Category Archives for "Recording"

3 Techniques For Miking An Audience

Audience miking

If you’re recording a live performance, then you want to pick up some of the audience to make it sound realistic. Here are some techniques and considerations culled from the latest edition of my Recording Engineer’s Handbook. “Audience recording is both the key and the problem with live recording. It’s sometimes difficult to record the audience […]

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8 Things To Check Before You Push The Record Button

Record button

“Everything set up? Cool, let’s record. Oh, wait, it doesn’t sound like I think it should.” At this point you can continue to record and deal with the consequences later, or stop and troubleshoot, but you might be chasing your tail and it could take longer than you want to get to where you want […]

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3 Critical Compressor Tweaks You Might Be Overlooking

3 compressor tweaks

Everybody loves compression. It’s not only the sound of modern music, but music in general, even orchestral these days. Compression beefs up the sound, brings up the quiet parts, and controls the transients, if you use it right. That said, there are 3 compressor tweaks that are critical to optimizing the processor’s setup in order […]

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10 Electric Guitar Recording Tips You Probably Haven’t Thought About

There’s so much more to getting a great electric guitar sound than just placing a mic in front of an amplifier speaker. Here are 10 tips from The Recording Engineer’s Handbook 4th edition that you might have never considered, but can go a lot way in helping you capture that ultimate guitar recording. 1. An […]

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6 Techniques For Miking A Drum Kit With A Single Mic

single mic triangle setup

Just because you have a lot of mics and tracks at your disposal, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get a great drum sound. Sometimes, the simplest methods can provide a realism that you just can’t get from close-miking every drum. Here are 6 techniques culled from my Recording Engineer’s Handbook that show how you […]

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Overdub: A Story About Session Musicians

Overdub - Kenny Aronoff

Session musicians don’t get enough credit for the work they do, and the fact of the matter is that many great sessions players don’t work as much as they used to these days thanks to technology. That said, sometimes a real session player’s overdub can really make a song groove in a way that a […]

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6 Steps To Troubleshooting Distortion When Recording

troubleshooting distortion

There you are in the middle of a perfect take when you hear the audio cracking up. It’s distorting but you don’t know where. Before you pull your hair out, check out these 6 steps that will help you track it down in a quick and methodical manner. 1. Is the microphone preamp overloading? Is […]

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3 Techniques For Recording Acoustic Guitar

recording acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar by nature varies so much from instrument to instrument that one miking style definitely won’t work on everything. Luckily, there are a lot of different techniques available, and while all the others might let you down, one of the following 3 techniques from my Recording Engineer’s Handbook is sure to work. Considerations • […]

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The Producer’s Vocal Recording Checklist

vocal recording checklist

Getting a great vocal take comes from having a comfortable vocalist, and most of the time it’s the little things and attention to detail that counts the most. Here’s a checklist from my Music Producer’s Handbook to follow before vocal recording that will help make sure your singer is as comfortable as possible to enable a […]

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14 Sound Replacement Tips For The Perfect Drum Sound

14 sound replacement tips

Although you may be great at recording drums and have a great sounding studio with an excellent signal chain, the two chief variables in the recording are the drummer and his drums. No amount of technique or gear can overcome a bad sounding kit or a drummer that hits inconsistently, hence the importance of sound […]

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