What I Know About Music Production and How It Can Save You Thousands

By Martin Joseph Connell ©2014

Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 2

Songwriting ............................................................................................................................................. 2

Rehearsals – Preparing to Record ............................................................................................................ 5

Studio Preparation .................................................................................................................................. 6

Tracking ................................................................................................................................................ 10

Mixing and Production .......................................................................................................................... 12

Should I hire a Producer?....................................................................................................................... 18

Home Studios ........................................................................................................................................ 19

Making and Selling Your CD’s and MP3’s ............................................................................................... 24

Preface This book was created to help musicians produce great songs with radio quality recordings while saving as much money as possible. In many cases, I believe musicians, artists and bands that follow my fundamental production principles and advice will be able to produce full length albums (about 8 songs) in moderate quality recording studios for less than $5,000 in studio fees. Of course, manufacturing the CD’s is extra if that is what you want to do, but I will also share strategies for minimizing these costs as well. The key to being successful in music is practice and preparation. There is no substitute no matter how talented you are. Going into a recording studio unprepared will cost you thousands in unnecessary tracking and mixing time. If you are building your own project studio, this book will provide information and advice that will save you time and money. This book will also cover some basic aspects of the music business and legalities of copyrights and publishing.

Songwriting

Using Other Artist’s Material

If you are using someone else’s music, either in its entirety or just parts of it (performed or sampled), there are several issues and legalities that must be addressed:

1. You must obtain written permission to record the material from the publisher of the music or the copyright owner if the music has not been published.

2. If you are making significant changes to the music or sampling parts of the music, you must obtain written permission from the publisher of the music or the copyright owner if the music has not been published.

3. You can only copyright the recording as an SR (Sound Recording) Copyright in the United States.

4. You will have to pay the publisher of the music mechanical royalties for every CD manufactured containing the song whether the CD is sold or not. The maximum allowable fee in the United States is 9.10 cents per song per unit (CD, cassette, record, etc.), but this fee can be negotiated down with the publisher in many cases.

The issues addressed are only fundamental and I strongly advise hiring an experience entertainment attorney for representation if you will be recording music of other artists. It is possible to record someone else’s material without his/her permission, but the process to do so can be complex and expensive. It is also advised to consult an attorney before using other’s material before recording a demo for marketing or agency solicitation purposes. Some recordings such as Karaoke may be acceptable to use without permission while other recordings may not. Using someone else’s recording without the proper consent may result in criminal and civil prosecution.

Writing Your Own Material

Most artists and bands will be creating their own material for sale and performance. One of the primary considerations of writing music is determining the style of the music. The types of music can be endless, but you should have a good idea of what kind of sound and audience you are writing for such as classical music, country music, hard rock, etc. Much of the style associated with your music will be evident by the instruments and sounds that you employ. This can be not as obvious in the case of some pop material or other Commercial Hits Radio (CHR) songs that employ a variety of instruments and sounds aimed for mass audience appeal as opposed to more niche centered material such as rock or heavy metal. It is critical to determine what style and what type of audience you are writing for in the early stages of writing your song(s). It is not uncommon to write the basics of the song on a single instrument such as a guitar or piano and then fully arrange the piece with a band or other musicians. The types of musicians that you collaborate with in the later stages of development and arranging will have a dramatic influence on the overall style of the song. Bob Marley primarily wrote this way by creating a song on just an acoustic guitar and then having his band elaborate and add to it in rehearsals and in the studio, for instance.

When you are collaborating with other musicians as an artist or a band, it is important to document everyone that has participated for copyright purposes. Anyone who contributed anything to the song, no matter how minute, is a part owner of the copyright for the song under U.S. Copyright law unless specifically waiving such rights under contract, such as a work for hire agreement. Failing to understand this important aspect of Copyright law can cause huge legal problems down the road; so, be very careful that every contributor of the song is listed on the PA (Material Authorship) or SR (Sound Recording) Copyright form.

Now that you understand who is legally considered a contributor, let’s address the style and organization of your musical collaborations. Are you an artist bringing in other musicians to assist you with creating your sound and/or recording and performing your song or are you part of a band made up of dedicated musicians for long-term collaboration? The actual definition of a band can be tricky; so, it is important to think about what being a band actually means to you and the other musicians in the group. Whether you are an individual artist using temporary collaborators or a member of a committed band, there is usually one thing that I have seen over the years and that is that there is usually one person that creates the fundamental harmonic music structure of the song, such as a chord change, and then presents it to the other musicians for collaboration. In some cases the same person also writes a majority of the lyrics too. For example, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden writes the structures of the songs and lyrics and then the other band members fill in the sound with their signature guitars, percussion and vocals. In many cases, such as rock bands, a core group of players such as the guitarist and vocalist will begin and create most of the songs for the band. There are also dynamic situations where the key harmonic writer, such as a guitar player or keyboardist, will work on the basics of the song with a percussionist and then work separately with the singer for melodies. The point is that most artists and core musicians within a band will have their own way of approaching songwriting and arranging and it is important for you as an artist or member of a band to identify which strategies work for you. Understanding how you write and collaborate can drastically improve your songwriting and reduce the

time it takes to write and arrange material. I hate to say that you need a formula, but you do need to acknowledge what types of organizations work for you and what techniques do not. This is not to say that every situation is going to be the same. Some great songs have been written in rehearsal where band members begin bouncing ideas off of each other too and there is no rule saying that this should not be part of your process (called “brainstorming” in management). The point is to understand how you and others collaborate as individuals and as a whole. It may sound obvious to state this, but it is a very important aspect of successful songwriting.

In most cases, except for rare occasions where something just clicks, the songwriting process takes time to develop and mature. This ties into another section of rehearsing where it is important to make recordings, even crude room recordings, of the song being written so that you as an individual artist or member of a band can hear the song back to critique what has been created so far and to help make changes or add parts to make the song better. The number one mistake I have seen is artists or bands attempt to start adding parts or changing things once they are in the studio and have begun the tracking process. This is a result of poor preparation and it costs artists and bands significant amounts of money. By the time you get into the studio and start spending money, every part of the song should be developed and rehearsed. This one fundamental rule will save you thousands of dollars.

When creating a song as a group, it is very important to have someone in charge of making final decisions about the song’s arrangement or to have a clear process for making decisions as a group. In some cases the singer and/or lead guitar player decide on the song’s final arrangement and in other cases members of the band vote on the final arrangement. There is no right or wrong way, but there must be a final decision on how the song is arranged and what parts are going to be included in the song. As I mentioned before, making changes in the studio is a disaster waiting to happen and will cost you. If your band has decided to hire a professional producer, he or she should definitely be part of these decisions if not solely in charge. I’ll discuss producers later on in the book, but I do want to mention that a good experienced producer should be part of the songwriting process.

We have already discussed Copyrights and that every collaborator must be included on the Copyright unless such rights are waived under contract, but what about music publishing. The little secret that they (they being some of the sleaze-balls in the music industry) do not want you to know is publishing. Even though you own the Copyright, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are the one that is going to get paid. The money in music comes from publishing your music. The complete topic of publishing is beyond the scope of this book, but it is important to know about music publishing and what types of publishing generate revenue. Mechanical publishing rights refer to revenue generated whenever a song is produced in physical form such as on a CD, cassette tape, record, etc. Payment for mechanical royalties is due upon manufacturing regardless of whether the unit is sold or not. How this relates to digital formats, such as MP3’s, is not quite clear yet and it something that the industry would like to sweep under the rug. Another form of publishing is royalties from airplay on the radio, television, movies, etc. There are 2 main organizations that collect these royalties and distribute them to artists: BMI and ASCAP. ASCAP is primarily associated with larger established artists and BMI is more geared to smaller up-and-coming and independent artists. If your song is going to receive airplay then you need to become a member of one of these organizations to receive royalties. I personally recommend BMI for

new artists. If you are going to publish your material with an established publishing company or with your own publishing company that you created (recommended for small independent artists), I strongly advise that you seek assistance and representation from an experienced entertainment attorney. I cannot state this strongly enough!

Rehearsals – Preparing to Record Now that your song or songs have been written, it is imperative to rehearse the material to death. I absolutely mean this for a number of reasons, which I will elaborate on shortly. I have over fifty-thousand hours of practice on the guitar and I would not dream of going into the studio with a group without extensive rehearsing no matter how easy the material – period. This is obviously different for individual artists bringing in session players, but I would still try to get them to rehearse with you as much as possible. If this is not possible, then you need to increase your studio budget and understand that no matter how experienced the musician, it is going to take longer and cost you more money to record.

When you are rehearsing with other musicians as an artist or a band, it is important that your rehearsals be structured. Who is in charge of the rehearsal? Who dictates which songs are rehearsed and in what order? Who decides that the song was rehearsed successfully with no errors? It is very important that the artist or the leader(s) of the group know the other musicians’ parts as well. Once the parts of the song’s arrangement have been agreed upon, it is critical that each musician play his/her parts correctly and consistently during rehearsals. Notice I stated “consistently.” This is one of the most important aspects of rehearsing for recording. For example: The drummer should always play the same beat and drum rolls during the song, the guitar player should not be changing leads or melody lines, the bass player should not be changing lines, etc. You are rehearsing to record an exact musical idea. The following statement is critical and you must understand how important it is: “Recording is completely different from performing.” The pressure of being under the microscope with every sound you make going to tape is far more intense than playing a live show. The smallest mistake made in the studio will be blinding! I have seen many good musicians freeze in the studio because of such pressure. The best remedy for dealing with this pressure is practice, practice and more practice. If you have the luxury of playing as a band, then every musician should be able to play his/her parts in their sleep before entering a recording studio and spending money. I cannot even calculate the amount of money I have seen bands waste in studio because they didn’t adequately rehearse. This is a fundamental principle in music production and it will save you thousands of dollars in the recording studio and it is imperative if you want to have a radio quality recording.

It is strongly advised to record all of your rehearsals. Even though the song arrangement should be finalized, it is possible to make some additions or changes over the course of rehearsing and this is ok. In project management this is referred to as “scope creep,” but in songwriting, sometimes this scope creep can be a good thing and add value to the song. It is much easier to identify possible changes when you have recordings of disciplined consistent rehearsals as opposed to the more sloppy process associated with the beginning and intermediate stages of songwriting. It is also recommended to record some rehearsals without vocals and without lead instruments. This allows the singer to practice more on his/

her own and to work on developing additional harmonies. The same is true for the lead players, like a lead guitarist, where he/she is working out solos. It is imperative that the vocalist and anyone in the band performing vocal parts overdub their parts over the rehearsal tapes as much as possible. 4 tracks and new recording software for PC’s are very inexpensive and easy to use. By rehearsing laying down these vocal tracks over the rehearsed music section, you are in fact rehearsing the process of tracking. This is very important. I mentioned earlier that the pressure of recording in a studio can be intense and this gives everyone the opportunity to practice what it is that he/she will actually be doing in the studio.

Another great reason to record rehearsals is to begin experimenting with equipment sounds and microphone placements during the tracking process. New technologies have brought down the prices of quality microphones to a nominal level and the cost of buying a few different styles of microphones to experiment with for micing instruments prior to going into the recording studio can pay off in spades. If you do not have a professional producer working for you than you will be at the mercy of the recording engineer to mic your instruments. This is not a knock on engineers but, an engineer is NOT a producer. Never let the recording engineer act as your producer – NEVER! The engineer is paid by the hour and doesn’t care how much time he/she spends micing your instruments to attempt to get the sound you want. By experimenting at your rehearsals with microphone types and placements for the instruments such as drums and guitar amps, you will already have a very good idea how you want the engineer to mic your equipment during set-up. Again, having an experienced producer can greatly assist you with this, but I will discuss producers later in the book.

It is also very important that your vocalist(s) practices singing into a quality microphone and to determine the proper distance and placement they should sing from into the mic. Everyone is different and it is easy to waste large amounts of money in the studio to determine what works best; so, why not figure this out before you start spending money? Another important aspect of tracking vocals that can be rehearsed ahead of time is how loud the music should be in the headphones for optimal performance. How loud the playback music is in relation to how loud your tracking signal is (how you hear your voice in relation to the music when you are tracking) can have enormous consequences in how your vocals sound. Most amateurs typically make the mistake of making the playback music too loud, but again, everyone is different and this should be rehearsed before spending money in the studio.

Studio Preparation In most recording studios you pay by the hour and the clock begins to tick the moment you start carrying your equipment through the door. Every musician should know the exact equipment he/she will be using and know exactly how he/she is going to set up the equipment in the studio. One of the most time consuming instruments to set up is a drum set. I strongly recommend visiting the studio before tracking and measuring and diagramming the areas where you will be setting up. This way you can determine exactly how you will set up your instrument(s) in the space available to you ahead of time. I also recommend, especially for drummers, that you rehearse breaking down and setting up your equipment multiple times before going into the studio. This may sound silly, but preparation is the key to success and this could save you hundreds of dollars in studio time. As stated in the Rehearsal section, I highly recommend practicing how you are going to mic your equipment/instruments prior to entering

the studio. Get a list of all the available microphones available from the studio and make a plan. If they do not have a special microphone that you want to use, then you can make arrangements to rent one. How you mic your instruments is the most important aspect of creating the sound that you will get. New technology can fix a lot of mistakes, but there is no substitution for the sounds created by how an instrument is recorded through microphone placement. I have heard of Producers like Mutt Lang spending days in the studio micing a guitar cabinet, for example.

It is critical that your equipment and instrument be in excellent working order and properly set up prior to tracking. The following are critical preparation elements for common instruments and equipment:

Drums

1. Drum heads should be replaced prior to recording and should have a minimum of 7 hours playing time on them prior to tracking. This is to allow for stable tuning and reduces excessive ring associated with brand new heads.

2. Bass and high-hat pedals should be lubricated to eliminate squeaking and to ensure optimal working order.

3. Cymbals should be clean for optimal sound performance. 4. Snare drum spring should be double-checked for optimal performance. 5. Drum sticks should be new to avoid breakage during tracking.

String Instruments (acoustic guitars, electric guitars, bass, violin family, mandolins, etc.)

1. Instruments should be clean and in optimal working order. This especially applies to tremolo systems and electronics on electric guitars.

2. Strings should be new with at least 4 hours of playing time prior to tracking. Brand new strings will have too much ring, will not sound as well and may cause intonation issues.

3. Instrument’s tuners should be in optimal working condition to stay in tune during tracking.

Guitar and Bass Amplifiers

1. Power modules and tubes, if applicable, should be in optimal working order. This is especially important for tube amps because replacing tubes during a project will change the sound.

2. Speakers should be in optimal working order and have no buzz issues.

Brass and Woodwinds

1. Instruments should be clean and in optimal working order. Valves of and pads should not have any leaks.

2. Reeds on woodwinds should be new with at least 2 hours playing time prior to tracking.

Keyboards

1. Instruments and keys should be clean and in optimal working condition. This is especially important for keyboards with weighted sensitive keys.

2. Electronics on keyboards should be in good working order and outputs should be clean. 3. Pianos and other stringed keyboards (B3’s) should be tuned prior to recording.

As we discussed before, micing of instruments is critical to the sound, but other factors are also important to consider when preparing an instrument for recording such as amplification equalization settings and volume and tracking equalization. The equalization of the instruments on the recording console board should be set at 12 O’clock (neutral) when tracking. If an engineer attempts to add or cut low, mid or high range equalization to the signal while tracking, have the engineer removed and insist that a new engineer, one that actually knows what he/she is doing, be assigned by the studio manager. We’ll get more into why this is important later when we cover frequencies and the Fletcher-Munson curve, but it is critical to never add or cut EQ to the signal when tracking – NEVER! You want to hear the instrument accurately, meaning flat EQ, when tracking because this also affects how you mic the instrument as well. If there is a problem with the way you think it sounds then you need to alter the mic placement or use a different type of microphone. The techniques for setting up drums and amplifiers and how to mic them are endless, but here are a few techniques that I commonly utilize:

Drums

There are two schools of thought about setting up a drum set for professional recordings and how the microphones are placed is dependent on these types.

1. Down Tuning the Drum Set Down tuning the drum set means that the drum heads on the toms and bass kick are tuned down to the point where there is little ring. This is the most common type of professional studio drum set-up, but many drummers, including some professionals, have difficulty playing such sets because there is not enough head resistance for certain techniques and fast rolls. On a down-tuned drum set, microphones are placed close to the skins of each tom on the top and in many cases on the bottom of the toms, including the snare drum as well. Many professional drummers that play a down-tuned drum set will use light weight or bamboo drum sticks. A down-tuned drum set will typically be set up in an acoustically padded room. Along with close mic arrangements on the toms, two overhead mics (usually narrow field cardioids) are usually set in an X or Y pattern above the set.

2. Standard Tuned Drum Set (aka “Live Kit”) A standard tuned drum set has tightly tuned drum heads for a loud live sound with lots of ring. These drum sets can be difficult to record because of the amount of ring and track bleed, but an experienced producer can get great sounds with a live kit. The first consideration is the quality of the set and how it naturally sounds. Secondly, is the style of the song and the sound trying to be achieved by the drummer. If the artist\band is going for a more classic sound then I would tend to approach the microphone strategy differently than if they are going for a monster rock sound. In situation A, I would utilize the drum set’s natural live sound by using a large diaphragm condenser microphone to pick up the majority of the kit from about four to six feet away. It also

helps if the kit can be placed on a drum riser. I still mic the toms and snare traditionally as well, but those tracks are only mixed in at low volume levels. In situation B, I mic the set closely, as with the down-tuned set, and address the excessive ringing with noise gates during production. In some cases I would also place two mics at the bottom of each tom in different positions. In this situation, though, it is critical to place the drum set in an acoustically dampened room to minimize natural reverb and echo.

Bass Guitar

I typically work with electric bass guitars and prefer to go directly into the board through the amp head or processor, but there are times when bass players just love their speaker cabinets and insist on that sound. In those cases, I usually use a microphone with a low frequency response, such as an AKG D-12, and place it about three to four feet from the cabinet with the mic tilted about 10 degrees and placed off center from the center of the top speaker. As a rule, I almost never place a mic at the center of a speaker.

Acoustic Guitar and Mandolins

I will go on record saying that I hate pickups in acoustic guitars for recording with the exception of the Gibson Chet Adkins, which really isn’t an acoustic guitar. They just sound plastic; so, I always mic acoustic guitars and mandolins. I typically use two mics with one large diaphragm condenser or ribbon mic placed in front of the body and a small diaphragm condenser or cardioid mic placed in front of the fretboard.

Electric Guitars

There have been entire books written about recording electric guitars, but here a few techniques that I use quite a bit:

1. The best guitar sounds I have produced have been from a Marshall stack with a 50 Watt tube head and a Celestion cabinet. I usually run the amp EQ with treble and/or mids close to full blast, the gain just enough to distort and the volume above 7. The key to the sound, though, is micing the cabinet correctly. I use a Sure SM57, place it at half the diameter of the outer cone of a speaker, pull it back one and a half feet and slightly tilt the mic down.

2. For other amps, especially when the sound is using large amounts of distortion, saturation or is bass heavy (ala death metal), I use a combination approach. I usually use a Sure SM57 and close mic it at half the distance of the outer cone of a speaker. I also like to experiment with an Electro-Voice RE20 or a similar mic by close micing it more near the center of the cone and I like trying out dynamic and cardioid mics by placing them about six inches from the speaker.

3. Sometimes I like to be creative and place a dynamic mic in odd places like underneath or behind the cabinet. I used to get a killer Steve Vai sound by placing and Electro-Voice dynamic mic underneath a Celestion cabinet – believe it or not.

One last piece of advice I would like to give about micing guitar amps is that there is no right or wrong way. Many engineers will attempt to strong arm you into micing the amp the way they know, but remember that you are the one in charge. If you want to put a mic behind the speaker cabinet then that is where it goes no matter what the engineer thinks.

Brass and Woodwinds

There are two methods of recording brass and woodwind instruments:

1. Place a condenser mic about four to five feet from the instrument in an acoustically padded or balanced room and play as if in an orchestral setting.

2. Place a vocal quality clip-on mic on the horn or bell of the instrument. This technique requires that the musician has experience playing and/or recording with this set-up because they must adjust the intensity with which he/she plays.

Vocals

Recoding vocals in the studio is entirely different from singing live where you usually sing directly into the diaphragm of the microphone. Everyone’s voice is different and there is no one size fits all approach to singing into a quality large diaphragm condenser mic or ribbon mic. In many cases the singer should place the diaphragm away from the centerline of his/her mouth. It is not uncommon to place the mic at nose or even eye level. Other singers, especially modern female R&B singers like Brandi, will sing softly and very close to the mic, almost touching it with their mouth. This is one of the reasons it is important to experiment with tracking vocals through a condenser mic before going into the studio. Understanding mic placement for you vocals before your start tracking can save you a lot of cash in studio.

A major consideration in preparing for the studio is deciding who is going to be in charge. Someone has to be in charge whether it is a producer, the artist, the singer, the lead guitarist, the drummer – whomever, but someone has to be in charge. By ‘in charge’ I mean directing what gets done, who does it and when it gets done. If you are a band, you must dedicate one member if you do not have a producer to be the leader of the organization. If you attempt to go into a recording studio and get things done by committee, then don’t even bother reading the rest of this book because you are doomed to fail. Someone has to be responsible for dealing with the studio personnel, directing instrumentation set-ups, scheduling musicians for tracking and leading the recording process. Having someone in charge will also be critical in the mixing and production phases of your recording. Let three band members start telling the engineer what to do and what not to do, and watch how much money you lose. Remember, the studio gets paid by the hour and they do not care how much time you waste by not being organized.

Tracking Once the instrument(s) has been set up it is time to begin recording your music; this is what is referred to as “tracking.” There are several ways to approach tracking the instruments for the song. One way is to record every instrument individually to a click track. When taking this approach, the harmony instrument, such as rhythm guitar or keyboard, is tracked first followed by the drums, bass, percussion,

orchestral, if applicable, and then vocals. Another way that many bands track is by recording together as a group using a specialized split headphone system. In this approach, the primary goal is to get a good drum track from the performance and then re-record the other instruments individually after that. In many country and rock recordings, instruments such as acoustic and electric guitars are tracked multiple times to create a thick sound. For example, most rock songs contain eight to twelve rhythm guitar tracks to produce a chunky driving sound. Although the listeners believe they are hearing one distorted guitar, they are actually hearing a combination of many lesser distorted guitar tracks playing the same part.

I think it should be becoming apparent now why I was so adamant about the importance of rehearsing the music to death. The process of overdubbing parts like multiple rhythm guitar and vocal tracks can be very time consuming if you are not prepared. When recording multiple songs, such as with an album, this is even more critical. You need to have a strategy for how you are going to order your instrument tracking and overdubs. I personally recommend approaching one instrument at a time for all the songs in an album. For example, bring in the rhythm guitarist and have him/her record all of the tracks for all the songs before tracking another instrument. This will save time and money in the long term and I believe produce better quality results as well. Remember that tracking is not production. Avoid beginning the mixing process as you add tracks and instruments to the recording. You should only be setting up a preliminary mix so that the vocalist can lay his/her tracks.

While I am going to avoid going into detail as to how track certain instruments such as drums and guitars because of the overwhelming possibilities, I am going to address tracking vocals because for most recordings, vocals are the most important part of the song. I believe vocals should be recorded last and that great care should be paid to tracking lead and background vocals. Again, this is where proper rehearsing and preparation will pay off. The singer should be able to duplicate the lead vocal parts at least 4 times. In many cases a lead vocal will be comprised of 8 tracks of the same line. I have heard that some pop songs from artists such as Mariah Carey contain up to 16 vocal tracks singing the same line. This means that what the listener thinks is just one vocal part is actually 16. This is one of the reasons it takes so long for such artists to record an album. They can spend weeks in the studio recording just one vocal lead.

Now for reality, I doubt that anyone reading this book has a few hundred thousand dollars to spend in the studio recording vocals like Mariah Carey. Typically, I would say that tracking vocals will be the most expensive part of recording your song. This does not mean that you cannot get great results and a radio quality recording on a budget, though. The key is preparation and strategy. Four well laid vocal tracks per lead vocal line is plenty to produce a great rich sound. The key is to track parts of the vocal lines individually. If a verse has 20 words, then record 4 words at a time and focus on perfection of those 4 words. Remember all that practice recording rehearsals and practicing recording your vocals over top of them now? This technique is not as time consuming as you would think and the results will be worth it. It should typically take about 6 hours to record the lead vocals for a song. I also recommend laying lead vocals for all the songs fist and then track the backing harmony vocals last, especially if other musicians are singing backups.

Mixing and Production Just as in all other aspects of preparation and tracking, there should be one person in charge of mixing the songs. This is one aspect where a producer can be the most valuable if for no other reason than acting as a buffer between the artists or musicians and the engineer. It is especially great for bands to have a producer to act as sort of a fall guy. If the drummer doesn’t like the snare drum level, blame it on the producer. If the guitarist doesn’t like the guitar sound, blame it on the producer. This may sound facetious, but I have seen many bands beak up during the mixing phase of an album because of conflicts resulting over opinions about how to mix the songs. If the band does not have a producer, then one member must be in charge. This is not to say that other members cannot have input, but one person must have the authority to make final decisions about the mix. In most cases, this should be the most experienced and musically educated member of the group. I also want to reiterate something I stated previously in another section: “The engineer is not a producer.” Never allow the engineer to take on a production role in your mix even if he/she is well intentioned. This is why it is so important for one person to have clearly stated authority to make production decisions. Engineers can sense ambiguity and will start trying to lead the mix if you do not clearly establish who is in charge for them to answer to. Remember, you are paying the engineer by the hour, not the other way around.

Now that you have established who is in charge, let’s move onto the actual mixing process. I am going to assume that your project is being mixed on a professional recording software application. The first thing I recommend is normalizing every track of the recording. This process takes a little time, but it is well worth it. Normalization sets the output of the track at an even level and makes equalization more consistent and mixing easier to visualize. This is also one of the main reasons you track your instrument with flat equalization, which is also referred to as 12 O’clock on the board.

Before I talk about frequencies, I want to make one thing very clear: “Mixing a recording, especially radio quality recordings, is completely different from mixing live shows – completely different.” The biggest mistake I see from aspiring engineers or musicians is that they try to mix a recording like they would a live event through a PA. This is like comparing driving a car to piloting a 747 jumbo jet. Mixing a recording is far more complex and time intensive. A sure tell-tale sign that an engineer only has live show mixing experience is that he/she will try to add equalization to an instrument while tracking. I know I have harped on this several times already, but I am going to bring it up even more because it is such a no-no. Only a beginner or inexperienced amateur would dare try to manipulate the EQ of an instrument being recorded. Why, because they do not understand frequencies and have probably never heard of the Fletcher-Munson curve.

Every professional musician, engineer and producer should know and understand the Fletcher-Munson curve. The exact specification of this law of sound is beyond the scope of this book, but there is plenty of information about it on the Internet. Basically though, the Fletcher-Munson curve defines how the human ear interprets sound. The human ear cannot accurately hear the frequency of a sound until the sound is at least 83 decibels (dB). The curve itself refers to how accurately or inaccurately we perceive sounds at lesser volumes and it relates to midranges quite dramatically. By the way, 83dB’s is very loud, like a jet engine, and this is why it takes so long to properly mix a song because the human ear can only

take a few hours at a time listening to music at that level before becoming fatigued. If you are not listening to your mix at least at 83dB then you are not accurately hearing the music; so how can you accurately mix it? This takes me back to my huge pet peeve of inexperienced engineers attempting to adjust EQ setting to instruments during tracking. Who in world tracks at 83dB? So therefore, how can they adjust the EQ if they cannot accurately hear the instrument? Even if they did track at 83dB it is still a terrible idea to fool with an instrument’s EQ while tracking for a reason I am going to go into next.

When I question engineers to find out if they know what they are doing, the first thing I ask is at what EQ is the bass kick (kick drum)? If they ask me, “what do you mean?” It is a good clue that I need another engineer. The equalization of a bass kick should primarily be set at 80Hz. This is the accepted industry standard as any frequencies lower than 80Hz are felt more than they are heard even through a club system. So why is knowing this and understanding frequencies so important? The answer is because understanding how to EQ your instruments at the proper frequencies is going to save you a ton of money in the recording studio. I would venture to say it can cut your recording bill in half because of all the time it is going to save you in mixing.

The primary tool for saving money is the audio frequency analyzer. This device, now available as a software plug-in for most recording applications, will show you all of the frequencies that a sound occupies. Once you can see the frequencies, then you can cut or boost them to put them in their proper place in your mix. I personally like to start with the bass kick and EQ every instrument individually using the audio frequency analyzer. Another important technique I employ is a simple 3-band EQ. Oh yes, the engineer is going to insist that you use their fancy multi-band EQ unit or plug-in, but just say no. For the purposes described here, they are useless and will end up wasting time and thus wasting your money. The idea behind these fancy looking EQ’s is to cut and boost multiple frequencies at a time, but I have found through experience that they are not accurate enough for what we want to accomplish. The primary technique I use is focusing on one condensed band of frequencies at a time and either cutting or boosting them as needed. If I have to use 4 separate 3-band EQ’s on a track with each isolating a particular frequency than that’s fine. This is far more accurate that trying to use a fancier multi-band EQ to attempt to manipulate all the frequencies at once. The problem is that when you make a change to one frequency on the multi-band EQ it changes another frequency inadvertently and these units can never achieve the accuracy required. It is like playing whack-a-mole with the frequencies.

When taking this approach to mixing I usually get a lot of resistance from amateurs and novices at first until we start getting into the meat of the mix and they start hearing the real results. When soloing an instrument and setting its primary frequency range, you have to understand the big picture. For example, the bass kick doesn’t sound to impressive by itself at only 80Hz with maybe a little 150K for presence, but when it is combined with the rest of the instruments, it sounds dynamite. The key is to be patient and stay disciplined. It is important to take the time to put each instrument such as guitars, bass, strings, vocals, etc. in their proper frequency space prior to mixing volume levels and panning. Once you have completed this process, however, it will almost seem to mix itself as it will be much easier to adjust track volume levels and pan the instruments where you want. It would be impossible to cover all the possible frequency ranges and placements for every type of instrument in this book; so, I would

encourage you to do your own research on the Internet now that you know what to look for. I will list some ranges and tips that I use for most rock, country and pop bands I deal with:

Drums

• EQ the Bass kick at 80Hz with no other frequencies present except for 150K if more presence is needed. To do this I look at every frequency registered on the audio frequency analyzer and use a 3-band EQ to strategically cut any frequency other than 80HZ that shows present. In some cases I may have to boost 80Hz if it is too faint.

• EQ the toms at their naturally occurring peak frequencies and cut everything else. This is because every size tom and its tuning is different; so, I look for the largest frequency spike and go with that.

• EQ the cymbals and high-hat at their naturally occurring peak frequency just as I do with the toms.

Guitars (clean and distorted\electric)

There are two schools of thought here and it depends on the style of music. This is where a good producer can help.

1. EQ the guitars evenly throughout the entire frequency spectrum from 80Hz to 3K. This means the instrument evenly occupies all of the frequency bands in the mix. It sounds horrible when soloed, but when you add it back into the mix it is shocking. I once had a guitarist almost cry when he heard the results.

2. EQ the guitars in either a very specific midrange or high range frequency band only. You hear this quite a bit on classic rock albums from the 70’s ala Foreigner.

Bass

First of all, to answer a lot of critics, you cannot hear a bass guitar or any instrument for that matter at 40Hz. If you can than you are not a human being. I typically EQ a bass guitar around 200Hz, but similar to toms, I look for the peak frequency to see where the natural tone of the instrument is, especially for quality instruments. This is another reason to never adjust EQ to an instrument while tracking. Have I mentioned that already?

Vocals

I usually look for the peak frequency of the singer’s voice and isolate that. However, I will also emphasize 3-4K sometimes to bring it forward in the mix when necessary. There are rare occasions that I may boost mid range for a singer with a really high/raspy voice. This is why I always mix vocals last.

Once everything is equalized properly, I focus on panning and volume level mixing. Panning instruments is one of the most overlooked mixing techniques by amateurs and novices and one of the most

important. Where an instrument is panned, left or right, and how much so also affects the perception of the volume level of the track. When there are multiple tracks for a single line such as a rhythm guitar track or lead vocal, panning of each of those tracks to create a combined sound really becomes an art form. I would love to give you a set of formulas for panning certain instruments, but every recording is different and it really comes down to experimentation. The one fundamental rule that I can give you is that almost no instrument should ever be panned completely in the middle. Even the bass kick and bass guitar or keyboard basses should be at least slightly offset from center. The type of effects added to a track such as reverb, delay, chorus, etc, also have significant effects on how a track is panned. In many cases the panning of a track is constantly moving for effect and to prevent the listener from homing in on the part creating a different blend and more interesting sounds. Creating a great interesting mix utilizing panning of instruments is one of those areas where having a professional producer can really make a difference and in turn save you money in studio time. The following are some ideas that I utilize and experiment with when panning tracks during mixing:

Drums

There are several schools of thought when panning the components of a drum set and it also depends on how the set was tuned and on microphone placements. Here are several techniques that are commonly used:

1. Pan the toms of the drum set high to low from left to right (clockwise) with mid toms more towards the center; pretend you are sitting behind the set like the drummer. This gives the listener the perspective of being behind the drum set, like the drummer, and makes it more fun to play air drums with the song. With this set-up, the high-hat should be panned most to the left, the snare should be slightly off centered to the left, the bass kick slightly right, and the overhead cymbal mics should be left side on left and right side on right for a Y mic set-up and reversed for an X mic set-up.

2. Sometimes you may want the listener to have the perspective of being in front of the drum set; so, you would use the opposite panning of the previous set-up (counter clockwise).

3. In some cases, depending on the style of music, you may want to pan the entire drum kit left or right. This is usually done with cleaner folk sounds, jazz or classic funk. Using this approach creates more space with the instrumentation of the mix. Ever listen to the drum set placement on the Beatle’s Revolution? It is totally panned to one side.

*TIP – It is not uncommon to adjust the panning of the high-hat throughout the song. This sometimes helps the high-hat part stand out.

Guitars

Rhythm guitar tracks, both acoustic and electric, are typically multi tracked for a larger sound. This means that one part is tracked many times over to duplicate the part. In this approach, I usually hard pan two tracks left and right and then set the other tracks randomly, normally favoring one side or the other overall. I also like to pan different parts, such as two different sounding rhythm tracks on opposite sides of each other as well.

For lead guitars and solos, I like to pan the track pretty significantly to one side, but not all the way. Many times these lead instruments will have a delay effect added which will slightly fill the other side too. I sometimes like to move the panning left to right throughout the part. This has a psychedelic effect, ala Jimi Hendrix, and also sets the track apart when playing very fast lines too.

Bass Guitar and Synth Basses

I usually offset the bass guitar just slightly right or left and usually opposite the drum kick. If the song contains one or more bass synth parts, I like to pan them pretty hard left or right for separation.

Brass, Woodwinds and Strings (Orchestral)

How you pan brass, woodwind and strings depends on how many orchestral instruments like these you are using and what their purpose is. If you just have one saxophone playing lead, for example, then I pan it like I will a lead guitar. If you have an entire section, I pan each instrument opposite sides similar to the way I would pan the toms on a drum set. When recording a large orchestra section, I will pan entire sections. This also becomes more complex when using reverbs to place the sections into space.

Now that we have our tracks EQ’d properly and panned where we want them, let’s talk about some common effects such as compression, reverb and delay. Compressors are the most commonly used effect in a recording. A compressor can boost a signal, smooth it out by eliminating volume peaks and also act as a limiter, also referred to as a noise gate, to cut off unwanted ringing or sounds. Most compression is used on vocals, but it is not uncommon to compress bass kicks, bass guitars and even guitars in some cases. Exact compression settings for various instruments are outside the scope of this book, but there is plenty of information available freely on the Internet. My advice in using compression is to start with low to mild compression (2:1 or 3:1 ratio) for vocals and softer instruments and to start with hard compression (6:1 to 8:1 ratio) for loud instruments such as electric guitars. When acting as a limiter, compressors are typically used on drum set tracks to reduce over ringing and prevent signal bleed of toms and cymbals. Prior to triggers, limiters used to be used to perform a technique called “side chaining” to trigger another instrument to be audible only when another instrument was audible. This was used primarily for adding a bass note with the bass kick for effect and presence.

Reverb is typically used to place an instrument into a certain space such as farther away, closer to the listener or sometimes just to add natural echo reflections to simulate a room size. In most cases, reverbs are used for snare drums, toms, bass kicks, percussion instruments, guitars, orchestral instruments and vocals. When mixing an orchestral setting, reverbs are used to place sections of the orchestra into space. There are some new and expensive reverbs that actually let you visualize your settings. One tip I would give about reverb is to use is sparingly and only when necessary to achieve the sound you are looking for and this depends heavily on the style of music you are recording. This is one area where an experienced producer can really help because the types of reverbs available in a modern studio can be overwhelming for most amateurs and novices. My advice is to find out what reverb units and plug-ins the studio has available and research them before mixing. This can save you quite a bit of time by understanding their capabilities before you start experimenting with them.

Delay (also digital delay) is used for two primary reasons: 1. to add a doubling effect to a track to make it sound fuller and 2. to add a repeat or echo effect to a track. It is not uncommon to use short delays to thicken vocals. Repeat and echo delays are usually used on lead tracks like a lead guitar and for special effects on vocals in part of a song. My advice is to avoid the trap of experimenting with delays for special parts when you are in the studio because you will waste your money. If you prepared properly you should know what parts will have delay effects and you should already know the delay time and decay settings you want to use. This goes for ping-pong delays as well where the repeat echoes from side to side while decaying.

Now we are ready to really mix the volume levels of the music. You must be listening to the mix at a minimum of 83dB to accurately mix your track volumes. This is because of the Fletcher-Munson curve that I explained earlier. This will be the second most time consuming part of the process (vocals being the most) because you will only be able to handle listening to music at this volume for a few hours at a time. This is where all the time properly setting equalization for the instruments is going to pay off and save you lots of money. I highly recommend mixing the music first and the vocals last. When mixing lead vocals, you should create three different mixes. This is the industry standard: one mix should have the vocal’s volume level even with the music, the second mix should have the vocals 4dB below the volume of the music and the third mix should have the vocals 4dB above the volume of the music. From there, you have three mixes to choose from for your final product. Not only does this save you money in the studio because you are not constantly going back and forth on the studio’s dime, but this is how professional record labels decide what mix goes to production. A team of A&R reps will listen to all three mixes and decide which they like best. It is not uncommon to test market each of the three mixes as well.

So now it is time to Master you final mix – NOT!!! I am going to offend a lot of people with this next statement. “Mastering is dead.” Yep – I said it. “But everyone has to have their recording mastered and only a fool masters his own music and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” This is what everyone tells you right? The people that still believe this garbage are either amateurs and novices that read a few books and think they are professional producers or are a bunch of dinosaurs that are still living in the 80’s. If you have followed my advice when it comes to properly setting your instruments’ frequencies, then there is no reason that someone needs to re-equalize your mix. My opinion is that only a fool let’s someone else change the mix that they just spent so much time and money getting the way they want. When someone masters your recording they are in fact changing how your mix sounds. The second part of why they (they being the sleaze-balls that try to sell you this crap) say you need to have your recording mastered is because mastering companies have these great compressors that will make your recording radio quality. This may have been true about fifteen to twenty years ago, but it is not true anymore. The compressors available on the consumer market now are probably better than the compressors these mastering companies were using a decade ago. If you want to pay someone to master your music because you just can’t disbelieve all the hype then go ahead and flush your money down the toilet. I will warn that you will be grossly disappointed when you get the master back. I have seen it a thousand times. I wish I had a camera to capture the looks on musicians’ faces when they play that ‘master’ back for the first time. Then maybe more people would believe what I am saying.

Here is how I master the final mix, which should only take one to two hours of studio time:

1. Bounce the final mix to stereo (2 tracks) 2. Open a new session and import the bounced tracks 3. Apply the best compressor unit or plug-in available. I especially like the new tube simulator plug-

ins on the market, although they require quite a bit of cpu. 4. Play the mix at 83dB and adjust the compressor to where it has the warmth and punch you like. 5. That’s it. You are done. Congratulations, you should now have a radio quality recording.

Should I hire a Producer? So, what is a producer? What does a producer do? How can a producer help me or my band? The answers to these questions will be different from every person you ask, but here is what I consider a producer:

1. A producer should be an experienced musician and\or engineer with extensive experience with the songwriting and recording process. Some producers are virtuoso musicians, like Quincy Jones, and others are jack-of-all-trades, like Mutt Lang. Both have produced scores of multi-platinum artists and both are unique in how they produce an artist or band. My advice is that if you are considering a producer, he/she should be either an extremely competent musician on his/her respective instrument or should be competent at several instruments. This is because I do not believe you can play at a high level without studying and knowing music and this is the experience you are looking for. I would be skeptical about someone with extensive engineering experience, but limited musical ability. I just don’t think he\she will have the musical knowledge you need to draw from. I do want to point out that this definition of a producer is different from that of what is considered a producer in the hip-hop\rap industry where a producer is usually an engineer that has experience arranging pre-recorded beats and samples into a song. Since most of the tracks they use are pre-recorded, they typically do not have much instrumentation set up and equalization experience.

2. A producer should be involved in all aspects of the music production process from songwriting and arranging to tracking and mixing. Having a producer involved in the rehearsal and set up process can be of great benefit to even experienced musicians.

3. A good producer will have songwriting experience and understand modern arrangement techniques.

4. A good producer will understand the instruments involved in your recording and the sound you are trying to achieve. This means they should understand complex micing and production techniques for the instruments you and your band are using.

5. A good producer will be a good communicator and able to effectively manage different personalities such as individual artists, band members and studio personnel, especially engineers.

6. A producer must understand the tracking process and be able to manage and schedule musicians for tracking sessions.

7. A producer must understand the Fletcher-Munson curve and be versed in the modern equalization techniques discussed in this book. The producer must also understand the mixing process and have a detailed plan for how he/she intends to mix your songs.

One thing that a producer can offer to bands is a sense of authority. It is very difficult to rule by committee in the recoding process and virtually impossible to mix a song like that. The producer offers the final word and insulates band members from each other and the engineer. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone outside the band to blame if you don’t like something in the mix.

Producers can be compensated in several ways: 1. a flat fee for time and services or 2. a percentage of gross album sales (now CD and MP3 sales). Personally, I would charge a flat fee for Demos and a percentage of gross sales for albums, but every situation is different. If you are not going to hire a producer, then you need to make sure you establish yourself in charge as an artist or elect a band member to be in charge with complete authority to make important decisions regarding the recording process and the mix. I really cannot stress that enough. In most cases, the person paying for the studio time is in charge, but when band members are sharing the costs or paying for the studio time from revenue made by the band, this can become fuzzy. In this case I would recommend a written agreement stating who has authority to do what within the band. This may sound extreme to many musicians, but it is quite important and can save a lot of grief and money down the road.

Home Studios I cannot communicate adequately with words how much I love all of the new recording equipment available in this modern technological age. The price of such high quality equipment is so inexpensive now that it almost boggles my mind. Everything from sophisticated recording software to high quality condenser and ribbon mics are just so affordable. I think this is the best time in history for an artist or band to think about setting up their own recording studio instead of paying to record in someone else’s. Now if you are just looking to record one or two songs a year or so, than it would not make financial sense to do so, but if you are going to be recording many songs and full length albums, I think this alternative should be seriously considered. The decision should really come down to return on investment (ROI). Weigh the cost of how much it would cost to record in a studio compared to how much it would cost to build and operate your own. Now this is where you have to be very organized and disciplined and treat this as a business. Setting up a home or band studio should be treated like a professional project as if you were a project manager. There is a triangle in project management that consists of scope, time and resources (money). Let’s take a look at how these apply to building a studio:

Scope – how big is your studio going to be? Will it have rooms that need to be built out? What kind of equipment is required (computer, software, mixing board, microphones, speakers, cables, etc.)?

Time – how long will it take to secure a space for your studio, build out the rooms if applicable and purchase and set up all necessary equipment?

Resources – what is your budget? What personnel are available to build and set up the studio?

I hope this doesn’t scare you away from contemplating your own studio because the details can be overwhelming sometimes. The primary factor to consider is the scope of the studio. While it would be great to have a thousand square foot building with a lavish control room and the latest Pro-Tools HD system, this is not necessary to produce radio quality recordings. Let’s take a look at the basic requirements for a recording studio:

Recording and Control Room(s)

The amount of space you are going to need for your recoding room or rooms is dependent on how you plan to track. If you are just going to record each track separately to a click track, then you only need one room and in fact, that room can share the control room if needed. If you are going to record as a band with several instruments at a time then you are going to probably need at least two recording rooms. The main area of focus is the drums. You will need a room large enough for the drum set. We’ll get into dampening the room soon, but for now, let’s just focus on size. The other room or rooms will be needed to isolate guitar amps or the piano, if applicable, and must be far enough away or structurally isolated enough not to bleed into the drum room. The guitar player can actually be in the control room when playing, but the amps need to be isolated. One way to get around this is to have everyone, except for the drummer, plug directly into the board. It may not be the guitar sound you want, but it doesn’t matter because usually the point is to get a good drum track first. Once that is accomplished then you can mic up the amps and start recording the real tracks. Using this technique, the first tracks are called “scratch tracks” and are just being recorded to give the drummer something to play with to keep the intensity and timing of the song.

Obviously the number of rooms you can use will depend on the amount of space you have or can afford to rent. Many home studios are in the basement or garage. Some bands rent large warehouses for rehearsing. It really depends on what you have available. If you are fortunate to have lots of permanent space then you may want to build out rooms, just like a house. The number one mistake I see when musicians or bands build out a space for their studio is that they focus only on the main recording room(s) and neglect the control room. They will have these elaborate, odd shaped, off centered rooms for recording instruments and then the control room is built out like a shoe box. Contrary to popular belief, the control room is your most important room in the studio, not your recording room. Where do you do your mixing – the control room. This is not to say the recording room is not important, but if you have limited space and\or resources (money) then focus on your control room design. There are many plans available in books and on the Internet for building acoustic studio rooms if you and/or your band members are really handy like that. No matter what, building out rooms with lumber, drywall, electrical, etc. is not going to be cheap and you need to consider your long-term usage and ROI when contemplating this.

If you have limited space to one or two rooms and a limited budget, you can still get great recordings. The primary reason studios build special rooms is for acoustics and to also have the ability to dampen the sound like in an acoustically treated room for drums. I am sure everybody has seen those ridiculously expensive materials and bass traps designed to absorb and reflect sound used in such rooms. What a rip off! Here is a little secret that can save you thousands: You can get just as good of

results using common materials and fabrics. In fact, one of my favorite noise dampening materials is blanket filler that you can get at any craft store for dirt cheap. Need one of those fancy bass traps that cost over $500 a piece? Just build a wooden frame box (doesn’t even have to wood – could be Styrofoam or cardboard) and fill it with some soft fluffy blankets or even this material. If anyone says they can tell the difference, they are full of it. Another great technique is to build meg-shift sound room tents with large areas of a soft but thick and fluffy material. Basically you build a tent in either a triangle or trapezoid shape. You can use boom stands for your support columns or build your own. Here are a few examples:

1. Place four boom stands or columns set at about seven feet high in a square-like formation around the drum set. Then place a very large blanket made of the material mentioned over the columns forming a tent around and over the drum set. If you have enough material, layer it several times. Check out the results you get going to tape. Tell me I’m crazy now.

2. Use the same technique, maybe on a larger scale (may need a pole in the middle for support), to enclose your mixing area where you have your computer and speakers. Flatten the frequencies of the meg-shift room (I’ll explain pinking the room soon) and start mixing. This is the closest you will get to a reflection-free zone room for less than half a million dollars. Isn’t knowledge great?

You can use this ‘isolation tent’ idea for anything from micing guitar amps to setting up a vocal booth. This strategy can turn any room such as a basement or garage into a fully operational recording studio and the sounds you will be able to get to tape will be good enough to make a radio quality recording.

Recording System\Application

Unless you are a dinosaur that refuses to accept modern technology because you don’t know how to use it, you should be recording into a modern computer system with an adequate recording application. It would be great to have Pro-Tools HD or Sound Forge, but it is not necessary for creating a radio quality recording. There are very affordable alternative such as Motu and Sonic which will do the job quite nicely. Years ago an expensive Mac computer was required to sufficiently handle these applications, but now PC’s are faster than ever and more than capable of getting the job done at about half the price. There are numerous types of expensive fancy plug-ins (effect units) such as multi-band EQ’, spacious reverbs and voice modulators, but they are NOT necessary? Most of the important effects you need, such as a 3-band EQ, compressor, reverb and delay, come standard with most recording applications. The key to producing a radio quality recording is knowledge, not a bunch of expensive useless garbage. This is the whole reason I wrote this book – to empower you to sound great without spending a lot of money.

The interface for your computer will depend on the software you use and on how many tracks you need to record at once. You will need at least 8 tracks at a time to record a basic drum set and I would strongly recommend 16 inputs for most band situations. How you plan to record will determine whether or not you need a separate mixing console. If you just plan to record tracks to a click track, one at-a-time, then you can just go straight into the computer. If you want to record together as a group, though,

you will need a mixing console with at least as many inputs as you plan to track at once, at least 16 in most cases. In this instance, I would also recommend a console that has adequate sub channels and auxiliary channels (preferably four per track, but at least two). These auxiliary channels will be necessary if you want to use a headphone splitter system which allows each musician to control his\her volume mix (up to 4 tracks) while tracking. This also requires the ability to sub-group the drum set to one bus channel, hence the need for sub channels.

One last thing I want to mention about your primary recording set-up is never place your production system computer Online. This computer should be dedicated for recording only and should never touch the Internet or even a network that has an Internet connection. Also, if someone gives you a flash drive or CD with a song on it, never plug it into your production computer. Even if you have all of your material backed up to another hard drive, like you should, you should never risk infecting your production computer. The back-up should be for hardware failure purposes. You could get an infection, not know it, plug-in your back-up drive and then infect all your back-ups too. What are you going to do then?

Microphones and Preamps

The availability of so many great quality microphones at such affordable prices is in my opinion what is revolutionizing the industry. Just a decade ago, the prices of quality large diaphragm condenser microphones and ribbon microphones made it difficult for the average musician to achieve studio quality sounds in a home studio. Most musicians cannot spend $1,500 for just one vocal mic. Now the same quality mic can be purchased for a few hundred dollars. For the price of one AKG C12 Vr, you can now equipment an entire studio including all the microphones you will ever need. Again, this is what I believe has made high quality recording obtainable to the masses.

A decent tube preamp or two is not required, but a really nice-to-have for just about any home studio. The prices for single and dual channel preamps and tube preamps, such as those made by ART and Alesis, are ridiculous and they sound great. A preamp can make a big difference in your signal chain going to tape and are great for bass kicks, bass guitars going direct into a board and especially for vocals.

Speakers, Headphones, Audio Frequency Analyzer and Graphic EQ

A good set of studio speakers may be where you end up spending the most money. You need a decent pair of speakers with good frequency range and the ability to produce at least 83dB of sound, which is very loud. In most cases you will need a power amp for your speakers, but there are more and more self powered monitors coming to market all the time. So, why can’t I use PA speakers and a sub-woofer? There is absolutely no reason you cannot use decent quality PA speakers for your studio. There – I said it….. GASP!! In fact I think PA speakers are a great alternative to overly expensive “Studio Monitors.” What’s the difference? I have been the Vice President of two recording studios and an independent label and am considered to be one of the top guitar players by my peers and I have NEVER heard, read or seen an adequate explanation as to why expensive “studio monitors” are better than PA speakers for recording and mixing. I personally think PA speakers are better because they are more designed to play

sound at loud volumes, like 83dB and higher. If you are going to use PA cabinets, though, I do recommend that you set them up about three feet off the ground.

Whether you are using ‘studio monitors’ or PA speakers, you are going to need to adapt the output signal frequencies in order to flatten the sound in your room. By flatten, I mean that all frequencies are heard evenly in the room. This is why you need a large multi-band graphic EQ unit with a channel for every speaker. You use your audio frequency analyzer in the mode for pinking the room and then adjust the frequency levels in order to create a flat spectrum. During this process, the audio frequency analyzer produces a sound called “pink noise” that broadcasts every sound in the spectrum evenly. It sounds like the static of a TV channel that doesn’t exist and it needs to be played at 83dB or higher. It is very annoying and I HATE pinking rooms; I normally make my engineers do it. While the extremely loud and annoying sound is playing (I strongly recommend wearing earplugs when you do this), you look at the audio frequency analyzer for all frequencies over and under the center line and then use the graphic EQ to cut or boost those frequencies to get the room completely even (aka “flat”). Now you can accurately listen to your recordings and mixes. One note: be sure to re-level your room anytime you make changes such as adding, removing or even moving furniture around. Any significant size object is creating reflections and absorbing frequencies, which changes how you hear the mix.

As I mentioned before, the audio frequency analyzer is necessary to level your production room to get it flat. The audio frequency analyzer is one of the most important pieces of equipment in your studio and is essential for being able to produce radio quality recordings for reasons I discussed in the mixing section of this book. Thankfully, they are not very expensive either. You can get a good audio frequency analyzer rack unit with the mic for a few hundred dollars and there are more and more audio frequency analyzer software applications and plug-ins coming on the market all the time for a nominal price.

The number of headphones you will need is really dependant on the number of people that will be recording at once. You should only be using the headphones for tracking; so medium quality inexpensive headphones will do. NEVER USE HEADPHONES FOR MIXING – NEVER! If your engineer puts on a pair of headphones when you are mixing, slap them; you have my permission. If you pump out 83dB of sound through a headphone, you will be wearing a hearing aide by the time you are 30 years old; so, why would you wear headphones to mix?

Cables

OMG – If you want to have total sticker shock, wait until you go to buy instrument and especially speaker cables. I went to buy fifty foot speaker cables for my PA one time and almost fainted. They cost almost as much as one of the cabinets. This is one of the areas where it would be very helpful to understand electronics and know how to solder or at least have a friend that can solder. It is much cheaper to make your own cables, but if you cannot, then remember one thing: all cables are created equal. The cheaper generic cables are just as good as the fancy more expensive cables in my opinion and when you are buying large amounts of cables, it can really add up. Just like all the other useless crap they try to sell you, don’t buy into the hype.

Making and Selling Your CD’s and MP3’s The number of companies out there that produce CD’s are overwhelming. Even with all the competition, it is still a good chunk of change to purchase a sizable quantity of CD’s. One of the biggest wastes of money is buying plastic CD cases and printing lengthy inserts. Here is a cold hard fact that you need to understand: no one cares about your insert anymore. Not the artwork, not the lyrics, not the band information – nothing. Do not waste your money on this stuff. I recommend that you go with just a basic cardboard sleeve, which is the cheapest, and usually available in recycled materials. Give the planet a hug, save some money and everyone will like you better for it. The truth is that even the sleeve is going to get thrown away or lost by most people and never be looked at. The majority of people now only listen to CD’s in their cars and if you have not noticed, those CD cases only hold CD’s, not cases or sleeves. I always recommend that all of the pertinent artist or band information be printed directly on the CD.

Another alternative to buying CD’s form an outside company is making your own. How many CD’s are you going to make and plan to sell, one-hundred, five-hundred, one-thousand, ten-thousand? Have you ever considered buying your own CD duplication machine? The prices for a decent machine that also does quality printing may surprise you. For production of over a few thousand, I believe it actually makes since to buy your own machine when you look at the ROI. You can also print CD’s as you need them instead of buying CD’s that you may never use or sell. I always recommend that those starting out new recording studios buy a duplication machine and many have thanked me for that advice. There are always people that need CD or DVD duplications made at the last minute and do not have time to use an Internet company. Just a few runs can pay for the machine.

Now let’s talk about selling your CD’s and even MP3’s now. While the topic of the music business is an entirely different book by itself, it is important to decide what you are going to do with the CD’s once you have manufactured them. I am a big fan of cdbaby.com for selling CD’s and MP3’s especially. They just make it so darn easy. This is really important for artists or bands selling singles. Singles have really overtaken album sales now and that is just the way it is. Sure you have a great album with diverse songs, but people want to buy just the songs they like. Learn it, live it, love it. Embrace the new reality in the music business and you will be much better off. This can also save you money because you no longer have to record an entire album to sell music or to be a viable artist. Most CD’s now are just glorified marketing materials to book your band and get people to come to your shows. I personally see giving out CD’s just the same as handing out sales brochures.

One thing I do want to address about selling CD’s is to consider any applicable sales taxes required by the state in which you sell them. This becomes quite complex when you are traveling through different states and selling your CD’s like on a tour. This is one of those areas where I strongly advise consulting an attorney so that you do not get in trouble with the IRS or Department of Revenue from various states. That’s how they got Capone. You have to remember that you as an artist or your band are a business and ignorance of the law is no excuse. I personally recommend setting up your band as corporation and also recommend setting up your own publishing company and publish your music through it if you are not signed by a label and are trying to be in the music business on your own.

The End

This book was written by Martin Joseph Connell ©2014

Please email any questions or comments to martin@martinconnell.com