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We learn through our recording process to use our ears, close our eyes, don't look at the levels, and such, but there are times when the senses come together in goosebump inducing glory.

I personally strive for "looseness" in my recordings, that's just my preference.

Here's some examples that make me go crazy with excitement :

* when Marty Mcfly gets on stage in "Back to the futue" and you hear him plug in to the amp, you can hear ...

Tags: another perspective, food for thought, music in the movies

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Recording Tactics , Music Rambling

It has been said a million times, but don’t mix with your eyes!! Seems simple enough, however, when using a typical DAW setup, it is a difficult thing to actually follow through on. For the longest time I had a hard time really perceiving depth in a mix. Adding reverb, delays etc. ended up making a mess because I just couldn’t sense where things were being placed. So in the search to try and find out why that was, I started turning off my monitors every now and then so I could listen to the ...

Tags: audio, depth, mix, perception

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Recording Tactics

Hi there,

I won't write a book but I think this is a really interesting simple thing to test.

We all know that singers are selfish and that they want to hear themselves at least 10dBs more than the rest of the mix while recording.

I recorded 6 different singers until now, so I've not a lot of experience. But funnily, they all worked the same even if their skills were not equal.

Their performances were always better when the vox level in ...

Updated 01-07-2013 at 01:55 PM by kakeux

Tags: headphones, level, mix, vocal

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Recording Tactics

I am working on a blues album. I am to record horn tracks starting next Sunday. The room is set up with all musicians facing each other with gobos 120 degrees off center like spokes in a wheel. All looking towards the center. The center gobos are high enough so each musician can see the other musicians. All using charts. They can also look through the windows into the control room.
Trumpet Neumann U87,
Sax Neumann TLM 103.
What to use on the trombone?

In recording ...

There are times when you look around and wonder aloud, "When in the world did this happen?!", followed by, "Why?"

The modern orthodoxy for panning expectations of other folks who record music seems to have the following rules... Stop right there. No nonsense about "breaking rules is what I'm about, man" and "I'm too rock-and-roll for any of that 'rules' jive." I hear this from virtually everyone's mouth and a vast majority of the rock records ...

Tags: mixing, momo, panning, reverb, stereo

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Recording Tactics

I had posted this in july's digital cup comp and had a few say that i should post this as a blog post. There were a few that had said that they had learned some things from this post on compression so here it is. Here are 5 of the top compression mistakes that I've come across over the years. If your guilty of any (or all) of ...

Edit: Well this is cute. My video isn't showing up. Hmmm.


I started a thread where I discussed this concept http://forum.recordingreview.com/f8/...limiter-46447/ , but what I’m up to is so foreign that I’m not even sure I get it. I went ahead and made this video to explain myself a little more clearly.

-- I do feel that I’m on to something and a certain segment of my clients would dig this kind of sound. (I’m also ...

Updated 06-16-2012 at 09:57 PM by brandondrury

Tags: brickwall limiting, metal snare compression

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Recording Tactics

Okay, so I don’t exactly know what I’m doing here. I just want to help out, and I’m trying to figure out my own way. I would like to talk about mixing ITB and SOUNDS. So I’m just going to type stream-of-consciousness and hope that that will get the points I wanted to address across. The veterans here will probably know about some of the things I will cover. This isn’t really geared toward them. This is for people mixing in the box who are trying to get their mixes to translate better. But I would ...

Hey everybody!
It's not about how to choose right compressor ratio or best mic for reamping hihat.
It's about strategy and tactic and my own fiasco.

In order to take whole city army general should round the city, close all escape route and just wait. If general is brainless he will assault city with many casualties from both sides and main forces form other side came freely go away from open sides from the cities.

In order to take down a listener, bad ...

Every released recording, every signed-off mix, is a result of hundreds or thousands of individual decisions. These range from the big (does the world actually need a harmonica version of Eruption) to the detailed (what Q setting should I use for the mid-range cut on the glockenspiel solo).
One of my largest personal hurdles in getting things done with music has long been the concern that there might be a "better option" for any given decision. The hard-won (in some case the REALLY ...

I am some what new to rock and metal music... So i appraoched the mix causiously, looking up various reference tracks on youtube. Then I loaded all the tracks did a rough mix and headed to bed..

When i came back to the mix I listened and analyzed it,, see what it was doing where it was going, then i focused on the drums- I routed the whole drum kit to a plate reverb somewhat tight and short then added some gates on the toms with a bit of eq, also used some low pass and high pass filters ...

Tags: christmas contest, heatrokk studios, jesse, jpierre, riendeer rockus

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Recording Tactics

Hi everyone! I have finally got around to realising that small hobby of mine here in UK. In this blog I plan on posting my adventures of recording live at clubs, pubs and wherever this thing takes me. Hopefully someone might find it interesting, someone could have some good suggestions. Or just have something to read...

Last night I headed down to a local Irish pub to do a quick trial recording. The setup was pretty simple, but it looks like it worked ok. Allright, here's the gear: ...

Tags: live, reaper, recording

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Recording Tactics

[en]
If you want to refresh your knowledges about EQ, here is Brandon's tour about it.
As expected, I just finish a french translation.

If you want me to translate some others, please let me know.

-------------------------------------------------------

[fr]
Pour ceux qui veulent des explications sur l'égaliseur (en général), je viens de traduire un article de Brandon Drury que vous pouvez retrouver sur mon blog.
En espérant ...

Tags: equalizer, translation

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Recording Tactics

Well, it's good to make sure all tracks sound great by themselves.. but it has to be a breed of great that can tolerate the other great tracks blending with it without losing its audible goodness that you heard with the solo button on. That's why it is always important to dive in and out of the solo button when configuring an individual track, that way you hear it within the context of the entire mix. If you spend too long with the solo button on, you may realize you made a mistake when you have

...

Skip to 45:06. If you are in a hurry, skip to 46:40.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGwaHBH4_Oo


This is the mindset of A-list engineers doing music that people still, mostly, buy. While you may prefer the sonic aesthetic of 1970s levels, I think it would be wise to consider this approach. It's the mindset I've adapted.

To those who are having trouble making their music sound good AND loud, I'd do more ...

Updated 07-19-2011 at 01:51 PM by brandondrury

Tags: dave pensado, loudness war, pensado's place

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Recording Tactics