What have you learnt about recording, lately?

General recording topics.
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Armistice
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What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Armistice »

So, doing this last song I've learnt a number of things:
  • The difficulty of playing even relatively simple things at recording quality using a big "bloom" reverb in tracking
Even the slightest miss or inaccuracy - something you wouldn't notice in a distorted or even clean tone, and the pedal just went away with it and the take was over. In the end I had to do separate verses etc. as I'd still be there now had I not.
  • To use the master fader to turn the whole song down, and that I don't need to turn it down as much as I thought
I always knew I could, I just didn't. Turned the individual tracks down for some reason. Didn't think that I was mucking up the compression thresholds in the process.
  • How to get the nice tight snare sound that's eluded me for years (on VSTi drums)
Again, a blinding flash of the obvious - somehow, maybe it's default, maybe it's accidental, but there's an attack control on the sample that if set anything past about 5ms, loses the thwack. I had it sitting on 26ms. Also to tame the rattle of the basic sound via the sustain and release controls - been doing it on toms, but never touched it on snare.
  • To keep singing, even when I'm not working on songs
I had a couple of nights worth of attempts on the lead vocal because I decided to go "breathier" and I was OK on that because I'd been singing it for a while by then, but by the time I got to harmonies, my god, it was awful. I hope the neighbours weren't walking past at the time. Why? Because I don't do standard 3rd over or under harmonies and tend to make them up at the very end, and so had never attempted to sing them at all until I had to. Pitchy, thy name is Armistice. Far harder than it should have been.
  • Where I'm doing multiple electric guitar tracks, to scoop around the 500Hz mark
To clean up the effect of having so many playing at once.


So all in all, lots. Next first up mix will be a lot better, I'm thinking, as a result of this tune. Thanks for all the helpful contributions along the way.
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ido1957
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by ido1957 »

Hmm.... I learn something new every time I sit down and mix, that I suck at mixing basically. Somehow I keep forgetting that - dementia may be approaching. :)
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Greg_L
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Greg_L »

This is a good one. I'm not sure I've "learned" anything significant lately as my minimalist approach pretty much works for me. I'm confident that I can sit down and record whatever I want and the end result will be good. I'm constantly refining things though, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Sometimes I'll hear an old mix after a while and think, "yeah my snare sounded better back then" and I'll go back to that tuning or head choice.

One thing I think I've gotten a lot better at over the years is vocal processing. Vocals don't matter too much to me but they were one aspect of my mixing that I think was lagging behind everything else. I don't fret over vocals and don't give them any more importance than the bass or a floor tom. Most of the stuff I've grown up listening to does not feature grand singers in some big way so I've never considered them anything more special than any other piece of the puzzle. I treat the voice as an instrument - it has to be (mostly) in tune and in time. But lately I think I've gotten better at making vocals sound better through consciously working at it, and I don't know what I've learned from it, but I have gotten better.
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JD01
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by JD01 »

I'm on a pretty steap learning curve so I learn shit all the time.
Most helpful though was learning how to use sends in Reaper to just have one reverb impulse on the whole song and send different amounts of my tracks to a single reverb. I used to have different reverbs on different parts of the drum kit!

This thing Bubba showed me the other day where you cut a track and lower the volume of just that section without adjusting the overall track volume - really handy and I've used it today - stopped me needing to create whole new tracks for a lead part that was jumping out too loud.

Aside from that - singing. Gradually getting better, actually starting to enjoy it.
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Armistice
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Armistice »

JD01 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 2:27 pm

This thing Bubba showed me the other day where you cut a track and lower the volume of just that section without adjusting the overall track volume - really handy and I've used it today - stopped me needing to create whole new tracks for a lead part that was jumping out too loud.
Wouldn't you just use a volume envelope? Or am I misunderstanding something?
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JD01
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by JD01 »

Armistice wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:59 pm
JD01 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 2:27 pm

This thing Bubba showed me the other day where you cut a track and lower the volume of just that section without adjusting the overall track volume - really handy and I've used it today - stopped me needing to create whole new tracks for a lead part that was jumping out too loud.
Wouldn't you just use a volume envelope? Or am I misunderstanding something?
I've no idea. I think you just alt click the top of the track and pull it down to reduce the volume. Had no idea you could do it.
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Bubba »

Armistice wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:59 pm
JD01 wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 2:27 pm

This thing Bubba showed me the other day where you cut a track and lower the volume of just that section without adjusting the overall track volume - really handy and I've used it today - stopped me needing to create whole new tracks for a lead part that was jumping out too loud.
Wouldn't you just use a volume envelope? Or am I misunderstanding something?
I find volume envelopes tiresome and untidy-looking, particularly for spot reducing volumes. Envelopes are good for more gradual increases and for spot increases in volume, for instance when a word gets lost. They're also harder to edit quickly.
The thing I showed JD can only be used to subtract volume, unless you put the level of the whole track higher and pull everything else down. In which case you might as well use an envelope. But with my technique I can blast through a track in no time, pulling out peaks, then when I'm happy with it It's a simple thing to right click/glue the bits back together. All the volume edits become part of the gluing process and are saved. All nice, tidy and quick. If all the glued items start to build up I periodically clear out all the files that aren't being used in the project.
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JD01
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by JD01 »

Ah, didn't know you could glue them back after - good plan.
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Armistice
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Armistice »

Bubba wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:40 am
Armistice wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2017 7:59 pm
Wouldn't you just use a volume envelope? Or am I misunderstanding something?
I find volume envelopes tiresome and untidy-looking, particularly for spot reducing volumes. Envelopes are good for more gradual increases and for spot increases in volume, for instance when a word gets lost. They're also harder to edit quickly.
The thing I showed JD can only be used to subtract volume, unless you put the level of the whole track higher and pull everything else down. In which case you might as well use an envelope. But with my technique I can blast through a track in no time, pulling out peaks, then when I'm happy with it It's a simple thing to right click/glue the bits back together. All the volume edits become part of the gluing process and are saved. All nice, tidy and quick. If all the glued items start to build up I periodically clear out all the files that aren't being used in the project.
Yeah, I've always known you can do this, but never actually used it. I like envelopes, but then I don't often do much automation except fade ins and outs, apart from vocals, so it's all pretty easy. Also good for rolling a LPF down over a slightly noisy ending ringing chord... you keep the ring feel but lose the hiss.
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Bubba
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Bubba »

Two things.

1. You can know a lot about a subject but that is not the same as being able to apply that knowledge effectively to resolve a problem. It's kind of like having a shed full of wood planes that you know how to set up, sharpen etc. but until you know which one to use for any specific job then they're a bit useless. Ref. Pre-delay on a reverb to clean up a vocal source on my "Melt" thread.

2. No matter how competent you think you might be getting, somebody else's ears are massively important. If you're Prince Charles they can just be massive, but I'm digressing. A few people pointed out mud on my track that I just wasn't hearing. They were right. Thanks, Greg, Tad, Rami.
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itsnotkcearl
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by itsnotkcearl »

Ive stopped sweating the imperfections...clicks, crackles, pops, dont care anymore

Also trying to make less pro sounding tracks, after all its for my own amusment and I spend more time mixing than tracking...no more


So Ive learned to be more lazy 🙂
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rayc
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by rayc »

I found, just the other day, that when trying to get the best from a not so stellar vocal performance EQing to reduce boxiness and nasal tones is more effective than throwing an ADT on it.
I also learnt that a paid for "professional" certainly doesn't guarantee good workmanship. Here's a visual of the main vocal for Heart Shaped Bruise recorded in a "pro" studio by a "pro" engineer & "producer". In addition to the super hot levels the fellow also used noise reduction filters - I could tell that by the halo affect after a period of absolute silence when listening carefully & confirmed with hphones.
vox tn.png
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Last edited by rayc on Mon Apr 17, 2017 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Bubba
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Bubba »

Tha'ts appalling. It's clipping everywhere!
Last edited by Bubba on Tue Apr 18, 2017 5:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Greg_L
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by Greg_L »

Clipping is too kind a word for that waveform. That thing is hacking.
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JD01
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Re: What have you learnt about recording, lately?

Post by JD01 »

I've learned how to use a cab impulse. 100% wet 0% dry, just wang it on the guitar folder and just grit your teeth when listening to hanging sounding in your headphones while tracking.
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