CHAPTER 11
Recording

You've read it a million times, but it's true. There is no right or wrong way to record. That doesn't mean it's okay to make a mistake. That means you can be as creative as you want – just record the tracks right. Before recording, run through the process one last time in your head:

• All recording machines are cleaned, aligned, professionally maintained, and ready for use.
• All the appropriate microphones are placed in the appropriate locations.
• The instruments are properly set up.
• The players are somewhat conscious.
• All microphones and headphones have been checked.
• All signal flow to and from the recording machines is correct and the applicable tracks are in record-ready mode.
• Digital tapes and drives are formatted, exercised, and properly cued.
• The console has been checked for routing, processing, monitoring, and cue mix settings.
• There are no external noises such as loud refrigerators, heaters, fans, or air conditioners, and all doors are closed tight. All amplifiers not in use are either turned off or on standby mode.
• Any click track or references for the players are low in volume and ready.
• If you are recording onto pre-existing tracks, your console mix and your cue mix are properly set up. All headphones are checked for proper signal flow and appropriate volume.

Then you are ready to press the record button.

Tuning

• Everyone uses the same tuner. When all the players use the same tuning reference, all instruments will be in tune with each other. Imagine how it would sound if each player tuned to a different reference, then all played together. Probably a lot like my band.

• Buss to the tuner. Use a buss to send the signal from the instrument into the tuner. If, for example, buss 16 on the console is open, patch the output of buss 16 into the tuner, then press buss 16 on any channel to route it into the tuner. This allows the players to check their tuning with no change in setup.

Some tuners have a ‘through’ output plug point that places the tuner into the signal chain. Don't use this connection in the studio because the tuner's internal electronics may degrade the sound of the instrument. They are great for rehearsal, but the recording chain needs to be as clean as possible.

• Record a tuning tone. Traditional tuners allow the user to set the calibration with a pure tone, such as a tuning fork or a single note from a guitar or keyboard. Once the tuner is set, record the note. Then, if the tempo of the song gets changed, the tuner can be properly calibrated at the new pitch.

• Mute all effects during tuning. The main feature of chorus programs is to introduce slightly different pitches for a wider, thicker effect. The player needs to hear only the instrument, not a pitch-changing effect. He uses the tuner, but his ears are the final judgment.

• Having a hard time tuning to the track? If you must tune an instrument to a pre-recorded track and there is no tuning tone, run the prerecorded keyboard or acoustic guitar track into your tuner to align the tuner. Maybe the sustain of a guitar at the end of a song is enough for the tuner to read. Then tune the instrument to the now aligned tuner.

• Tune an instrument only with the musician's permission. Better to leave the instrument alone and let the player tune it. If you tune a guitar and a string breaks, it's your fault. Let the player break the string.

• Don't play anyone's instrument. Are you auditioning for the band or are you the recording engineer?

• Assault with a medley weapon. Remind players to check their tuning on a regular basis. Out-of-tune recordings make people anxious and make the final product sound amateur.

• Louder volume levels mask slight pitch problems. Turn the studio monitors down to help with hearing pitch and tuning issues.

• Eliminate all hums and buzzes before pressing the record button. No gate, equalizer, or quantum gizmoizer can remove unwanted hum. You may think you are saving time, but time saved is forgotten when this hum or buzz pops up every time you play the track.

• What is the VSO? The variable speed oscillator changes the speed on the recorder. The VSO changes both the tempo of the music and its pitch. Hard drives don't have a VSO as they alter the tempo and the pitch digitally.

• Turn off the VSO. Remove the varispeed from all recording machines before pressing the record button. If you unknowingly record a song with the VSO set at a different speed, the next time you play the song back on the machine with the VSO off, it will be the wrong speed – and pitch.

• Use the VSO for more bottom. To get a large drum sound with lots of lows and thud, record a click track at the song's normal speed. Turn up the VSO and record the drums playing the song at the faster tempo. Remove the VSO, listen back to the recording, and voila – thick, full, kicking drums at the correct tempo. Normal-sounding drums will then have more lows, bottom, and general boom, some of which may need to be equalized.

A higher speed on the VSO means more high-end frequency loss when played back at the correct speed. The opposite effect happens when the VSO is set slower. Drums played back at normal speed sound bass-shy.

• Note to self. Place a large note on the VSO button to remind you that it is activated. This keeps you from accidentally recording the next track at the wrong speed.

• Get it right. Get the sound right before you press the record button. A ‘fix it in the mix’ attitude is a distraction that takes too much mix time and energy. Spending more time tuning in the studio means less time fixing in the control room.

In Record/Red Lights

• Record everything. You are the recording engineer, so record. You have the option to re-do something, but if some musical spark hits and then is gone, everyone looks at you to see if you recorded it.

If the player is messing around with a sound, trying out new ideas, or even waiting for you to finish something, record him on a blank track. Less experienced players sometimes come up with ideas more readily if they think they aren't being recorded.

• Keep track of all signal paths. Continually check that all the equipment is acting as intended.

• Attention all toe-tappers. Don't worry if you can hear a singer or player tapping their toe to the music as they record. The taps are usually along with the beat of the drums and will be masked when the rest of the instruments come in to the mix.

• Change an input level on a downbeat. If the level of a track being recorded must be adjusted, do the adjustment on the downbeat of a change, such as when the verse goes into a chorus. If this shift in level is audible during the mix, you will know exactly when to make the change because it is not at some random spot that is difficult to pinpoint.

• Ride the player. If a player changes drastically from soft to really loud throughout the song, either:

• Compress it more than usual. Not really recommended unless you are comfortable doing it. An overcompressed track can't be ‘uncompressed.’
• Ride the track. This means watching the player and, when he goes into overload mode, physically lowering the fader to manually level the louder parts. This is a tricky bit of engineering and can be damaging if you ride the level too much, making repairs in the final mix that much more difficult.
• Re-record the softer parts after the louder parts are complete.
• Use two separate microphones, one for the loud parts and then one with a lower input level for the softer parts. Record them both on separate tracks and combine them later.

• Don't stop the players unless you must. Musicians don't like to be stopped when they are playing, so wait for the end of the piece.

• Avoid click track leakage. Lower the level of the click at the end of the song to keep it from leaking into the drum microphones as the drums and cymbals ring out.

If the player wants the click track really loud in his headphones, lower the high frequencies on the send before raising the level. This may reduce some unwanted leakage.

• Take five. If you are doing lots of takes, slate all the takes. Keeping track of counter numbers is great, but actually recording the words ‘take 37’ before the count-off leaves absolutely no doubt as to your location. With digital recording, you have a visual readout on the screen so slating might not be needed. Patience would. In addition, label the choice track in the ‘notes’ section of the mix window.

• Changing from one song to another should be fast. If the tracks are recorded similarly, all the effects used on the previous song should be set and ready to go. With a little minor tweaking, such as a tempo change on the delays, you should be ready to press the record button.

• Short of a technical problem, keep anything from bogging down a session. Don't spend an hour getting just the right reverb sound for a minor overdub. Keeping the vibe up means keeping the creativity flowing throughout the session.

• Take a picture – it lasts longer. Computer snapshots are great to log those times when everything just seems to sound right. Often, during overdubs and editing, while trying out mix ideas, a verse or chorus sounds perfect. A snapshot will preserve this idea until mix time. If you don't have a digital board, maybe take an actual photograph of the settings on the console.

• Save a strip for me. Save a favorite equalization setup by matching it to an out-of-the-way channel. For example, you really like the equalization settings on the guitar microphone, and you want to use the same settings on another song later – but the guitar channel is returning to the middle of the console. Rather than leaving it there and taking a chance that you may accidentally change it, shift the settings and any patches used to an unused channel at the far end of the console.

• Space out. Leave enough space between songs on the multitrack recorder to be able to record a long intro of a song. This leaves the option open to really let an overdub ring out at the end of the song without the fear of going into the intro of the next song. Plus, more time at the intro will allow for any future synchronization.

When recording to hard drive, organize passes by setting markers at, for example, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and so on. Start the first pass on marker one at 10 minutes. On the first pass, maybe the first chorus is at 11:04. This will allow you to quickly go to any section on any pass. The first chorus on take three is at 31:04. The first chorus on take nine is at 91:04.

• Run a second recorder, a DAT recorder, even a portable boom box between takes to catch all the small talk, ideas, jokes, and chatter that most bands make. Maybe the Philharmonic doesn't, but new bands are always excited to be in the studio and often come up with some great fresh ideas on the spot.

• Anticipate what is coming next and quietly prepare for it. Work like a duck on a pond. He looks smooth on the surface but is paddling like crazy just underneath to get the job done.

• The telephone is ringing. If someone's cell phone rings, as a courtesy, lower the overall volume so they can speak. If it is the runner's cell phone, stare at him with a ‘what is wrong with you?’ look.

• Relax – or we'll fire you! Keep things light. Nervous or stressed players can't expect to be creative. With happy, comfortable, and relaxed players, the session will go smoother and all will inevitably play better.

Punching

• Check, check mate. Some sessions today don't use punch-ins. The piece is recorded a few times, then cut and pasted to get the final result. For punch-ins, even if you're positive that you have the correct record-ready button pressed on your recorder, check again. One glance at the tracksheet or recording map and a double-check of the tracks can save hours of repair. Listen to the track you are about to record into. Press the input button in and out and listen. Are you about to record on the correct track?

• Use bars as your frame of reference. Count the bars for each section. A 4/4 beat count is one two three four, two two three four, three two three four, four two three four, then back to one. Maybe the tom-tom fill before a chorus starts on the four, two, which is exactly two beats ahead of the chorus downbeat. Counting bars helps you punch in at the exact right beat. It beats using the ‘I'll punch in on the chicka-chicka bit into the chorus’ method. Write the number of bars per verse and chorus on the recording map or on the notes section of the mix window.

• Double-check if you aren't sure. Unless you are absolutely sure of the punch, go back and listen to the in and out spots. The players will be happy to wait. It is better to take five minutes double-checking the punch than spend an hour repairing an erased part.

• Make a safety before trying a difficult punch-in or punch-out. Practice the punch using the rehearse button on the multitrack recorder. The machine will go into ‘input’ without recording, so you can get the feel of the in and out spots.

• Turn the cue down. Turn the cue level down before playing the music, especially if the player isn't expecting it. Many artists like the music in their headphones loud. When the song stops, of course the cue is quiet. Pressing ‘play’ halfway through the song makes it blast out of the headphones.

Turn down the cues, warn him that ‘here it comes,’ and press play. Raise the cue level in the headphones to the previous level.

• Counter intelligence. When punching in repeatedly at the same location, use the counter to rewind to the same spot every time – about 10 seconds before the punch. Enough time for the player to know where the ‘in’ spot is, yet not so long as to waste time.

• Don't punch in on the exact downbeat, but a touch early, somewhere between the previous ‘and’ and the downbeat. Traditionally, this was done because the relays of the old two-inch multitrack recording machines took a couple of milliseconds to switch into record mode. Digitally, it works because it opens a little crossfade window a few milliseconds before the downbeat.

• Be as specific as possible as to what you want the player to do. Simply having him re-do a track with no indication of what is needed helps no one. All singers and players need guidance from the control room. Granted, this is not usually the engineer's job but the producer's. Commonly, the more you engineer, the more you will learn about production.

• Fill tracksheets and recording maps while recording, not before. Things can change fast in the studio, and the tracksheet, if your sessions are using tracksheets, must stay current. In addition, double-check that all information has been noted, including specified song tempos, dates of recordings, players, song titles, digital formats, song structure, and any other pertinent information.

• Watch those hands. Get to a point where you can recognize chords, whether by ear or by watching the players’ hands. It may not work so well with a piano, but works great when a guitar player is right there next to you. You won't believe how impressed clients will be if you say ‘Let's punch in on that second G chord’ and then you do it.

• Don't produce. It usually isn't your place – unless you are the producer as well – to suggest changes, such as length of musical parts, intros, and especially lyric changes.

• Save it for later. Press the save button on a regular basis. It hurts to work for hours on end then somehow lose your perfect track due to a computer glitch.

Recording Vocals

With vocals, there are many ways to pull the best performance out of the singer. Unfortunately, nothing works in the same way for every singer. Some need to be coddled and some need to be bullied. Of course, this falls into the realm of the producer, who will have his own tried and true methods.

• Check with the singer. Different singers will be prepared at different times of day. While one may be raring to go at 9 am, another may not really open up until the late afternoon. A tired singer sings a tired vocal. Schedule the vocal session for the singer's best time.

• Encourage the singer to warm up, preferably with scales in the key of the song to be worked on. No one can be expected to jump in on any creative endeavor without warming up first. Give him the necessary time and privacy.

• Get the lyrics. Write the machine counter readout numbers on the lyric sheet to help locate the verses, choruses, and bridges. Going directly to the second chorus of the third take will be a breeze. Plus, knowing the lyrics helps you to become familiar with the song.

• Encourage a singer to memorize the lyrics. Something is lost when the singer is reading lyrics off a page. It is better if they focus on the interpretation and feel of the vocal and are not hunting around for the next line.

• Stand, don't sit. Sitting causes the diaphragm to compress, so a better vocal comes from standing up.

• Hold that note. If the singer is a guitar player and he is used to playing while he sings, by all means give him a guitar when he does the vocal, even if he holds it without playing. Record the guitar too.

In addition, if the singer is used to holding the microphone when he sings, let him hold the microphone. This creates a headache for the engineer, who wants to get the best recording possible, but better emotional perfection than technical perfection.

• Wear a set of headphones during vocals. When you wear headphones and monitor the cue mix, you hear exactly what the singer is hearing. This lets you fine-tune the cue mix as the vocal progresses. Lower the control room monitor levels to avoid influence. Again, the right cue mix results in a better vocal.

• Kick everyone out of the control room. Only essential people are allowed in the control room during vocals. Even the best of singers can find concentrating on vocal parts difficult with a room full of people staring at them.

• Pump them up. Get into it. Get the singer into it. It's much easier to record an inspired player. Keep the vibe up, be positive, and tell him when he does a good job. Tell him what you want, not what you don't want.

• Let it flow. Let the singer sing. Stopping and starting can be distracting to everyone involved. Let him run through the song to totally get into the flow of it. Invite him to listen back in the control room, where you can work out any problems together.

• Some days are just tough. On those rare occasions when the emotions just aren't flowing, maybe tell the singer to picture one person in his mind. Forget the studio and the microphones, just picture that person, maybe an old girlfriend or a movie star, perhaps even a certain recording engineer, and sing directly to that person. Perhaps try aiming him away from the control room so no one is staring at him.

• Tell the singer to sing along as soon as he hears the music. This ensures that he will have the same groove as the original, rather than starting cold on the downbeat of the intended punch-in. Once he knows where he is in the song, switch the track to input so he hears himself singing. Punch in at the appropriate time.

• ‘Why are you laughing at me?’ The singer can usually see the people in the control room, yet not hear them. If there is any delay at all in the control room, don't leave the singer hanging. To keep things rolling smooth as silk, tell him exactly what is going on. Any delay may take its toll on the vibe of the vocal.

Even the most seasoned professional will wonder why everyone is laughing at him if everyone in the studio bursts out laughing for any reason. Either assure him that it is not his vocal track causing the jubilation or, better yet, don't let this happen.

• Bring the singer into the control room. Leave the studio monitors on and do a vocal in the control room with the music blasting directly at the singer. This can be the best way to get a solid vocal. Set the microphone monitor signal just short of feedback with a non-omnidirectional pattern.

Or, he may want to wear headphones in the control room. If so, the engineer would wear headphones as well.

• She's kind of flat, and not too sharp. Singers, like everyone else in the world (including you), will have bad days. Some days they will sound absolutely magnificent and other days they will sound like a train wreck. Your job is to tell whether the session time could be better spent on other things.

• I hear that strain a comin’. If the singer is pushing too hard, strained vocal chords come through loud and clear on the recording. And, when a singer pushes too hard, the pitch often suffers. Check that the vocal level in the headphone mix is loud enough for him to hear himself properly. Strain is not the same as growl or punch. Vocal strain usually means it's time to stop singing for today.

• Record vocals every day. Encourage the singer to record some vocals every day. All too often the vocals get recorded in a hurry on the last few days of the project, and all the work spent on great guitar and drum sounds will be wasted. Recording vocals every day gives you quite a few vocal passes from various sessions. Some will be average but some may be outstanding.

• Get a good lead vocal early in the project so the rest of the instruments can build around it. The players need to hear that vocal track so they can stay out of the way. Plus, a great vocal track early on helps everyone else get inspired to do their best.

• Have patience. Any singer, no matter how good, can lose that excitement after doing the same take hour after hour. If you lose patience with a player, it may not be long until he loses patience with you. The door swings both ways. Not everyone is a virtuoso.

• Take a step back. Once a vocal overdub is recorded, have the singer step back by a foot or two then double the track with a matching vocal. Add this in with the choice vocal to give it more depth and placement. Check for phase issues.

• Starting to feel thick. For a thicker vocal track, try turning the live side of the microphone around and have the singer do a track from the off-axis side. Add this track to the main vocal at a subtle level.

• Double your pleasure. When doubling vocals, ask the singer if he wants the live vocal in one side of his headphones and the previous vocal pass in the other side. This makes it easier to distinguish his live vocal from the recorded vocal.

• Flaw hide. Double or triple track vocals to widen the sound and mask minor tuning flaws.

• Dim some. Dim the lights and light the candles, burn the incense, take all your clothes off – do whatever it takes to create a mood to help the singer feel comfortable, relaxed, and confident. The more at ease the situation, the better the outcome of the tracks. A strong vocal track makes the singer and you look good.

• Paging Doctor Bon Jovi. Unless you are scheduled for emergency surgery, don't let your cell phone go off.

Pitch

• Slow pitch. If a singer is continually flat on certain parts of the vocal, try changing the VSO to lower the pitch of the recorded music. This may make it easier to hit the note. When he does hit the note, de-activate the VSO and return to the normal tempo. This slower speed during recording results in a higher pitch on the vocal sound when returned to the correct speed. Either record a whole track then bounce the necessary bits into the main vocal track, or just punch into the main vocal track at the altered speed. Of course, if he always sings sharp, do the opposite and raise the speed.

• Cue down. When a singer is having a hard time hitting notes, turn the cue mix level down, not up. If he insists on a loud mix, pull some of the lower frequencies. Loud lows can mess with a singer's pitch.

• Take one side off. To help him hear his own voice for pitch, encourage him to remove one side of the headphones so he can hear himself in one ear and the cue mix in the other.

• Record a reference track. To help a singer follow the tuning and melody, record a simple piano or acoustic guitar track playing the vocal melody – no chords, just single notes of the melody of the vocal track. (Of course, not to be used in the final mix.) Add this track in to the cue mix and maybe remove any other instruments that may be throwing the singer off pitch.

• Don't use headphones, use speakers. Sometimes using the opposite polarity speaker setup described in Chapter 8 works to help the singer's pitch. With no cumbersome headphones in the way, the singer's pitch may improve. Note that the pitch may improve but the timing may suffer.

Post Record

• Stay in contact with the player. Make all changes quietly and efficiently, without ever losing contact with the player in the studio. Change tracks when the singer is having a sip of water or looking at notes, definitely not when he is speaking to someone in the control room. Changing tracks from one to the next should be seamless.

• Be musical when looping. Any time you need to loop a playback, zoom in on the in point and outpoint to perfectly align them, so the piece repeats musically with no noticeable jump in flow. The beginning and end loop points must be unnoticeable.

• Three ways. If you are recording many passes of the same thing, either:

(1)  Use the individual track to monitor. Match the settings on all the intended tracks to the same as the original. For example, if recording vocals on tracks 14, 15, and 16, match the cue levels, the send and return levels, and any equalization or processing on these three channels. When you change over from recording on track 12 to recording onto track 13, it's set the same as the previous one – so the singer hears no change.

(2)  Use a single track to monitor. Patch the output of each track into a single master track. For example, you record the first vocal pass on track 13. When you change over to record another on track 14, rather than monitor channel 14, patch the output of channel 14 into the channel input of 13. All the subsequent tracks recorded are routed through channel 13, so the singer hears no change.

(3)  Use a single track to record. On a DAW, each track has layers, also called playlists. Set up a master track and move each completed file down to another layer. For example, record the first vocal pass on track 13. Rather than record the next pass onto track 14, move pass 13 down to layer 2 on track 13 and record the next vocal pass on layer 1 of track 13. Set the ‘lock’ function to keep the pass 13 layer 2 from shifting back and forth.

• Minimize your choices. Get the best sound, commit to it, record it, then move on. You will get much more done in the long run. Keeping multiple takes of different ideas to ‘decide later’ usually wastes too much time.

• I've got more tracks – what can we record? Just because you have extra tracks does not mean you are obliged to record on them. If the song sounds complete, it probably is. After a certain point, the more instruments that are added, the more each sounds a little smaller.

• Problems? Keep problems to yourself and quietly work around them. Don't bring the session vibe down with your petty, ’Hey, I'm choking here.’

Recording Effects

• Don't record the effects. The traditional thought is, if the guitar effects are coming through the amplifier, record them. If the guitar effects are created in the control room, for example delay effects, don't record them. A fuzz pedal placed between the guitar and amplifier would, of course, be part of the sound coming out of the amplifier. You wouldn't record a clean guitar then add the fuzz later, as the fuzz sound will help the player nail his part better.

If you plan on using the same sound during the mix, you might record the dry signal then log the effects settings. This doesn't always work. All the proper paperwork in the world doesn't guarantee the same sound will return.

• Record the effects. Sometimes you find a perfect effect that helps the player become more creative, and, musically, he goes places he normally wouldn't. Record the effects, such as him using feedback as part of a guitar sound, if they influence the way he plays. If you have available space, maybe record the effects on separate tracks.

Punching in and out can be difficult when effects are involved, because punches can eliminate the decay of a reverb. Punches are smoother if no effects are recorded. Any little glitches and pops are smoothed over by adding reverb over the finished track.

• Don't go overboard with outboard. You can always add more effects later, but you can't take an effect away once it has been recorded.

The Part

• Assume that all tracks recorded will be keepers. The first pass may be the best, even if it may not seem like it at the time. Sometimes it can be hard to tell while the recording is taking place, and only upon playback can you really hear what is recorded.

Keep a track if there is even a remote chance the player cannot re-do it. How many great riffs have been erased and replaced with a sterile copy of a great mistake? Too many to count. When the player says ‘I can do that better,’ let him do it, but keep the original.

Maybe tell everyone you want to hear the track one more time and just quietly bounce the part to an open track, send it to another layer, or set up another track to record on. If the player does the part better, great. If not, you still have the original intact.

• Listen to the player. Let the player hear the results. Discuss everything and consider his suggestions. Musicians know how they should sound, what they want from their instruments, and what they can and can't do. If you can take their vision and bring it up a notch or two beyond their expectations, they might play a bit better. And you're the hero of the session.

• Humble beginnings. When a player is not up to a part, maybe suggest that he try an easier version of it first then move up to the more difficult one. Once the easier version is recorded, if the harder one never gets done, you still have the easier one.

The age-old way to get a good pass was to punch in the pieces until the best pass was recorded. Sometimes, once this pass is done, the player has an easier time playing along to the good pass.

• It's not your job to hurry the players along. Leave that to the producer. Do your work until they tell you to stop. Telling a player to hurry up has a negative effect.

Bouncing

• Bouncing checks. With limited space, combining two tracks to one is common. When combining (called bouncing, or comping) two or more tracks onto one, listen back to the complete new comped track both by itself in solo and within the song at various levels. The combined tracks may sound great together, but put them in the mix and one of them may disappear.

• If necessary, save space by combining tracks that don't overlap. Different instruments may play at different times throughout the song. If, for example, a shaker is used in the chorus and a tambourine is used in the verses, put them on the same track and split them later during the mix. This may require console automation or an extra set of reliable hands.

• When combining tracks, don't radically alter their sound. Once they have been individually equalized, tracks bounced from many to few are unchangeable. Get a clean sound on everything, then combine them. Trying to separate combined tracks is like trying to unscramble an omelet.

• When combining tracks, radically alter their sound. Change the equalization so opposite tracks are combined, for example a tuba and a triangle. When you mix, split the tracks and pull all the lows on one – the triangle – and pull all the highs on the other – the tuba.

• I'd like to see your organ at 10 o'clock. When combining stereo tracks, pan them so that the center of each track is at a different spot in the panning perspective. For example, when bouncing a stereo piano and stereo organ from four tracks to two, place the center of the organ at 10 o'clock and the piano at 2 o'clock.

• Do not erase the count off. Bounce the count to a safe track. Without a proper count off, there is no intro reference.

Doubling

• Double a guitar track with different fingerings of the same chord. Have the player use a different fingering to play the same chord. A capo, alternate string tunings, or just different fingerings of a chord will make the double track sound a bit different, but still with the same chords and progressions.

• Use the VSO when doubling. Double a guitar track by slightly speeding the recorder up and recording a pass. Triple the guitar track by slightly slowing the recorder down and recording a pass. Pan these additional tracks left and right of the main track. The guitar will sound wide and chorus-like when played back at regular speed.

• Double tracks must be tight. Of course, doubling a track makes it sound big. But, if double tracks are to be presented, panned, and processed as one, sloppiness is not acceptable. Every bit must be doubled exactly, or the sound turns pretty vague pretty fast.

• Metal rules. Are you recording music with all electric guitars? Record a rich acoustic guitar doubling the electric tracks and bring it in just under the electric guitars. This can make a distorted electric guitar track sound more musical, full, and rich. Keep the acoustic guitar level lower than the electric or risk exposing it. Process it together with the electric guitar track so it fits in more as an enhancement rather than a specific acoustic guitar part with placement of its own. Or, for width, place it all the way over to one side. Whatever suits the song will be best.

• Overdub more than one player at a time. Musicians playing together will lock into a certain groove. Commonly, the result is better than if they play the same parts separately. I did a Rolling Stones record once and Keith Richards and Ron Wood recorded their guitar overdubs at the same time. They stood toe to toe in the studio, stared each other down, and let it rip. They played off of each other in a way that wouldn't have worked had they each recorded their parts separately.

• Record different guitars for different sections of a song, for example guitar one in the verses and guitar two in the choruses. This can add movement to the track as long as both are equal in power. If changing actual instruments is not possible, try different guitar pickups for different sections of the song.

• I love your big bottom. To widen the image of the bass, record a stereo track of a piano playing low-octave bass notes. Add this in to the mix for some stereo bass effect.

• Listen back every time. No matter how hurried the session, listen back completely to a final track before moving on. This may save hours in the future if an unnoticed mistake slips by during the recording. If a track needs to be repaired, do it now rather than returning to it another time. No engineer wants an unfinished track hanging over his head and no artist wants a mix with half-finished tracks.

Edits

With the ease of digital editing, it is not uncommon for songs to be built from the best parts of any number of takes. Often the best sections are repeated, then nudged into time with the other tracks.

• What are crossfades? Digital editing consists of cutting and pasting files or regions of files together to create coherent sections. Crossfades ensure a smooth transition to seamlessly join these individual sections together. Crossfade parameters allow the user to choose between many curves or even ‘draw’ a custom curve for a specific situation.

• The sound of music. Like analog editing, digital editing is so much easier if you understand the musical technicalities of the song. Finding, for example, a specific four-bar section of a guitar track out of another pass means you must be able to hear the notes, understand the changes and the timing, retrieve the part, and paste it back in at the correct spot.

• Work on a copy. With the ease of making digital safeties, keep the master intact and edit a safety master.

• The urge to merge. Before editing begins, use the popup menu to choose between the best parts of many takes. With each pass correctly labeled, the popup menu allows you to program different parts from different passes, as long as each part is properly labeled. This lets you hear the complete song with all the best parts from each pass before the first edit begins.

• Don't edit the click track. The click track is the song's timing reference, so editing it will render it useless.

• Start editing the vocals from the middle of the song. Often, as the singer gets into it, there are better choice bits to glean from. Find the best one, tighten it up, then paste it into the rest of the choruses.

• HALT! Consider the consequences of pasting the same vocal into every chorus or verse. Cutting and pasting a vocal track that someone has worked hard at can get tricky. Check with the singer before replacing all the choruses he worked so hard to get.

• Don't solo when you edit. Many bumps you hear in solo are gone when the rest of the music is on. Don't spend hours cleaning up the tiniest detail that will be lost when the rest of the tracks are back in the mix. Other instruments in the monitor mix will help you hear which bits of the vocal are not quite in tune.

• Don't get lost. For vocals, use the digital editor to level out every word so nothing – not even a syllable – is lost in the mix.

• Nix the clicks. Minimize clicks between edits by placing the reference lines where the waveform crosses the zero point. Zoom in to the highest level where you can see the waveform.

Sometimes, where two sections butt up against each other, a ‘click’ is unavoidable. Mask the click by positioning it on a kick, snare, or percussion hit.

• A digital editor cannot create groove. There is no substitution for a group of players watching each other and all being locked into a groove. This ‘grease’ simply cannot be manufactured. Tightening up the timing of a track will not automatically improve it. If the track is so out of time, maybe re-do it. Or maybe that's the player's style. Out of time is not always wrong.

End of Session

• Print a rough mix. After finishing a major track, print a quick rough mix for future reference. Mixes from different days throughout the project may have different feels and different grooves. Label the song with the title and the mix date.

Maybe have the assistant write all the settings down for each rough mix you do. If one of the roughs has a certain feel that everyone likes, use the assistant's notes from that mix to refer to on the final mix.

• The future is limitless. Sometimes, after a long day of recording, your equalization and compression levels have crept a bit too high due to ear fatigue. First thing tomorrow, listen to the sound with fresh ears and check for over-processing. Next time maybe back it off a bit, relying on experience over-tired ears.

• Remove all digital tapes before turning off the recording machine. With ‘rotating drum’ tape machines, the digital tape wraps around a drum inside the machine, so turning the machine off and on can stretch the tape.

• Rewind all tapes before putting them away. Traditionally, analog tapes were stored tails out, which means they were fast forwarded to the end of the reel to avoid ‘pre-print through,’ which is where a hint of the magnetic signal is transferred to the adjacent layer of tape. Digital tapes are not susceptible to this so they can be stored heads out.

• Normal the console. Clean up the studio and return any borrowed gear from other rooms on the premises. Return any wiring changes, such as inputs to a machine, back to their original connections.

• Store all the microphone accessories in the same place. Keep all extra clamps, windscreens, external pads, etc. in the same place for easy access when making a quick change or addition. Store the microphone shock-mounts with the microphones so they won't get lost.

Some studios leave the microphones set up all the time, with cables on them ready to be used. Over time, this may be a detriment to the microphones as a diaphragm can react to moisture, dust, smoke, and changes in temperature.

• For safety's sake. Make safety copies of everything and print out a final tracksheet or recording map to keep with the recordings.

• Go ahead and back up. Back up data as a safety precaution. Although many times backups are not needed, there is that once-in-a-blue-moon when data is lost. Whatever the format or situation, if there is money or talent on the line, back up your digital data.

• Count everything. Count the microphones at the end of every session. If something goes missing, ultimately the recording engineer is responsible.

• The music stays with us long after the client has gone. No tapes or hard drives leave the premises until cleared by management.

• The bitter end. Don't leave the session until all the rooms are cleaned, every piece of gear is put away, all documentation is complete, and the place is ready for the next session.

Or not. If nothing is to be changed, run a strip of sticky tape across the console so no one touches it and tape ‘no entry’ signs on all the doors.

• My studio is a total write-off. Use daily work orders – even if you use your studio alone. Keep track of every day in the studio – what happened, when you started, when you finished. When the daily log is signed every day, there will never be any question about hours used.

• Clean the patch cords. Scrubbing off the buildup with brass cleaner will eliminate crackles and will keep the runners in the studio busy. Have them clean the cymbals and the hardware on the drums too.

• How does a clean guitar sound? Clean the ¼” guitar jack inputs with a bit of contact cleaner and a nylon-wire bristle rifle cleaning tool, available at any sporting goods store.

• Erasing all the tracks. Clean the console of any pencil marks, tape, or general studio muck.

• It's a clean machine. Over time, dirty console knobs may occasionally crackle with use. Commercial spray cleaners are available to keep the knobs and dials on the console clean. If you make a slight equalization change while recording, any crackles caused by the dirty knob get recorded as well.

• I've got some great contacts in the studio. Spray your cable connectors and contacts with commercial electronic spray gunk cleaner. Better contacts result in better sounds. Do a before and after listening test and see.

• Tired of your grimy old console? Take a day to remove all the knobs, put them in a laundry bag, and do a cold water wash. Air dry them and they will be clean as new. Take the opportunity to clean the console too.