14/07/09 01:23 Filed in:
Music
Production
The Control Room
A basic home recording setup usually consists of a computer system,
some sort of computer interface and speakers. A pair of speakers
that are connected to an external amplifier that runs off your
computer is the ideal situation. There are also a wide array of
powered speakers on the market that will work for this application.
Ideally you want the left and right speaker and your head to form
an equilateral triangle with the tweeter on the speaker at ear
level.
An easy way to measure this it to measure the distance between the
speakers and then sit that far back from them. Start with the
speakers facing straight ahead, and then as you listen to something
that is well recorded tow in the speakers until the singer or lead
instrument is well focused between the two speakers. This will give
you the ideal tow in, once you have this set don’t move the
speakers! If there are bass and treble controls on your amplifier
or speakers you will want to switch them off or put them in the
center or detent position so they have as little effect on the
overall sound as possible.
Next you must determine if mixes done in this room will translate.
In other words, is the sound you hear from your speakers in this
particular room accurate? Does the room have a bright or dark sound
to it? If you are lucky you have a fairly well balanced sounding
room, but how do you tell?
Scoping Your
Room
Scoping a room involves playing pink noise through your system and
using a spectrum analyzer to ensure that your are getting a flat
response. The characteristics of your room may cause sounds in it
to be bright, dark, muddy or boomy. The odds are that this room in
your house was not designed for sound. You do however want your
mixes to translate well and sound good on stereo systems in other
places and so we use the process of scoping the control room to
ensure this.
What you need to do is create some pink noise and play it through
your speakers. Don’t use white noise because it has more 1KHZ than
other frequencies. Pink Noise has all frequencies from 20Hz to
20KHz in equal amounts. Next you will connect a microphone to your
system and place it where your head will be when you are sitting at
your system. Basically you have the pink noise recorded and the mic
is setup as if you are going to record it. Next you will find the
spectrum analyzer plugin and apply it to the track you are using to
“record the microphone (Most computer recording software packages
have them). Next you will look at the analyzer to determine what
frequencies you need to boost and which you have to cut. You will
then use a graphic equalizer plugin setup on the overall stereo
master tracks to adjust the sound until you have as even as
possible a balance of Lows, mids and highs. Once you have this
setting you will save it as a preset and call it up whenever you
begin a new mixing session. You always want it to be the last thing
on the Master Stereo channels and this should be the first thing
you do before anything else. This will save you valuable time in
the future.
Tags: music, Home, Recording
01/06/09 01:35 Filed in:
Music
Production
Production for
Singer/Songwriters
One mistake I see made time and time again is the mismatching of
what the CD sounds like with the live show sound. I once attended a
live performance by a band called Andrew Bird’s Flaming Bowl of
Fire. They were fantastic live, a really good band the drummer was
especially good. They were so good that I forked out 20 bucks for
the CD. I can’t remember the name of the CD right now because I
threw it in the garbage! Why would I do such a thing? Well it’s
simple, the CD was a flaming bowl of crap! NONE of the people that
were part of the live show actually played on the CD save Andrew
himself and the entire thing was recorded live IN MONO on one track
with one microphone. The microphone was an old 40’s RCA ribbon
microphone or something. Needless to say that the live show was in
no way a fair representation of what to expect on the CD. That was
almost 10 years ago and yet it was enough of a piss-off that I
remember it vividly today.
Another example, a client of mine, a singer-songwriter who plays
acoustic guitar hired me to record a project. We talked at length
for what not only seemed like but WAS years about the project. When
the actual recording started I thought it was important for his
vocals and guitar to be most prominent and that he should avoid
adding much more than a bass guitar and drums. This was because I
new he planned to play solo acoustic live shows rather than perform
with a band. For the recordings he hired and paid thru the nose for
a top shelf drummer and bass player. This lead me to believe that
he and I were on the same page production wise.
A while later I get a copy of the finished product. My client had
decided to go in a completely different direction. He gave the
tracks to a producer/keyboard player who essentially whacked off on
the songs to the point where the final mix made keyboards the stars
of the show. Not only that he buried the drums and the bass in the
mix which had the effect of making it sound like the project was
that of a keyboard playing singer/songwriter! I told him as much
because I respect clients enough not to lie about what I think. The
end result was that anyone who enjoyed the CD was disappointed with
the live show and vice versa.
Years later I was asked to revisit the project in order to create
mixes that were pretty much exactly what I had originally suggested
they be. I declined. It was too late for this project. This
performer had a limited window of opportunity for this project and
his music to be noticed and that window had slammed shut. Last I
heard he was trying to be a concert promoter or something. I
haven’t heard from him or about him since.
The moral of this story is to make sure that your recordings make
it apparent who you are and what you do. Don’t be afraid to make it
obvious. I know you might be afraid of your voice and want to put a
ton of other things in the mix but it won’t work. The project is
about YOU full stop. As such it needs to highlight your talent and
give an idea of what might be to come at a live show. A simple
arrangement lends itself better to backing tracks as well, should
you choose to use them. Simple recordings also have more of a
timeless quality to them especially ones that feature acoustic
guitars.
The best advice I can give to singer songwriters who record
themselves is to learn to make a big sound with only a few
instruments. Get really good at making a full sounding mix with
just your guitar and vocal. Unless you’re extremely versatile with
your guitar stylings a whole CD of vocal and one guitar can get to
be a bit much, so by all means add bass and drums. Put some strings
or an organ in the background. Just keep in mind that you are the
star of the show here, so don’t bury yourself in added clutter
especially when you can’t reproduce it in a live show
setting.
Tags: singer, songwriter, music, production, tips, ideas