I'm done mixing, and am ready to master my project. What would you recommend in terms of gear/plugins? I want a loud master, so that it doesn't fall off in the background against other songs! Thanks!
	This one needs to be answered in a few steps. Mastering is not as simple as the gear that makes the mix sound "loud" and "clear". It's about informed decisions and a sense of perspective. This brings us to point #1: 1) Let someone else master your mixes! Any professional engineer with a few records under their belt will tell you this. This advice comes from two directions, both the physical and mental world... First of all, it's much better practice to master the mix on a different set of speakers and in a different room. Different speakers will reveal flaws that the speakers you mixed on cannot, simply because you mixed on them! Even more important than the speakers (in many cases - especially the "home studio" situation) the room acoustics are affecting the imaging and frequency response far more than the speakers themselves. For this reason, my gear recommendation is: Gear that's in a different room! ;-) Next up is the 'mental' side of mastering your own mix. We all have our little tricks and quirks when panning, EQ'ing, compressing, etc. our tracks for the mix. Perhaps you've hyped the high mids along the way, looking for more "cut" in your mix, and may have overdone it without realizing. This doesn't mean your mix isn't good! But it'll be much easier for an engineer who hasn't yet heard the mix to step in and suggest an EQ curve to balance out your mix. And compression, and on and on. Let someone else take the wheel - you'll be glad you did! 2) So now that you know that someone else should master your mix somewhere else, I guess the gear doesn't matter much, now does it? Just kidding, of course. You may be called upon to do the favor for someone else that you need - mastering a mix. You may also want to just kick out a quick "test master" of your mix for listening on other systems. (Just give your ears a night's break before doiing this, it will help you gain some perspective). With this in mind, you can break the bank buying mastering gear, regardless of your budget! No need to do this, however. If you're mastering "in the box" (ITB), that is, without using outboard gear with your DAW, you have plug-ins that are of fine quality to make a good master. There isn't a tremendous difference between plug-in EQs (how dare I say it!), at least not so much that the EQ that came with your DAW won't suffice for a minor touchup. Beyond the plug-ins you may already have, test drive some demo versions of EQs, compressors, limiters, etc. I recommend trying several at once, so you can compare the way they work during the evaluation period and make an informed decision. For example, compare a bunch of limiters at once. For Pro Tools users, compare Steve Massey's L2007 with Digi's Maxim and . You'll hear a difference in the way each reacts to peaks, how the sound "comes forward" in different ways when limited, and which sound works best for what you're doing. Logic users should try out Stillwell Audio's "Event Horizon", the Logic native limiter, Voxengo Elephant, and the (free!) Yohng W1 Limiter. The Yohng does a VERY similar thing to Waves L1, and the Logic, Stillwell, and Voxengo limiters all have their own sonic fingerprint. When woking in Logic, I'll sometimes limit a master in stages, shaving off peaks with the Event Horizon and then pushing up the level with the Yohng W1. 3) The analog gear question - MUST one have top-notch analog EQs and compressors to make a killer master? I'll go out on a limb and say, "No". The most important thing a mastering engineer has is his/her ears. 90% of the work is done with the ears. Yes, a deluxe piece of analog gear may lend a nice edge to the tone, but let your ears be your guide. A loud, clear master is made by finding the right EQ balance, and raising the average level while carefully shaving off a few peaks, all the while being sure that the dynamic of the music is retained. It's a balancing act! I own some really nice EQs and compressors (Manley, Neve, API), but often find that a plug-in will do the same job just as well. The best part of analog gear is often just being able to close your eyes and turn a few knobs, letting your ears guide you instead of staring at an on-screen interface. That's probably the best advice in any case - master with your ears, not your eyes.
Friday, September 03, 2010
	When is the next update for the Recording book coming? It's been a while, man!
	I must humbly apologize for not updating "Pro Techniques for Home Recording". I do have a great excuse, though! I was approached by Course Technology/Cengage Learning to write a book on home recording for them. It is now out in stores nationwide, and is titled "Big Studio Secrets for Home Recording and Production". Since it is a printed book, the audio examples are on a CD-ROM. I put a lot of work into it, some of which I had been saving for my ebook update, but I had to fill more than 200 pages for the contract, so I had to plunder all my notes! Here's the book: Link to Joe's New Recording Book The publisher has supplied me with a small pile of copies, so if anyone is interested in buying on directly from me, I'll be glad to part with a copy for just $25 shipping included (they're 34.99 in stores). I'll even autograph it if you like! cheers, joe dochtermann
Monday, May 03, 2010
	Is it really necessary to acoustically treat my studio room? I’d like to get around it if possible. If it really helps to do so then what is the bare minimum I can get away with in terms of spending money?
	Acoustic treatment for your studio is probably the least expensive way to improve your studio's sound. Seriously! For the same price as a Shure '57, you can build a half-dozen broadband absorbers - check out the media gallery for pics and a description of how to do it. The biggest problem in any room are the low frequencies, which is why "bass traps" are so important. Basically, a bass trap is just a huge wad of sound absorbing material. You could just use a package of Rockwool insulation, no need for overpriced pre-fab bass traps from big name acoustic foam salesmen. You can just plop a bale of rockwool in each corner of the room (stack 'em two high for even better coverage), and you've got $20-a-shot bass traps that will be quite effective. A couch or loveseat will absorb some low frequency energy, and add a comfortable relaxing spot to the room - that's usually a freebie, and if you can spare the space in the room it's a multi-functional addition to the studio. I'd say that for $300 total you could get a medium-sized room into pretty good acoustic shape. Do it! It will improve your sound more than any gear will. I like to think of the "heirarchy of recording" as: 1) The source - great performance and instrument tone are irreplaceable. 2) The room - the acoustic space in which you are recording should be treated to reduce direct reflections and resonant problems. 3) The engineer - the person positioning the mics and listening carefully to adjust the tone of the recording is key to capturing a solid sound. 4) The gear - believe it or not, this is last on the list. Why? Because an experienced engineer recording a great performance will ALWAYS sound great, whereas even the best gear can't make a lousy performance sound good! My newest book "Big Studio Secrets for Home Recording and Production" is coming soon (published by Cengage Learning), and goes into depth about each step of the process. Look it up on Amazon, or you can find it in any Borders Books or Barnes and Nobles. I've created a CD-Rom to go with the book, so very much like the "Pro Techniques for Home Recording" ebook, there are loads of audio examples to guide you.
Monday, April 05, 2010
	Can you please explain the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit resolution? This still confuses me somehow.
	No problem - it's really very simple. First of all, let's clear up the terminology - when you refer to 16-bit or 24-bit, this is the bit depth. The bit depth of a recording relates directly to it's dynamic range, that is, the difference between the loudest possible signal and the noise floor. Don't think in terms of the resolution as in the size of a digital image - that would be a wrong analogy. 16 bit gives you 2^16th steps of volume resolution ( 65,536 steps of amplitude resolution), whereas 24-bit provides 16,777,216 steps! Contrary to common belief, this does NOT increase the "detail" of the audio recording in the way more pixels increases the resolution of a digital image. All you gain is dynamic range. In audio, each bit gives us about 6dB of dynamic range. This means that 16-bit audio has a possible dynamic range of 96dB, and 24-bit audio a whopping 144dB of dynamic range. That's the difference in level between silence and a shotgun blast going off right next to you. Considering that The noise floor of even top-grade analog audio gear hangs out around -90 or -100 dB, that's a lot of wasted space, really. So what should you use that extra dynamic range for? PLEASE use it for headroom! Don't record right up to 0dBFS on your digital meters. Leave space for peaks. Average around -18dB and you're still only "wasting" a couple of bits of your dynamic range. Nothing to worry about. Even if you record everything at 16 bits, and save yourself a load of hard drive space, with careful management of your recording levels, you'll still have plenty of dynamic range for most pop and rock recordings. To improve your recordings, focus on mic technique, and invest in some good A/D and D/A converters!
Monday, April 05, 2010
	Hi Joe, I have a question I would like to ask if I may. Should a person use Normalization on vocal tracks during the mixing and editing process. I have read where some say yes and others say no. Thanks!
	Hi there, Normalization doesn't bring any real benefit unless the gain level is so far off that the fader on your mixer (real or virtual) wont give you enough gain to fit the vocal properly into the track. On the other side, there is the true danger of digital distortion when normalizing - not from the process itself, but from any processing you may do afterward! If you normalize that vocal up to -0.5dBFS to make it "loud" (which is nonsense anyway), then boosting just 1dB on an EQ would cause a digital over. This is not something you want! Beyond the problems this may cause on a single track, normalizing a track up close to the max in most rock/pop mixes will probably just force you to turn it back down again once you add in keys, guitars, bass, drums, etc etc. If you're recorded in 24 bit resolution, you should keep your levels averaging around -18dBFS. Don't normalize all your tracks up to 0dBFS! You should leave yourself a few dB headroom in your mix to avoid digital overs and give yourself some space to adjust levels as you go. It is not uncommon to have the overall mix level creep up and up as you work. All in all, normalizing is really only useful on a piece of audio which you wont otherwise further process, and are ready to print onto a final format - many modern limiters set a *maximum output* level which keeps your level up without even having to normalize anyway. Cheers joe dochtermann
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
	How do I open a Digidesign MBox 2 ? I've got a problem with the headphone jack/a mic input/ the usb connection.
	Sometimes the smaller Digi Protools interfaces (like the Mbox 2) will take a fall if they're not rack mounted. This happened to me recently. My warranty is long expired, Digidesign is less than helpful, and I'm stupid enough to try opening one (as you are about to see). I DO NOT RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO THIS! In fact, I strongly advise against it. There are literally dozens of screws, you WILL break something while doing this, and there is likely nothing you can do when you have it open. So why did I do it? Well, I just had to have a look! Enter the media gallery for a peek - you may learn from my mistakes, or just be curious...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
	We're recording drums in a small-ish room, and I have a couple of questions. 1) How many mics will I need? Can I get away with 4? 6? I just don't have the inputs and preamps to mic everything. 2) Do I really need room mics? The recording space is only about 20'x20' Thanks!
	Let me answer this in a purely practical way - with some audio examples. I recently finished a project where we tracked drums in a room that was not much larger than that. Head into the media gallery on the right. If you want a great deal on those Rode NT-5's Amazon is perfect (and if you order from this link, then you'll support our site!)
Thursday, April 30, 2009
	I can’t always hear the bass guitar in a mix. It has a way of disappearing. This is especially true of harder rock tunes. Is this common? Are my ears defective or just untrained? It seems like the bass is almost not there sometimes. Other times, it’s overpowering. When it follows the kick drum I can really hear it. When it follow s the guitar I often lose it. My guess is that many producers are intentionally blending it with guitar for a slight low-end boost? Perhaps I just haven’t paid much attention because I’ve played guitar 20+ years.
	You're right - bass is elusive. Most important is the part being played. If it follows the guitar very closely, it can be swallowed up by a bass-heavy guitar mix. Locking in to the drum pattern helps. Even better is to use a controlled amount of distortion on the bass track. The principle applies for pop and rock, in varying intensities. If you listen carefully to many classic rock mixes, you'll notice that the bass often has a 'warmth' which is really some harmonic distortion. Go to the media gallery, and hear an example from a demo I had handy. Also, check out my first discussion on "The Home Recording Odyssey" where I talk about the bass in context and using some distortion Here's a link to that episode. That one is in a more poppy track, whereas this example sounds more 'hard rock'. Buy me a coffee - it'll help keep me caffinated enough to post more recording info! ;o)
Monday, April 27, 2009