I spend a lot of time, in and out of the studio, with my ears covered, plugged, or otherwise shielded from loud sounds. I do it to protect my hearing, of course, but I wasn’t always as diligent as I am now. The motivation behind my (possible over)use of earplugs was my discovery a few years ago that George Martin retired because of hearing loss.

The story saddened me deeply. (more…)

Tags: hearing, professional-engineers

Double-tracking a vocal is a tried and true technique for adding character to (or covering flaws in) a vocal track. Here are two threads from homerecording.com on doubling vocals: [Thread 1], [Thread 2]:

Double tracking really depends on the vocalist being in control of his/her performance. Some people are good at it and some people aren’t. Doing it line by line does help. (sing the line, then sing the line again, then move on to the next line)
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Sometimes you have to edit the hard consonants (T’s, K’s etc…) off of one of the takes.
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You could also try to put the second take quieter in the mix.

And another that could come in handy if you need to (more…)

Tags: vocals

Home Studio Bootcamp in this month’s EQ magazine has some great tips on improving your home studio’s acoustics (or at least making the best of the existing sound.)

… for the truly broke, a rug on the floor, a bookcase on the wall, or even a strategically placed sofa between the source and the walls will help dampen the room. No matter what your budget is, it’s important to do something — anything — to help control these frequency demons.

If you’re unfamiliar with the issues, here are a few must-read articles on studio acoustics.

The definitive paper on the subject is Ethan Winer’s Acoustic Treatment and Design for Recording Studios and Listening Rooms. It’s long and detailed, but covers everything you need to control the acoustics in your space, from measuring the room’s response, to building the appropriate treatments.

Ethan wrote a much-simplified version of his article for Electronic Musician, A New Approach to Personal Studio Acoustics:

However, the behavior of sound waves in small rooms is actually pretty simple, at least for the purpose of addressing problems that are common to recording studios and control rooms. All acoustic anomalies are caused by reflections off the walls, floor, and ceiling… [W]aves bounce around the room much like a cue ball on a pool table

And Sound on Sound’s Acoustic and Soundproofing FAQ is an older article, but physics hasn’t changed:

While it is important to master commercial mixes over full-range speakers, a two-way nearfield monitor that rolls off gently below 50 or 60Hz is probably best for use in the typical project studio. Pumping too much bass into the room will just confuse the sound and may lead to an inaccurate mix.

Tags: acoustics

Over the last few months Andrew Dubber, on his site New Music Strategies, has compiled a list of things you must know about music online.

He deals with changing realities in the music industry, and the strategies indie labels (though the advice applies to the major labels too) and artists will need to succeed in the face of these changes. Among his topics: The long tail, the importance of opinion leaders, and the overriding value of a great web site.

He recently completed the list, 20 “things” in all, and assembled them into an e-book which he’s offering on his site free of charge.

I read 20 Things this weekend, and two things struck me: First, how much of Andrew’s advice seems like common sense in hindsight; and second, how few artists and labels even remotely “get” the advice. Most of my musician friends fall somewhere in attitude between “if I put it on Myspace, fans will come,” and “what’s a web site?” If Andrew’s right, and I’m certain he is, my friends have no meaningful future in the industry!

20 Things is directly relevant to indie artists recording and promoting their own music, so I asked Andrew some follow-up questions on the book via email.
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Tags: business, interviews, promotion

Characteristics of Musical Keys: Composers through history have associated various moods and colours with each of the 24 major and minor keys in Western music. From the link “This document contains a selection of information from the Internet about the emotion or mood associated with musical keys. It is not complete nor does it include information found only in print sources.” There’s even some agreement on a few of the keys. And of course we all accept that D minor is the saddest of all keys.

As I said in my post on understanding the future indie music market, you need to know the minds of your listeners. If you target teenagers, but you’re a few years off yourself, this article could prove enlightening: High School Round Table: A world of music.

Miguel: I think music is a huge influence. That song “Grills” came out. Ten minutes later, everybody had a grill.
Hilary: If you listen to country, you are going to have jeans and a cowboy hat. If you listen to rap, you are going to dress like the girls on the videos.

Bob Katz originally wrote The Secrets of Mastering for TC Electronics, and buyers of their Finalizer hardware, but his thoughts aren’t specific to the unit.

Mastering is the art of compromise; knowing what’s possible and impossible, and making decisions about what’s most important in the music. When you work on the bass drum, you’ll affect the bass for sure, sometimes for the better, sometimes worse.

He covers, in more detail than you’d expect from a free article, all the main aspects of mastering: Monitoring, metering, equalization, dynamics, and preparing for radio. I’ve read the paper half a dozen times, and I still learn something from it each time.

Tags: mastering, promotion

I changed the web site to a 3-column layout today, and added a “live preview” feature to the comment form. If you see anything that looks out of place, I’d appreciate a heads-up. You can leave a comment, or email des at hometracked.

Tags: hometracked

Butch Vig discusses mixing Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Cobain with his “vocal cords … starting to come right out of his throat.”

Tags: professional-engineers, video

Generally it’s best to avoid the use of heavy reverb on bass and kick drum tracks, since the extra reverberant low frequencies can quickly lead to a muddy sound. (Remember: Excessive bass causes amateur sounding tracks.)

But when used sparingly, a tight short reverb effect can add body and punch to a dull kick drum. This is especially useful in home recordings where the drums are often dry samples, or tracks recorded in bedrooms and basements with poor live sound.
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Tags: drums, kickdrum, reverb

Some instruments, guitars especially, sound great when double-tracked and separated in the stereo image. Hard-panned electric guitars are a standard in modern rock mixes, and engineers have used the technique on acoustic guitars too for decades.

Double-tracking is straightforward: Record a part twice, both takes as similar as possible, and pan one take hard left and the other all the way right. This creates a much wider stereo image than tracking once with a stereo mic, because our ears interpret the separate takes as two different guitars.

All well and good when you decide before recording to use doubled guitars. But what if you realize only after you’ve started mixing that you need the hard-panned sound, and it’s too late to record a doubled track?
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Tags: guitars, mixing, stereo, tracking