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October 2002 The Musicality of Mastering - Issue: Oct. 2002
by Marisa T. Déry In this article I will be writing about "The Musicality of Mastering". Although I will touch on some technical issues, I'd like to focus on the creative process of mastering. The mastering engineer's role seems to be changing a bit. Whereas before a person would walk into the room and I would EQ it in the best way that I could (adjusting levels etc.) now I'm actually putting more and more special effects in the mix - record noise, backwards snare, flange on a section of a song (à la Britney) - people are asking for my input. First, I would like to touch on a much talked about subject amongst Mastering Engineers: L-O-U-D-N-E-S-S Play a CD that is five years old, then play a new release, and you will hear that the difference is staggering. Ex. Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" (Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits, Motown) then Linkin Park's "One Step Closer" (Hybrid Theory, Warner Bros.) then Marvin Gaye again. What is happening now is that music is getting louder and louder at the expense of dynamic range. In the early '90s, the reference level was -12dB on most DAT players, which is why many old players had a line at -12. Then came the finalizer and people began setting their levels to 0. The problem was that every DAT player manufacturer had a different reference level for 0. Makers of consumer DATs would set the meters hot so that inexperienced users wouldn't distort their recordings. 0 wasn't "0" anymore. The finalizer made things worse because you could set the mix with an OUT ceiling of -0.3dB (which is the recommended maximum for CDs), yet still make your program louder and louder (while still remaining at -0.3dB). The question is, "When is loud TOO LOUD?" All that I can say is that you need to leave room for the music to breathe. People are handing me mixes at 0dB, because the engineer cranked up the finalizer or the limiter conveniently located in the studio. Engineers are concerned that their clients won't be impressed with their skills, so they give them a "finalized" mix where there is absolutely no room for me to do anything. 0dB is also dangerous because many CD-burner towers assume that if the program is peaking at 0.0dB it must mean that it is overloading, and promptly rejects all the CDs being duplicated (it's quite impressive to see all those CDs popping out with flashing lights by their side). A Good Mix Analog vs. Digital EQ There is a breath in those mixes that I cannot replicate with digital processing; there is a noise, a life to those mixes. One must never forget that what you are mastering is music. An artist puts time, energy, emotion and passion into those songs. Out of respect to the artist and the music, you have to make that mix breathe and come alive. You can't process it to such an extreme that there is no dynamic range, no peaks and valleys, no life. It's just a block of noise, a block that you can beautifully see in Pro Tools or any other program (ex. the L1 set at 12dB threshold). Audio Restoration Resist the temptation to get rid of the entire hiss, especially with orchestral music! It's not only about the sonic quality; it's also about the music. Be creative when you are working on these programs. I have a little Casio keyboard at work and when I can't figure out what frequency is humming at full volume (I'm stuck and/or tired), I'll grab the Casio and find the note on the keyboard. I have a chart that associates the notes of a piano keyboard with frequencies, so if the note (or hum) is Middle C, I'll look at the chart, and find that I need to notch out 261.63 Hz - it's a start. Which brings us to the creative side of mastering ... Recently, I did a project where the artist came up to me and said, "I have three songs that are mixed, and one that is unfinished. I have an appointment with the A&R rep at DreamWorks on Friday … help me." So I listened to the said "unfinished" song and began throwing suggestions. - Why not throw a Janet Jackson type drum loop at the head? I am now listed as "Remix Engineer" ... There are a lot of plug-ins that you should play with - too many to cover them all, but the L1 Ultra-maximizer (now L2 Ultra-maximizer) must be mentioned, as it is now a must in all productions. Before it was recommended that one should set the attenuation meter/setting between -3dB and -6dB; now anything goes, so all you can really do is match the levels of a new release. But be aware! It has been said (AES Conference, New York, 2001) that 9 out of 10 songs on Billboard's Top 10 are distorted, and that songs from the 1970s sound technically better and have more dynamic range than songs released in 2001-2002. We have become a generation of "distorted" listeners (it's no wonder that teenagers today will be partially deaf by the time they reach 30). Hopefully 5.1 technology might help ease the loudness wars. In Summary It's not just about putting a mic in front of an instrument and pushing the record button, or adding highs and lows in the mastering process. It's about understanding what you are recording, mixing or mastering. Using your instincts to make it sound right. As a technician, your job is to make the music sound as sonically perfect as possible; as a human being, your job is to make the music sound as human as possible (with or without noise). Marisa T. Déry, a native of Ottawa, Canada, is Chief Mastering Engineer at the Tape Complex in Boston, MA. Her clients include the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Tugboat Annie, Scientific, Chapter In Verse and RUSHYA.
Good Amps and Power Efficiency - Issue: Oct. 2002
PA amplifiers need to combine the delicacy of a good hi-fi amp with the robustness and reliability of a farm tractor, blending (increasingly) with the low weight and compactness of aeronautical gear. Good-sounding power amps (ones which add minimal colouration or distortion to the signal, purely making it louder) require great sophistication to enlarge and deliver the signal very precisely over a wide 'canvas' of levels and frequencies, while also delivering high currents and voltages. And these quantities are not delivered into docile power-absorbing elements, but instead into speakers, which are quite complex and 'reactive' in the way they interact with the amplifier. No power amplifiers are 100 per cent efficient - even the best manage only about 80 per cent in reality. The best speakers, meanwhile, only approach 25 per cent efficiency. Best overall efficiency is consequently about (0.8 x 0.25) = 20 per cent. The average overall efficiency figure is more often between five and ten per cent. Taking ten per cent as an approximate figure, this means to get a certain amount of acoustic power - in other words music at a suitable sound level - in the room, we have to provide about 10 times that power from the electricity supply. And so this is the amount that an audio power amplifier has to handle and 'process'. We'll also want to have some power capability in reserve - since inadequate power results in amplifier overload and bad sound. In general, erring on the side of over-rating is better than under-rating. And remember that the relationship between watts and loudness isn't proportional in the way you might imagine. As a reminder, a rule of thumb is that you need to increase the power delivery into any particular speakers by at least tenfold (x10) to attain about twice (x2) the audible level. This appears on a sound level meter as a 10dB higher SPL (sound pressure level) - so, for example, if 100 W gives 90dB SPL, 1,000 W will be required to increase the level (where nothing else is altered) up to 100dB SPL. In short, much, much more power is needed than you might expect. This article is reprinted with permission from The Live Sound Manual, published by Backbeat Books, www.backbeatbooks.com. All information is copyrighted and cannot be reprinted without the permission of the publisher.
Recording The Lead Vocal - Issue: Aug. 2002
How Many Tracks Is Too Many? More often than not, the lead vocal is the track that contains the most emotional content of the song. With repeated attempts at recording the vocal, you run the risk of losing that emotion and "magic". So while it's ideal for the singer to nail the perfect take in one or two tries, a good engineer knows how to respond the other 90 per cent of the time. The answer is to compile the best elements of a few different takes into a single, composite performance where each line, each phrase and even each syllable is sung just the way you want. This process is called "comping". It's done on nearly every record you hear, even the ones you're convinced are single, complete takes. Tip: If the singer is hesitant to record this way, claiming "artistic integrity", remind them that they're free to sing the song through from top to bottom, without interruption. Meanwhile, just switch tracks while you're winding back to the top after each take. (Make sure you're only sending the current take to the headphone mix - it can be very disconcerting for a singer to begin a song and hear two voices coming out of his mouth.) In this digital age of virtually unlimited available tracks, it's tempting to record 5 or even 10 different takes before comping the vocal. But using that many can really overwhelm you and confuse the process. Try utilizing two or three tracks instead. Starting with your first take, tell the singer it's only a practice take for the purpose of further level adjustment (when in fact you've already adjusted everything and are ready to go). This is useful for anxious singers, taking the "pressure" off them. After two or three takes, stop if you have terrific performances overall. If not, go back to the track with the least inspired take and record over it. Hopefully, you have gained the singer's trust by now and don't need to inform them of these details. Continue with this process until you feel that, within those two or three tracks, you have the makings of a great performance. When you're ready to start comping, draw lines on the lyric sheet so you can make little notes (check marks, yes, no, good, bad, maybe) on each line of each take. Involve the singer in this process only if they insist - the more they analyze their own performance, the less they're likely to respond with an inspired, heartfelt one. Once you have usable takes for each line, bounce the winners onto a fresh track (you can also bounce certain lines from "alternate" takes into one take that just needs a few fixes). Tip: After you have a comped vocal, get away from it for a while (dinner break, TV break, whatever). Then listen to it with fresh ears, and with the singer, to see if you still need to fix something. This article has been reprinted from the Studio Buddy software. Written by acclaimed producers/engineers Michael Laskow and Alex Reed, Studio Buddy gives hints and tricks on various recording techniques. To download a free copy, go to www.studiobuddy.com.
Crossovers: How Many 'Ways'? - Issue: Aug. 2002
Whether the crossover is set up for two, three, four or more bands will be largely pre-determined by the PA's speaker system. Here's an outline of what the different numbers of 'ways' generally accomplish, and how they're placed. Two-way Three-way If you require a three-way PA system on a tight budget, you can use set-ups such as 'bi-amped + passive split' or 'two-way active with passive split.' All that's required is a single two-way stereo crossover, a minimum of one stereo power amp per side and three-way cabs wired for this approach. The system is still bi-amped, but is also three-way. It's achieved by 'splitting' the HF band's signal (really mid + high) using an additional passive crossover in each mid/high speaker cab. Hence 'passive split'. The active crossover splits the bass from everything else. The passive then splits the HF from the midrange - like a sequence of two forks in a road network. Despite the limitations of passive crossovers, passive splitting of HF (only) can work quite well. One restriction of the 'passive split' configuration is that the top-end's level can't be limited with any discrimination - any protective limiting is 'lumped in' with the midrange (we'll cover limiting in more detail shortly). But this only affects the ultimate sound level capability. The excess levels in one or the other will turn down both. Still, the limit has to be set low enough to protect the tweeter, rather than the mid, which would handle more power. If higher sound levels are really needed, more active 'ways' are simply going to be required. But you can still add a passive split to these. Typically this is done for occasions when super-tweeters (working at frequencies above about 14-16 kHz) might be used - for example providing a PA in a small venue where high frequencies won't be largely absorbed before they've reached the audience. Four-way Five-, Six- and Seven-way But the 'law of diminishing returns' sets in fairly steeply once the crossover has split-up the audio range into four fairly equally-sized bands. For one thing, the weight of amps and cabling, as well as the wiring and rigging complexity, is bound to start increasing substantially, but without much worthwhile increase in sound level or quality. There's also an acoustic trade-off, in that it can be increasingly hard to synchronize larger numbers of separate sound sources. Despite this, you will occasionally still meet five-, six- and seven-way systems. There are commercial analog (active) crossovers with five and more bands, some of them flexible modular types. Or else they're bespoke (custom-made), way crossovers. The more upmarket digital crossovers also typically offer up to six bands. This article is reprinted with permission from The Live Sound Manual, published by Backbeat Books, www.backbeatbooks.com. All information is copyrighted and cannot be reprinted without the permission of the publisher.
Becoming a Producer - Issue: June 2002
Almost as soon as assistant sound engineers learn enough about studio recording to spell "EQ", their ambitions begin to drift towards the possibility of working as a producer. They see dollars, or power, or the seductive pull of being totally in charge of the artistic direction of a recorded work, and sooner or later, I get the inevitable question: "How do I go about becoming a producer? Is there a course I can take?" It all depends on how you define "producer". In its simplest sense it can mean anyone involved in sound production - so if you are a songwriter, musician or sound engineer, you could be regarded as a "producer of sound..." If that's what you want (and you have the talent), then experience, skills in recording (i.e. "music production") can be gained through on-the-job training, sound engineering courses or a combination of both. There are many courses from which to choose. However the term "producer" in its more accepted sense describes the person responsible for the total sound and feel of the finished track. Responsibilities generally include choosing and arranging songs, selecting and rehearsing the band and any additional musos, working with the engineers during tracking and mixdown, and guiding the mastering engineer during final post-production. The producer may employ others to help realize their vision, or may take a hands-on approach to some of the duties such as recording or mixdown. In any event, a producer generally leaves the imprint of their own style on the finished product while still allowing the style and talent of the performers to shine through. Becoming a recognized producer therefore involves developing a professional skill-set through a number of different avenues. Essential areas include music knowledge, theoretical, technical and practical knowledge of sound engineering, mixing and post-production. A very good set of ears and ability to work effectively with people is a must. A knowledge of the capabilities of a wide variety of studios and other audio facilities helps too. Audio courses may help, but they need to be extremely comprehensive. The Germans have a word for the technical side of a producer's job: "Tonmeister" - Master of Sound. There are some "Tonmeister" courses around, but check first that they are respected by the industry, because there are some that are "Tonmeister" in name only. One of several courses with a good reputation is the degree course at Surrey University in the UK. Any short, part-time courses claiming to make you a "Master of Sound" may be stretching the truth just a little! Whether you do a course or not, without a track record in the real world it is unlikely that you will ever get a producer's gig - unless you are very persuasive. Many successful producers have not completed any formal training at all, except perhaps for music. They have paid their dues through the experience of being musicians and engineers and show such a fine grasp of the sensibilities of putting together recorded works that others ask them for help with their music. When that happens, and continues to happen, you are a producer. Vyt is the Managing Director of Audio Training Consultants, who operate the audioEd Pro Audio Resources Site, www.audioed.com.au. Before ATC, Vyt owned and operated several professional recording studios and an accredited audio school for more years than he cares to remember.
In With The Old, Out With The New - Issue: June 2002
Three Reasons to Reconsider High Technology Reason 1 - Analog audio had been refined to an art form with its origins dating back to Alexander Graham Bell. While tube technology was extremely inefficient due to heat loss, it sounded very pure and warm. Transistors were bulky compared to integrated circuits but they were produced on printed circuit boards that simply had more conductor for the electrons to flow through. Many audio designers maintain that "If ICs are so good, why don't you see them in any of the finest audio amplifiers?" Fact is that the transistor has rivaled tubes in sound quality while being a far more efficient device. The IC might never be able to produce enough current reliably to be considered for amplification but it has a home in many other low current applications like mixing consoles and processors of most every type. In plain English this means that today you can still find "state of the art" analog studios and sound reinforcement systems that can sound amazing. Analog is not perfect. It has noise, it has heat loss, it has distortion, but it is easy to listen to. Reason 2 - The digital revolution has moved so fast that not enough attention has been paid to how the product sounds compared to how many functions it can perform. The current digital mixing consoles are sold on their features. Further proof of this is the re-emergence of tubes in combination with transistors and ICs in processors designed to add warmth to the sound. If you are continuing to doubt the above, buy your next CD from the store then download the hit song from the Internet, burn a copy of it and listen to them both in a high-end, hi-fi shop on a set of speakers worth over $3,000. The difference between the two discs will astound you. Reason 3 - People. A Front of House engineer that has been on tour with a metal band for the last 10 years probably does not hear well anymore. Conversely, a graduate of a production school program has not had enough hands on experience to make a good recording or handle a live show. A person can read all the books on golf ever written and not break 100 playing the game. You have to do it to be good at it! It will not hurt if you have a solid understanding of acoustics and electronics while you are at it. I have seen PA technicians put speaker boxes out of phase, have no idea about time alignment of drivers vs. delay lines vs. delay effects. Front of House sound "engineers" who must have gotten the gig because of how they bop their heads in time with the flashing red lights on the console and studio engineers who got their gig because of how cool they were to party with. Ted Barker is an independent audio consultant and production specialist affiliated with Show Pro in Toronto. He can be reached by e-mail at tbar61@yahoo.co.uk.
Sound For Picture: Sound Design ... Realistically - Issue: Apr. 2002
The term sound design is often misused. Typically it conjures up visions of science fiction or fantasy films that feature people, places or things that do not exist in our reality and thus need to have their own sounds created (or "designed"). However, the term sound design is more appropriately used to describe an all-encompassing, top-to-bottom, start-to-finish overview of what a film is going to sound like. From that point of view, most supervising sound editors who work closely with the director and picture editor of a film project can be considered sound designers, but many of us prefer to reserve that term for a select number of our peers. Indeed, sound design is not the domain of the synthesist or plug-in junkie. The best approach to sound design is considering what sound is needed during every frame of a film, and that process is best started by looking at what is in each of those frames at any given time. There is a commonly used, self-explanatory phrase amongst sound editors that reads, "See a dog, hear a dog." My challenge to all editors (or designers, if you must) is to go a step farther - "See what kind of dog? Well, hear that kind of dog." This is a deceptively complex task at times. The most successful track for a feature is one that does not distract from the entire viewing experience, so we must endeavour to make our tracks fit seamlessly with the images on the screen. That is not going to be achieved by, for example, cutting the sound of a muscle-car engine for a Reliant K-Car. You say that muscle car engine is the only one you have in your library? Well, time to expand your library! Go out and shoot (record) one. You will only ever be as good as your library, and note that off-the-shelf libraries will rarely have exactly the sound that you are looking for. Now, of course, it may be that in the script for the film, a scene is described where a throaty V8 engine block and exhaust system is fitted (somehow!) into a K-Car. Well, the supervising sound editor who has been in touch with the director from the pre-production planning stage through to the last day of the printmaster will have to figure out how to pull this off in the track. In short, they will have to design the sound of this vehicle... Stephen Barden is a Supervising Sound Editor for Sound Dogs Toronto, who recently brought home a Genie award for their work on the film Treed Murray. The company also recently completed work on Men With Brooms, which had the largest theatrical opening for a Canadian film in history. You can contact Sound Dogs at (416) 364-4321, info@sounddogstoronto.com.
Keeping It Simple - Issue: Apr. 2002
I try to keep everything as simple as possible. I just find that in big huge venues it doesn't really pay to get the most expensive equipment, It would be nice to have the best mic preamps, and the best tube compressors, but you just don't hear it. It simply doesn't make a difference. It probably does to a board tape, and it does when you record it, but there are so many variables involved in a huge room. You're just trying to make it as good as possible for every seat in the house because people pay a lot of money and they have a lot of choices, they don't have to come and see [your band]. The better we can make it - the better we can make it look, the better we can make it sound, the better the band hears it - the better for everyone. It keeps people coming back, and ticket prices are not going down in price, they're going up. Let's make sure that when people pay that money, they enjoy it and they feel they get their money's worth. Robin Billinton has over a decade's experience as Front of House Engineer for the Barenaked Ladies.
Getting Ahead as a Pack-Rat - Issue: Apr. 2002
I just love collecting equipment because everything is designed to do one specific job and different artists want different things. So you might get someone in here saying they want something that sounds a bit dark. Okay, so that preamp isn't going to work - let's use this one. It's like the tools of a carpenter ... if all you have is one handsaw you're kind of limited. If you've got 15 different kinds of saws, hammers, drills, etc., all of a sudden you can make cabinets or chairs or whatever you want. That's the way I look at it. The studio really is a giant tool - it's just an extension." Arnold Lanni is producer of bands Our Lady Peace and Finger Eleven, owner of Arnyard Studios, and former member of both Frozen Ghost and Sheriff.
The Soundperson's Survival Kit Checklist - Issue: Apr. 2002
* Several of every kind of adapter imaginable Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile and other published articles can be seen at her Web site, www.total.net/~mixmama.
Interconnecting Multiple Sound Systems - Issue: Feb. 2002
At concerts, you often see three audio systems in use: house PA, recording, and broadcast. Here are some tips on connecting those systems without creating ground loops and hum. Consider using a single power distro system, and connect all three systems' power cables to that distro. Make sure the distro can handle the total current requirements of the three systems. If you hear hum or buzz when the systems are connected, first make sure that the signal source is clean. You might be hearing a broken snake shield or an unused bass guitar input. If hum persists, experiment with flipping the ground-lift switches on the splitter and on the direct boxes. If there is no ground-lift switch, insert an adapter that lifts the cable shield at the input of the system you're feeding. On some jobs you need to lift almost every ground. On others you need to tie all the grounds. The correct ground-lift setting can change from day to day due to a change in the lighting. Expect to do some trial and error adjustments. Often, a radio station or video crew will take an audio feed from your mixing console. In this case, you can prevent a hum problem by using a console with transformer-isolated inputs and outputs. Or you can use a 1:1 audio isolation transformer between the console and the feeds. Some excellent isolation transformers are made by Jensen (phone (818) 374-5857, www.jensen-transformers.com). Finally, try a distribution amp with several transformer-isolated feeds. Bruce Bartlett is Senior Microphone Design Engineer at Crown International.
Helping The Master - Issue: Feb. 2002
"Could you make this bigger, louder, heavier, tighter, brighter, polite, less polite, more blue, less green, etc.," - these are the types of questions I'm asked on a daily basis in connection with mastering. And yes I can do it, with one fundamental catch: in most cases, the mixes I get sound better on analog. Mixing to DAT is by far the cheapest way of making a decent record, particularly if you use the great converters on today's market and 24-bit DAT machines. Always - and I can't stress this enough - ID your mixes properly, highlighting the mix you want mastered. If you can't be there in person, write/fax the engineer your thoughts about what needs to be done to any of the mixes, the order of the songs and desired space between the songs. Make sure to tell the Mastering Engineer which tools were used, such as the console, DAT recorder, the converter and so on. Never send a compiled DAT of the album. I've had DATs sent to me that were maximized, ends being chopped off and a whole lot of other things that cause me to utter expletives. Always record at 44.1 kHz. All CDs are clocked at that frequency and changing from 48 to 44.1 kHz degrades the sound. And it's always a good idea to make safeties of your DAT. Record a 1 kHz tone for about 30 seconds at the top of tape, because that tells me about the left-right balance of the mixing console. What level should I record the tone at, you ask? If the peak average of your mix is, for example, 12 dB, you should record a tone of … 12 dB. This gives you 12 dB headroom above 0 dB from your mixing console before clipping. The difference between 0 dB analog and 0 dB digital is that, in analog recording, 0 dB is normal level and 0 dB digital is the max. That's why analog is great. When you start hitting stuff above 0 dB the tape starts to saturate. Somehow the music has some "glue" to it. When passing through -12 dB with digital, you're passing through air. Passing through 0 dB digital, you're dead. Nick Blagona is Chief Mastering Engineer at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, ON.
Recording Vocals Without Headphones - Issue: Feb. 2002
Sometimes you'll find that a vocalist has a hard time monitoring bed tracks through headphones. Here's a trick I use to overcome that problem. I set up the vocal mic and put a pair of Auratones, or similar small monitors, about three feet on either side of the microphone; I use a tape measure to ensure that the they are equidistant. I place the speakers 90 degrees off axis and point them directly at the microphone. I then feed the monitors from a mono cue mix buss, and flip the phase on one of them. Sometimes I roll off a bit of top and bottom as well. The vocalist will hear the speakers, due to the distance between his or her ears, but the speaker output will be 180 degrees out of phase at the mic capsule. Therefore, the bedtrack bleed, though not absolutely gone, will be down by about 30 dB. Take care not to feed anything to the speakers that you don't intend to use in the final mix, and don't run them any louder than necessary for the vocalist to sing in tune and in time. A little bit of bleed won't kill you. No one ever decided not to buy an album because there was a bit of instrumental bleed in the vocal mic! If you degrade the hi-fi quality by 5 per cent, but improve the performance by 30 per cent, it's a no-brainer. Always let the technology serve the art! Doug McClement owns LiveWire Remote Recorders in Toronto.
The Old Versus The New - Issue: Dec. 2001
Professional Sound dug deep in its past to bring you a variety of tips from a range of professionals in the audio industry on their views of old technology versus the latest developments. "Very often, people will arrive here with a CD-R. We don't want to work with the CD-R. It's a tool to bring home and listen to. It's not a professional (format). DAT would be more professional. With a pre-grooved CD-R, you are changing the colour of the CD and it gets paler and there is a chemical reaction doing all of that. After you are finished burning the CD, this reaction continues and the information changes and it causes jitter ... you can burn three CD-Rs and they will all sound different." "I'm a lover of old analog synths. In this day and age it's so easy just to go with samplers and loop libraries, but everybody starts to sound the same. I like to have some of the old analog synthesizers in tandem with some of the newer machines. The newer machines have all the detail and realism of actual instruments but the analog machines have a warmth that the new digital ones just don't have." "I go discrete out of the ProTools rig, into my console, using all my tube and vintage analog gear that I love. I just like the way tube gear sounds on certain things - they've been described as sounding 'warm' or 'very forgiving' or whatever word you want to use. There's just an excitement to the sound. It's like film versus video. Video seems to have some sort of cold or cheap quality to it, while film seems warm, soft and almost airbrushed." "They're not ready ... today there isn't a digital console in the world for music that I would buy ... in my opinion, analog consoles are superior in a multitude of respects." "Spots are getting to be almost all delivered electronically where as five years ago we would have the FedEx trucks back up to the shipping door and haul out 100 boxes of ¼" tapes FedEx-ed out to radio stations. They are being almost exclusively handled electronically now where it is FTPing to a secure FTP site (say, at NBC) where they deal with the distribution from a central server to all the individual radio and TV stations. We started throwing up FTP servers outside our firewall to toy around with delivering approval copies to clients, where we used to send a stack of cassettes to everybody in the agency to approve. We can now put up a file and send them an e-mail saying here's the URL for your approval copy - check it out at your leisure. The clients like that, the immediacy of it is great. You don't have to wait for mail, FedEx or courier. But one thing that we realized is that you are not making money off of those cassettes. Suddenly you are giving away things that you were charging for. We needed to find a way where we could effectively make money using this infrastructure. The network infrastructure wasn't cheap to build and like we pay for lights and water, we were paying for this network so we needed to be able to charge for that. What we eventually settled on was basically a 'firewall fee' where internal files could fly around from workstation to workstation inside the company, we can't really charge for that because that's part of what you are doing. We call it a 'firewall fee.' Basically anytime someone crosses the firewall with a file whether it's us receiving something across our firewall like a client that delivers a V/O (Voice-Over) from out of the country as files or, putting something up on the server for them to download. It's just something to help us capture what we would be losing on dubs and media that we used to be able to charge for, and a way for us being able to justify the cost of this infrastructure - so there's a revenue that justifies the expense." Adventures in Straying from the Norm - Issue: Oct. 2001
by Arnold Lanni I would like to tell you there is a huge scientific approach but I think it is a series of happy accidents. And that's the way it ought to be. I think what I try to do before I bring a band in here [to the studio] is have a vision. Some sort of guides to follow -- we've got this bus and we're going to drive it. We want to end up at destination B and we are starting off at A. Do you want to take the scenic route? Do you want to take the fastest route? Or do you want to take the least expensive? What is it that we are trying to do here? It's hard to talk about recording if you have some knowledge of it already because it obviously starts with a microphone in front of some kind of guitar or drum or whatever it is you are using. And that sound ends up on a medium -- in this case we use harddrives. Then it's how you manipulate those sounds, how you process it, how you deliver it. Then the kind of instrumentation comes in. I give you the analogy where some instruments acoustically deliver a certain colour. I try to explain music in terms of colour, for instance. You don't hear a lot of sad songs played on the Banjo and you don't hear a lot of happy songs on the Oboe or the Cello. Those are very extreme examples but psychoacoustics plays a big part. Whether it is something I have developed or a gift, I can generally see colours when I hear music. I try to convey that through some of the artists that I work with -- a lot of times they see those colours too. So if we are getting a guitar sound for a specific part, do I mic the centre of the cone"? Do I mic off axis? Do I put a couple of mics up? Should we use two different types of amps on the stage? All those things deliver a colour. So it really all depends. Arnold Lanni is producer of bands Our Lady Peace and Finger Eleven, owner of Arnyard Studio, and former member of both Frozen Ghost and Sheriff.
Recording: The Basics - Issue: Oct. 2001
by Karen Kane Some of the most innovative recordings come from daring to be different from the norm. Not that the "norm" doesn't work -- doing what is typically done is safe and almost always guarantees good sound. What is the "norm"? Almost every recording engineer I know who was trained in the late '60s or early '70s (like myself) learned standard basic microphone techniques. In the '60s, what was typically done was dictated by the lack of tracks available and therefore, distant miking techniques were used. For example, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was recorded with three microphones. By 1971, we started using 24 tracks. So now, the distant miking techniques of the '60s were overshadowed by the newer methods of close miking (made possible by having many more tracks). Today, there is a better balance between these two microphone techniques, with a leaning in favour of the close miking method (especially for drums). Recently, after months of recording and using many of the typical techniques that I know and love, I decided I was tired of doing the norm. My next project was about to start and I was quite bored with the ordinary. Fortunately, Fulign, the band I was about to record bed tracks for, was totally into experimenting. (Fulign is a rock band from Erie, PA). Now that several weeks have passed since this event, I can honestly say, had I not followed my instincts to try something different, the recording of this band would not have the special sound it now has. For Fulign's drums, the ingredients were all there for trying something new. A large, beautiful sounding recording room, a great sounding well-cared-for drum set and an excellent player who also tunes drums very well. Matt Gurley from Fulign uses a large drum set with five toms and lots of cymbals and the thought of using microphones on everything was not only unappealing but here was a chance to be inspired by the idea of distant miking, possibly without any close mics at all. Typically, the approach would have been to use one or two mics on a kick drum, top and bottom mics on a snare drum, every tom-tom miked separately, a mic for the high-hat and a pair of overheads to capture all the cymbals. Some engineers also use a pair of room mics to capture the sound of the room that the drums are in. I sought out a fresh approach to that old technique. I started out with four distant mics in various places but I decided after experimenting that using a close mic on the kick and on the snare was a good idea -- even if I didn't use them in the final mix. So ultimately, six mics total were used. The four main distant mics were two Microtech Gefell M300 "pencil" condensers and two Microtech Gefell 1277 condensers. One of the M300s was placed on the drummer's left side about 3 feet from the kit facing the snare, high-hat and small toms -- at a height just below the high hat. The other M300 was placed 3 feet from the kit on the other side facing all the lower toms at a similar height. The room mics were placed about 8 feet in the air and about 12 feet away from the kit. For this style of music, in this particular recording room, this method worked like a charm. The band was thrilled and I myself, was very happy with this non-conventional drum sound -- much more than I could have imagined. Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile, and other published articles can be seen at her Web site www.total.net/~mixmama.
You Don't Get Nothin' For Free - Issue: Aug. 2001
by James Yakabuski It's very easy when using compression on vocals to think that you're getting some free gain along the way. "If I compress this vocal a little more and then turn up the gain, I'll have a louder vocal … right? Without those pesky too quiet and too loud parts ... right?" Well the truth of the matter is, by knocking back the loudest parts of the singer's level and turning up the compressor output gain a bit you will indeed get a little extra overall gain. Just remember that the boosted output gain on the compressor is a boost in level whether there is any input into it or not. What I'm getting at is potential problems relating to level before feedback. If you get a singer's mic tuned and EQed and you find that pushing the fader to +5dB on his channel starts to get you into feedback problems, then be wary if you start to go for extra gain from the compressor output. If you increase the compressor output to +5dB, you have essentially brought the channel fader's threshold of feedback down from +5dB to 0dB. This problem happens a lot when you have a singer who whispers a bunch and then screams very loudly at other times. You find that you have to compress those very loud parts quite a bit, and when you see that you're compressing 6 or 8dB of level, you try to get a little back at the output of the compressor for those whispery parts. This is fine as long as you don't try to get too much back and get yourself into feedback potential. The problem will occur when the vocal is not being compressed at all. This is when that 5dB of gain that you added at the output stage of the compressor is added to whatever level you have set at the channel input gain stage, plus the fader level. To test your true level before feedback, always be sure you are ringing out a mic with the compressor in line so that it's boosted gain is part of the gain structure you're EQing with. If the mic can sit on a stand with no compression occurring and still be ring free, then you're doing great. This problem occurs most often when you're doing a one-off and you haven't got the time to do a thorough EQing job. If you get a five second sound check on the vocals you're happy. So when the show starts you start inserting compressors and doing a little of the aforementioned gain boosting. Be aware that if the vocal starts to feedback halfway through a show when it was fine at the beginning, a good place the look for the cause of the problem is your compressor gain staging. If you really need a couple of extra dB of gain to have that vocal cut through, try increasing the threshold of your compressor so you're not compressing quite as much. Then work the manual-fader compressor a little more. 'What's that?' You say. Oh, that's the process of using your finger to move the vocalist's fader up and down to control volume; a novel approach. "Pay attention to your gozintas and gozoutas!" When you need more FX in your mix, be sure to think carefully about where you are going to get that extra level. It's easy to just reach for the FX send on the channel, or the overall auxiliary output send, but be careful that you don't overload the input to the reverb or delay unit. A lot of the gear we use these days passes much of the signal in the digital domain. When you clip the input to a digital device the resulting return signal can be quite ugly. This is especially true with digital FX processors. With the myriad of FX out there, from chorus and long delays to harmonizing and pitch changes, the amount of processing involved is quite intense within the circuitry of the unit. If you begin this process with an overloaded signal, the return can really sound nasty. If you need more overall FX return, you should first check that you are sending enough signal to the unit, so that you're not trying to process a bunch of hiss (equally as heinous as overloading the input). You can then get the extra return level at the channel input gains on the console where you have the effect returning. You will be able to get that effect loud and ominous (and clean too) if you just follow the golden gain structure rule: correct level in, and adjust for necessary return gain at the point where the effect returns to the console. Be sure to check these levels periodically if you're on a long tour as you can go through many gain structure changes and these ups and downs in channel gain will affect your FX in and out levels. Most of today's FX gear has clearly identifiable input metering (green, yellow, and red), so the task at hand is to find the input level that hangs around the 0dB mark, only occasionally tickling +3dB or so. If the gain structure on the rest of your board is consistent and you haven't over EQed anything drastically, you should have a nice clean result. Then, when the artist asks for eight seconds of reverb on his voice, you can deliver it with pristine clarity. This article was taken from James Yakabuski's book entitled Professional Sound Reinforcement Techniques. The book is published by MixBooks, an imprint of artistpro.com. You can also find the book online at www.mixbooks.com and www.musicbooksplus.com.
"If It's Not on Paper, It Doesn't Exist!" - Issue: June 2001
by Doug McClement Audio engineers by nature enjoy setting up mics, getting sounds, making adjustments to equipment and capturing great performances on their audio storage medium of choice, whether it's analog, digital tape, or hard-disk. They generally don't like spending time writing stuff down. If they did, they would have gone into accounting or journalism. Nothing wrong with those occupations, but definitely not enough knobs and coloured lights to keep the readers of this magazine happy! Yet proper documentation is a crucial part of any production, especially these days when it is common for an album project to do bed tracks in one studio, overdubs in another, mixing in a third, and mastering in yet another facility. When I receive materials from another studio, I hate having to spend half an hour figuring out what is on the tape and what format was used. Here are some tips on maintaining the proper paper trail: Tracksheets At the top of the form, there were areas to denote song title, counter start number, tape speed or sampling rate, SMPTE frame rate, name of engineer and producer, and date. On the back, there was a section that allowed you to write down the various verse, chorus sections for each song, and their start times. The track sheet should contain enough information that the second engineer can pull it out and tell exactly what's on the tape and where it can be found. Never assume that your studio will be the last place to play back a tape. Someone may have to do a remix 10 years from now, and you may not be around to answer questions. Whenever possible, the tracksheet should stay in the box with the tape. This is more difficult with DA-88 and ADAT formats, due to the size of the medium. At LiveWire, we use white 7" cardboard boxes originally designed for 4 track ½ inch analog tape. They hold up to four DA-88 tapes and all the documentation in a neat, easy to label package. Cue Sheets Be sure to label which take was the "keeper" and which one was used for the final mix. If you are doing multiple mixes, be sure to label which ones are "vocals up 2db" or "bass down 3db". Tape Box Labels Never let a tape or CD leave your studio without a custom label. You can preprint the most commonly written info, so that the engineer can just check off the appropriate boxes rather than having to write everything out each time (tape speed, sampling rate, SMPTE frame rate, master or dub, number of tracks, etc.). The exterior label should contain enough information that a 12-year-old could pull it out and figure out what is on the tape without having to play it. This would include the name of the artist, client (record label), engineer, date of session, etc. At LiveWire, our DA-88 labels act as miniature track sheets for each tape. That way, if the overall tracksheet gets lost, you can still figure out what's on the tape. There is software available from some companies that allow you to print up labels using your own computer, as opposed to using a print shop. Check the classified section of one of the popular recording magazines. Your studio should also establish a clear method of identifying multiple tapes from the same session, especially in the case of ADATs and DA-88s. Most Toronto studios denote tracks 1-8 as A, 2-16 as B, etc. So if it was a 24-track session, spread over two sets of tapes, the first set would be labelled 1A, 1B, 1C, and the second 2A, 2B, 2C. It doesn't matter what you use, as long as it makes sense and is consistent. I use coloured dot stickers on the spine of the tape box to make it easier to spot which tapes belong to which set. You can pick them up at any office supply store in the label section. This becomes really important when you are mixing a live album done of 48 tracks of DA88, where the band recorded 10 shows. Now you've got 60 tapes to keep track of. Just keeping the right tape in the right box is a chore. Colour coding makes it much easier. To sum up, the session is not over until the tapes are properly documented. Don't let the next engineer in the food chain be cursing you at 3 a.m. for not giving him enough information to do his job properly. Professional engineers have professionally labelled tapes. In the end, it makes you and your studio look good, and helps ensure return business from satisfied clients. Doug McClement is President and Chief Engineer at LiveWire Remote Recorders, one of Canada's premier audio mobiles. Be sure to check out their Web site at www.livewire-remote.com.
Installation and Design Tips - Issue: Apr. 2001
by Devy Breda What are some important tips to keep in mind when designing a permanently installed sound system? (eg. a church, an arena etc.) How do you select/test products to find the best system? Eg. speakers, amplifiers, signal processing equipment etc. What are the most important questions to ask a client when beginning a system design? What must you know to do your job properly? Devy Breda is the principle and founder of Audiospec Inc.
EQ the Dudes Too - Issue: Apr. 2001
by Jim Yakabuski I've always believed that there is no "right" mix or "perfect" sound because we all perceive things a little differently, and our version of what sounds good may be completely different from someone else's. Because of this I think that all of us who call ourselves sound engineers have a slightly different method of tuning and adjusting the equalization of our PA's. I like to use pink noise to make sure all of the various frequency bands (lows, mids, and highs) are even for the left and right side of the PA. Then I run some pink noise through the subs and lows to see what the response of the room is like when I boost some low frequencies. After that I blast the room with a quick shot of full frequency pink noise to see what the reverb time of the room is. At this point I'm ready to listen to some program music on a DAT. I always use the same song or two so that I can relate what I'm hearing today to what my standard reference is. This is my method and I'm not saying it's right, or the only way, but it has worked for me. One of the problems that can occur from using program music is if that song has certain particular frequencies that are predominate. This can give you a false reading of the PA system and room's frequency response. You will usually learn what to look out for after using that song for a while, but what I suggest doing is "test EQing" (by boosting or cutting frequencies to see what effect they have) while the band is running through some songs during soundcheck. You may sometimes have to explain yourself to the band as they may think something weird is going on (if they're not in their plastic bubbles called "in-ear monitors") as you're boosting low-end momentarily in the house, but I think it is well worth the explaining. You can mold and shape the curve of your equalizers to fit the band's frequency response in that room, that day. It's also very useful for finding out what frequencies are harsh and bitey on the top end. Try to do it quickly with quick bursts of boost and cut. While DAT tapes and pink noise are helpful for getting you close, the band you are mixing that night is going to determine how the PA should be tuned. This article is excerpted from Jim Yakabuski's upcoming book entitled Professional Sound Reinforcement Techniques, was released in February 2001. It is published by MixBooks, an imprint of www.artistpro.com. Find it online at www.mixbooks.com and www.musicbooksplus.com.
Live Sound - What You Need To Know - Issue: Feb. 2001
by Rob Howick How do you select the gear you take on the road? What problems do you listen for during soundcheck? What tips can you offer for recording bands live? What problems must be overcome? How do you mix a band that insists on having a loud stage volume? How accurately do you mix to an artist's CD? Do you listen closely and try to mimic the album or do you try to find ways to make a live experience different? Rob Howick is a Concert Engineer who works with the Cowboy Junkies, Jewel among many other acts.
Tips from a Pro - Issue: Dec. 2000
by Tom Young This issue, PS chatted with Tom Young, Technical Sales Engineer at Meyer Sound regarding some tips for designing sound systems and recording studios. What are some important tips to keep in mind when designing a permanently installed sound system? Ensure that the programming for each facility has been fully developed and is understood by all parties. A performance venue that will frequently host touring pop acts requires completely different (rider acceptable) equipment than one that hosts touring Broadway musicals, dance companies, ballet and folk or jazz artists. For how the design for both FOH and stage monitor systems is impacted is determined by the worship style and direction. Contemporary worship requires systems that are similar in function to those in concert sound, although they may be scaled down. Traditional worship and architecture typically focuses on spoken word intelligibility and minimal visual impact. One other aspect of permanent system design is the greater importance to provide acoustic consulting and/or improvements. How do you select/test products to find the best system? Sound system consultants and contractors must do their homework when it comes to equipment selection. All contractors should have the test equipment required to fully evaluate the design and functionality of the equipment they install. Consultants are not as likely to have test facilities, but they should still be on top of this through close relationships with manufacturers, getting out to trade shows and maintaining a close relationship with sound operators. Thanks to the Internet and sound system related listservs or newsgroups, there is another avenue for keeping up with trends and evaluations. By staying on top of this, the designer and contractor should be able to offer systems at several different levels of cost. What are the most important things to remember when designing or building a recording studio? That it is much more complex than simply throwing egg cartons on the wall and buying some good gear. Aside from selection of your nearfield monitors, they must be positioned to minimize reflections from the console and other boundaries. The wiring infrastructure and acoustic design of recording studios will make or break the facility over a period of time. Some equipment cannot be bought at the lowest possible cost. How do you convert a room into a recording studio? If forced to, one can end up with a reasonably good space that has been converted from its original intent. There are numerous incredible albums recorded throughout the past 30 years that give testimony to this. But for long-term use as a commercial recording facility there needs to be substantial and painstaking design for everything from electrical power to audio wiring to acoustics to air conditioning. The acoustics design covers noise isolation as much as it does room acoustics. Building from the ground up affords the most potential for a spectacular facility as long as one is committed to budgeting enough money for design and construction. One thing you can do from scratch that is virtually impossible when converting an existing space is floating the control room and/or studio floors. What are the most important questions to ask a client when beginning a system design? What must you know to do your job properly? You must ask anything and everything that impacts the facility from its opening through several years into its operation. Occasionally it is necessary to ask the client to substantially reduce their expectations or to increase their budget. Whether it's for performance facilities or recording studios, the successful system designer must be very well trained in all of the technical aspects of audio systems design. But, he or she also must have a working familiarity with documentation and drawings, experience with participating on a design team plus a decent amount of real world operating experience. A system designer who has not mixed "under fire" and has not interacted with artists in these spaces has little chance of designing a fully functional and relevant system. Tom Young has been involved in live sound for 29 years and has held virtually every possible position from working in the trenches to international tours to designing sound systems for major-league concert halls in North and South America and Europe. He currently is Technical Sales Engineer at Meyer Sound in Berkeley CA.
Where's the Vibe, Man? - Issue: Oct. 2000
by Karen Kane When does an engineer/producer feel like they're in engineer heaven? Consider the scenario of my most recent recording project: a large, extraordinary recording room with beautiful ambience, tons of natural light shining through the skylight; eight of the most valuable vintage tube microphones on the planet by Neumann/Telefunken and AKG; dedicated, exceptional musicians willing to go the distance and a singer/songwriter with enormous talent. All the elements for a magical experience. And was it magical? You betchya! Recording projects range from being magical experiences to challenging and/or frustrating ones. So it's especially wonderful when one is as magical as this one was -- from start to finish! And does it show on the recording? You betchya again! Dreamwalker by Laura Bird -- recorded, mixed and mastered in a total of nine very efficient days over a five-week period, pulled off almost completely without a hitch, is a very special album. Recordings take on a life, a vibe of their own and without really knowing it, the listener can often feel the personal dynamics going on at the time of the recording. How it feels to be together making music really matters and shows up on tape (or whatever format you're using these days!). We're not just recording music and sound, we're recording a vibe, an energy that was happening between people at the time of creating music together. How do you know if the personal dynamics of the people you have chosen to work with is going to feel right? Short answer -- you don't! Just because you have chosen experienced, reputable people to work with does not mean you'll get along with them. I've often heard horror stories of personality conflicts that really got in the way of a recording project. One time, an artist I know asked my opinion of her new album. This is an artist whose songwriting and singing I think very highly of. When I heard the album, I was surprised and disappointed because it seemed rather "flat"...no vibe, no passion. When she asked what I thought, my first comment was a question. What was going on at the time of the recording? For the next 20 minutes, I got quite an earful about the personality conflicts and outright arguments that were going on at the time of the recording. It effected the entire project, even though people apologized to one other and moved on to finish up. In comparison, here's an example of when greatly recorded vibes outweigh everything else. A few years ago, after a very long session of working on percussionist Ubaka Hill's album, Dance the Spiral Dance, we were officially finished for the day. I put away the microphones except one that I couldn't get to because so many instruments were in the way. I went to dinner and when I came back, I heard from inside the large recording room, an incredible after-hours drumming party going on with 10-12 people. I was so drawn to this intense, spontaneous energy that I couldn't stay away. I walked into the room and felt an overwhelming desire to capture this "party jam" on tape so everyone could enjoy it later. I sneaked into the control room and not being fussy about what format I was going to record it on, (cassette, DAT) I popped the first blank tape I could find into a machine (it ended up being a DAT). I then realized there was only one microphone in the room left plugged in, and it was not in an ideal position for recording (it was pointing at the ceiling) but it didn't matter, after all, it was "just a jam" and not for anyone else but ourselves. I didn't want to disrupt the energy in the room by setting up more microphones or letting them see that I was about to record them. I turned on the EV RE-20 microphone that was pointing at the ceiling and recorded 11 minutes of this party jam. The recorded jam's energy was SO intense and felt SO good that we decided to use 3:30 of this wonderful vibe on our final album, regardless of the "less than ideal" style in which it was recorded. Moral of the story -- energy and vibes matter much more then technical/sonic perfection, ANY DAY! I would like to acknowledge Escarpment Sound in Acton, Doug Walker Microphones, Pizazzudio and the Lacquer Channel for their participation in Laura Bird's album project. Ubaka Hill's album was recorded at Applehead Recording Studio in Woodstock, New York. Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile, and other published articles can be seen at her Web site www.total.net/~mixmama.
A Mastering Primer - Issue: Aug. 2000
by Karen Kane In the days of the vinyl record, the mastering facility was a different animal than it is today. Typically back then, we sent our master analog tapes to a disc cutting mastering studio and hoped for the best when we received back our "reference lacquer" or our "test pressings". Many of the albums I worked on in the '70s and '80s were done in this manner, where producer and artist were not in attendance at the mastering session. Today, it is unheard of for a producer or artist not to be at the mastering session. At all levels, we have gained the creative control we always should have had. This is due in part, to the way mastering is currently done and the number of mastering facilities that are now available. These days, one has to be cautious not to get caught up in the illusion that someone with a computer music editing program and a CD burner is a "mastering" studio. While this type of "facility" can be useful in certain situations, this is not the place to go to for proper CD mastering. To properly understand the differences between mastering facilities we could say that there are three categories: World Class, Professional and Non-Professional. A world class mastering facility has a well designed, large, accurate listening environment; a pair of awesome, accurate speakers; a variety of 2-track playback systems (analog ½", analog ¼", DAT, etc); ultra high-quality EQs and compressors; and a high quality computer editing system. (While ProTools is an extremely popular computer mastering program, a lot of world class facilities opt for Sonic Solutions or Sadie). Very often, the mastering engineers at these places are known for their "famous ears" and have many gold/platinum records on the wall from past clients. The cost of this kind of facility can be as high as $3,000/day US for the most "famous ears" and as low as $1,000/day. While professional mastering facilities can provide excellent results, these types of rooms differ from world class rooms in that they have less awesome gear, less awesome speakers, smaller rooms and usually no "famous ears". The cost is also more in line with what indie projects can afford ($65-75/hour). Whether professional or world class, it all still comes down to PEOPLE. The wrong person in a world class mastering may not do any better than as the right person in a professional mastering room. As I mentioned earlier, a non-professional mastering room is usually a home studio with someone who happens to have a few of the main ingredients to be able to "master" a project. Many times, when I have worked on a demo project, I actually do look for this kind of situation. Since the "mastering" needs of a demo are limited to putting the songs in correct order and basic volume matching, this type of situation will often suffice. However, in today's world, there are so many musicians and budding engineers able to afford this kind of equipment, you must be careful who you are dealing with ... successful results are not necessarily guaranteed. To clarify the basic functions during a mastering session, here's a list of mastering's 5 main jobs: 1. To EQ and compress each existing mix. This allows you to Mastering is often referred to as the "court of last appeal" or the "icing on the cake" and it is VERY TRUE. This is the last opportunity to make your project sound as good as possible. Never skip -- or skimp -- on this on this very important last step. Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile, and other published articles can be seen at her Web site www.total.net/~mixmama.
Adventures in Straying from the Norm - Issue: June 2000
by Karen Kane Some of the most innovative recordings come from daring to be different from the norm. Not that the "norm" doesn't work -- doing what is typically done is safe and almost always guarantees good sound. What is the "norm"? Almost every recording engineer I know who was trained in the late '60s or early '70s (like myself) learned standard basic microphone techniques. In the '60s, what was typically done was dictated by the lack of tracks available and therefore, distant miking techniques were used. For example, Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was recorded with three microphones. By 1971, we started using 24 tracks. So now, the distant miking techniques of the '60s were overshadowed by the newer methods of close miking (made possible by having many more tracks). Today, there is a better balance between these two microphone techniques, with a leaning in favour of the close miking method (especially for drums). Recently, after months of recording and using many of the typical techniques that I know and love, I decided I was tired of doing the norm. My next project was about to start and I was quite bored with the ordinary. Fortunately, Fulign, the band I was about to record bed tracks for, was totally into experimenting. (Fulign is a rock band from Erie, PA). Now that several weeks have passed since this event, I can honestly say, had I not followed my instincts to try something different, the recording of this band would not have the special sound it now has. For Fulign's drums, the ingredients were all there for trying something new. A large, beautiful sounding recording room, a great sounding well-cared-for drum set and an excellent player who also tunes drums very well. Matt Gurley from Fulign uses a large drum set with five toms and lots of cymbals and the thought of using microphones on everything was not only unappealing but here was a chance to be inspired by the idea of distant miking, possibly without any close mics at all. Typically, the approach would have been to use one or two mics on a kick drum, top and bottom mics on a snare drum, every tom-tom miked separately, a mic for the high-hat and a pair of overheads to capture all the cymbals. Some engineers also use a pair of room mics to capture the sound of the room that the drums are in. I sought out a fresh approach to that old technique. I started out with four distant mics in various places but I decided after experimenting that using a close mic on the kick and on the snare was a good idea -- even if I didn't use them in the final mix. So ultimately, six mics total were used. The four main distant mics were two Microtech Gefell M300 "pencil" condensers and two Microtech Gefell 1277 condensers. One of the M300s was placed on the drummer's left side about 3 feet from the kit facing the snare, high-hat and small toms -- at a height just below the high hat. The other M300 was placed 3 feet from the kit on the other side facing all the lower toms at a similar height. The room mics were placed about 8 feet in the air and about 12 feet away from the kit. For this style of music, in this particular recording room, this method worked like a charm. The band was thrilled and I myself, was very happy with this non-conventional drum sound -- much more than I could have imagined. Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile, and other published articles can be seen at her Web site www.total.net/~mixmama.
Preparing To Tour From A Sound Engineer's Standpoint - Issue: Apr. 2000
by David Norman Long before the band comes in for the final tour dress rehearsals, they should have rehearsed on their own so that the time for production rehearsals can be used to get the band and crew on the same page on the look, design and flow of the show. The production rehearsals should be used for several different things; making the final list of equipment that will be needed BEFORE the tour starts, making an equipment manifest, learning the show for sound cues, becoming familiar with the song order, working on making work tapes for all concerned for light programming and mixing purposes and there's tons more. Make sure to have all road cases colour-coded, stenciled, numbered and listed with Destination (Dressing Room, Stage Left, Stage Right, Production, Do Not Tip, Up/Down Arrows, etc.). The order of the truck pack can be easily identified with numbering of each case. During these rehearsals, the sound crew should have as many cables as possible loomed together and labeled clearly. This reduces patching on a daily basis, because patching often has to done with limited lighting and space in dark corners on and under the stage. The crew should also have all consoles clearly labeled per their respective input channels and all outboard gear should also be programmed and tested for each particular song. Rehearsal time also should be used to get the crew working together as a team. The setup schedule should be discussed so that everyone knows how each day of the tour will progress. The lead in these conversations will usually be with your Production Manager and your Stage Manager. The time taken for brief meetings with all crewmembers saves arguments or discussions during setup. During rehearsals, make sure you have huge poster boards to write the songlist down so that everyone can see it. Tape it pretty high. That way, you don't have to have several set lists lying around that people are constantly losing. Make sure to record all of the rehearsals as well. A final drafting of a stage plot and input list should be done during rehearsals so that you can give to your production manager and/or send to venues in advance so they'll know what to expect with regards to your setup. David '5-1' Norman has tour managed and/or production managed and mixed such acts as; Ani DiFranco, Aaron Neville & The Neville Brothers, Roger Daltrey, The British Rock Symphony, John Tesh, They Might Be Giants, Arrested Development, Better Than Ezra, B.B. King, The Fugees, Wyclef Jean and many others. He is currently off the road and doing freelance production work for Concert/Southern Promotions as Production Manager and has worked shows with 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Ratdog and Megadeth. He can be reached online at david994@aol.com or you can check out his web site athttp://members.aol.com/david994/.
Finding the Perfect Studio - Issue: Apr. 2000
Interview with Bryan Adams Professional Sound's sister publication Canadian Musician recently interviewed Bryan Adams on how he built his studio, the Warehouse Studio, and some of his best recording experiences: After recording so many albums and working in some of the best recording studios in the world you must have learned a great deal about what makes a studio great. How did you incorporate this experience into the design of your facility? Bryan Adams: My "role model" was the 1980s Power Station in NYC (before it changed). All the isolation booths, the style of desks (SSL and Neve), live chambers, informal atmosphere and a really top technical staff. But most of all … the location. I wanted my studio to be in the centre of the city where all the action is, not tucked out in the middle of nowhere. Musicians want to party and have a little bit of a life. You don't get that with most studios because they are normally tucked away in industrial complexes or in the rural countryside! Who wants to work in place like that? Not me. I want a little interaction with the world. When you didn't own your own studio what considerations were taken into account when choosing a studio to work in? How did you know when a studio was right for you? BA: That was mostly a decision Bob (Clearmountain) and I would make. We ended up recording in my house a lot before the studio was built downtown [Vancouver, BC]. We'd just rip whatever place we were at apart until we got what we wanted. What do you think are the major pitfalls in the traditional commercial recording studio? BA: You've got to have someone that really cares about studio life if you want it to work. A lot of the best studios are run by people who were either engineers or producers at one point, or they are technically minded. My studio was designed and is run like a battleship by Ron Vermuelen, who has worked with me since the mid-'80s. I'd have no studio if it wasn't for him.
Interconnecting Multiple Sound Systems - Issue: Feb. 2000
by Bruce Bartlett At concerts, you often see three audio systems in use: house PA, recording, and broadcast. Here are some tips on connecting those systems without creating ground loops and hum. Consider using a single power distro system, and connect all three systems' power cables to that distro. Make sure the distro can handle the total current requirements of the three systems. If you hear hum or buzz when the systems are connected, first make sure that the signal source is clean. You might be hearing a broken snake shield or an unused bass guitar input. If hum persists, experiment with flipping the ground-lift switches on the splitter and on the direct boxes. If there is no ground-lift switch, insert an adapter that lifts the cable shield at the input of the system you're feeding. On some jobs you need to lift almost every ground. On others you need to tie all the grounds. The correct ground-lift setting can change from day to day due to a change in the lighting. Expect to do some trial and error adjustments. Often, a radio station or video crew will take an audio feed from your mixing console. In this case, you can prevent a hum problem by using a console with transformer-isolated inputs and outputs. Or you can use a 1:1 audio isolation transformer between the console and the feeds. Some excellent isolation transformers are made by Jensen (phone (818) 374-5857, (www.jensen-transformers.com). Finally, try a distribution amp with several transformer-isolated feeds. Bruce Bartlett is the Senior Microphone Design Engineer at Crown International.
Helping The Master - Issue: Feb. 2000
by Nick Blagona "Could you make this bigger, louder, heavier, tighter, brighter, polite, less polite, more blue, less green, etc.," - these are the types of questions I'm asked on a daily basis in connection with mastering. And yes I can do it, with one fundamental catch: in most cases, the mixes I get sound better on analog. Mixing to DAT is by far the cheapest way of making a decent record, particularly if you use the great converters on today's market and 24-bit DAT machines. Always - and I can't stress this enough - ID your mixes properly, highlighting the mix you want mastered. If you can't be there in person, write/fax the engineer your thoughts about what needs to be done to any of the mixes, the order of the songs and desired space between the songs. Make sure to tell the Mastering Engineer which tools were used, such as the console, DAT recorder, the converter and so on. Never send a compiled DAT of the album. I've had DATs sent to me that were maximized, ends being chopped off and a whole lot of other things that cause me to utter expletives. Always record at 44.1 kHz. All CDs are clocked at that frequency and changing from 48 to 44.1 kHz degrades the sound. And it's always a good idea to make safeties of your DAT. Record a 1 kHz tone for about 30 s econds at the top of tape, because that tells me about the left-right balance of the mixing console. What level should I record the tone at, you ask? If the peak average of your mix is, for example, 12 dB, you should record a tone of ... 12 dB. This gives you 12 dB headroom above 0 dB from your mixing console before clipping. The difference between 0 dB analog and 0 dB digital is that, in analog recording, 0 dB is normal level and 0 dB digital is the max. That's why analog is great. When you start hitting stuff above 0 dB the tape starts to saturate. Somehow the music has some "glue" to it. When passing through -12 dB with digital, you're passing through air. Passing through 0 dB digital, you're dead. Nick Blagona is Chief Mastering Engineer at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, ON.
Recording Vocals Without Headphones - Issue: Feb. 2000
by Doug McClement Sometimes you'll find that a vocalist has a hard time monitoring bed tracks through headphones. Here's a trick I use to overcome that problem. I set up the vocal mic and put a pair of Auratones, or similar small monitors, about three feet on either side of the microphone; I use a tape measure to ensure that the they are equidistant. I place the speakers 90 degrees off axis and point them directly at the microphone. I then feed the monitors from a mono cue mix buss, and flip the phase on one of them. Sometimes I roll off a bit of top and bottom as well. The vocalist will hear the speakers, due to the distance between his or her ears, but the speaker output will be 180 degrees out of phase at the mic capsule. Therefore, the bedtrack bleed, though not absolutely gone, will be down by about 30 dB. Take care not to feed anything to the speakers that you don't intend to use in the final mix, and don't run them any louder than necessary for the vocalist to sing in tune and in time. A little bit of bleed won't kill you. No one ever decided not to buy an album because there was a bit of instrumental bleed in the vocal mic! If you degrade the hi-fi quality by 5 per cent, but improve the performance by 30 per cent, it's a no-brainer. Always let the technology serve the art! Doug McClement owns LiveWire Remote Recorders in Toronto.
Digital Reverb... - Issue: Dec. 1999
by John Klepko Close-miked vocal tracks can often produce strange splatters of high-frequency noise when fed through a digital reverb algorithm. If your goal is a smooth and natural reverberation, then this effect can be distracting. This effect doesn't really happen in natural reverberant environments like the concert halls and cathedrals that these algorithms are modelled after, unless you are feeding a close-miked vocal through a loud PA system in such an acoustical space. The problem lies in the "s" and "t" sibilant consonants that are aggravated into a type of high-frequency overload distortion by the microphone itself. The simple solution here is to insert a de-esser into the aux send signal path. This will suppress the sibilants that would over-excite the reverb. In a recording situation, another solution is to place an additional microphone to the side or behind the singer, with the signal acting as a reverb feed only. The sound from these microphone positions will not have any sibilants. Close-miked acoustic guitar signals can also play havoc with digital reverbs: they exaggerate the squeaks produced by the fret board hand movement. Here again, you could use a spare microphone (or two) placed behind the player as a reverb send signal. The sound, as picked up from behind, will be less detailed but fuller and rounder. This will provide a more indirect "average" feed to the reverb that will be void of those extraneous hand noises. Another solution I have often used is to place a (cheap) transducer-pickup on the guitar. In this application the pickup signal again lacks the highs and squeaks present in a front placed main microphone. This smoother, more average sound is better suited as a reverb feed. John Klepko is a sound engineer/producer and musician based in Montreal, PQ. He is currently in the final throes of his Ph.D. music degree (from McGill University) in the area of surround-sound. John also teaches courses in sound recording at McGill University and Concordia University.
Don't Let The Software Push You Around! - Issue: Dec. 1999
by David Green There are many well known postulates to Murphy's Law, but none so thoroughly corroborated as 'Interchangeable Parts Won't' in the wonderful world of digital audio. We are all aware of the attributes of DAW's (Digital Audio Workstations) and the virtually (an interesting choice of word) exponential growth in their functionality, but what happens when you want to interface with someone or utilize a feature on a different platform? Welcome to the world of file exchange. This has been a major problem particularly for those of us who regularly collaborate on projects and finally there is a light, actually several lights at the end of the tunnel. The voice that has caught the attention of the manufactures is H-TAC (Hollywood Technical Audio Committee). Their group has come up with a proposal for a universal rendered file format that they call ProWave. In addition, the AES (Audio Engineering Society) has formed a committee to develop a recommended standard that they are calling AES-31, and Microsoft (Microsoft) and Avid (Avid) are working together on a AAF (Advanced Authoring Format). All of that is down the road apiece as the song goes, but in the short term TimeLine recently introduced TransAudio PipeLine, a Windows or NT-based utility program to provide file backup, export and TapeMode conversion. The initial release will read ProTools, Akai, WaveFrame, OMF/SDII, DEVA and Sonic Solutions. Export formats include WaveFrame, OMF/SDII and ProTools. All TLA's aside (Three Letter Acronyms), this is an area that is finally receiving the attention it requires. The ability to exchange file data will become increasingly important as our industry grows. If you're considering upgrades or changes that involve digital audio, it would be worthwhile to check where each of these initiatives are, and/or ask the manufacturer some pointed questions on the subject. David Green is Vice-President of Audio at Magnetic North, a Toronto post-production facility.
Using a DAW to Remix an Analog Multitrack Tape - Issue: Dec. 1999
by Bruce Bartlett A rap group recently gave me a multitrack analog tape that they wanted to remix. On two tracks of the tape was a synthesizer playing a stereo mix of MIDI sequencer tracks. On three other tracks were the lead vocal and backup vocals. The group wanted to change the mix of the synth tracks and re-do the mix with the vocals. That was going to be difficult since the MIDI instruments were already mixed to two tracks. I asked the group if they still had the original MIDI sequencer file. Fortunately, they did. We were able to remix the synth tracks after recording them one at a time onto a hard drive through a 2-channel sound card. The procedure went like this: 1. In the synth, turn on only the bass voice in the sequencer. Bruce Bartlett is the Senior Microphone Design Engineer at Crown International.
From School to Studio - Issue: Oct. 1999
by Phillip Demetro Pretty much every engineer has a different story about how they broke into the industry. Some engineers fell into it accidentally, others have been into audio for as long as they can remember. Older engineers had little, if any, formal training. Most of them showed up at a studio somewhere, got themselves endeared to a manager or an engineer there, started running errands for them and 10, 20, 30 years later find themselves the revered elders of the industry. For young engineers, it is not quite like that. Many audio facilities, while willing to give a new engineer a couple of breaks, usually do not have the time to teach someone from scratch how to record, mix or master. These days you have to learn audio engineering pretty much outside of a professional studio. There is the formal education option of going to technical school and then slaving away doing school-arranged studio internships. The other option is a bit more free spirited by buying whatever new -- or used -- equipment you can afford, throwing out the instructions, re wiring it and in a Zen-like fashion trying to become one with it. If you want to become an audio engineer, chances are you'll take both these options. Maybe even at the same time. Many up-and-coming engineers will have anywhere from one to four years of technical education and a couple of internships before landing their first full-time audio engineering job. I took a one-year diploma which gave me a background in both the technical and business sides of audio engineering. Some might say that a formal education in audio engineering is not important. That you should spend the money you would have spent on tuition to get the equipment, work with it, go out and meet people and try to do a few projects independently. But I think that going to school gave me direction. It gave me the opportunity to learn on some of the equipment, to interact on a daily basis with others with similar interests, and it also gave me the opportunity to intern at professional audio facility. My mindset when I went into a studio for an internship was to go in and try to take work of off other people's plates and generally make life easier for them. By finding work to do in the studio and developing my own niche tasks which no one else could or wanted to do, I hoped they would quickly realize they couldn't function without me. For me, the process of interning in a studio, Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto, was particularly prophetic as this is also where I finally landed my first full time engineering gig (some two years after my internship.) When I started interning there, I pretty much knew from the beginning that there was no job waiting for me at the end of my internship. But I went into it wanting to learn and figuring this was one way to pay my dues which I could somehow collect on later. In the two years between finishing my schooling/internship and getting my first full-time engineering job, the trick was always to stay interested and involved. I got a job at music equipment dealership and that permitted me to deal daily with people in the industry and people like myself trying to break into it. And it was while working there that I bought some of my own equipment and started freelancing. Debt is a freelancer's best friend. If it wasn't for debt, I don't think many audio engineers would ever get started. Debt bought me my killer Mac 9600 with Pro Tools 4.3. By that same logic, a Focusrite Blue EQ and a Summit EQ also came my way a little later on with the help of some creative financing. If you want to have a go at freelancing, you assume the attitude that you would be doing what you're doing and spending money on the gear even if you were never going to see a single penny from it. Otherwise you'd go nuts when all the bills start pouring in. It may not pay off financially but it sure does pay of morally when you're able to land a couple of gigs and start climbing that very steep learning curve on your own. And when you've invested some serious cash into some nice gear and you start hearing the music coming out of it ... well let's just say that the sound of the music helps drown out the sound of the collections agency. Freelancing helped me further develop my chops. I also schmoozed Lacquer Channel and gained access to their studios whenever they were closed to use their equipment. This is tough because they have to trust you first, but once your able to get into their good books, having access to a professional studio either in exchange for slave labour during the day (which is what I did) or for a reduced rate can go miles in developing your credibility. Then after doing that for a couple of years, I had some pretty decent equipment, a pretty decent debt from buying all that equipment and some pretty decent credits to my name. I maintained my friendships at Lacquer Channel and made some friends at a few other studios so when Lacquer Channel needed a new second engineer, I had credits, contacts, gear and a desire to master some cool music. Phillip Demetro is studio operations manager/second mastering engineer at Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto.
Financing Your Way To Success - Issue: Aug. 1999
by Corinne Light One of the most prevalent problems in the production audio business in Canada is a lack of capital to obtain the right equipment to do the larger and more lucrative venues. While the banks seem to take the brunt of the blame for this, they alone cannot be faulted for not understanding how the industry works and who will survive long enough to profitably pay them back. It is up to the individual business person to clearly show why a financing situation is a safe bet and to obtain the funding from the correct sources. The production industry, whether it is audio, lighting, video or staging, all operate on the same principles. Say you have $1,000,000 in equipment, you earn about $1,000,000 in revenues each year in total for manpower, transportation and equipment rental charges and make about 5-10% in net profits after wages and all expenses are paid. If you wanted to grow by 25% in the next year, you would need more equipment and manpower. Typically, this could mean an additional $250,000 in equipment to achieve this, which can be very difficult to purchase without external financing if you only made 5% or $50,000 profit the year before. Of course, you could always cross-rent your equipment from your competition but somehow this doesn't make sense to do on a large scale as you are really helping them pay off their equipment and it takes an enormous amount of manpower and cost to do this. Sometimes it appears as though some businesses have endless amounts of capital available while others, who have been around just as long, can't seem to borrow even a small amount of funds. Most companies that get major funding have worked hard to make sure they have presentable financial information on their company that shows clearly that they will and have previously made profit from this kind of investment and have approached the correct funder for the task. This is something that the majority of businesses could do and it is surprising how few actually do it. Because of the enormous inventory requirements needed in the production industry, very few companies can grow to their potential without the aid of external financing, although many try because of their lack of comfort in this area. Care must be taken to obtain financial backing in the correct sequence and to use the correct form of financing for each task. Many business people first go to the bank to get funding, as they are familiar with them from their daily banking tasks. While this appears to be the logical first choice to most, borrowing from a bank does have its drawbacks and can often limit the overall amount of credit you can obtain. This is caused by the method of securing loans that banks use as in many cases they will attach collateral security to everything you and your company owns to loan an amount of money. These are the dreaded GSAs or General Security Agreements and personal guarantees that allow them to take any or all assets you may have to pay off a loan in case of default. If you have confidence that you can pay back the loan this is not a problem, except that other financiers may not like the idea that if something went wrong, the bank gets theirs and they may get nothing. Although this looks unfair, it is reasonable to the bank. Banks are in business to loan money and receive money back as payment. They don't want the item you purchased, they would much rather take easily disposable assets like new inventory, cash, accounts receivable and your house. Product suppliers, while they too would like to be paid in cash, will often give you short-term credit as, being in the same business, your items of inventory have some value to them. However, they have the same problems as retail dealers, they are not banks and usually don't have the resources to give long-term financing to everyone, even if they wanted to. Supplier credit should be used only to finance short-term inventory turnover and sales not your long-term inventories. While product suppliers can be more liberal with credit than banks, even 12 month financing on production inventory can be detrimental to some companies; it is difficult to grow when the profit earned on an item is less than the ongoing payments to obtain the item in the first place. Many have built their business on the "leap-frog" method of financing but it is a painful way of doing it and just as many businesses have suffered years of cash flow and personal income pain because of it. Besides, product suppliers love cash and some will give additional discounts to get it quicker. DInvestors are wonderful if you can find one but are really expensive if you do actually make the profits you promised them. Reasonably, an investor wants to make more than interest on their money for the risk they are taking. Lease companies are ideal for long term financing but are not easy to obtain funds from unless you want a car, computer or photocopier. In our industry, it can sometimes be hard to obtain funds for inventories. Understandably, lease companies can be nervous about leasing equipment that does not stay in one location. As well, restaurants and bars do not, on average have a reputation of longevity and they are often confused or identified with our industry. However, properly approached, leasing companies can be an invaluable source of capital, especially for production inventories. One of the principal differences between leasing companies and banks is that while banks loan money, leasing companies buy the goods for you and charge you a monthly fee to use it. While this sounds like you don't actually own the item, which you don't, the leasing company doesn't really want to own the item either and it is usual to pre-arrange a buyout at the end of the lease term. In reality, leasing is just another format of lending funds and earning money because of it. A lease is more of a long-term rental contract rather than a loan document and lease companies have less security to collect funds, in case of default, than banks if something goes wrong. The bank usually can take everything, except the leased items, which the lease company owns. Lease companies like the idea that you were approved for bank credit but know that they stand to lose everything, except the item itself, if you owe the bank too much. By using the bank line of credit for short-term financing of purchases and accounts receivables and leasing for production inventories, a combined larger amount of credit can usually be obtained. Many make the mistake of focusing in on the cost of leasing versus bank loans. It is easy to forget that you are in business to make money, not to save money. Banks alone are fine as long as they can provide all the funds you require when you need it. While leasing can be a few percent more, this should not affect your profits nearly as much as not having the funds at all. Too many companies use up their available bank credit to buy inventory items then suffer from missed cash payments discounts, paying supplier interest and bad credit ratings, all of which are very costly. If you lease first, the leasing company looks at you in a healthy position. Once the bank comes in, the leasing company probably won't give you too much more lease equipment because they are aware that the bank is in first position. Logic dictates that if you can't make more than 12 or 14 % on your money, you shouldn't be borrowing it anyway. Another problem is that, unfortunately, many companies decide to overly depreciate their production equipment inventories to save paying corporate tax. While this is very inviting if you are cash tight it makes you look unprofitable on your statements and nobody wants to lend money to an unprofitable business. Besides, if you intend to sell and replace these items, you are not really deferring much and if you do any major changes, you may inadvertently exceed the corporate tax relief level in a given year and cost yourself excessive tax payments. In this perspective, when it comes to financing, showing a profit and paying tax is a good thing. It will help get you the financing you require to achieve your potential. Remember that it is difficult to see the difference between a company who is trying to avoid paying tax and one that just can't make a profit. In our industry, growing 20% can mean 20% more equipment need to be purchased so proper financing can be critical. Understanding a bit about financing and working with your company's financial information to maximize your credit capabilities will help you grow and profit using other people's money. Corinne Light is the President of Light Financial Corporation. She can be contacted at c@lightfinancialleasing.com
Post-Audio Advice - Issue: June 1999
by Richard Spence-Thomas Music First Frame Rate Client Relationships One great indicator of customer comfort level is the amount of time that they book for the session. Customers quite often book sessions with their chequebook in mind, not their project. If a session is booked for six hours and you produce a brilliant track but take eight, your client will be dissatisfied that he is over budget despite your creative genius. If you take only four hours but produce a substandard track then once again your client will be upset this time at your lack of effort. The key is to do your the possible job within a reasonable margin of the allotted time. If you feel that the time frame for the job is not reasonable then the client should be made aware of this early in the process, so he or she can make arrangements to solve the problem satisfactorily. Studio monitoring can also prove problematic for clients. No two systems or rooms sound the same and the client who spends only a fraction of the time that you do listening in your environment is easily confused. As a result, he may often ask you to make changes to your mix that will adversely affect the end product. If you feel that the client is misinterpreting the sound in the monitors, be patient. You don't want them to feel that you are being uncooperative. Try to gain their trust. Explain that your experience is an important and integral part of the monitoring system. You are more important in fact than any of the individual physical components. In time, most clients will simply defer to your experience. Remember that a state of the art, multi-million dollar recording studio operated by amateurish staff is really just a worthless bunch of buttons and knobs! This business is all about people. Richard Spence-Thomas is the Manager and Chief Engineer of Spence-Thomas Audio Post.
Safety At Your Live Show - Issue: June 1999
by Brad Femiak Have you ever been to a live show and noticed a speaker hanging by a piece of chain from its handles or seen a lighting fixture with a broken plug? This sort of equipment setup should make you nervous because it is unsafe. Electrical guidelines are most commonly abused. Never perform a temporary electrical tie-in by yourself! In other words, opening and connecting inside an electrical panel. This is a job for a certified electrician and it is illegal for it to be done by anybody else. It is also incorrect to install an AC ground lift (often called a "cheater") and not connect the ground lug to the screw terminal centered between the plugs on the wall outlet. In the event of any fire, injury or death, you could be found responsible. Make a habit of running any snakes or cables over top of doorways or exits instead of leaving them on the ground where people can trip over them. If the Fire Marshall makes a surprise inspection (and they sometimes do) he may shut down your show until the problem is fixed. Hanging loudspeakers (often called "flying" loudspeakers) should only be performed by a certified rigger. Riggers are specially trained in this field and always carry insurance in case of an accident. Only speakers manufactured with rated flying hardware can be flown safely. Never fly from handles! It is commonplace to hang lighting equipment, but it must be hung from a C-Clamp and must have a steel-rope safety chain. While hanging lighting fixtures, use scaffolding if available. If a stepladder has to be used, never stand on the top step. Lastly, you should always wear steel toe boots, leather gloves, and a hard hat if people are working above you. Always get help when lifting heavy cases or speakers and make sure you always have a good supply of earplugs for nights when the band is just too loud. A deaf soundman won't be in this business very long! Have a good safe show! Brad Femiak is an audio engineer and works at Show Pro, a sound & lighting company in Toronto.
5.1 Sound Treatment - Issue: June 1999
by Jeff Szymanski In response to growing questions about the acoustical treatment of 5.1 surround studios, I would like to offer some advice. I have seen quite a few advertisements and press photos showing the mix position of new 5.1 rooms. In many cases, the wall behind the front and centre speakers (the front wall of the studio), and in some cases the walls to the left and right of the mix position, are treated with a generous amount of acoustical diffusion. While I don't argue that diffusion increases acoustical control without absorbing a lot of sound energy, I question the application in a room where proper imaging is crucial. The most popular application for diffusion is in a control room built in the Live-End, Dead-End (LEDE) tradition. Here, a significant distance is desired between the listener and the rear wall of the studio significant enough to overcome the "Haas" effect. A stereo studio of this size may warrant diffusion, usually depending on the material being mixed. However, in the case of the 5.1 room, rear ambiance is no longer needed -- that is what the rear channel is for! It is crucial for a mix engineer, producer, client, etc. to be able to discern exactly what the true sound is for each channel. So why are we seeing applications of diffusion in the front of 5.1 rooms? How did we get from LEDE to LELE? Room influences are detrimental and undesirable in 5.1 environments. Ram Hidley, whose articles and wisdom with respect to studio design have been enjoyed by many over the years, has recently written several articles expressing the importance of room symmetry and absorptive treatments in 5.1 environments. Recently, I noticed a room originally designed with diffusion on the front wall, had absorptive panels placed over the diffusers by the mix engineer. The only explanation I can think of is that perhaps the architect, for aesthetic reasons, adds diffusion to the most visible part of the room. I have no doubt that a 5.1 surround studio treated with acoustical diffusion is better than the same room with no treatment at all. However, it is more appropriate to approach the design of a 5.1 room with absorptive wall and ceiling treatments as well as bass trapping in mind. Early reflections from both the front and rear of the room (the mix position tends to be equidistant from all sound sources and hence all walls) should be heavily absorbed. The resulting high direct-to-reflected sound ratio provides the mix engineer with the precise aural information needed to make accurate artistic and technical decisions. Jeff Szymanski is the Head Acoustical Engineer and Consultant for Auralex Acoustics, Inc. His design and consulting experience ranges from vocal booths to 4,000 seat auditoriums. Live-End, Dead-End and LEDE are trademarks of Chips Davis and G.E. Meeks.
Save It Before The Mix - Issue: Apr. 1999
by Don Nicklin The key to getting a great sound on tape starts with the instrument that is being recorded. Before you even think about placing any mikes, it is very important that the instrument itself sounds good in the room. Begin by replacing old strings and drum heads, then take the time to check your tuning. Once you have a signal coming through the board, instead of relying on equalization for the best sound, try experimenting with several microphones types and placements. The best way to do this is to have an assistant change microphone positions while you listen for a sweet spot. If, after all that, you feel that you absolutely must EQ, try removing the frequencies you don't like rather than boosting everything else. Don Nicklin is Assistant Director of the Recording Arts Program of Canada.
Recording Vocals Without Headphones - Issue: Apr. 1999
by Doug McClement Sometimes you'll find that a vocalist has a hard time monitoring bed tracks through headphones. Here's a trick I use to overcome that problem. I set up the vocal mic and put a pair of Auratones, or similar small monitors, about three feet on either side of the microphone; I use a tape measure to ensure that the they are equidistant. I place the speakers 90 degrees off axis and point them directly at the microphone. I then feed the monitors from a mono cue mix buss, and flip the phase on one of them. Sometimes I roll off a bit of top and bottom as well. The vocalist will hear the speakers, due to the distance between his or her ears, but the speaker output will be 180 degrees out of phase at the mic capsule. Therefore, the bedtrack bleed, though not absolutely gone, will be down by about 30 dB. Take care not to feed anything to the speakers that you don't intend to use in the final mix, and don't run them any louder than necessary for the vocalist to sing in tune and in time. A little bit of bleed won't kill you. No one ever decided not to buy an album because there was a bit of instrumental bleed in the vocal mic! If you degrade the hi-fi quality by 5%, but improve the performance by 30%, it's a no-brainer. Always let the technology serve the art! Doug McClement owns LiveWire Remote Recorders in Toronto.
Don't Take Chances With Your CD-Rs - Issue: Apr. 1999
by Barry Lubotta Now that everyone is burning CD-Rs as masters, it might be a good time to review a few important steps to ensure they remain pristine all the way through the manufacturing process. Even brand new CD-Rs fresh out of a jewel box often have a few particles of dust on them. It is a good idea to get rid of this dust before writing, and the best way is with a jumbo camera lens blower (without brush). Expect to pay about $8.00 in a photography store for this handheld round rubber device. You squeeze it quickly to release a stream of air which quickly removes any dust on the CD. You might not think a particle of dust would interfere with the laser writing a CD, but tests have proven that it can. You also want to make sure that you handle your CD-Rs by the edges only, both prior to and after writing. Make sure that anyone who will listen to the CD-R adheres to this handling policy or else the result will be a smudged master. Before a master CD-R leaves the premises, place a piece of tape over the jewel box cover so that it doesn't accidentally open, causing the CD-R to fall out. If you plan to audition the CD before it goes off to the plant, make sure the tape has a piece folded over. This creats a small tab that can be used later for easy removal. Place the jewel box in a plastic sandwich bag with a locking to protect it even more. At this point are you can be confident that you have done a professional from start to finish and that your CD is now ready for manufacturing. A CD-R that is to be used for a master must be treated with the utmost respect if it is to provide optimum results at the manufacturing plant. Barry Lubotta is the owner of Pizazzudio Recording Studio and Mastering Lab.
Miking - The 3:1 Rule - Issue: Feb. 1999
by Bruce Bartlett Suppose you're recording a singer/guitarist. There's a mic on the singer and a mic on the acoustic guitar. When you monitor the mix, something's wrong: the singer's voice sounds hollow or filtered. What you're hearing is the effect of phase interference. In general, if two mics pick up the same sound source at different distances, and the signals are mixed to the same channel, this might cause phase cancellations. These are peaks and dips in the frequency response caused by some frequencies combining out of phase. The result is a coloured, filtered tone quality that sounds like mild flanging. To prevent this problem, follow the 3-to-1 rule: The miking distance should be less than 1/3 the distance between mics. For example, if two mics are 12 inches apart, they should be less than four inches from their sound sources to prevent phase cancellations. Bruce Bartlett is a mic engineer, audio journalist, and recording engineer. Bruce can be reached through Professional Sound at mail@nor.com
Helping The Master - Issue: Feb. 1999
by Nick Blagona "Could you make this bigger, louder, heavier, tighter, brighter, polite, less polite, more blue, less green, etc.," - these are the types of questions I'm asked on a daily basis in connection with mastering. And yes I can do it, with one fundamental catch: in most cases, the mixes I get sound better on analog. Mixing to DAT is by far the cheapest way of making a decent record, particularly if you use the great converters on today's market and 24-bit DAT machines. Always - and I can't stress this enough - ID your mixes properly, highlighting the mix you want mastered. If you can't be there in person, write/fax the engineer your thoughts about what needs to be done to any of the mixes, the order of the songs and desired space between the songs. Make sure to tell the Mastering Engineer which tools were used, such as the console, DAT recorder, the converter and so on. Never send a compiled DAT of the album. I've had DATs sent to me that were maximized, ends being chopped off and a whole lot of other things that cause me to utter expletives. Always record at 44.1 kHz. All CDs are clocked at that frequency and changing from 48 to 44.1 kHz degrades the sound. And it's always a good idea to make safeties of your DAT. Record a 1 kHz tone for about 30 seconds at the top of tape, because that tells me about the left-right balance of the mixing console. What level should I record the tone at, you ask? If the peak average of your mix is, for example, 12 dB, you should record a tone of … 12 dB. This gives you 12 dB headroom above 0 dB from your mixing console before clipping. The difference between 0 dB analog and 0 dB digital is that, in analog recording, 0 dB is normal level and 0 dB digital is the max. That's why analog is great. When you start hitting stuff above 0 dB the tape starts to saturate. Somehow the music has some "glue" to it. When passing through -12 dB with digital, you're passing through air. Passing through 0 dB digital, you're dead. Nick Blagona is Chief Mastering Engineer at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, ON.
Session Communication - Issue: Feb. 1999
by Rick Andersen During a studio recording session, it is professional to keep the lines of communication open between the artist, producer, engineer, and assistant engineer. Most consoles have a provision for "talk back," a microphone built into the console that allows the producer/engineer to communicate with the artist via headphones. Also, you should have a (T/B - talk back) microphone set up on the studio floor, so the producer, engineer and assistant can listen to the artist's feedback. A T/B mic on the studio floor should only be monitored while your tape machine is stopped, otherwise your audio will be clouded with ambience. A neat trick is to set up an Automatic Talk Back system. In the monitor section of the assigned T/B mic, you insert a noise gate set to ducking mode with SMPTE timecode feeding the "key input" of the unit. Press play on your tape machine and the ducker sees a signal (timecode recorded or generated), and reduces the volume of the T/B mic. When you stop the machine, the timecode stops running and opens up the ducker. The T/B mic is now turned on. If you prefer heavy effects on vocals, guitars, etc., while tracking/overdubbing, use the above concept, but now insert across the console sends. Using timecode as the trigger source, your vocals can be monitored with or without effects depending on the transport control. Keeping the ducker in mind, various techniques can be applied across different configurations. One final piece of advice - know when to work and know when to play. Engineer/producer Rick Andersen is the Director of Audio Post at Omega Pictures International.
Creating Timeless Recordings - Issue: Dec. 1998
by Daniel Lanois A timeless recording feels right. And a recording that feels right is usually made up of some kind of truth - for example, a true documentation of how people were playing in the room at that time, uninterrupted by external opinion. If something has a natural feeling, that's also a real good ingredient for timelessness. The irony of timelessness is that sometimes the most dated things are timeless. You listen to a P-Funk record from the early '70s - and there's a crass wah-wah pedal that is dated specific to the day - and everybody thinks it's wonderful and timeless! I think it's because there was so much commitment that went into it; it was so much the "sound of the moment" and done with such naivete that it is timeless. Naivete is not something that you can be aware of when you're trying to work, it's something that you're aware of maybe a year down the road; but it's also a pretty important ingredient to recordings you want to keep listening to. Daniel Lanois is a recording artist and producer (U2, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel). Originally printed in the Sound Advice section of the Winter 1995 Professional Sound.
EQ And Mixing Made Easy - Issue: Dec. 1998
by Gary Stokes EQing individual channels: "Try to keep in mind, that sound has all frequencies and any EQ you do is always a trade-off, or compromise, so it's important to pay attention to what you're losing that's desirable, when you start mercilessly notching out something that offends you. I think a good example is electric guitar because sometimes it's better to boost either side of what tone is offensive and thereby preserve more of the overall tone rather than notching out something that bothers you." Mixing: "Everyone's first impulse is when listening to a band playing, and you've got complete control over the mix is to turn it up whatever element of the mix is too quiet. I think the first thing you should ask yourself is what elements are too loud and are masking what you want to hear. What is bothering you if you can't hear the guitar for example. Find what's covering the guitar. See if you can get away with turning something down before you move something up. Usually in the end, you'll be less likely to paint yourself into a corner of always trying to turn everything up louder than everything else and consequently running out of headroom and making the overall mix too loud for the audience and everything else goes along with that. Before you turn something up think of what you can turn down to make it sound better." Gary Stokes is Sarah McLachlan's sound engineer.
Drum Miking Techniques - Issue: Dec. 1998
by Karen Kane One the most common mistakes I've seen in the miking of certain drums - such as djembe or any other drum with a strong low end - results from the misconception that one microphone alone on top of the drum will do the trick. Unlike the typical one microphone method of miking toms in a drum kit, miking just the top of most other drums will not necessarily get the best sound for the situation. Using only a top microphone will give you plenty of "slap" but not enough of the bass. Most of these drums are usually played slightly off the floor that makes it easy to put another mic directly up into the drum from the bottom. A Sennheiser 421 microphone or an AKG D112 works extremely well for this. For the top of the drum, the 421 works well but any good condenser microphone also works well. Ideally, if tracks are available, I always put the two microphones on two separate tracks. That way, in the mix, I can balance the two microphones to my taste. During recording, I EQ the bottom mic by taking out a lot of the mid-range and highs, leaving a very muddy track when you hear it by itself. However, when you add this muddy track to the top microphone you end up with a crisp, fat drum sound. If you don't have enough tracks, EQ the bottom mic similarly, record the two microphones to one track balancing them according to the situation. Karen Kane has been engineering and producing music since 1974. Her credits, profile and other published articles can be seen at her website: www.total.net/~mixmama.
Preparing Your Masters For Manufacturing - Issue: Oct. 1998
by Darcy Scott There are a couple of common problems and mistakes that CD manufacturing plants encounter when receiving DAT or CD-R pre-masters for production. The first is not having enough information about what is contained on the source. The second is receiving a CD-R, burned "Track at Once." The first is an easily avoidable situation. When sending in your masters, always remember to supply more than enough information about what is being duplicated, i.e. number of tracks, track lengths, start time, program length, group name, album/project name, and contact name and number... The second most common problem is receiving a CD-R that is burned "Track at Once" instead of "Disc at Once." This refers to burning the CD in one complete pass, instead of pausing between writing track IDs. Stopping the disc writing process between tracks causes an enormous amount of errors called "link block errors", which in most cases makes the disc unable to be glass mastered for manufacturing. The result is to have the disc fixed at the plant or have a new master sent in, which ultimately results in an increased turnaround time, which is the last thing anyone wants to hear. One more thing to look out for is to be sure the disc is written in proper "Red Book" value. Not many people realize that the reason "professional" CD Burners are as expensive as they are is that they write discs to certain Book values that are required for the type of manufacturing that is being written. With the price of consumer CD recorders coming down to such an affordable range, it's easy for someone to put their master onto CD-R, without realizing that it may be a waste of time if it's not written to the proper Red Book standards. Everyone would like to have their CDs back from the plants as quickly as possible and by checking a few simple things ahead of time, we can make sure that you don get your products back ASAP. Darcy Scott is the president of NF Audio Manufacturing in Brantford, ON, which manufactures both CD audio and CD-ROM and offers DIGalog Cassette Duplication.
Ringing Out Monitors - Issue: Oct. 1998
by Richard van Steenburgh and Ted Barker No, we are not talking about that truck driver that recently drove a rig into Lake Ontario. Rather we are outlining the procedure for ensuring that your stage monitors and microphone have their frequency peaks removed and that their resonance is not acoustically coupled to the stage environment. This includes, but is not exclusive to, walls, ceilings, stage and riser resonance. In other words, anything that can set up a sympathetic vibration with frequencies emitted by the stage monitor. Equalizing out these frequencies is the answer. Unfortunately, the more analog equalization that is used, the more phase shifts you create. It is best to strike a balance that will address the worst resonant rings while not varying the EQ curve wildly. The procedure goes like this: 1. Zero the EQ on the console rails and the graphic EQs for each monitor mix. Richard van Steenburgh and Ted Barker are from ShowPro, a sound system rental company in Toronto, ON.
Remote Recording - The Basics - Issue: Oct. 1998
by Steve Baisley A remote recording is a recording done outside the traditional recording studio setting. Recording equipment is either permanently installed in a truck known as a remote truck (or audio mobile), or the equipment is pieced together inside the venue of choice. A remote truck: * provides a stable, known system that works These basic principles apply to almost all remote projects: A microphone splitter is used to allow the sharing of microphone signals between several audio systems. A two or three-way splitter is typical. For every microphone input on the splitter there are two or three outputs. This avoids having to set up multiple microphones for each instrument. Each split goes to a separate audio system: the house PA, the monitor system and the remote truck. Each system has individual control over the microphone signals it receives; gain, EQ, FX, dynamics processing etc. are set independently in each system without effecting the others. In many cases microphones are added for use in the recording but are not needed in the PA or monitor systems. Once the signals leave the splitter they are carried via multi-pair snake cables to their various consoles, often hundreds of feet outside to the recording mobile. At this point the process of multitrack recording in the remote truck is virtually identical to that of a traditional recording studio ... except that you only have one chance to get it right! Steve Baisley owns and operates Squash Sound Mobile Recording Facility in Toronto, ON.
Curing An Out-of-phase PA - Issue: Aug. 1998
by Chris Zackoor Here are a few things to keep in mind when coming up against an out-of-phase sound system in a club situation. Remember the house engineer and you are on the same team so you don't want to offend him/her by jumping down their throat insisting that the system is out-of-phase. Have a little tact in the situation - it goes a long way! Most engineers - including myself - will pull out their favourite CD to tune the system. It's not always at that instance that you will notice the problem but you will know that something is missing. What I mean by missing is that there is hardly any bass or bottom end. When this happens you'll notice that the system has an empty sound to it, a cancellation of frequencies. You know that there's bottom end, just not enough of it. Assuming that all the bottom end cabinets are matched they will be 180 degrees out-of-phase with each other and this is your problem. At the same time you're listening to the system walk around the room so you can assess the situation. There is a good chance that you will be clipping the bottom end amps. When you have come to the conclusion that the bottom end is out of phase pull out your trusty Brooks Sirens Systems (BSS) phase checker and phase test the bottom end. When you have the proper phase of all the bottom end components you will then have no phase shift between components, collectively producing coupling cabinets. When finished with the bottom end you might as well go ahead and phase test the rest of the system. Now what if it's not as easy to test the system because you don't have or can't afford a phase checker or some other time aligning crossover/processor? You will have to trust your ears and your know how to phase test the system. It may take a little more time to do but here are a few pointers. Starting with the bottom end again, because in my opinion, it is always the easiest to perceive it being out of phase. It doesn't matter if the system is in stereo or mono, put on some program music and walk to the centre of both the left and right PA stacks or to where the PA will have the most coupling (on-axis). Assess the situation from thereby listening to the system and observing the amplifiers status lights. Then stand in front of either the left or right stacks (off-axis) and assess the situation. You should notice the difference between standing on and off-axis you will have to test the phase of each bass cabinet or pair of cabinets. Keeping in mind that in a club situation you may have 2, 4, 8 or 16 low-end drivers depending on the size of venue so you better get busy! Let's say you have two low-end cabinets per side loaded with 15" or 18" drivers and that each cabinet is on either side of the amplifier. Turn one side of the amp down and listen to the cabinet by itself. A quick test is to turn the other side of the amp up to hear if the low end is coupling with the other cabinet or not. You may have to do this a couple of times to make sure. When doing this you will definitely notice a difference between it being in or out-of-phase. Chris Zackoor is FOH/tour manager for the Gandharvas - currently on tour in the US.
De-Essing Your Sibilant Vocal - Issue: Aug. 1998
by George Graves Most engineers know that vocalists love to eat the microphone. So, to keep the level under control he grabs his handy-dandy compressor/limiter to smooth it out. Unfortunately this creates an expansion problem. The limiter works on the lower tonality of the voice and with the gain so high the sibilance is now boosted to a level that overdrives equipment. This does not sound natural. To keep the vocal under control, a high quality de-esser is needed in the recording chain (while recording the vocal) with the use of the compressor/limiter. Originally when a vocal was recorded to analog tape, the sibilance would distort the tape. Now with digital recording the problem has NOT gone away. It sounds like all the equipment in the chain is distorting. High-end preamps will also help in reducing this problem. Remember you're as good as the weakest link in the chain. Cheap boards and Ad converters do not help the cause. George Graves is a mastering engineer at the Lacquer Channel in Toronto, ON.
Time Is Of The Essence Recording for Broadcast - Issue: Aug. 1998
by Ron Skinner In the broadcast world, time is always of the essence. With today's recording technology forever becoming less expensive, a musician could work at home for days on a guitar solo or vocal overdub. In the case of a broadcast recording, this situation is much different. A typical studio session for radio could be anywhere from a few hours to a week, depending on the complexity of the session, the importance the music will play in the program and, most importantly, the budget. These time restraints can put a great deal of pressure on the musician being recorded. In this type of session it is generally one take. Not time for a quick fix-up or punch-in let alone hours of labour to get that all important "Doo Wa" in the third chorus. The total production time for a fairly high-budget popular music session for radio might be three eight-hour days. In these three days the artist might be hired to record as many as five songs. Seems simple enough, three days and only five songs. The problem is that these three days will consist of everything, including set-up of the studio, recording the bed tracks, overdubs, tear down, the final mix and, of course, you also have to take some time to eat. The key to a great recording for broadcast is to have your material well rehearsed and to manage your time as efficiently as possible. With a limited amount of time to record and mix, an emphasis should always be put on pre-production. The object should be rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and when you think you have the material all worked out that is the best time to set up another rehearsal, just to make sure. Ron Skinner is the House Engineer for CBC Radio's Music Recording Studios in Toronto. He also works as a freelance recording engineer/producer. Ron can be reached by e-mail at: rskinner@toronto.cbc.ca
Please Don't Step On My Fade - Issue: June 1998
by Scott Murley As a mastering engineer, I am responsible for making projects sound better. Sometimes that means adding stuff, (EQ, compression, effects) and sometimes that means removing stuff. (Music edits, fades, sometimes entire songs!) I am very good at editing things out. If something's in the song and you don't want it there ... zap, it's gone! But if something isn't there and you want me to add it ... well now that's a different story. Many times I've had to deal with a disappointed artist because somewhere in the recording and mixing process, someone pulled a fade too quickly and the song ends in a way which is not how the artist originally intended (or the artist has since changed his/her mind and now wants a different ending.) Remember the old saw; "Measure twice cut once"? Well now I've got artists and producers coming to me and saying that they've faded it twice and it's still too short! During mastering, I can step on the fade and try to fix up a sloppy one, but I can't replace what's not there. Unless a re-mix is done, it's gone forever. To be assured of a result everyone's happy with (not to mention artistic flexibility) fades should be left to the mastering process. I'm trying to be nice about this and I don't want to start a war with anyone; some of my best friends are mixing engineers. But mastering is the place where the final touches are put on a recording and how a song fades out can be a pretty touchy subject. So let the mastering engineer do the fades. That way, if it's not done the way the artist wants it done, we have pristine sources so we can just do it again. Scott Murley is a Mastering Engineer Lacquer Channel Mastering in Toronto.
The Art Of Recording Live Sound - Issue: June 1998
by David Norman If you're in the process of recording your live show to get those better bookings, do a live CD or to critique your performance, here are some suggestions to make your life a little easier. This article will deal with recording from your live console straight to a DAT machine. With any recording worth making, it's important to make time for experimentation. When you decide which of your venues that you'll be recording at, it's always a good idea and call the in-house sound engineer and let him/her know of your plans. They'll most likely have suggestions or feedback to make your life easier before you even walk in the door. Make sure to fax ahead of time your stage plot and input chart so the sound crew will know what to expect. On your stage plot, show the locations on the stage of the band gear, wedges and the band members' names to expedite things. It's also a good idea to show the location of AC drops for power. On your input chart, include your microphone stand and microphone type (plus alternatives). Each channel of your input list should also indicate what type of insert (gate, compressor, etc.) that you would like. Once on site, and you have your gear set up, here are some suggestions to make the best recording possible. Have shock-mounts on all of your vocal mics and use rugs on stages to keep the sound of people walking back and forth down and eliminating that nasty stage rumble. You'd be surprised at how you can pick up from people walking back and forth across the stage. Another great suggestion that I've found is to have Plexiglas placed around the drum kit. This brings your entire stage volume down, prevents leakage of the drums into your vocal mics and makes for a better recording overall. For drums, I try to always use Drum Claws on toms. This is great for keeping the mics in place and not having to worry about someone accidentally knocking into one of your mic stands. David Norman has mixed such acts as The Neville Brothers featuring Aaron Neville, Peabo Bryson, Michael Hedges, Lisa Germano, Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles), Diana King and many others. He can be reached online at David994@aol.com.
Setting Up the Digital Home Studio - Issue: June 1998
by Alister Sutherland So, you're finally gonna ditch that smelly old 4 track cassette recorder (or whatever you currently use) and plunge headlong into a digital recording environment. Should be easy, right? Just spend the bucks to get the right system, hook it all up and go. The good news is this is basically right. There are, however, some differences in techniques from analog when recording digitally, some of which I'll cover here. The most essential part is right at the beginning, choosing the system that best suits your needs and budget. These days there seems to be reams of digital systems out there. If you want to make great sounding material and get the most out of what you buy, there are some criteria I would recommend as required features. One is that the system does not automatically compress the audio files (this is not like dynamic audio compression, but rather a way of reducing the large size of audio files by throwing away part of them). Some 'porta-studio' like disk -based systems do this and they are therefore unsuitable for making CD quality recordings. Another is that the system be able to record at 16 bit, 44.1kHz or higher and be expandable. The number of channels and tracks you can record and playback will depend on the system and your budget, but I would suggest no fewer than 4 ins and outs (I/O) and at least 8 simultaneous tracks of playback. By the way, in a hard disk recorder (HDR), unlike analog, the number of physical I/O's (things you plug into) have nothing to do with the number of tracks you can play. A system could have only stereo out but play back 30 or more stereo tracks. Of course, the number of inputs you have will limit the number of simultaneous tracks you can record. Alister Sutherland is a Toronto-based musician, producer, entrepreneur and educator. A partner in CreamWare US Inc., a company that designs and manufactures computer-based digital audio workstations, he is an expert with computers, music and technologies.
Put Analog Back In The Mix - Issue: Apr. 1998
by George Graves If you want my advice, with all the available digital technology you still can't beat the sound of a good analog mixdown. I can answer why in two ways. The first being rather technical is that with analog you get a full sine wave as opposed to the jagged sampled sine wave you get with digital. The effect on your sound can be dramatic. With an analog mixdown, you have a much wider, deeper sound with greater stereo imaging. Which leads me to my second point: an analog mixdown has a texture that digital cannot produce. And, simply put, to my ears it sounds better ... that's it. No more explanation needed. Mixing engineers working in the analog domain should not forget the mastering engineers (well, they shouldn't regardless what they do) so they should put 30 seconds of the following tones: 1 kHz, 10 kHz, 15 kHz (if available) 40 Hz (if available) and 100 Hz. This is so the mastering engineer can align their tape machines to the mix tape. The recommended recording level (recording fluxivity) is 250 nWb/m. So when planning your mix, call around to see if you can get your hands on an analog mixdown machine. It may take some time, but it's definitely worth the effort. George Graves is Chief Mastering Engineer at the Lacquer Channel in Toronto, ON.
Mixing For Television - Issue: Apr. 1998
by David Norman Mixing a musician for live television can be quite different than mixing for a concert. I've done the David Letterman show (twice), The Gordon Elliot Show, The Conan O'Brien show and the Jay Leno show. I've also advanced Sesame Street and other shows. The best thing is to make sure for the particular song that the group will be playing on TV, is to get the studio an ACCURATE input list, stage plot and a tape of just that song. Many touring acts send their usual touring list not realizing that one person may or may not be singing, or playing several keyboards or whatever. Anything the studio doesn't have to wire or set up is more time for your setup, soundcheck and camera blocks. As far as mic bleed, usually the monitor mixer and the broadcast engineer work together to keep the stage volume down so the broadcast mix will come out silky smooth. For most of the acts that I've done on television, I've also made sure that there is plexiglass around the drums to keep the stage volume and mic bleed down even more. Last, but not least. Most of the television studios are kept cool to cold so that the host doesn't sweat on TV (and to keep the audience alert), so remember that no matter what time of year it is to bring a jacket! David Norman has mixed such acts as The Neville Brothers featuring Aaron Neville, Peabo Bryson, Michael Hedges, Lisa Germano, Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles), Diana King and many others. He can be reached online at David994@aol.com
Organizational Tips For The MIDI Composer - Issue: Apr. 98
by Amin Bhatia Spend at least a day on finding and organizing your sounds, before you start writing, no matter how rushed the project or demo deadline is. By defining your virtual band or orchestra beforehand, you'll write more coherently because you'll know who your players are. It also reduces those futile trips to the editor/librarian in the middle of your writing we all know that never works! As the one-man composer/engineer generation continues, you should never underestimate the value of another set of ears. Even though budgets may be tight, having another producer/engineer on your project, even if it's only at the mastering stage, is still worth the dough. Amin Bhatia - film composer, Bhatia Music.
What Type Of Tape Should Be Used For Duplication? - Issue: Apr. 1998
by Bud Bremner This depends largely on the character and purpose of the project. A children's tape is usually (but not always) normal bias without noise reduction. Why? Normal bias tape is cheaper to make and cheaper to sell. Besides, does your child's Fisher Price cassette player have noise reduction? We've found that tapes like BASF LHD normal bias duplicating tape gave us a very natural-sounding cassette - closer to the master than chrome tape, but chrome has more 'sparkle' to it; so if your master is a little dull, then chrome might be for you. Also, chrome is more forgiving. It's harder to distort, so it handles dynamic signals better than normal bias. Chrome has proven to have a lower noise floor than normal bias, but the warmth of the normal is real nice. Bud Bremner owns and operates Coastal Mastering in Vancouver, BC.
Let Natural Acoustics Do Their Job - Issue: Feb. 1998
by David Norman My all-time favorite venues to mix in is Radio City Music Hall in New York City. I did a show last year for the Muhammad Ali movie premiere there and I want to share some tips with you. The acts that performed were; B.B. King, The Fugees, Zelma Davis (formerly with C&C Music Factory), Brian McKnight, Diana King, Fred Wesley Harding (formerly with James Brown), the Andy Marvel Band (which was the house band for several acts and included members of Whitney Houston's band), Batoto Yetu, members of A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, The Uptown Horns, the guest speaker was Danny Glover. I was responsible for the house sound and mixed all of the groups while sound was provided by See Factor which supplied the new V-DOSC PA, and let me tell you this is by far the best sounding PA I've ever mixed on. I used a Yamaha PM-4000 with 48-channels and a Crest Century 32-channel for a maximum of 80 channels total. I ended up using 73 channels for this show and decided to place the two consoles in a "V" configuration and sit between the consoles to make it easier for me to get to everything since there were no actual set changes between all of the acts. With no changeovers between acts, the monitor engineer and myself charted our consoles so we were well covered and all we had to do was sub-group muting when a particular act wasn't on stage. All drum kits were miked individually and all acts shared the same bass rig. All three guitarists were miked individually. The only channels that we used consistently from act-to-act, were the hand-held wireless vocal mics. My first consideration was making sure that the vocals and drums and bass were prominent in the mix as all of the acts were in the R&B/Rap genre. I also had to make sure that I didn't un-mute the wrong sub-group for that particular act! If you've never been to Radio City, it's an incredibly beautiful old building and it sounds incredible. I've seen many engineers mix there and the shows that I've found that sounded best are the ones where the engineer doesn't try to blow the audience out of their seats with volume. One of the strange quirks of mixing at Radio City is that they usually position the FOH mix stage left and you must sit while mixing the show (I hate mixing while sitting). For me, this is a major pain because I would prefer to hear the full right and left stereo mix. I love miking guitars and keys in stereo and to hear that full stereo imaging is incredible at times. I also made sure to keep the overall volume at a comfortable level as many in the audience were in the upper age range and besides, the room sounds so beautiful that you can let the natural acoustics do their job. When mixing here, make sure to walk the entire room to make sure you don't have any dead spots. A word to the wise, hang a center cluster and add your vocals here to get even more clarity to those seats in the balcony. Having great musicians on stage, a great PA, a great crew and advance planning, mixing at Radio City Music Hall will be a breath of fresh air for any engineer. David Norman has Tour/Production Managed and/or Mixed for such acts as Aaron Neville & The Neville Brothers, They Might Be Giants, Michael Hedges, Peabo Bryson, Arrested Development, Patti Austin, Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles), Lisa Germano and many others.
The Most Important Thing To Remember (When Mixing a Band) - Issue: Feb. 1998
by Hugh Richards Don't forget the words. Words are the most important thing. If you can't hear the words there's no point to what you do. [When mixing vocals with a band] it's just natural balance. You can use delays and some effects you can pull like a doubler. It really comes down to the stage levels and how you balance the sound around that vocal. Hugh Richards is Front of House engineer for Oasis who are currently wrapping up their Be Here Now tour.
Upgrade Your Nearfields For Free - Issue Feb. 1998
by Bruce Bartlett Are you getting all the performance out of your Nearfield monitors that you can? There are some simple ways to flatten their response so they sound more accurate. And you won't need to buy a graphic equalizer. In a nutshell, experiment with placement. Where you place your monitors, relative to nearby walls and the console, has a big effect on their sound. For example, you can control the monitor's bass response easily. Any loudspeaker gets more bassy when placed near a surface. Here's why. The tweeter radiates high frequencies mostly out front. But lows radiate in all directions. When you put a loudspeaker near a wall, the lows radiate behind the speaker, bounce off the wall, and reinforce the lows radiating out front. The highs don't radiate back toward the wall, so they are not reinforced. The audible result is more bass. So, if your monitors sound thin when playing a kick drum or bass guitar, try placing them closer to the wall behind them. My monitors were placed on a desk just behind my mixing console, 1.5 feet from the wall behind them. In this position, they sounded too warm or mid-bassy. When I raised them up by putting them on some one-gallon paint cans, they lost their tubby character. An upgrade for free! I wrapped the cans in grey foam rubber. Another upgrade is almost free. Get a 4-foot-square piece of acoustical foam, with wedges or convolutions. Such foam is made by Sonex and others. Tape or nail it to the wall behind and between your monitors. The foam absorbs sound, so you hear less wall reflections and more direct sound from the monitors. The benefits are many: sharper stereo imaging, flatter response, tighter transients, and better time resolution. It really does work. Put monitors on stands just behind the console, not on the meter bridge. This reduces comb-filtering from console reflections. Align the monitors vertically to prevent lobing in the horizontal plane. Another way to control your monitors' sound is to experiment with angling them toward you, or straight ahead. The off-axis response of a speaker tends to roll off in the highs compared to the on-axis response. So if you toe-in the monitors to aim at you, they will sound their brightest. If you aim them straight ahead, the treble will soften a little. It's free EQ. Take some time to experiment with monitor placement, and you'll be rewarded with a more-accurate sound. Bruce Bartlett is a microphone engineer, audio journalist and a recording engineer.
Keep It Simple - Don't Let Technology Get In The Way - Issue: Dec. 1997
by Bruce Bartlett We’re all likely to succumb to "gear lust" from time to time. "If I just had one more multi-effects box..." "All I need is another 8 tracks." "I sure could use four more drum mics." I’d like to suggest a cure for the creeping acquisition bug: keep it simple. You may not need lots of equipment. And you don’t always need to use everything you have during a mix. Especially for small project sounds better, because there are fewer elements in the signal path. What are some ways to simplify life in the studio? - Try minimal drum miking. Get a mini omni condenser mic, and mount it in the center of the drum set, clipped about 4 inches above the snare-drum rim. It will pick up the cymbals from underneath, plus the snare and surrounding toms. With a rounding toms. With a little bass and treble boost, you’ll be surprised at the great sound you get with this simple method. Put another mic in the kick. - Avoid using a patch bay. Connect directly from one device to another. It’s a cleaner signal path. - Don’t use effects while tracking - just during mixdown. You’re going to use them anyway, so avoid adding noise and distortion by omitting effects while recording. - After getting a good mix with reverb and effects, try turning DOWN the effects return as far as you can, to a point that still sounds good. Often, less reverb gives a tighter, punchier mix. - Don’t compress everything, just the lead vocal if necessary. Maybe bass, maybe kick drum. You’ll retain the dynamics that make music exciting. - Use acoustic solutions for acoustic problems; use electronic solutions for electronic problems. If your vocal pickup sounds phasey and coloured due to sound reflections off the ceiling, put some foam up there instead of trying to fix the colouration with EQ. These are not rules. They are just suggestions who are overwhelmed at all the choices, or who lack the funds for elaborate equipment. Anyone could argue for the opposite approach. I’m just saying, don’t let the technology get in the way of the music. Bruce Bartlett is a microphone engineer, audio journalist, and a recording engineer.
EQ And Mixing Made Easy - Issue: Dec. 1997
by Gary Stokes EQing individual channels: "Try to keep in mind, that all sounds have all frequencies and any EQ you do is always a trade-off, or compromise, so it’s important to pay attention to what you’re losing that’s desirable, when you start mercilessly notching out something that offends you. I think a good example is electric guitar because sometimes it’s better to boost either side of what tone is offensive and thereby preserve more of the overall tone rather than notching out something that bothers you." Mixing: "Everyone’s first impulse when listening to a band playing, and you’ve got complete control over the mix, is to turn up whatever element of the mix that is too quiet. I think the first thing you should ask yourself is what elements are too loud and are masking what you want to hear. What is bothering you if you can’t hear the guitar for example. Find what’s covering the guitar. See if you can get away with turning something down first before you move something up. Usually in the end, you’ll be less likely to paint yourself into a corner of always trying to turn everything up louder than everything else and consequently running out of headroom and making the overall mix too loud for the audience and everything else goes along with that. Before you turn something up think of what you can turn down to make it sound better." Gary Stokes is Sarah McLachlan’s sound engineer and is featured in this issue of Professional Sound.
Upgrading the Dolby 363 SR - Issue: Dec. 1997
by Barry Lubotta As a firm believer in the superior sonic qualities of ½" analog versus DAT as a two-track mixdown format, I was excited several months ago to purchase a used Dolby 363 SR two channel noise reduction unit to complement our ½" machine. Since we already had Dolby SR on our 24-track recorder, I expected the same kind of performance when I wired in the Dolby 363. To my surprise, I found the sound quality of my tapes through the 363 somewhat disappointing. The problem was that the high end seemed to lose its sparkle and the soundstage shrunk. These less than flattering results made me question whether I was better off with or without noise reduction on our two-track machine. And then it struck me as to why I have seen so many used 363s offered for sale over the past few years - probably unhappy owners. Now my short-term memory isn’t quite as good as it used to be, but there is nothing wrong with my long-term recall. And sure enough, driving home that night I remembered reading an article that appeared in REP magazine several years ago which dealt with modifications to the Dolby 363 SR. Later that evening I was knee deep in old magazines and had just about given up hope of ever finding the piece in question. Down to my last REP I scanned the index and there it was on page 62 of the May 1991 issue - "Upgrading the Dolby 363 SR" by Jim Williams. Seems like I was not the only one who found that the original unit was somewhat lacking. This excellent article described the less than exceptional parts used by Dolby in manufacturing the 363, and went on to give detailed instructions on how to modify the unit so that it would regain it’s clarity, transient response, and sparkle. I contacted David Miller at Digital Ears in Toronto and asked him to perform the upgrade for me since I knew it was beyond my modest capabilities. When I dive into a piece of equipment, my philosophy has always been that I will either make an improvement or destroy the thing entirely, and in this case the odds seemed to favour the latter result. Dave and I discussed the mod and agreed that we could take the improvements one step further by replacing some capacitors and other ICs in the signal path. Since the Dolby 363s are no longer under warranty, there was no risk of alienating Dolby the company. A week later David delivered the upgraded 363 and I plugged it in for a few days so the new components could break in. When I got around to recording music through the system, the improvement in sound quality was immediate and easy to hear. The detail and sparkle from my source came through unchanged, as it should have in the first place. I’d have to say the unit now sounds better than our 24 channel Dolby SR. If you already own a Dolby 363 SR unit, you owe it to yourself to experience a significant improvement for a modest price. The cost of the mod was just under $400. Now the 363 can do the job it was designed for. I find it surprising and disturbing that Dolby utilized such low quality audio parts in a device that was never cheap to begin with. By investing in this modest upgrade, you can play your part in keeping analog sound quality alive and kicking into the next century. Barry Lubotta is the owner of Pizazzudio Recording Studio in Toronto, ON.
Listen To The Artists - Issue: Oct. 1997
by Gary Stokes "You need to be intimately aware of what is stage sound and what is coming from the PA you’re controlling. I think all sound engineers like to have total control of the sound. "There’s sort of a natural desire to do the best job possible but you have to be aware of what sound you’re actually controlling with the knobs under your fingers, what sound is coming off the stage, or just inherently in the venue. A good exercise is to mute the main PA and just listen to the sound of the band on the stage from the audience. It’s also very important to go and listen to the sound onstage as well. This gives you a better awareness of what you’re trying to achieve, as well as what you can and can’t achieve. Sometimes it’s good to know if you’re sitting out in the audience, if all the drums are balanced from that perspective without you turning the PA on, or if the snare drum or guitar is too loud. "You have to have a constant awareness of these things when you’re mixing. It’s good to work with the musicians onstage, and the monitor engineer if there is one to control the stage levels, but don’t be so self-centered that you’re only doing it so you have absolute control. It’s important to help them do the control levels not only to protect their hearing onstage but to get a good mix in the house. It’s also important not to be so autocratic and announce their onstage levels that they actually try to make it sound better by turning it down so much that they can’t actually perform well. "It’s important to not be so harsh that you actually change the stage sound to such a degree that musicians who have been playing for years, and have their act together, start playing worse. I think a lot of people go that far because they’re trying to be in control over the sound in front, and they don’t pay attention to what the musicians need onstage to play the best music possible. The key is knowing what is stage sound and what is not. It’s better to sound good at a lower volume and only have partial control and supplement the stage sound, than it is to get complete control by turning it up two or three times as loud so that you have control over everything. That’s not always a better solution. In fact often it’s worse. You can find a way by listening to the sound onstage without the PA on. You may decide that something sounds pretty good that way. Some things don’t necessarily need a lot of help from the PA. Don’t just assume that everything has to be completely under your control at all times." Gary Stokes is a live sound engineer from Toronto, ON who has recently done sound for Sarah McLachlan on her Lilith Fair tour.
Protect Yourself From Solder Fumes - Issue: Oct. 1997
by Barry Lubotta Most everyone who works in the recording industry has had the occasion at one time or another to come into contact with solder being melted by a soldering iron. Whether it was a bad cable, wiring up a patching bay, or making an equipment repair the solution required a hot iron and solder. The downside of this invaluable studio tool is that the very process by necessity spews out poisonous chemicals such as salicylic acid and pinene. The person doing the work by definition is in close proximity to the byproducts of the soldering process. Anyone breathing in fumes containing these noxious components can experience headaches, nausea, eye diseases and worse. There have always been solder smoke removers available for purchase. Trouble is they cost about $700 Canadian and up. My experience has been that when that type of money is lying around in a studio environment, it almost always goes for a new piece of gear rather than anything related to extending one’s life expectancy. Recently I came across a less expensive device that claims to remove 80% of the harmful pollutants from solder. It is a new product that claims to absorb noxious lead fumes using an activated carbon filter and a high efficiency fan. I ordered this portable device and it works beautifully. While not as good as an expensive professional absorber, it is nonetheless very effective at drawing the solder smoke away from the user and absorbing most of the bad stuff into its filter. This product is available through Techni-Tool at (610) 941-2400. Extra filters can also be ordered. Barry Lubotta is the owner of Pizzazudio in Toronto, ON
It's All About Communication by Karen Kane
In my opinion, one of the first necessities for being a good Producer /Engineer/Arranger is to establish good communication with the artist. You really need to understand what the artist desires musically. Only then, can you work together and create a production that’s appropriate for the music. One of the biggest challenges in recording music is to not only pick the right musicians for a particular project, but to communicate to them exactly what we want from them musically, (in terms of the arrangement of their part). Contrary to what some people think, a lot of producers today are NOT arrangers. Either they are not qualified to be arrangers or they choose other options to communicate specific musical ideas to the musicians. In today’s world of computers and keyboards, where you can create a bass/drum/keyboard part without extensive arrangement skills in a matter of minutes, the producing/arranging arena has changed drastically. This is not to say that this is bad, it’s just a different world then it used to be. One of my own personal styles for "arranging" works in this way. After pre-production, when the song structures are finalized, I make a home recording and a bar/chord chart of each song (even a boom box will do for this). I send each musician a cassette and charts of the songs that they are playing on. They then can get familiar with the music on their own time before coming to the studio session. One tip here: make sure the cassette machine that you use records at "concert pitch", so that the key of the songs on the tape matches the key of the chord chart. I like to send these tapes 5-6 weeks in advance of the recording sessions. If budget allows, rehearsals with the studio players are helpful but not always necessary. Usually, these kinds of musicians are so talented and experienced, that they play amazing things even seeing and hearing a song for the first time. After working closely with the artist during pre-production, by the time the studio session comes around, we have a very good idea of what we are wanting from each musician. As each musician comes in to do his/her part, I am confident about communicating to them what it is that we are after musically. With the valuable preparation time that the musicians have done on their own and the combination of artist and producer knowing what they want, the production ‘team’ can usually fine-tune a musician’s part right there on the spot. All it takes is good communication skills. On a rare occasion, if the musician can read music, a capable artist or producer will write out a specific part that they hear in their head during the session. On other occasions, I have seen fully written out charts scrapped completely for a more "improvised" feel. Some producers who are exceptional arrangers (like David Foster), will most likely write out all the arrangements. Similarly, other producers who do not like input from musicians, and want them only to play what’s written - whether it’s what they have written or a hired arranger’s part - I’ll also use fully orchestrated parts. One nice thing about the less strict, written out method is that I can integrate a musician’s creative input to the project. In fact, it opens up the field of producing and arranging to anyone with good musical instincts and communications skills. Never again will producing or arranging be just for people who can read and write music. Since the studio musicians that I hire excel at this kind of creative format, I always get amazing results. All in all, in my opinion, it makes for a richer project. Freelance Recording Engineer and Producer Karen Kane is a transplanted American, now based in Toronto, ON. She can be contacted via e-mail at mixmama@astral.magic.ca
Recording with "Personality" by Daniel Lanois
"I find that the tape recorder, or the recording device, is almost the link of the chain with the least personality. It’s the link in the chain that gets talked about the most - like ‘Are we going to do it digital? Are we going to do it analog? Should we use dolby SR? Or do we go dolby A? Should we do it at 15, or should we do it at 30? Should we use an Alesis? Should we use Tascam? Should we use the radar system?’ You know, there’s 20 different really great recording devices out there, and they all sound good to me. I did some recording recently on a little 8-track digital TASCAM, and it sounds great. I record on my 24-track with dolby A, at 15 ips, and it sounds amazing. "So that link in the chain is not nearly as important as all the other links. If you start at the front, the front would be the instrument or the voice - talking about acoustic recording -- the instrument or the voice; microphones are next on the chain. If you were to put a Cole’s mic against an AKG 414, the sound difference would be astronomical. You’re going to hear like a 700 percent sound shift. Whereas if you were A-B, the difference between an 8-track digital TASCAM and a 24- rack Studer with dolby A at 15, you might hear a 2% personality shift. "The kind of harmonica, or how you tune the drum, is real important. The kind of microphone you use and where you place it is real important. I use a Neve 1066 pre-amp. The early ’70s models are really great, with great EQs. Daniel Lanois in an interview with Nick Krewen (Canadian Musician, July/August 1997)
Teching And Happy To Be There by Trevor C. Coppen
Teching a PA should be treated with the same kind of care as mixing the band. 'Do unto others as you would have them do to you' - where have I heard that before? The PA tech can definitely make or break a show as much as the mixing engineer. Touring bands are not always fortunate enough to travel with their own production, and even if they do they rely on the audio systems tech to keep things up to snuff. A systems technician is a question/answer man, an advisory board and handy man all rolled into one. The performer’s engineer has been hired for a reason and that should be respected. Although you may not agree with their methods, you are there to accommodate and make sure the system runs at its best, safely. There are many things that can be done prior to the artist’s engineer arriving that will help keep the day and yourself together: * PA and console functioning properly, free of noises such as ground buzzes Keeping lines of communication open all day is very healthy. Make sure things are going well and functioning properly but stay out of the way, keeping in an eye’s distance. (It’s not a good idea to take a lunch break during the band’s sound check!) When all is said and done, what it boils down to is showing respect for the club and/or PA company you are representing and having that reciprocated by the touring engineer. Trevor C. Coppen, freelance sound technician based in Toronto, Ontario. Trevor has been touring recently with the Barra McNeils and is currently in the U.S. with Moxy Früvous.
Creating Timeless Recordings by Daniel Lanois
A timeless recording feels right. And a recording that feels right is usually made up of some kind of truth - for example, a true documentation of how people were playing in the room at that time, uninterrupted by external opinion. If something has a natural feeling, then that’s also a real good ingredient for timelessness. The irony of timelessness is that sometimes the most dated things are timeless. You listen to a P-Funk record from the early ’70s - and there’s a crass wah-wah pedal that is dated specific to the day - and everybody thinks it’s wonderful and timeless! I think it’s because there was so much commitment that went into it; it was so much the "sound of the moment" and done with such naiveté that it is timeless. Naiveté is not something that you can be aware of when you’re trying to work, it’s something that you’re aware of maybe a year down the road; but it’s also a pretty important ingredient to recordings you want to keep listening to. Daniel Lanois, recording artist, producer (U2, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel). Originally printed in "Sound Advice", Professional Sound, Winter 1995.)
Mixing should not be a long and tedious job of analyzing and salvaging. I’ve heard songs that took over 100 hours to mix and I am dumbfounded as to why, because in the end they sure didn’t sound that great. Some of the best-sounding records were mixed in the ‘60s and ‘70s and took 2-3 days to completely mix an entire record. One of my best theories about mixing, is to try and finish a mix before you start to hate the song. If tracks are recorded half decently, and everyone involved is getting along and are into it, you’re pretty well guaranteed to mix a really good record. Kevin Doyle -- head engineer at D.A.V.E. Has recently mixed projects for Marc Jordan, Harem Scarem, and is presently working on a film project for Yo-Yo-Ma.
You Paid Only How Much? by Bud Bremner
Have you ever wondered why real estate agents cannot work part time, only full time? It’s to prevent any part-timers from watering down the market and, more importantly, to maintain a professional service in a very important industry. The agents who commit their careers to it should be able to earn a decent living. Unlike the realtors, many of us in the music industry put our whole lives into our art and/or our business, while some merely dabble in it. Having part-timers in our industry is the only way some of us could ever get our start; however, when non-professionals begin to remove professionalism and profit margins from the industry, everybody suffers. Case in point: CD-R replication. We all know that the cost of these babies has dropped like a rock in the last year and it was only a matter of time, so it’s no surprise. Actually it’s good because for those willing to invest in the necessary duplication equipment, short-run CD-Rs opens up a new market. But what if some guy in his basement with one CD-R recorder and a PC starts giving away this service to all his friends for only the cost of the discs? How soon would more friends find out and, before you know it, profit margins for the serious players go right out the window? How is anybody supposed to make any money in this business when idiots like this trash any chance of profit? Profit is what buys new gear and more CDs, and rents gear and everything else that keeps this business afloat. Without profit, no value-added business can really take place. Bud Bremner -- owner and operater of Coastal Mastering in Vancouver, B.C.
Studio Etiquette by Colin Nairne
Try and leave the world outside when you’re in the studio. Take care of any business before you go in so you can keep your thoughts on the task at hand. Having said that, be prepared for anything and have fun. Recording is the best part of the whole process of record-making. Take breaks often as you’ll feel better as the days wear on. Eat! Go for walks! Watch Formula One racing on TV! Schedule a late start for Saturday! Above all, trust your producer . . . you paid the 'big bucks' for a reason. When I’m busy working on a record, I become so focused on the task at hand that all etiquette and manners that my mother taught me go completely out the window. When in the studio, it is important to be sensitive to the situation and the client -- everyone finds it less offensive. Colin Nairne -- producer for Barney Bentall, Mae Moore, The Paperboys and Spirit of the West.
The Joy of Digital 8-Tracking by Michael Phillip-Wojewoda
As soon as I bought my Fostex RD-8 ADAT, I immediately locked it up to the 24-track and began using it on albums I produce. On The Waltons’ Cocks Crow, I used my ADAT as an extension of the 24-track, so I ended up with 23 tracks of analog (one track had the timecode running), plus eight tracks of digital (because the ADAT has a hidden ninth track for chasing code). I actually like the idea of using the analog for the rhythm section and the digital for layering vocals; I sometimes don’t enjoy the colouration that you get when you record vocals analog. A lot of times, I’ll take some tracks on the ADAT machine and import them into my Mac at home. I’m running Deck II, so I have four virtual tracks to work with all in the digital domain. I can edit or comp and even overdub stuff at home, and then take the ADAT back to the studio with the new sounds and lock it up. On Ashley MacIsaac’s Hi? How Are You Today? album, I was doing that a lot; I actually did some pre-mastering. I noticed that the kick drum wasn’t loud enough on one mix, so I found an isolated kick drum and literally pasted in another kick drum visually using the drawn wave shapes on my Mac. I did some rebuilding of tracks that way as well; it was like sculpting. Michael Phillip-Wojewoda -- Juno award-winning producer of acts including Barenaked Ladies, Rheostatics, The Waltons and fiddler Ashley MacIsaac.
More Joy of 8-Tracking by Blair Packham
I had been making a record with singer/songwriter Arlene Bishop at Studio 306 in Toronto, when I had the revelation that once we had the drums recorded, we could do all of our overdubs at home on my DA-88. I had an AKG 414 that sounded good on Arlene’s voice, but we needed a really good compressor -- so I got a TL Audio dual valve preamp compressor. That way, we could go direct to tape. We had a DA-88 tape striped with timecode, and we’d do a rough mix onto one or two tracks on the DA-88 in synch. Then at home, listening to that rough mix, Arlene could overdub vocals and I could do guitar overdubs to my heart’s content. We could then go back to the studio and transfer the remote overdubs back onto the two-inch master tape and mix it. We then have the benefit of getting the drums recorded with a better mic selection and a big room, as well as the intimacy of recording at home, all on one recording. I’m now able to work on projects that are meant for release at home. It’s the difference between doing a demo and doing a master. You get the feeling that everything you do now counts. And at a much cheaper price. Blair Packham -- producer/composer; projects include the television score for the series Destiny Ridge and various TSN themes, as well as numerous artists projects.
Live Sound Crutches by Trevor C. Coppen
Many articles have been written on this topic, but it continues to be a popular issue among many touring live sound engineers. Many live sound technicians travel with items that make their evening run more smoothly. Much like the musicians that hire you, there is an investment being made to the sound that is desired. A guitar player will buy a special amplifier or guitar which is crucial to their sound. A sound technician should consider the purchase or rental on a per tour basis of microphones and related items such as headphones, mic stands, clamps and patch cables. Model numbers and brands are irrelevant at this point. These are all personal preference. Using the same headphones and microphones every evening allows you to more quickly distinguish trouble spots in a sound system. In the event that trouble-shooting is necessary, you are able to start further down the chain because you are aware of your own gear, and it is less probable of breaking down. After completing a tour with an artist, or during those down times, you can always use these "tools" with other artists. These items create a consistency, especially with vocal mics, where hygiene is also a consideration. No matter what the condition of the PA is, or if you are mixing on the fly, you know what your equipment is capable of. Having your own tools becomes very handy in a support band situation, whether you are supporting or if a support band is in front of you. Your stands and mics are up and there is no question of supply from the club. The support band will get all the house mics and stands. Or, in a supporting situation, the headliner will be pleased to see you with your kit and instruments clamped, miked and ready to go. This will save a lot of worries for yourself, the band, and reduces change-over time, allowing your evening to flow that much smoother. Trevor C. Coppen is a freelance sound technician based in Toronto, ON. He has worked with such acts as Hayden, Our Lady Peace and The Waltons.
Food for Thought on A-D/D-A Conversion When converting audio from analog to digital, we are trying to preserve what we already have, but does it really stay the same? Despite the fact that I'm a huge analog fan, I believe that digital storage and processing are very useful and do have their places, especially in mastering. Even in our studio we have four DAT players including a classic Studer, but some people will question the idea of converting their digital masters back to analog for processing. We convert to digital, thinking our audio will be as safe as it was before conversion. However, the conversion back to analog brings with it a perceived "analog degradation". Was the program material perceived to be in a state of degradation before the initial A-D conversion? Probably not. This perceived "analog degradation" is not really an analog problem at all. In almost every case, it can be traced to inadequate conversion to and from digital. Not the state of being in digital, but the conversion process itself. Consider this: Contrary to the big-budget marketing hype of various tape and equipment manufacturers, get ready now . . . "There is no such thing as digital sound." All sound is analog. Some sounds are generated in a digital environment, but most sounds we hear and record are analog sources (i.e., piano, drums, violins, guitar amps, horns, etc.). Because our ears are not a digital device but an analog transducer, all sound is heard . . . "analog". So what's the problem with analog? There really isn't one. It's the first and last step in almost every recording session and it's a great recording medium (how many studios wouldn't swap their ADATs for a 2" Studer if they could?), but in all the comparisons I've been involved with, the weakest link is still getting in and out of digital with some degree of accuracy. Most DAT players' A-D and D-A converters lack the precision of high-end converters such as those available from Apogee, Wadia or Prism. Considering this grade of converter shows up at the 4K-8K price point and higher, and a common DAT player like the Tascam DA-30 costs about 1.5K -- only a fraction of this 1.5K goes into the construction of its converters. Imagine a 1/2" 15 ips Dolby SR master transferred to one of these machines. This would result in a digital recording, but with comparatively low fidelity because of the inaccurate A-D and D-A conversion. So go ahead and record your tracks to digital, but understand that using a set of high end converters will eliminate the weakest link in the chain, providing you with a precision copy of your work. Analog ‘0' vs. Digital ‘0' - Are They the Same? In mastering, many digital masters are submitted with different regard to audio levels and their relative reference level tones. While there is no officially recognized standard that bridges the two, many audio engineers (including the author) have found a few simple rules that work well. Most engineers already know these but for those who are just starting out, here are a few points: Do not put a 1 kHz tone at ‘0' digital full scale. A tone at this level will be from 12 to 16db higher than it should be, it has virually no relationship to the RMS audio value that it's supposed to represent and is brutal on your speaker cones and signal path, not to mention your ears. Can you imagine audio levels hovering nicely around 0 VU, preceded by this killer 1 kHz tone ripping your ears off at +15 VU? It happens! A level reference tone on a DAT, just like on an analog recorder, is supposed to represent RMS audio values, not peak values. On a DAT recorder, a respectable RMS audio value and its level reference tone will be around -12 to -16 ppm (peak program meter). Tracking usually requires more headroom, so -14 to -16 ppm or 14 to 16 decibels below digital full scale works well. Example: your analog ‘0' VU reference tone would appear at -14 ppm, leaving a margin of 14db peak headroom above 0 VU. Mastering engineers utilize tighter dynamics control, so a margin of -10 to -12 ppm is usually enough. Now after all that, I'm going to tell you that tones of any kind are not necessary for DAT recording. The use of 10 kHz and 100 Hz tones are also not necessary for DAT recording. These tones are used for azimuth alignment, and high and low frequency playback equalization on analog tape recorders. Such alignment is not user definable on DAT recorders, so using these tones might send the wrong message regarding your experience with digital recording. Bud Bremner owns and operates Coastal Mastering in Vancouver, BC.
Vocals in the Studio by Simon Pressey
Getting the best possible performance from your vocalist is paramount in popular music recording; here are a few tips that can help you capture them. Find out which time of day the artist feels most comfortable singing at and arrange the vocal recording part of the session around that. Try to schedule recording the vocals throughout the recording session, not on the last day(s) of it -- even experienced vocalists can usually only be at their best for three hours a day. Arrange for somewhere private the vocalist can warm up or practice, with rough mixes of the tracks preferably. Some vocalists like to perform with the band and friends around, others prefer a more intimate environment. Discuss this well beforehand so you can avoid offending or embarrassing the peanut gallery or your vocalist. Print up multiple copies of the lyrics, including all repeated lines, verses and choruses. Use a clear font that is legible in low light, and number the lines and sections. This makes for easier communication between all parties. Prepare the recording area ahead of time. Make sure the temperature is comfortable and the area free of air conditioning drafts. Try to create a mood, and a room that is buzz-free with adjustable lighting. Have some candles available, a comfortable stool, note paper, pens and pencils, a pitcher of warm water (not iced), a couple of glasses, Kleenex and a garbage bin. Almost all singers like to have something particular, be it a mascot or a bottle of scotch. Be prepared -- finding Sambucca at 3 a.m. on a Sunday can be tough. I usually tape the lyrics to the boom of a fully-extended mic stand and back light them with a Littlelite; this has the advantage of readability without the vocalist moving their head and is less acoustically troublesome. If you're the engineer, set up and listen to the headphone mix ahead of time, with the same model headphones at the same volume. Monitor mixes can dramatically affect peoples' pitch and timing. Try the singers' headphones yourself, sing along to the track and get the assistant to adjust the mix so it sounds comfortable to you. Be prepared to use loudspeaker monitoring -- a good vocal performance is worth the small sacrifice in fidelity. Attention to a combination of these details has rewarded me far in excess of the effort required to take care of them. Simon Pressey, Engineer/Producer, Chief Engineer at Le Studio Morin Heights. Credits include Lawrence Gowan, Patricia Conroy, the Tea Party, the Headstones and Celine Dion.
Tips for Improving Your DAT mix by Greg Below
It has been brought to my attention that many people in the recording industry under-estimate the vast improvement a good set of A/D (analog to digital) and D/A (digital to analog) converters can make! I realize the majority of engineers out there insist on mixing to DAT and accept DAT machines for what they are, a medium to which one can convert and store high quality analog sound information into a digital format at little expense. Try mixing as hot as possible to DAT with a good set of external 24-bit A/D converters instead of the cheap 16-bit converters supplied in Tascam, Fostex or Sony DAT machines. You may be surprised, if you are not already, at the sonic quality that will make. Also, keep in mind that once you enter the digital domain, keep it that way; converting back and forth from digital to analog will greatly diminish sonic quality as well as create dithering problems. Most professional mastering facilities agree and have the capabilities to keep your material in the digital domain until the format is decided upon. Greg Below - independent producer/engineer, Distort/Sonic Pineapple Recording Studio. Greg has recorded for EMI Publishing, BMG and FRE Records, as well as many independents.
Creating the Mood in the Studio by Doug McCann
The studio control room environment can, is, and always will be one of the weirdest places to visit. It is amazing how many people go deaf, forget everything about good manners or just become brain dead the minute they walk through the door. We all know that there are no rules when it comes to getting the magic to tape, drive, RAM or conductive jello. But there are some basic methods we all employ to capture a sound. The hard part isn't twisting the knobs. The really hard part is creating an environment conducive to inspired performance within the studio, and the trying to control all of the interference from the outside world. That outside interference can include overly amorous girl/boyfriends, band mates, managers, label execs, video producers, assistant engineers, photographers, other studio clients, other studio owners, delivery guys, meter readers, product reps, dogs, cats, telephones and airplanes. I have lost a lifetime's worth of wonderful takes all because of ill-timed interruptions. If you are not a part of the process, then just go away. I know that sounds rude, but it is frequently the best way for you to contribute in a positive way to the session. If you are asked or invited to stay, sit still, be quiet and LISTEN. By concentrating as hard on what you are hearing as those involved in creating the recording, you will avoid becoming one of those horror stories every producer, engineer, musician, etc., hates to tell. Doug McCann - Producer/Engineer, Soundscape Audio Design; Co-owner of Beta Sound Recorders. Credits include Randy Travis, Patricia Conroy, Terri Harris and the R&B All-Stars.
Substituting a Live Sound Mixer for On-Stage Monitoring by Steve Parton
A standard live sound mixer can be used in the place of a monitor mixer for on-stage monitoring, but there are some simple adjustments to make: * Put all channel faders to "0" (not full up). This way, all auxiliaries become "prefader". Steve Parton is a freelance studio and live sound engineer who has worked extensively across Canada and particularly in the Montreal and Ottawa areas.
Tips for Mixing Drum Samples by John Albani
When mixing drum machines or drum samples, try using a very short early reflection reverb program to simulate overhead mics. Make sure the diffusion parameter is not set too high. You want a good attack, not a smeared sound. Adding this type of reverb will greatly improve your drum kit's depth. Also, don't be afraid to experiment with EQ on the reverb to simulate different surface textures. John Albani is a guitarist and producer/engineer who owns Landshark Studio in Toronto.
Recording Heavy Guitar by Brad Nelson
Distorted electric guitar can be an unruly monster to keep under control sometimes, but I am finding that less is more when it comes to getting a good starting point for guitar amp mic placement. If you are using a multi-speaker cabinet, the first thing to do is to find the best-sounding speaker of the bunch. Take two Shure SM 57s and point the first one directly at where the dust cap meets the speaker cone; and point the second one at the speaker cone (not to the centre of the speaker!) at a 45 degree angle from the first. The mics should be touching each other to ensure minimal phase difference. Now what you have is one mic that is picking up the brighter tone (straight on mic) and one that is picking up a darker tone (45 degree angled mic) of what the speaker puts out. This enables you to select either a warmer or edgier tone simply by changing the fader level relationship between mics, instead of having to immediately jump to the EQ. Always use a flashlight to see through the grille cloth to ensure proper placement; add more mics if desired end result requires it and stir well! Brad Nelson is a Metalworks staff engineer who is co-producing and recording the new Headstones album for MCA and has recorded and/or mixed for acts such as Treble Charger, Spooky Rubin, the Killjoys and Tribal Stomp.
How To Approach Repairs by Paul Buchanan
Repair pointers always seem to be easier to remember or visualize when one is faced with an "eleventh hour repair". I can't say that there is one tip that can be globalized to all repairs; specific units, however, can have similar fault conditions that make repair pointers much easier to provide. Hence, the only advice that I can offer is to approach each repair with the same method. Hope the following helps: 1. Perform a visual inspection before you power up the unit (to see if there are any burnt components, etc.) Paul Buchanan is chief technician at Contact Distribution, servicing amplifiers, processing devices and other professional audio equipment.
One Console; Four + Techs by Steve Parton
Whether you are told in advance or not, during multiple-act "festival" style gigs, some bands are going to show up with their own sound techs. This usually happens with the bigger bands who will have arrived after an afternoon of sound engineering mayhem. As I'm sure you have already labelled all the microphones, the next thing you can do for your newly-arrived sound tech is to have all the auxiliary sends labelled or to put the FXs in the order they appear on the rack. Insert cables labelled to the corresponding gate or compressor would be good, too. And make sure you update the masking tape on the board, because things change easily in this type of show, and making a mental note of a switched channel doesn't do much good for the other sound techs. If the show is not the on-the-fly type and there are several soundchecks before the show, the single coolest tool on the face of the planet is a dictaphone or recording Walkman. This way I can check my band(s) and then say to the next sound tech, "It's all yours, Sherri. Change what you like; I've recorded all my settings on this here dictaphone." How's that for camaraderie between sound techs? Steve Parton, Montreal, PQ-based freelance sound tech.
The Word on MDMs by Ron Skinner
Modular Digital Multitrack (MDM) recorders have brought the digital world a bit closer to home. MDMs have been introduced to the marketplace over the past few years, and this technology is starting to make recording industry professionals rethink the current use of multitrack recording. MDMs are relatively inexpensive, rackmounted eight-track recording devices. They can be easily expanded to as many as 128 tracks of digital recording simply by purchasing additional units. The average price of an eight-track system is under $5,000. MDMs are currently being marketed by three manufacturers (Alesis, Tascam and Fostex). While each manufacturer offers its own unique features and operating standards, the basic premise behind the designs of these units is the same -- providing eight tracks of digital recording in a small, inexpensive and expandable unit. The initial market for Modular Digital Multitrack recorders was the project or home studio. This is the first time digital recording has been taken out of the professional recording studio and put in the home. Over thirty thousand MDMs have been sold in North America since their introduction almost two years ago. This success has created a large network of users who can share ideas and work on each others' projects. Musicians can now record music in their home recording studios and then send the tape to other musicians to add finishing touches and overdubs (the tape format for these recorders is either S-VHS or 8mm video tape). The possibilities of this format and its vast popularity has most recently caught the attention of the professional recording and broadcast industries. This type of recording is still not as reliable as professional open reel recorders like the Sony PCM-3348. However, it is being used for jingle and promo production, non-crucial music recording and in the pre-production stages of album projects. Broadcasters are also beginning to use MDMs for complex documentary productions that require mixes that may be too difficult to achieve with multi-machine mixing. In many cases, eight tracks are enough to accommodate a fairly large radio production. The development of this technology has brought the price of digital multitrack recording down substantially; and it gives musicians and broadcasters the ability to create high quality recording projects at a relatively low cost. MDM recording is an example of how digital technology is starting to touch every aspect of our professional lives. It is this digital technology that provides us with greater flexibility and enhanced creativity. MDM recording is yet another tool within the digital domain that can be used in various types of audio production, from simple home recording projects to more advanced radio and professional recording applications. Ron Skinner, Radio Technician, CBC Broadcast Centre; independent engineer/producer.
Live Recording in the Studio by Kevin Doyle
Recently, I was approached by David Deacon and the Word to co-produce and record an album; with the intention of recording the band ‘live-off-the-floor', including solos and vocals. Their wish was to capture a live organic sound, using all-natural instruments and no computer-based sequencing or sampling. I was somewhat surprised by this request. In the last three years, I have worked on more than thirty albums, but even so, the last album I recorded live-off-the-floor was in the fall of 1992. I looked forward to the challenge of re-discovering recording methods that would maximize the sound quality without compromising the flexibility to be efficient and practical in the live environment. For the drums, I used a 421 for the midrange and a D112E for the low end of the bass drum. After moving the mics around for the optimum position, I used an old Neve EQ to add extra low end and midrange. On the snare, I used two SM 57s: one on top, and the other underneath. After getting the right blend, I added a little top end from a Neve EQ. For the toms, I used KM 100s (-10dB) for their warm low end and clean top end. For the overheads, I used a pair of 414s with their phase reversed. I found that without the phase reversal, I was experiencing acoustic phasing problems in the low end. I tend to never roll off the low end on the overheads, because I like the richness they add to the toms and snare. If I have too much snare in the overhead mics, I'll strap a stereo compressor over them with a very fast attack and fast release time. For the bass, I used a Sanken CU-41 on the amp and an active DI. The Sanken is a great mic for bass and guitar amps. The microphone is almost impossible to overload, and has great low frequency response, which are features hard to find in a condenser microphone. I used two Neve 1073 modules as mic pre-amps and EQ on the bass. I find the 1073s have a great low end and can be punchy and warm. Before hitting tape, I used a little compression from an LA-2 for the DI and a highly-modified LA-3 for the amp. David Shaw, the piano player and co-producer, informed me that he would be doing very dynamic solos live off the floor, and also some very quiet playing in some of the verses. With this in mind, I chose to use two B+K 4000 series microphones, and the Drawmer 1960 mic pre-amps, for their great transient response and tube sound. I had my assistant, Stuart Brawley (a piano virtuoso in his own right), place the mic pre-amps right on the floor, and under my instructions from the control room, had him set the appropriate levels. After adding about 3dB at 15kHz with some outboard GML EQs, I went directly to tape from the 1960, bypassing the console completely. With the guitars, I used a stereo DI and a U-67 (-10dB) and SM 57 on the amp. The U-67 has a really warm low end, and the 57 has a good midrange. Depending on the guitar part, I would vary the mixture of the microphones, rather than using EQ. If I needed to use any compression, I used an LA-3 or Summitt. For the acoustic guitars, I really like the sound of a B+K mic with a Pultec EQ. With acoustic guitars, pianos and many other acoustic instruments, I tend to avoid using any compression at all. I'm still waiting for the optimum compressor for some acoustic instruments that doesn't affect the quality of the sound. For the lead vocals, I placed the singer on the floor so he was able to have good eye contact with all the members of the band. I prefer good tube mics, with a GML pre-amp on the floor. For compression, I'll switch between a dbx 165a or a UREI with a GML or API equalizer. I've been extremely satisfied recording like this recently, and am really enjoying live recording again. Kevin Doyle has engineered recent projects for Shirley Eikhard, Harem Scarem and Lawrence Gowan, and is currently Head Engineer at D.A.V.E. (formerly Sounds Interchange)
Miking Pianos by George Semkiw
When I mic a piano, I use omnidirectional mics. (Neumann KM56) and place them in the middle of the keyboards. The first mic is placed closer to the bass strings, the second mic is towards the higher strings. You may have to put some sponge around the mic stand to absorb the vibrations after closing the lid but close the lid totally. This gives me a very present piano sound which is not muddy - usually associated with cardioid microphones. When the lid is closed, it helps me keep the leakage (incoming leakage from other instruments) down to a minimum and still allows me to get a full ,present piano sound. If the piano has soft-actioned hammers, place mics closer to hammers; if the piano has a hard-actioned hammers, place mics closer to the hammers; if the piano has a hard-actioned hammer response, place the mics further away from the hammers. Placement of mics should be done with individual taste in mind and with regards to how the piano actually sounds. George Semkiw - producer/engineer (Lou Reed, Harry Belafonte, Johnnie Lovesin and The Sattalites).
Good microphone techniques, understanding the frequency ranges of all the instruments involved and learning how to use processing equipment creatively and sparingly will help you achieve a good, full-sounding mix - but you must always have a focus to make it all gel. The vocal or melody line is always the most important part of the music and should never be lost or buried in the mix. The other instruments, whether they be rich-sounding keyboards, searing horns or a driving rhythm section, are there to support the melody, but should not be lost or buried in the mix either. Remember, each instrument has its own space and place in the mix. Tony Cre - live sound engineer (credits include Lee Aaron, The Spoons).
Revelations by Eugene Martynec
I was doing electric guitar overdubs on the first Kensington Market album in the late sixties, and I was getting frustrated by my terrible guitar sound. I asked producer Felix Pappalardi (Felix was enjoying huge success with Cream at the time) how Eric Clapton got such a great sound. He said that they put a mic in front of his amp and he played. Simple! He supplied most of that great sound. I later found out that this was the case with all good musicians, and that the studio was an enhancement tool, not an apology for poor listening habits from the musicians. Years later, I got a classic question: "Can you make me sound like Jimi Hendrix?"My retort was, "If you can play like him, we can certainly make you sound like him." Eugene Martynec - Juno Award-winning producer (credits include Bruce Cockburn, Edward Bear, Murray McLauchlan, Doug & the Slugs).
Quality Outboard Gear = Quality Sound Recording by Tom Cochrane
I'm an equipment junkie! I like gear. I like vintage microphones. I love old Neve EQs, preamps and API's. I enjoy collecting them the same way someone collects guitars. It's a joy, it's a thrill and it's an inverstment. Gil Moore at MetalWorks is the same way. They took this old Neve board and modified it - they knew there were a lot of problems with that particular board and they worked around it. As a result, it's a much more user-friendly piece of equipment - accessible, immediate. They made MetalWorks a great studio with that kind of approach. Using pro mics and preamps, you know that when you lay it down to the ADAT it's still going to have certain qualities that have been traditionally proven to work and sound great. If you are going to work in the digital domain, I think that it is important to balance that with a certain amount of tradition, and that's where certain preamps and compressors come into play. I own three API lunchboxes, Neve, strips, LA-2A compressors and such. It gives me a thrill as an artist when I've chosen the right microphone for an application. To know that you've picked the right paintbrush, the right paints and the right approach and can hear that in the work - that's a lot of fun. Tom Cochrane, songwriter, artist, producer and home project studio owner. His latest release is Ragged Ass Road.
Building Song Structure and Vocals on Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill by Glen Ballard
Basically we'd walk in [my studio] at one o'clock in the afternoon with nothing other than some vague ideas, and I would pick up a guitar and head out on some sort of harmonic territory. She (Alanis Morissette) would start scribbling lyrics and singing ideas and I would start scribbling lyrics and singing ideas and I would go to a chord change, and if that felt good, we'd have two chords and maybe a bit of a melody, and then it was built 'brick-by-brick', kind of that way. In almost every case, eight, maybe ten hours later, we would have a song. At that point, I would immediately record a track as fast as I could because I was programming as we went, after we had the guitar harmonic and melodic structure there. I had samples and loops and drum patterns that I would program in and immediately put it on tape, and it was usually no more than an hour of recording. It would be the basic track on tape. I would play guitar on a couple of tracks and she would sing it, and it was usually once, sometimes twice. I can't think of a time where we punched in. And I would be amazed. I would look up and it would be an incredible take, and I was praying that I got it on tape. It was the sort of thing where, fortunately, I know my room well enough where I don't need a lot of warm-up time on the mic. I'm using an AKG C12 vintage tube mic from the 50's, which sounds fabulous on her voice, and I was going into a Demeter pre-amp. From the Demeter, I would go into an LA-2A tube limiter and straight to tape. I was not going through the Euphonix console, and a lot of what I recorded was on ADATs. Glen Ballard, Encino, California-based producer and co-writer of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill album.
Scoring From Film: The Essential Tools by Mychael Danna
The equipment I use for basic scoring is a VHS stereo tape deck with audio timecode on one side and a stereo VCR. I turn it into MIDI timecode on an Atari computer running Cubase coupled with a Fostex G16S multitrack recorder. I simply plug the output from the timecode track directly into the Fostex, and it turns it into SMPTE timecode. A MIDI cable runs from the recorder into the computer. One audio cord and one MIDI cord and you have your keyboard setup also MIDIed right into your computer! I've scored films without any kind of locking at all - it is possible to do. You get good at using the pause and play on the VCR; you then stack on keyboards and samplers. I use a 24-channel Mackie 8 Bus console and it's a beautiful thing. I like old keyboards, and old grungy low-fi and crunchy effects. I have an old Lexicon Primetime and it's a dirty piece of gear. I also have a Quantec reverb, very warm and thick, which is fairly hard to find. I have lots of high-end equipment too, like my Roland S750 sampler, so I can get bright and shiny when I need it. I have old modular keyboards and I have a few newer digital ones. I use Genelec 1031 self-powered speakers and the amp is matched for the speakers. They're beautiful. A big pretentious leather chair is a must, as is a portable DAT, because I love to travel and collect bizarre sounds from strange countries and temples. The Casio DAR100 is very small and the microphone I use is small and lovly - the Audio-Technica AT822 is good for hiding when walking into temples when you're not supposed to be recording! Anyone can score film and television. Start by finding a student filmmaker and get him or her to provide you with footage on VHS and away you go. You can only learn by doing it. Mychael Danna, film and television scorer, credits include Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing and the award-winning Exotica. His current project is North of Niagara, an album that highlights the environmental sounds of the Bruce Trail.
Mixing Board Dusting by Phil Stevens
My favourite method is the two-fisted approach: In one hand is a 4" natural-bristle paintbrush, and in the other is the crevice tool of my trusty vac-u-suck. Keep the two close together so that anything dislodged or stirred up by the bruch is immediately dispatched by the nozzle o'doom. Phil Stevens, mudshark@euphoria.org, Crash Landing Productions, Inc. Tucson, Arizona.
Keeping Snare Subtleties In The Mix by Ken Friesen
When working with a track on which the drummer is using both hands on the snare drum, you may notice that many of the subtleties are lost in the mix. This can be overcome by splitting the tape return to two rails. Tweak the first one to make the hit on the beat (typically the loudest one) sound right. Apply some serious limiting to the other channel (I prefer a UREI 1176) until that loudest hit is squashed and the rest is unaffected. Equalize to taste and blend the ingredients until all is audible. This process allows those subtleties to shine without losing any of the crisp transients. Ken Friesen, Lakeside Recording, Clayton, ON.
Monitoring Volume by George Kourounis
How many times have you been working on a mix with the speakers cranked up, the bass is pounding and it sounds great, only to listen back to it later at a lower volume and to your dismay, most of your bass has disappeared and your mix now sounds limp and thin. This phenomenon is common and it has to do with how the human ear perceives sound at different volumes. Humans don't hear every frequency with the same intensity (for the benefit of those of you who don't know, the frequency response of our ears is commonly referred to as the Equal Loudness Contour). In a nutshell, it shows us that it takes far higher levels for very low and high frequecies to sound as loud as midrange frequencies, and that our hearing is most sensitive to frequencies from about 2 kHz - 5 kHz. Great, but how does this affect the quality of your mixdown? Just as the frequency response of you speakers plays an important role in how your mix sounds, so does the frequency response of your ears. For example: If you are mixing at 50dB SPL (sound pressure level), a tone of 30 Hz will need to be about 30dB louder than a 1 kHz tone in order for the two tones to sound the same perceived volume to you. Therefore, you may want to turn up the bass frequencies in your mix. When you isten back to it later at a lower volume, the bass will be overpowering. This also works if you monitor too loud. Since we hear low and high frequencies better at higher volumes, you might think that there is enough bass and treble when mixing, only to hear it disappear at lower volume settings. So how loud should you mix? Well, an industry standard of 85dB SPL has been aopted in order to keep your overall frequency balance as constant as possible at different volumes.It is loud enough to be able to hear the lows and highs clearly, but not too loud so as to trick your mind into thinking that the bass is excessive. Some studios use a hand-held meter that the engineer can use to measure the sound pressure level. If you don't have one, the volume of most movie theatres is about 85dB, so close your eyes and imagine you are at the moies and set your monitor volume accordingly. I can almost smell the popcorn now . . . George Kourounis, Instructor, Sound & Recording Techniques, Trebas Institute.
If you want a really really good flute mic, try the LCM-70 from SD Systems, Holland. It has excellent gain before feedback, and more importantly, picks up the flute like . . . a flute! And, it mixes well. Considering mic placement along the flute (assuming that you're not doing a classical recording), it mounts near the head joint. If the flutist has a breathing problem, either a loud, gasping inhale; nose noise; or an airy tone (and you don't like it); then move the mic as far from the head joint as possible. Many recordists have gone over the flutist's head and behind with a condenser. Classical recording is another matter. The room rules. Distance is your friend. A flutist that moves (especially twists) can be a problem, since the flute sound field is noticeably asymmetrical. Mark Karaman, mkaraman@adio.com
The Old Oscillator In The Bass Drum Trick by George Kourounis
Have you ever found yourself in the situation that you are mixing a song and the bass drum has no bottom end, sort of like it is being hit by a limp lasagna noodle? Well, one often-used technique to beef up the sound of your drum kit is what I call ``the old oscillator in the bass drum trick''. No, it does not involve disconnecting a tone generator and placing it inside the drum itself. Trying to boost the bass with an EQ doesn't always work, especially if there is not much low end to begin with. So, what we need to do is to add some bass of our own to the sound. All you need is an oscillator with a sweepable frequency control, one extra input on your mixer and a noise gate with an external key input. First, patch the output of the oscillator to the input of the noise gate and then take the output of the gate and return it on a spare input of your mixing console. Take the bass drum track and split it so that the original drum sound is continuing to come up on its own console input and also is going to the key input of the gate. This allows the gate to open and close in response to the bass drum, but instead of gating the drums, it is gating the oscillator tone. Now, every time the drummer hits the bass drum, the oscillator will sound. Set the tone to something very low, below 50 Hz or so. Definitely experiment with this as it will depend on how much help the drums need, the style of music, and even what key the song is in. By adjusting the gate settings, tone frequency and blend of bass drum/tone, you can come up with all kinds of really cool sounds. Just keep your ears open. George Kourounis, Instructor, Sound & Recording Techniques, Trebas Institute.
Understanding the Concept of Non-Linear by Dave Beckford
The key to knowing what goes on in a digital suite comes down to the understanding of one concept - non-linear. What this means is that when music is loaded onto the computer, any point of the program can be accessed instantaneously. Skipping tracks on a CD compared to winding tape would be the example here. (I know, this is real basis for most of you folks, but the applications of this principle get pretty funky). ProTools manages this non-linear access capability with a system called regions. A region is a software defined range that tells the computer where to start accessing the drive and where to stop. Regions can be defined manyally during playback and tightened up visually by zooming in on the sound waveforms (up to 1/44,000 accuracy). In editing sound, there are two really great advantages to this way of working. The first is that you see exactly what the sound is doing. Being able to zoom in on the kick drum transient to see exactly where it starts at 1/1000th second accuracy is a far cry from this grease pencil and reel crap. Second of all, since you are working with software regions as opposed to sound itself, everything is non-destructive. Want a four bar intro instead of eight? No problem. Change your mind? No problem. Can't decide and want it both ways? No problem! Since the region information is separate from the sound data, it is possible to have multiple edit versions of your song without effecting any of the original program. Try that, you nanowebering, phase aligning, tone striping reel boy? Watch those hands while you're rewinding - you might cut your fingers off! Dave Beckford, Digital Editor, Munition Factory
Recording The Acoustic Guitar As Lead Instrument by Don Ross
After too many frustrating experiences in my formative recording and performing years trying to be heard, I've learned a few tricks on how to deal with the lost-in-the-mix' problem. Every song on my new album for Columbia/Sony, This Dragon Won't Sleep, was recorded on 2" analog tape on a Sony 24-track machine - even the solo guitar tunes. I decided to record the guitar. My live setup involves running my Lowden through a piezo transducer (made by John Larocque at Ring Music in Toronto, ON) in combination with a Sunrise magnetic soundhole pickup. I run the piezo through a T.C. Electronics pre-amp and straight to the board, whereas the Sunrise runs through a T.C. dual parametric EQ (where I cut out all the highs - the magnetic simply acts as a bass booster). In the studio, I used these sounds minimally in combination with good quality mics (usually Neumanns) in front of the instrument. I always had the option of using some (or none) of the electronic signals from the guitar, which came in handy during some of the beefier arrangements. Overall, our philosophy was to keep the record sounding as natural' as possible by avoiding the easy trap of oversoing it with outboard effects. Despite the fact that Gary (Furniss, Sony's chief studio engineer) sometimes had all but the proverbial kitchen sink patched into the mix, the sound is still very live' - none of your Kenny G million-miles-of-reverb here! The other nice thing about not killing a recording with effects is that the music is listenable at every volume level, without any loss of detail. Effects have a tendency to date' a recording. In five or ten years, when all technology changes, reliance on what seems like a groovy effect at the time can really render the album quaint' down the road (sort of like listening to old records in fake stereo, or with reverb springs overloaded and pinging' with the singer's P's and T's). Of course, the flipside is that twenty years down the road, the old technology that sounded so crummy becomes all the rage again. I promise, though, that I'll never put a phase-shifted Rhodes on any of my records! I prefer albums that are timesless, ones that sound as if they could have been recorded last week, no matter how old they are. Don Ross, composer/producer, Columbia/Sony recording artist and U.S. national Fingerstyle Guitar Champion (1988). Has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and composed music for numerous television, radio and theatrical scores.
Live-Off-The-Floor Recording by Glen Reely
For Smiling Buddha Cabaret, we'd demoed a bunch of songs, then the band went into the studio with Don Smith. After the recording, the consensus with the band and the management was that the demos had...magic, the attitude that wasn't on the studio stuff. They decided to go with the original recordings, against all odds. Thank God they did! It was very live-off-the-floor, a lot of first take stuff. Some of the lyrics were just done on the spot! The actual recording's done through a Mackie 32 8-bus console into three ADATs with a BRC. The real trick is the monitor setup, which is a mirror of the equipment on 54-40's live stage. All the band's mics go into a Peavey 16x16 monitor board (model MD Monitor), and from there we take individual feeds into the recording board. We baffle the drums sometimes, and the guitar amps, but you have to keep eye contact among the band. Basically, it's all in the same room - no isolation - and the monitor is loud as hell. Still, I can play people the tapes and solo the overhead mics, and they're amazed at how minimal the leakage is. Neil has a great sound with an Audio Technica AT4031 - a three hundred dollar mic; sounds great! We put that through an Alesis compressor for deessing, with a Boss EQ in the side chain. We put on a regular pop filter, and that setup seems to enhance the intelligibility of the vocals. You do sacrifice the room sound, obviously, so sometimes I'll take a track, feed it out through a monitor into a live room., then record the amience and add it in later. Glen Reely, recording/live engineer for 54-40. Credit include their recent album, Smiling Buddha Cabaret.
The Middle Side Stereo Microphone Technique by George Kourounis
Much of modern recorded music that is considered "stereo" is, for the most part, not true stero but rather panned mono (meaning that many of the individual instruments have been recorded on one track of a multitrack tape recorder and then when mixed, the instruments are panned to their appropriate positions in the relation to the left and right of the stereo spectrum). For certain instruments, it is nice to get a wide, true stereo image by setting up multiple microphones and using more than one tape track to record onto. For decades, engineers have been using many different microphone techniques with great success. The idea is anything but new, but I'd like to share one of my favorites with you. The middle-side coincident stereo miking technique is one of the more complicated ones, but definitely worth the little bit of extra effort required. Take a bi-directional microphone and place it at a 90 degree angle in relation to the sound source (this is our side mic and will be used to pick up reflected ambient sound). Take another microphone and place it as close to the first mic as possible - without letting the two touch - and point it directly towards the sound source. This is our middle mic and can be set to uni-directional (picks up mainly direct sound), bi-directional (direct plus reflected sound from the rear) or omni-directional (a full 360 degrees of pickup range) depending on how much ambient sound you want. In the control room, you need to use three rails of the console for this technique. Take your middle mic and pan it up the centre, equally to both speakers. Your side mic needs to be split or multied so the same signal comes up on two faders. Pan one of them to the left and one to the right, then invert the phase of either by 180 degrees. Now, you have the flexibility to mix as much of the ambient side signals with the direct middle mic as you wish. George Kourounis, Instructor of Sound & Recording Techniques, Trebas Institute, Toronto, ON.
Figuring Acoustics Into the Mix by Steve Parton
What happens when an acoustic guitar is added to a typical electric rock band's setup? With drums, bass, vocals and electric guitar, things are pretty much blended together for a sound that everyone is already familiar with. Often, audience members who can see an acoustic guitar onstage can't hear it, usually because it's too tinny and the sound tech just turned it down; or it's feeding back and the player turned it down; or - it's just a prop. If an acoustic guitar is next to an electric one, rather than trying to compete for volume (the acoustic will usually lose), I prefer to layer them. Where an electric guitar's presence is found around 3 to 5 kHz, an acoustic's clarity and sparkle can be enhanced - or even pushed - to 6 or 7 kHz. The fundamental body of both guitar sounds begins at around 300 Hz, so I usually grant this area to the electric guitar, as too much 300-350 Hz causes feedback in an acoustic guitar anyway. Bob Mould uses this production technique with great success on his Sugar recordings. Steve Parton, is a Montreal-based sound tech recently returned from a Western Canada tour as live sound engineer with the Mahones.
Calling Spot Cues by Howard Ungerleider
Calling spot cues usually involves remembering the names of at least 12 IATSE union workers who change on a nightly basis! So that you are not calling the name of a prior evening's spot operator, it's a good idea to produce a visual spot chart handy at your lighting console. This can sometimes be the most disappointing aspect of the show for a variety of reasons; namely, these individuals do the same job every time for different shows and can be less than enthusiastic about your show or the standards you like to uphold. Novices have trouble with timing and have been known to pick up the guitar tech for a solo rather than the artist. Seasoned veterans, on the other hand, sometimes like to sit in their chairs expecting two or three cues; because I sometimes use spots to create part of a look, I may call 30 or more cues they're not expecting. I often hear them say I've given them a good workout. Some directors use computer-operated spots controlled from the console. I don't use this method for two reasons: one is that the look becomes very mechanical and does not have the element of subtlety. The other has to do with lack of control when the computer inevitably crashes! Howard Ungerleider, (Art in Motion, Internal Affairs International) has designed shows for Rod Stewart, Rush, Def Leppard, Queensryche, Tesla, Kim Mitchell and Larry Gowan. He also designs for movies, videos, television, corporate shows and architectural structures.
Making Music With Our Ears by Ron Skinner
Over the past decade we have seen the recording industry become more and more dependant on the use of electronics in the creation of our music. The advent of the computer has added a new dimension to the way we record and listen to music. We now have a large selection of inexpensive samplers, keyboards and music sequencing programs at our disposal. For a relatively small investment, a musician can now create high quality recordings in his/her basement. This new technology has spawned a revolution in the music industry and has brought music out of the studio and into the home. But as we all know, with every positive action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. The development of these new technologies has allowed us greater freedom and creativity; but, at the same time, we may be getting spoiled. When you can hit a key on a keyboard and get a killer kick drum sound, why bother learning how to tune an acoustic drum kit? Or, if you know that you can always rely on your guitar tuner, why bother learning how to tune the guitar? This constant reliance on electronics may actually deter us from making real music. The use of electronic devices and computer technology now touches every aspect of our industry - studio designers use computers as a 'quick fix' in the acoustic design of recording studio control rooms; recording engineers depend on Real Time Spectral Analyzers to ensure that their mix 'looks' like everyone else's; and musicians may have never actually played an acoustic instrument! These are all examples of how technology could be misused. Instead of relying on technology, we should use it to enhance our skills and increase our artistic potential. Technology is a tool that allows us to be more productive and creative. It allows us greater flexibility and the ability to be precise in our work. However it's important to remember that it is only a tool. The final determining factor of the quality of our work should always be what we hear with our ears. We should all make an effort to stop looking at our computers and listen. This way, we can once again start making music with our ears and not our eyes. Ron Skinner, CBC Radio Technician, Toronto Broadcast Centre, Independent Producer and Recording Engineer
Creating Timeless Recordings by Daniel Lanois
A timeless recording feels right. And a recording that feels right it usually made up of some kind of truth - for example, a true documentation of how people were playing in the room at that time, uninterrupted by external opinion. If something has a netural feeling, then that's also a real good ingredient for timelessness. The irony of timelessness is that sometimes, the most dated things are timeless. You listen to a P-Funk record from the early 70's - and there's a crass wah-wah pedal that is dated specific to the day - and everybody thinks it's wonderful and timeless! I think it's because there was so much commitment that went into it; it was so much the 'sound of the moment' and done with such naivete that it is timeless. Naivete is not something that you can be aware of when you're trying to work, it's something that you're aware of maybe a year down the road; but it's also a pretty important ingredient to recordings you want to keep listening to. Daniel Lanois, recording artist, producer (U2, Robbie Robertson, Peter Gabriel)
Recording Vocals Without Headphones? by George Kourounis
What? Is he crazy? You can't record vocals without headphones! That would be absurd... Well, why not? Once you know the rules then you can start to break them - and anyway, some singers hate wearing them. First of all, yes, it is easier to record vocal tracks while the singer is wearing headphones because you have more control over the recording environment. Dealing with things such as feedback, headphone leakage and communications with the control room are much easier when the singer has a pair of cans strpped to the side of his head. But there are other ways to record singers that may be less 'orthodox', but worth experimenting with. Set up your vocal mic as you normally would, but instead of using headphones, use the studio speakers for you audio playback. Don't send much (or any) vocals through the cue feed in order to revent feedback and adjust the volume of the speakers so that the singer can hear himself and is comfortable with the level. Now what you need to do is set up another microphone and point it away from the vocalist towards the studio speakers. This mic is there to pick up the sound of the speakers, which is basically the same as the unwanted leakage entering our vocal mic. Once in the control room, take the signal from the second microphone, invert its phase by 180 degrees and combine it with your vocal signal. This will cause your leakage to cancel itself out, leaving you with your original voice... sans leakage. Granted, this technique is not foolproof and you definitely wouldn't want to use it on every session, but you'd be surprised at how good the raw sound can be. Also, since many singers don't like the unnatural sensation of singing with headphones on, this is a viable alternative. After all, most singers don't practice with headphones on, at least the ones I know. George Kourounis, Recording Engineer & Studio Instructor - Trebas Institute
Recording Electric Guitar Feedback by George Kourounis
The sound of a piercing, overdriven guitar on the brink of feeding back into a chaotic, sonic assault is music to many people's ears. To some, it means early eviction from their apartment and disturbing the peace charges. Nevertheless, recording electric guitar feedback can be a challenging endeavour due to the unique nature of the sound source. The usual method of obtaining feedback from an electric guitar is to position the player in close proximity to their amplifier and turn it up to 11. The sound from the amp is loud enough to enter the guitar and gets amplified again, exiting the amp's speakers and cousing a feedback loop. It is often difficult for the guitarist to control the feedback because he/she has to find the exact spot to aim the guitar in order to get a rich,, useable feedback tone without causing screeching howling. It is this unpredictable tendency that makes feedback tricky to record. One thing that you might want to try is riding your level to tape. If you are manually riding your record levels, then you have the option of fading the feedback in and out, thus eliminating extraneous thuds, squeaks and ringing open strings which tend to pollute your tracks and are nearly impossible to scrub out later. It also allows you to vary the quitar's levels to suit the mood of the song. This all might sound obvious, but it's the little things that separate the good recordings from the great ones. Also, in order to get the guitar to feed back properly, the amplifier must be set to rather high volume. Now, because the guitarist needs tobe close to the amp, his/her headphones need to be loud enough in order for them to actually hear the song that they're playing to. You could just crank up the headphone feed and hope you don't kill anyone, or you could give them a pair of earplugs to wear. The earplugs will bring the volume down to a bearable level so that your player doesn't go deaf while recording those feedback-soaked solos. George Kourounis, Studio Instructor, Trebas Institute.
This tidbit of audio humour comes from the rec.audio.pro newsgroup's "Canonical List of Light Bulb Jokes". You can access this Usenet group through the Internet of a variety of online communications services - it's also a great place to pick up audio tips and pose questions to your peers. Q: How many audio engineers does it take to change a light bulb? Shipping Goods to the U.S. for Repair
Shipping goods to the U.S. for repair is really a straightforward matter. Here, you will have two types of entries; the first being a U.S. Returned Goods Entry; and the second a Canadian B3 type entry. Any time you have goods coming back into Canada that have the Commercial Invoice and the Bill of Lading before the goods leave Canada. By presenting the Commercial Invoice and the Bill of Lading to Customs when you return to Canada, you will be showing Customs that the goods originally left Canada and are now returning. This will avoid you paying duty and taxes on goods that have already been duty and tax paid. One note about duty and taxes: in this scenario, if the goods are going back to the U.S. to be repaired under a warranty, then they are duty free and G.S.T. exempt when they come back into Canada. If, however, they are being repaired in the U.S. but are not under warranty, the value of the repair must be listed on the Commercial Invoice that accompanies the goods and this value is dutiable and G.S.T. applicable at the rate belonging to that commodity. Repaired under warranty or nonwarranty should be written on the Commercial Invoice. One more note about duty and taxes - if the good is damaged beyond repair and is replaced free of charge under warranty, you will have to pay the full amount of duties and taxes for the new product. Don't worry - you can appply for a refund of the duties you paid on the original "defective" product. Your broker can help you with your duties back in the form of a refund claim to Canada Customs.
Clean & Accurate Tracks & Sheets by James Stewart
I can't remember how many times a project has come to me to be mexed and I must spend one or two hours deciphering track sheets with illegible scratch or nothing written on them at all. Time that could be spent getting a mix up is spent checking tracks with no notes or searching for that elusive solo that is "here somewhere"! I get the feeling that some engineers who track a project automatically figure that they will be the one who mixis it. Wrong! Some people think that we can fix it in the mix and believe me, I've heard that one too many times. What's the big deal about being concise? I think that it comes down to who or where these individuals were trained. Weren't they told how important accurate track sheets and notes are to the session, or don't they care? Another thing that bugs me about some engineers is the sonic integrity of their sounds (i.e., snares, kicks, etc. - "we'll replace it with a sample"), and how about bad punches (thumps or clicks) or different EQ on a vocal, for instance? Obviously vocals are kind of important and they need to be heard, right? Well, if the person who recorded these tracks doesn't really care, or can't hear that the punch on the second verse sounds different that the first verse, then they are in the wrong business. Integrity while tracking is vital to the end result. Make a note when you get that slammin' guitar sound - not just EQ, but note what mics, pre amp, compressor, limiter, etc. were used. You never know when the producer or artist may want to fix a line or replace the out chorus, and if the sound isn't the same I will be spending an extremely long time trying to match the sounds from before the punch to after the fix! Regardless of the fact that console automation allows us the freedom to mute, duck, ride, fade, etc., it still doesn't allow us to forget that tracks that aren't clean are a pain in the butt. Once again I have witnessed firsthand backing vocal tracks with crap all over them that should have been cleaned before the album was sent out to mix. All it takes is a conscientious and caring knob twiddler to spend an extra half hour or so after tracking has stopped to check for extraneous noise or garbage that is irrelevant to the final outcome. Remember, the most important stage of a project is the recording. It's not that I want life to be less than a challenge, but please keep everything in order - both on paper and on tape. James Stewart, Chief Engineer, Reaction Studios
Organizational Tips for the MIDI Composer by Amin Bhatia
Spend at least a day on finding and organizing your sounds, before you start writing, no matter how rushed the project or demo deadline is. By defining your virtual band or orchestra beforehand, you'll write more coherently because you'll know who your 'players' are. It also reduces those futile trips to the editor/librarian in the middle of your writing... we all know that never works! As the one-man composer/engineer generation continues, you should never underestimate the value of another set of ears. Even though budgets may be tight, having another producer/engineer on your project, even if it's only at the mastering stage, is still worth the dough. Amin Bhatia, Film composer, Bhatia Music
Creating 2nd Headphone Feed When Only One is Available by by George Kourounis
Sometimes when you are working on a recording session, it's not uncommon that one musician wants to hear a different headphone mix of the music than the rest of the band. The drummer may want to hear lots of the bass guitar and kick drum, while the guitarist wants to hear mostly himself (not a rare thing among guitarists). Achieving this task isn't difficult, provided you are in a studio that has two discrete headphone cue feeds. If, however, you are in a studio that has only one headphone feed, then you're forced to improvise with the resources you have available. If you're lucky, the studio will have an extra amplifier sitting around. If not, you may need to borrow the amplifier from the stereo system in the lounge or the studio manager's office (always ask permission first). It doesn't need to be a Bryston or anything like that, but it must have enough juice to power a couple of sets of headphones. If the studio's cue system is fed from, for example, auxiliary sends 5 and 6, then use them to send your first stereo mix to whichever musicians want it. Then, for the second mix, take the outputs of another pair of auxiliary sends from the patchbay (3 and 4 will work fine) and route them to the imputs of your "borrowed" amplifier. Connect the outputs of that amplifier to a headphone cue box via a banana plug to XLR adapter cable (or something similar). Connect your headphones to the cue box and - abracadabra! - instant second stereo headphone mix! An important note, though: caution must be taken when setting the levels on the power amp and attention to the impedance of the headphones should be observed so that you don't end up blowing up a set of headphones by mistake. Musicians hate that, studio owners hate that even more and loasting headphones is generally considered and engineering no-no. Going to the extra trouble of creating a second cue system can be a little time-consuming while setting it up, but the benefits can be rewarding. If the musicians have the exact mix in their headphones that they want, they will likely give a better musical performance. The better the musical performance, the better the song will be and the happier everyone involved will be. George Kourounis, Studio Instructor, Trebas Insitute/Engineer, Cherry Beach Sound
The Future Is Back ... by Neil Muncy
Vintage recording equipment, such as microphones, equalizers, preamps and compressors have been hot items on the resale market over the past several years. It's readily accepted that much recent equipment manufactured with ICs and to a certain "price point" does not sound as musically correct as older gear which was often constructed to a laboratory standard. Prices of high-demand older pieces have soared dramatically because of limited supply. And yet, people still fork out inflated dollars because they believe the only way to obtain that classic sound is with the authentic gear it was first made on. The question is, would you pay $4000 for a 40 year old tube microphone in mediocre condition? What if the single tube for that very mocrophone cost you a cool $800 when it was time to replace it? Would you still purchase it? This trend has not gone unnoticed by several hip companies who have introduced updated versions of old classics using discrete parts and a simple audio path retaining signal integrity. When coupled with quieter modern day components, these new pieces can sound as good as, and often better than their ancestors from which they were derived. Moreover, they use commonly available parts and inexpensive tubes to keep service costs within line. Yet, no matter how good they sound, these newer pieces lack the "marquee value" of older, more established audio devices, whose mere mention reduces many of us to quivering, monosyllabic gear groupies. Yes folks, snob value is alive and well within our industry. For those of you not afraid to pay less for older technology wrapped in new boxes it's worth your while to check out current products from Groove Tube (tube mics), Demeter Amplification (tube mic pre's, direct boxes), Tube Tch (mic pre's, compressors, equalizers), Manley (tube mics, tube multitrack recorder parts), Demaria Labs (tube compressors) and others. Older equipment can be a bargain up to a certain price point, however once that moocho dollar threshold is crossed, you owe it to yourself to check out what newer technology with an eye towards the past, has come up with. Has anyone else besides myself coined the phrase "Back to the Future"? Now there's a title for a song, a movie, or ... something! Barry Lubotta - Owner, Pizazzaudio Recording Studio, Weston, ON.
Toys Vs. Tunes by Avery Tanner
We are all looking for the tools needed to make better recordings, and there has been a lot of excitement over affordable digital multitracks. I've heard people say that this equipment will put pro studios out of business. What these people seem to be assuming, is that they will be able to make great recordings at home purely by virtue of the equipment used. Granted, the better the quality, the easier it is to get results, but people make music - not machines. Drum machines supply fabulous drum sounds at the touch of a button - yet, we've all heard some awful program. Digital effects supply great reverbs for a small investment. Remember though, thousands of other people are recording in the same "virtual room" as you are. Use some imagination or your recording may seem dull because we've heard "that sound" before. There is no substitute for the real thing and no shortcuts around the work needed to create excellence. The old fundamentals still apply. The right microphone on the right instrument in the right place is still the only place to start. No matter what machine you record on, it can only (hopefully) give back what you put into it. Remember, garbage in - garbage out. Don't get me wrong - I love my toys, but they are only a means to an end. Avery Tanner - Owner/Producer, Wolf Trax Audio Productions, Toronto, ON. Credits include The Swinging Gurus, Big Rude Jake and the Gentlemen Players and Cool Congress.
"I was wondering how to go about making a tape ..." Ever hear that one? Believe it or not, I haven't grown tired of answering that question. There are a lot of first-timers out there, and some of them are going to come through and become good clients and excellent word-of-mouth advertisers. Five minutes of patient conversation on their level, briefly guiding them through the steps, will score serious brownie points. Send them a polished info pack ,set up a studio tour, and you've probably got the job. Sure you have to know how to work those toys and keep on top of the happenin' techniques, but a little personality never hurt any studio. It's like the tape on any reel to reel machine: what goes around comes around. By the way, I have become tired of "Yeah, I've got this tape and I was wondering if you guys could take out the voices ..." Danny Crain - Engineer/Producer, Outreach Productions, Keswick Ridge, NB.
Hearing Frequencies by Rob Patterson
Making a live set-up sound good may have as much to do with your ears as it does with the room. We have 2 all heard feedback at one time or another, but did we know what frequency was ringing? I'm sure almost all guitarists know that the A above middle C is 440Hz, but not everyone knows what frequency the next A going up the scale is. You guessed it, 880 Hz. With a little experimenting and some simple math, I'm sure most people will be able to guess at least in the ballpark of what frequency is sounding off. For those sound engineers who think they have perfect pitch (if that exists), here's a way to find the frequency of a specific note: Multiplying the frequency of any known note (ie: A 440 Hz) by 1.059546 will give you the frequency of the next note up the scale (A# 466.2 Hz). Here's the point to all this - getting to know your frequencies just by hearing them will take some of the guess work out of your EQing. Use any instrument you can get your hands on to give you sound to experiment with (even if it is controlled feedback). I've included the math as it might answer some of those questions you thought were too stupid to ask. By the way ... what is a one-third octave EQ anyway? Rob Patterson - freelance sound engineer and MIDI programmer, Toronto, ON
Making Babies by Paul D. Bauman
Manufacturing - a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it. Somebody has to make all of those fun toys for audio engineers to play with and for people to be entertained by. But coming out with a new product can be difficult and challenging process, much akin to giving birth - the spark of an idea or identification of a need (inspiration?); a gestation period (design); labour (struggling with a prototype and shaking out the bugs - perspiration); nurturing (going into acutal production); then raising the child to maturity (dealing with production, component supply and quality control). You might get the idea that there's a busy bunch of seriously pregnant engineers out there! I'm proud to be a part of the process here at Adamson, where at the moment we're in various stages of nurturing, raising, and proud parenthood. And as a distracted new product papa, I offer my apologies as this is normally a tips and advice column. To be honest, I don't have any advice right now - I've been too busy with the kids to be able to tell you what to do with them! One important thing, though. Never under any uncertain terms, lend your car keys to a 1000 watt loudspeaker on a Saturday night. Paul D. Bauman - Chief Engineer, Adamson Acoustic Design Corporation, Pickering, ON.
I Can't Hear The Words by John Carr
I've often experienced artists who come in for a recording project and are producing it themselves or bringing in their own engineer. They have done their homework, the tracks are hot and the songs sound very good; but it's the mixdown mode I'd like to zero in on here. They have written exciting material; they have rehearsed it well and recorded it, yet I find when mixing they invariably all seem to let the lead vocals sit well down in the mix. As the writers, they know what the song is saying "I can't hear what's being said (or sung)." Basically the song has been lost if it stays that way. If an A&R rep or publisher hears it like that, they'll say the same thing too. John Carr - Owner/Manager, Street Brothers, Toronto, ON
'MONO' Is a Four-Letter Word by Eric Abrahams
Long after some Einstein engineer figured out that music sounds better coming out of two speakers rather than one, and someone else discovered the pan pot, the dinosaur known as 'mono' insists on existing. Virtually all the blame for this can be placed on A.M. radio, Ford half-tons, and television, with their shitty litle 3" speakers. As a result, engineers still have to ensure that their mixes are mono-compatible and that half of the instrumentation doesn't fall out when mono is pressed. I have always found the biggest culprit to be multiple miking techniques on pianos, guitar cabinets, and the like. Although it is virtually impossible to determine if your mic placement is phase coherent before actually listening to it, a little planning and common sense can go a long way towards minimizing Tylenol intake. If, for example, the idea is to produce a stereo image from a single guitar cabinet, a pair of mics is obviously required. since increaded distance from the edge of the speaker cone decreases bass response, setting up a stereo configuration in the middle of the front of the cone isn't going to do it, unless the desired sound is thin. If one micgets moved to a placement, say 2" in from the edge of the cabinet, 1/2" away from the grille, and a foot above the floor, set the other mic up as a mirror image on the other edge of the cabinet. Instant Phase-Coherent Microphone Placement, Just Add Level. At such close distances to a source, a small movement results in a largephase shift. If one microphone is 1" away and the other is 2", it takes the sound twice as long to reach the second mic as it does the first, and there is a 180 degree phase shift - perfect cancellation - at 6600 Hz, the frequencywhose wavelength is 2". This should also be remembered for subsequent overdubs. If the original bed track guitar was done with the two mics 2" away from the speaker, and, at a later time, the guitarist doubled his rhythm part but the pair of mics was 4" away this time, each of the stereo guitars on tape will be phase-coherent within themselves but not together. This time, the problem will occur at about 3300 Hz., a 4" wave-length. Isn't modern technology wonderful? Engineers will be haunted with this until mono is abolished and North America catches up with Japan in the TV department. Pray it will happen soon. Wouldn't mixing be so much easier if we ahd just one ear in the middle of our foreheads? But, then again, we'd look pretty silly talking on the phone. Eric Abrahams - Head Engineer, Cherry Beach Sound, Toronto, ON. (Credits include: Kim Mitchell, Trash Gallery, Roxy Lane, Russian Blue, Dreamer, Nicola Vaughan, Angel Marr.)
Revelations by Eugene Martynec
I was doing electric guitar overdubs on the first Kensington Market album in the late sixties and I was getting frustrated by my terrible guitar sound. I asked producer Felix Pappalardi (Felix was enjoying huge success with Cream at the time) how Eric Clapton got such a great sound. He said that they put a mic in front of his amp and he played. Simple! He supplied most the great sound. I later found out that this was the case with all good musicians and that the studio was an enhancement tool, not an apology for poor listening habits from the musicians. Years later I got a classic question: "Can you make me sound like Jimi Hendrix?" My retort was, "If you can play like him, we can certainly make you sound like him." Eugene Martynec - Juno Award winning Producer (now represented by SRO Management in Toronto); Instructor at Harris Institute for the Arts, Toronto. (Credits include: Bruce Cockburn, Edward Bear, Murray McLauchlan, Doug & the Slugs)
Just about everyone uses "nearfield" monitors. While most of these little speakers are amazingly rugged, every so often a problem will develop which affects the stereo image. Good imaging requires matched speakers. If you think you are having imaging problems, or just want to see how well matched your nearfields are, here's what you can do to test them using only a piece of wire, your ears, and a blanket! Make a "Y" cable, so that you can feed both speakers from the same power amplifier channel. Connect the speakers, making sure you observe the same polarity for both. Position the speakers on the console so that they form an equilateral triangle with your seated position. Orient the speaker cabinets so that the tweeters are above the woofers. Start the music, and find the centre using your ears. If both speakers are well matched, you should sense that all of the sound is coming from the midpoint between two speakers. Then, to reduce reflections, cover the control surface of the console with a thick blanket. The image should get even tighter and more centred. Next, turn the two speakers so that the drivers are facing each other, and move them together so that they are as close as possible. You should hear a slight increase in sound output. Now reverse the connection to one speaker. There should be a dramatic drop in sound, with all of the low frequencies, and most of the highs, completely missing. If there is any substantial soudn remaining, there is something wrong with one or both speakers. (This test assumes that the drivers are mounted one directly above the other, or that the cabinets are sold in mirror-image pairs). If your speakers fail these tests, comparing each one individually with another unit which is known to be good shoudl pinpoint the defective unit. If your speakers pass these tests, but the imaging is still "off" under normal conditions, chances are that there is an electrical problem somewhere in the monitor chain, and it may be time to call your maintenance technician. Neil Muncy - Neil Mancy Associates, Ltd., Consultants in Electroacoustic Systems, Scarborough, ON
Naked Lunch Drums by Peter J. Moore
The search for amazing spaces for "real sounds" has led me to another discovery. The movie set for Naked Lunch has just pulled out of the "Munitions Bunker" beside Cherry Peter J. Moore - DI Productions, Toronto, ON (Credits include: Cowboy Junkies, The Silos, Lucinda Williams, Holly Cole, Swamp Baby, Pat Temple, The Corn Dogs, T.S.O. and M.S.O.)
Problem Vocalist? by Richard Chycki
Paranoid, uncomfortable vocalist in the studio? Bad news because, as a producer, the responsibility falls on you to coax good product from him/her. If they don't like headphones, throw a pair of Auratones up out of phase and put the mic in the "out of phase" null. Easy enough, but what if the vocalist doesn't like singing into one of those big, cold studio mics but favours that ubiquitous SM57. Relax, digital breath. Patch in both your handheld and your studio condenser mics. Make a deal with the singer that he/she can use their ol' fave but you'll want your mic nearby (get it in writing and try to take their publishing at the same time with a little fancy small print - invisible ink does wonders here!). Allow the vocalist to monitor the handheld - you monitor and record the studio mic which, in use, should still be on vocal axis but probably a little farther away than a normal vocal overdub session. Richard Chycki - Freelance Engineer/Producer in Toronto
Keep That Mix Under Control by Rob Porter
When mixing, combining different treatments of the same track gives more control. I often split my snare track to two channels - one channel slightly gated (3-10 dB attenuation - long decay) resulting in a natural sounding drum which feeds reverbs nicely. The second channel I very tightly gate (60 dB attenuation - short decay) followed by a dbx 160 compressor (4:1 ratio 8-10 dB gain reductino) with lots of 60 Hz EQ added. I use channel two dial in the impact portion of the sound so that the drum still sounds BIG on small speakers or radio. Rob Porter - Engineer, Mushroom Studios, Vancouver, BC (Barney Bentall & The Legendary, Love & Sass, Lava Hay, Mae Moore)
If you are contracted to compose a score for acoustic instruments, be prepared! Before you enter the recording studio, keep in mind that time spent in the studio will be a great deal of money. To prepare for the recording date make sure your scores are coherent both to yourself and to someone who may be assisting you. Don't get caught off-guard with the wrong transpositions, unplayable parts, i.e. ranges, etc., and unreadable parts. Studio musicians are great sight readers and to maximize your hard work and their talents, take the time to make each part crystal clear. Plan. Highly complex rhythmic features and electrifying runs may take more time to sort out in the rehearsal than they contribute to the overall effect. Use them, but make sure they work! The film cue may end up being a wonderful lconcert piece but risks being overwritten for the intent of the cue. Before writing, examine what each cue requires, and save your resources until you really need them! David Mack - Composer of film and concert music; graduate of the University of Southern California's Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television in Los Angeles.
Performance First by Bob Doidge
Fabulous sounds are never a substitute for great performance. More and more, I find that the right mic, in the right place, with mild EQ and compression ends up the favoured sound by both the artist and myself. When I work too long on a sound, I usually end up with a tired performer (and a tired me). Proudly announcing to all involved, the model numbers of six pieces of gear in the chain will surely impress everyone in the control room, but when I A/B to the original simple set-up (which I've held), the first usually wins. There are exceptions to this rule, but I feel that good performance only lasts so long and I prefer to have it on tape, not lost over discussion about things that might not matter to the people who buy records. Performance first! Bob Doidge - Producer/Engineer (Cowboy Junkies, Crash Test Dummies, Daniel Lanois, Jane Child, Prairie Oyster, Sherry Kean, U2)
Emulating Analog Recorded Drums by Barry Lubotta
"Many engineers still prefer the warmth of analog recorded drums over those digitally recorded, particularly kick and snare. Those engineers lucky enough to have access to multitracks of both formats frequently capture the drums on analog tape, and quickly bounce them over to a digital domain and have access to a three head, two-track analog machine, can often emulate the above process, even without a synchronizer. While tracking the entire drum kit digitally, run a pair of direct outs from the kick and snare channels on your console to the inputs of your two-track, simultaneously returning the outputs onto two free digital tracks. The result will be two analog sounding drum tracks that are between 10 and 60 milliseconds behind the beat of all your other tracks - the delay occurring because of the lag between the record and repro heads on your two-track. Now record all overdubs to the original digital tracks, ignoring the analog tracks until mixdown time. The Akai A-DAM digital recorder has a handy 'variable track delay' feature whereby each track can be delayed up to 65 milliseconds during playback, while hard disk recorders and some other tape based digital multitracks are even more flexible in their time shifting capabilities. Listening to both the digital and analog kick drum only, delay the digital kick track so that it is exactly in time with the analog kick. Next, offset all other tracks by the same amount and you're left with two analog tracks recorded onto a digital multitrack that are in time with the rest of the drums as well as all your overdubs. Now you can mute or erase the original digital kick and snare for further over-dubs, or combine them with the two analog tracks for and even fatter sound. You can do the same trick with sequenced drums even easier by offsetting the computer generated drums (forward, ahead of the beat) by just the right number of milliseconds so that the sounds coming off the repro heads of your two-track analog machine mesh perfectly into the tune. No further adjustment would be necessary." Barry Lubotta - owner
Recording Horns by Robert DiGioia "When recording horns I feel that the best results are achieved by placing the horn section around one mic which has been set on an omni pattern. If it is a fragile condenser mic it is a very good idea to start with a 10 or 20 dB pad on the mic itself. As the players warm up, a good horn section will know how to balance themselves around the mic. The engineer can also assist on this from the control room based on what is heard. If you think you'll want to double the horns, sometimes it is a good idea to do it as you go. This will ensure a tighter double especially if it is a difficult chart." The Artist Comes First by Greg English
"The main function of a studio owner is first and foremost the artist; to help nurture and develop their potential without the corporate time pressure feeling. In choosing a studio, technology should not be the deciding factor. Technology is very important and necessary but not the main ingredient. What is the main ingredient? The artist and the engineer must get along and have the same goal for the musical product. Remember: When the artist succeeds, everybody involved with the artist succeeds." Greg English - owner of Harlow Sound (developmental studio)
Recording Jingle Announcers by Ben McPeek
"When recording announcers while doing characters, I prefer to use the Neumann U87 because it's a warmer sounding mic, recorded flat (no EQ), and I prefer the AKG 414 for recording announcer tags because it has more punch (also record flat). The reason for this is that it gives more definition between the body of the commercial and the tag (which usually contains the slogan and must stand out in the commercial)." Ben McPeek - engineer, radio producer (Captain Audio).
Improving Television Audio by Rob Rettberg
"Due to limited dynamic range of television broadcast, it is advisable that components within a mix such as toms, loud instruments like guitars and percussive instrments should be dynamically controlled by compression. It is also advisable that an entire mix be compressed in order to create a punchier overall reduced dynamic range that still feels dynamic after transmitter broadcast. In this way even the smallest speaker in an average television set can handle a fair amount of volume without overloading and distorting. This will also make the average consumer television sound better than it really is (This is caused by the reduced work load on the television speaker.) Controlling dynamic range at the source when music is performed and mixed creates a smooth signal that does not hit on the broadcast limiter, which subsequently would make the music sound squashed and fairly undesirable. By compressing the mix to your taste you would have a more controlled musical environment allowing control over the texture of the music, as opposed to being subjuct to - and stuck with - a broadcast transmitter just waiting to clamp and squash down on the music." Rob Rettberg - producer/engineer (CTV, Global, CBS).
Making Better Demos by Stacey T. Heydon
"When a band or artist is planning to go into the studio, choose a quality product as opposed to an assortment of many songs that may not have had enough time to be completed properly. Handing an A&R person a product that is much more finished, as opposed to a very rough copy of a song, gives one an upper hand in dealing with these individuals. This applies to A&R in record labels, not publishers. Instead of recording five songs as a rush job, I suggest that you record only two songs. Give the A&R people a product which is (production-wise) as close to finished as possible. You have a better chance of getting a release if you hand these A&R people a demo that sounds more finished, polished and more produced than one that is very rough, live off the floor sort of thing. Remember most A&R people cannot imagine what a finished product will sound like from a rough tape. Needless to say, remember that the two songs you plan to record should be targeted to a specific market in today's radio format. Basically, quality not quantity is the best road to follow when recording a demo for A&R people to listen to." Stacey T. Heydon - producer of #1 Billboard hit (sheriff), guitarist (David Bowie).
"As a rule I try to stay away from longer reverb times, especially on percussive type instruments. The accumulative effect of all the different reverbs seem to clutter up the mix, thereby robbing it of transparency. I believe that reverbs, when properly used, can create a three dimensional effect in your mix - giving it height, depth and width. Use reverb to enhance the natural groove of the song by timing the reverb cut off point in tempo with the groove." Carl Harvey - producer/songwriter/musician (Messenjah, Leroy Sibbles, Sway, Courtney Morrison, Black Diamond).
Choosing Studios by John Punter
"When choosing studios for my projects I try to select the one that has a natural acoustic sound about it. This can range from a vast, acoustically untreated warehouse situation as in The Metalworks Studio Two in Toronto, to a large, acoustically treated orchestral studio as in Air Studio One in London, England, to a smaller, harder and brighter studio as in Venture Studios in Vancouver. I really like to capture the natural acoustic ambience of a studio in my recordings, not only for the drums but also for guitars, vocals and keyboards. For keyboards I send the dry signal into the soundroom via speaker(s) and using a Neumann 87 or AKG 414, mic the speaker(s) and bring the signal back into the control room. It's very important in my productions to make the natural ambience of the room work for me, to create more of a three-dimensional effect in my recordings. This gives me a strong sound identity and character to my work." John Punter - producer/engineer, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Japan, Nazareth, Slade, The Spoons, Boulevard.
Discipline is Wings by Ken Tobias
"One of the most common complaints I've heard from engineers is lack of preparation by artists and producers - lack of homework. The studio can be a magical place, but you can't expect technology to do it for you. Engineers are there to do their job, you must do yours. Like they say in the East, 'Discipline is wings'. You must have a plan before entering the recording studio." Ken Tobias - writer/artist/producer, Corey Hart, Dan Clancy, Shahira (film) and various TVO film scores.
Live & Spontaneous by Fraser Hill and Rick Hutt
Fraser says, "It's important for me to go see the band performing live, get to know them and participate with them by getting them from live stage to the record - capture the live characteristic of the band in the studio by creating an atmosphere of teamwork and friendship. Enthusiasm can overcome technical shortcomings. I make a record as if I were the artist's best fan." Rick says, "When recording any performance by an individual (when it's an overdub situation), I prefer to go for the spontaneous personality of the performance. Rather than taking one track and punching in on that specific track, I record several performances on different tracks and then create a composite of the best moments of those performances. As you are often unable to judge at the moment something that is unique or unusual, this method allows the producer to survey the tracks more carefully for the unique qualities of the performance character." Fraser Hill and Rick Hutt (The Audio Pals) - Northern Pikes, Tom Cochrane.
In-Your-Face Guitar by Tom Treumuth
"For that "in-your-face" rhythm guitar sound I still haven't found a better combination than an old Les Paul going through an external Pultec EQ unit with an LA2 or LA4 compressor. I also like miking a Marshall 412 cabinet (a little off centre from the cone) usually with a Sennheiser 421 mic - this will avoid phasing problems. I will then mix the guitars very dry (very little or no reverb). This process will give me that "in-your-face" rhythm guitar sound." Tom Treumuth - producer, Gypsy Rose, Honeymoon Suite, Helix, The Spoons, The Look People.
Musicians & Comfort by Hayward Parrott
"When you're dealing with a live-off-the-floor situation you have to make sure the magic comes through the glass into your monitors. If the feel is not there in the balancing of what you are doing in the control room, what I do is, go out to the floor to hear the live balance of the instruments. If it is correct and feels good on the floor I will rethink my miking, if not, I will rethink the set-up. This is done to achieve the best feel for the musicians on the floor. This in turn will give me the best reproduction of the recording. The musicians have to be comfortable in the studio, no matter what." Hayward Parrott - producer/engineer, Tears Are Not Enough, Joel Feeney and The Western Front, Frank Mills, Roger Whittaker, Bryan Adams (engineer), Chris De Burgh (engineer), Agnes of God, Street Legal.
Great Snare Sound by David Bendeth
"Want to get a great sound on a snare drum using a drum machine in the studio? Take your individual snare drum sound from the drum machine and run it into the studio to and amplifier so that the snare sound of the drum machine comes through the speaker. The amplifier should be laying flat on the ground with the speaker facing you. On top of the speaker, you should put a real snare drum with the snares facing you. Mic the snare drum from the top and bring it back to the console. Everytime your drum machine hits the snare through the amplifier, you'll get a real snare drum, in time. (Note: You can also try different angles on the mic for desired sound.)" David Bendeth - vice-president of A&R (BMG Canada), producer, Big House, Regatta. Co-writing credits include songs for Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker.
"For good microphone techniques, understanding the frequency ranges of all the instruments involved and learning how to use processing equipment creatively and sparingly will help you achieve a good, full-sounding mix - but you must always have a forcus to make it all gel. The vocal or melody line is always the most important part of the music and should never be lost or buried in the mix. The other instruments, whether they be rich sounding keyboards, searing horns or a driving rhythm section are there to support the melody, but should not be lost or buried in the mix either. Remember, each instrument has its own space and place in the mix." Tony Crea - live sound engineer, Lee Aaron, Sheree, The Spoons.
Keeping Values in Check by Aubrey Winfield
"It is important not to impose your own values on what an artist is trying to achieve, but rather creatively enhance their unique qualities. All artists and their songs deserve the same attention. How we treat an artist is not based on their past accomplishments. At Winfield Sound our success is based on ensuring that an artist's musical vision is not only realized but surpassed." Aubrey Winfield - Winfield Sound Recording Studios.
"When looking at the cone of a speaker cabinet (guitar amps) I place the microphone facing the outer edge of the inner cone about 1/2" from the cabinet grill. If you're using two mics on the same cabinet, place the second mic in the exact position on the adjacent cone. My present choice for a guitar mic is the Shure SM57. I find this technique gives me the closest reproduction of what I hear directly from the cabinet." Noel Golden - engineer, Triumph, Gowan, Rita Coolidge, Paradox (co-producer/engineer).
Television Reverb by Rob Rettberg
"When mixing for television I check all the reverb returns individually for phase. Some reverbs can go as far as 180 degrees out of phase. When a mix is then heard in mono through a television or through some stations' stereo simulators, instruments can sound almost totally dry because of phase cancellation. Minor alterations of some basic reverb parameters such as delay time, decay or room size can change the phase and bring it closer to 90 degrees or less, which is the safest window for phase in television mixes. (Note: if you do not have a phase meter, always check in mono to see if the effect vanishes." Rob Rettberg - producer/composer (CTV, Global, CBS).
Sacrificing Quality for Performance by Robert DiGioia
"When working with singers who are new to the studio, headphones will seem quite foreign to them. With a recent project I experimented with headphones and speakers to try and make the vocalist more comfortable. After some success with speakers, I knew we had not yet reached the full potential of the vocalist. Having done a live show with the band I knew he was capable of more. We took the speaker set-up one step further and set-up the band's rehearsal P.A. system (two S4 cabinets). The entire mix was fed through the P.A. as it would be in rehearsal or in a club. I gave the vocalist his own hand-held microphone, so he was free to move around. In a short afternoon we nailed down three vocals that we had spent weeks working on. By using a tight cardioid pattern microphone (such as an SM58), leakage was minimal. You may sacrifice a bit of quality, but the performance will more than make up for it." Robert DiGioia - producer/engineer, Maestro Fresh-Wes, Chocolate Bunnies From Hell, The Box, Kim Mitchell.
Mixing Live by Andi Charal (Stavros)
"Unlike in a recording studio, live sound has a much greater dynamic range compared to a standard recording. A record is processed during mastering so nothing overloads those delicate grooves. Then radio station limiters clamp down on the dynamics via a four-or five-way frequency band limiter. A dynamic range horror story. Live sound is less processed. This is one of the main advantages of seeing a band live. When done properly, live sound is much more dynamic because you're hearing all the peaks that are taken away in the record and radio process. That is the one aspect of live sound that has always kept it artistcally creative for me - using dynamics in a way to create a pleasing flow from one section of a song to another, like bringing down certain parts of the rhythm section in the first verse so nothing crowds that precious lead vocal when it is first heard. Then bring the rhythm section back up for the chorus. As well, your standard solos or tags are always featured with a boost in volume. Save something special for the bridge and the out chorus (like a special effect or vocal space). Your ears get fatigued of hearing the same balances all night. Most engineers get a balance and leave it all night. Little strategic dynamic changes in parts of the mix can be interesting during a live concert for a band like Saga, as well as great big volume changes for David Lee Roth. This is the area where you can get creative with dynamics during a show. Don't let your board stagnate." Andi Charal (Stavros) - live sound engineer, Saga (1980-1984), David Lee Roth (1986-1987).
You Need Great Songs by Eddie Schwartz
"The most important thing is the song. It's better to spend six months making sure the songs are right and six hours recording them, than the other way around." Eddie Schwartz - songs composed include "All Out Tomorrows" - Joe Cocker; "All The Lovers In The World" - Gowan; "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" - Pat Benatar; producer of Gowan, Rita Cooledge, and The Doobie Brothers.
Equalizing Bass by Carl Harvey
"One of the problems when working with bass, especially when mixing on large room monitors, is that it does not translate to smaller speakers very well. I have discovered over the years, working with rhythm and blues and reggae, that a good way to approach equalization for bass is to start by rolling all the bottom off (from 100Hz. and lower), then use low midrange E.Q. to find the bass sound as close as possible to what you would like to hear. Then slowly dial back in the low frequencies (to taste). You will find that you now have a full bass sound that will not get lost on smaller speakers. Most of the punch in the bass sound comes from the lower midrange." Carl Harvey - producer of Messenjah, Leroy Sibbles and Sway.
Achieving Consistent Live Sound by Bruce Drysdale
"One way to solve extreme volume and equalization problems concerning P.A. systems is to disperse the volume in the building more evenly by trimming the volume on each amplifier for individual loudspeaker cabinets. Each cabinet should have its components - horn, mid, bass - adjusted concerning volume, and aimed/positioned (possibly rigged from ceiling) to suit the audience in that specific direction. For example, if you have a stack of 3 cabinets, the lowest cabinet closest to the audience would be trimmed in volume, the next cabinet higher would be louder so that the audience further back could hear the sound equally like the closer cabinet volume effect on the closer audience, etc... One way to adjust this kind of set-up would be to walk around the arena while a CD or cassette is playing, adjusting the system accordingly. Please keep in mind that the overall volume could change once the audience is in place. (one way to refine adjustments during the show is to ask the P.A. company assistant to walk around the building confirming earlier adjustments and to relay any changes that may be needed.) The above process of trimming amplifiers for individual cabinets should be done in combination with mixing and adjusting the E.Q. on instruments. The goal that is achieved in this process is to make the sound consistent at the console (mix position) as it is in the rest of the room, and for the audience." Bruce Drysdale - Drysdale Production Services, live sound engineer for Anne Murray and Roberta Flack.
Miking Pianos by George Semkiw
"When I mic a piano I use omnidirectional mics (Neumann KM56) and place them in the middle of the keyboard (1st mic closer to the bass strings, 2nd mic 1 1/2 feet away towards the higher strings; you may have to put some sponge around the mic stand to absorb vibrations after closing the lid and close the lid totally. This gives me a very present piano sound which is not muddy - usually associated with cardioid microphones. When the lid is closed, it helps me keep the leakage (incoming leakage from other instruments) down to a minimum and still allows me to get a full present piano sound. If the piano has soft actioned hammers, place mics closer to hammers; if the piano has a hard actioned hammer sesponse, place mics further away from hammers. Placement of mics should be with individual taste in mind and how the piano actually sounds." George Semkiw - producer/engineer, Lou Reed, Harry Belafonte, Johnnie Lovesin, The Satallites.
"In the recording of toms I try to achieve the aural impression of three dimensionality. This is created by the use of double miking each individual tom (one on the top skin, the other mic placed by the lower skin). Note: Lower mic on skin should be switched to out-of-phase position on the console. To make each pair of mics react as one, the two mics per tom are fed into two channels of a stereo gate with both channels keyed externally via a contact mic taped to the shell of the corresponding tom. In this way you will have a larger, fuller and three dimensional sounding tom." Earl Torono - senior engineer for Winfield Sound Recording Studio.
"When I'm working with a live band I always roll tape as soon as they start running the song down. Spontaneity is important in music and is often lost due to repetition or excessive rehearsal. You're there to capture the great moments and tape is practically the cheapest component in the chain...so roll tape." Peter Cardinali - producer of Hugh Marsh and Rick James.
Miking Snares by Hugh A. Cooper
"When miking snares I always use Shure SM57s. I use one on the top and the other one on the bottom to give me a full top and bottom response. Always check phasing when assigning both mics to one track. (Note: One of the mics should be set out of phase from the console. This will ensure that when you assign both mics to one track the snare signal will be in phase.)" Hugh A. Cooper - engineer/producer, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, Dan Hill, Myles Hunter, The Jitters.
"Choosing the right vocal mic is the key to good lead vocal results. I record vocals flat (no EQ) into a compressor at 2.5 to 1 ratio (a dbx 160X is handy - there are only two knobs), then from the compressor straight into the machine. Each mic will behave differently in subtle ways. My current choices are the Sanken CU41 and the B&K 4000 series omnidirectional mic." Terry Brown - producer (Rush, Cuttung Crew, Blue Rodeo, among others).
"When getting live drum sounds, I'll use a good set of headphones (Fostex T20s) and then I'll take the mix of the drums in the headphones and put it through the PA system, checking it against how the room sounds with a flat EQ. I'll then take into consideration the boominess or tightness of the room, and then place the bass drum and the bass guitar according to the natural low end of the room. In a boomy room I will place the frequency of the bass guitar above a gated bass drum (the bass drum should have lots of low end). If the room has a tight bass sound I will let the bass guitar carry the weight of the low end and place the frequency of the bass drum tight and punchy. This applies to 100Hz and below." Jon Erikson - sound engineer (Rush), head sound technician (Audio Analysts, Kingswood), live recording engineer (Comfort Sound Mobile Studio).
Recording Vocals by David Bendeth
"Sometimes in the studio vocalists have a problem with headphones. They have a problem hearing pitch, because of delay, so I will bring them into the control room and let them sing through the speakers (once I have reversed the phasing on one of the speakers). This allows me to record the vocals live with little or no bleed through to the track. Vocalists should be six to ten feet from the speakers for this to work effectively. Regular settings on the mic (U87 or AKG 414)." David Bendeth - vice-president of A&R (BMG Canada), producer (Big House, Regatta).
Individual Style by Mike Jones
"Using the proven tricks of the trade is important for speed and to give the artist confidence in your abilities, but what is more important is to develop your own style and your own tricks of the trade. You can only do this by experimentation. Don't be afraid to try crazy ideas - they may be the key to the success of the whole project." Mike Jones - producer/chief engineer (Eastern Sound, Alannah Myles, Glass Tiger, Kim Mitchell, The Box, Moody Blues, Blue Rodeo).
Use Your Ears by Rob Sandolowich
"The sound technicians shouldn't rely too heavily on a real time analyzer. They should learn to trust their ears. I've seen sound techs that were more concerned with a flat curve on their RTA than with good sound." Rob Sandolowich - vice president (Westbury National Show Systems).
Staying Fresh by Dennis Hetzendorfer
"Always try to keep the music in mind first. A particular technique used in yesterday's recording session should not be necessarily used in today's session. Never try to do the same thing, the same way, every time. Keeping the approach different for different occasions not only keeps you sound fresh and new but also keeps the job from growing redundant and the sounds from growing stale." Dennis Hetzendorfer - engineer (The Bee Gees, America, Barbara Streisand).
"When we're recording an album, we do it in three or four sections (three or four tunes per section, including mixing). This allows us to maximize the specific technical and emotional content of each song. We find that the artist and the production team prefer to work this way, allowing them to ease the pressure of performing a fourteen-tune album all at once, and to reflect on what has been done." Bill Szawlowski and Gary Moffet - SCI Productiions (Ray Lyell, Marjo).
"When starting a mix, set the drum levels to approximately -6B. That way, when everthing else goes on top, the meters will not pin." Steve Negus - musician/producer/engineer.
"It is good to use as few mics as possible. For example, when doing background vocals with three singers being recorded to one track, the result with multi-miking is phase cancellation and cone filtering (a 'moving' frequency response). If the singers are good and can balance themselves, one microphone yields the most desirable sound. By utilizing a cardioid polar pattern you can attenuate louder vocalists by positioning them more off axis." Dan Durbin - engineer.
"Always listen to the sound you're recording at the source before equalization, because live music is best. (e.g. listen to a guitar sound from the amp before changing its sound in the control room through equalization)." "When doing any kind of equalizing, always EQ with the instruments in the centre pan position, because of possible discrepancies in the left and right side of the monitors. This includes stereo instruments (e.g. stereo guitar, stereo piano)." Ken Friesen - producer/engineer (Anne Murray).
Recording Drums by Noel Golden
"Whenever I record drums for a rock session I use two AKG 452s as my room mics, which act as my overheads as well. I set them up facing the front of the kit, as high as possible, and usually they're off to the right hand side of the kit. Both mics are side by side, and I route each mic to a separate track. I don't have true stereo separation doing it this way, but I find it works well in the situations I've worked under. As far as equalization on the mics, I usually add a little sizzle (which allows them to be my overheads as well as a room sound). This obviously depends on the room you're working in and the type of session you are working on." Noel Golden - engineer (Triumph, Gowan, Rita Coolidge).
Gating Drums by Stacey T. Heydon
"The difference between rally musically effective drum gating and disastrous gating is a fine line. Ambience, crash cymbals, resonating skins and snare and hi-hat bleed are among the most common pests when recording acoustic drums. The following tips may help you elude any of these bleed problems and allow all drum effects or equalizers to receive the cleanest of uninterrupted, natural drum sounds. For key mic, routing and patched, gated signal. Step 1. Set up two SM57s on the snare, one underneath, almost touching the snares (key mic), your second SM-57 normally positioned one to four inches away above the snare (snare mic). Step 2. Set up gate setting on snare mic, not choking signal with too much threshold. Step 3. Solo key mic input; set up gate on key mic with fast release, fast attack, tightest possible threshold (you'll just hear a tick with snare contact) and maximum range. Step 4. At this point you must patch output of gated key mic signal to external imput or key input on snare mic gate. (Check for external input or key input switch on snare mic gate). This method of gating will completely separate snare, tom and kick signals without injuring in any way the natural sound qualities of each of these drums, therefore allowing effects and equalizers to receive the cleanest possible send." Stacey T. Heydon - producer/engineer (Sheriff #1 single), guitarist (David Bowie).
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