Electrical Audio
In this bit, Steve Albini explains his approach to recording acoustic stringed instruments at Electrical Audio studio. His key idea is to evoke the "sense memory" of hearing acoustic instruments naturally, emphasizing the importance of capturing the entire system—the strings, bridge, and body—using microphones rather than pickups. Albini details how the body of an acoustic instrument shapes its unique sound, explaining why microphones are preferable for achieving an authentic acoustic recording. He critiques pickups for failing to capture the full acoustic profile, making them more suitable for demos or amplified settings where sound quality isn't critical. By understanding the mechanical and acoustic properties of instruments, Albini provides insights into choosing microphone techniques that preserve the instrument's natural sound. This knowledge is invaluable for creating recordings that reflect the true essence of acoustic music.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini demonstrates techniques to effectively record guitar and vocals simultaneously, focusing on minimizing bleed between the two. He uses figure-eight microphones to achieve isolation: the active side faces the sound source (guitar or vocal), while the null side points away to reject the other. This setup helps reduce unwanted interference from either instrument in the other's mic. Albini showcases practical applications with musicians, highlighting additional tactics like using double-sided tape for mic placement on the guitar without damaging its finish. This method captures natural performances while ensuring flexibility for post-production edits.
Universal Audio
In this segment, Grammy-winning engineer Jacquire King demonstrates the art of recording folk/blues acoustic guitars using a blend of different microphones and techniques. King starts with a Shure SM57, placing it on the body of the guitar to capture midrange warmth. He complements this with a U67 tube mic positioned at the twelfth fret to add clarity and openness. This setup allows the SM57 to provide grit and personality, while the U67 captures the guitar's body and brightness. King experiments further by swapping the U67 for a Royer R-121 ribbon mic to achieve a smoother, more vintage sound. By using a figure-eight pattern, the ribbon mic captures additional ambience, giving a richer, back-in-time feel. This video is ideal for those interested in achieving an earthy, organic acoustic sound with a touch of vintage character.
Universal Audio
Join Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King as he shares his expert techniques for recording acoustic guitars, focusing on singer-songwriter setups. Using a large-diaphragm condenser and a pencil condenser mic, King highlights the importance of capturing both warmth and brightness for a balanced, three-dimensional sound. King discusses strategic microphone placement, aiming for the 12th fret area to achieve a well-rounded capture without muddy low frequencies. By choosing microphones with different tonal characteristics, he creates depth and avoids phase issues. The session also covers preamp selection, with King demonstrating how different preamps like API, UA 610-B, and Neve 1073 can shape the guitar’s tone, lending clarity or warmth depending on the track's needs. Finally, King emphasizes a hands-on approach to mic positioning and encourages experimentation with different picks to fine-tune the acoustic guitar’s character before resorting to EQ adjustments.
Universal Audio
Jacquire King highlights the use of a DI (Direct Input) when recording acoustic guitars to add mid-range clarity and presence. By blending the DI with a mic signal, King achieves a balanced sound that emphasizes the guitar's immediacy without the influence of room acoustics. In situations where using a DI is the only option, King enhances the sound through tone shaping with EQ and compression. He uses a UA 610-B Tube Preamp to soften the tone and an 1176 Limiter with a unique two-to-one ratio for subtle control and character. To add dimension without overwhelming reverb, King sends the DI signal to an aux with Ocean Way Studios plugin, using room and reverb modes to create a spacious feel. This approach ensures a polished guitar sound, offering flexibility and depth in the mix.
Audiopunks
Chris Coady discusses mic placement for recording acoustic guitar while producing Rachel Bobbitt's "Sweetest Heart." He uses a Heiserman 251 mic, positioning it about 2-3 feet away to capture a direct sound without excessive room ambiance. Coady emphasizes finding a sweet spot where the mic is close enough to avoid a distant sound but not so close that it feels overly magnified. He adjusts the distance by moving the mic until the room sound is audible, then pulling it back slightly for the desired clarity. This approach allows the guitarist to find their own comfort zone by listening through headphones, ensuring a natural and integrated sound in the production.
Puremix
Vance Powell demonstrates his approach to parallel drum compression using two distinct compressors: the Neve 33609 for enhancing punch and attack, and the Fatso unit for adding character and saturation. He shares his methodical setup, applying the 33609 to the kick, snare, toms, and overheads, while excluding room and front mics to maintain clarity. Powell targets around 4 dB of compression with specific settings, including a zero threshold and 100ms recovery time, to sharpen the drum attack. The "drum crush bus" with the Fatso was discovered accidentally, providing a unique, fattened sound by processing only the kick and snare. Powell's technique highlights the importance of selective processing to achieve a dynamic and impactful drum mix.
Mix with the Masters
Andrew Sheps demonstrates a unique technique for making a solo guitar track stand out in a mix using spatial effects. By using a Fairchild compressor and creative modulation, they enhance the guitar's presence without increasing its volume. A slow flanger combined with a panner, inspired by Tchad Blake, creates movement that feels like it's outside the speakers. This is followed by widening with an S1 plugin. The result is a subtle yet effective stereo image that allows the solo guitar to cut through the mix while maintaining balance with other elements, preventing it from getting lost beneath the main guitar.
Record Production
Dan Austin demonstrates a technique for recording guitars using three different microphones on a guitar cabinet to achieve a rich, full sound. He emphasizes the importance of phase aligning the microphones to avoid phase issues, which can occur when using multiple mics. Austin uses a pink noise technique to phase align the mics, starting with a Shure SM57 to find the sweet spot on the speaker cone, followed by an 87 condenser and a ribbon mic. By listening for phase cancellation, he ensures the mics are aligned, allowing for tonal blending without phase interference. Once aligned, Austin blends the mic signals to achieve the desired guitar tone, using EQ and compression to enhance the sound. He then sums the three mic signals into one track in Pro Tools, applying additional processing with a valve EQ and compressor for added character. This method provides flexibility in shaping the guitar sound while maintaining clarity and depth.
Record Production
Dan Austin demonstrates a creative technique for recording guitars by heavily distorting a room microphone to add energy beneath the main guitar sound. He uses a bright condenser mic, like the AKG 414, placed about 12 feet from the guitar cabinet. By cranking up the mic preamps, he achieves a unique distortion, adding a lively character to the mix. Austin emphasizes the importance of recording this distorted room mic on a separate track, allowing it to be blended subtly under the close mics for a fuller, more exciting guitar sound.
URM Academy
Dan Braunstein demonstrates how to achieve a punchy kick and better separation in a mix using sidechain compression with the FabFilter Pro-C 2 on bass. By sending the kick signal to the compressor's sidechain input, Braunstein ensures that the bass ducks out of the way, allowing the kick to cut through the mix with clarity and impact. He starts with extreme settings and dials them back to achieve 3-6 dB of gain reduction. This technique enhances the mix's overall movement and clarity, making the kick more prominent without overwhelming other elements. Braunstein also uses the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 to EQ the kick and bass, deciding whether the bass should occupy the sub frequencies and the kick the low mids, or vice versa. He ultimately prefers the kick to dominate the low end, giving the bass more harmonic presence. This strategic frequency separation reduces muddiness and enhances the mix's overall balance.
URM Academy
In this session, Dan Braunstein focuses on using sidechain compression to enhance the snare room sound in a mix. He demonstrates how adjusting the attack and release settings on the sidechained compressor allows the snare's decay to shine through. The key is going for a longer attack time, so that the ducking makes room for the snare's decay rather than the initial snap. Dan sets up the sidechain to duck bass and guitars when the snare hits, allowing the room sound to pop through. Dan suggests sourcing the sidechain signal from the most direct snare track rather than the entire snare group, ensuring that the room's ambiance is effectively highlighted without overwhelming the mix. This approach is part of his broader strategy to make drums punch through the mix with clarity and presence.
Mix with the Masters
Tchad Blake demonstrates how to shape kick drums using the Avid SansAmp PSA-1 plugin for parallel distortion. By experimenting with the SansAmp, he adds grit and a throatier quality to the kick, enhancing its presence in the mix. He emphasizes the importance of playing with the plugin's settings, flipping phase, and low-pass filtering, to achieve the desired effect without losing the kick's essential character. Blake prefers a kick sound with more mid-range growl rather than a high-end "ticky" sound, showcasing his approach to creating a unique and powerful drum tone.
Mix with the Masters
Justice discuss their use of upward compression to enhance the detail and depth of a drum track. Unlike traditional downward compression, this technique works from the bottom up, raising subtle elements in the mix. The result is added movement and texture, as low-level details such as room sustain or reverb tails are brought forward without compromising the transient punch. While demonstrated here on drums, upward compression can be equally effective on other dynamic material such as percussion, vocals, or instruments with wide dynamic range, making them feel more alive and expressive.
Mix with the Masters
Xavier de Rosnay from Justice shares insights on using mid-focused monitoring to enhance mix balance. By simulating a radio setup, this technique isolates the midrange, allowing for precise balancing between elements without the distractions of low and high frequencies. The filtering is achieved with a steep low cut at 150 Hz and a steep high cut around 1.5 kHz. This approach helps avoid the misleading fullness that abundant low-end can create, ensuring a clear understanding of the musical content. The producer highlights this method as an effective, old trick for achieving faithful and consistent mixes.
Produce Like A Pro
Darrell Thorp demonstrates how to add character and depth to drum recordings using a mono overhead and a "poke" mic. By employing the Coles 4038 as a mono overhead, he captures a fuller drum sound, enhancing the snare's presence and overall kit depth. Thorp uses the UREI 1176LN for compression and the Pultec EQP-1A for EQ, boosting at 10kHz and 100Hz to add thickness and brightness. For added character, Thorp introduces distortion to the mono overhead using the Overstayer Saturator NT-02A, creating a trashy yet controlled sound. He also utilizes a Sennheiser MD 441-U as a "poke" mic, positioned to capture the kick and snare, and processes it with a DBX 160VU for punchiness. Aggressive EQ boosts at 7kHz and 50Hz further enhance the mic's impact, providing an aggressive knock that cuts through the mix. Thorp emphasizes the importance of phase coherence, ensuring it is as good as possible during recording. He suggests using Auto Align by Sound Radix during mixing to align these special mics with the rest of the kit. He encourages engineers to embrace aggressive EQ during recording, as it can significantly enhance the character and depth of the drum sound.
Produce Like A Pro
Marc Daniel Nelson highlights the importance of the 800Hz frequency range for achieving bass definition. This area is crucial for capturing finger noise, which adds character and clarity to the bass without sacrificing its low-end power. Nelson shares that he learned this technique from Bruce Swedien, emphasizing that the 800Hz to 1kHz range is a sweet spot for most bass tracks. By focusing on this frequency range, you can maintain the thunderous low end while enhancing the bass's presence and detail. After establishing definition, Nelson suggests adding vibe and grit through distortion, further enriching the bass sound.
Mix with the Masters
Russell Elevado shows how tape delay can be used to add character and depth to drum tracks. By applying a subtle quarter note delay, the drums gain a dirty quality and an airy presence, making the delay feel like an integral part of the drum sound rather than an obvious effect. The technique involves dialing in the tape echo to a desired setting and then printing it, which means recording the effect to a track. This approach not only preserves the tape but also ensures consistency throughout the song without continuously running the tape echo. Using tape delays on drums is a great way to enhance the rhythmic texture and atmosphere of a mix.
Elysia
Moses Schneider demonstrates how to add character and texture to drum recordings using a unique approach with the "Wurst" technique. He employs saturation through distortion pedals and strategically places microphones, such as the SM57 and a custom-built Periscope mic with an inbuilt limiter, to capture a larger-than-life drum sound. The key is positioning the mic equidistant from the snare and kick beater for optimal tone. Schneider further enhances the drum sound by gating and over-compressing with an 1176 compressor, creating a dynamic and textured drum mix. The Periscope mic's inherent distortion and side-chained gating to the snare add a distinct character, making the drums stand out in the mix.
Splice
Vaughn Oliver explores the use of the Zef Parisoto FLVTTER plugin to apply sidechain distortion to hi-hats, creating a more coherent and glued-together sound. By setting the sidechain input to a low-end signal like a kick or 808, the plugin distorts the high-end elements, such as hi-hats, based on the low-end input. This technique not only adds a unique character but also subtly dips the volume, enhancing the cohesion between the elements. Oliver highlights the versatility of the FLVTTER plugin, noting its ability to emulate the sound of slamming elements into a master clipper, akin to techniques used in FL.
Universal Audio
Inspired by David Bowie's "Heroes," Thorp and Dave Grohl implemented a dynamic room mic effect for the vocals using gates, allowing for an intimate sound during quieter verses and a more expansive, reverberant sound during louder choruses. Thorp's technical execution involved an LCR track configuration that holds the dry vocal along with two mono room mics. The gate on this track has its settings unlinked, permitting individual adjustment for each channel to dynamically alter the room sound based on the vocal performance intensity. After the gating process, Thorp applied compression to further shape and control the dynamics of the vocal, ensuring both the intimate and expansive moments translated effectively in the mix.
Produce Like A Pro
Ash Soan shares a playing technique for adding swing to shakers and tambourines by leveraging the natural physics of the instruments. For shakers, instead of forcing a swing feel, Soan suggests playing straight 16th or 8th notes while adjusting your forearm position to control the swing. When the forearm is up, the shaker moves horizontally, resulting in no swing. By lowering the forearm so the shaker moves more vertically, gravity naturally introduces a swing. Any position in between allows you to find a sweet spot that is neither fully swung nor completely straight. This approach also applies to tambourines, where playing it left to right results in no swing, while moving it up and down allows gravity to create a full swing.
SonicScoop
Stuart White delves into crafting psychedelic vocals by layering and interweaving multiple effects. He combines a short delay for texture, a stereo flanger for width, and a long, psychedelic delay to create a rich, ethereal sound. By routing the long delay into a spring reverb and the widener, Stuart enhances the psychedelic atmosphere and expands the soundstage. To maintain clarity and prevent the effects from overwhelming the dry vocal, Stuart heavily compresses the effects returns, ensuring they remain controlled within the mix. This approach allows the effects to be prominent without overshadowing the vocal's presence. Additionally, he employs sidechain compression on the long delay, ducking it with the dry vocal to preserve intelligibility and keep the vocal at the forefront.
JHS Pedals
Operational amplifiers allowed for the creation of distortion pedals in the early 70s by starting with a clean boost circuit. Unlike the fuzz pedals of the 60s that overloaded transistors, these distortion pedals used op-amps to amplify the guitar signal cleanly before passing it through diodes. These diodes then clip the loud, clean signal, allowing for unique sound customization and creating the distinct distortion that became a staple in music. This approach offers more control and versatility in shaping the distortion compared to the earlier fuzz pedals.
Science Of Loud
The MXR Distortion Plus utilizes a 741 op-amp to achieve its signature distortion sound, with the guitar signal entering through the non-inverting input. The op-amp's differential amplifier compares the two inputs and amplifies the difference, with gain controlled by resistor values in a feedback network. This setup allows for a gain range from a subtle 6 dB boost to a massive 46 dB increase, depending on the resistance. However, the true magic of distortion comes from the germanium diodes, which clip the signal by only allowing voltages above 0.3 volts to pass, creating a distorted output. This combination of op-amp gain staging and diode clipping offers a more refined and controllable distortion compared to the raw fuzz pedals of the 1960s, allowing for a range of tones from a gentle sparkle to a full-on fuzz. The MXR Distortion Plus exemplifies this elegant approach to achieving amplifier-like distortion.
JHS Pedals
Explore the diverse world of overdrive pedals with a deep dive into five essential styles, each offering unique tonal characteristics. The journey begins with soft clipping overdrives, featuring the iconic Tube Screamer known for its mid-frequency boost, and the Blues Breaker style, celebrated for its transparency and natural sound. Next, delve into hard clipping overdrives, where the DOD Preamp 250 and MXR Distortion Plus set the stage for a more aggressive, clipped sound. The Klon Centaur, a modern favorite, stands out with its unique gain structure and clean signal blend, offering a distinct EQ profile. Finally, discover transistor-based pedals like the Blues Driver, which mimic the cascading saturation of tube amps. These pedals provide a natural, touch-responsive overdrive, perfect for players seeking dynamic control.
Audiopunks
Tchad Blake shares insights into using effects like distortion and compression while tracking drums to inspire drummers and enhance their performance. By sending processed sounds back to the musicians, such as a Spectrasonics 610 compressor or delay on the snare, drummers can react to the altered textures and rhythms, leading to more dynamic and expressive playing. Blake emphasizes the importance of creating characterful sounds and textures, which can transform the way musicians interact with their instruments. This approach encourages drummers to play differently, adding a unique groove and feel to the music. The use of contrasting hi-fi and lo-fi elements can infuse a track with depth and character, reducing the need for excessive overdubs. Incorporating these techniques into the recording process not only enhances the creative atmosphere in the studio but also results in more authentic and engaging music. By creatively placing mics and using effects, engineers can create a rich sonic landscape that inspires musicians to explore new musical expressions.
Tyler Gilmore
BlankFor_ms demonstrates the sound of different tape machines from his collection using two different tape loops: a synth pad and a beat. This showcases the character of each machine This explores the creative potential of tape looping to add depth and movement to music.
Hainbach
Hainbach demonstrates the technique of sound on sound using a Nagra tape recorder, focusing on the roles of the erase, write, and read heads. By bypassing the erase head, he creates multiple overlapping signals, adding depth and movement to the sound. He explains how to cut and splice a tape loop using quarter-inch tape, emphasizing the importance of a smooth splice to minimize noise. This setup allows for the creation of a continuous loop that can be layered with new sounds. Hainbach sets up the tape loop in a standard configuration and shows how bypassing the erase head results in a repeated sound, forming a rich, layered soundscape. This technique is ideal for creating more interesting and dynamic synth textures.
Reverb.com
Alessandro demonstrates how he transforms Logic sessions into four-track cassette recordings, utilizing EQ and effects like reverb and shimmer for a lo-fi warmth. He emphasizes the flexibility of using a pitch wheel for live performance, allowing for dynamic pitch control and creative experimentation. The arrangement is divided into four distinct tracks: main sequence, melody, bass, and stereo effects. This setup provides Alessandro with the ability to creatively manipulate pitch bends and audio placement, enhancing the overall movement and interest of the sound. He also shares his transition from the Opie one to the OPC, praising their sampling capabilities and integration into his workflow. The use of a UA Ibanez® TS808 Tube Screamer plugin adds drive and character, further enriching the sonic texture.