Effects needed to make a decent recording?

[Robertt8]

It seems to me that one of the biggest differences between professional mixes and...well...the unprofessional mixes is the right ballance of effects. You put in too many and much in the way effects, and the song is overpowered. Put in too little or no effects and everything seems disconnected and dead. I can't think of one professional recording out there with out some kind of effect applied...

Can it be done? A decent final product with out effects? Just dry close mic recording?

 

[cstockdale]

It can be done, but you need the right room/mic/pre combination. Daniel Lanois is an amazing example of a producer who uses very few effects, it is all about atmosphere, and that is all about recording the right thing in the right place. I think most effects (esp reverb) are all about mimicking those qualities. In other words, you need to use effects to pretend that you have a great space for recording.

It also depends on whether you count EQ, filters, and compression as effects.

I started out on electric guitar using lots of effects to get just the right tone, but have realized that all I was doing was covering up for the fact that I didn't know how to set the knobs on the guitar and amp properly to get the tone I wanted. Now the only fx I use on guitar are delay, reverb, tremolo, compressor and rarely chorus. And when I do, I rarely use more than two at a time.

Vox: I used to try all sorts of things, but now I do little more than fiddle with verb, and multitracking it, EQing copies differently, panning etc to give "mood".


Those are my 2c

 

[TexRoadkill]

Can it be done? A decent final product with out effects? Just dry close mic recording?

Not with close micing. The point of doing a more natural production is to get a more natural sound. That requires using the mic farther away to capture more natural ambience.

 

[Cyrokk]

Better use of effects does not guarantee a better production.

The best productions come straight from the source: a good artist performing a good song that is tracked and mixed with profiency.

Too much use of effects often creates an overproduced sound that dates itself.

A well written and recorded song with a minimum usage of effects will often create a tighter, cleaner, and more focused production.

Cy

 

[chessrock]

Can it be done? A decent final product with out effects? Just dry close mic recording?

It depends on the style / Genre, and the intended listening audience . . . but yea, it's done all the time.

Where have you been?

 

[M.Brane]

The only effects you may need for tracking would be some compression, and possibly EQ. You should really try to get as close as possible to the sound you want with mic choice/placement in tracking. If you can't get a decent mix going without effects, you need to reconsider your tracking. A well recorded song should virtually mix itself. If you find yourself struggling to make something work with effects, you should probably just re-track it if you can.

On the flip side, you should never dump a great performance in the quest for sound quality. If the take is really good, but the recording is flawed fix it the best you can and let it ride. A great performance trumps sound quality every time in my book.

 

[Robertt8]

I NEVER use effects when tracking...but then again, the music I do is acoustic guitar, vocals, bass, and some percussion. The effects I add are fairly faint. It's just that with close micing, everything seems so flat, and 1 dimensional...even with panning. It just seems that at MIX DOWN (some people seemed to think I was talking about tracking), effects (even used at the smallest saturation) are absolutely necessarily to get something so sound remotely professional.

If there are some examples of songs without effects (reverbs, delays...etc), I'd love to hear 'em.

 

[M.Brane]

OK wise guy......

....try this one.

A single instrument, and in mono even! Nyuk-nyuk.

If that's too old for you, he re-recorded the same thing in 1981. One of the first all digital recordings released commercially.

 

[Robertt8]

Classical?!

You give me classical as an example of not using effects? Come on!

I'm talking popular music, not something that's recorded in a large room with one or two mics...floating in natural reverb. Classical music usually won't touch effects. I'm talking about close miced instruments with no natural or artificial reverb.

By the way, I couldn't actually listen to any samples where you sent me, but I'm familiar with Bach.

 

[TexRoadkill]

Re: Classical?!

I'm talking about close miced instruments with no natural or artificial reverb.

What's wrong with a little natural reverb? A competely bone dry recording with no ambience would most likely sound pretty weird.

If you want some examples of no effects recordings we did a challenge in the MP3 clinic a few months ago to post completely dry recordings. Some of the links may still be up and most of the posts had "HRC" and "raw" or 'dry' in the title.

 

[Robertt8]

I've got NO problem with natural reverb. I was just wondering if it can be done...to do a decent recording without any effects, including reverb (natural or not).

I was more emphasizing the importance that some effects (unless recorded with natural room reverb) will be necessary for most tracks.

thanks for the links. I'll check it out. any specific tracks, done well without effects, you think I should check out?

 

[Outlaws]

It seems to me that what you are looking for is music that was recorded in the 1950's and early 1960's. There wasn't much efx going on then.

But then again, if you really want to hear how those recordings turned out, you need to get the old LP's that haven't been re-mastered for CD. Hell.....re-mastered......they probably never even got Mastered to start with.

 

[M.Brane]

Re: Classical?!

You give me classical as an example of not using effects? Come on!

I'm talking popular music, not something that's recorded in a large room with one or two mics...floating in natural reverb. Classical music usually won't touch effects. I'm talking about close miced instruments with no natural or artificial reverb.

By the way, I couldn't actually listen to any samples where you sent me, but I'm familiar with Bach.

Sorry, I didn't realize we were being genre bigots here.

You'll probably have to actually buy a copy too, unless you can find it on kazaa or something. Of course the quality of the mp3 you would find there would likely be suspect. Both recordings are very dry: the latter to the point where you can hear his fingernails hitting the keys. You have to listen really hard to hear the room.

OK, so you don't know Gould. Your loss. For a good example of a "popular" album with no reverb listen to The Cars first album. Another great album with very little in the way of spacial effects is "Dogman" by Kings X. I could go on, but probably not mention any of your favorites, eh?