Share your favorite production tricks / techniques

  • Thread starter Thread starter ssseals
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I thought I throw in the biggest "Ah ha!" recording technique that I found.

I do mostly acoustic guitar tunes. For years I couldn't figure out how to make my acoustic sound REAL on tape. It always sounded flat and stale. Even when I recorded 2 of the same parts and panned them wide it didn't sound full- wide, yes, but not full.

X/Y stereo micing to the rescue. I discovered this technique a few years ago and my guitars have been sounding REAL ever since.

If I want a thick, but uncomplicated sound I can record two stereo guitar and pan one hard right and left and the other at, say 2 o'clock right and left.

If I want a really dense sound, pan one hard left and 2'oclock, the other hard right and 10 o'clock. THICK!!! Sometimes way too thick. :)

When you add a harmony guitar part panned at 4 and 8, watch out! Makes for one hell of a fun chorus.

Its a good way to squeeze maximum density from a minimum of performances. Add some creative cutting and pasting and you've got the makings for a really quick tune that sounds pretty good- expecially if you are just scratch padding to see how an arrangement will work.

Take care,
Chris
 
Problem:
You have a drummer who is drunk, hung-over, and/or just can't stay in time.

Solution:
Cattle prod

Works every time! :D
 
Buck62 said:
Problem:
You have a drummer who is drunk, hung-over, and/or just can't stay in time.

Solution:
Cattle prod

Works every time! :D
Click to expand...

That reminds me of something I heard regarding drummers vs drum machines: Spill beer on a drum machine and it will stop working. Spill beer on a drummer and he'll work harder. LOL.

OK, seriously, here's something that I've used with friends when recording. If the singer also plays an instrument when singing live, give him something to play when tracking the vox. This works better for louder music (rock, metal, punk), as the tiny bit of sound from say a guitar is well masked by the rest of the sound and the singing. That way, they are kinda at home and in their element...singing and playing. Helps to catch the emotion in their voice sometimes. The instrument doesn't need to be plugged in or mic'd...it's more of a crutch for some player/singers. Drummer singing? Give him some sticks to wave while he tracks vox. As always, YMMV.

Tony
 
Yo those of production gimmicks:

Many vocalists I've worked with like their cans to be LOUD. Well, my ears are not on that par SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
I give those folks a set of cans, wireless, with a volume control and let them saturate their domes. As long as they sound good in the final mix, they are happy.

Also, a double shot of JD helps cure the problem.

Green Hornet:D :D :p :p :p :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
For recording instruments, I like to mix multiple sound sources together,...

down to one track. Mind you, I'm analog & I don't have unlimited tracks.

For 'tracking' individually, and groups live-in-studio, the specifics change a little.

F/I, for recording electric guitar or bass: ideally I'd mix a clean line in, with an 'overdrive' line in, a close- amp mic, a far-amp/room mic, and a mic directly on the strings, [5 source feeds] together, trying to balance all 5 inputs for the optimally full and live guitar sound, and recording down to one track. [Sometimes I'd use less source feeds, but always more than one]. Often I record a line-in direct feed of my electric guitar, mixed with a close-string mic, [2 source feeds], to liven up the notoriously 'dead' line-in sound.

For group-live-in-studio: For electric guitar & bass, ideally I'd like a 'preamp out' tap of each instrument's amp, mixed with a close mic of the amps, for each instrument respectively, plus at least 2 mics on the drums, and 2 mics for room/ambient stereo tracks. Vocal tracks and channels added as necessary. [Note: this example references 8-track production].

The bottom line, is that I try to get optimal sound on each instrument, by mixing several different feeds of the same instrument together, EQ'd & mixed as necessary, for the most true & live sounding tracks possible.

It's a matter of trying to use the tools in the studio creatively, trying different things, and trusting your ears. Oh yeah, and having fun.
 
A good one for vocals - especially more dynamic ones where levels are varying quite a bit.

Record your vocal. Copy it to another track. Compress and do whatever you normally do with the main vocal. Pull the fader down on the copied (uncompressed) track, set up an aux send as pre-fade, and send it to a delay/reverb (reverse reverb works really well with this)/weirdness and turn the reverb return up. Hey presto - reverb which accentuates only certain words, phrases or even just syllables. If you want, mess with the eq on the copied track to really weird things out.
 
Depending on the mixer, the auxilliary sends will be pre fader (meaning the signal coming out of the aux send is before the fader/EQ section of the channel strip and therefore not affected by the fader or EQ) or post fader (meaning the aux send is after the fader/EQ portion of the channel strip and the position of the fader also determines how much signal is at the aux send.
Pre fader= move the fader and it won't affect what comes out of the aux.
Post fader=move the fader and the level out of the aux changes too.
 
Heres one I use alot: double vocals with 2 low voxes, an octave under the main vocal. One with the singer 2 inches from the mic and one about 6 inches. EQ one to be thicker and one thinner. It can be mixed anywhere from up front and noticable to invisible. It does alot to give vocals an energy and definition. Not surprisingly this works well when run through an art pre.

Another one is to run synth lines along the main vocal, panned wide to accentuate interesting melodic fragments. It also gives the music a space and depth and texture I dont hear very often.
 
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