Home Studio Tips: #5: Recording as a pathway to the truth.
Nov 2, 2014 7:28:50 GMT -7
The Bad Poodle Experience, Eddie, and 10 more like this
Post by Deleted on Nov 2, 2014 7:28:50 GMT -7
A lot of questions we ask ourselves about 'better sound, better mix, better tones' when looked at closely come down to a players actual performance.
Recording yourself and listening back can be the most brutal, truthful look at your playing.
If players in the band aren't locked in no amount of great gear is going to help that sound better.
If the bass player is ahead of the beat you won't be able to get the bass or the drums sounding good and everything you put on after will suffer from this shaky foundation.
The same goes for when you are overdubbing several instruments yourself. Usually players are sort of 'chronic' when it comes to their "time" meaning, If you are in front of the beat, you are usually in front of the beat.
The differences in how we play, in front, in back or right in the middle give us our personal "feel" but at a certain point what could be 'feel' is just bad time from the player.
If you want to get a good mix and a powerful performance recorded you need to be honest with yourself about your "time".
It takes practice to play in time.
Some players complain about "playing with the click". In my world you only get to complain about the click if you can play with it flawlessly. If a drummer or a band can do that, fine, let's turn it off and play. That said, most really good players that I record are happy to have the click there to take the guesswork out of being in time. Even if it's just for the intro and gets turned off a few bars into the song.
When your performance is "in time" everything you do starts to shine, mixing will be easier, you'll be using less plugins, on and on. It'll just sound and feel better, a whole lot better.
Now all the digital recorders have ways to 'fix' time but going down that route can be a real rabbit hole. It's worth the time to record yourself, and be honest about where you are with the beat. Work on getting better. Besides playing in tune it's the best thing you can possibly do to make every single thing you play sound that more powerful.
I'm not saying I don't fix stuff in the studio digitally. If I record a great track and it has a couple bumps in the road I'll fix them but if it's more than a few you are better off working on a better take.
Go ahead and record yourself playing with a drum loop or pattern and use the computer and the bar lines to hear and see what's up with your time. If you can learn to 'lock in' everything you do will sound better, a lot better.
Recording yourself and listening back can be the most brutal, truthful look at your playing.
If players in the band aren't locked in no amount of great gear is going to help that sound better.
If the bass player is ahead of the beat you won't be able to get the bass or the drums sounding good and everything you put on after will suffer from this shaky foundation.
The same goes for when you are overdubbing several instruments yourself. Usually players are sort of 'chronic' when it comes to their "time" meaning, If you are in front of the beat, you are usually in front of the beat.
The differences in how we play, in front, in back or right in the middle give us our personal "feel" but at a certain point what could be 'feel' is just bad time from the player.
If you want to get a good mix and a powerful performance recorded you need to be honest with yourself about your "time".
It takes practice to play in time.
Some players complain about "playing with the click". In my world you only get to complain about the click if you can play with it flawlessly. If a drummer or a band can do that, fine, let's turn it off and play. That said, most really good players that I record are happy to have the click there to take the guesswork out of being in time. Even if it's just for the intro and gets turned off a few bars into the song.
When your performance is "in time" everything you do starts to shine, mixing will be easier, you'll be using less plugins, on and on. It'll just sound and feel better, a whole lot better.
Now all the digital recorders have ways to 'fix' time but going down that route can be a real rabbit hole. It's worth the time to record yourself, and be honest about where you are with the beat. Work on getting better. Besides playing in tune it's the best thing you can possibly do to make every single thing you play sound that more powerful.
I'm not saying I don't fix stuff in the studio digitally. If I record a great track and it has a couple bumps in the road I'll fix them but if it's more than a few you are better off working on a better take.
Go ahead and record yourself playing with a drum loop or pattern and use the computer and the bar lines to hear and see what's up with your time. If you can learn to 'lock in' everything you do will sound better, a lot better.