Turd Polishing Is No Fun

I've been trying to re-record one of my project's earlier titles. It's got lots of acoustic guitar, but the issue is that I'm a bad player at best: fret noise, uneven plucking, you name it. So of course, I record my guitar layers, I listen a bit, find it good enough, proclaim to the world that I can jump to vocals and be done in the next 10 minutes.

Wrong.

I jump to vocals and boy does the whole thing just blow. I mean, it's a good song, it's got loads of potential, but me playing it is making things very difficult. I try to fix it in the box, with my DAW, and it's making things worse. So I decide to put my own advice to good use: get it right at the source.

I do my mics gain staging, I test the mic placement, I mark down the settings of my interface for "recall". Thing is, I don't have 4 hours to record multiple layers of acoustic guitar. I am a dumb hobbyist trying to make music. So I record my first layers, then stop. Come next day, continue. But in between, mics have moved a tiny bit, things change... and the sound isn't exactly the same. *sigh* So I re-record all my layers, and I think I finally have it down when listening to some of the tracks in solo, I noticed that different sections comped together sound pretty different: that's because I comped together bits recorded at different times.

Am I going to re-record everything? Nope. I'll just try to use what I have and be done with it.

Lessons learned:

• Learn how the play the f*cking instrument or stick to bloddy electronic music
• Record all layers in one shot with exactly the same mic placements and settings
• Comp with headphones, not with the whole mix running

Have no time? Prepare!

I don't have a lot of time to play around in my studio; that's a shame, of course, but there are other minor things which sometimes require my attention, like kids, work, etc. But I digress. As a result, whenever I get a free hour, I need to make sure I do something with it. Moreover, the available time will most often than not be in small chunks - 4 hours of free time all in one bit are hard to come by for someone like me.

The secret is to be prepared, and that can happen in many ways.

First, I made four task lists: Research, Do, Test, Buy. "Research" has all the stuff I don't understand, like compression :-) "Do" has all the stuff I want to do, like retrack a song or change my studio layout. "Test" has all the plugins / gear / recording methods I need to test. "Buy" is obvious but gives me a nice overview of what I think I need to buy; I regularly review what's on there and delete whatever isn't really necessary; things which stay on the list long enough get bought depending on budget. This way, when I have a free hour to spend, I look at the list and I can make some progress in any of these areas.

Second, the layout of the studio needs to be tracking ready. If before I track, I need to move stuff around or change mics, nothing will get done. So everything needs to be ready: cables need to be labelled, mics need to be in place, levels need to be marked somehow, seating needs to be ready.

Third, whatever needs to be tracked needs to be decided upon and rehearsed before tracking starts. This ensures that when the "Record" button is clicked, I can concentrate on getting good sound instead of wondering if that G chord really shouldn't be an Em. Knowing the arrangement, the parts, how to play each instrument, making sure I know the words - all of that makes tracking much much easier.

Fourth, working with the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) should be smooth sailing - if I don't how to do parallel compression, I'm not gonna learn it as I'm mixing a new song. If it takes me 15 minutes to set up a few tracks, line up the recording channels, making sure I have the VST instruments I need, it's already 25% of my time gone by. Track templates and project templates are the key. Colors for instruments are important so that you can recognize who is who without losing time. Full project templates containing all the necessary tracks for a type of music, including some basic plugins, saves you a lot of time and gives you some basic sounds to work with.

Fifth, the workflow needs to be very clear - I need to work on that. I have some basic ideas but it's one of this year's goals to set up my workflow so that I don't even have to think about it. I also think that each workflow step needs to be time-boxed, i.e. x minutes to track, y minutes to premix before printing to stems, z minutes to mix, etc. Otherwise, the search for perfection coupled with my more than incomplete knowledge of my DAW can spell the end of any effort to record anything meaningful.

Other ideas to be more productive?

Goals for 2013

New year, new resolutions.

Let's see what I can come up with :-)

1. Not spend more than USD 500 on anything studio-related; this includes gear, plugins, instruments; this will be particularly hard since I need to get a better reverb plugin (Valhalla Room?), a much better drum sequencer (looking at Steven Slate Drums), maybe a chnage in audio interface. Oh yeah, I'd need a bass. Or a bass player :-)

2. Re-track and remix my first 4 songs; this one is underway but I need to decide when done is done

3. Compose, perform, track, mix and master Missa Nova, my short mass; this will be a huge challenge for someone as busy as I am.

4. Write down my basic workflow; with the books I've read / I'm reading, this shouldn't be too hard - and will be very useful and a huge time saver (see 3.)

5. Finish Rocksmith to hone my guitar skills; I can play basic chords but I suck at the rest, from jazzier chords to riffs to solos

6. Only keep the free plugins I really need, maybe make a list of 10 and stick to those

That's way too many, of course, but hey, it's not like you'll break my kneecaps if I don't do it :-)

Bummed

As mentioned in my previous post, I have completed the treatment of my room.

The next logical step is to start recording in it and be amazed at the difference in sound clarity.

Well, I am completely bummed out because the few bits that I have recorded don't sound much better at all. I'll try to fine tune mic placements and recording positions and see what happens.

To be continued...

Workflow?

I've been reading a lot about audio lately, most notably The Audio Expert (Ethan Winer), The Daily Adventures of Mixerman (Mixerman :-)).

Besides the fact that I still really don't understand how the hell a mic can capture sound frequencies from registering air pressure changes (but I'll do the research later, it's on my Research ToDo list), I think I start to have a pretty good (mostly theoretical) grasp on how a song comes into being, from the idea to the writing to the melody to the harmonies (or the other way around, depending on if you're a melodic or harmonic composer) to the arrangement to the pre-production to the performance(s) to the tracking to the pre-mixing to the mixing to the mastering to the "printing" to the distribution to the satisfied listener. Kinda.

What gets me is this: the musician(s) compose the song with certain instruments, which sound a certain way, with certain ideas in mind. They then go to the studio, where the recording engineer spends hours placing mics and making sure everything "sounds" good. That's where issues start, because the band might have an idea of what sounds good, the producer might have an idea of what sounds good, and the band manager (God forbid), and each individual musician, and the recording engineer (the only professional sound engineer in the lot, really)... But anyway. After hours of gear switching and amp tuning and mic placement, the musician(s) start to track. Let's imagine the performance is immediately spot on (wishful thinking, I know, but I don't have all day, Skyrim is waiting). Now a lot of people like to track with outboard gear, i.e. stuff that comes between the instrument and the recording device (usually a DAW), although some poeple still track with tape): so in come the EQ, the compressor, the gazillion pedals and whatnot; some people don't (I'm one of them, I like clean coming in). Result? What sounded good now completely sounds different. So mics are re-positioned, amps changed, etc. Once the tracking is finished, mxing can start. If you think tracking is a dark art, mixing is the grandfather of them all. Listen or read people talking about mixing and you think you're listening to people talking about chemistry in 1372. AD. So anyway. In comes the guru with the almighty software plugins. And the sound completely changes again. Compression, gating, EQ, reverb, you name it: it's all going in. After all of that abuse, the song finally sounds finished, right? Wrong. Because you forgot mastering. Where your abused song gets compressed so hard that your ears will bleed. Where the EQ that the mixing engineer spent hours crafting will be changed, again.

So how in the world can any of what was done upstream matter? Imagine singling out one sound wave from one instrument as it's tracked. You couldn't possibly find it in the final song! It's like a cook with ingredients for a beef stew ending up with a veal cutlet!

So my line of thinking is this: I am missing something. I need to go into a real studio and see what happens there. Maybe the Truth will jump at me like a spider in Arachnophobia.

Tracking acoustic guitar: more than meets the eye

I'm tracking vocals and acoustic guitar in my studio. Apart the fact that I don't play the guitar very well, the recorded performance isn't always very good.

A great recorded performance starts with a great song. If all you play are full chords with no life and no rhythm, no chord progression, no intent behind the song, it will sound bad, no matter how much money and trouble you spend on what follows. Learn music theory basics, learn progressions, practice your scales, spice up your chords with 5th and 7th and 9th and added and augmented chords. Write a song with a purpose.

Second, the performance: if I had Eric Clapton in my studio, said recorded performance would be amazing. So one thing I can do is practice my guitar skills like I practice my drums skills: learn other people's songs, play along, have fun. If you plan on recording yourself, be prepared, know your song; practice a bit before going for it.

The third element in the chain is the instrument. My acoustic guitar isn't a $2000 piece of amazing art work, but it's reasonably easy to play and has a decent sound. Now, mind you, the strings and the tuning of the instrument is a part of the instrument in my book. Change your strings often, have a replacement pair just in case and tune your guitar; there is no excuse for a badly tuned instrument, whatever it is; tuner are cheap and work very well; you would be amazed at the difference in playing on a finely tuned guitar versus picking it up and pressing "record".

The fourth element in the chain is the microphone. I have two large diaphragm condenser mics. One came with my audio interface (Tascam, not very good), the other one (Rode, much better) I bought because I didn't like the recorded sound of my voice with with the Tascam. So I usually track my acoustic guitar with the Tascam because I have the Rode set up with the stand / shockmount combo for vocals. I'll try the Rode on the guitar one of these days. Recording an acoustic guitar isn't just plugging the mic into the interface, randomly pointing the mic in the general direction of the guitar and start recording. Why? Because mic placement is a job in itself in a large studio. That's what recording engineers do: they place microphones (amongst other things, of course). My studio isn't large by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't mean that because I have a small home recording studio I can't try to do what the pros do. So I recorded myself playing a succession of full chords, plucked chords and muted riffs at different distances between the mic and the guitar, with the mic pointing at different parts of the guitar. I then compared (A/B is the official cabalistic term here) the different tracks and found the best combo for me. Generally speaking, the mic's "front" (i.e. where the mic pattern captures the most sound) needs to be pointing at the guitar but not at the sound hole; lots of people talk about the 12th fret as a starting point. Distance is also very important: too close and you'll get lots of low frequencies (low end) and get a boomy sound that's usually not very pleasing (proximity effect); too far and the room reflections will play too large of a role in the sound and the guitar will sound too distant. Find that sweet spot and you'll be very surprised at how nice your seemingly crappy acoustic sound now sounds great.

Other elements might enter into the chain: a pre-amplifier for the microphone (mic pre) if the sound level you capture isn't high enough with respect to the other sources; outboard (i.e. not in the DAW) gear such as compressors and EQ, etc. I'm not going into details here because a) I don't have them b) I don't plan to have them c) They're not mandatory to have a great sound; furthermore, mic pres can "color" the sound, i.e. add harmonics that will change the frequency content of the signal to give it warmth or clarity (whatever that means). I like my sound as clean as possible up until I decide (usually in the mix) that I want to change the sound.

Once you capture your great performance with a well placed mic recording a well tuned guitar with a nice set of new strings, you can start looking at the sonic content of your track in your DAW. If it's not good, resist the urgent to add multiple plugins to "fix it in the mix". Go back to the performance. Change the mic placement: that's the easiest EQ you can possible have! When you get a decent sound that you like, start with taking out whatever comes in the way: use a gate to remove background noise. use EQ to cut off unwanted low end which might compete with other instruments (bass, kick drum); carve out of your raw track something which sounds nice and may a bit thin: that's OK because by doing all this subtraction, you have done two things: allow other instruments to occupy the frequency space and reduce the total energy of your track so that adding other tracks doesn't ruin everything. Notice I said carve out and not add in. That's very important. I would only add or boost certain frequencies in very special occasions. As a noob rule set for myself, I even try to never do it. Carve like a sculptor, don't add like a cook.

So there you have it. If you follow this advice like I've followed it, you'll be much happier with your acoustic guitar tracks. Recording them will be easier, faster, and you will have more energy to spend on the other tracks that will make your song sound great.