Recording Techniques

nfiora

Member
I know there are other threads like this but I want this one to be more open than the others.

Does anyone have any neat tricks or tips when it comes to recording, styles of recording, studio setups, preferances, equiptment, etc?
 
www.soundonsound.com

Go and look on there. It's a great site full of information.

I'm currently doing a degree in Music Technology at the University of Lancaster so I guess I'm kind of a resident technician here; but look up Aydee's thread (Recording Emergency!) where I wrote 3,000 words on the subject,

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42270

Saved you the bother of searching. Read that thread and then see if there are any other questions!
 
Hey thanks for the web sites guys. Do you guys prefer Live room Miking or do you prefere to be seperate from the rest of the band?
 
Well depending on what sort of setup you have you'll get a better sounding result if you mic up and play all the instruments seperately since you can get the ideal mic placements for a decent mix and you will be able to change the levels of instruments when it's all been recorded. This is possible in a live recording environment too however all the instruments would have to be isolated from each other and you would have to have the facility of close miking everything and everyone (at least 6-8 mics) and a mixer that can export all the tracks as seperate channels of audio onto a computer recording program which as you can imagine is considerably more expensive.
 
I like to mic up the drums with just one mic about five feet in front of them and then maybe an ambiance mic or two depending on the room size and how you want it to sound. It's way easier and sounds way more natural. I don't remember his name, but this British producer was like, "Why would you mic up all the parts separately and then try to make it sound natural? It makes no sense." I totally agree with him and prefer the sound. Listen to recordings that are done close miced and then listen to some with only one mic (Most Led Zeppelin, I think) and see which one you prefer.
I like to be in the room with everybody, all playing at once. I don't know how big your band is, but in a couple months, I'm going to record my band, and the way I'm doing it for the instruments is having the guitarist put his amp as far away from me as possible, but he'll have a really long chord and stand over by me while playing, to isolate the instruments somewhat. Plus, the amp mic will act as an ambiance mic for the drums and vice versa. We're in a really big room though so I don't know what that would sound like in a smaller room. But really, if all the instruments are going to be there anyway, you won't be able to tell if instruments are bleeding through, and it'll just add a bit of depth anyway. Experiment though!
 
I totally agree with him and prefer the sound. Listen to recordings that are done close miced and then listen to some with only one mic (Most Led Zeppelin, I think) and see which one you prefer.

Personally i prefer the more modern close miking approach. I know where you're coming from but you just can't hear that sort of thing over 2 high gain guitar parts and the bass as well unless it's heavily compressed which let's face it kills the whole idea of a "vintage" sort of sound which i'm guessing you're going for. I personally like the "larger than life" sort of sound that you get from close miking to be honest.
 
Here is a picture of how my band records. It's a very live sound, and there is some bleed, but we don't do overdubs so it doesn't matter. Also, as you can see, we play acoustic music so it's not that big a consideration.
 
I know where you're coming from but you just can't hear that sort of thing over 2 high gain guitar parts and the bass as well unless it's heavily compressed which let's face it kills the whole idea of a "vintage" sort of sound which i'm guessing you're going for.

I'm trying to get a vintage sound, but because I like the sound, not to make the recording sound vintage, if you know what I mean. I'm pretty inexperienced in recording, but I thought I had our recording all figured out. Am I going to need a compressor to run the drums through? We're recording straight to 1/4" tape (again, because I like the sound; not to be old-school. Plus it's just way more fun.). The music we play can get pretty loud with distorted guitar. It's just me and the guitar, and I'm planning on the guitar not sounding as up front as it usually is today, too. Do you think I would still need compression?
 
I'm trying to get a vintage sound, but because I like the sound, not to make the recording sound vintage, if you know what I mean. I'm pretty inexperienced in recording, but I thought I had our recording all figured out. Am I going to need a compressor to run the drums through? We're recording straight to 1/4" tape (again, because I like the sound; not to be old-school. Plus it's just way more fun.). The music we play can get pretty loud with distorted guitar. It's just me and the guitar, and I'm planning on the guitar not sounding as up front as it usually is today, too. Do you think I would still need compression?

Well if it's just one guitar then you can just run that mixed to one side to give the drums in the centre more "room" and if you have a bass, put that mirrored to the guitar. That'll give you a vintage stereo sounding recording. As for compression if you like the old school vintage sound then don't use it, it shouldn't be needed as the instruments have their own "space" in the stereo mix. I'm no expert on vintage recordings but i think what they used to do was put a lot of gain on the input to make the quieter sounds heard better without using compression so try making it so that the loudest sound on your mic reads exactly 0 on the meter (assuming your mixer has meters).
 
Back
Top