5 Small tips (with big impact) for your recordings February 22, 2008
Posted by ConnorSmith in : Editing, Mixing, Project Studio , trackbackHome and project studios often have the goal of making their recordings sound just as good as those of the “big studios”. Obviously this is a very hard thing to accomplish, but there are a lot of little things you can do to make your recordings sound more and more professional. Here are 5 tips to get you going:
1. Timing: Keeping it in the groove
Just about all major releases you hear on the radio have at least one thing in common: impeccable groove and timing. Most often, these songs are tracked to a click, and edited in detail until no spots stick out as “mistakes”. Granted, there is a point where over-editing can destroy the “feel” of the song, but make sure everything sounds very “locked in” while enhancing the groove of the song.
Getting your timing to the point where it sounds really tight takes a lot of effort. For one, tracking to a click can be a challenge, especially if the musicians are not accustomed to performing with a metronome. Doing multiple takes of each part just to fix timing issues can feel like you are squandering precious studio time. Editing, on the other hand, can also be very tedious. However, just as you don’t want to record something that is sonically inferior with the intention of “fixing it in the mix”, you definitely don’t want to settle for an instrumental part with a shaky groove, forcing you to fix it with editing later. With all of that being said, when you are editing (if you tracked with a click), I would not suggest lining all the hits up exactly with the grid. Granted, its a nice reference point, but the song still needs to sound “human”. Use the grid as a reference, but use your most valuable asset (your ears!) to make the final decisions on edit points.
2. Get those vocals in tune!
Another thing you will notice about “major releases” is that literally every note is in tune. We all know that some of this (ok. ok, a lot) is accomplished with a tuning plug-in (such as AutoTune, Waves Tune, Melodyne, etc.), but just as often it is the result of talented musicians doing takes until the notes come out correctly. There is a “fine line” that is easy to cross, though: the point where “over AutoTuning” those vocals will also make your track sound less professional (unless, of course, you are going for that “Cher: Believe” effect). Its definitely a good idea to have a tuning plug-in at your disposal, but like with editing and mixing, make sure you get quality vocals from the talent while recording and use the effect judiciously. There is no perfect substitute for a vocal that is sung in tune in the first place. When you are tracking vocals, it is your job as engineer/producer to help the vocalist work through any pitch issues. Extended recording sessions can fatigue your ears and the singer’s technique, so be careful and take breaks once in a while.
3. Harmonies and additional vocal parts
Listen to a Kelly Clarkson or a Fall Out Boy record and you will get lots of ideas for harmonies and complementary vocal parts. For some songs, almost every phrase will have at least subtle harmonies or additional vocal lines. Try out different harmonies, descants, or even doubling to make your vocals stand out. But, especially with harmonies, make sure your intervals are in tune! A good tip is to lay down a scratch version of the harmonies that you want with a pad or vocal “ooh” sound so that the singers can use it as a teaching and reference point.
4. Make your stereo image exciting!
Don’t forget about those pan knobs. Try putting alternate guitar parts on opposite sides of the stereo image. Maybe pan those background vocals around? Double track your guitars (or vocals) and pan them oppositely. These are just some ideas to get you started.
A note though: this can be overdone, distracting or even annoying the listener. And make sure you watch out for phase issues. [Edit - we will cover phase problems and how to avoid /overcome them in an upcoming article--D.S.] Having every drum fill pan the listeners attention from hard left to hard right may also be distracting (although, the music will have to dictate this, sometimes it works). And, I may be sounding a little too “old school” here, but I would check your mixes in mono. What? This is 2008, no one listens in mono. This can be done in your DAW as well as with the mono sum toggle button that you might find on your mixer or monitor control box (like a Mackie Big Knob).
If you hit the “mono” button, and your guitars and keyboards disappear, you have phase problems. If you are double tracking with the intention of panning hard left and right, in certain situations, it may be beneficial to use a slightly different mic position (or mic) for the double track.
5. Turn down your distortion knob
Ideally, in many recordings (especially rock and metal) we want our guitars to be a “wall of sound”, slamming the listener with the glorious force of a stack of Marshall 4×12 cabs. However, by slamming that distortion knob to 11 (especially on a pedal or an inexpensive amp), you are adding a lot of high frequency energy and (sometimes) compression. In essence, you are are just making your guitar more brittle and harder to discern. Try turning that knob down, and maybe scooping the mids/high mids from the EQ a bit. Then track the guitar a second time and pan the two takes to opposite sides. Edit them so that they are generally “together”, but don’t overdo it! It is the small timing differences that make the stereo image so great. One example I can think of where the guitars aren’t distorted as much as you first think is in Linkin Park’s “What I’ve Done”. When the guitars come in at the beginning and the choruses, they sound really huge. But if you listen closely, you can hear that they really aren’t that ridiculously distorted.
Hope these tips help. If you have questions about this article, or want to send me some tracks to listen to, I would be more than happy to share an ear. You can email me HERE.
C
The Studio Files
Comments»
@ #2 Is this what T-PAIN uses? lol
what gives the big studio sound more . The board they use?,the outboard gears. pre amps and compressor etc.Sometimes i get 85 to 90% just using all plugins and not using my pre amp or outboard comp etc. why do most people talk down on digital as thin. I can get a sound to be too pumped up with the waves L3-16 on the master if needed, but then i can’t use it if going out to get mastered but doing it myself i can pump that sound up. yet what is more important a larger board or more outboard. I am running on pro tools Le 7.3.1 i mac computer, waves plug ins, and couple outboard pc pre amp and comp. new master clock, good mics U-87 for my main mic .I want to take it to another step.
(This is a response to both this comment and your comment on the other post)
The best professionals in the business can do amazing work on literally any gear you throw at them.
Its much much more about the technique that it is the gear. (Obviously having quality gear is also very important, but) It sounds like you have some solid gear, now its just about practicing and really developing your ears.
Tons of very famous music is mixed completely in the box these days. Tons of very famous music is mixed using the box as a tape machine, and using a console and outboard gear. My advice would be to stick with the gear your have and really learn it well, so that you are sure that you are taking your gear to its highest sonic potential.
^^You could email Damon or me an mp3 of some of your work, perhaps we could offer some suggestions.
In order for a song to work it has to be very tight. This is the tricky part. You want it to sound tight, but you don’t want it sounding robotic. The trick here is to use a partial quantize say between 40 to 50 percent and use Groove Quantize funtion. With the Groove Quantize function you are extracting the feel of one track and applying it to another. For example if you have a midi drum part and are using Logic Pro, you simple make a Groove Template and apply it to another track. Check you manual to see if your program features this.
Yes, the five points mentioned in this page may seem small, but they play a major role in getting that big impact. One point which most people take as natural, but don’t realise how important it is, is ‘Listening’. You may say listening. Yes! I discovered in the last year when I have been mixing I forgot what that was, I would look at the meters on my computer software and hardware and I simply forgot to listen and go for the sound I felt was right.
Point number 2 according to this article is a small point, but in many cases its a mega cause of song sounding bad and that is bad vocals. Get a program to fix the vocals or get the vocalist to practice and practice till they get it right. I use vocal tuning, but it does not always work well. What I do is I do about 5 takes and I choose the best bits and if parts still don’t sound well, I use a pitch corrector like the one builtin Logic.