Vocal EQ Tips

One of the most common areas I address with those new to recording is equalization. It’s not surprising that this is a roadblock for many aspiring engineers simply due to the fact that with all of the controls and adjustments that are available, it’s easy to feel like you need to make use of EVERYTHING. This is not the case, the numerous options that are available are simply there to provide flexibility to compensate for the recording source, the engineers preference and any other of the innumerable issues that can arise in a recorded track. In this installment, I’m going to continue to focus on the usage of this tool on vocals.

Not to break tradition, I want to start with the disclaimer that, as with just about everything in a studio, equalization is very subjective. At the end of the day, what sounds good to your ears is correct. I have spent a lot of time studying and practicing learned EQ techniques, and I can tell you, the best education that I have received is spending time critically listening to the music that matches the style I’m working on and working to emulate that sound. In most cases, we are not trying to reinvent the wheel, just trying to attain a good sounding vocal that rides in the correct place in the mix. What I will share with you here are some of my most common practices as I am mixing vocals. I’m also writing this from the perspective of the current trend in vocal presentation, which is a crisp vocal from the top down with a much less obvious bottom (especially true with female vocals).

Depending on the style of music, one of the first things I’m working on is cleaning up the bottom end frequencies of the mix. Knowing that there is a lot of room for “mud” between kick drums, toms, bass, guitar and vocal sibilance, I work to make the vocal track stand above those instruments. Generally speaking, I begin with a high-pass filter on a vocal initiating a gentle roll off between 250 & 125 Hz (Know that if you are going for the “big” male vocal, this may have to be adjusted). With many microphones mid-range frequencies are accentuated, the next place that I’m looking is at these frequencies. Generally, these are the frequencies that will “argue” with my guitar tracks. Typically providing a gentle cut in the mid-rage will remedy this. Finally, to get the “crisp” sound, I work with my higher frequencies. I will usually slightly boost 8-ll kHz, which adds the breathy crispness. Use caution doing this, as it is very easy to make your vocal track too “brittle”. I spend the bulk of my EQing time on the high-mid frequencies with the desired end result of making the vocal ride perfectly on the top edge of the mix. While the above is greatly over-simplified, it is a good point of reference.

The more time you spend working with your equalizers the more comfortable you will become making the right adjustments. It’s just like anything; practice makes perfect. Find what you like, listen to as many reference mixes as you can and work to make your mixes sound similar.

I love to get your input and tips as well, feel free to share. As always, I’m happy to answer questions or provide my opinion.

Recording Tips: The (very) Basics Pt. II

I have received a lot of positive feedback on my blog post: Recording Tips: The (very) Basics, and have been asked by several people to expand on it so that it might encompass what an entire project style studio would need to be to achieve a more complete set-up. I will preface this by saying, if you’re like me, you will never have enough “toys in your toy box” and that a “complete” studio is a very subjective thing. Here I will provide, in my opinion what a good starting point is for a more complete set-up.

In the first installment of this blog I discussed the three most critical facets of the studio, the microphone, the preamp and the room. Assuming you have those three figured out and are happy with that, let’s round it out.

First, you have to have something to record to, either a computer with software for recording or a standalone device for recording. I prefer the computer method, as most do these days, so I’ll focus on that style. First, don’t skimp on your computer, you will be asking this machine to do a lot and to do it without creating latency. Don’t expect an old machine with slow processors and very little RAM to do the job without creating tons of frustration. Get a computer that can handle the workload, Rain Recording is a great place to check out for quality machines. The software is also very subjective and there are tons of choices like Pro Tools, Cubase, Nuendo, Logic and Sonar (just to name a few). Find what works best for you and learn it inside out. Know what you will need to properly run the software; you will likely need an external piece of hardware as well.

Next, you will want to be able to hear what you are recording. You will likely need headphones to do this. Look into multi-channel headphone amps and good, comfortable headphones. The number of channels that you will need for your headphone amp will be dependant on how many simultaneous tracks you intend on recording. You will probably not need an eight-channel amp if you only have two inputs available to record to. Also, if you don’t need many headphone outputs, be sure to check on your external piece of recording hardware (if one is needed for your software), many of these have 1-2 outputs preinstalled. Speaking of hearing what you are recording, you will also likely need a decent pair of studio monitors. There are many choices for studio monitors and again, it is subjective, but be sure to get something that provides a very clear and uncolored sound. Studio monitors are crucial to the mixing process and need to be worked with to get the mixes you like. You will likely have to do some work “tuning” your room to get the best possible sound.

If your audio source is being recorded in another room, you will also want to consider a talkback mic, which enables the engineer to communicate to those being recorded through the headphones. A good, inexpensive place to start is with either the Mackie Big Knob or the Presonus Monitor Station. Both of these will also provide many different ways to configure your monitoring system.

After you get all of the above, a few things that are often forgotten about are, microphone stands, pop filters, good cabling and a music stand. Don’t forget to budget these things into your mix. They do add a considerable amount of cost and are hard to do without if you forget.

This is a very over simplified list, and there are certainly MANY other things that you can add, but as a starting point you have a nicely thought out studio set-up. Studio set-ups can be as simple or as complex as you can make them. The most important thing is that you capture good quality sound and have the ability to take that captured sound and mix it into something pleasing to the ear.

Audio Engineers (Unsexy) Checklist

I hate that feeling right after I get all settled in somewhere and then I suddenly realize that I forgot something. Inevitably, right I after I go retrieve my missing artifact, get settled back in…I realize that I did it again. The good news is, if it’s a task that you do regularly, these occurrences get less and less, but until you get the habit built, nothing beats an old fashioned list!

There are a few things that I make sure to have on hand or prepared prior to starting a recording session. This is exceedingly important if you are working with clients since your time is their money. I think that my clients have to think that I am half crazy when I first talk to them before a session because I ask so many questions. The reason is, you can’t prepare for what you don’t know about and nothing is EVER as simple as it sounds. What I’m going to share with you right now are the basic things I make sure are close by when I’m recording and some tools that I suggest you have available to make your life easier during sessions. We can call this the underground checklist, because most of this is the ‘unsexy’ side of being a recording engineer.

Here’s my list:

Pen & Paper – Make LOTS of notes while you are recording! Note the areas that might need to be ‘punched in’, document exceptional passages, write down EQ thoughts, write down areas that might need more compression and don’t forget to write down some creative thoughts to share with your client. All of these things will help you while mixing and let your client know that you are paying attention to their project.

Scripts or Lyric Sheets – These are invaluable for keeping track of where you are in the recording, catching errors and making production notes. I use a pencil on these since I may change my production notes depending on the take.

At Least One More Microphone Option – Be prepared to swap mics, and don’t be too lazy to do it. If your not immediately happy with the sound you are getting, or it’s different than you had first envisioned, it just takes a few seconds to swap a mic and it can make a world of difference.

Extra Mic Cables – Why? Because they do wear out and fail. You don’t want a basic component like that to stop a session dead in it’s tracks! You would be surprised how many times I’ve seen people with only one cable available.

Extra Headphones – Again, these fail. They are high use, (unfortunately) high abuse items and can and will go out without warning.

Bottle of Water (or other beverage) – You will be talking back to your client during the session and you don’t want to have to stop what your doing to go get a drink.

It’s a simple list and not often considered, but can make a world of difference. Assuming you have prepared the rest of you equipment correctly, this should minimize session stopping issues.

Recording Tips: Limiters

If you have spent any amount of time recording and mixing, you have likely tried to keep a sound from clipping or tried to boost the overall volume of a recorded sound only to have it clip because of a small section or a single sound that tends to be much louder. We’ve already covered two types of compression, basic and side-chain, now I’d like to discuss limiters, which will help with the above issues.

A limiter is a compressor that is typically set to a higher ratio and faster attack (see compressor basics). The goal of a limiter is to “limit” a sound to a specific top volume. Limiting effectively reduces the dynamic range of a sound, this means that if set correctly, it will turn down the louder sections to bring their volume closer to the softer sections. Limiters are used frequently in live sound applications to prevent sounds that are too loud from damaging speakers. In a studio setting limiters are often used as a tool to reduce louder sounds so that the volume of the track as a whole can be increased without clipping or distorting. We will focus here on the studio usage only.

A compressor begins limiting once the ratio is set above 5:1 although it is usually a higher ratio setting, closer to 10:1. Also, attack times are generally much faster. To set up a limiter, start by setting your threshold (or ceiling) to the dB level that you want the sound to start to being effected. An example of this would be if you had a sound recorded where the majority of the sound was below -10 dB, with some areas that were around -2 dB and you wanted the volumes of those sections to be closer to the rest of the mix, you would set your threshold somewhere below -2 dB, but probably not more than -10 dB. Next, adjust your ratio to the desired amount of effect you want to use; 10:1 is a good starting point. Now you will use a fairly quick attack setting (this will be a “to taste” adjustment) to tell the limiter how quickly you want the effect to be executed on the sound. Finally, you can use a make-up gain to increase the overall sound of the newly limited track, which should provide for an overall higher volume without clipping. If you limit too much and use an attack time that is too fast, the result will likely be undesirable.

Limiting is a great way to protect speakers, smooth out performances and increase volume. Remember there is no standard setting for any two sounds, so spend some time tweaking the parameters to get the best effect possible. Try not to use more limiting than is necessary as the goal is to improve the overall mix without being overly obvious. The untrained ear should have no idea that it is there at all (unless that’s desired goal).

Recording Tips: Acoustic Guitar Microphone Tecniques

Right behind voice, acoustic guitar is one of my favorite sounds to record. The sound can be extremely complex and is governed by so many factors that it is actually very easy to experiment with. In sticking with the basics, this installment will focus on micing up an acoustic guitar. I will share with you my favorite techniques and give you some general “rules of thumb”.

Before we get into micing up the guitar, I want to share and stress a lesson that I have learned many times over. The overused saying, “fix it in the mix” should be thrown out the window and replaced with another often-used saying, “garbage in, garbage out”. The goal should always be to capture whatever sound you are recording in the best possible way. When looking at recording acoustic guitar, consider the variables that can be optimized prior to setting any levels. To many of you, this will seem like common sense, but I cannot tell you the number of times that I have had to “gently suggest” this to musicians. First, replace the old strings on the guitar with new ones. New strings will drastically change the tonality of the sound. Next, please make sure the instrument is tuned. Finally, have extra strings, picks and anything else that is unique for the instrument handy. Nothing kills the energy of a session faster than having to run up the road to the store to buy a new set of strings because one broke on the perfect take.

Now that you’re ready to play, let’s mic the guitar. Condenser mics are usually the best choice for acoustic guitars due to their ability to capture the higher frequencies. I usually favor a large diaphragm condenser if I’m only going to use one (which I almost never do). If I were to do what most people new to recording would do, which is to place a single microphone facing directly at the sound hole, I would find out that the sound would be very resonant and bass heavy. This sound is probably not the sound that you are going for. This sound is often more desirable, however if you are using multiple microphones to capture the entire sound of the guitar. So in a single microphone set-up, you will want to place the microphone between the sound hole and the 12^th fret facing the guitar. Sometimes, when using only one microphone, I will place the microphone approximately at the 10^th fret facing back toward the sound hole. This gives a good mix of body from the sound hole and brightness from the neck.

More typically, I’ll use three mics for acoustic guitars for the reason that the instrument will sound very different depending on where the mics are positioned. I still begin with a large diaphragm condenser microphone, but this time I place it directly in front of the sound hole approximately 10 inches away from the guitar. This microphone will serve as the device to capture all of the body and resonance of the guitar. Next, I will set up a small diaphragm condenser at roughly the 10^th fret to capture the brightness and higher frequencies that the instrument is producing. Finally, I will put a third condenser microphone over the player’s right shoulder (if they are right handed, left if they are a lefty), to capture the sound that they are hearing. This microphone to me is the most important because you are hearing the performance the same way the guitarist is and it captures a much more “true-to-life” guitar sound. I will interchange large and small diaphragm mics depending on the performance style. By using three separate microphones to capture the performance, you will then be able to blend them together to get a very clear and accurate sound when mixing.

One word of caution regarding the multiple microphone technique; you will encounter phase cancellation if your microphones are not placed very close to the same position and there is a delay time between the microphones. As long as you are using 3 separate tracks, you can adjust to this while mixing, but as a best practice, try to keep the mics to a very similar proximity to the guitar.

The final mic technique for acoustic guitars that I will share with you is XY pattern micing. I use two small diaphragm condenser microphones with the capsules one on top of the others and one pointing toward the sound hold and the other toward the neck of the guitar. I generally place these microphones 6-10 inches from the guitar with the mics positioned right between the neck and sound hole. I pan them hard left and hard right and record. This creates a very nice and ear pleasing stereo effect blending the dark sound from the hole and the bright sound from the neck.

There are, of course, numerous ways to mic acoustic guitars, these are just a few. The best thing to do is move the mics around until you like what you hear. Try adjusting the height and angle of the mics as well as moving them up and down the guitar. Remember, recording is very subjective, find what sounds best to your ears and record it!

Recording Tips: Preamps

Which preamps are best is one of the most debated subjects in the pro audio world. Preamps are extremely subjective and one of my top three most important things for good recordings. It’s not surprising that this is a confusing subject for many people entering the recording community; there is simply no clear-cut answer on what exactly is needed. In keeping with sticking to the basics as I have done in my last several discussions, I hope to clarify this topic for you all to some degree. I will be focusing on preamps in a general term and will not be getting into the tube vs. solid-state debate right now. We’ll save that for another day.

Preamps are very simple actually, their function in your recording process is to take a low audio signal and amplify it so you can capture the recording. In it’s most basic form there is an input for you to plug your microphone into and an output to plug in to your recording interface. You will have a gain knob to adjust how much the signal is amplified, a phantom power button to power condenser microphones (+48) and typically (although not always) and input impedance to help color the sound depending on the source. Sounds pretty simple right? Well, in a perfect world, yes, but the preamp has to boost this signal without adding too much noise to your recording. A mark of a good preamp is being able to increase the gain with very little noise. Many less expensive and poorly designed preamps will create buzz and hiss as their volume is increased, thus adding unwanted noise to your recordings.

So how do you choose one? Well, as I mentioned earlier, it is subjective and if you are just starting out, your choice will probably be governed by your budget. Good preamps can be very expensive; many go for as much as 3-5K. Many mixers and DAWs have them built in and you will likely find that there is a considerable amount of noise created when the built in preamps are used (not always the case, but more times than not). If you are not looking to spend much money, say less than $400, I’d suggest saving for a little while until you can afford a decent model. There are some very acceptable single-channel preamps currently on the market in the $500-1000 price range. Waiting and getting a quality preamp will make a very noticeable difference in your recorded sound. Noticeable to the point that it will likely expose problems you did not even realize that you had. Usually problems that were concealed by the noise floor that your ears were used to.

You do need to know that if you purchase a great preamp, it might not be the silver bullet that makes all of your recordings masterpieces. There are many things in the signal chain that can affect the sound and the preamp is only as good as the other devices in your signal flow. Considerations are your microphone, A/D (Analog to Digital) converters, recording environment and really just about anything that the signal flows through prior to being captured. Think of recording as if your are building a road for sound to travel on as it is heading toward it’s final destination, in most cases today, your computer. The longer you make the road and the more circuitry that the sound has to travel through the bumpier the road will be and higher the probability of creating unwanted noise. Keep it simple, find what works and sounds good and don’t try to take too many shortcuts, especially when it comes to the preamp.

Recording Tips: The (Very) Basics

We all start somewhere in our quest to set-up our perfect recording environment and we really never stop trying to improve upon it. After getting my degree in audio engineering/sound recording technology and leaving the excellent recording facility that I had been so fortunate to have access to, I found myself yearning for a space of my own. Like most college graduates, I was high on enthusiasm but low on cash. I was given a Tascam 4 track cassette recorder for Christmas by my mother and spent what little cash I had on a cheap dynamic mic. I had a host of songs ready to record, something to record them on and a lot of time on my hands. I went to work recording, but was not so pleased with the results. I kept tweaking my system, borrowing equipment and working on my space until I found what worked for me. I spent the next few years building up equipment, doing freelance projects and honing my skills and in 2004 I was given the opportunity to build and run a small studio for a local company. While running that studio, I continued to build my own until 2006 when it was ready for the world. For those of you just getting started on you quest of putting together your studio, I want to share some of my thoughts and hopefully help you avoid some of my errors.

A good friend of mine and very talented engineer gave me the best advice I received about two years into my project. By this point, I had a little bit more money and was shopping for gear; he told me to focus on the three most important elements first. They were, the microphone, the preamp and the room. He said if you got those three things right, you would be making good recordings. He was absolutely right, the first two were the easiest for me. I had heard my voice through many mics and had a good idea of what it sounded best through, while I couldn't get the mic I wanted at the time (AKG C-414), I was able to find a good deal on an Audio Technica 4040. I found a good price on a decent pre amp and was already extremely pleased with my results. The room proved to be the hardest of the three for me. It seemed that no matter what I did I would still end up with things in my recordings I didn't want; too much room noise, frequency issues and the occasional dog bark. I lucked into some Sonex acoustic foam from a recording studio that was renovating (can't beat "right place, right time") and went to work covering the room floor to ceiling with the foam. This worked well for evening out the reflections and I was able to work my schedule around the dog so my recordings were well on their way. I need to mention that what I didn't buy at the time was a recording interface or anything to process or effect sound. Taking care of these critical components, for me, did much more than any of those could have.

My second realization came to me when I purchased a load of equipment from someone else's failed studio venture. That realization was that you have to know the scope of your recordings and how your equipment works together. If you have a Neumann U87, you are recording it through a cheap preamp and have bad converters, you don't get all of the benefit from the U87. Furthermore, you don't need to spend a lot of money on studio gear that you don't have room to use or won't use for your primary reasons for putting together your studio. After buying this lot of gear and seeing a good portion of it sitting unused, I realized (as I'm sure the person I purchased it from did as well), that I didn't need it and while it was a good deal, I wasted a lot of cash.

Finally, once I got a clear scope of what I was primarily recording and covered my previously mentioned critical components. I started to see that my more narrow focus was yielding much higher quality recordings. This allowed me to spend less time clearing trash from my recordings and trying to make them sound like they were recorded on decent gear and more time on perfecting a well recorded sound. From there, I continued a focused path and honed my craft accordingly, all the while the other stuff that I had been trying to force prior to that began to happen on it's own.

I'll leave you with, what I believe is a great place to begin assuming you have something to record sound to:

Know what you are going to be recording - Start small, it's good to dream, but be realistic. If you are a voice actor wanting to record your voice, you don't need to buy a set-up to record a full band.

Network - Find people that are making good recordings and see what they are doing that you can adopt. You will pick up a lot of tips and tricks and people love to talk about their craft.

Get a good mic - Try several out and see where you voice naturally sounds the best. You don't have to break the bank at first, but find something that can last you a little while and learn to use it well. Also, invest in a good pop filter, this will save you a lot of time editing.

Get a decent preamp - Talk to others in your field and sales people to find out what others like you are purchasing.

Develop a recording space - This should be no smaller than a 5x7 area that is treated to reduce reflections. Any smaller than that will produce frequency issues that are a pain to work with. There are some pretty cool free services available now that were not there for me. For instance, Aurelex will provide you will a free room analysis and treatment recommendations. You can do this through Sweetwater sound.

Finally, don't underestimate yourself, I have heard some downright incredible recordings come out of a bedroom. It's not the ingredients, it's the cook. Spend the time and money on the right tasks and equipment and get good using what you have. If you do this, your studio will grow before you eyes.