Chapter Eleven

The 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. It means you can be as creative as you want, just record the tracks right.

A few notes before pressing record.

• Finish the overdub track completely before moving on. Saying “we’ll come back and fix this later” never works. This lazy attitude becomes a distraction that takes too much time and energy. Just finish the track now and move on. Plus, tomorrow’s overdub players do not want to record their part over unfinished tracks; they need the inspiration of finished, ready-to-mix tracks in their cue mix.
• Eliminate all hums and buzzes before pressing record. No noise gate, equalizer, or quantum gizmo-izer can remove unwanted hum or rattle. 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.
• Don’t push it. In the old days it was great to overload the analog tape for natural tape saturation. With digital recording you can set your input level at a less drastic level so louder bits will never overload. Because of your high sampling and bit rates, you won’t compromise the integrity of the vocal sound—unless the vocal track gets recorded too low, then raising it will bring out the grainier qualities of the sound.
• Save time—learn keyboard shortcuts, or modifiers. Continually hunting for something with the mouse when there is a quick keystroke is a waste of time and energy. At the very least, learn the zoom functions, and shuffling between the edit and mix windows.
• Hurry up. Shortcuts, such as pressing the space bar for play, may sound insignificant, but that bit of time saved adds up. And understanding where all the shortcuts are, along with using a similar layout for every session, lets you become lightning fast at your job.
• Slow down. Lightning fast is great, but there are times when slow and studied work best. This is music, not data entry. Artists are trying to be creative, and a smooth relaxed session will always go easier than a frenzied hurried atmosphere. Take your time to watch and listen to everything to confirm all is as it should be. As well, working fast to save a few minutes here and there ends up costing plenty when a track is lost or mislabeled.
• Use autosave. Make a habit of saving your work on a regular basis. There is never an excuse, in today’s studio, to lose anything. Other than your youth, your positive outlook, and your glowing complexion.
• 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.
• Commit to the sound. You don’t have to make it sound awesome. Just make it sound how it supposed to sound. With the right microphone, proper placement, and solid sound source, you should be able to place the microphone, walk away, and there is your sound.
• 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.
• The occasional red overload signal is okay, right? Wrong. The input level should never hit the red. Start by setting lower than normal input levels. As the music progresses, the playing builds and gets hotter in level. Better to have to raise a level than to lower it because it overloaded.
• Cell off. Unless you are scheduled for emergency surgery, don’t let your cell phone go off. If the client’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.
• Don’t play anyone’s instrument. Are you auditioning for the band, or are you the recording engineer?
• 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.
• 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.”
• Take a break every couple of hours. For your ears, your butt, and your sanity, take a few small breaks throughout the session.
• 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.

Tuning

• Everyone uses the same tuning reference. When it comes to timing, musical interpretation allows for some variance. Not so with tuning. All instruments must be in perfect tune with each other. Even when each player has their own individual tuner, align each tuner to a single reference tone so they all use the exact same note. Imagine how it would sound if each player tuned to a different reference, then all played together. Probably a lot like my band.
• 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 any tuner can be properly set to the proper tone. Great if the tracks end up at another studio and new tracks are being added. The new session player can tune his tuner exactly to the track.
• Assault with a medley weapon. Ask the players to check their tuning between every take. Plucking, stretching, and pulling the guitar strings, along with heat fluctuations in the studio, make it imperative to check the tuning on a regular basis. Most players can hear when their instruments are even slightly out of tune, but some cannot. Out-of-tune recordings make people anxious, and makes the final product sound amateur.
• Having a hard time tuning to the track? If you must tune an instrument to a prerecorded 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 keyboard at the end of a song is enough for the tuner to read. Then tune the instrument to the now aligned tuner.
• As a courtesy, don’t tune the instruments. You aren’t helping anyone by tuning the guitars yourself. Better to leave it 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. As well, many players do not want your filthy meat hooks touching and caressing their precious beloved instrument.

Final Check List

Before pressing record, run through the process one last time in your head:

• Your control room is neat and tidy, with proper lighting for the session.
• The console has been checked for routing, processing, monitoring, and cue mix settings.
• The recorder (DAW, analog or otherwise) is set up, using the correct operating system and program version, professionally maintained, and ready for use. The analog machine has been properly maintained and aligned.
• If applicable, any hard drives are turned on and properly connected.
• All signal flow to and from the recorder is correct, with the applicable tracks in record-ready mode.
• You have created a template for the sessions where all audio tracks are created and labeled, with a tempo map, and all I/O is properly routed.
• All files and templates are well organized in an easy-to-find master file.
• A copy of the template is open with the song properly labeled.
• The instruments are properly placed, set up, and if applicable, baffled or isolated.
• Unused snare drums not in use are removed to eliminate rattles.
• All the appropriate microphones are placed in the appropriate locations.
• All microphones have been checked for correct polar pattern and pads.
• All analog tape machines are properly loaded with tape and ready for use.
• All doors are closed tight.
• All amplifiers not in use are either turned off, or on standby mode.
• You have lyrics, sheet music, and sharpened pencils in front of you, plus extras for the producer and maybe the session assistant.
• You have downloaded and checked any files or reference material for the session.
• Any click tracks or references for the players are low in volume and ready. Do you have the correct tempo numbers for all the songs?
• The cue mixes are set for each player. Maybe the drummer wants lots of click track in his headphones. Maybe the bassist needs lots of kick drum. Maybe the guitarist needs more high hat. Each player has different cue mix needs.
• If you are recording onto preexisting tracks, your console mix and your cue mix are properly set up. All headphones are checked for proper signal flow and appropriate volume.
• You fully understand all your signal paths and gain stages.
• The players are somewhat conscious and ready to record.
• Now you are ready to press record.

In Record/Red Lights

• Record everything. You are the recording engineer, so record. If the player is messing around with a sound, or trying out new ideas, or even waiting for you to finish something, press record. You have the option to redo something, but if some musical spark hits and then is gone, everyone looks at you to see if you recorded it. That’s when you say “Yes, I’m the recording engineer and I record everything.”
• Note that less experienced players sometimes come up with ideas more readily if they think they aren’t being recorded. Be casual and press record.
• Keep track of all signal paths. Continually, throughout the session, check that all the equipment is acting as intended.
• Label all DAW tracks before you press record. Labeling tracks is vastly important. It takes minimal time, and can save hours of hunting for that lost track.
• Louder volume levels mask slight pitch problems. Turn the studio monitors down to help hear pitch and tuning issues.
  
• 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.
• 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 to watch the player, and when he goes into overload mode, physically lower 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 using a low input for the loud parts, then one with a higher input level for the softer parts. Record them both on separate tracks, then mix and match them later.
  • As a last resort, record the whole track at a lower level, and raise the softer parts during the mixing process.
• 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 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 needed, maybe take an actual photograph of the settings on the console, or take a photo of the microphone placement in front of the amplifier. Useful when you have to return to set up a similar sound at a later date.
• Take five. If you are doing lots of takes, slate them all. Keeping track of counter numbers is great, but actually recording the words ‘take thirty seven’ before the count-off leaves absolutely no doubt as to your location. With digital recording, you always have a visual readout on the screen, so slating might not be needed.
• As well, label the choice track in the ‘notes’ section of the mix window.
• Editing between drum takes. If the drummer used a click track, and didn’t start the song at exactly the same time every take, line the drum tracks up from various takes to start at the same time so you can shuffle between them. This allows you to grab, for example, a tom fill from take 2 or a good bridge from take 4, and easily bounce it in to the master take because all the takes are lined up.
• Make a clean start of it. During the thick of basics, before you press the playback button for all to hear the last take, quickly highlight, then remove any noisy bits before the song starts, such as string noise on a guitar, or amplifier sounds, even mute the click track. This allows everyone to hear how the finished intro will sound, without any extraneous noises.
• For your eyes only. When things are being discussed in the control room, you might do some edits in silence. If, for example, you know that a certain guitar doesn’t hit the downbeat right at a certain spot, you can quietly highlight it and slide it into its correct spot. This means using your eyes to line the part up with the drums and the rest of the tracks. Assume that it works until you hear otherwise.
• Quietly find a replacement. Sometimes a whole part needs to be replaced. For example, the bass in the first verse may not be as tight as it is in the third verse. Do a little quick side work in silence. Create a new empty track next to the bass track. Then grab a chunk of the bass track from the downbeat of a later verse and paste it into the new empty track at the downbeat of the first verse. Use your eyes to match the exact placement of the existing bass track—it should look very similar to the original bass part. After checking that it lines up with the drums, slide it into the existing track. This quick maneuver takes a bit of skill to do because you are only using your eyes and your experience, not your ears.
• Changing from one song to another should be fast. If the tracks are recorded similarly, all the levels and their 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 record.
• Space out. Some engineers prefer to run ‘linear sessions,’ where maybe five songs are laid out one after the other. Leave enough space between songs on the multitrack recorder 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.
• Organize takes by setting markers at, for example, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and on. Start first take on marker 1 at 10 minutes. On this first take, maybe the first chorus is at 11:04. This will allow you to quickly go any section on any take. The first chorus on take three is at 31:04. The first chorus on take nine is at 91:04.
• Keep up. If they do any playing at all between songs, be prepared to press record. Maybe run a second recorder, such as a portable stereo recorder, to catch all the small talk, ideas, jokes and chatter that most bands do. 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.

Edits

With the ease of digital editing, it has become standard practice for songs to be built from the best parts of any number of takes. After all the takes have been recorded, a master track of the best parts of each take is assembled. Maybe take 2 had a great intro, and maybe take 4 had a great first verse, until the whole song is built. Once the choice take is established, there may be some repairs needed.

• Feel free to do all the edits you want, because you aren’t actually editing the file. When editing a track on your DAW, you aren’t actually changing the file itself, only the representation of a file. Your DAW retrieves and uses the data from the file, but the original file remains intact in its folder.
• 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 take 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.
• Nix the clicks. Minimize clicks between edit points by placing the reference lines where the waveform crosses the zero point. Zoom in to the highest level where you can see the waveform, and join the pieces.
• 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.
• Realize that 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 redo it. Or maybe that’s the player’s style. Out of pitch is always wrong. Out of time is not.
• Don’t edit the click track. The click track is the song’s timing reference, so editing it will render it useless.

Punching

Once the final track is established, some pieces may need to be repaired. Sometimes the off bits are repaired; sometimes the whole track is redone.

• Check, check mate. As we know, a punch-in is when the engineer presses record in and out at the exact right time to repair a certain bit. Some sessions today don’t use punch-ins. The engineer records the piece a few times, then uses ‘cut and paste’ to edit the final result. Many sessions do, however, use punch-ins. Scroll through all the tracks to make sure no other tracks are in record-ready. Even though you’re positive that you have the correct tracks in record-ready, check again. As we amass tracks, they may be hidden from your window. For example, you are looking at tracks 20–24, track 1 is not on your screen. If track 1 is in record-ready, you won’t know until you scroll to see all the tracks.
• Just play along. Ask the player to play along when he hears the music, so he will already be in the groove when you punch in. Press the input button in and out to check the incoming signal matches the track you are punching into.
• Use bars as your frame of reference. Write the number of bars per verse and chorus on the recording map, or on the notes section of the mix window. Count the bars for each section. A 4/4 beat count is 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4, 4 2 3 4, then back to 1. Maybe the tom-tom fill before a chorus starts on the 4, 2, which is exactly 2 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.
• 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 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.
• Counter intelligence. When punching in repeatedly at the same location, use the counter to rewind to the same spot every time—about ten seconds before the punch. This is enough time for the player to know where the ‘in’ spot is, yet not too long so 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 analog 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.
• 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. Players will be happy to wait. It is better to take five minutes double checking the punch than wasting time repairing an erased part.
• Your DAW has auto punch capabilities. Simple to set up and can be useful when concentrating on getting a part just right. Set the in and out points and let the auto punch drop in and out at the appropriate times. Also great if you are alone and recording yourself.
• Fill your tracksheets and recording maps while recording, not before. Things can change fast in the studio, and the tracksheet/recording map must stay current. As well, double check that all information has been noted, including specified song tempos, dates of recordings, players (names spelled correctly please), song titles, digital formats, song structure, and any other pertinent information.
• If you can within the politics of the session, be as specific as possible as to what you want the player to do. Simply having him redo 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.
• 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.
• Produce. If no one else in the room is doing it, step up and take charge. Some sessions need a leader, and sometimes that is you. They may look to you as the one with the most studio experience, therefore most qualified.

Post-record

Changing from one track to the next to record another take should give you a moment to catch your breath. Yes, technically you can move to another track, and press record in about a second. But don’t. Use the moment to share with the singer.

• Stay in contact. Make all changes quietly and efficiently, without ever losing contact with the player in the studio. Changing tracks from one to the next should be seamless.
• Three ways. If you are recording many takes of the same thing, either:
  • (1) Use the individual track to monitor. Match the settings on all the intended tracks 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 on the board. When you change over from recording on track 12 to record 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 take 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, you record the first vocal take on track 13. Rather than record the next take onto track, create a new layer on 13 and record the next vocal take on layer 1 of track 13. Set the ‘lock’ function to keep the take 13 layer 2 from shifting back and forth.
• I’ve got more tracks—what can we record? Just because you have unlimited 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.
• Don’t record the effects. The traditional thought is, if the guitar or keyboard effects are coming through the amplifier, record the effects. If the effects are created in the control room, such as 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 documentation in the world doesn’t guarantee the same sound will return.
• Record the effects. Sometimes you find a perfect guitar effect that helps the player become more creative, and musically, he goes places he normally wouldn’t. Record the effects if they influence the way he plays, such as him using feedback as part of a guitar sound. 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. Whatever effect it as, you can always add more later, but you can’t take an effect away once it has been recorded.

The Part

• Don’t judge during the recording. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell what is good or bad while the recording is taking place, and only upon playback can you really hear what is recorded. The first take may be the best, even if it may not seem like it at the time.
• Assume that all tracks recorded will be keepers. Save the track if there is even a chance the player cannot redo 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, or send it to another layer, or set up another track to record on. If the player does the part better, then that’s great. If not, you still have the original intact.
• Counter melody. As you go through the song, 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 become familiar with the song.
• 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. And something happens if everyone in the room thinks you do a good job. They give you more latitude when it comes to mistakes, and when it comes to suggesting ideas. The players and producers simply show you more respect.
• 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 take was to punch in the pieces until the best take was recorded. Sometimes, once this take is done, the player has an easier time playing along to the good take.
• 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. I once worked with a producer that would lean in to the artist, show his watch and say “tick, tock,” thinking this would hurry the player along. It didn’t.
• Do not erase the count off. Mute the count off if it isn’t being used, such as for a playback. Maybe bounce the count to a safe track, but never erase it. Without a proper count off, there is no intro reference.
• 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.
• Record different sections of the song with different guitars. Try recording the verses with one guitar, then the bridge and choruses with a different guitar. Use the changes to help build the momentum.
• Double tracks must be tight. Of course, a track sounds big by doubling it. 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.
• Record a nice clean unprocessed direct track. Sometimes, when we record the guitar tracks, we aren’t sure of how the rest of the unrecorded tracks will sound. Being able to wait and select a proper guitar amplifier sound just before we mix gives us the advantage of not having to commit before we hear all the final tracks. At mix time, if you need more ‘body’ from the guitar sound, run this clean direct track through a virtual amplifier, and experiment until you have the perfect sound.
• 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 played 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, such as guitar 1 in the verses, and guitar 2 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 return to it another time. No engineer wants an unfinished track hanging over his head, and no artist wants a mix with half-finished tracks.

Recording Vocals

• Schedule the vocal session for the singer’s best time. Different singers will be prepared at different times of day. While one may be raring to go at 9 a.m., another may not really open up until the late afternoon. A tired singer sings a tired vocal.
• Hopefully the producer and singer have gone through the song, making sure the best musical key is established, and the timing and flow of the lyrics within the melody.
• Encourage a singer to memorize the lyrics. Sometimes, something is lost when the singer is reading lyrics off a page. Better if they focus on the interpretation and feel of the vocal, not hunting around for the next line.
• Setting up the tracks. By now you have determined the best microphone and pre-amp for your artist’s voice. You have placed her correctly in the studio with proper baffling and a comfortable work station. Various ways to set up and record your vocal track include:
• Record one track and use it. Not uncommon for low budget projects.
• Record one track and punch into it. What they used to do with 16-track analog.
• Record three tracks and comp a good vocal from the three tracks. What they used to do on 24-track analog.
• Record twenty-four tracks and spend all night editing, yelling, and losing patience to Frankenstein together one so-called perfect track. Sorry, but chances are it will not be perfect. The theory of diminishing returns dictates that doing a vocal ten times will not give you a vocal ten times better than the first. Each take will have its own timing, feel, vocal timbre, level, and emotions, and a comp of all of them may untimely skew the final vocal from being perfect.
• Unless it’s a bad song. A common session practice is to record three good tracks, then comp those tracks, and repair any unusable parts. If you can’t get a solid useable vocal track in three takes, take a step back. Maybe the singer isn’t ready, or good enough. But wait. Sometimes it’s just a bad song. Even the best singers can have trouble with bad songs.
• Dim the lights and chill. 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.
• 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.
• Ask her to stand, not 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.
• As well, if a 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.
• Setting levels. Setting input levels depends on the song, and the singer. Is the song dynamic? Ask her to sing the loudest part, and then expect that during the take she will sing even louder.
• Record a reference track. If needed, 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.
• Use headphones. 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.
• Don’t use headphones, use speakers. Sometimes using the opposite polarity speaker setup described in Chapter Eight 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.
• Be musical when looping. Any time you need to loop a playback, zoom in on the inpoint and outpoint to perfectly align them, so the piece repeats musically with no noticeable jump in flow. The beginning and end loop points must pass unnoticeably.
• 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 her when she does a good job. Tell her what you want, not what you don’t want.
• Encourage her with a positive comment, tell her what you want her to do, then give her another positive feedback.
• 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 issues together.
• “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.
• 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.
• Don’t blast his ears. Some singers want the headphones nice and loud for their vocal. 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 cue’s send level, warn him that ‘here it comes’ and press play. Once the song is playing, raise the cue level in the headphones to the previous level.
• 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.
• Bring the singer into the control room. I like to record vocals in the control room. It removes a barrier between the singer and the recording process. With her standing right close to you, there seems to be a certain intimacy. Of course:
  • The area needs to be acoustically viable.
  • The control room must be totally silent—no fans, machine noises, or squeaky chairs.
  • With an active microphone in the control room, extra care needs to be taken to avoid feedback.
  • No one can enter or exit while recording.
  • The singer must agree. If she is at all uncomfortable leaving the safety of the studio room, by all means leave her in there.
• Tell the singer to sing along as soon as he hears the music. This ensures 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.
• She’s not too sharp, and kinda flat. 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. Check that he isn’t straining because of a poor vocal level in the headphone mix. Is the vocal level loud enough for him to hear himself properly? When a singer pushes too hard, the pitch often suffers. Strain is not the same as growl or punch. Vocal strain usually means it’s time to stop singing for today.
• 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.
• Bring it on home. Give the singer a copy of the track to take home. This was an old Motown trick. They would record the vocals as best they could, then send the singer home to really listen to what they did, and how they might improve it. They would return the next day and try to top the previous day’s work.
• 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 the headphones, and the previous vocal take in the other side of his headphones. This makes it easier to distinguish his live vocal from the recorded vocal.
• 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.
• Don’t beat yourself up. Sometimes it’s just a bad song. Good songs record so much easier than bad songs. After exhausting all resources, pulling out everything from your bag of tricks, and still no success trying to get a good vocal, it becomes clear the problem is in the songwriting. Don’t worry, it’s not you.
• 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 takes 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 helps everyone else get inspired to do their best.
• Don’t solo when you edit. Many edits 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 at a low level will help you hear which bits of the vocal are not quite in tune. Just because you can see it on the screen doesn’t mean you have to remove it.
• Take a breath. Of course you hear breath sounds all over the track when listening in solo mode. Breath sounds are normal and usually go by unnoticed, so don’t feel you have to remove them. The best way to tell is to play the song from the beginning and listen for unnatural or loud breaths. Maybe lower them in level.
• 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, then tighten it up, then paste it into all 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 get lost. For vocals, use the digital editor to level out every word, so nothing—not even a syllable, is lost in the mix.
• Moving parts. Some engineers don’t like to cut and paste between parts of the song. They feel a vocal should build with the song, like a staircase. That is, they don’t want to use the same vocal performance on chorus 1 as they do on chorus 3. Chorus 3 may be perfect, but the vocal should build along with the song. It’s that emotional build, with each section building to bring the song up to the next tier.
• What is nudging? Nudging tracks on your DAW edit screen means to bring a track or tracks forward or backward by a few milliseconds to make it line up with other tracks. A major danger here is if there is any leakage with a track that isn’t being nudged, this will result in phase and attack issues between the tracks. For example, to nudge the snare and not the kick. This will vastly muddy up the rest of the tracks. Either nudge all the tracks, or none.
• Timing, as in comedy and explosives, is everything. Better to get the timing you want from her as she sings it, than coming in later and try to ‘fix’ it by nudging it better. (Some call this technique ‘pocketing,’ which is the opposite of what it does.) Some projects nudge the vocal tracks back and forth so they are perfectly lined up with the drums and the rest of the music, and that’s fine, but can sound unnatural and emotionless.
• The singer’s job is to interpret the song her way. A confident producer will work with her to get the timing right during the recording process. This doesn’t mean everything should be exactly in time. This means the timing should be right for the singer and the song. Listen to singers such as Frank Sinatra and Amy Winehouse. Both were sometimes whole beats behind. Their music wouldn’t be nearly as touching if some engineer had ‘pocketed’ all the vocals.
• As a junior engineer in New York, I once met the late great Les Paul. I asked him for one core bit of advice. After all, he invented the electric guitar. He told me three things:
  • (1) Record the sweat on the brow of the player. That’s where the groove is.
  • (2) Eye contact between the musicians is everything. They can’t lock the beat together if they can’t see each other.
  • (3) Run downstairs and get me a sandwich.
• The overriding theme of recording music is capture the groove, the timing. This is where the toe taps and the finger snaps.
• What is auto tune? This is pretty clear. Auto tune tunes the pitch of the vocal track, with parameters that allow how much and how fast. You can auto tune the whole track, or just sections of it, such as a bad note here and there. Auto tune is everywhere today, sometimes even used as an obvious effect on the vocal. Most songs we hear today use some degree of auto tune. Should you use auto tune on your vocal tracks? If you are competing on the world stage, yes.
• Some people are against using auto-tuning, and they have valid points, but everyone else is doing it, and we sometimes have to play by their rules to get a foot in the door.
• What is normalizing? Normalization is an internal process that raises (or lowers) peak levels to a predefined maximum level, and raises lower level WAV file levels up to it, without clipping.
• Careful normalizing low levels. Normalizing a quiet vocal track will, of course, raise the level of the noise floor.
• Don’t normalize the whole vocal. Just the notes or phrases that need it. This will bring the softer lines up to a similar level, without really altering the dynamics of the rest of the song. Unless that’s the effect you want.
• Normalizing isn’t an effect, it’s more of a repair tool that uses a destructive process. Many engineers never normalize. They don’t want an algorithm to dictate their levels. They record the proper levels for the song during the recording process.
• But sometimes the peaks are overloaded and they need to be normalized downward (when the peaks are too high to match the rest of the levels). Maybe it’s too dynamic to track properly. If fidelity is your thing, then normalizing can be an effective tool—if used in moderation.

End of Session

• Print a ruff mix. After finishing a major track, print a quick ruff mix for future reference. Mixes from different days throughout the project may have different feels and different grooves. As ever, label the song with the title and the mix date.
• Maybe have the assistant note the settings for each ruff 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.
• Bad case of Ruff-itis. Ruff-itis, not unlike demo-itis, occurs when the players listen to a ruff mix or demo over and over, and they love it so much they want the final mix to sound exactly like the ruff 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 overprocessing. Next time maybe back it off a bit, relying on experience over tired ears.
• 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, and so forth 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 microphones, as a diaphragm can react to moisture, dust, smoke, and changes in temperature.
• If your studio leaves the microphones set up, cover the microphones with some sort of small bag or covering. Those doggy waste plastic bags work great.
• For safety’s sake. If applicable, make safety copies of the final mixes 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, it is that once-in-a-blue-moon where 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 1/4″ 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.