A Mulitple Question Thread

[scottboyher]

I have a few questions that I have been wanting to ask and thought it better to just make one thread out of them. I am always learning and I am sure some of these I should already know. LOL. Thanks for all your help!

1. When you record guitar by capturing the mic'ed cabinet and a direct signal (one left one right) can this cause a phase problem of any kind?

2. I realize that when you copy and paste a vocal track all you are doing is making them louder not thicker. What are some things that you can do to change the that besides moving one forward a bit? Will compressing the heck out of one change the phase? Reverb?

3. Approximately what frequencies do kick and bass have in common? I would imagine somewhere in the low end of the bass and mid's of the kick?

4. If you have two different instruments recorded and some of the frequencies overlap (like low end of guitars and high end of the bass) does that amplify that frequency? Like copy and pasting the vocals do? (I am having a classic "low mid" crisis)

5. When you record in stereo you have one track with a left and a right signal. If I pan that to the left does it lower the volume of the right and raise the volume of the left signal? Or does it pan the left and right signal equally to the left?

[Kore]

I think I can help with question 5.

When you pan in most programs, it reduces the volume of the channel that you are panning AWAY from. So if you pan something completely to one side, you lose the audio signal from the other channel completely. I've been experimenting with this and reverb, because I wanted one guitar track to be almost completely to the right, but wanted both signals. So I had to make each channel (L/R) into its own stereo track with identical L/R channels, then I panned one over to the other side just past middle. That way, you still get the stereo reverb, but mostly on one side. It also give better control over what "space" the reverb occurs through, which can be a nice effect.

[matt rascal]

I usually cut around 350-400Hz on the kick and increase the same frequencies on the bass. It gives the bass presence and removes the cheap sound of the kick.

#4 - I think the louder track will mask the frequencies that overlap with the quieter track.

[Craigory]

Originally Posted by scottboyher

I have a few questions that I have been wanting to ask and thought it better to just make one thread out of them. I am always learning and I am sure some of these I should already know. LOL. Thanks for all your help!

1. When you record guitar by capturing the mic'ed cabinet and a direct signal (one left one right) can this cause a phase problem of any kind?

2. I realize that when you copy and paste a vocal track all you are doing is making them louder not thicker. What are some things that you can do to change the that besides moving one forward a bit? Will compressing the heck out of one change the phase? Reverb?

3. Approximately what frequencies do kick and bass have in common? I would imagine somewhere in the low end of the bass and mid's of the kick?

4. If you have two different instruments recorded and some of the frequencies overlap (like low end of guitars and high end of the bass) does that amplify that frequency? Like copy and pasting the vocals do? (I am having a classic "low mid" crisis)

5. When you record in stereo you have one track with a left and a right signal. If I pan that to the left does it lower the volume of the right and raise the volume of the left signal? Or does it pan the left and right signal equally to the left?

1) It has the possiblity to cause problems when summed to mono. It all depends on the length of the run. You can tell two ways. Sum them to mono and listen, does is sound phasey (flange like), does the volume decrease because of cancellation, or does it sound fine. Or you can zoom in the wave form and see how they match up. But if you hard pan them there shouldn't be. What I have been doing lately is recording the guitar mic'ed, then record it exactly the dame DI'ed. Then I just bring the DI'ed track a little behind the amp track.

2) I wouldn't copy and paste a vocal track at all. (Thats me though) I would either double track it, or aux send the track to another track and compress the shit out it, then bring it slowly up behind the original until it sounds good. Reverb also can sound help thicken up the sould (use in stereo, and eq the reverb to taste, brighten to stand out, darken to blend)

3) Typically around 80hz, 400 and 2.5

[metalhead28]

Originally Posted by scottboyher

I have a few questions that I have been wanting to ask and thought it better to just make one thread out of them. I am always learning and I am sure some of these I should already know. LOL. Thanks for all your help!

1. When you record guitar by capturing the mic'ed cabinet and a direct signal (one left one right) can this cause a phase problem of any kind?

2. I realize that when you copy and paste a vocal track all you are doing is making them louder not thicker. What are some things that you can do to change the that besides moving one forward a bit? Will compressing the heck out of one change the phase? Reverb?

3. Approximately what frequencies do kick and bass have in common? I would imagine somewhere in the low end of the bass and mid's of the kick?

4. If you have two different instruments recorded and some of the frequencies overlap (like low end of guitars and high end of the bass) does that amplify that frequency? Like copy and pasting the vocals do? (I am having a classic "low mid" crisis)

5. When you record in stereo you have one track with a left and a right signal. If I pan that to the left does it lower the volume of the right and raise the volume of the left signal? Or does it pan the left and right signal equally to the left?

#1 - usually a mic'ed cab and DI signal sound different enough that phase is not an issue.

#2 - Usually the only reason I have to copy a vocal track is to heavily compress one track and mix it in as to not destroy the dynamics of the original, but to make it more powerful. Or to eq them in different ways.

#3 - From my experience the frequency range where kick and bass interfere the most is around 350-500, which is where I usually cut from the kick

#4 - yes, you may want to do some eq'ing to help different instruments have their own space.

#5 - It will decrease or eliminate the signal that is on the right side

[sweetnubs]

hiya scotty don't ignore ignore nubs this time:

1. Theoretically yes, practically usually not a problem. Phasing results from time delay. The time it takes for sound to travel from the amp to the mic will introduce some phasing relative to the di. Although it shouldn't be much of a problem as the two tracks sound so different anyways.

2. I'm not sure what you are asking with this question as it appears you don't understand the concepts. It seems you are asking about copying a vocal track and then playing that one and the original back together? If so you are increasing volume by adding the amplitudes together and yes creating more volume without "thickening" it. You could delay one relative to another (nudge it) and it would create a thickening effect like ADT but (automatic double tracking) it may or may not cause phasing problems. If you modulated the delayed track you then would thicken it further by causing a "chorusing" effect. It's better in my opinion to just record a second vocal take and play them together instead of the copy/paste/delay routine as the inherent differences in each take help "thicken" better and sound more natural. Compressing will not change phase as this has nothing to do with time. Unless you are using software compressors in a daw. A DSP (at least using a real-time compressor vs. rendered compression) time delay would be introduced if one track is compressed and the other is not. That is why track delay is a common feature in daws. Reverb also will not change phase unless again one track is effected and the other is not, again for DSP reasons.

3. I don't have a chart in front of me but they are very similiar. The attack portion of bass and kick beater line up pretty close as does bottom. Usually there is a little eq dance between the two tracks during mixing.

4. You generally get what is a "masking" effect. The louder of the instruments covers up the other. The kick/bass dichotomy is a perfect example. Often a loud bass will mask the kick sound in similiar frequency ranges. Now the eq dance begins.

5. Lowers on one side, raises on the other.

[scottboyher]

Originally Posted by sweetnubs

hiya scotty don't ignore ignore nubs this time:

I have never ignored the Nubby! LOL.. Thanks for all the replies.. I learn a little each day! Unfortunately, I forget more than I learn.