NEWBIES SOME OLD (often hidden) RECORDING TRICKS OF THE INDUSTRY.
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1. recording synth sounds. - try putting a synth sometime
through an old bass or guitar rig as well as direct.
record as two seperate tracks. offset one track from the other
by small millisecond amounts. now repeat putting the synth
through a weird guitar pedal or processor into a rig.
mic the rig of course. another trick is to reamp the synth. ie:
take a recorded synth track and output it to some sort of
processor/outboard/guitar or bass rig and dial in a new weird sound.
or maybe reamp using a pedal. another trick is to send the recorded trick out to a hallway or bathroom with a pa or some other speaker and mic THAT
and send it through clean or some sort of processor back into the daw.
BUT watch for FEEDBACK. keep all your signal lines distinct so you dont get the possibility of feedback.
2. recording bass. many of the bass sounds you hear are not what you think they might have used. i know your pain. you record a nice clean bass track but it just doesnt sit right. your not getting THE BASS SOUND.
they might have used a variety of techniques. reamping for one
through different combinations of outboard processors and bass rigs.
maybe they recorded through a bass rockman AS WELL AS micing the bass rig speaker. or they might have actually played two base tracks eq'd differently,
or offset one base track just a smidgeon from the other. or an old trick i used many times is do a bass track, and i know you'll think this weird, but try it -
sometimes works , sometimes doesnt - now pick up a guitar and cut the treble on the pickups and record a track using the guitar into a guitar amp or processor ,
BUT MIMICKING the same notes as the bass track. DONT LISTEN TO THE MIMICKED GUITAR BASS IN ISOLATION.
SOMETIMES IT SOUNDS BAD BY ITSELF BUT GOOD IN THE MIX just mixed below the real bass track.
only use the 6th , 5th, and 4th strings of the guitar to mimick the
notes. try inserting through a COMPRESSOR to fatten up before you send to the sound card.
another trick is to mimick the bass using a synth set to a bass preset, for coloring the sound picture, or you can even try a weird synth patch a bit detuned, but just a bit.
another trick is to play a bass, but through a guitar processor.
another trick is to play an upright bass along with say a fender jazz bass.
as you can see there are many tricks to experiment with.
for example on my song "pretty girls and fancy cars" at soundclick
which the harley crowd seems to like, at various points in the song you'll hear how i reinforced the bottom with this bomp - ba - ba figure playing on the bass. this was done combining guitar bass strings with bass subtly down low in the mix. you'll hear it more pronounced towards the end of the song.
so another tip. some songs just need the bass to be "just there" like in that song just holding it down in the background.
3. recording guitar. alone on this subject one could write a book.
has this ever happened to you ? you hear a great guitar sound on your favorite bands new cd , and you WANT THAT SOUND. so you go to the equipment store, and a salesperson tells you just buy this guitar amp or whatever, and all your troubles will be over. you bring your new purchase back to your little studio, and you cant even get close to the sound. WHOA you go !
sound familiar ? well its probably because the recording engineers used many different techniques. even if they used the same amp, the room will be different to yours and a thousand other factors.
it could even be the studio or player fluked a great guitar lead that particular day. its happened to me many times with the same amp.
one day great lead, the next sounds terrible - the only difference often was my mic position.
in summary dont believe everything your told. ive found you can get great guitar tone out of a junk amp as well as expensive.
i have an amp here given to me thats ancient. wuth the right
mic positioning it sounds gorgeous. but if i screw up the mic positioning sounds awful. so my biggest tip is instead of paying 2k for one monster amp, spend a few hundred on a few different brands of junky small used amps that are low wattage, and EXPERIMENT A LOT WITH MIC POSITIONING.
including micing the amp in different rooms of your house if you are a small studio. try the bathroom, the patio (ive had nice sounds in greenhouses !),
the garage, in your trailer you use for vacations, the hall.
some great leads have even been done in stairwells of buildings.
now try again with different guitar pedals in front of the amp.
try reamping the guitar track once recorded or put it through
one of the simulanalog.org free plug ins. a trick i use is to record
a dry guitar track then copy the track, and apply some effect to the track like guitar trails i like in powertracks but in a subtle way.
another TIP. just because something says TUBE on it means nothing.
ive had solid state amps sound better than some tube amps.
another TIP. go easy on distortion settings. when you get something that sounds good over the monitors,
try backing off a bit before you actually record.
also try going for colors and texture. for example youve got this
what seems boring lead break. enhance it by mimicking the notes say on another instrument like an acoustic or electric 12 string or another instrument in harmony,
or in different octaves or thirds or fifths in sympatico with it.
got to end this. so my advice is EXPERIMENT. one last tip.
try some of these tips with a pod or j station ie: if it sounds too
"computery digital", try running through a guitar plug in or reamping somehow to a guitar or even a bass amp or a pedal.
4. recording drums. TWO BIG TIPS. GOOD HEADS that sound good.
And tune them right. Another tip , tune the drums around the song.
both the key of the song and around the dominant chords in the song.
TRY FEWER MICS. some old big songs - believe it or not were done
with ONE MIC, and SOME even with NO MICS, just relying on bleed from mics of other instruments. if you listen to some old songs from the 50's , note how the drums were often quite a way back in the mix because of this fact.
once again try recording the drums in different environments and acoustic spaces, like halls, stairwells, ie: BIG SPACES if you want that spacious sound,
or close and intimate, try a acoustically damped drum room.
now i KNOW some home studios dont have access to some spaces. but you can approximate. dont just reach for the nearest reverb plug in, it might not work. BE INNOVATIVE. try some of the OLD WAYS like putting a speaker in a bathroom and sending the drum mix to it, and micing the speaker and recording as a seperate track. ONCE AGAIN dont solo ALONE.
try some eq and see how it sits in the overall sound picture.
try crazy things like sending a drum mix through a guitar processor or pedal and see if it works. or even once i sent it through a bass amp with those tremelo features on and put it way down in the mix.
One of my favorite all time albums for SOUND is The KNACKS very first album called Get The Knack.
if this is the sound you like, and its a great sound imho - try this....
set up in a large space. drums at the back, two guitar amps spaced about 10 to 15 feet apart with their backs facing the drums with a mic on each. and 10 feet in front of the drums (TUNED !). you will have to now move the amp mics and the amps
around in distance from each other and from the drums TILL YOU FIND THE SWEET SPOT.
record the bass direct. do vocal and lead overdubs. THE IDEA is the guitar amps pick up the drums 10 feet or less or more back from the amps.
I'm sorry, i KNOW ITS WORK, but you MUST FIND THE SWEET SPOT YOU HEAR COMING FROM THE MONITORS.
VERY IMPORTANT YOU MOVE THE AMPS AROUND AND MICS TO FIND IT. try even the mics just peeking round the corners of the amps, amps on chairs etc.
once you hit the sweet spot NOW introduce ONE MIC in front of the drums.
notice how the drums will now get NEARER depending on mic location. now introduce a couple of more mics on toms amd/or overheads and hear if this sounds EVEN BETTER. maybe try lower levels. In summary -
the whole idea of this technique is to use leakage of the drums into the guitar mics to produce a solid bed track. after this is done you could overdub just another drum track by itself to create an ILLUSION OF SOLID two drummer DRUM TRACKS OR EVEN USE LATIN PERCUSSION.
IF YOU LISTEN TO EARLY SANTANA notice the use of reinforcing latin percussion on the tracks.
well that about wraps it up for today. i'll cover vocals and some other tricks next time as this is getting rather long.
hope this helps some newbies out with new ideas and approaches.
my saying for the year - "use fewer plug ins" and more
"old style recording techniques".
regards
bmanning
if you get time, listen to a pretty solid studio drummer i used on
"H lady" at soundclick.com/bmanning hifi play is best. this song went very high on the rock charts there a while back. its a comedic song about a crazy woman who gets an unsuspecting chap stoned. Parental discretion advised.
recorded in an elite studer studio. the guitar sounds alone were 400 hrs WORK.
and if you listen to the song, and wonder if it was me in the song - NO - i have NEVER touched the stuff.
its just a joke song ! i'm a one beer a week guy. when i'm out with my wife !!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1. recording synth sounds. - try putting a synth sometime
through an old bass or guitar rig as well as direct.
record as two seperate tracks. offset one track from the other
by small millisecond amounts. now repeat putting the synth
through a weird guitar pedal or processor into a rig.
mic the rig of course. another trick is to reamp the synth. ie:
take a recorded synth track and output it to some sort of
processor/outboard/guitar or bass rig and dial in a new weird sound.
or maybe reamp using a pedal. another trick is to send the recorded trick out to a hallway or bathroom with a pa or some other speaker and mic THAT
and send it through clean or some sort of processor back into the daw.
BUT watch for FEEDBACK. keep all your signal lines distinct so you dont get the possibility of feedback.
2. recording bass. many of the bass sounds you hear are not what you think they might have used. i know your pain. you record a nice clean bass track but it just doesnt sit right. your not getting THE BASS SOUND.
they might have used a variety of techniques. reamping for one
through different combinations of outboard processors and bass rigs.
maybe they recorded through a bass rockman AS WELL AS micing the bass rig speaker. or they might have actually played two base tracks eq'd differently,
or offset one base track just a smidgeon from the other. or an old trick i used many times is do a bass track, and i know you'll think this weird, but try it -
sometimes works , sometimes doesnt - now pick up a guitar and cut the treble on the pickups and record a track using the guitar into a guitar amp or processor ,
BUT MIMICKING the same notes as the bass track. DONT LISTEN TO THE MIMICKED GUITAR BASS IN ISOLATION.
SOMETIMES IT SOUNDS BAD BY ITSELF BUT GOOD IN THE MIX just mixed below the real bass track.
only use the 6th , 5th, and 4th strings of the guitar to mimick the
notes. try inserting through a COMPRESSOR to fatten up before you send to the sound card.
another trick is to mimick the bass using a synth set to a bass preset, for coloring the sound picture, or you can even try a weird synth patch a bit detuned, but just a bit.
another trick is to play a bass, but through a guitar processor.
another trick is to play an upright bass along with say a fender jazz bass.
as you can see there are many tricks to experiment with.
for example on my song "pretty girls and fancy cars" at soundclick
which the harley crowd seems to like, at various points in the song you'll hear how i reinforced the bottom with this bomp - ba - ba figure playing on the bass. this was done combining guitar bass strings with bass subtly down low in the mix. you'll hear it more pronounced towards the end of the song.
so another tip. some songs just need the bass to be "just there" like in that song just holding it down in the background.
3. recording guitar. alone on this subject one could write a book.
has this ever happened to you ? you hear a great guitar sound on your favorite bands new cd , and you WANT THAT SOUND. so you go to the equipment store, and a salesperson tells you just buy this guitar amp or whatever, and all your troubles will be over. you bring your new purchase back to your little studio, and you cant even get close to the sound. WHOA you go !
sound familiar ? well its probably because the recording engineers used many different techniques. even if they used the same amp, the room will be different to yours and a thousand other factors.
it could even be the studio or player fluked a great guitar lead that particular day. its happened to me many times with the same amp.
one day great lead, the next sounds terrible - the only difference often was my mic position.
in summary dont believe everything your told. ive found you can get great guitar tone out of a junk amp as well as expensive.
i have an amp here given to me thats ancient. wuth the right
mic positioning it sounds gorgeous. but if i screw up the mic positioning sounds awful. so my biggest tip is instead of paying 2k for one monster amp, spend a few hundred on a few different brands of junky small used amps that are low wattage, and EXPERIMENT A LOT WITH MIC POSITIONING.
including micing the amp in different rooms of your house if you are a small studio. try the bathroom, the patio (ive had nice sounds in greenhouses !),
the garage, in your trailer you use for vacations, the hall.
some great leads have even been done in stairwells of buildings.
now try again with different guitar pedals in front of the amp.
try reamping the guitar track once recorded or put it through
one of the simulanalog.org free plug ins. a trick i use is to record
a dry guitar track then copy the track, and apply some effect to the track like guitar trails i like in powertracks but in a subtle way.
another TIP. just because something says TUBE on it means nothing.
ive had solid state amps sound better than some tube amps.
another TIP. go easy on distortion settings. when you get something that sounds good over the monitors,
try backing off a bit before you actually record.
also try going for colors and texture. for example youve got this
what seems boring lead break. enhance it by mimicking the notes say on another instrument like an acoustic or electric 12 string or another instrument in harmony,
or in different octaves or thirds or fifths in sympatico with it.
got to end this. so my advice is EXPERIMENT. one last tip.
try some of these tips with a pod or j station ie: if it sounds too
"computery digital", try running through a guitar plug in or reamping somehow to a guitar or even a bass amp or a pedal.
4. recording drums. TWO BIG TIPS. GOOD HEADS that sound good.
And tune them right. Another tip , tune the drums around the song.
both the key of the song and around the dominant chords in the song.
TRY FEWER MICS. some old big songs - believe it or not were done
with ONE MIC, and SOME even with NO MICS, just relying on bleed from mics of other instruments. if you listen to some old songs from the 50's , note how the drums were often quite a way back in the mix because of this fact.
once again try recording the drums in different environments and acoustic spaces, like halls, stairwells, ie: BIG SPACES if you want that spacious sound,
or close and intimate, try a acoustically damped drum room.
now i KNOW some home studios dont have access to some spaces. but you can approximate. dont just reach for the nearest reverb plug in, it might not work. BE INNOVATIVE. try some of the OLD WAYS like putting a speaker in a bathroom and sending the drum mix to it, and micing the speaker and recording as a seperate track. ONCE AGAIN dont solo ALONE.
try some eq and see how it sits in the overall sound picture.
try crazy things like sending a drum mix through a guitar processor or pedal and see if it works. or even once i sent it through a bass amp with those tremelo features on and put it way down in the mix.
One of my favorite all time albums for SOUND is The KNACKS very first album called Get The Knack.
if this is the sound you like, and its a great sound imho - try this....
set up in a large space. drums at the back, two guitar amps spaced about 10 to 15 feet apart with their backs facing the drums with a mic on each. and 10 feet in front of the drums (TUNED !). you will have to now move the amp mics and the amps
around in distance from each other and from the drums TILL YOU FIND THE SWEET SPOT.
record the bass direct. do vocal and lead overdubs. THE IDEA is the guitar amps pick up the drums 10 feet or less or more back from the amps.
I'm sorry, i KNOW ITS WORK, but you MUST FIND THE SWEET SPOT YOU HEAR COMING FROM THE MONITORS.
VERY IMPORTANT YOU MOVE THE AMPS AROUND AND MICS TO FIND IT. try even the mics just peeking round the corners of the amps, amps on chairs etc.
once you hit the sweet spot NOW introduce ONE MIC in front of the drums.
notice how the drums will now get NEARER depending on mic location. now introduce a couple of more mics on toms amd/or overheads and hear if this sounds EVEN BETTER. maybe try lower levels. In summary -
the whole idea of this technique is to use leakage of the drums into the guitar mics to produce a solid bed track. after this is done you could overdub just another drum track by itself to create an ILLUSION OF SOLID two drummer DRUM TRACKS OR EVEN USE LATIN PERCUSSION.
IF YOU LISTEN TO EARLY SANTANA notice the use of reinforcing latin percussion on the tracks.
well that about wraps it up for today. i'll cover vocals and some other tricks next time as this is getting rather long.
hope this helps some newbies out with new ideas and approaches.
my saying for the year - "use fewer plug ins" and more
"old style recording techniques".
regards
bmanning
if you get time, listen to a pretty solid studio drummer i used on
"H lady" at soundclick.com/bmanning hifi play is best. this song went very high on the rock charts there a while back. its a comedic song about a crazy woman who gets an unsuspecting chap stoned. Parental discretion advised.
recorded in an elite studer studio. the guitar sounds alone were 400 hrs WORK.
and if you listen to the song, and wonder if it was me in the song - NO - i have NEVER touched the stuff.
its just a joke song ! i'm a one beer a week guy. when i'm out with my wife !!
