Monthly Archives: April 2012

Choosing the Right Recording Level: Matt’s Mixing Advice, Part III

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We’re back with the third and final tip from Matt in his series on mixing. If you missed his previous posts, check them out (Part I and Part II).

Tip #3: Level Up: How To Choose Good Levels For Recording

“Turn up the gain!” … “Turn up the volume!”  Many people think these are the same requests, but they are very different.  Let’s look at what they both mean and how to use our understanding of gain and volume to get good recording levels.  First we will look at gain.

Gain is the amount of amplitude you are allowing to enter in to your audio circuit or microphone.

Picture a very nice studio microphone in your room with a large clear red ball around it.  Let’s pretend that ball represents everything your microphone is actually recording.  Anything outside of that ball will not be recorded.  In this example, let us say that you are currently sitting outside of that ball.  If you were to speak it would be heard, but very faintly.

Now, picture yourself turning up a knob that says, “gain” on it.  As you do this, the red ball increases in size, while remaining centered around the microphone.  Since you turned it up and the ball grew, you are now inside of the circle.  Picture yourself turning that “Gain” knob back down.  As you do this, that ball gets smaller and you are no longer in the circle.  Lastly, picture that you turn the “gain” knob all the way up and the ball fills the entire room!

This is exactly how gain works.  As you turn your gain up or down, you are choosing how much space and sound around the microphone you will record. If you turn the gain down too low, you will not be able to hear anything that is not close to the microphone.  If you turn the gain too high, you will be letting too much signal in to the circuit and will begin to hear a lot of “room sound” and introducing possible noise and distortion in to your recording.

Now that we know gain lets us choose what we record around the microphone, let us look at what volume does.

Volume controls how loud your recording is.  Volume does not in any way choose what is recorded, just how loud it is.  For example, you could have your volume all the way down on your software, but if your gain knob is still up you are still allowing audio in to your recording circuit.  You will simply not be able to hear it.  As you bring this volume up, you will be able to hear what you recorded.

Again, gain chooses what you record.  Volume controls how loud it sounds to the listener.  Now that we have an understanding of that, let’s look at the biggest issue people seem to have with home studio recording: distortion.

Distortion happens when too much sound is going in to a recording channel.  When there is too much signal it causes the gear to cut off the unusable data and thus your sound is clipped and harsh.  You can tell this is happening when the clarity is gone and it sounds like your speakers are overloaded.  You will also see your audio appear maxed out in your DAW software.  You will need to monitor your signal so you can turn your gain up or down before you record.

One way to monitor your signal input is to buy gear with signal indicators on it.  You can find audio input devices that have small meters or even just one green light that turns red when the signal is clipping and distorting.  When using these indicator lights, it is best to try playing or singing at the loudest volume you intend to perform.  If the lights are constantly in the red, then your signal is probably clipping a lot.  You will need to turn down the gain.  It is ideal to adjust your gain knob so that your indicator is consistently just below the orange and almost never in the red.  This will give you maximum signal without distorting your track and allow you to have a powerful clear track to work with.

In the end, you need good gear set up in the proper position running over high quality cables.  Your audio sources need to be recorded at the proper levels in to a transparent and reliable piece of software.  That is how to get a good mix before you begin recording.  You need well-recorded source material so you can have a quality final product.

Well, that’s it for this series from Matt. Matt’s advice for all of us: Continue improving your skills.  Continue learning new audio production concepts.  Most importantly, continue to love music and keep jamming!

Couldn’t have said it better. Got comments or questions? Leave them here!

Microphone Positioning is Crucial: Matt’s Mixing Advice, Part II

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We’re back with the second post in a series by Matt, a fellow UJAM user and mixer extraordinaire. If you missed Matt’s first post, check it out. Now, where were we:

Tip #2: Location, Location, Location: Why Microphone Positioning Is Crucial To A Good Recording.

Think on this.  If you wanted to tell someone a secret, you would probably get close to them and whisper in to their ear. Your voice and their ear would be pointed directly towards one another.  You would not be on the opposite side of the room facing the corner and whispering.  That would make no sense!  You wouldn’t be able to hear them clearly.

In the same way, when you are recording, your microphone should be close to the source of sound and pointed towards it.  Think of your microphone as an ear listening for the sound of your instrument (whether a voice, drum, or piano). 

Here are some practical tips for microphone positioning.

Place the microphone at proper distance from your sound source.  Every sound is different in how loud it is and what sort of tone it has.  A string pluck is softer and more melodic than a snare drum hit.  A drum is more abrupt than a person singing a smooth, silky melody.   Despite this, as a general rule of thumb when recording in your home studio, you will want the microphone to be 6-12 inches away from the sound source.  This allows for the microphone to be close enough to pick up all of the rich tones of whatever you are recording.  You will not want the microphone much closer than that as you will begin to hear what is called the proximity effect. 

Proximity effect is when a microphone picks up low-end bass frequencies because it is close to the source of a sound.  These low-end frequencies often distort and cause a track to be “muddy” if you are not carefully looking for them and removing them.  In the same way, if a sound source is too far from a microphone, the microphone will not pick up the low end frequencies in the sound you are trying to record.  For example, if a singer is 6 feet away from a microphone, their voice may lack certain “richness” in the low-end frequency range.  This is why 6-12 inches is a good measurement for distance between a microphone and source sound.

Point the microphone towards the source and the source towards the microphone.  Microphones capture audio vibrations through what’s called their diaphragm.  The diaphragm then turns those vibrations in to electrical signals.  Those signals are then digitized through your computer’s audio card and then show up in your recording software.

In order to get the best possible signal to your DAW software, you must capture the vibrations well.  Ensure that the microphone you are using is pointed directly at what you’re recording.  This will allow the vibrations to go directly through the air in to the microphone.

For example, if you are recording a vocal, it is very beneficial to point the microphone towards the person’s mouth.  This will allow all of the rich low ends and crisp high frequencies to reach your microphone.  Have the singer facing the microphone directly on.  To test this, try recording once with the microphone pointed directly at the singer and the singer directly at the microphone.  Then, try having the singer turn and face a little to the left or right and record.  You will hear a major difference in the richness of their voice.

Use a stand and a pop filter.  Ever notice when you go to record that the sound distorts when you go to say the letter’s “P” or “B”?  That is because these sounds require extra pressure to be generated by your mouth.  This pressure is sent beyond your lips to the microphone.  Seeing as recordings are simply vibrations (sound pressure) being converted to digital signal, we must compensate for the extra pressure on the letters “P” and “B”.  To do this we place a small windscreen between the singer and the microphone.  These are not very expensive and can save your recordings from overloading.  This will help clean up your mix and give your vocals a little more consistent volume.

In the same way, vibrations from your hand or table can affect a recording.  To minimize extra sound pressure from being recorded, place your microphone on a proper stand using a suspended clip.  This suspended clip will hold the microphone using elastic bands, which will greatly stabilize the microphone allowing you to record the sounds you actually want.

Now that we have a good understanding of what gear to use, and where to set it up, we can start talking about the volume settings that will help us achieve the best mix. We’ll pick up with this in the next post, so stay tuned!

Got questions or comments for Matt? Leave them here.

UJAM User, Song Whiz: Matt’s Mixing Advice, Part I

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You’ve seen by now that this blog hosts an array of talented writers and thinkers about all things music. Gary Ewer recently gave us a fantastic introductory series on creating songs that work (Missed that column? Check it out.) Now, we’re here to share another expert’s advice: this time, from one of our very own UJAM users.

You may recognize him: Matt was a finalist in the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations contest last year, and he’s continued to make great music since. (See our first post on Matt in the ACR series here.) Without further ado, Matt’s here to share his thoughts on mixing great music in UJAM.

Producing a Great Mix in UJAM

Today we’re going to be highlighting some tips that will help you create high quality recordings and produce a great final mix.  Whether you are a seasoned audio veteran or have never recorded before, these tips will help you create beautiful recordings so that your jams can shine.

Before we can learn cool post-production techniques and create tracks that excite and inspire people, we must first record something!  The main key to a quality mix actually begins before you record, not after.  There is saying when it comes to mixing that you must live by: “You can’t polish dirt”.  Your mix will always be limited to or enhanced by the quality of your recordings.

There are three principles to a good mix before you even begin recording:

#1) Cheap is Expensive: Why You Need Good Gear

Consider this.  You would never phone an airline to book a flight and say, “Give me the plane built with the cheapest parts possible, but make sure they look good.”  No.  You would want to get whatever works best.  Your life may depend on it.  So many times though, musicians seem to want the shiniest gear without considering the sound quality it produces.  You must spend money on good gear.  Your mix depends on it.  Here are some thoughts on good gear:

Save up for what you want, not what you can currently afford.  If you’re going to be a professional, you must do your work with professional tools.  Would you rather dig a ditch with a shovel or a bulldozer?  The shovel is cheaper and easier to lift.  The bulldozer requires money and time to learn how to use it, but you better believe it does a better job!

In the same way, if you would like to capture good quality music, you must have a well-made instrument with quality audio output.  It must then go over quality cables to a quality audio interface.  Having trouble picking your gear?  Find out what your musical influencers use and why they use that gear.  They probably have a reason.  Check recommendations on professional audio forums and don’t be afraid to ask questions.  Lastly, yes, look at the price.  It can be a good indicator of how well the gear is made.

Use good cables.  Cables transmit sound through them.  If you’re using the cheapest brand of cables, you are probably picking up interference and maybe even something called crosstalk, where signal from another cable crosses over to the cable your using.  Good cables give you an opportunity for quality sound. Bad Cables will always equate to poor quality sound.   If at any point in your signal chain you have poorly made gear, it will affect the final sound you are trying to achieve.

Purchase reliable, transparent software.  Not all software is created equal.  The reliability of your software is crucial to your production process.  The more your software crashes, the less work you will have saved.  The more work lost, the more time you will waste.  This is illogical.  If you want to do things well, you must purchase software that does not crash and does not slow you down once you’ve learned how to use it.

Additionally, you must purchase software that is extremely transparent in the final output of your audio.  Despite the fact that you are recording digitally, not all of your output audio will sound the same.  In the same way two different digital cameras affect the color tones in a picture, your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software can affect your final sound.  There are many DAW programs, like Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton, and Cubase.  These all have different functions and uses.  It is recommended you research these in the same way as you would a physical piece of gear.  Some even have free fully-functioning demo’s you can download.

A good example of a reliable, transparent piece of software is Steinberg Cubase.  It performs well under a lot of pressure from your audio tracks and software plugins.  It will not crash every hour like some other software.  It also does not affect the tone of your recordings by muddying them up.  It comes in many different versions to help you get in to using it without having to spend a thousand dollars on it.  See more information on Steinberg’s website.

That’s it from Matt today. In his next post, Matt will pick up with tip #2 and tell us how we can use all that gear to create some great-sounding music. Stay tuned!

PS Be sure to check out Matt’s website. Your comments are welcome here.