wax&wires

Fix it Before You Mix it

In my post on Melodyne Direct Note Access, I wrote briefly about how DNA was a great solution in the few instances where you might be hired only to do post-production work and there was no opportunity to get back in the studio and fix mistakes; but better results would always favor getting a good clean take from the start. Consider this an extension of that thought, and a quick list of things you can do to get better sounding recordings without needing to buy, learn and use crazy amounts of reparative software.

1) Good recordings start at the source. Before we get into more step-by-step practical things to do, you have to really buy-in and believe that statement. If you don’t internalize the fact that you MUST take your time when setting up the source of sound, you’re already limiting the quality of your recordings. Spending the extra time to acquire good tones and good takes will pay dividends when you get to the mixing stage of your project. You could have an arsenal of the greatest plug-ins, outboard gear, and even ears, known to man; but if you’ve got fret buzz on an out-of-tune guitar clipping through the 8″ speaker of a 15W solid state crate amp, it won’t matter (unless that was the sound you were going for… but I doubt it).

2) Practice man, we talkin’ about practice. Get your arrangements tight. Every performer needs to know what songs you’re recording and the right arrangement of each one. Be sure that parts aren’t stepping on each other (no drum solos while the singer’s singing, etc). When we mix, we make sure that every instrument has it’s own room in the frequency spectrum through the use of EQ, and it’s own space through the use of panning. The same principle should be applied on a compositional level. If the vocal is the main feature for a few beats, don’t have complex guitar lines and bass runs that confuse the ear as to what it should be listening to.

3) Buy, rent, borrow, do whatever you can to get the best gear for your project that you can find. We already mentioned the guitar and amp above, I think a big area where I’ve noticed a difference here has been with cymbals on a drum kit. If I get a drum track where the skins sound bad, we can dynamically trigger the snare, toms, and kick using SoundReplacer or Drumagog (both great plug-ins); but cymbals are pretty much impossible to replicate in post. There’s far too much variety in timbre and velocity to be able to copy it using any number of samples. Spend a few hours in music shops or backline companies trying out cymbals to save yourself a few days worth of EQ or failed attempts at authentic sample replacement. The end mix will thank you for it. An extension of this goes without saying to have fresh strings and drum heads on and ready to go for your session. There’s no plug-in that can magically bring your dead strings’ punch back.

4) Place your mic with your ears, not your eyes. I know we have all these techniques on where mics should be placed, and there’s solid theory behind those methods, but you shouldn’t be relying on pictures of other peoples’ set ups, or your eyes, to tell you how something sounds. I don’t listen to my food to see how it tastes, or feel a flower to see how it smells, so why would I look at where a mic is to hear how it sounds? If you’re micing a cello for example, get down on your knees, close your eyes and move your head around in front of the soundhole. You may even want to try moving the instrument to different locations in the room. If you find a spot that it sounds good, put your mic where your ear just was. After that, at least if you hear something about the tone that you don’t like back in the control room, you know it’s the mic or your preamp and you can try a different mic or preamp, but you know that you heard the sound you wanted in front of that cello; now it’s just a matter of capturing it. DON’T OVERLOOK NOISE EITHER!!! A big part of using your ears to place your mic is identifying noise. If you’re listening for a good spot to place your mic and you notice that you can hear the air conditioner on, or train tracks outside, you need to solve those noise problems first. If your ears can hear it, your mic can too. As a disclaimer, with crazy loud sources like drums or rock guitar amps, I wouldn’t recommend putting your ear against the source to place your mic (so let’s have a bit of common sense here). Instead, get a studio hand to go into the live room with closed headphones on. Patch a talk-back mic to his headphones and have him move the mics around while you listen in the control room and instruct him through the talk-back mic on where to move each mic. The biggest argument here is essentially, don’t just put an SM57 an inch off of the edge of your guitar amp’s speaker because that’s what you’re supposed to do and it looks right. Use your ears to find the sound you’re looking for.

5) Tune, Tune, Tune. Get a few tuners to be sure they all agree. I use a little Korg cheapo $20 tuner, and then a Peterson Strobe tuner to be sure guitars are in line. Have them set up and intonated before your session too. You could be perfectly in tune on your open strings, but if your intonation is out, as soon as you have to use your fretboard (so… as soon as you have to play…) you’re out of tune. Next, tune after EVERY take. Nothing is more frustrating than packing up your gear and striking your mics, and THEN finding out that your B string was out when it gets to mixing time. If you don’t intonate your guitar and bass first, the smallest infraction can really hurt your vocal take, as your vocalist won’t be able to find center as easily.

6) Use a pop filter on vocals. If you get a lot of boominess and plosives on your track, the main feature of your song (the vocal) is going to be lackluster and unprofessional. Spend the money on a good pop filter (or use a coat hanger and pantyhose to make one if you’re hard pressed, it’s better than nothing). EQ and compression can only go so far, and they won’t be able to satisfactorily repair any abuse of hard plosive consonants. Don’t eat your mic either. Besides hygenic infractions, this could cause an overload of proximity effect and mouth noise. Get at least a few inches of space between your mouth and the mic to allow for a good amount of presence without sacrificing body. Sing right into the mic and don’t turn your head around or jump up and down. Contrary to popular belief, the mic doesn’t know where your mouth is, and can’t move with you. Focus on producing a good vocal tone and solid placement to give you a strong and consistent take.

7) Warm Up. This is especially true with vocals. Spend 10-20 minutes warming up so that your takes are cleaner. Don’t kill yourself singing Kelly Clarkson, but run simple, low scales to shake the rust off of your vocal chords. The same is true with guitar. Spend some time playing some scales and helping your brain reload the song and your fingers’ muscle memory to recall how far apart the frets are, etc.

8) Keep the monitors in check. As a rule of thumb, only put into the artists’ headphones what they need to get the track right, and at just enough volume for them to get a good feel going. You don’t want click bleeding through every sustained chord on a song, or snare drum blasting through and getting re-tracked via vocal mic on your singer’s take. You need to give a solid enough mix and a reasonable enough volume for the vibe of the song to come across, otherwise you might get a passionless take, but don’t let the volume of the headphones get out of hand. Mix the headphones via subtraction not addition. You might also want to kill the click send right when the last chord rings out to avoid any bleed as the instruments fade out. Some people like tracking a clean and click-less take of the final chord witht the whole band to avoid click bleed; I usually just sit in the control room and mute it right as they strike the chord though. Wait for the chord to ring out fully, and THEN cut. You can always fade out later, but you can’t generate the sound that would have been.

That’s all I’ve got for you in this post. I’ll continue to write as I get more ideas on helpful topics. Feel free to comment and add any tips or tricks you might have, or refute any of mine. I’d love any input you have.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 6:57 pm. It is filed under wire tips and tagged with mixing, recording, studio, technique, tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.