I recently decided that I’d expand my blogosphere a bit, and reach into the teaching realm with some basic engineering techniques that every artist should be doing if mixing their own material, or at a minimum, tracking their own material. Almost everyone I know in this business, signed or unsigned, is tracking at home these days. Some do so very well, and some do so very poorly. Considering I’ve done work for some of your favorite artists, you’d likely be surprised at who’s doing it right and wrong. Not to say there’s no gray area in this realm, there’s plenty, but I’d rather take a pinpoint approach and say if you’re going to do it, then do it with some “best practices” instead of “it works for me”. It may work for you, but as soon as you hand off that material to the engineer, you’re about to lose a friend… let’s not go there if we can avoid it.What I’d like to do here, is get a general consensus of some topics you, the viewer, would like me to cover in these “Engineering: 101” postings. Since most of you who read this blog would rather email me than comment on the post, feel free to submit your topical suggestions via either method. Of course, it would be nice to have the suggestions all conveniently located here in this initial posting.
First let me place this precursor out there… I am not the end-all of engineering. In the grand scheme of things, my 8 years behind the boards is nothing compared to the people I try to emulate in my work. I don’t know everything, and I don’t presume to know everything, but I can certainly find out, or figure it out if you ask. Just because I say it, or do it, doesn’t mean it’s how you have to do it, or should do it. Even if I think you should… Also, I will often use paraphrased content from other engineers I've read from. I won't label it as such, as it's all my opinion as well, so if you find something on Google which resembles something I've written here, don't get all mad at me. Please consult your physician before starting any engineering plans prescribed by me.
With that said, let’s embark on today’s lesson… “Your Signal Chain”
The last few years have seen vast improvements in home audio technology. The Prosumer market is saturated with DAW’s and Digital Interfaces which all play a role in your signal chain. This is the most often overlooked area in home recording in my opinion, and it’s generally due to budget. You could easily spend upwards of $10,000 on A/D converters or pre-amps and microphones to improve one measly portion of your signal chain. However, I expect most of you are like me, and don’t have that kind of coin to spend. So we’ll assume we all want the best bang for our buck, and that buck is very short right now.
There are 5 main areas we need to be concerned with in our signal chain and they are:
1. The Source. This is the vocalist or instrument you will record. Some people will argue that it’s the most important part of your signal chain, but I’m not one of them. Especially in the realm of hip-hop, we can get away with some particular things that other genre’s can’t, typically being, poor vocals. Just remember, some of you dudes should never try to sing on a record… ever.
2. Microphone. To me, this is a very important piece of the chain. Many things to consider when picking your microphone for purchase, like self-noise (the lower the better), frequency range (the wider the better), and also what polar pattern it uses, so it can capture most of what you need, and reject other ambient sounds that you don’t want mucking up your recordings. I’m not of the belief that the more you spend on a mic, the better the mic will be. Blue Bottle anyone? So don’t be upset when your Nuemann u87 is full of static and I can make an NT1 sound better than it. Money can’t buy quality if you don’t know how to use it.
3. Mic Pre. Important, however, the only important consideration for this section, is that it is CLEAN. The mic pre has one job, and one job only, which is to boost the microphone signal to an acceptable level for tracking. Some mic pre’s color the sound, cause static, etc… you do NOT want that. Keep it clean, keep it simple. Do your research on your mixer or dedicated preamp. Read reviews, test it at Guitar Center, what have you. Just do your research, please.
4. A/D converter. This is generally in your Firepod, M-Box, Digi 002, or if you’re like me, a Prosumer Sound Card. This is a vital part of your chain, and a very common area where people often cheap out. A/D converters come in many shapes and sizes, and people assume if it’s got a certain name on it *cough*ProTools*cough* that it’s great quality. Well, this isn’t so. Many high profile companies have taken the cheap route on A/D converters as they assume you’ll be using a standalone converter and bypassing their integrated one altogether. Thanks for making that assumption! We appreciate your lack of effort…
5. Computer. You really want a hefty and powerful CPU with a dedicated Audio Only HDD on which to store your digital gold. Too many people are using their work laptops as their DAW’s as well. It’s really sad when you can build a dedicated studio PC for less than $400.
If you have static recordings full of ambient noise and garbled vocals, you likely have a problem in your signal chain somewhere. Got digital bubbles and pops in your otherwise clean recordings? You’re A/D converter isn’t performing up to snuff. Your vocals peaking and clipping in your recordings? Well, that’s a tracking issue, and we’ll cover that in our next installment…
Remember to get at me with your requests for topics.
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