Chapter 3 – “Production Tips & Tricks”
Hello friends,
Before I get started, I realize th...
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Chapter 3 – “Production Tips & Tricks”
Hello friends,
Before I get started, I realize that this chapter might be a bit “Out There” for those of you who aren’t musicians. I feel as though some of the things that I’m about to discuss may even sound like gibberish to musicians who are perhaps less experienced (or tech savvy) in terms of Music Production & Recording.
With that said, today is Wednesday, and that means that tomorrow I’ll be in the aforementioned “Good Studio” at my school, recording some grand ‘Grand Piano’ parts and re-recording everything I’ve done up to this point (excluding the drums). The equipment that I have at my disposal at home is simply of an inferior quality to what I’ll be using there. Exciting indeed!
I promise pictures and details very soon, but most importantly I’m going to have a finished song for you to listen to in about two weeks!
Check back soon…
Where we left off:
In the previous chapter I discussed creating “The Guide” for my song - ‘Love has never been a Friend of Mine’. Below is what the session looked at the end of last week. During the last few days, I’d worked mainly on the Drum Tracks, which meant taking the single ‘Drum Loop’ track (that had only Kicks & Snares) and creating something that was more songlike.
* Image 1: ‘Pro-Tools’ Guide Session.
Also in the previous chapter, I promised to go into more detail about the 3 FX Channels (Green) that appear in ‘Image 1’. These are the FX that I used while I was recording the Guitar & Vocal tracks, so lets start from there.
Whether you’re a musician recording in a ‘Home Studio’ environment or if you’re working in a professional studio with the help of an Engineer/Producer, one of the keys to getting a quality performance lies in the ‘Headphone Mix’. For those who aren’t familiar with the jargon, the ‘Headphone Mix’ is what the performer is hearing while he/she is singing or playing their instrument. It’s basically a combination of what you’re Recording “Now” on top of what’s been recorded previously. Needless to say it’s worth spending some time getting the levels right making sure that you (or the musicians you’re working with) are comfortable.
Depending on the song and instrument that’s being recorded, I would also recommend adding some FX to the ‘Headphone Mix’ (Reverb, Delay, etc), especially while you’re recording Vocals. When you’re recording a performance, these type of FX will make it sound much closer to how it should ultimately sound in the final mix, which will in turn make the performance better.
FX used while I was recording Vocals for ‘The Guide’:
* The Vocal Channel is the one in blue and the two FX are in Green. As you can see, the Vocals are being sent through two separate Stereo Busses.
(1) Bus 1-2 = Reverb1
(2) Bus 3-4 = Vocals Delay
If you look at the top of the image, on the Green Channels, you will see that I’ve added an EQ Plug-in to both FX (marked ‘7-Band EQ3’) and also added a Reverb (marked ‘D-Verb’) on to the Delay Channel.
The idea is to customize the sound of the FX in an attempt to make everything blend together nicely.
I setup the FX and ‘Bus Sends’ before I’d started recording the Vocals and voila… It feels like I’m singing in a stadium!
Another thing worth mentioning about using FX in this manner is that they will be present in the ‘Headphone Mix’, while the actual tracks that are being recorded (in this case the Vocals) will remain unaffected. This means that I can make adjustments to the FX later on, or use different FX if I want to.
To complete the picture, here are the FX settings/parameters that I’d used while recording the ‘Vocals Guide’.
Reverb_1
Vocals Delay
In terms of Drums & Percussive Tracks for this song, I'll be working with Samples. If you go back to ‘Image 1’ and have a look at the drum tracks that existed when I started recording, you’ll see 1 Stereo track (titled ‘Drum Loop’).
In the following image there are 9 tracks, one for each sound, which are noticeably “Chopped Up” into little bits. I’ve basically constructed the drum patterns using a tempo based grid. I’m pretty sure I’ll be adding a few more sounds as the song progresses, but what I have so far is a pretty good representation of what things are going to sound like at the end.
* The 3 tracks colored in Green are FX channels that I’m using on the Drums at the moment. The Reverb is pretty standard, but the Snare & Kick Delays are quite intricate. I’ll go into a bit more detail about them when I write about the mix.
In case you were wondering why I have two ‘Kick’ (Drum) tracks, I used two different samples that blended well together. One has a nice “Punchy” natural sound to it, and the other has quite a lot of Low/Sub frequencies present.
Generally speaking, if you’ve recorded real Drums and the recorded sound isn’t (and can’t be made into) what you’re looking for, you can actually add a new track to your session and paste a ‘Sampled Kick’ to play in sync with the original, and you can do the same with other ‘Drum Sounds’ if needed. This process might take a while, but it’s guaranteed to give you the sound you’re after. You get to choose it!
* Feel free to leave comments about anything. Ask questions about anything. Or just show some love.
Best wishes, Gigs
