I advocate checking a reference CD while you mix, to keep your ears honest. The concept works for more than just balancing your final mix, however. Along with my collection of reference CDs, I have a small collection of drum breaks and instrumental sections that I’ve lifted from songs with great drum tones. While I track and mix drums, I check my progress against one or two of these passages, those closest in sound to what I’m trying to achieve.

To illustrate what I mean, here’s a short piece from my drum reference track:

The songs I used are, in order, Indigo Girls Gone Again, Television’s Marquee Moon, Zepplin’s Fool In The Rain, The Hold Steady Hot Soft Light, and the intro from John Mayer’s Waiting On The World To Change (though 3 or 4 of the tracks on Continuum have excellent drum passages.)

Notice that I captured only the parts of each song where the drums are prominently (or solely) featured. In fact, I chose the songs above precisely because they have such sections. Other instruments mask drum tones in a mix. So to build a good drum reference collection, it’s important to find songs that have clear drum intros and breaks. The best references come from tracks with good separation between the kick drum, snare drum, and cymbals.

Also, not all songs with drum breaks lend themselves to use as a drum reference. You should choose drum parts from songs you enjoy, with sounds you’d like to emulate. The drum solo in Moby Dick will be a great reference for many people, as it’s 3 minutes of drums and nothing else, but I avoid it because I find the compression and distortion on the overhead mics, and the off-center kick drum, distracting. And I can’t play like Bonham.

One final note: You’re welcome to use the section I posted above as your own reference. However, remember that it’s an MP3, so the sound quality is somewhat degraded. Ideally, your reference sounds should be taken directly from the original CD.

Tags: drums, mixing, reference-cd

Most great recordings start long before the tape rolls.

Better sources lead to better recordings: It should go without saying, but the “garbage in garbage out” principle applies to recording as much as anything. If the performance you’re recording sounds bad to your ear, there’s not much chance it’ll sound good to a microphone. So make sure the sound source is the best it can be before hitting record. Some obvious things you can check to enhance the quality of your source:

• Are the musicians well-rested?
• Is the singer relaxed?
• Do the guitars have fresh strings? And the drums fresh heads?
• Are there any fans or air conditioners you can turn off?

Finish the arrangement before recording: With a clear idea how the song should sound, it’s much easier to tell when you’ve captured the best take. This is a no-brainer when you’ve paid someone to record you (less time spent means less dollars spent!) But since many home recordists like to let the ideas flow while they record, arranging and recording become part of the same process. Try to separate them so you know before the mics are in place how your song will sound when it’s done.

Practice, then record: The most obvious advantage of practice is the time saved in recording. The better you know your parts, the quicker you can record them. But practice also yields better-sounding performances, and per the first tip above this is key to recording great tracks. Less obvious, but perhaps most important: As you practice, you’ll develop nuances in your performance that add to your song’s character. I’m sure you’ve noticed this, with a song that evolved even after you’d recorded it and called it “done.” So why not help the process along, and find those nuances before recording.

Save Your Work Often: Especially if you employ the tips above and create magic as soon as the tape starts rolling, it’s imperative to save as you work.

Tags: tips-digest

William Whittman (who produced and engineered the track) discusses the recording of Cyndi Laupers’ Time After Time:

IN the mix I took the shaker (I just realised we always CALLED it a shaker, but actually it’s the Linn Cabasa), through an Eventide Flanger to make it dance around in stereo a bit and get it out of the dead centre, where it was too demanding. It sounded better being a little diffused… less artificial.

Ever heard of the “Cardinal Points Pan Law?” It’s not a law, so much as a mixing guideline:

The poster is talking about “hard” panning everything, as if there were only L,C,R switches instead of pan pots. So basically, there is no middle ground, except for necessity, as he says. You only use the spaces in between when you want some thing to stick out, like a tom.

Here’s a thread on Gearslutz discussing the 1960’s bass sound

if we’re talking pet sounds/association type bass sounds…first off i’d recommend flat wound strings. a hollow body bass would get you very close to that da dunka dunk/clacky bass sound…playing very controlled and muted and towards the bridge of the guitar.

next…and this is a really good trick in general…use a guitar amp. preferably a 60’s style tube amp. i’ve been able to get awesome bass sounds using all of the above through a fender deluxe reverb. my thought process is…generally there weren’t that many massive peavy/ampeg bass rigs laying around…especially towards the early part of the 60’s. most bassists would have used slightly more robust guitar amps. lastly…i used a ribbon mic about a foot and a half away from the speaker grill.

Tags: bass-guitar, professional-engineers

Hometracked’s most-visited pages in February:

Great FREE vocal plugin chain
10 hallmarks of amateur recordings
The RIAA is not evil
Use Tape saturation for better mixes

Tags: home-studio

The Secrets of Mixing – from John Vestman.

Vestman’s “Secrets of Mixing” page is more a collection of tips than a mixing tutorial. He starts with advice to get yourself properly set up for mixing (like “organize your files,” “allow extra time,” and the ever-important “check reference CDs while mixing,”) then moves onto compression and overall level:

Always record in the highest sampling rate possible in your DAW (allowing for realistic hard drive space – most projects don’t go over 96k). Be sure that your stereo mix does not ever go into clipping (digital overs) when it is set at Unity Gain -0- Once you know you’re not making any digital overs, remove your master fader – your mix will sound better!

Previously: The Big Page of Mix Tutorials

Tags: mixing, reference-cd

Lava lamps may not improve your mixes, but your recording space really isn’t complete without one. Here are 1300 lava lamps on Flickr.

Tags: pictures, studioporn

The Toast of MySpace Tries the Music Business
Tila Tequila, born Tila Nguyen, became famous last year for having the most friends — currently about 1.7 million — on MySpace.com… She is now trying to break into the mainstream music industry. Her single “I Love U,” which was produced by the rapper Lil Jon, will be released on iTunes

Record labels lose out as bands become brands
Although sales of CDs are falling sharply, British artists are riding the crest of a creative wave – live music has never been more popular, festivals are selling out in record time and brands are paying millions to associate themselves with up and coming acts. It is a new music marketplace where the artist’s brand is becoming as valuable as their recorded output.

Advertising to the File-Sharing Crowd
Marketing departments at major record labels have quietly discussed the potential of marketing to peer-to-peer audiences for years, Garland says. After all, at any given moment, big file-sharing networks such as Gnutella, eDonkey, and FastTrack often have a million people on them searching for record label content.

Tags: newsdigest

Gizmodo is calling for a boycott of the RIAA in March.

Gizmodo is declaring the month of March Boycott the RIAA month. We want to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible that we can all send a message by refusing to buy any album put out by an RIAA label.

I support the boycott, and if you’re an independent musician or producer, I think you should too. Not, however, because of the gut reaction you have to the promise of “sticking it to the RIAA.”

Thanks to the lawsuits, most music consumers now treat it as self-evident that the RIAA is a band of thugs. As a result, campaigns like Gizmodo’s appeal to us viscerally. But this reaction to the “RIAA is evil” bogeyman can distract us from what, for indie artists, are the real issues: The current music business climate, and our flawed copyright laws.

As musicians, producers, and engineers, even if only amateurs, we are part of the music industry, and as such we have a stake in the RIAA’s actions not shared by casual consumers. We also have a greater say than consumers in the industry’s direction, and when we pin the problems of the music industry neatly on the RIAA, as most consumers do, we’re apt to overlook the importance of the real issues and our need to have informed opinions about them.
(more…)

Tags: business, riaa

I re-watched the Wilco documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart last night, and I’d forgotten how good it is. If you’re a Wilco fan, of course it’s required viewing. But even if you don’t like or are unfamiliar with the band, the indie artist and producer in you will find I Am Trying To Break Your Heart packed with insight.

The movie follows the creation, production, and release of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Wilco engineered the album themselves, so we see a bands-eye-view of the recording process. For musicians and amateur engineers, not to mention studio porn enthusiasts, the appeal of this is obvious. We’re shown their gear setup, their recording techniques (I replayed and paused the overhead pan of Glenn Kotche’s drum mic arrangement half a dozen times,) even their microphone and instrument choices. And, given YHF’s history, the movie looks closely at the business of music. If you have a record label bidding war in your future, this could be valuable information.

Here are the opening credits, with Jeff Tweedy (and Sponge Bob) driving us around Chicago:

Tags: business, reviews, video

Here are some pages open in my browser that I haven’t had a chance to write up:

• Backman is a free VST (Windows only) plugin that “Reverses incoming audio signal in sync (it will follow host BPM)… especially useful on live gigs to make that ‘back spin’ effect.“
• Grammys exclude popular independent artists.
  

  Yet there is no part of me that can really believe that these awards didn’t have something to do with an agenda, political or otherwise. If the Dixie Chicks were the cream of the crop – the absolute pinnacle of music – for 2006, then it’s no wonder that record sales are stalling.

• Findsounds is a straight forward search engine for finding sound files (as opposed to music files) on the web. It’s a great tool if you need sound effects, like a chorus of squirrels, for a song.
• Brad (of Brad Sucks) developed an online store for selling DRM-free files, and he’s offering the code for everyone’s use (though you’ll need an Amazon S3 account, and a Paypal account:)
  

  I needed a cheap, DRM-free digital download store so I wrote this quickly over a few days. Then I thought it’d be useful for other artists. It was created to sell music but any files will work. Authors, photographers and artists could use it as well.

• Walls of Sound: Investigating the greatest recording studios in the world to find out what gives certain studios a magical aura.

Tags: business, freeplugins, studios, vst