July 19, 2018

Preparing to record

Preparing to record 

(for the musician who has never recorded in a studio)

The more you plan beforehand, the more you can enjoy your session later.  These are just a few topics to consider to keep your productivity high, your stress low, and your focus centered.  Added bonus: a brief glossary of terms at the end.

Practice

Before you record, practice the song.

Oh, you'd be surprised.  A lot of people show up to the studio with absolutely no idea what they're going to do when the light turns red.  Or they have a loose idea and want to cobble a song together with digital editing.  I'm a pretty fast editor (if I do say so myself), but I'll never be nearly as fast as a good take.  A good take means I hit "record" and the performer plays/sings their part as intended.  Done.  But comping, on the other hand, requires recording a series of takes, listening back to each take, comparing them together (often a few times each), then splicing together the good bits to make a final "take".  I have had people record over 20 takes singing a single chorus and then want me to splice together the best parts word by word until we have a "good take", which I'm happy to do, but it's costing the customer.  Most artists don't have that budget.  I'm just trying to save you money by saving you time.  The better prepared you are, the better takes you get, and the less comping we'll have to do.

But if you're ok with it, I am happy to comp all day.

Pre-record

Before you come to the studio, it's a great idea to record at home, even it's with just a cell phone.  If you're lucky, you have a friend with a recorder.  It doesn't have to be elaborate or high-quality, just something to reference.  If you haven't recorded before, this is invaluable.  You can finally listen back on yourself without focusing on actually making the sounds, whether is singing or playing an instrument.  Plus, it will acquaint you with the process a little.

If you simply cannot pre-record, try to mentally think through the process.  Shoot the mental free throws, so to speak.  Imagine showing up to the studio.  Getting out your guitar.  Putting on headphones.  Listening to the engineer talking to you through the headphones from another room while trying to get microphone levels set.  The microphones are now your ears (when you have on headphones).  Weird, huh?

Schedule realistically

You probably don't want to record vocals at 7 a.m. or jump into a 5-hour session after a double shift at work.  Vocalists tend to suffer fatigue after about an hour on the mic, if not sooner.  And although you can play guitar for 6 hours straight, your ears might not be such good judges after that fourth hour of critical listening.  There's all kinds of peculiar factors to consider when scheduling a recording session.

Plan on at least half an hour to set up drums and drum mics.  If you're not picky, that might be all you need.  If you are picky, plan for longer.  I usually spend numerous hours on drums setup when it's for an album, but once they're set up, we can track song after song until the drummer is fatigued.  If there's still more drumming to be done, leave the drums set up and work on something else until he/she is ready to track some more.  

Never move past the drums.  If you're multitracking one instrument at a time, get drum takes for that song as early as possible, preferably first.  Trust me.  Most other instruments can overdub pretty easily, but drums can get tricky.  Plus, a good drum take sets the foundation for everything else.

Plan to lay down all the songs for given instrument in one setting.  (See Figures A & B, below)  This doesn't mean you shouldn't take a break, but it helps to avoid setting up microphones for that instrument (again) or trying to match how it sounded earlier.  Go back and forth between, say, acoustic guitar and bass tracks.  Those two instruments will probably not be using the same microphone (or performance space), so everything can be left set up for each one while the other is taking a turn tracking.  Vocals versus lead guitar.  Background vocals versus tambourine.  You get the idea.
Fig A: More time is spent setting up and tearing down than is spent actually recording the instrument.  In this example, only one seventh of the time is spent actually recording.
Fig B: More time spent recording than setting up and tearing down, even with numerous breaks for resting or to listening to playback.

Live vs Overdubbing

Most sessions are a combination of "live" recording and overdubbing.  

Typical session:  The drummer records his/her part while the guitarist and vocalist (in a separate room from the drummer to minimize bleed) record a "scratch".  Once the drummer gets a good take, other instruments can starting laying down their tracks:  bass, guitar, keys, vocals, background vocals, auxiliary percussion, horns, etc.

A lot of times, the band will lay down all the basic tracks "live", meaning they do them at the same time.  This usually means the drums, bass guitar, rhythm guitar, and maybe another instrument or two record their parts at the same time.  It keeps the energy high but it usually means a little bleed and everyone playing their part correctly.  If one person messes up, the take is ruined.  This is why you only track "basic" tracks together, ones that are pretty easy to get right with minimal chance of error.  
If the band really needs the vocals and/or the guitar solo to capture the real feel of the song, those two parts can be performed in an isolated area to prevent bleed, then they can be re-recorded later.

Terms

These are some common terms you'll probably encounter in the studio, along with a brief description.  If you want more detail, Google.
  • Video:  One Verse One Song https://youtu.be/M5tm5dmI6l4?t=62 This is a video I made some time ago to show how one person can use multitracking to record an entire song alone with one microphone and different instruments.
Autotune - correcting pitch with software/hardware.  Ideally, this is never used, but occasionally a singer hits a sour note in an otherwise perfect take, and autotuning can correct that.  It can also make you sound like a robot.  (Samples:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUHKagIhoA )

bgvox - background vocals

Bleed - sound from one instrument is picked up by a microphone set on another instrument

Cans (aka Ear Goggles) - headphones

Clipping (aka Overmodulation, Distortion, Fuzz) - when the signal is too strong.

Comping - splicing together mulitple takes.

Master - a post-mixing process applied to final audio mixes before publication

Mixdown - to blend the recorded tracks together and export to a single file that can be played back on consumer audio equipment

Mixer (aka Console, Desk, Blender) - the device that is used to set the volume level of multiple sound sources at the same time.  It's the heart of every multitrack studio.

Overdubbing - recording an instrument against previously-recorded tracks.

Pop filter - keeps plosives and spit off the mic diaphragm.  When you sing close to a microphone, certain words result in a burst of air from your mouth, and when it comes through the speakers, it sounds somewhat akin to thunder, and not in good way.

Punch In - To record over a segment of a prior take by going into RECORD mode as the track is being played.  The machine is taken out of RECORD mode at the end of the segment (be left playing) to "punch out".  Punching in is typically done to get the performer "in the groove" by letting them perform along with playback as opposed to recording from STOP.

Red Light Syndrome - psyching yourself out.  Some people tense up when they know they're being recorded.  Don't.

Reverb (short for Reverberation) - the decaying residual sound after a sound occurs.  If you record in a small room, you can make it sound like a cathedral by adding reverb.

Scratch track - a guide track (to be discarded later).  When multitracking from the start, a scratch track is recorded as a rough sketch of the song, often just a guitar and vocals, but whatever is suitable to cue future players that they know where they are in the song.

Slapback - a fast echo.  Think rockabilly guitar or Elvis' vocals.

Take - a specific recording.  "You got a little raspy on that last take.  Let's take it once again and see which take we like best."

Track - 1) v. to record.  2) a single lane of audio.  3) a recorded song.  4) an audio file

Tracking - recording

Vox - vocals

XLR [extra long run] (aka. a microphone cable)  This is the cable used with most microphones.  It has a barrel and three pins.

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