An observation

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brendandwyer

brendandwyer

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It seems like a lot of people in here ask questions like "what is the right mic for recording acoustic guitar" or "how do i use compression".

I mean, i learned recording by using a tascam 4 track and an sm57 and learning routing. It didn't start out sounding great but i did as well as i could and always tried new things and i'm confident now that if you give me a tascam 424 mkii and an sm57 i can record a track that will sound pretty good.

So i guess my observation is that it seems like a lot of recordists are hesitant to experiment and try new things, new techniques? What is that all about? Very few of us get paid to do this, so making a mistake by using an sm57 on a bass drum isn't going to get you fired, or lose a valuable client. So why not throw the 57 on the bass drum and mess around and see if it might sound neat as an effect?

You can ask the guys at Tweaks what mic is right for acoustic guitar and they will rattle off six top tier microphones that are proven realiable for recroding a wide range of acoustic guitars. But that doesn't really help out the kid with the 4 track and a budget for 1 mic.

Even if you're using a computer, there is still a very wide range of experimentation that can be done. Granted, experimentation on computer just doesn't feel as cool as 100 patch cables running like snakes throughout your studio, it still is neat.

I guess i don't understand how a lot of us have gotten to black and white about recording techniques. Like i said, we don't get paid, and if we do, we should already know what mic to use because we've studied, researched and tested them.

I know for a fact that a Neumann u87 is going to sound great on vocals. But i can't afford it. But the vintage radio broadcast microphone taken from my grandfathers cellar is a neat effect, and it was free. so why not??
 
My take - Home recording is a fairly recent evolution, and has been infiltraited by the instant gratification mindset of the current generation. The ones who will be successful at it (not necessarily commercially successful) will be the ones who like to experiment. Of course that doesn't mean not discussing what works and what doesn't with like minded recordists. What you're getting at I think is the guys who don't care about the art, they just want to know the shortest route from A-B.......insert mic here, gold record pops out there. I think we all know how far that mindset will take you in this endeavour. ;)
 
I think it's more about people wanting the best results. If a response on a message board gives you enough information to get what you want in a recording then that's a good thing. I know that when I started learning about recording I quickly became obsessed with the topic because there is so much to learn and I'm like a sponge, I love soaking up information. A lot of reading and testing was done before I was able to obtain good results. When people ask about specific equipment or techniques I just try to answer with things that I've experienced. There are some dummies out there who make crappy recordings, just as there are dummies who participate in all activities.
 
I tend to agree, but to play devils advocate just for a bit...Like so many things in life, you can achieve a higher learning curve by "hanging out" with someone with a lot of experience. In the case of "home recording" the place to hang out with the experienced folks is on websites like HR.com. For many people, there just isn't the time in their schedules to allow for the experimentation/failure/disapointment phase that is natural in most hobbies.

I dabble in woodworking a very little bit too, and the same thing sorta applies. I'd rather read somewhere that a dovetail joint is the gonna provide the strongest bond for drawer construction, as opposed to building a drawer with a butt joint, and have it fall apart on me later, and then say "a-ha, maybe I should try a DT joint next time."

Again, I am just playing Devil's advocate a bit. I like to experiment, but when time is short, and you want a good traditional sound on a particular track, it's nice to have someone experienced give you a good starting point, rather than blindly recording the tuning pegs on your bass with a radioshack mic, and wondering why it doesn't sound good.
 
you both make good points, but when i started recording, there was no such thing. I bought books but they were confusing. I got furthest by experimentation. Maybe it's not right for everyone, but for some people, i think immersing themselves in their studio and figuring it out on their own is most rewarding. Being told how to do it is a nice shortcut that forums afford us, but nothing is more satisfying than figuring it out for yourself.
 
For me the music comes before the recording. I'd rather spend my time writing and practicing the music then screwing around with the nessesary evil. (little harsh but you get my point) of recording. I'd rather just use what others found to work then come up with my own. If someone says "does this, this, and this and you should be able to get a decent recording.. I'll do it. If its decent, then I grab a beer and my guitar and get back to work! :cool:

Now it would be a different story if I was more about making a killer recording.
 
Learning by doing is the best way for sure. Questions and discussions directly related to that are usually good ones.

But gear lust, or excitement about recording, or something along those lines displaces all logic in many threads.

The mp3 forum here is good because discussions there are based on how something actually sounds, and what tools and techniques were used to produce it.

Tim
 
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But why would I want to reinvent the wheel? If a friend calls up, and wants to record a demo, why should I spend 50 hours experimenting with overheads, if history tells us a Glynn Johns setup with a couple of good LDC's is going to produce a usable sound? After all, we both have jobs, and a fixed amount of time to dedicate to an expensive hobby, and only occasionally overlapping schedules.

I play guitar. I learned to read music (a little) and play chords and scales. I use standard tunings. I did not just go get a guitar, fiddle with the tuners until I thought I had something, and then tried every combination of notes and open strings I could reach, etc. Now obviously, if I had there is a chance I would be regarded as a visionary, and studied in music classrooms for thousands of years. More likely, I would have made hideous noise until I was bored, or my mother sold my guitar while I was at school.

Just sayin'.
 
In general, I am a very silent observer. I read other peoples questions, explanations, reviews, experiments, successes, and failures. I have been successful at learning amplifier repair and modifications, guitar repair, guitar building, general woodworking, beer making, jazz and bluegrass playing, (and many others) and I am currently working on home studio recording. I have been provided extensive insight all by reading everything you can find on the net and applying this information. You will not likely even know I exist (lurker) unless I am buying something from you or feel I have something semi-useful to contribute.

However, I couldn't learn some of what I have learned without some newbie asking the question and bringing insight from so many different knowledgable and varied individuals. The balance between researching the 'Oh-So-Amazing World Wide Web' and personal experimentation varies from individual to individual and situation to situation and by no extent is either enough to provide a comprehensive understanding of anything.

I will be forever gracious for everything people have taught me over the years by sharing their vast (by far) experience on such a public and easily accessible location, such as the net. And although you may never hear from me with these questions that may annoy and often stymie you, I ask for you patience for the ones that ask. Without them, I may not have learned as much as I have over the years.
 
I want to take this opportunity to say THANKS to all of the generous people who contribute to this forum.

Without the information I have gleaned from this website, I would have spent who-knows-how-much money on the wrong gear, and lost years of time experimenting and getting bad results and searching through books to find the right technique.

This forum allows us to ask focused questions about specific challenges, and get quick answers from folks with experience and expertise.

I owe some serious gratitude to a few key guys on this forum, especially Harvey, who are kind enough to share the information they have in their heads after decades of experience and experimentation.

Thank you very much.

:o
 
VSpaceBoy said:
For me the music comes before the recording. I'd rather spend my time writing and practicing the music then screwing around with the nessesary evil. (little harsh but you get my point) of recording. I'd rather just use what others found to work then come up with my own. If someone says "does this, this, and this and you should be able to get a decent recording.. I'll do it. If its decent, then I grab a beer and my guitar and get back to work! :cool:

Now it would be a different story if I was more about making a killer recording.
Click to expand...
Yep...a good performance will go a long way in helping the overall sound. There are so many variables involved in making a great song come alive, it's hard to grasp. People forget about the room when it is actually part of many sounds. Gear helps. All equipement helps. The best stuff, with a terrible, out of time performance yields...... :confused:
 
I agree with both VSpace and Dogman, but would like to add this dimension to it.

Imagine turning VSpace's example around. Imagine that a gearhead came into a musician's forum and said, "I'm new to guitar playing, but I know a few chords. I just picked up a cherry '72 Telecaster. How should I play it to sound like the pros on the CDs I buy at the store?"

RobertD is correct that their is a blight on the minds of Generation Napster, and that far too many of these otherwise fine examples of mankind want everything fast and free, and file away concepts like "value" in their "Luddite File."

But I think there are just as many rookies that come to places like that don't necessarily have that silver spoon stuck up their behinds, but just errneously and naiively believe that, unlike musical instruments that need talented humans to play them, recording studio instruments play themselves and all they need us humans for is to press the right button like setting the right channel on a TV.

They just don't understand that the audio engineering process is a process just as complicated, just as technical, and just as artistic as playing a musical instrument, cooking a gourmet meal or engineering a jet plane. Anyone can play the line from "Kicks" or nuke a bowl of macaroni and cheese or make a paper airplane in 5 minutes flat with little to no knowledge whatsoever. And the same is true of a passable audio recording.

What most rookies fail to get, though, is it's just as hard to engineer sound as well as T-Bone Burnett as it is to play a guitar as well as Eric Clapton. A compressor or finalizer won't play itself any more than a Telecaster will.

G.
 
neat. good dialog. We learned what we already know. Some people need instruction, some people need hands on experimentation, and most people need a bit of both.

Some people who think that instruction is the only way to learn miss out on the thrill of figuring it out for yourself. And some people who won't ask for help get so frustrated they give up.

Hooray for our conversational power of stating the obvious! I'm glad i started such a boring thread:)

The point is valuable though. Newbies (and i'm not regardless of my REP POWER OOOOOO) should beware: Asking questions like "How do i record and make it sound like a professional record?" will probably result in experienced recordists at least chuckling, and at worst, tearing you a new "a hole". Experiment, learn on your own, and if you still just can't get it, form a clear, concise question about a specific aspect of audio engineering or production, and you'll most likely get great advice and instruction from experienced recordists.
 
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