5 Prep Tips Before Recording

Many musicians who have a lot of experience gigging never cut it in the studio. That's because they don't realize that the mentality of the studio is different. Where a gig is fairly loose and usually low pressure, the studio is more job-like and serious. Where on a gig every note you play is gone the second your play it, it may be kept forever in the studio and is under a microscope.

Playing in the studio is a different animal than on a gig and requires different mindset. Here are 5 tips from How To Make Your Band Sound Great and The Studio Musician's Handbook that will help you get off to a good start in the studio.

"You have to think differently when you’re about to do some serious recording. Let’s reinforce what it takes to think like a pro when it’s time for a recording session.

1. Arrive early. This goes without saying, but I’ll say it again to reinforce it.  You should always arrive at least a half-hour before the downbeat of the session and if you’re a drummer or keyboard player with a lot of gear, then figure one full hour. Remember, if you’re late and you keep people waiting, it’s probably going to cost you money.

2. Turn your cell phone off! The session should be your main priority with as few distractions as possible and one of the easiest ways to achieve this is to turn off your cell phone. If you leave it on, not only do you risk ruining a good take if the ringer goes off, but talking on the phone is the best way to stop the momentum of a session in its tracks. And it’s so disrespectful to everyone else involved. Don’t even bother to put it on “vibrate” since this will cause you to lose your focus just as easily as when the ringer is on. Turn it off, then leave the phone outside the studio in the lounge so you won’t be tempted to use it. 

3. Make sure your gear works. If you’re serious about recording, then everything has to work, from the smallest guitar cable to the largest amplifier. Not only does everything have to work, but it has to be in tip top condition as well. The better everything works and sounds, the better your recording will be.

Make sure that your gear is comfortable to you. Make sure everything's working, the cables aren’t crackling, your instrument is in tune and intonated, your tuner is working, and your amp sounds good. Make sure that you can set everything up quickly and be zero hassle to anybody, either technically or personally. Turn off your cellphone. Make it a point that everyone sees that you’re turning off your phone or leaving it outside the studio so they all understand that you’re not interested in phone calls while you’re working. Make the session a priority. -- Paul ILL: LA Session Bass Player (Pink, Christina Aguilera, Bill Ward, Tina Turner)

4. Be Prepared. Know just what you’re going to record. Have a plan, then have a backup in case things don’t work out the way you expect. Make any charts, notes, lyric sheets, or cheat sheets beforehand. You don’t want to be wasting anyone’s time for something that could so easily been done beforehand.

5. Bring everything to the session that you think you might need. Even if there’s only a remote possibility that a piece of gear might be needed, bring it anyway because you can bet it’ll be the one piece that will hold everything up if you don’t.

I over-kill. I bring so much more stuff than we’ll use because that’s part of the charm of hiring me.  It’s part of the “oooh, aahh” factor, and also it’s to be of service to the muse and the spirit of the session. If you’re not sure what you’re going to be doing or where the music is going to go, that one extra piece that you bring can make the difference. I’ll bring as many basses as I can fit in my car for that day with a B-15. -- Paul ILL"

These prep tips are simple yet can be very important to the success of a session. Make them part of your studio routine.

To read additional excerpts from How To Make Your Band Sound Great and The Studio Musician's Handbook, go to the excerpts section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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The Day Before The Session Checklist

One of the keys to a successful basic tracking session is the preparation made beforehand, but before you can prepare for the recording you need some essential information first. Here’s an excerpt from The Recording Engineer's Handbook that shows the minimum that you must determine in advance of the session. This will usually be provided by the producer, artist or band leader, and assumes that you’re unfamiliar with the act.

• What type of music will be recorded?

• How many songs do you expect to record?

• Who are the musicians (If you know some of them it might affect your setup)?

• Who’s the producer (if you’re not talking to him already)?

• What time does the session begin? Does that mean the downbeat of recording or when the musicians are expected at the studio to load in?

• How long do you expect the session to go?

• How many musicians will be playing at once?

• What’s the instrumentation?

• How large is the drummer’s kit? How many toms will he be using?

• Will the guitarist(s) be using an acoustic or electric? 

• What kind of amps will the guitar player(s) and bass player be using?

• Do any of the players expect to use house gear like drums, guitar amps, or keyboards?

• How many cue mixes will be required?

• Will there be a scratch vocal tracked at the same time?

• Will they bring any special outboard gear or mics that they’d like to use?

• Will they be tracking to loops?

• Do they require any particular instruments, amps or effects?

Determining the above before the musicians hit the studio can go a long way to a quick and easy setup and an efficient session. 

TIP: Don’t ask for the setup information too far in advance since much can change by the day of the session. Getting the info the day before the session is usually sufficient.

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What To Change When Things Don't Sound Right

Recording is an interesting business in that each situation is unique. When it comes to music, the song, the arrangement, the players, the performances, the signal chain, and the acoustic environment all vary in one way or another each and every session.

Because of this uniqueness, there are times when you're recording when you find that a part doesn't fit well in a track, or fits too well where it can't be distinguished. Here's a list of things to try in order of importance the next time you run in to either situation.

• Change the source (the instrument you are miking) 

• Change the mic placement 

• Change the placement in the room 

• Change the mic 

• Change the mic preamplifier 

• Change the mount of compression and/or limiting (from none to a lot) 

• Change the room (the actual room you are recording in) 

• Change the musician 

• Come back and try it another day

Take notice that nowhere one there is there mention of equalization. Unless you have a lot of experience, it's best to follow the above points before you ever reach for an EQ knob. You'll be surprised how much better things can sound.

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Recording A Great Guitar Sound

Every guitar player, engineer and producer wants to record the ultimate guitar sound, but it’s not always easy to capture the great sound that you hear in the room. In this excerpt from The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook (written with my good friend, television composer and great guitarist Rich Tozzoli), we’ll look different electric guitar miking techniques.

While many believe there’s only one accepted way to mic an amplifier, you’ll be surprised to learn that there are as many ways as there are guitar and amp sounds. Let’s look at some.

Using A Single Mic

It’s amazing what you can do with a single mic if you experiment a bit. Here are a number of techniques that have been used on popular recordings since the 50’s. They all work, but remember that what works for one recording may not work for another. That’s why it’s good to always have an alternative in your pocket when you need one.

The Classic Setup - An SM57 On The Best Speaker

The Classic Setup

Place a Shure SM57 about one inch away from the best sounding speaker in the cabinet. Place the mic about three quarters of the way between the edge of the speaker and the voice coil (away from the voice coil). If you need more high end, move the mic towards the voice coil (the center of the speaker). If the sound needs more body, move it towards the outside edge of the speaker. Make sure that the mic does not touch the speaker cone when the loudest passages are played.

Old School Setup: Distance Miking Where Speakers Converge

The Old School Setup

The way amplifier miking was consistently done in the 60’s and 70’s was to place the mic from one to two feet away from the center of the speaker or speakers. This allows the sound from the speakers and the cabinet to develop, but also captures some of the room, which can be a nice bonus. The ideal distance on a cabinet with two speakers is where the output of both speakers combine. Move the mic to the side to capture more of the sound of one of the speakers voice coils if more high end is required.

Miking A Marshall Cabinet With One Mic

Miking A Marshall 4x12

If you’re using a Marshall 4x12 cabinet, position a single mic 12 to 24 inches from the cabinet, dead center to all 4 speakers aiming for the logo plate. You can use this for other closed back cabinets as well, except their logo’s might not be in the same position. On the typical 4x12 speaker cabinet (like the standard Marshall 1960 model), the four speakers usually become additive at a distance of 15 to 24 inches from the cabinet center (depending upon the speakers).

Using Two Mics

As much of a variety as you can get with one mic, you’ll get a lot more with two. Over the years, many engineers discovered that they could more closely capture the sound that they were hearing in the room by adding a second microphone. Here are some examples.

SM57 and MD 421 On Guitar Amp

The Classic Two Mic Setup

Place the SM57 near or against the grill cloth as in the classic method #1 above. Now add a Sennheiser MD 421 at the same position to the right of the 57, but aimed at a 45 degree angle pointing towards the voice coil. Many sounds can be achieved from this setup by summing the mics at different levels and by flipping the phase on one. Of course, you can use any mics you choose, but the classic setup uses the 57 and 421.

Miking The Rear Of An Open Back Cabinet

Two Mic Variation #1

With an open-back amplifier (like a typical Fender), place a mic about a foot away from the rear of the amp, off center from one of the speakers, while using any of the single mic setups for the front of the cabinet. Usually you’ll have to flip the phase on the rear mic, but try both positions and use the one that has the most low-end.

Additional Distance Mic Added To Close Mic

Two Mic Variation #2

While using the mic setting from the single mic Classic #1 with the mic close to the grill of the cabinet, add an additional mic at the spot where the sound of the speakers converge 18 to 24 inches away. This distance might be increased to as much as 6 feet depending upon the size and sound of the room, which will then increase the captured ambience.


Other guitar amp miking setups can be far more sophisticated using a lot more mics, but one of these methods can get you where you need to go most of the time.

Don't forget that everything starts with the player, instrument and amplifier first. If the sound is crappy at the amp, there's nothing you can do to make it sound better via the miking. Get a great sound first, then pick your choice of miking.

To read additional excerpts from The Ultimate Guitar Tone Handbook as well as my other books, go to bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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Here's What's Wrong With Your Music

Readers often send me their music to comment on, and while I'd love to get to everything, sometimes that's just not possible. That said, there are a number of traits that I notice among these songs that I thought was worth a mention, since they encapsulate many of the problems that I hear.

Before you send me a link to something to listen to, make sure that your song doesn't have any of these common problems first and save us both some time.

1. No groove: Every song has to have a pulse and it has to be made obvious so the listener can feel it. Every kind and genre of music has it. If it's not there, nothing else counts. Sometimes I hear songs where the groove just isn't there because of poor playing, or it's not made obvious in the mix.

2. Bad drum tracks: I don't mean the sound, but the actual playing. A number of times this year so far people have sent me their "masters" or CDs that have such horrible playing that the only person that's ever going to like it is their mothers.

What do I mean by bad playing? Rushed or slow drum fills, uneven tempo that's way too noticeable, floppy uneven kick and/or snare hits won't cut it.

The problem is that most musicians who've never worked on a real record project before are just not critical enough and let too much go that should have been re-recorded, fixed or edited. Your basic track is the most important thing you'll record next to the vocal. Make it as perfect as you can before you move on.

3. Tracks out of the pocket: This means that a part doesn't groove against the rest of the track. The number of songs I get with vocals that rush, or the bass being out of the pocket against the drums, or another instrument that way too early or too late is really a shame. Usually the songs I get have their owners more worried about the sound than the playing, but great playing beats great sound any day.

4. Out of tune: Tuners are cheap. Use one. There's no excuse in this day and age.

5. Bad recording: The real key to a great sound is a great player first, then a great instrument, although a great sounding instrument can make a mediocre player sound a lot better. Get those two first and everything else will take care of itself.

6. Bad mixing: Mixing is so much more than balancing instruments and adding effects. It's finding the groove and building around it, then finding the most interesting element and emphasizing it.

Here's the bottom line. There's a reason why pros exist. Spend the extra money to work with one, at least for one project. You'll be surprised how much you'll learn.

Oh and by the way. If you're going to ask that I critique your song, send me a link that I can stream (even YouTube is OK). DO NOT send me a file. There's a legal issue involved and it fills up my hard drive and takes time to download. I can't promise that I'll listen, but I will try.

Also understand that sometimes there's just not much to say about a mix. You made some decisions that reflected your creative taste. They're not right or wrong, but they're probably different from the way others might've made them. They're not right or wrong either. Some questions just don't have an answer.

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The Beatles On Record Part 1

As some of you know, I'm just about finished co-writing a book with Ken Scott that covers his career in the music business. Ken was one of the 5 engineers for The Beatles as well as producer of David Bowie, Supertramp, Devo, Kansas, Missing Persons and many others.

The book will be called "From Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust" and will be available in April, and will cover all of Ken's time with the Fab Four. In the meantime, enjoy this video where you hear about their early recording process from The Beatles and producer George Martin themselves. There's some great vintage video to look at as well.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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The Secret Of How To Listen To Each Other

Here's an excerpt from my band improvement book "How To Make Your Band Sound Great." It's surprising just how few musicians listen to the players that they're playing with, yet that's the secret to a tight sounding band. Usually as a musician gets older and wiser, he hips up to the following, but not always. Here's the secret of how to listen to each other.
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"One of the fundamental errors that band members frequently make is not listening closely to the rest of the band. It’s easy to just focus on yourself, but in order to play well together, it’s listening to everyone else that really counts.  This is the single most important action you can take when playing with other musicians.

So what do you listen for? You listen to how the other musicians are playing or singing a phrase or part. How loudly are they playing? What are their dynamics like?  How do they start and end each phrase (more on this later)? Where are they accenting?  How are they playing the accents?  Are they playing ahead or behind the beat?  Does their tempo speed up when they play louder or slow down as they get softer? All these items require your attention as much as possible. The more you listen to each other and how each of you play or sing, the tighter you become.  It’s that simple.

Things To Listen For When Playing With Others

• How loudly are they playing?
• What are their dynamics?
• How do they start and end a phrase?
• Where are they accenting?
• How are they playing the accents?
• Are they playing ahead or behind the beat?
• Do they speed up when they play softer or louder?

That being said, it does require some work. During rehearsal, if you notice that you’re not playing a phrase or part the way everyone else is (or if just one of you doesn’t seem in sync with everyone else), stop immediately and ask, “How are you playing that?” Then determine which way sounds best and just rehearse that phrase or part until you’re all playing it together.

During a gig you sometimes get a different perspective on how things sound since the environment is different and you’re probably set up differently than during rehearsal. As a result, you’ll probably notice things that got by during rehearsal. Make a mental note of the parts that aren’t being played well together and address those items first at the next rehearsal."

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David Bock On Microphones

Bock Audio 241

There are a few people on the planet that know a lot about microphones and how they're made, but not many know as much and have the dedication of David Bock, the founder and owner of Bock Audio (formerly Soundelux Microphones). After all, how many people would go to the extent of teaching themselves German just so they could read the old Neumann service manuals? David makes some truly excellent mics, and you'll see a little of just how that came to pass with this excerpt from The Recording Engineer's Handbook.
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"After stints repairing microphones (among other things) at such prestigious facilities as the Hit Factory and Oceanway, Bock Audio (formerly Soundelux) founder and managing director David Bock went from repairing vintage microphones to manufacturing them.  David now utilizes his expertise to produce updated versions of the studio classic 251, Although he previously made versions of the U47, FET47, M49 and U67 in the previous Soundelux incarnation of the company.  David was kind enough to share some of his insights as to the inner workings and differences between classic microphones and their modern counterparts.

What actually makes a vintage microphone so special?
There are a couple of things that go into that.  The bottom line is that the 50’s were really the golden age of audio design. Those guys really did know what they were doing when they designed a lot of the key gear that people are still using. They used a lot of the correct techniques and they had the luxury of decent materials and the time to research things properly.

There is a tone to these things that is harder and harder to duplicate. Not impossible, just harder and harder. They had tubes back then that are harder to get now. The available selection of materials was a lot greater back then.  Then there’s the element of chance. Why would someone pay $20,000 for a 251?  Well, maybe that particular 251 really does sound unique because AKG’s production was so sloppy and the capsules were so poorly machined that you’re bound to get one that excels beyond everything else and the rest are just kind of average. Now we have CNC machines that can make these tiny little holes on the capsule backplate all the same, which AKG really couldn’t do.

As you were trying to build an updated version of a vintage microphone, were you trying to copy everything including the circuitry and trying to get it as close to the original as possible, or were you trying to just make it sound like the original?
The sound comes first but that’s not the whole story. The first thing I had to do was try to find what makes the microphone sound the way it does. There were at least 15 points that you have to look at, it turns out, if you’re going to emulate the sound of a microphone. The first large problem is “I want to copy the sound of a 251”. Well, which 251?  I rented about ten 251s here in town (Hollywood) and you know what? There’s no such thing as a common 251.  They’re all totally different.  I could hear it and I could measure it. 

Among some of them there is a common thread though. Frequency response is the primary guidepost because all microphones have their own signature. But frequency response curves don’t always tell you everything. You have to take frequency response measurements not only far-field but also proximity (near-field), which strangely are not published and are completely critical to what we believe a microphone sounds like in the directional world. That’s key and it’s somewhat of a disservice that most of the larger condenser microphone manufacturers have not been publishing those graphs for many years. That’s why most engineers will say “Those graphs don’t really mean anything”. That’s because you’re always looking at a 1 meter graph but you’re not always putting your microphone 1 meter away from the sound source. So of course they don’t mean anything because they’re not telling you what you’re hearing. If you saw a proximity graph and a 1 meter graph you’d have a much better idea of what the microphone sounds like. 

So the dissection process continued through a lot of substitutions. You might take a power supply and substitute a different circuit topology and see what it changes, for instance. There are also a lot of measurements that you have to do. Our ability to test things today is definitely better than back when the classics were built but it’s not completely conclusive and opens up a can of worms that says “If I can’t measure it then I can’t hear it” which I completely disagree with. If you worked only towards measurements you end up with something that actually doesn’t sound particularly good compared to things that were designed with listening in mind. 

Finally, there are listening tests. My primary listening test is to make a recording of a drum set in a large room. I’ve got a couple of key locations where I place the microphone to give me an idea about the close and distant pickup characteristics. That’s where you start hearing the differences. Microphone capsules are related to drums. If you took 10 DW [drum] kits and you tuned them all the same they’d still sound all different. There’s a parallel you could draw towards microphones. You could tune all the snare drums and toms the same and even use measurement devices to be sure that they’re the same, and yet the trained ear of an engineer can pick out the differences between them.  We can lock on to things that are different about each one.

What was the hardest thing to get right?
Always the capsule because it’s so small and if you make a tiny change it makes a huge result.  But that’s not to say that the capsule is 99% of the sound. An 87 and a 67 don’t sound that similar yet they use the same capsule.

What’s the biggest difference in the way microphones are made today from the way the classics were made?
Mass production and availability of quality materials. Also, the need for profitability on a corporate level seems to affect how things are made a lot. I’ve seen the way Neumann microphone are built and they’re very different from the way they used to be. The way they built their microphone in the 50’s and early 60’s, I’ll be able to keep those microphone running for a long time.  Not so with the newer microphone. They still make a great capsule but they don’t make the microphone the same in terms of construction. They’re built for ease of production and lowest cost. It’s true almost across the board.

So if we were to make a broad statement, microphones are not made as well today as they were 50 years ago.
No they’re not. If you had a “cost is no object” attitude, you still don’t even have the same metals available. The quality of brass is different now from what they used in the 50’s and 60’s, for instance, and an equivalent can’t be found. 

With the way the business seems to be going, with less and less emphasis on sonic quality, will there be enough people left to appreciate what you’re doing?
Anybody who is serious about the profession either evolves to a point where they say “I can use an SM57 for every track to make a record” or “I’d rather use a hi-quality microphone to make a record”.  You’re going to go one way or the other and most people, if they stay in the business long enough, will usually gravitate to the more exclusive side."

Do check out David's mics at Bock Audio.

You can read additional book excerpts at bobbyowsinski.com.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

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What Really Happens To A Cymbal

Drummer's do what they do - they hit their drums and cymbals, usually very hard. Engineer's try to capture that process as closely as possible, but neither group usually has a great idea of what actually happens during the time the instrument is hit. Now we do.

Below is a hi-speed video of the violence that occurs when a cymbal is struck. What amazed me is how deformed the cymbal actually became. It's another good reason why you should never get a microphone too close to a cymbal. Of course, the best reason is that, like most instruments, the cymbal needs some room for the sound to develop.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

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6 Tips For EQing Effects

It's pretty common for an engineer to have a problem with the sound of a delay or reverb during mixing. Usually the engineer will spend a lot of time trying different presets in an attempt to help everything blend better, but just a little EQ added or subtracted to the effect could've made everything fit nicely in the first place.

Here are a few tips for EQing effects that will help everything blend without spending a lot of time experimenting.

1. To make an effect stick out, brighten it up. 

2. To make an effect blend in, darken it up (filter out the highs).

3. If the part is busy (like with drums), roll off the low end of the effect to make it fit.

4. If the part is open, add low end to the effect to fill in the space.

5. If the source part is mono and panned hard to one side, make one side of the stereo effect brighter and the other darker.  

6. Place an EQ on the effect and attenuate all of the frequencies around the vocal (2k to 4k) to make it sit better in the mix.

If your effects aren't blending, try one or all of the above tips before you change the preset. You'll be surprised at the results.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating social media and the new music business.