If you’ve been recording in your home studio, you know that having the right effects plugins can make your track-cutting, mixing, and production pop. But trying to keep up with what’s out there? Well, let’s just say option fatigue is real.
We’re lucky. As Nashville-based producer-engineers who are also instructors at Belmont University in the Audio Engineering Technology program, we see and—more importantly—hear and use a lot of effects plugins. And while this article is by no means definitive, we are about to present you with an array of choices from the five essential plugin food groups—modulation (chorus, phasing, tremolo, vibrato), time-based (delay and reverb), spectral (EQ and panning), dynamic (compression, limiters, etc.), and filter (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass)—that you might consider investigating to fortify your recording diet. All of these will be easy to work with as long as you’re comfortable with your DAW, and all are compatible with Mac and PC operating systems.
Modulation
You’ve been hearing these effects all your life, in many of your favorite recordings, but there’s nothing quite like getting your hands on the controls of a wealth of modulation options to spice up your sonic menu. We suggest checking out the following.
• IK Multimedia MixBox ($79–$199 street, as well as a free version): One of our favorite go-to plugins is MixBox from IK Multimedia. From both a production and mixing workflow, the creative and sonic possibilities of this 500-series-style plugin are endless! On the topic of modulation effects, in addition to the standards (chorus, phase, tremolo, and vibrato), MixBox offers a unique selection of processors that include AM/FM modulators, Auto Pan, and Slicer. As the name suggests, the Slicer module works great for adding rhythmic slices and random patterns to your audio tracks. I’ve found that using the combination of the Pattern and Freq parameters allows for endless control of rhythmic and tonal variation when used with synth leads, etc. Altogether, this package offers up to 70 effects and processors.
• Eventide TriceraChorus Vintage Tri-Chorus ($99 street): When you think of the chorus effect, songs such as “Every Breath You Take,” “Come As You Are,” and the classic guitar intro to “Run To You” by Bryan Adams will immediately come to mind. This versatile plugin takes on the famed Tri-Stereo chorus, used on sessions by Steve Lukather and Michael Landau, and offers a wide variety of presets and features that can be used on guitar, bass, vocal, keys, and synthesizers to achieve the signature watery/lush and chorale effect.
“You’ve been hearing these effects all your life, in many of your favorite recordings.”
• Soundtoys PhaseMistress Analog Phase Shifter ($99 street): Phase shifting is an essential effect that has been used as a creative layer on numerous recordings over the decades, starting with Jimi Hendrix. And, of course, there’s the opening riff of Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love.” The PhaseMistress, whose name alludes to the Maestro Phase Shifter and the EHX Electric Mistress, is a versatile processor that allows you to dial in a variety of sounds that are modeled after the same analog pedals that guitar giants such as Jimi, EVH, and David Gilmour used. With all DSP plugins these days, we’re seeing more additional processing and signal chains. An added feature that really sets the PhaseMistress apart is the analog-style algorithms (Clean, Fat, Squash, Dirt, Crunch, Shred, and Pump) that also add a touch of saturation and compression to the signal you are working with.
Time-Based
These delay and reverb effects can lead you to wide sonic vistas and otherworldly locales, as well as classic guitar tones—creating depth and dimension, and enhancing the spatial impression of a mix.
• Eventide ShimmerVerb ($99 street): We love experimenting with different types of time-based effects for creative effect and spatial cohesion. For creating ambient and ethereal spatial texture, one of our favorite digital reverbs is the ShimmerVerb, a reverb plugin with parallel pitch shifters. The presets alone sound great, and there’s a wide variety of dreamy tones that can work perfectly for both live and recording situations. One of our go-to recording setups is running a Fender Strat with a Lollar Imperial pickup in the bridge through a ’65 Deluxe emulation with a slight touch of tremolo and the ShimmerVerb’s Radiant Caverns setting. Sublime!
• IK Multimedia T-RackS Sunset Sound Studio Reverb ($149 street): To our thinking, the Sunset Sound Studio Reverb should be in every mixing engineer’s toolbox. Based on the hardware at the historic Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles, this processor works great across many instruments and musical genres. The plugin offers seven different reverb types that include Chamber, Live Room, ISO Booth, Plate/Spring, and Studios 1, 2, and 3. What sets this reverb plugin apart from others is the ability to control the stereo image of the reverb width.
“One of our go-to recording setups is running a Fender Strat with a Lollar Imperial pickup in the bridge through a ’65 Deluxe emulation with a slight touch of tremolo and the ShimmerVerb’s Radiant Caverns setting.”
• Waves Abbey Road Reverb Plates ($35 street): Of course, whenever you hear the name Abbey Road, you think of the Beatles. This plugin lets you apply virtual versions of the legendary London studio’s reverb plates to your audio tracks—plates that breathed space into recordings by the Fab Four, Pink Floyd, and many others. The Waves Abbey Road gives you four different modeled plates to choose from. Of course, as with most time-based plugins, this processor has built-in equalization parameters, pre-delay, and a dry/wet blend. However, unique features of the Waves Abbey Road Plates are the Drive and Analog options.
Dynamic
And now we enter the world of compressors and limiters, which, when used correctly, can burnish guitar and bass tones with the precision of a sculptor.
• IK Multimedia Lurssen Mastering Console ($149 street): One of our favorite processors to use on the master bus is this plugin suite, which offers compression, EQ, de-essing, and limiting. It has a wealth of features, like a push control for EQ adjustment and an input drive control, that make it easy and intuitive to use. We really like the 5-band EQ for adding subtle touches of low-end beef and high-end sparkle to tracks. We use the term “glue” frequently in the world of mixing. This plugin is the superglue that binds overall mixes together by adding a nice blend of overall dynamic and spectral enhancement. While final mastering is always best left to mastering engineers, the Lurssen Mastering Console makes pseudo-mastering your tracks more easily attainable.
• IK Multimedia T-RackS Comprexxor ($149 street): As soon as we got our hands on the Comprexxor, we were blown away. This plugin is definitely like a Swiss Army Knife. This is one of our favorite dynamic processing plugins to use for heavier/cinematic rock music. The Drum Squash Room setting has proven to be excellent when routing drums for parallel compression. Among the Comprexxor’s exceptional features are second- and third-order harmonic saturation, optical and mid-side processing, and the Tone Color Control parameter.
“We know that there are different benefits and practical applications of the two main types of equalizers: parametric and graphic.”
• Waves CLA-3A Compressor/Limiter ($49 street): The Waves CLA-3A is hands down one of the most effective and dynamic-enriching processors we have ever used. We recommend it for anybody who wants to experiment with mixing in a DAW. At times, it can be frustrating for up-and-coming engineers to grasp the concept of compression. When we use compression, we either want to add punch or beef to audio tracks—say, kick drums or bass guitars—or balance the dynamic range of certain vocals and instruments. Compressors also enhance and add tonal character to your audio signals. When you look at the CLA-3A plugin’s interface, you see two main parameters for controlling the compression amount and the makeup gain, labeled “gain” and “peak reduction.” Pretty straightforward, right? While I always trust my ears, it is also nice to have the CLA-3A’s VU metering display to see where the levels are hitting. For the low price, intuitive controls, and dynamic richness that this processor can add to your tracks, the CLA-3A is a must-have tool.
Spectral
EQ and panning open up an aspect of the listening experience that many home-studio engineers overlook, or at least underplay. For the early rulebook, consult Hendrix’s Axis: Bold as Love, but Radiohead and countless others have made their albums living, breathing organisms by using tools like these to change the sonic field and the range of their tracks.
• FabFilter Pro-Q 3 EQ and Filter ($169 street): Equalization is like sculpting: It’s about carving out space in your mix to make room for all the musical elements. The FabFilter Pro-Q 3 offers a robust set of features that give you enhanced control over the spectral landscape of your audio. The fresh look of this plugin’s interface immediately calls your attention to the parametric curves and the spectrum analyzer for visualizing the overall spectral balance. Two features of the Pro-Q 3 that really stand out are the intelligent solo mode and MIDI Learn. Perhaps you have heard the phrase “search and destroy” when it comes to finding problem frequencies in a mix? Using the intelligent solo mode helps you to better locate such problem areas and remove them from your mix quicker.
• Newfangled Audio EQuivocate Multi-Band EQ ($99 street): As engineers, we know that there are different benefits and practical applications of the two main types of equalizers: parametric and graphic. The EQuivocate plugin is a straightforward, easy-to-use graphic equalizer that gives you access to 26 filter bands that correspond to the critical bands of the human auditory system. In addition to the standard method of manipulating individual filter bands, EQuivocate has a draw curve parameter that allows you to quickly shape the frequency spectrum across multiple bands. If you’re new to the concept of using graphic equalizers, EQuivocate has a bank of custom presets that can give you a good starting place for mixing and mastering applications.
“Your DAW already has enough built-in effects for you to develop an understanding of what they do and how they work.”
• Waves V-EQ4 ($29 street): Neve introduced the 1081 console channel module in 1972 and deployed it in legendary boards such as the 8048. The VEQ-4 is an emulation of the EQ section of the 1081 that, to our ears, sounds just like a Neve EQ. This is a pretty simple box to use. It gives you the ability to add some high-frequency sheen or low-end thump—and everything in between. This EQ works well on just about any instrument or voice, doing subtle tweaks or broad curves. I like to use it on busses, and sometimes on the master bus, to color the entire mix. It’s a versatile and useful plugin for any style of music.
Filters
These frequency wranglers come in three varieties— low-pass, high-pass, and band-pass—and ride the sonic range hard, establishing cutoff levels. The simple explanation: High-pass filters will disable frequencies below a set cutoff point, low-pass will zap those over the cutoff, and band filters will affect only those in a selected band.
• McDSP NF575 Noise Filter HD Native v7 ($79 street): The McDSP Noise Filter is a very sophisticated device for removing low-frequency rumble and high-frequency hiss from your audio. With hundreds of presets and real-time analyzers, this may be the most effective noise filter we’ve ever used, and we’ve used analog and digital filters for many different kinds of audio clean-up. With seven precise notch filters, it’s easy to dial in the parts of a sound you want removed. You can solo a notch filter and hear exactly what you are removing, too. This is a very handy tool when you need to clean up or fix some audio.
• Waves Enigma ($29 street): While we use Enigma primarily as an EQ sculpting tool, since it is extremely useful when used to filter out particular frequencies, it also offers a unique combination of filters, reverbs, delays, and modulation—allowing you to create some totally original sounds. So, the addition of the other features makes this tool much more than just a filter. Using Enigma effectively may take some time experimenting to discover how to best use the different features, but you will be rewarded with fresh sonic possibilities for fixing problems or creating new sounds.
The Upshot
You can do a lot with a handful of simple plugins, so you don’t have to spend a ton of money on them to make great-sounding recordings. Investigate. Be selective. And your DAW already has enough built-in effects for you to develop an understanding of what they do and how they work. Learning to use plugins mostly requires you to simply use and trust your ears in order to get great sounds.
Tuttle and Strings first recorded together on Strings’ 2017 release, Turmoil & Tinfoil.
The pair have a lot in common, and we thought it would be a great idea to put them together to interview one another. “Billy and I, we both grew up playing with our dads,” Tuttle shares at the very beginning of the conversation. Tuttle made her first professional appearance as a recording artist at 13, when she and her father, Jack Tuttle, released The Old Apple Tree. Since her 2019 solo debut, When You’re Ready, Tuttle has evolved through both warm and peppery country tones and her original, adventurous approach to bluegrass, circling back to the genre’s traditional homey twang on Crooked Tree. A new album, City of Gold, is due July 21—and, inspired by her constant touring over the last few years, will offer 13 new tracks that capture the electric energy of the band's live shows.
More recently, Strings felt a sudden sense of urgency to record with his father, Terry Barber, and in November 2022, he put out Me/And/Dad, on which the two play 14 classic bluegrass tunes. As Tuttle comments with fondness below, Strings has a distinctive Doc Watson-esque attack, something that gets flavored by a death metal edge—heard in the every-so-often spectral chord and touch of grimness—thanks to his background in that scene. He recorded his latest single, “California Sober,” with Willie Nelson, and can be heard in duet with Tommy Emmanuel on the Australian guitarist’s new single, “Doc’s Guitar/Black Mountain Rag.”
Dooley's Farm (feat. Billy Strings)
While Strings grew up in Michigan and Tuttle the San Francisco Bay Area, much of their upbringing happened in parallel. Both musicians experienced turning-point moments in their teenage years, where they discovered that not only did their peers accept them for their bluegrass aptitude but celebrated them. For Strings, it happened when he excited his “hipster” friends with a performance of “Black Mountain Rag” at a house party, and for Tuttle, around the time Mumford & Sons was gaining popularity, her classmates discovered her banjo talents—and she became the “banjo girl.”
“Bluegrass is the music that can make me laugh or cry, that I really feel in my soul, and so my electric guitar started collecting dust.”—Billy Strings
Now deep into their discographies, the 30-year-old phenoms took a pause before (and amidst) tour dates to reconnect and discuss the many experiences they’ve shared in modern Americana music. The following conversation offers a view into that world, as well as unique insights into why the two get along so well as both musicians and people.
Molly Tuttle: Billy, you made that awesome new record with your dad. When you were growing up playing music with your dad, did you ever feel like there was a disconnect between the bluegrass side of what you did and other music you played with your peers, or listened to with your peers?
Billy Strings: Yeah, I remember it was probably around the time I was in middle school—I was a skateboarder, and I was playing video games and just hangin’ out with friends. I was getting too cool to be hanging out with my dad’s old friends playing bluegrass. I was like, “Man, I want to play music with people with common interests, not just sitting here talking about Gunsmoke or something.”
But I joined metal bands and got that out of my system, and eventually, I came back around full circle and just had this realization that bluegrass is what I cut my teeth on and what I was spoon-fed as a boy, and it’s really where my heart truly is. Bluegrass is the music that can make me laugh or cry, that I really feel in my soul, and so my electric guitar started collecting dust.
Tuttle: I really resonate with that, because I’ve gone through so many phases of trying to figure out who I am musically, and it took me longer to accept bluegrass as part of who I am. And it really is what makes me, me. But how do I tell my own story through bluegrass? ’Cause there are those two ends of the spectrum. I feel like I’ve gone the other way and been like, “Well, I’m not just a bluegrass musician, I play all this other stuff too.” And then I’ve also felt like, I want to play bluegrass and make it authentic to the genre. It kind of came down to songwriting, to me—like, how do I tell my story through this music and show how it came to be such a big part of my life?
The two bluegrass virtuosos both grew up learning how to play from their fathers, one in California (Tuttle), the other in Michigan (Strings).
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
Strings: What are some of your earliest memories of playing with your dad? Do you have any big moments as a child that you were like, “This is what I’m doing—I’m a guitar player”?
Tuttle: I remember as a kid, I played a lot with my dad and we would play around the area where I grew up, in the Bay Area—play different local shows. One big moment for me, when I was like 12 or 13, was getting to go to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco and seeing Earl Scruggs, Hazel Dickens…. Me and my dad somehow finagled backstage passes and got to go to this afterparty, and Hazel was there. It was just so cool. Gillian Welch was there, and Dave Rawlings. He was like, my guitar hero. I remember going into the greenroom to put my stuff down and seeing him just sitting there with a guitar, and that blew my mind. Just seeing people like that up close was like, “Whoa, I could actually do this, and this world feels like where I belong. I could see myself doing this for a long time.” I realized I just wanted to play music as much as possible.
What was the Michigan music scene like for you growing up? Were there festivals or anything that was really important to you?
Strings: Well, I didn’t go to many festivals. At least, when I was young and growing up and first learning how to play, it was more just like me and my dad, my uncle Brad Lasko, and a couple buddies sittin’ around picking by the creek. But all these years later…. I watch other people on stage and I’m like, “How the fuck do they do that? How do they get up there and just play and sing?” I do that too, but I don’t think I do it like other people do. I was at this festival in Texas [South by Southwest], and I was nervous watching other performers! I was nervous for them, like, “Oh my gosh, she’s just up there singing and laying her heart out there! That is terrifying!”
Tuttle: [Laughs.]
Billy Strings' Gear
On String’s latest single, “California Sober,” he plays with the inimitable Willie Nelson.
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
Guitars & Banjo
- 2017 Preston Thompson DBA Brazilian Rosewood Dreadnought, “Frankenstein”
- 2019 Preston Thompson DBA Brazilian Rosewood Dreadnought, “The Bride”
- 1944 Martin D-28
- Rickard Open-Back Banjo
Effects
- Grace Design BiX Preamp
- Strymon Lex Rotary
- Electro-Harmonix Micro Pog
- Electro-Harmonix Freeze
- Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork
- Electro-Harmonix Intelligent Harmony Machine
- MXR Bass Envelope Filter
- Red Panda Raster
- Source Audio C4 Synth
- Source Audio Nemesis Delay
- Source Audio EQ2
- Boss DC-2W Waza Craft Dimension C
- Boss DD-8Boss SY-1
- NativeAudio Pretty Bird Woman
- Chase Bliss Wombtone MKII
- Chase Bliss Mood
- Chase Bliss CXM 1978
- DigiTech Polara
- Peterson StroboStomp HD Pedal Tuner
- Ernie Ball 40th Anniversary Volume Pedal
- Mission Engineering Expression Pedals
Strings & Picks
- D'Addario Medium, XS Coated Phosphor Bronze (.013–.056)
- Blue Chip TP48 Speed Bevel Right Hand
Strings: It’s definitely a weird thing. I still just do not understand how we can get up on stage and do whatever it is that we do.
Tuttle: Do you get any sort of stage fright ever? For me it comes and goes. If you think about it too much.… Sometimes I’m like, what if I don’t remember a single word to any of my songs? [Laughs.]
Strings: I just am always in a state of anxiety because of my career [laughs]. There’s all this pressure. But I’m usually fine once I get out there. It’s leading up to it. Even right now. I’ve been home for two or three weeks, and I’m leaving the day after tomorrow to go back on tour, and I’m scared that I don’t remember how to do it! I don’t know if I remember how to make a set list. I don’t know if I remember if I can still perform a show. But once you get back out there, you just throw yourself into the ring and it’s kind of like them guys that ride them bulls or something. You just kind of strap on, like, “Fuck it, here we go—8 seconds, hold on!”
Tuttle: [Laughs.] I feel like it’s this third thing, like your subconscious takes over and then you remember how to do it. But if you start thinking about it in advance…. We took some time off over the winter break and I had the same feeling, like, “Whoa, how did I do that before?” It really is kind of an extreme thing that we do: traveling all over the place, playing in front of a lot of people.
Strings: But shit, what the hell else are we going to do? Heavy lifting?
PG: Molly, I know Crooked Tree came out about a year ago now. For your earlier recordings, you said that you were trying to experiment musically, whereas this one was more traditional. Is that right?
Tuttle: Yeah, I kind of went back to the bluegrass sound that I grew up with. My first full record, When You’re Ready, I’d just gotten to Nashville. I was writing a bunch of songs where I didn’t know what category they fit into genre-wise. I had so much fun making that record; I really got to experiment with a different style. But then I think something happened in the pandemic lockdown. I got so nostalgic for that music I grew up with, and I missed my family; I missed the community aspect of bluegrass. I love this kind of music; it is folk music, in a way, where it gets passed down from generation to generation. It’s such an organic style of music that brings people together.
So, I started writing bluegrass songs for fun. I was like, “What I feel like I hear bluegrass missing these days, when I turn on the radio, is songs that sound original.” So, I wanted to write songs that could be sung in a bluegrass band, but also told my point-of-view and my story. Once I started, it was hard to stop, and I realized, “I have a full album of songs now, I might as well go into the studio this summer and try to knock out a record.”
Molly Tuttle's Gear
Tuttle has been performing professionally since the age of 13 but didn’t blow her bluegrass cover in school until her later teens.
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
Guitars
- Prewar Guitar Company Brazilian Rosewood Dreadnought
Effects
- Grace Design FELiX
- Audio Sprockets ToneDexter Acoustic Instrument Preamp
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario Medium Coated Phosphor Bronze
- Dunlop JD Jazztone 207
Strings: And you won a Grammy for it. And I was so happy, because I was just like, she deserves this so much. Obviously, this always gets brought up, but we used to live in the same house—we used to be roommates. And I would always hear Molly practicing and shit, and I’d be like, “Fuck, man, I suck!” [Laughs.]
Tuttle: [Laughs.] I get that feeling when I hear you play, because I feel like we have such different styles. I’m like, “I could never do what Billy is doing.” The way you attack the guitar—I hear Doc Watson, but then there’s also your metal influence as well. I’m just in awe of your playing.
Strings: I’m just fakin’ it. I’m just wingin’ it the whole time, constantly. But are you still usin’ the same pick? Those little black things? What are those?
“Sometimes it may not look like I’m tensing up from someone watching me playing, but inside, I am kind of tense. But I think it is almost meditative, where you have to let go and let yourself play.”—Molly Tuttle
Tuttle: Dunlop Jazztone picks. I feel like I should switch. They’re not fancy picks, and sometimes I’ll try out other picks and people will be like, “That sounds really good.” [Laughs.] I’m just so used to them; I’ve used the same picks since I was 10 years old. They’re pretty heavy picks.
Strings: Well, that’s your sound, where you’re comfortable. I’m finding that that’s what it’s all about, for me anyways, is trying to make it comfortable to play. When I watch other people play, like you, or [Bryan] Sutton, it looks like almost kind of effortless in a way. There’s not all this tension, there’s not veins popping out [laughs]. I’m straining, but some people I see play and there’s just wonderful technique.
Tuttle: I have that too. Sometimes it may not look like I’m tensing up from someone watching me playing, but inside, I am kind of tense. And that’s when I feel like my playing doesn’t come through as well. But I think it is almost meditative, where you have to let go and let yourself play.
When Strings and Tuttle lived together in Nashville, they both felt intimidated when overhearing the other practicing.
Photo by Alysse Gafkjen
Strings: What kind of strings do you use?
Tuttle: I use D’Addario medium gauge [phosphor bronze]. I use the coated ones because my hands are very acidic.
Strings: Me too! I use the same ones! Shout-out to D’Addario .013–.056 medium gauge phosphor bronze, right? Gotta have that medium gauge, gotta have that coated, ’cause we sweat like crazy. And they don’t break! What guitar are you playing mostly on stage? Which one is the one that’s doin’ it for ya?
Tuttle: Right now, I’m using my Prewar Guitar Company. It’s a Brazilian rosewood D-28 style. I feel like the action and setup stay pretty even on tour, and I love the tone of it. That’s my current fave—what about you?
Strings: Still my [Preston] Thompson that I’ve been using forever. Brazilian, spruce-top dreadnought. I’ve been playing it for several years and that’s the guitar that I play on stage. It’s been through hell. It’s been smashed and it’s been put back together. But it always sounds the best plugged in. I use a K&K pickup and I run it through a [Grace Design BiX]. Also, I have a ’45 Martin that I just put a pickup in. I just wanted to have an old one that I can play on stage. But every time, I go back to Old Faithful. I started calling that guitar “Frankenstein” originally because I put all those different pickups in it, and the switch, and it’s got a microphone installed on the inside that goes to my in-ears. And I had them make me another one just like it, and that’s “The Bride.”
This isn’t guitar nerdy stuff, but I have this song, “Away from the Mire.” I wrote it when I got into a fight with my brother. Then, one night when I was on stage singin’ it, I realized that I wrote that song for myself; I was the one that needed to hear it. Do you have a song like that?
Tuttle: Definitely. I think the first therapeutic song that I remember recording of mine was “Good Enough,” that I recorded on my first ever EP. It’s about accepting yourself. I think I was struggling at the time with anxiety, and just getting started in my career and not knowing where things were going. I was trying to help myself stay in the moment. And I feel like that’s still a theme that I still write about. It means different things to me throughout my life.
“I think our duty is just to bring a little joy to people’s day. And sometimes they can give it back to us by accepting our audible diaries that we pour into our songs.”—Billy Strings
Strings: Well, just keep doing the work, because it’s beautiful stuff and we all need it! I think our duty is just to bring a little joy to people’s day. And sometimes they can give it back to us by accepting our audible diaries that we pour into our songs. We’re lucky to be able to do what we do, and I’m stoked watching you and your band out there kicking ass. It’s just fuckin’ awesome.
Tuttle: Likewise! I just love how you’re bringing this music to the masses, really educating people too about where it came from and your heroes and why it’s so important to you.
Strings: I guess we just gotta keep our sticks on the ice and keep truckin’. ’Cause I think we’re both doing good, and if we just keep our heads down and keep playing guitar, I think we’re going to be alright.YouTube It
It doesn’t take a trained eye to appreciate the wild shredding energy of Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, seen in this live performance of Strings’ “Billy in the Lowground.”
In my experience, the best way to get great recordings begins with getting in tune with your inner ear and the tones you are hearing in your head. This understanding will act as a catalyst for the first important tip: choice and placement of microphones. As simple as this is, we run the risk of listening with our eyes instead of our ears, because we are creatures of habit. How many times have you placed the same mic in the same place on the same amp (or same place at the guitar, for acoustic players)? Did you really explore the possibilities, or was this the best solution at the time and now it has become ingrained? Maybe it’s time to re-think the process and try something new?
Regular Dojo readers are already familiar with the three most common microphones used in recording: condenser, ribbon, and dynamic. Regardless of what mics you have, use your ears and listen to the source you want to record. For example, listen not only to where the amp sounds the best at the speaker, but also in the room. For acoustic guitar, placing the mics near the 14th fret in addition to other locations can yield a wide variety of tones. If you are recording by yourself, make several different short recordings and document the mic placement for each, listen, and then make decisions. The idea here is that you want to get the sound you’re looking for without using any EQ. In short, if you don’t like the sound you’re getting, move the mics until you do!
Once the decision has been made, the second tip for making better recordings is to pay careful attention to your gain structure (aka recording level) and give yourself plenty of headroom. The best way to do this is to set the recording track’s fader in your DAW to unity (zero), and then adjust your preamp’s gain level until the signal meters between -15 and -5 for most DAWs (check your specific DAW to find out which VU metering type you are using). If you’re somewhere in this range, you’ll have good signal-to-noise ratio and ample headroom for loud passages, like when you kick in the overdrive channel for the chorus and solo sections.
A scenario like Fig. 1 has bad news written all over it. The track faders are pushed near the top of their range and the master bus has already peaked. This can happen quicker than you think if you didn’t set your input levels properly to begin with. If you find yourself in this predicament, you’ll need to recalibrate your gain structure for every track for the entire mix. Ouch!
The final tip is focused on signal processing and preserving the efforts of the first two tips. Once your tracking is completed, don’t be too quick to start adding copious amounts of EQ and compression. The reason for steps one and two was to mitigate the need for EQ and preserve the natural dynamic range of your tracks. Now, when you need to use EQ and compression, you can use it with subtlety and not out of necessity to fix a poorly recorded track.
As always, if you have any questions you can reach me at recordingdojo@premierguitar.com, and I also want to invite you to checkout my new single “Christian Graffiti” on your favorite music platform to hear all of these tips in action. Until next time, namaste.