Archives for May 2017

Björgvin Benediktsson gives a roaring critique on who’s really to blame for music being too loud these days. Just thought it was your parents complaining, wishing for the old days when tracks were listened to by scratchy gramophones? Think again. There’s a very specific and purposeful process to editing music so it’s deemed fit for mass consumption, at it involves a little known but often abused worker called a “limiter”. Using his own music know how and sense of humor, this blogger calls attention to the fact that the limiter might not be who we have to blame.

Key Takeaways:

• The forlorn limiter. He’s just there to make your music sound louder. It was never his expectation to murder it.
• He’s by and large dishonestly charged for violations he didn’t confer. He was utilized, and the killings went ahead at no blame of his own.
• In a current article he absolved the limiter of any wrongdoing. It’s not the limiter that squashes the living crap out of your music.

“The same happens if you abuse the limiter. If you push a limiter too hard he will bite back. Whereas once he loved the music that ran through him, now he ruins it by crushing the life out of it. If you care for him, he will care for your music.”

Read more: http://www.audio-issues.com/mastering/the-case-for-the-falsely-accused-limiter/

So far topics like Overhead tracks and the Mono Room were covered. Now the discussion moves to recording with the drum kit and close miking. The lesson starts with the snare drum.
Already it has been shown how close miking enables one to grab the strikes of the drum on the drumhead with the help of the Overheads to get the other important sounds. Use the classical snare for a paradigm; an Sm57 (HTTP link) for the snare position at the top (refers to accompanying pictures). John Leckie, Bob Clearmountain and Tony Visconti have exemplified the approached meant here (links to audio clips).
If one hears the recordings separately the mids predominate with sound (Screenshot). Here true brilliance and clarity are lacking; but on this track we need the attack here, which is the whole point. we have to add air, brilliance to it.
It looks simple here but subtlety lies within. Where does one place the mike? This is important. Listen to the drummer on the track during the recording. Place the mike closer if the drummer plays softly. If though it is loud move the mike farther away to avoid overloading. You also can change the mike angle if necessary to achieve balancing, so that the mike for example focuses on where the drumsticks fall for precision. On the other hand if you aim the mike, angling it to focus on the drumhead and rim center, you put emphasis on thickness. If the drummer instead is striking the rim you can focus on that.
One can add the Snare Bottom mike to the Snare Top mike if one needs to do so to enhance the sound of the snare drum (related audio clips provided).
One can then get a thin, bright sound with a twang (audio clip). You can mix this track with the previous one for better gain, timbre and brilliance. But look out for phase variances! Phase shifts between the Snare Top and Snare Bottom will cause unpleasant sound effects (samples in audio clips). Get the two phases in sync and you get a much better sound.
The right mix of Snare Top and Snare Bottom helps you to avoid compression (audio clip).

Key Takeaways:

• Recorded independently, the sound appears to have significantly more nearness in the mids.
• In spite of the clear effortlessness of this strategy, there are by and by a few nuances to consider while setting the mic.
• Keeping in mind the end goal to locate the ideal separation, you have to consider the playing of the drummer on the track you’re recording.

“For the snare I always recommend the most classical approach, which has proved its worth time and time again: an SM57 for the Snare Top position, just a couple of inches above the snare (look at the pictures).”

Read more: http://en.audiofanzine.com/recording-mixing/editorial/articles/recording-drums-the-snare-drum-part-one.html