Here's one I read in the new Remix mag from Jon Smeltz (about recording the Roots):
For a ultra low bass track copy the bass track and slap a lowpass filter on it just to pick out the dominant sub freqs then combine it with the unaffected track. This also works with kicks.
Haven't tried it yet, but sounds pretty interesting.

Here' another one(some of you guys might already know this one).

Finding the sweet spot on a Gtr Amp. First plug in an instrument cable, like you normally would, but don't plug it into your guitar yet. Turn on your amp and touch the tip of the plug that would normally go into your guitar to create that hum sound from your amp. While doing this, get down right in front of your amp and cup your ear.move around until you find the spot where the tone of the hum is the fullest. Once you find the fullest tone,bingo, you've now found the the sweet spot for mic placement. Have fun !

A variation on a vocal stacking method that Bruce Swedien uses that I use for background vocals...I'll kinda go through the variations...

1) Have the singer sing whatever line they are going to sing at their main mic position.

2) Have the singer take 2 steps backward, adjust mic gain so the volume matches and have them sing the double.

3) Set up a Blumlein pair where the single mic is (I generally just set it up next to the main mic) and have the singer take another step back and record the triple in stereo with the Blumlein pair.

I really like the depth of field you get from the Blumlein pair...and I like using it on BG vox...but I don't always have enough singers to fill the stereo image...so what I like to do is have my single BG vocalist to one take on the left side of the pair, do a double on the right, and even a triple in the middle. With stereo tracks in my DAW, I don't even have to worry about panning...and it obviously sounds different than something that is electronically panned...so it creates a different sort of width that I really like.

Could someone plz make this thread sticky?

Aa,aaa,aaaa,aaaaaaaa CHUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

There. It's sticky.


(sorry couldn't resist)

:-)

Guitar amps: If you are in a hurry (i.e. demo or live recording), back that mic up to 6"-8" from the amp. There is wider "wiggle room" at that distance as compared to cramed up against the grille. It requires less eq, compression, or whatnot to un-screw-up the sound. I have found myself doing this in more controled situations lately too. Don't worry so much about spill recording a live show, it is likely not to be an issue with an amp stronger than 15W or so. The vocal mics are the monster problems there.

Vocals: Whisper tracks are your friends (singer whispers the vocals in time with the main vocal tracks). Works great to add, among other things, intimacy or creepiness to vocal parts. They also can save your ass if the singer has trouble with consonants, especially plosives like t and p. Also with vocal recordings: add a second mic that is odd sounding or cranky or something different. Get it as close as you can to the other vox mic, and set it at the same angle and so the diaphrams are on the same plane. Get anal about this aspect. This second mic can be used in a bunch of different ways. One is to hype the sound with compression and/or eq and ride it in the mix to accent words or phrases. Or you could simply use it throughout and change the mixture between the mics for choruses vs verses. All sorts of possibilities and inspiration here. Remember: cranky.

To make open back cabs seem huge at lower volumes, try micing them from the back...you'll get not just the sound of the speaker, but the natural ambience of the cabinet as well (if that's what yer after...) This technique also greatly resuced/eliminates speaker beaming that can occur in some designs.

Another thing I like to do: tape a PZM of some sort to the ceiling in the far opposite side from the guitar amp....depending on placement/room, this can create a very spooky, smokey sound (ala Ry Cooder) with no added effects, just blend to taste...

One more: set up a decent enough mic where the electric guitarist is setting/standing...since most guitarists I know will gravitate to the spot where an amp sounds best to them in, and they usually know their tone better that we do, this palcement will give a much closer representation of what the guitarist is after...added bonus: guitarist can talk back to you without having to mess up gains and placements of close-micd amps....

So glad I bumped this thread. This is great stuff.

Keep it coming!

-Fox

Here's a tip I like. It's always a good idea to record guitars direct along with the amp while tracking. This gives you a recording of the performance that you can re-amp later. This comes in handy if you decide the guitar tone sucks later on or if there's any problem at all with the amp track. You can also re-amp with a different amp and combine the new track with the original for a bigger sound. You can even use an amp modeler in your computer on the DI track if that kind thing turns you on. There are a lot of possibilities and at the end of the day if there's no use for the DI guitar track you can just delete it.

Trust me having that DI track can save your ass later if you realize you got a great performance but messed up something else down the line in recording the guitar.

What gives, this thread needs a bumb!

I mentioned this before, but when doubling or tripling, you can accentuate the difference between the double or triple by using vari-speed (vari-pitch) for the 2nd and 3rd tracks. And, if possible, mix all three tracks in MONO for best effect. Gives a real "Wall of Sound" effect, to acoustic guitars, voices, horns.etc.

This I picked up from the ABBA MommaMia! documentary.

Great thread! I'm going to try some of the widening ideas and the acoustic/ vocal idea. here's a variation on the backup vocal stacking, that I did once and ti was very cool. Sort of a choir effect. Set up a stereo pair, whatever your preferred method is (I did ORTF). Have all of the background singers (in this case 3 of us) stand next to each other to the left of the mics. On take 2, move 1 spot to the right, so on for each take. We did 5 takes, 3 vocals on each take but it sounds choir like because of the natural panning and the fact that we sang together each time. Also, backing vocals soudn great in general if you sing together rather than each part in isolation. Try using a figure 8, but one singer on each side, and double it. Incidentally, another time (one time, at band camp...) we did acoustics this way- set up a stereo pair, and the two guitarists and I sat together and played the part together onto a stereo track, then I stayed in the middle, they switched sides. It was a huge sound that didn't take up a lot of mix space. I was playing a guitar in Nashville tuning (known as the "Octavator" in these parts), they both used standard tuning but one was capoed up a fret, and it made a really nice blend that sat perfectly in the mix.

Man this stuff is great, keep it coming guys!

quote:

Originally posted by mrufino1:
I was playing a guitar in Nashville tuning (known as the "Octavator" in these parts), they both used standard tuning but one was capoed up a fret, and it made a really nice blend that sat perfectly in the mix.

by "capoed up a fret" do you mean that the guitar was first tuned down a half step to begin with so that it was in tune when capoed? I've done this before so it gives it different vibe to combine with the other track because of the scale difference, etc. I've never considered doubling a part thats half step sharp though. I would think that would sound like ass. (though I have heard of wind players tightening their mouthpieces a slight bit to go just a tad sharp so they stick out for a solo...more of live thing though with a lot of other instruments playing at once like jazz big band or something).

Bump.

Dot, can we make this a sticky?

mud

quote:

Originally posted by MudBean:
Dot, can we make this a sticky?

Second that.

bump

quote:

Originally posted by Dot:
Widening a stereo image

This is not really for a whole mix, but more for a few tracks like bkg vocals or guitars that you want to give a really wide stereo image.

In this case it's for bkg vocals [ but will work for two tracks of guitars ].

1. Mix your chorus bkg vocals to a pair of L R stereo tracks
2. Copy that stereo pair to a second pair of L R stereo tracks.
3. Take the second pair and reverse the phase on them.
4. Then on the second pair reverse the panning. Make L to R, and R to L.

Set the first stereo pair up in your mix. And then start bringing up the second pair - which has been phase reversed and pan reversed. As you turn up the volume of the second pair you'll hear the image go very wide. You'll get to a point as you increase volume that it will start to be less wide as you begin to introduce too much phase cancellation from the second track. At that point, just back off on the volume of the second track until you hear that it's at its widest.

Try it. You'll be surprised. It's an old trick. : )

Sorry is this is a dumb question..but what exactly is phase? And how do you reverse phase on a track, can it be done digitally? Thanks!

Rich

Phase is like waves ~ (up down up)...if you reverse your phase you will have (down up down), which in esscence cancels the sound/wave...here's an example, if you put a mic on top of a snare (pointing down) and you mic from beneath the snare (pointing up), when you strike the snare, you have sound moving up to the top mic and down to the bottom mic...one "trick" that can make the snare sound better/different is to reverse the phase of either the top or bottom mic/track and hear if this appeals to your ear. The same can be said for recording an ensemble in a circular configuration...if you have mics facing away from each other (not using figure 8 or omni, ie cardiod) phase can affect your aesthtics. Best way to learn is to try it. And, yes- you can reverse phase digitally...check your software's manual...it should have something on phase reversal.

Here are a couple ultra super dooper mega high tech mixing tips for my fellow luddites. These are pretty obvious but who knows, might help someone. I know they helped me on a couple mixes tonight.


Console faders not smooth enough to get a good fluid manual fade? Place a rubber band so that one end wraps around the fader tang and the other wraps around something just above it--on my console, the pan knob works just fine with standard size office bands. As you pull the fader down the rubber band tightens up more and you get a smoother movement.





Got two mono channels stereo panned and need an even manual stereo fade? Get yerself some console tape, set the faders all the way up or down (so they're dead even) and tape em together. Very effective and probably faster than going through menus to automate a dual mono track stereo fade on a digi mixer.