MessianicDreams
New member
Ok, I'll bite.
This is my way of doing things. This is coming from me, working in a studio with a band. The studio I work in has 2 live rooms, a stone room and a variable-ambience room. Here's how the session normally goes.
1) Take to the band about how they think they want to sound like, hopefully listen to some of their previous stuff as well as some references of bands they like the sound of and they think they should sound like. Often, bands bring in references which aren't really what they should sound like.
2) decide which room the drums should go in. Drums get set up in the room, and before even touching microphones I'll make sure the drums sound good in the room. I think this is the most overlooked step - the drums go up, mics go on them and the engineer jumps in on the EQs. If the drums sound wrong - then I start to look at how to make the sound right. Quite simply, you cannot get a huge thumping sound from a kick drum from a small 18" kick drum! Also, if the drummer has them improperly tuned, or has really dead skins on them, this gets solved. Sometimes I have to tune them myself - not ideal as I kinda know what I'm doing but I'll have a stab anyway.
3) microphone position/choice. This is still just drums. I chose microphones based on what is required from them. Luckily, I have a microphone cupboard to play with so there is a certain amount of choice. Matching microphones is more than simply going "D112...yeh, kick drum mic. in the kick drum." - frequency/polar response, hardness as well as (unfortunatly) practicality must all be considered. Having said that, there are a few stables that rarely change - most often the microphones that change from session to session are kick, snare and OHs. A few interesting things that I often do - double mic on the kick drum, one inside for click and punch, one towards the outside for that the real low end. We've got a keyboard amp with a 12" driver in it, that has been wired to work as a microphone. Now most people would simply use this as an extra mic on the kick, I use it as a general drum kit mic, and it really gets a lot of sub and low-mid definition of the drum kit - sometimes I'll really thrash it through a compression with a real slow attack time (i'm talking upwards of 12-15dB of compression, quite often significantly more than that). Another cool thing is to put some big irregular-shaped rocks under the snare, which simply helps get more of the stainer (bottom snare) sound. Staying on snares, trying mic'ing up the side of the snare to get lots of that shell sound!
4) Once microphones have been selected and roughly positioned, time to see what they sound like. Sometimes mics have to be exchanged for other mics, often they'll need to be moved to slightly different places. Once the best possible sound (remember - its not just about getting a killer snare sound, its about getting the right sound for the song) has been achieved, the I start to look at EQ and compression. Most things get EQ'd do disc, some get compressed to disc - often, OHs, snare and kick will get a bit of compression to disk. Nothing over the top, and in this case it's not about controling dynamics, its about achieving a sound - bringing out the attack in the snare, etc.
5) So we've got a solid drum sound. Time to start looking at bass. Bass will often get the same treatment - DI, mic on cab (try SDCs!!), and sometimes a cab (I've used a NS10 with success). Again, get the right frequency spectrum from each source - it's important to know what you require from each of the bass bits so that you can get them to sound right. The wrong approach would be to get a nice bass sound from each source - quite often I find any of the sources on their own sound really shit, but together they bring the right thing for the track.
6) once bass has been done, back to tweak the drums a bit to make sure they work well together and aren't stepping on each other too much.
7) guitars. guide guitars go down at the very least - so I'll get approaximate tones for them. Often, if time is a bit short, I'll make sure we get decent sounds so that these can be used in the mix. as well, guide vocals, although for the most part these really are a guide track. Everything gets recorded.
*here is where headphone mixes will be done. It is SO much easier to have a set of headphones in the control room so that you can hear, as the musicians will, the foldback you are supplying them with! Do the mix yourself, rather than ask the musicians what they want straight away. Have them play thru a song, and get the mix to where you would be happy performing. Once that's done, then ask the band!*
8) We'll do takes until we're satisfied that the foundations of the song (be them drums/bass/rhythm gtrs) are there. Then, I'll take 30mins to comp the takes together - edit them so that we've got a full take that everyone's happy with (or as close as possible!).
9) (extra) Guitars: often a combination of microphones will be used, and generally 2 very different mics will be used. Often a dynamic of some description (generally SM57) with a condenser or a ribbon. Be aware of phase!! As well, room mics. I probably should've mentioned this before. if you've got a roughly appropriate acoustic space, capture it! Drums always get room mics. Guitars fairly often too. it's unbelievable how much this can help flesh out a guitar tone! Also, I generally find less distortion is more!
ok, this is getting long, I'll shorten it down
10) once the performance is down, vocals. Not much can be said about vocal microphones - it is so dependant on the voice and the track. Don't be scared to try something different - SDC and ribbons spring to mid. Take 10mins if required to polish the mix a little bit, for the most part the better the headphone mix, the better the singer will perform. A little bit of ambience on their voice will help them pitch too if there's problems. Vocals will almost always get EQ'd and compressed to disc.
That's about it as far as I can think....of course, then we get into mixing, but that's for a different thread methinks!
This is my way of doing things. This is coming from me, working in a studio with a band. The studio I work in has 2 live rooms, a stone room and a variable-ambience room. Here's how the session normally goes.
1) Take to the band about how they think they want to sound like, hopefully listen to some of their previous stuff as well as some references of bands they like the sound of and they think they should sound like. Often, bands bring in references which aren't really what they should sound like.
2) decide which room the drums should go in. Drums get set up in the room, and before even touching microphones I'll make sure the drums sound good in the room. I think this is the most overlooked step - the drums go up, mics go on them and the engineer jumps in on the EQs. If the drums sound wrong - then I start to look at how to make the sound right. Quite simply, you cannot get a huge thumping sound from a kick drum from a small 18" kick drum! Also, if the drummer has them improperly tuned, or has really dead skins on them, this gets solved. Sometimes I have to tune them myself - not ideal as I kinda know what I'm doing but I'll have a stab anyway.
3) microphone position/choice. This is still just drums. I chose microphones based on what is required from them. Luckily, I have a microphone cupboard to play with so there is a certain amount of choice. Matching microphones is more than simply going "D112...yeh, kick drum mic. in the kick drum." - frequency/polar response, hardness as well as (unfortunatly) practicality must all be considered. Having said that, there are a few stables that rarely change - most often the microphones that change from session to session are kick, snare and OHs. A few interesting things that I often do - double mic on the kick drum, one inside for click and punch, one towards the outside for that the real low end. We've got a keyboard amp with a 12" driver in it, that has been wired to work as a microphone. Now most people would simply use this as an extra mic on the kick, I use it as a general drum kit mic, and it really gets a lot of sub and low-mid definition of the drum kit - sometimes I'll really thrash it through a compression with a real slow attack time (i'm talking upwards of 12-15dB of compression, quite often significantly more than that). Another cool thing is to put some big irregular-shaped rocks under the snare, which simply helps get more of the stainer (bottom snare) sound. Staying on snares, trying mic'ing up the side of the snare to get lots of that shell sound!
4) Once microphones have been selected and roughly positioned, time to see what they sound like. Sometimes mics have to be exchanged for other mics, often they'll need to be moved to slightly different places. Once the best possible sound (remember - its not just about getting a killer snare sound, its about getting the right sound for the song) has been achieved, the I start to look at EQ and compression. Most things get EQ'd do disc, some get compressed to disc - often, OHs, snare and kick will get a bit of compression to disk. Nothing over the top, and in this case it's not about controling dynamics, its about achieving a sound - bringing out the attack in the snare, etc.
5) So we've got a solid drum sound. Time to start looking at bass. Bass will often get the same treatment - DI, mic on cab (try SDCs!!), and sometimes a cab (I've used a NS10 with success). Again, get the right frequency spectrum from each source - it's important to know what you require from each of the bass bits so that you can get them to sound right. The wrong approach would be to get a nice bass sound from each source - quite often I find any of the sources on their own sound really shit, but together they bring the right thing for the track.
6) once bass has been done, back to tweak the drums a bit to make sure they work well together and aren't stepping on each other too much.
7) guitars. guide guitars go down at the very least - so I'll get approaximate tones for them. Often, if time is a bit short, I'll make sure we get decent sounds so that these can be used in the mix. as well, guide vocals, although for the most part these really are a guide track. Everything gets recorded.
*here is where headphone mixes will be done. It is SO much easier to have a set of headphones in the control room so that you can hear, as the musicians will, the foldback you are supplying them with! Do the mix yourself, rather than ask the musicians what they want straight away. Have them play thru a song, and get the mix to where you would be happy performing. Once that's done, then ask the band!*
8) We'll do takes until we're satisfied that the foundations of the song (be them drums/bass/rhythm gtrs) are there. Then, I'll take 30mins to comp the takes together - edit them so that we've got a full take that everyone's happy with (or as close as possible!).
9) (extra) Guitars: often a combination of microphones will be used, and generally 2 very different mics will be used. Often a dynamic of some description (generally SM57) with a condenser or a ribbon. Be aware of phase!! As well, room mics. I probably should've mentioned this before. if you've got a roughly appropriate acoustic space, capture it! Drums always get room mics. Guitars fairly often too. it's unbelievable how much this can help flesh out a guitar tone! Also, I generally find less distortion is more!
ok, this is getting long, I'll shorten it down
10) once the performance is down, vocals. Not much can be said about vocal microphones - it is so dependant on the voice and the track. Don't be scared to try something different - SDC and ribbons spring to mid. Take 10mins if required to polish the mix a little bit, for the most part the better the headphone mix, the better the singer will perform. A little bit of ambience on their voice will help them pitch too if there's problems. Vocals will almost always get EQ'd and compressed to disc.
That's about it as far as I can think....of course, then we get into mixing, but that's for a different thread methinks!
Here's my process. Also i would like some feedback. I know my process is not even near the best but I'm self taught and still learning.