12 Tips for improving the quality of your recordings

1. When recording to digital - keep your levels a bit more conservative. Aim for -18dBFS when recording at 24-bit. And at 16-bit? Best to just stick to 24-bit. Don't worry about levels looking low on the meters, and don't worry about "having less bits available". You're still getting 21 bits, which is about the maximum you can actually encode from the analogue side anyway. You're not losing anything, and you're getting decent digital headroom and much bigger/more dynamic sound. Try it!

2. The best EQ you'll ever get is on the end of the microphone. Spend time getting an awesome sound from the microphone itself, and your mixing will be much easier. Get the mic/instrument position nailed and try different mics if the sound's not working for you. Omnis are awesome. Don't think the most expensive mic is always the best, either - the humble Shure 57 and Sennheiser 421 are more than just drum mics.

3. Don't over-compress everything. Be judicious when you compress - be aware of what you are trying to achieve. Are you even-ing out the performance of a bass track? Or compressing the drums to get a particular texture? Don't just do it to "turn it up". That's what the faders are for. If you want your overall mix to sound louder - get the mastering engineer to do it. Over-compressing will rob your song of "punch" and fatness.

4. Set the compressor release-time so it works with the rhythm of the track. Set it as long as possible but so level reduction still manages to get back up to unity before the next beat/phrase. Then fine-tune so it adds to the groove. It's tempo-based.

5. Work with the song arrangement. The maximum volume in any given song is divided into however many sounds/instruments you have playing at the same time. 20 small guitars do not usually sound as impressive as one big guitar. (They might have an interesting texture though). The instruments in a 3-piece band will sound bigger than those in a 12-piece band UNLESS you deliberately leave space for each instrument at different parts of the song. Don't be afraid to cut things out, or to have musicians not play at various points - which leads into...

6. Create contrast. On the subject of arrangement - take a leaf out of Nirvana's songbook - create big contrasts between, for example, verses and choruses. "Loud" only sounds loud if it's got some "quiet" to compare against. Another reason to watch your compression, too. Try subtly easing down the rhythm guitar level as you go through the verse, and then suddenly bring it back up to the original level for the chorus. Sounds loud again, doesn't it?

7. Commit. Don't record 70 takes of a vocal track and then edit it later. Why didn't you just keep doing punch-ins until it was right? Now you're going to have to spend 6 hours trying to edit vocals when you could have got a decent take in probably an extra half-hour. Murphy's law will also make sure that NONE of those 70 takes contains a good first line of the third verse.

And if you think that the rhythm guitar sounds perfect with that grottelflange pedal on it - record it like that! If you're paranoid - capture both versions - and keep the clean guitar track in a backup session.
In other words - don't defer all your decisions till the mix - make a call and go with it.

8. Be daring. Bands don't usually become famous for sounding just like other bands (maybe in the short-term). They become famous for being unique. If the band sounds like everyone else, you'd better be trying hard to find something unique in there and be highlighting it. Or find a unique way to present them in the recording by your approach. Don't be scared to go "over-the-top" with effects - you can always make them more conservative if you have to, but it's almost impossible to go the other way once you're used to the sound you have.

9. Err on the side of performance. There's magic in a good performance. Does it give you goose-bumps? Better to have a piece of music that moves you than something that's technically perfect but "cold". This is where an experienced band can nail it - they can give a good performance early-on, before they get bored. By the way - don't run-through the whole song when sound-checking otherwise the performers get stale before you're ready. And why weren't you recording already anyway!?!?!

10. Highlight character. Often it's the imperfections that make our ears prick up. Ideally the imperfections shouldn't be big enough to ruin the song, though. Have you often thought the demo of a song is better than the final recording? What made the demo unique? Don't try to make every instrument "perfect". Don't EQ instruments while they are solo'ed - you'll end up trying to make everything sound fat and full, which adds up to "bland". Try to make at least one sound unique in the mix.

11. The mixdown is a performance too. If the levels are static in your mix, it's going to sound boring. The human brain is wired to detect change. You better have some stuff changing through the song to keep the listener's brain stimulated. If you have an interesting arrangement, you probably don't need to worry so much about eg levels changing through the mix, but if your mix lacks contrast, you'd better be riding those controls. Think of the song like a movie - what's the camera looking at now?

12. Use your ears - not your eyes. One of the dangers of digital recording is that we can see what the waveform looks like. And what the levels look like. And what the EQ curve on the plug-in looks like. Turn off the display when you're doing your critical listening. Don't move all the drum beats and bass and guitar perfectly in time - they'll sound tighter but thinner. Don't tweak your EQ until it "looks" better. Have you noticed how you notice things differently while you're bouncing the final mix?

Busy week - recording jazz

I've had to put my own stuff on the back-burner for a bit since work's been so busy.

It's that time of the year when the tutors are rostered on for spending a week in the studio with the Diploma Audio students recording two songs for each of the Diploma Music bands. It's fun, but even regular admin work has to be done after 6pm each night, never mind any classes that have to be prepared, marking etc.

Also - went and recorded Mark Baynes' jazz trio live at the Lewis Eady piano showroom the other night with some students - Mark played on a $185,000 Steinway! Nice. The recording came out well.

I was a bit worried - I would usually use something like Pro Tools and a Digi 003, but we needed more mics (stupid 003 only has 4 mic preamps) so we ended up using my own Presonus Firestudio and my MacBook Pro running Logic 9. Two 50-odd minute sets went down without a hitch. Logic 9 somehow seems to sound better than previous versions!

MAINZ tutor and microphone-setup guru Paul Streekstra did the mic'ing up. Mostly omni mics - pair of Earthworks QTC50's over the piano, pair of Neumann Km133 omnis over drum kit and EV RE27 on bass drum. DI'd upright bass (he was playing through an amp) to which we ended up adding the "spare" Shure 57 pointing at the f-hole. It actually sounded great - hehe the good ol' 57 still works well. Not just a snare mic after all.

The students really enjoyed it - they often over-think things and try to get too tricky with microphone placement, and even their mic choice.

Songwriting - can it be taught?

I just spent the weekend at a songwriting workshop by Jason Blume. It was awesome.

This is the second one I've participated in, and to be honest because I'd helped organise my workplace to host the workshop, I got to go for free.

I'd always been a bit hesitant about going along to workshops and training seminars about songwriting, because I always figured "I don't want somebody to give me rules that I have to stick to - I want to make my own ORIGINAL music, maaaan" (That last because I'm kind of whining as I think that).

This is also why I resisted learning music theory ;o)

Anyhoo - now that I've been to a few of these things, I realise that they DON'T rob you of your unique voice and creative centre - in fact it's more liberating if anything, because one of the main things that Jason expounds is that there are no rules. You can make whatever music you want, and it's all great.

However - he is a storehouse of astute observations about songwriting (as well as the music and song publishing industries). So rather than saying what is right and what is wrong, he will point out that most of the popular songs have certain things in common - for example a chorus that has a memorable melody and lyric, and that can deliver an appropriate emotional reaction.

Jason will not tell you how to write your chorus, but he might certainly observe that it doesn't really sound different from the verse, or that the song drops rather than lifts at that point, or the words or phrasing don't't make sense, or something along those lines.

He also makes a distinction between songs written by people for their own pleasure, and those who write for the public - if you are writing for yourself feel free to do whatever you want, if you are doing it for others, then it's probably good to make it easy for them to engage with, and hopefully remember your song.

One of the most interesting things Jason does is to critique songs that people bring along to the workshop (either on CD/iPod or playing them live).

This is a real eye-opener, as you can see and hear yourself all the flaws in other people's (and your own!) submissions, especially by the end of the second day, where you are more aware of the aspects to look for.

It becomes obvious that a good song not only has to be a unique, creative and detailed viewpoint of something, but also needs to be well-crafted to highlight its own good points rather than destroy them.
After so many meandering singer-songwriter instrospectives (I've been guilty of doing this for many years as well), it's actually refreshing to hear simplicity and repetition. Half the problem is that everybody wants to be "clever", and instead they end up with cumbersome and meandering and forgetful.

Last year my own submission, which of course I was sooooo proud of - (then my current latest and greatest!), was exposed as having three different verses that all had different structures, and lyrics that mostly failed to be a unique way to say what I wanted to say. It was true - it wasn't a bad song by any means, but all you songwriters out there must know what it feels like to play your song to somebody and hear it though their ears as you listen? I was cringeing.

Over the last year I have taken on board a lot of what Jason taught me at the last workshop - I had written what I felt was a much better song - simpler verses, more repetitive, stronger melodies, a great chorus line. But I was anxious about the verse lyrics, having already thrown them all away a couple of times already and going back almost to the original idea. The lyrics still needed a lot of work to create a solid setup for the choruses, though.
A couple of the lines were even the original scratch lines I jammed along to it when I was first writing the song. One line was a complete throw-away and a bit of a joke. "Check one-two". Whaaaat?

I had hoped to fix a couple of these lines before the second day of the workshop - but some problems with an Apple OSX update corrupted my Logic song session, so I had to submit it as it was.

I actually began to regret putting my song in the submission pile - as the stack grew shorter towards my own disc I grew more and more nervous. "Check one-two!?!?!!" Oh my god, what a stupid line!

Finally, Jason worked down to my own submission. My heart was racing. He put my lyrics up on the projector. There were some snickers and giggles - oh the humiliation!
He flipped the disc in the player and hit play.

Doesn't sound toooo bad, nice hooky intro rhythm, clean verse lines (Argh those lyrics! Argh I hate the sound of my own voice). Kicks up into the pre-chorus, then bang into the chorus - phew - relatively safe. Then suddenly STOP!!!!!!

Jason cuts the song. He says "There are two major problems with this song". My blood pressure has skyrocketed, my heart rate is so high it's like I've sniffed Amyl Nitrate and the blood has drained from my face. I'm now sure I'm going into cardiac arrest and I'm almost welcoming the unconsciousness that will soon release me from this embarrasment. I've failed again!

"There are two major problems with this song - it's not on the radio and my name's not on it". The room breaks into applause. My friends laugh at me. I manage a feeble "woo-hoo" and a shaky unconvincing smile. I feel a sense of relief - almost like managing to pass my driving test or an exam.
It's not until later on when we have a break, when people come up to me to congratulate me and teenagers get my email address that I feel like I've achieved something special.

I guess for myself, songwriting workshops have been a relatively positive thing so far.

Edit: Oh if you want to have a listen: FallingMix3 by Mr Zeberdee