that you have in your studio, in your abilities as a recording engineer? Let’s think about that.
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.
I love the movie What About Bob. One of my favorite parts is when Bob is encouraged to take “baby steps” when dealing with any potential issues that he faces.
It’s not bad advice, especially for you in your studio. What am I talking about? It’s easy to overdo things in the studio, especially if you’re new to recording or simply excited about a song.
I would encourage you to take it easy and take things one step at a time, rather than making big, dramatic adjustments that could, in the end, prove harmful to the music.
Last week I shared with you why you should use a dynamic mic on vocals. Today I want to give you three reasons to use a condenser mic.
Condenser microphones are, by far, the most common type of microphones to track lead vocals. While I do love a good dynamic on a vocal, sometimes the session calls for a condenser. I would say I use a condenser microphone on a lead vocal at least 70% of the time.
So you may be asking how do I decide when to use a condenser? Let me share with you three reasons.
Ugh…it’s so hot in here.
I say that a lot in my studio.
It’s kind of the nature of the beast, right? You’re recording in your home studio, AKA spare bedroom, and you don’t want to capture the sound of the air conditioner in your recordings, right? Right.
Some noises you can’t control – like computer and hard drive noise. But at least you can turn off the AC while you’re recording.
Especially if you’re using a sensitive condenser microphone on a fairly quiet source, I highly recommend turning off the AC. I’ve mentioned before that noise isn’t as big deal, but it’s always a good idea to eliminate obvious noises if at all possible.
But one thing happens…especially if it’s July…in Nashville. Heat.
