General Recording Thread

[Assassin231]

Just a few tips really on how I can make my rough recording sound a bit more like the original.

 

Ive got all the tracks down bar the viola which im doing this week.

 

Anyway heres the original (great song, great band).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-usPwbzwIEk

 

and heres my recording so far with some basic compression and eq as well as some stereo widening and a poor effort to recreate the "double vocal effect".

 

http://soundcloud.com/assassin231/goonsayit-mix-unfinished-18th-april

 

also please be fully aware I know that some guitar parts aren't 100 percent correct and the drums are weird at the start. Also for the record I don't play xylophone on a regular basis! The recording is based on microphone capture and mixing/processing of the audio after, not the performance.

 

Any tips?

 

EDIT: the_man if you read this I tried out Izotope RX and I couldn't manage to get rid of that hiss (which is on the left and right acoustic tracks) without getting rid of the higher frequencies.

[Phil.]

sounds like the drums have been bus compressed to make them "boomier", the whole original mix sounds pretty compressed, but then that is probably youtubes poor quality.

 

if you are aiming to get it exactly like the original, then the guitar might be better without the stereo widening and just panned pretty central which is how it sounds in the original.

 

If there is hiss on the guitar that you want to get rid of, something to try would be to get like, an 8 band EQ, and take a node and set the Q as thin as it will go, then raise it up quite a few dB and sweep it across until you find a frequency at which the hiss sounds really prominant and harsh like so:

 

 

Then just cut those frequencies.

 

Alternatively, if you have a De-esser, that is usually a good option to remove his or harsh frequencies at quite a specific (or within quite a specific) frequency range.

[the_man361]

im fairly sure that if RX cant remove it, you're doomed

[Furlea]

I'm recording a track at the moment that has a flute solo, but i'm not sure what microphone would be best. I was thinking large diaphragm condenser, but that might make it too bright maybe? Really, i'd like to use a ribbon mic but I haven't got any of those to use

Need to decide where to position the mic and even if I should use more than one. Never recorded a flute before, and I want the best sound

 

Any suggestions?

 

Or should I just keep experimenting and see which gives the best sound? Bit short on time though =/

[cheddatom]

get the performer to play and stick your head around the flute. You probably don't want to be that close but could do with quite a dry room. Stick a stereo pair of condensors where it sounds nice. If it's too bright take some of the top off in your DAW.

[Phil.]

yeah I imagine a pair of condensers would do the tick, I doubt there would be any issues with brightness as its not like they will boost highs a huge amount (if at all), but any nasty tone can be taken out in the DAW as tom said.

 

As for positioning, just set the two mics up say, between 0.5-1 metre apart and get your musician to stand between the two and move backwards and forwards to just try and find the sweet spot, remember that the harder he plays, the higher the input will be, so if you get the levels set fairly high whilst he is playing at a moderate volume, if he plays heavily, it will clip.

 

Also, as you are using two mics, you need to try to make sure that he is as dead centre between the two mics as you can get him, else you might get some phase issues, not the end of the world if the final take does have phase as that can easily be solved, but it is something to take into consideration!

[Dramatic Hammer]

yeah I imagine a pair of condensers would do the tick, I doubt there would be any issues with brightness as its not like they will boost highs a huge amount (if at all), but any nasty tone can be taken out in the DAW as tom said.

 

As for positioning, just set the two mics up say, between 0.5-1 metre apart and get your musician to stand between the two and move backwards and forwards to just try and find the sweet spot, remember that the harder he plays, the higher the input will be, so if you get the levels set fairly high whilst he is playing at a moderate volume, if he plays heavily, it will clip.

 

Also, as you are using two mics, you need to try to make sure that he is as dead centre between the two mics as you can get him, else you might get some phase issues, not the end of the world if the final take does have phase as that can easily be solved, but it is something to take into consideration!

 

Lollercops at this - do you only record human statues?

[haze015]

I don't think you need to record a flute solo in stereo, unless you're trying to capture room ambience at the same time.

 

A LDC should be fine, never found a half decent one to be "bright", just add a touch of presence as they tend to boost around 12K if my memory serves me right, I don't think that would be an issue with a flute.

[Phil.]

Lollercops at this - do you only record human statues?

 

If they move, they get whipped.

 

 

I did think after writing it that for a flute-ist to stay still for the whole recording would be ridiculously impossible, but pressing backspace aaaaaaaaal thaaaaaaaat waaaaay looked so hard!

 

Maybe one condenser to close mic the flute, and a room mic? (obviously depending on how good the acoustics of the room are!)

[cheddatom]

I don't think you need to record a flute solo in stereo, unless you're trying to capture room ambience at the same time.

 

A LDC should be fine, never found a half decent one to be "bright", just add a touch of presence as they tend to boost around 12K if my memory serves me right, I don't think that would be an issue with a flute.

 

I don't know if this has any basis in logic, but I always thought that with a moving performer, you've got more chance of getting something that sounds "consistent" with a stereo pair.

 

If you have the guy standing facing the front, and your best flute sound (I wouldn't know) is just to his left, you stick your mono mic there. Then, when he's performing, he starts to sway a bit, rotating to his right, away from the mic, creating an inconsistent level. If you have a stereo pair facing him, he will be rotating within the field of recording. You will be able to hear him swaying side to side.

[lily93]

I'm recording a track at the moment that has a flute solo, but i'm not sure what microphone would be best. I was thinking large diaphragm condenser, but that might make it too bright maybe? Really, i'd like to use a ribbon mic but I haven't got any of those to use

Need to decide where to position the mic and even if I should use more than one. Never recorded a flute before, and I want the best sound

 

Any suggestions?

 

Or should I just keep experimenting and see which gives the best sound? Bit short on time though =/

 

Above it with a condenser, easier if they can sit down and play.

 

Stick several mics around the room where you think it sounds good, blend them in the mix.

[haze015]

I don't know if this has any basis in logic, but I always thought that with a moving performer, you've got more chance of getting something that sounds "consistent" with a stereo pair.

 

If you have the guy standing facing the front, and your best flute sound (I wouldn't know) is just to his left, you stick your mono mic there. Then, when he's performing, he starts to sway a bit, rotating to his right, away from the mic, creating an inconsistent level. If you have a stereo pair facing him, he will be rotating within the field of recording. You will be able to hear him swaying side to side.

 

Not really, you'd just get that movement in the stereo field and to be honest, they'd only be moving a few inches here & there, so the inconsistency in volume will be small (Unless you've got the mic right up close, but wouldn't do that with a flute as you'd capture stuff you don't want to) and a touch of compression should iron that out.

[cheddatom]

Obviously it's not a massive effect. If I give you an example, I recorded a guy playing a squeeze box dealy (what's that called?) and I tried a few different mic set ups. I didn't want to use much compression because of the noise of the leather. I tried one at the end I thought was the sound hole, and it was too inconsistent from him moving, which you have to do to play the thing. Anyway, I ended up using a stereo pair, but panned close together (on the same side as it happened) and it gave me a much more consistent result with just a little compression on the both as a group.

[the_man361]

I'm recording a track at the moment that has a flute solo, but i'm not sure what microphone would be best. I was thinking large diaphragm condenser, but that might make it too bright maybe? Really, i'd like to use a ribbon mic but I haven't got any of those to use

Need to decide where to position the mic and even if I should use more than one. Never recorded a flute before, and I want the best sound

 

Any suggestions?

 

Or should I just keep experimenting and see which gives the best sound? Bit short on time though =/

 

place the mic about 2 feet infront of the flute a little higher than the flute is. it should be directly infront of the flute, but angle it down a little and also towards the base (not mouthpiece) end of the flute to reduce wind noise.

should give you a nice sound for start

 

i'd reccomend a nice sounding medium/large room, but depends what you're going for.

 

if you're going to record multi mic setup, watch out for phase consistency, as i imagine it could sound pretty horrible

[Phil.]

An out of phase flute... interesting...

[cheddatom]

does anyone know of a vst plug in that gives you a phase sweep control? I don't want to reverse the phase on my out of phase guitar track (because it's just as bad), and I don't want to try and get it in line using the editor. (This is hypothetical)

[haze015]

does anyone know of a vst plug in that gives you a phase sweep control? I don't want to reverse the phase on my out of phase guitar track (because it's just as bad), and I don't want to try and get it in line using the editor. (This is hypothetical)

 

You can use a delay with really tiny delay times.

[Phil.]

does anyone know of a vst plug in that gives you a phase sweep control? I don't want to reverse the phase on my out of phase guitar track (because it's just as bad), and I don't want to try and get it in line using the editor. (This is hypothetical)

 

We use Sonar 9 at college and it has a pack of "Sonitus FX" plugins, one plugin "Phase" allows you to do exactly what you want to do i THINK, it has three faders, volume, one i think which is width, and one which is phase.

 

But surely just fractionally moving the guitar track in the daw, zooming right in and moving it a fraction to the right/left, listening, re-doing would be the easiest? albeit very tedious.

[cheddatom]

You can use a delay with really tiny delay times.

 

yeh but the one that comes with cubase is quite difficult to control on that level, you have to keep typing the numbers in.

[Phil.]

yeh but the one that comes with cubase is quite difficult to control on that level, you have to keep typing the numbers in.

 

+1 why the fuck cant you use the mouse to change the delay in ms?! changing by gaps of 50 is pretty useless!

[the_man361]

just sync the waveforms up, much easier. there are phase plugins, and phase rotator plugins which will do a slightly different, more in depth job like betabugs phase bug or little labs IBP

[Anxyous]

Hey guys, I was wondering what the typical approach to recording guitar is? As in, how it's hooked up and everything.

 

I was wondering this, because I read, that the Exo-Politics solo was just a small amp facing down into a pillow, but I know (or at least I'm pretty sure) that you don't just record a guitar by pointing a mic at an amp.

 

So what gives?

[haze015]

Most recorded guitar is a SM57 pointed at an amp.

[Anxyous]

Most recorded guitar is a SM57 pointed at an amp.

 

And an SM57 is a mic?

[cheddatom]

yes