Your Recording/Producing Mistakes

[Pub Style]

Here is an audio example of a huge disservice to the Shure KSM32 microphone.

Situation: The vocalist had a very monotone somewhat lifeless voice, so I needed to spice it up. You can hear the excessive chorus effect and high end applied during the recording and production process. I had completely sucked the warmth out the ksm32 and wish I could tell the mic how sorry I am for not doing it half the justice it deserves. The friend/client/singer loves it, but he's crazy.

Small Town Saturday Night (cover) by The Killbillies


Got any audio mistakes you'd care to share?

 

[musicgeekandlvr]

I've made so many mistakes. I used to be bothered that my recordings were quiet so I'd record way too hot thinking that would help. They were still quiet though. Now if I record too hot it's because I'm not paying close attention to the meters haha

I also used to over eq stuff trying to mix. I'd cut out all the good parts as well as the unneeded parts.

 

[RawDepth]

One frustrating mistake I used to make was to record singer/song writers, (acoustic guitar and vocals together,) using poor mic technique on my part. I'd often allowed too much guitar bleed into the vocal mics and visa versa. This problem makes any meaningful EQ'ing and mixing next to impossible.

I've since learned how to take full advantage of microphone dead zones for vocal isolation and X patterns for guitar stereo effect, and now get much better results.

 

[Bubba Spear]

Spoken Word Only: way too many mistakes to list. The greatest realization has been that good stage performance does not necessarily translate to good recorded voice. I sometimes wonder what it must be like for a big name 'great' to be told by an engineer, "I'm sorry, it simply isn't good enough". Red faces all round.

On stage you can whistle through your teeth, roll gallons of spittle about in your mouth, pop your P's like a fire-cracker, and probably few people will notice. I'm finding it all very hard, and I have a new found respect for those who do it exclusively.

The other bone of contention is the equipment itself. Myself, I really hate the stuff. I hate reading the manuals and everything that goes with it. I can't see myself changing. I have made so many mistakes by simply leaving stuff as is, knowing that I'll probably mess it up even further by trying to fix.

Distance from mike I'm still playing around with, and I have a terrible habit of setting the gain to the correct level, and then over emphasizing my voice every now and again, creating distortion, and the feeling that it's two completely different tracks... recorded in two different studios.

There is also a squelch sound created from the back of my throat, not saliva in the front of the mouth. Damned annoying, and usually appears at the end of long run-on sentences.

All of these mistakes and bad habits are being worked on. Tongue exercises help (just don't do them on the train), and realizing that your mouth doesn't need to fully open to have good intonation and clarity. I used to over project too, but have found that a more natural softer delivery works best for narration.