I found an old (relatively – it was 2008 – OK, not so old) post from des over at Hometracked that has some great, and still very relevant and true advice for mixing music. The article is in the form of answering what he perceived to be 7 common questions from amateur mix engineers. My take on it though, is that these are more the types of question that might come from beginners to mixing music rather than “amateurs.” That last term does not say “ignorance” to me, but rather someone who is not doing something for a living. An amateur in any field can have every bit as much expertise as a pro, the only difference being that they don’t do it for a living. Heck, Bobby Jones is renowned for being one of the greatest golfers that ever lived, and he was officially an amateur golfer.
OK, enough about semantics. Des answers the kind of questions I remember asking when I was just starting out in recording. Things like “what is the best microphone to use?” (high-end “desert island” mics the U87 and C12 were mentioned:)), or “how can I make my recordings sound like Foo Fighters or any other famous musician or group?” Actually that last one is ironic since I totally plan to record a cover of a Foo Fighters song and post here about how to do it. Whether it actually sounds enough like the original will be a matter of what each person thinks. I did this recently with the song That Thing You Do! from the movie of the same name. Check that out here.
Anyway, check out Des article here.
Music Recording
Moog Synthesizer Google Doodle A Multi-Track Recorder
If you’ve seen Google today (May 23rd, 2012) you’ll have noticed that it is a keyboard with wires and some buttons. What you may not know is that this is a doodle of a Moog synthesizer, which was one of the first electronic musical instruments. Robert Moog is widely considered to be the inventor of the synthesizer, which is the foundation for the virtual instruments of today. You can read about Moog (pronounced like the magazine “Vogue”) at the link from Google’s doodle here.
You can play Google’s doodle version of the synthesizer with your computer keyboard not only by clicking on the piano-type keys on the screen, but also by adjusting a whole slew of synthesizer parameters. Just lick and drag on any of the knobs and you can change the sounds, volumes, mix, etc. So that’s really cool right there.
But how does this doodle relate to audio recording? Because it is a 4-track multi-track recorder, that’s why! ON the right of the synth (the thing with the keyboard and buttons) is an old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape recorder with 4 needle-type meters (one for each track). Just click on the 1st needle meter, click the red “record” button, and play you some notes on the synthesizer. Then hit “stop.” Then hit the “play” button and listen to your recording. Now click on the 2nd needle meter (arming it for recording), and record a 2nd part as you listen to the first thing you just recorded. When you listen to the playback this time you’ll hear BOTH of the parts you just recorded playing together. Change some of the sounds with the knobs and repeat the process for tracks 3 and 4, and voila! You’ve created a 4-track recording. You “over-dubbed” the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tracks.
This is a pretty incredible doodle, not only showing you some music and recording history, but also teaching you some core recording concepts such as multi-track recording and over-dubbing. And of course there is just the fact that it’s just plain fun to play with. I suspect lot of people will be spending a huge amount of time on a Google search page doing little search and lots of playing today.
Go check it out if you haven’t seen it yet: https://www.google.com/
Hearing Yourself While You Record Your Part
When a band records a song, the engineer needs to get the different instruments on different tracks in order to mix and edit everything properly. These days, when track-count is not an issue (due to computer recording – in the 1960s for example, The Beatles only had 4 tracks to work with most of the time!), it isn’t unusual to have 50 tracks or more, each with a different take for every musician in the band.
One common recording engineer complaint (all the singers are ducking right now) is that each musician wants to hear more of themselves and less over everyone else when recording. This can be good in that they can hear what they are doing better. But it can also be bad in that their performance, regardless of how technically excellent it may be by itself, may not work well in the context of the overall mix.
Here is an article that discusses this issue: http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/top_ways_to_help_musicians_hear_themselves/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed#When:20:41:17Z
The Home Recording Musicians Starter Bundle
Recently I announced the creation of the Home Recording Starter Kit, which was a bundle of essential recording equipment put together in coordination with B&H Photo-Video-Audio. It is composed of the minimum gear needed at the lowest price to allow anyone to start recording professional audio on their computer. That first bundle – priced at $261.95 – is good for anyone, but especially suited to those doing mostly voice over recording, including video narration, podcasts, etc.
Now I want to tell you about another starter bundle aimed at musicians, also assembled by B&H to my specifications.
These bundles are great because they save you lots of time and money. For instance, the items in the new musicians bundle, if purchased individually, would cost a total of $529.79. And then there is the shipping. But the kit only costs $429.99, you save about a hundred bucks for the gear, and B&H offers free shipping (in the US). How cool is that?
So here is that second bundle, which is more geared (no pun intended) toward musicians – The Focusrite Home Recording Musicians Starter Kit. The primary differences are the addition of an extra microphone for recording acoustic guitar and other instruments, and a MIDI keyboard for playing virtual instruments. Of course there are two mic cables and stands, and the interface accepts two microphones simultaneously. Below are the details:
The Home Recording Musician’s Starter Bundle ($449.95)
- Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface
- Audio-Technica AT2041SP Cardioid Condenser Studio Microphone Package (includes 2 studio condenser mics: the AT2020 for vocals and the AT2021 small-diaphragm condenser for instruments)
- 2 xKopul Studio Elite 4000 Series 3-Pin XLR Male to 3-Pin XLR Female Audio Cable (10′)
- 2 x Auray Tripod-Boom Mic Stand
- Audio-Technica ATH-M20 – Closed-Back Headphone
- Auray Nylon Round Pop Filter with Gooseneck (6.6″)
- M-Audio Oxygen 49 -USB MIDI Controller
How To Be a Famous Singer
If you are asking how to be a famous singer, you will probably get a dozen different answers from a dozen different people. But one thing you can be absolutely sure of is that you will need a recording of yourself singing. This article will show how you can do that.
Last night’s excellent episode of Glee (the Saturday Night Fever one) posed some fantastic questions that hit a little too close to home (yes, I was in “vocal band” in high school, which is what passed for the kind of glee club or show choir they have on Glee). I so wish I could send this article to my high school self. Anyway, the teacher, Will Schuester, was worried about some very talented seniors in the glee club – NOT because they weren’t talented, but because though they wanted to be famous, they didn’t know how.
Santana, was totally sure that she would become famous. She just couldn’t tell anyone how or for what. Mercedes knew for sure she wanted to be a famous singer, but she didn’t know what to do to make it happen. So many kids have the dream of being famous singers. They just don’t have a plan. Since there are so many paths to this goal, I’m not going to espouse any particular one. But no matter what path you decide to take, you’re going to need a demo recording at the very least, and a preferably an entire album that people can buy.
How To Record Your Own Album or Demo
In the past there was really only one way to record your singing, and that was to go to a recording studio. It was expensive then and is expensive still, typically around $40-$50 per hour. It takes a long time to record just one song, so the cost gets really high, really fast, especially for a full album.
Until very recently the only way to get truly professional quality recording done was via the above commercial studio route. In fact, there are people who still believe that. They are wrong. Here is what you will need to record professional audio from home.
- A computer – In 2013, just about any computer will be all you need.
- An audio interface – This is a small box that plugs into your computer (usually) via USB. You’ll plug your microphone into this. Get the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, which has two mic inputs ($150).
- A microphone – There are lots of types. You’ll want a studio condenser type of mic such as the Audio-Technica AT2020 ($82).
- Recording software – There are lots programs. Get one called Reaper, which is awesome and only $60. Download it now.
- A few extras – Get a mic stand, a mic cable, a pop screen, and a pair of headphones.
The above represents what I consider to be a starter studio capable of producing pro audio at the lowest cost. Everything above will run about $300, which would be about the same amount it would cost to record 2, maybe 3 songs at a studio. I worked with B&H Photo-Video-Audio to create a home recording starter bundle – pictured on the right – for only $260.25. CLICK HERE for more info or to purchase that.
So many kids have the dream of being famous singers. They just don’t have a plan. Since there are so many paths to this goal, I’m not going to espouse any particular one. But no matter what path you decide to take, you’re going to need a demo recording at the very least, and a preferably an entire album that people can buy.
Recording Your Songs
There are too many variations in music styles to go over every possibility, so I’ll describe how to do it with an acoustic guitar and singer, a very basic and simple example.
Open Reaper software and create one track. See this video on how to do that (plus a few other things to get started with Reaper) – Reaper Tutorial Video.
Record the guitar part (if you don’t play guitar, obviously you’ll need to ask a friend who does to come over) using the same method from the video. Just face the mic about 6-10 inches from the part on the guitar where the neck meets the fret board or around the 12th fret.
Once the guitar part is recorded, disarm the record button (just press/click it until the red light goes off) on the guitar track, and open a second track so you can record your voice. Again, the video shows how to do this (open a second track). This time make sure any speakers are turned off. Otherwise the guitar playback will get picked up by the mic when you are singing. Of course, you’ll need to hear that guitar track somehow in order to sing along, right? That is what the headphones are for. Plug those into your interface box (the Fast Track or whatever kind you have) and put them on your noggin.
Now arm track 2 for recording (make doubly sure track one is NOT armed to record) and record your voice by singing along while listening to the guitar part. I recommend doing this step (recording your voice) 2 or 3 times (on tracks 3, 4 and 5, for example) so you can choose the one that sounded the best.
Once you have a vocal track that sounds good, mute (click the “M” on the track control panel) or even delete the vocal tracks that were not keepers. Then play your song and adjust the volumes (yes, this is shown in the video too:)) of the guitar and voice until they sound good together.
Save the song in Reaper, and do this again for the next song, and the next, until you have all the songs for your album or demo recorded. Save all the songs (called Rendering in Reaper) as 16-bit stereo wav files and put them all in the same folder on your computer.
Creating and Selling Your Album
Burn your songs to a CD
This used to be so hard and now it is incredibly easy. I love living in the 21st century:). OK, so what to do with your song files – decide what order you want them to be in and then simply burn them to a CD using a program like NERO or even Windows can burn CDs now.
Album Art
Once that is done, you’ll need some album cover art. You can do this in any graphics program like Photoshop, Gimp or Paintshop Pro.
Create Album in Kunaki
When you have the songs recorded and the artwork done, go to a site called Kunaki, which is an incredible service (a FREE service!) that lets you upload your songs and artwork, and then they create the album for you! You can get physical copies of that CD mailed to you for $1.00 per CD, and the artwork looks fantastic! But don’t get too many physical copies just yet. Remember that we live in the digital age. You’ll want to make your album available on iTunes and all the other digital stores. Here’s how to do that.
Make Your Album Available on iTunes
Once you have received at least one copy of your physical CD from Kunaki, and made sure there were not typos and that the CD plays OK, it’s time to go to CD Baby, another awesome internet service that costs just $49 per album. You simply visit the site and follow their directions for setting up your album. Send them a copy of your CD, which is easy with Kunaki. Just tell Kunaki to mail a copy to CD Baby. Once the album is all set up on CD Baby, they do all the work of making it available not just on iTunes, but also Amazon, Spotify, Facebook, CD Baby itself, and 2000+ record stores. How’s that for awesome?
Now all you have to do is tell your fans or soon-to-be-fans how to get your CD/album/mp3s. You can send them straight to your page on CD Baby, or to you iTunes link, or to your Facebook page. They can listen to clips of your music for free and then buy either the entire album or individual song mp3s. CD Baby even has an awesome widget that sets up a store for you on your Facebook page. When someone buys the physical CD from CD Baby, they (CD Baby) will handle the order processing and shipping (excellent!). Periodically, CD Baby will ask for more CDs. When they do, just have Kunaki ship them.
That is really all there is to it. You now have an album/CD people can buy. Yes, this was a simple album example. But the process is the same regardless of what kind of music you record. You may have to buy some extra and different equipment to suit your individual needs. If you have a full band you want to record, for instance, you might want an interface that records 8 or more tracks at a time.
Here at Home Brew Audio we are constantly posting new articles on how to do recording. Right now we have well over 200 articles available to anyone to peruse. We also have video tutorials available, such as our courses, The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness, How To Build A Home Recording Studio, and more. If we don’t have an article or tutorial that shows you how to do what you need to do, please let us know by the comment section below and I will make sure we get one done ASAP.
There are many roads to becoming a successful singer, but they will all involve having your own recording. Now you know that you don’t need to save up thousands of dollars for a recording studio whenever you want to record. Learn how to do it yourself in the comfort of your own room at home. We’ll show you how.
If you’d like to see and hear some examples of songs recorded on my modest home studio right here in a converted bedroom, check out the following:
Cover of That Thing You Do!
Cover of My Eyes (from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
Harmony examples (where I sang all the parts) – click the “music” player on the top of the page
Ken Theriot CD Baby page – This is my music, all recorded as described in this article and an example of what you can have on CD Baby