grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Since becoming part of HR, what things have you learned about homerecording {the full spectrum} that you consider indispensable ? What things have severely shaken or changed your former way of doing things ?
What important things have you learned at HomeRecording.com ?
- Thread starter grimtraveller
- Start date
guitarplayr82
New member
Too much to write in one post 
Absolutepower
New member
Something on compression. For singers with a very loud and violent attack at the beginning of phrases, you need a compressor that's FAST. Feel the need, the need for speed. You want to clamp down on the harsh transient right at the beginning to make phrase smoother. Doing a slow compression on this kind of vocal makes it worse, it doesn't catch the attack of the phrase at all, and then makes the middle part quieter.
I've also learned the importance of good timing in recordings. While looseness can be ok playing live for some instruments, in a recording mainly it just sounds very amateur. Just do takes over and over until you get the timing very tight.
I've also learned the importance of good timing in recordings. While looseness can be ok playing live for some instruments, in a recording mainly it just sounds very amateur. Just do takes over and over until you get the timing very tight.
Richard Monroe
Well-known member
OK- Some of Uncle Richie's rules to live by:
1. In recording as in all things: Garbage in-Garbage out. If you have a bad performance of a boring song on a cheap guitar in a bad room, you can't save it. If you have the reverse of all of that, you can record it on an old Walkman and collect your "best new artist" Grammy.
2.The effect of the room is *huge*. A pile of great equipment used in a bad room will only reveal that the room sucks. A great tracking engineer can decrease the effect of the room *somewhat*. YMMV.
3. I's almost always easier to find a good room than to kill a bad one, but- this is *home* recording. You have to do what you have to do.
4. The best noise reduction program is one that gets rid of the noise *before* you record it. It is always
easier than trying to deal with it later.
5. If there is a single cable in your setup that you have no backup for, that's the one that will die.
6. The mission of a tracking engineer is to put the right mic in the right place, not the most expensive mic where everybody else puts it. The right mic is not necessarily the *best* mic.
7. Vocal mics are like shoes. They either fit or they don't. There is no mic so good that it can't make *somebody* sound awful!
8. "Color" is selective distortion. It can be obvious, as in a guitar amp, or subtle, as in a boutique tube mic preamp. It is like makeup for sound- There's Heidi Klum, and then there's Alice Cooper. The better it looks, the less of it you need. We call it "warm" when we like it, and "muddy" when we don't. Knowing where to draw the line is called "good taste".
9. Tubes (valves) are not magic items, and putting one in the front of a cheap solid state preamp will not create "warmth".
10.There is no money-free golden elixir that will make a $100 mic sound like a $2500 mic. By and large, claims that the latest and greatest $200 mic sounds "just like a U87" should be filed along side Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Get over it. Recording costs money, and you can't get out of it.
11. Less is more. Two great channels are usually better than 64 bad ones.
12. It is almost impossible to make decent money recording things, so you better love it.
13. If you self-produce, you need to have a realistic image of yourself, and know your strengths and weaknesses. If you think you are a superstar, hire a producer to tell you that you're not.
14. Stereo recording is not an electronic decision. It is a way to use two (or sometimes more) mics to create a model of what you would have heard if you were there when the source was recorded. Messing around with phasing, delay, and electronic ambience on a two-channel mono track does not make it a stereo track, except in a Japanese owner's manual.
15. Appearances and ambience *do* matter. You can make a pop filter with an embroidery hoop, pantyhose, duct tape, and a coathanger, or you can put up a Stedman. Acoustically, they have the same effect. Psychologically, the jury-rigged job says to the performer that they are in a garage, so they should bring their garage game. The Stedman says they are in a recording studio, so they should bring their studio game. It can be the little things, like a bottle of cold water set on a table for the talent. For best garage effect, it's a can of Coors Light.
16. Clips will not help you to evaluate mics. They are only one component in a complex signal chain, and once they are dumbed-down to MP3, what you were listening for is gone, anyway. You have to use the damned mic to know if it works for you.
17. Mics don't just plug into computers. If they do, they can only be so good. Mics require specialized mic preamps, and good ones are as pricey as good mics. The soundblaster in your computer was not built for critical recording. Get over it.
18. Don't try mixing until you are pretty good at tracking. Don't try mastering until you are pretty good at mixing. You have to crawl before you walk, walk before you run.
19. Buying recording equipment to record an album is like buying a motorcycle for cheap transportation. It doesn't work. It is the slowest, most difficult, and most expensive way to record an album. It can also be, by far, the most rewarding, and certainly the most educational. Once you have done it, however depreciated in value, at least you own something, and you *know* something. A private play room for adults!
20. A project studio forces you to use pieces of gear in ways that weren't intended. That's how I learned to mic up an amp modeler using a power amp and reference monitors, because I don't have a truck full of boutique amps. There are no rules, and if there were, they would be meant to be broken.
21. Even though women are known throughout the world as composers and musicians, very few of them go into recording, for reasons unclear to me. Always support a woman learning to record, because this good ol' boy club could really benefit from a woman's touch.
22. While it is true that the engineer is more important than the gear, you can learn to record with expensive gear just as well as cheap gear. If you have money, and you want to spend it, do your research and then do it. If you don't have money, don't bust the balls of folks who do for spending it.
23. Yes, you really do need a set of monitors. No, you can't just do it with headphones. (more sticker shock)
24. The hardest thing about recording yourself is knowing when to stop. On the one hand, you could say- "That's not perfect- because I'm not perfect. I could do that a thousand times and I'd find a thousand little ways to screw it up. Print it." Or- on the other hand you could say- "That's not the best you can do-sigh-take thirty-seven..." Knowing the difference between those two is what it means to be a producer.
My best to all of the denizens of Homerec.com. These are some of the most valuable lessons I have learned from y'all. Many of you are named in the credits of my album "Reunion", but you'll never know because you are too cheap to buy it. Some day I'll get over it.-Richie
1. In recording as in all things: Garbage in-Garbage out. If you have a bad performance of a boring song on a cheap guitar in a bad room, you can't save it. If you have the reverse of all of that, you can record it on an old Walkman and collect your "best new artist" Grammy.
2.The effect of the room is *huge*. A pile of great equipment used in a bad room will only reveal that the room sucks. A great tracking engineer can decrease the effect of the room *somewhat*. YMMV.
3. I's almost always easier to find a good room than to kill a bad one, but- this is *home* recording. You have to do what you have to do.
4. The best noise reduction program is one that gets rid of the noise *before* you record it. It is always
easier than trying to deal with it later.
5. If there is a single cable in your setup that you have no backup for, that's the one that will die.
6. The mission of a tracking engineer is to put the right mic in the right place, not the most expensive mic where everybody else puts it. The right mic is not necessarily the *best* mic.
7. Vocal mics are like shoes. They either fit or they don't. There is no mic so good that it can't make *somebody* sound awful!
8. "Color" is selective distortion. It can be obvious, as in a guitar amp, or subtle, as in a boutique tube mic preamp. It is like makeup for sound- There's Heidi Klum, and then there's Alice Cooper. The better it looks, the less of it you need. We call it "warm" when we like it, and "muddy" when we don't. Knowing where to draw the line is called "good taste".
9. Tubes (valves) are not magic items, and putting one in the front of a cheap solid state preamp will not create "warmth".
10.There is no money-free golden elixir that will make a $100 mic sound like a $2500 mic. By and large, claims that the latest and greatest $200 mic sounds "just like a U87" should be filed along side Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. Get over it. Recording costs money, and you can't get out of it.
11. Less is more. Two great channels are usually better than 64 bad ones.
12. It is almost impossible to make decent money recording things, so you better love it.
13. If you self-produce, you need to have a realistic image of yourself, and know your strengths and weaknesses. If you think you are a superstar, hire a producer to tell you that you're not.
14. Stereo recording is not an electronic decision. It is a way to use two (or sometimes more) mics to create a model of what you would have heard if you were there when the source was recorded. Messing around with phasing, delay, and electronic ambience on a two-channel mono track does not make it a stereo track, except in a Japanese owner's manual.
15. Appearances and ambience *do* matter. You can make a pop filter with an embroidery hoop, pantyhose, duct tape, and a coathanger, or you can put up a Stedman. Acoustically, they have the same effect. Psychologically, the jury-rigged job says to the performer that they are in a garage, so they should bring their garage game. The Stedman says they are in a recording studio, so they should bring their studio game. It can be the little things, like a bottle of cold water set on a table for the talent. For best garage effect, it's a can of Coors Light.
16. Clips will not help you to evaluate mics. They are only one component in a complex signal chain, and once they are dumbed-down to MP3, what you were listening for is gone, anyway. You have to use the damned mic to know if it works for you.
17. Mics don't just plug into computers. If they do, they can only be so good. Mics require specialized mic preamps, and good ones are as pricey as good mics. The soundblaster in your computer was not built for critical recording. Get over it.
18. Don't try mixing until you are pretty good at tracking. Don't try mastering until you are pretty good at mixing. You have to crawl before you walk, walk before you run.
19. Buying recording equipment to record an album is like buying a motorcycle for cheap transportation. It doesn't work. It is the slowest, most difficult, and most expensive way to record an album. It can also be, by far, the most rewarding, and certainly the most educational. Once you have done it, however depreciated in value, at least you own something, and you *know* something. A private play room for adults!
20. A project studio forces you to use pieces of gear in ways that weren't intended. That's how I learned to mic up an amp modeler using a power amp and reference monitors, because I don't have a truck full of boutique amps. There are no rules, and if there were, they would be meant to be broken.
21. Even though women are known throughout the world as composers and musicians, very few of them go into recording, for reasons unclear to me. Always support a woman learning to record, because this good ol' boy club could really benefit from a woman's touch.
22. While it is true that the engineer is more important than the gear, you can learn to record with expensive gear just as well as cheap gear. If you have money, and you want to spend it, do your research and then do it. If you don't have money, don't bust the balls of folks who do for spending it.
23. Yes, you really do need a set of monitors. No, you can't just do it with headphones. (more sticker shock)
24. The hardest thing about recording yourself is knowing when to stop. On the one hand, you could say- "That's not perfect- because I'm not perfect. I could do that a thousand times and I'd find a thousand little ways to screw it up. Print it." Or- on the other hand you could say- "That's not the best you can do-sigh-take thirty-seven..." Knowing the difference between those two is what it means to be a producer.
My best to all of the denizens of Homerec.com. These are some of the most valuable lessons I have learned from y'all. Many of you are named in the credits of my album "Reunion", but you'll never know because you are too cheap to buy it. Some day I'll get over it.-Richie
This needs printing twice
12. It is almost impossible to make decent money recording things, so you better love it.
This needs printing twice
12. It is almost impossible to make decent money recording things, so you better love it.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
Too much to write in one post
Then write it in 10.
Steenamaroo
...
I've learned so much on here, but one thing stands out.
The sound of the instrument, band, singer, and room far outweigh any input that i'm going to have.
Getting the source to sound right is much more important that anything else.
This is in my opinion/experience at least.
A lot of people think that mixing is the process of correcting things to make them fit together.(i used to), but here i've learned that it really shouldn't be, and if it is, you need to go back a step.
The sound of the instrument, band, singer, and room far outweigh any input that i'm going to have.
Getting the source to sound right is much more important that anything else.
This is in my opinion/experience at least.
A lot of people think that mixing is the process of correcting things to make them fit together.(i used to), but here i've learned that it really shouldn't be, and if it is, you need to go back a step.
Drone_21042
New member
-> This is a place where a lot of talented people act like fools, and a lot of fools act like talented people.
-> I learned the best piece of gear is the "right" piece of gear- not necessarily the most coveted or expensive.
-> Rep is a real hoot.
-> I learned the best piece of gear is the "right" piece of gear- not necessarily the most coveted or expensive.
-> Rep is a real hoot.
Last edited:
Drone_21042
New member
My theory is that they already have their own knobs to twist- what's the draw?
Drone.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
not to do anything EVER of any kind to a guitar because it's a mysterious magical thing that only a few can understand and if you so much as touch any of the screws or bolts or adjustments you'll screw it up so totally that only a miracle maker can fix it if it's fixable at all.
Common sense and caution will do nothing to help you because YOU can't understand the concepts.
carefully researching it and studying also won't help because YOU don't have the magic guitar knowledge.
Common sense and caution will do nothing to help you because YOU can't understand the concepts.
carefully researching it and studying also won't help because YOU don't have the magic guitar knowledge.
guitaristic
prophet of Dave
1) Avoid anything that has the words "lemon" and "party" in it.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
