Recording Articles.
Great Drum Sounds: How to get Great Sounds From Your Home Studio
By Michael LaskowIn any given year, we at TAXI listen to over 40,000 tapes. The vast majority of them were recorded in home and project studios just like yours. People are always asking me for tips on recording, so I've decided to do a series of columns designed to help you get professional sounding recordings in your studio. The first in the series is all about the zen of recording drums. Enjoy.
Nothing makes a home recording, any recording for that matter, sound better than great drum sounds. Pro engineers spend more time getting their drum sounds than any other instrument on their recordings and it shows. I've personally seen situations where engineers have spent days, several days in fact getting the drums to sound just so, before they'll move ahead with the rest of the record. What a bunch of wussies! Do they actually think the drum sound will sell any more records?!! Maybe not, but it's still very satisfying to get a great drum sound, and most engineers will go to great lengths to get one.
Kits are changed, heads are changed, cymbals are changed, heads are taped up, heads are un-taped, mics are selected, mics are changed, the kit is surrounded with mirrors, the kit is placed on wood, head damping devices are used, mini pads are cut in half and placed on heads, two kick drums are taped together (end-to-end), and after all these variations are tested, the whole process may begin again with yet another kit, or worse yet, another drummer.
The Rx
So without any further delay kids, here's my prescription for a great drum sound you can get in a (kind of average, these days) home studio: The imaginary studio consists of a console with at least eight inputs (let's hope it's a Mackie or something that has good head room and nice sounding equalizers. Let's also assume you've got at least eight tracks (although you won't need them all for this set-up) on your tape deck and seven decent microphones. My recommendations for drum mics on a budget are 4) Senheiser MD 421's, 1) Shure 57, and 2) Shure SM 81's. There are other more expensive mics that I would use in a pro studio, but I'm not going to mention them because this article assumes you're broke. If you had any money, you wouldn't be reading the crap that I write, you'd be reading the Wall Street Journal.
Rule of Thumb
If the mic has a "pad" switch, use it when recording drums. Always better to pad at the mic than the console.
The Killer Kick
Mic the kick drum with a Senheiser 421, but only after throwing a sandbag in the drum to weigh it down. Let the sandbag touch the head (that the beater hits) just enough to dampen out any obnoxious overtones, but not the good, natural sounding ones. The mic should be placed about half way in to the drum itself and pointing at the beater. If you bring the mic in from the right side of the drum and angle it at the beater you will be avoiding leakage from the snare drum which is a good thing to do. You can experiment with the depth of the mic, but always keep the mic pointed at the drummer's shin bone on the leg that controls the hi-hat and in line with the beater.
The Sumptuous Snare
For the snare drum, it's always a safe and highly effective choice to use the venerable Shure SM57. Bring it in from the audience side of the kit and give it a 45 to 60 degree angle with the capsule about an inch or two above the head. Again, the farther out it is from the head, the roomier the sound, but the more potential you have for phase problems. By the way, it's always a good idea to point the mic at the drummer's crotch—not that it's a particularly good sounding part of the anatomy, but because it's away from the hi-hat and any potential leakage problems.
Thunderous Toms
Mic all three toms with the 421's set at a 45 degree (or there abouts) angle to the drum head with the end of the mic (the capsule end) pointing at an imaginary spot about 2" past the rim nearest you as you place the mic (this is assuming you're working from the audience side of the kit). The floor tom mic can be placed a little close to the center of the head, but not too close. The distance of the mic from the actual head should range between one inch and six inches depending on how "roomy" you like your drums to sound. Once again, the further the mics are from the drums, the roomier the sound, but you'll have to pay more attention to possible phase cancellation problems.
Overheads Easy
For the overheads use the SM 81's with the roll-off kicked in. Place the mics about 16 inches over the cymbals' centers and towed out at about 45 degrees. That will give better separation, and also reduce the amount of low end from the toms that is picked up in the cymbal mics. Who needs bottom end on their cymbals?! Please note that I haven't mentioned a hi-hat mic. That's because in most cases, you don't really need one. You'll get enough hi-ht bleeding in to the other mics. If you have the luxury of plenty of inputs and tracks, go ahead and mic the hi-hat, but chances are you won't need to.
EQ and Track Assignments
And now, because I'm running low on space, here's the quick and dirty run- down on equalization and track assignments:
Kick drum — Assign it to track #2, and give it +2@ 100HZ for bottom, -2@300--500HZ for posterity, and +2@2.5 K for added attack. Set your mic pre to somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 o'clock (of course this will depend on your console's individual mic pre's). Your input levels should be peaking around -3db VU. Notice the "VU." If you're using peak meters, you're on your own. I was raised on VU's, and they remain my preference.
Snare drum — Assign it to track #3, and give it +2@100HZ, -2 to -4@300--500HZ, and +2@ 5K to8K for more snare and general crispness. Be careful on the top end, too much will make the snare sound thin and paper-like. Set your mic pre to somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 o'clock—possibly lower. Your input levels should be peaking around -2db VU.
Tom-Toms — Assign the high tom to track #4, the mid tom to tracks 4 & 5, and the floor tom to track #5. Follow the same guidelines as the snare drum for the equalization. Again, set your mic pres to somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 o'clock or lower. Your input levels should be peaking around -2db VU. Pay special attention the mid tom. Because it's assigned to two tracks simultaneously and appearing down the middle of your monitors, it will generate less level at the meters and in your monitors and should be goosed a little to compensate. Have the drummer do a two-stroke on each tom in succession and you should hear a nice even "tacka—tacka—tacka" moving from one side to the other (I usually pan track #4 full left and track #5 full right).
Overheads — Assign the cymbal over the hi tom to the same track as the hi tom (track #4). That will help keep it in phase. Assign the cymbal on the other side of the kit to the same track as the floor tom (track #5) for the same reason. Cymbal mics usually don't need too much in the way of EQ, but you may want to use the high-pass filter to roll off the bottom end and add just a pinch of top end (around 8-10K). Keep the input levels of the cymbals fairly low as they have transients that can fool meters and blow tweeters faster than you can say, "Oops."
Final Thoughts
Always check your drums in mono. If anything in the kit seems to disappear, then something's out of phase. Be systematic in tracking down the culprit.
If you follow this prescription closely and then, and only then, start to experiment with slight modifications of positions, level and eq, you'll find yourself getting a drum sound that just might sound professional. Of course, individual drummers have drastically different levels of "feel," and feel is very important to the sound, sometimes more important than the drums themselves or anything you can do in the control room.
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Recording the Acoustic Guitar — How to get Great Sounds From Your Home Studio
By Michael LaskowWhile the acoustic guitar remains one of the most simple instruments by design, it also remains one of the hardest to get a great sound on in the studio. It's really not brain surgery, but knowing some of the basic laws of physics doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, I skipped school that day and didn't learn my physics, so I had to learn how to get a great acoustic guitar sound one mistake at a time. After making those mistakes, I sat down and formulated these laws which are considered to be the Ten Commandments of recording the acoustic guitar (by me anyway).
For the sake of argument I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you own a 4 track, or an 8 track recorder, a fairly small console, some basic outboard equipment, and you don't own any $2,000 microphones. If you own 13 foot long console and a 48 track digital machine, you can skip this article because you probably know what I'm about to tell you.
Rule #1—A condensor mic will almost always sound better than a dynamic mic for acoustic guitars. There are several condensor mics that are currently on the market in the $350 price range that sound great on acoustics.
Rule #2—New strings will always sound better for recording than old.
Rule #3—Skinny strings sound brighter than fat ones (can you believe I get paid to write crap like this?!)
Rule #4—The sound you get has a great deal to do with the dynamics of the player.
Rule #5—Get down on your knees and position your ear as if it were the microphone while somebody else is playing the guitar. Move your ear around to find "sweet spots." You'll learn more from that than you will by reading this article. Don't try it with an electric guitar!
Rule #6—If you have somebody that is assisting you on the session, have them move the mic around what you think will be the sweet spot while the player is practicing the part he or she is about to lay down. Have your assistant wear headphones so you can communicate with him while the moving of the mic is taking place.
Rule #7—A limiter/compressor will almost always help you get a better sound.
Rule #8—Don't believe everything you read. I only have seven commandments, not ten.
Let's get right to it. If the sound you want to get is a country/pop, strummed sound similar to the Eagles "Lyin' Eyes," here's the formula: Place the microphone about 6 to 8 inches from the guitar's sound hole, but angle the mic toward the area where the fretboard and the sound hole meet. If you point the mic directly into the sound hole, it will be very full—probably much too full, and very boomy. Use a compressor/limiter to knock down any peaks (3:1 ratio), and set the threshold a little lower to give it a slightly "squashed" or tighter sound. Set the threshold higher to just limit the peaks and give a more open sound. You may need to EQ out some boominess. If so, try rolling off some bottom (100Hz), or cutting a couple of db at 300Hz. To add some "silk" on the top end, try something in the 8-10K range, but be careful, to much will add noise to the track. Positioning the mic so it angles toward the pick will give more attack-less sweetness.
For that John Cougar Mellenkamp sound, try medium gauge strings, a little more compression, and try adding a little EQ around the mids—lets say 700Hz-1.2K. That will give you a sound that is a little more "woodsy" (a highly technical term).
"Ya, well what about Melissa Ethridge," you say. Try this on for size. Use a guitar with a built-in pick up and a microphone to boot. You will undoubtedly get some phase anomalies, but that's part of the sound. Experiment with moving the mic closer and farther. That will affect the phase relationship of the two sound sources. Sooner or later, you'll hit on something that will put a smile on your face. You can pan the two signals left and right to get a broad stereo sound, but make sure that if you check the sound in mono, that there's still some signal left. Keep an eagle ear on Mr. Phase, he can be a tricky bugger.
And now ladies and gentlemen, for the most often heard acoustic guitar sound at the 1993 Grammys...it's that Eric Clapton classical/gut string guitar! Piece of cake. Once again, use a condensor mic, but place it about ten inches away from the guitar. As a matter of fact, try placing it about 3 to 4 inches up the neck, but aim it at the players picking fingers. This angle will reduce boominess by virtue of the mic's cardioid polar pattern producing a natural roll off when it's aimed off-axis, while simultaneously delivering the attack of the fingers. Try and say that three times in a row! The added distance will pick up some of the guitar body's resonance. A compressor/limiter is a must for this case because of unexpected peaks. A 4:1 ratio is a good place to start, but set the threshold fairly high so that the most of the guitar's natural dynamics are left in tact.
When mixing acoustics guitars for rock or alternative tracks, you will usually have an electric guitar or two in the track as well. My personal preference is to pan the acoustic and electric across from each other. Send one full left, and the other full right. You'll quickly discover that the electric will overpower the acoustic and the most effective way to even them out is to compress the acoustic a little bit more than what you may have already done going to tape so you can bring the acoustic's level up high enough to compete with the electric.
Another simple but effective trick is to have the acoustic and electric guitars play parts that counter each other rhythmically (giving them each their own space), and have them each play in a different octave. That will give you a full sounding track that remains open and airy at the same time. You can also make an acoustic guitar sound bigger or more rock-like by panning the original to one side and a delayed signal (short delays are best) of the same guitar to the other side. That effect can be taken one step further by using the pitch change option on your delay to "de-tune" one of the guitars just a pinch (one cent is a good place to start). The delay will provide the brain with the psychoacoustic information it needs to perceive the guitar as bigger, while the pitch change will make it appear "fatter."
Funny how fatter is always better in the world of recording, but not in the case of the human body. Just a tangential observation... must be time to go. See you later.
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Trying to get your Song Demos to major artists? Or your band's Demo Tape/CD, to a Record Label? Then check out TAXI The World's Leading Independent A&R Company. |
More Tips from Studio Buddy©
We know that many of you are not yet aware of Studio Buddy©, The Home Recording Helper. What is Studio Buddy? A self-contained database that answers the questions most people have about home recording.
It's FREE. It runs on PCs and Macs. And it's small enough to e-mail to your friends.
Alex Reed, TAXI's Director of A&R, and myself wrote the hundred and some odd answers that are a lay person's guide to getting great sounds out of your home studio, and our friends at Disc Makers, Recording Connection, and Tascam helped fund the programming.
The result is a program that will give you the information you need to make big improvements in your home recordings. It's available at www.studiobuddy.com.
Here's an example of just one of the questions covered:
How to Record a Lead Vocal
There are so many ways to record a lead vocal, that it would be impossible to cover them all in the space given here. But, here are some rules of thumb.
One of the main objectives is to make the singer feel comfortable so he or she will deliver their best performance. Make sure the studio and control room lighting, room temperature, and general ambience are what the vocalist feels most comfortable with. Unless the singer is the type of performer who likes a room full of people while he overdubs, ask everybody to clear the area. Send them to dinner. Send them home for the day.
Make sure the vocalist has exactly the kind of headphone mix they ask for. They need to hear what they need to hear, not what you think they should hear. Check the cue mix by listening to headphones yourself. Don't rely on the monitors to tell you what the singer is hearing. A little reverb in the cans is usually a good thing. Don't print the reverb to tape.
Most engineers use condenser mics to record vocals, but there will be rare cases when you'll find that a dynamic mic works better. I generally start with two or three mics that I think will sound good on a particular singer. Record all three to three separate tracks (simultaneously), then play them back and compare. The mic that sounds the best "raw" is the best one to work with. Once it has been chosen, then you can eq and limit accordingly.
The choice of microphone will often be affected by the octave the singer is working in because that will help determine the timbre and texture of the singer's voice.
Make sure to note the singer's exact position relative to the mic. They will undoubtedly take breaks or work on the same track another day. If you haven't marked their spot, and noted all console and outboard setting relative to the vocal, it will be very hard to match the exact sound.
When in doubt, pad the mic. If the mic doesn't have a pad, pad the input at the console.
If you're overdubbing the vocal (which is usually the case), it's a good idea to use the microphone in omni. The frequency response will be better, and the overall sound will generally be more "open" or transparent.
If you're recording a sensitive or dynamically quiet piece, make sure that you're not picking up air conditioning noise or other low-end rumbles like trains or jets passing overhead. The microphone's roll off switch is a handy tool for that. So is the console's high-pass filter.
A pop filter or windscreen is a beautiful thing. I recommend the nylon stretched over a hoop variety over the foam "condom" type. You can usually avoid pops without a filter by angling the mic slightly across the singer's mouth rather than pointing the mic directly at the singer's mouth, but be careful not to point too far off axis. That will cause a degradation of frequency response unless you have the mic in the omni pattern.
For a loud, dynamic vocal, try placing the mic at least six to eight inches a way from the vocalist's mouth. For a more intimate, less dynamic vocal part, try getting the vocalist closer to the mic, but watch out for pops and lip smacks.
Because the human voice is one of the most dynamic "instruments," it's a good idea to use a limiter to catch the peaks. There will be times that you will want to compress the vocal by setting the threshold lower, and using a 5:1 ratio, rather than the normal starting place of 3:1.
Performance means everything with vocals, so I recommend cutting the track top to bottom and not stopping the vocalist for punch-ins too often. Go for "vibe." Cut several takes on different tracks, then listen back, find the best one, and punch in the fixes on that track. Many engineers will make a composite vocal using the best sections from several tracks, then bouncing them to one composite track. That way, you will always have your original tracks intact until you've built a composite that you're happy with. Then you can erase the original tracks, and punch-in on the composite to clean up any remaining faux pas or bad notes.
Don't beat the track or the vocalist to death. Sometimes you'll hit the point of diminishing returns. When you get to that point, take a break. Go to dinner. Work on another song. Work on another instrument. When you revisit the track you were originally working on, the vocalist will be fresh and more productive.
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Trying to get your Song Demos to major artists? Or your band's Demo Tape/CD, to a Record Label? Then check out TAXI The World's Leading Independent A&R Company. |
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