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.
Christian Graffiti
Provided to YouTube by DistroKidChristian Graffiti · Bryan ClarkChristian Graffiti℗ Rainfeather RecordsReleased on: 2022-09-30Auto-generated by YouTube.Fig. 1
What is a gate? It’s an audio circuit design (hardware or software) that operates relative to a set threshold, much like a compressor. The key difference is that while a compressor reduces the dynamic range (volume) when the audio signal goes above the threshold, a gate reduces the volume of an audio signal when it goes below the threshold and cuts it off completely.
For those of you who play rock, prog, extreme metal, or anything that uses massive gain, you most likely use a noise gate to tame the excessive pedal/amp noise (and possibly even feedback) that would otherwise run harum-scarum over every second of silence—in between each palm mute, pick stroke, etc. The net result is super tight and punchy guitars that can stop on a dime.
The net result of using a gate instead of a compressor is that the guitar solo track will open up instead of closing down.
Let’s get crazy from the start. Take a song you’ve recorded that has multiple instruments (full band with vocals or similar). Next, create a new guitar track and record yourself playing a wicked solo for the entire song. (I was guilty of this when I first learned the pentatonic scale.) Make it as wild as you want and add lots of signal processing as well. Unleash your inner guitar demon.
Once you’ve accepted your award for “longest guitar solo,” place a gate plug-in on the track. I’m going to use FabFilter Pro-G ($179 Street), but another great choice is Waves C1 Compressor/Gate ($29 Street).
Now, we can get into some uncharted waters. Choose a track (like the snare drum, chorus BGV parts, or a cool rhythm part) and route the output of that track to the gate’s input on your new guitar-solo-from-hell track. Every DAW has slightly different ways to do sidechaining, so like last month (see August’s column “Try Sidechaining for Greater Expression”), I’m going to use Pro Tools and follow the exact same procedure—the only difference is that this time it’s a gate and not a compressor. I’m also reposting the same link as well, with instructions for non-Pro Tools users courtesy of the Fab Filter website support page that gives directions for Studio One, Logic, Cubase, and Ableton.
The net result of using a gate instead of a compressor is that the guitar solo track will open up instead of closing down. For example, every time the snare drum hits, you will briefly hear wherever you were in your new solo track. You then can fine-tune how little or long it stays audible before being forced back into submission.
Fig. 2
In Pro Tools, open up the gate plug-in you placed on your guitar solo track [Fig. 1] and set sidechain from internal (In) to external (Ext). Next, in the “key input” menu of the plug-in interface, which is just above the FabFilter logo [Fig. 2], choose Bus 1 instead of the default “no key input.” The gate is now looking for an external source to trigger it open.
In Pro Tools, open up the gate plug-in you placed on your guitar solo track [Fig. 1] and set sidechain from internal (In) to external (Ext). Next, in the “key input” menu of the plug-in interface, which is just above the FabFilter logo [Fig. 2], choose Bus 1 instead of the default “no key input.” The gate is now looking for an external source to trigger it open.
Fig. 3
Now, let’s bus-route the snare drum track to the gate on the guitar track. In the “sends” slot of the snare drum track, select Bus 1. The Bus view window for Bus 1 will pop up [Fig. 3]. Set its level to 0.0 dB (so it will send audio signal to the gate) and select “PRE” (pre-fader) [Fig. 4]. You’ve now routed the audio (using Bus 1) from the drum track to the gate’s sidechain input on the guitar track.
Fig. 4
If you mute the snare drum track, you’ll be able to hear how it is affecting the guitar track. Now you can play with the threshold, attack, ratio, and release. Start with a quick attack (.010-.025 ms), a high threshold, and a medium release time (150-200 ms), then adjust to taste.
I love doing things like this because every time the snare drum hits, you don’t know what you’re going to get. You can take this farther and add some reverb and delay to the guitar track to further play with how long the solo “blip” will last. This is just the tip of the iceberg, so keep experimenting and let me know if you find something really cool by emailing me here. Keep sharing your musical passion with the world and, until next time, namaste.
Fig. 1
You may have also heard this technique in EDM-based music when a synth-bass line pumps (dips and swells in volume) in between each beat of the kick drum. This is what happens when the kick drum is bus-routed into a compressor on the synth-bass track.
Keeping this guitar-centric, sidechain compression can be valuable for many reasons that range from keeping your solo on top of rhythm parts to adding crazy textures to your power chords. You’ll need a compressor plug-in that accepts a side-chain input, and there are many to choose from. I’m going to use Fab Filter’s Pro-C 2 ($179 street), but another great choice is Waves’ Renaissance Compressor ($29.99 street).
Let’s get started. First, create two tracks in your DAW: one virtual instrument track (the source) loaded with a drum kit, and one audio track (the destination) where you will soon record a cool chord progression with held chords (clean or distorted).
You may have also heard this technique in EDM-based music when a synth-bass line pumps (dips and swells in volume) in between each beat of the kick drum.
On the instrument track, create a nice drum-kit groove (try something funky or even prog metal). Then, mute all the other parts of your virtual kit except the kick drum (for now) and hit record. Next, record yourself playing that cool chord progression with held chords on the audio track you created. (Play along to an unmuted version of your drum kit groove if you need it to record your guitar part.) Now, insert a compressor capable of sidechaining on this track’s effect insert [Fig.1].
At this point you should have: a kick drum loop on the instrument track and a chord progression recorded on the audio track. The compressor will be on the guitar track only.
Now, the fun begins. We are going to route the output of the drum track to the compressor’s input on the guitar track. Thus, every time the kit drum hits, it will trigger gain reduction on the guitar track.
These days I find myself tracking and mixing in at least two different DAWs, and every DAW has slightly different ways to do sidechain compression. This time, I’m going to use ProTools since it has been around the longest and (like it or not) is what most professional recording studios continue to use. There’s excellent intel for non-Pro Tools users at Fab Filter’s website support page, with directions for Studio One, Logic, Cubase, and Ableton.
Fig. 2
In Pro Tools, open the FabFilter Pro-C 2 that you’ve placed on your guitar track earlier. Click the sidechain window button at the bottom [Fig.2] and set sidechain from internal (In) to external (Ext).
Fig. 3
Now select the triangle next to MIDI Learn and make sure Enable MIDI is deselected [Fig.3].
Fig. 4
Next, in the key input menu of the plug-in interface, which is just above the FabFilter logo [Fig.4], choose Bus 1 instead of the default no key input. The compressor is now looking for an external source to trigger compression.
Fig. 5
Now, let’s bus-route the drum track to the guitar track’s compressor. In the sends slot of the drum track, select Bus 1. The bus view window for Bus 1will pop up: set its level to 0.0 dB (so it will send audio signal to the compressor) and select ‘PRE’ (pre-fader) [Fig. 5]. You’ve now routed the audio (using Bus 1) from the drum track to the compressor’s side chain input on the guitar track.
If you mute the drum track, you’ll be able to hear how it is affecting the guitar track. Now you can play with the threshold, attack, ratio, and release. Start with a quick attack (.010-.025 ms), a low threshold, and a fast release time (75-200 ms), then adjust to taste. The right release time depends upon the tempo of the song. Ideally, you want the compressor to be fully reset before the next kick drum hit.
Now that you understand sidechaining, you can experiment with other effects like sidechainable gates, EQs, and delays. More on that next time. Until then, keep experimenting! Namaste.