Guitar Tips | Vocal Tips | Drum Tips 20 TIPS ON RECORDING GUITARS
The fact that guitar sounds vary so much according to the instrument, the player, the amplifier and the recording techniques employed is one of the great attractions of the instrument. But while no two players will ever sound quite alike, there are a few general recording rules that can help achieve consistently good results. It would be wrong to try to define a single 'foolproof' method for guitar recording, so instead we've pulled together a few different tricks, tips and ideas that will help you get the results you want, while still providing plenty of scope for experimentation. As ever, if you get a result by breaking a rule or doing something in an unorthodox way, that's fine. In music, the end always justifies the means!
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If you've got a storming vocal on tape you're halfway towards a great production. PAUL WHITE offers some tips on perfecting this most important of recording skills.Even if all the music you make is created via MIDI, the chances are that at some time or other you'll have to record vocals using the traditional tools of a singer and a microphone. The vocal line is invariably the focal point of a song, so it has to be good, and because the human voice is the natural sound with which we are most familiar, any flaws in a vocal recording are immediately evident. Fortunately, providing you have a vocalist who can sing in tune, getting a good vocal sound isn't rocket science -- you just need to follow a few basic guidelines, and perhaps take advantage of a few tricks of the trade to help you get a professionally produced vocal sound. 1. Make sure the singer is well rehearsed, physically comfortable, and under no psychological pressure. Most singers perform best standing up in a room that has a comfortable but not over-warm temperature. If they are distracted by other members of the band or by hangers-on, send everyone but the engineer (and producer, if you have one) out of the studio. 2. Take time to get the vocalist's headphone mix right, and give them a little reverb to help them sing more confidently. If you can rig up a system which allows vocalists to adjust their own monitor level, it will make life a lot easier. A good headphone mix really helps to encourage a good performance. 3. Always use a pop shield between the singer and the microphone. Failure to do so will almost certainly result in unnatural 'pops' on plosive 'b' and 'p' sounds that can't be fixed afterwards. The pop shield may be a commercial model or a DIY job comprising stocking material over a wire coathanger frame (one such design was explained in the Cheap Tricks article in SOS February '95), or even a fine metal or plastic sieve or chip-pan splash guard. Any of these will do the job without affecting the tone of the mic. Foam wind shields are virtually useless in combating pops. 4. Use a good microphone: it doesn't have to be anything too special, but you should avoid low-cost 'bargain' models or those designed for use with home stereos or portable cassette recorders. Professional studios generally use capacitor microphones, but in the project studio a good back-electret mic or even a good dynamic vocal mic can produce excellent results. For more on these different types of mic, see April's SOS. 5. Pick a mic to suit the singer. Singers with thin or excessively bright voices may actually sound better with a dynamic mic, such as the ubiquitous Shure SM58, while those needing more of an open sound would benefit from a capacitor or back-electret mic. If you have several mic models to choose from, try a test recording with each and see which is most flattering to the vocalist. 6. Use the right mic pickup pattern: most project studio vocal recordings are made using a cardioid or unidirectional mic, as these pick up less sound from the sides and rear. However, an omni mic of a similar quality generally imparts a more natural, open sound and that can be useful if you're working with a singer who tends to sound nasal or boxy. If you work a couple of inches closer to an omni mic, you'll get close to the same 'direct sound to room sound' ratio you'd achieve with a cardioid.
8. Minimise the room's influence on your sound. The mic picks up both direct sound from the singer and reflected sound from the room. Reduce the room's contribution by keeping away from the walls and by improvising screens using sleeping bags or duvets behind and to the sides of the singer. 9. Use mic technique to help control level: if the singer can be persuaded to pull back from the mic slightly when singing louder notes, there's less risk of overloading the recorder or mic preamp, and you won't need to use so much compression to even things up. An experienced singer may also lean into the mic on quieter, more intimate passages to exploit the proximity effect. However, to prevent an inexperienced singer getting too close to the mic, position the pop shield about three inches (7.5 centimetres) from the mic. 10. Where possible, mount the microphone on a stand. Only let the singer hold the mic if to do otherwise would compromise their musical performance. When the singer is hand-holding a mic, particularly if it's a cardioid model, make sure they keep their hand clear of the rear of the basket, as obstructing this area can change both the directional and tonal characteristics of the mic. *To read the rest of the article and get more tips simply click here
Many songwriters and home studio engineers lack confidence in their ability to record a drum kit at home or in an untreated room: this has condemned many songs which would have benefited from the live feel of real drums to the metronomic tyranny of the beat box. The reality is that a good live drum sound can be achieved in a small, untreated room, with just a few inexpensive microphones, providing that care is taken with the preparation of the kit and with microphone placement. Tuning and preparation of the drum kit is a vital first step towards obtaining a good sound: a kit which sounds fine for gigs and rehearsals may show all manner of imperfections under the harsh scrutiny of the studio monitors. Stage one is to eliminate clicks, rattles and buzzes. The bass drum pedal is often a culprit. It must be securely attached to the drum shell, and should be oiled if it squeaks. Any of the metal fixings on the kit which rattle should be tightened or damped with Blu-Tack. Next, each drum must be tuned by adjusting the tension of its skin. This should be tightened evenly, and you should check by tapping the skin round its perimeter, ensuring that the pitch is constant. Experiment with different tuning pitches on the bass drum: you'll be surprised at how much this can affect the feel of a track. If you're using double-headed toms, ensure that both heads are tuned to the same pitch. A powerful and well-defined sound is more easily achieved if the bass drum has a hole cut in the front skin. Some drummers cut a small hole, of seven inches or so in diameter. This can make the rest of the skin resonate, so I prefer to cut a much larger hole, leaving just an inch or two of the skin around the perimeter. It is not advisable to remove the front head altogether, because the drum shell would then be subjected to uneven stresses, with the potential for damage and warping. Any drum which rings or resonates to excess should be damped, by gaffa-taping a small pad of paper tissue or fabric to the drum skin close to the edge. Don't damp a part of the drum that the drummer will want to hit! A cushion or pillow should be placed inside the bottom of the bass drum, about half an inch away from the head, to reduce unwanted resonances. This can be moved into contact with the skin, if required, to damp it further. The most important parts of the drum kit are the bass and snare drums: both must give clear, positive beats which decay before the next beat if a blurred sound is to be avoided. The sound of the bass drum is also determined by the material of the beater: wood gives a modern, snappy sound; leather and felt produce more of a thud, better suited to a rock style. A 'black dot' drum skin gives a harder, better-defined beat. Try taping a beer mat onto the skin at the point where it is struck in order to obtain a similar effect. "The reality is that a good live drum sound can be achieved in a small, untreated room, with just a few inexpensive microphones." Tuning the snare drum high gives a high, contemporary sound, whereas a lower tuning is more suited to rock music. The lower head should be slightly looser than the batter head. Tuning pitch also determines the decay time for the drum sound, which is longer for a low pitch. For fast tracks, it may be necessary to raise the tuning or increase the damping so that the drum does not resonate from one beat to the next. (This creates a muddy effect.) The snares should be tensioned so that they rattle crisply when they are on and the drum is struck, but do not buzz or rattle in sympathy with any other part of the kit. If necessary, the wires can be damped by applying a little gaffa tape to them, close to the edge of the drum, though inevitably you have to live with some rattle. Using a snare gate can help keep this under control. Tom-toms often have an excessive ring, which should be damped as described previously, rather than by using the drums' internal dampers, which apply pressure to the rear of the skin and thus affect the tuning. It's important not to damp the kit excessively -- you want it to sound like the dynamic powerhouse of the band, rather than a lifeless accumulation of soggy cardboard boxes. MIKING THE KIT The most straightforward way to mic a kit is with a single pair of overhead microphones. This technique gives a very natural sound, with excellent stereo imaging, but it limits the possiblities for adjusting the drum sound during mixdown. I find this technique very effective for jazz and for ambient music. It is least successful for pop and rock. Start by positioning the microphones at a height of six feet and about five feet distant from the kit, and experiment with moving them further back until a good, well-balanced sound is achieved. If you are working in a room which has a pleasant live sound, try moving the microphones further back, in order to increase the amount of reverb the mics pick up from the room. Listen to the sound with the mics in different positions. Note that it's wise to err on the side of caution and not record a sound which is too reverberant: you can always add more reverb using a digital processor, but it is impossible to reduce the amount of reverb on a recorded sound. It's best to use condenser mics or high-quality dynamics: Tandy pressure zone microphones (PZMs) make good budget overheads, and can be gaffa-taped to the mic stands. Reasonable results can be obtained with Shure SM57s, which are fine and relatively inexpensive dynamic mics. Almost any condenser mic (AKG C1000, C451, C414) will perform admirably as an overhead. I have used this technique to record drums for a five-piece jazz group, using a Calrec Soundfield stereo microphone as my overhead. A very worthwhile improvement on this method is to add a third mic for the bass drum. This allows the balance between the bass drum and the rest of the kit to be adjusted during mixdown, and enables the bass drum sound, which often requires processing, to be treated separately. Many bands, including Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, used this setup to good effect. *To read the rest of the article and get more tips simply click here
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At one time, recording electric guitar meant putting a mic in front of an amp and hitting the record button. Of course, you can still do it that way, and in many instances such an approach yields perfectly acceptable results. But there are also viable DI alternatives that may be more convenient in a home recording environment.
Equipment containing transformers will tend to cause hum interference on electric guitars, especially those with single-coil pickups. Rotate your position in the room to find the angle of least hum and keep as far away as possible from the interfering equipment. As a rule, the more overdrive you use, the more serious the effect of interference. Computer monitors in particular cause serious interference problems with guitar pickups, so keep as far away from these as you can. Or better still, turn the monitor off. (Note, though, that if a monitor is in energy-saving mode and is still powered up, the screen may be dark, but you'll still get interference.)
In the recording studio, it's common to leave effects processing until the final mix so as to allow sounds to be changed right up to the last minute. However, guitar players rely on many of their effects to create the right 'feel' at the playing stage -- specifically, effects such as overdrive, wah-wah or delay. Reverb can be added at the mixing stage, as stereo digital reverb is sometimes more appropriate than the mono spring reverb built into some guitar amps. If stereo reverb is to be added during recording, a pair of tracks will be needed for recording. Should you want to replace any of a guitarist's 'essential' effects at a later stage, arrange it so the player can monitor via the effect, even if you're recording without it.
20 TIPS ON RECORDING VOCALS 
7. Put the mic at the right distance, because if you get too close to it you'll increase the risk of popping and the level will change noticeably every time the singer moves slightly. Cardioid mics also exhibit a bass-boost 'proximity effect' that varies as the singer's mic distance varies. On the other hand, if the singer is too far away from the mic the room reflections will colour the sound, making it seem remote and boxy. As a rule, a mic distance of around six to nine inches (15-24 centimetres) is ideal.
