Comprehending one of the studio's most important but mysterious tools—with metaphorical cocktails!
[Originally published 6/8/2020]
Welcome to Recording Dojo—PG’s new monthly column pertaining to recording and engineering, with guitarists in mind. Think of this column as your place to develop better audio-recording skills, experiment with new techniques and gear and, most importantly, mindsets. So bring your best self forward and your willingness to learn … the dojo is now open.
1. TKARR
Let’s begin our training with compression: a confusing topic for guitarists as players and as engineers wanting to make their recordings more professional. Compression has five core parameters: threshold, knee, attack, ratio, and release—or TKARR. I’m going to explain this metaphorically, as if you are at a major event, say, the Grammys, and you’ve just won. You’ve condensed a lifetime of “I’d like to thank” into 15 seconds, and you’ve been regally whisked offstage by an anonymous beauty in a ball gown.
2. Threshold
The next thing you’re instructed to do is leave backstage, go through the giant ballroom (where a band is playing and people are partying), and go to the press room for photo ops and post-win interviews. You walk down the long hallway towards the ballroom door, where a burly 6'8" doorman stands behind velvet ropes. The doorman is the threshold and the velvet ropes are the knee.
3. Knee
In order for you to get into the ballroom, the doorman has to let you in. As you arrive at the door, he takes his hands off the ropes (hard knee), crosses his arms, coldly stares at you, and says, “What are doing here? This is for Grammy winners only.” Ouch! He doesn’t recognize you. He only listens to Siberian reggae bands. High threshold. So high that you can’t pass though. Conversely, if, as you approach, he gently unfastens the ropes (soft knee), says “I’m a huge fan,” and moves aside without you having to break stride, you have crossed the threshold and are now inside the ballroom. This is a well-set threshold, only allowing in those who are authorized. Or perhaps, as you arrive at the ballroom entrance, you notice that the doorman has passed out, the ropes have long been knocked over (no knee), and anyone can enter. Low threshold.
4. Attack
As soon as you enter the ballroom, within a millisecond, a waiter comes up to you: “Champagne? The press room is on the other side of the ballroom.” That’s quick attack. You notice there’s a string quartet playing Haydn’s Op. 76, and the volume is comfortably loud (low ratio, somewhere between 1.5:1 to 4:1). Almost as soon as you enter the ballroom, you’ve got your libation and move directly to the press room—quick release. You arrive at the press room with your wits about you, ready to talk about your big win.
Or, upon entering the ballroom, you mill around in the crowded room looking for directions and you’re in the middle of the ballroom before a waiter comes up to you and shouts: “Drink? Press room is over there.” That’s medium attack. The band is an ’80s cover band and the volume is rather loud for the room (medium ratio, 5:1 to 9.5:1). You eventually find your way to the press room and arrive slightly stunned, but ready.
Another version: Upon entering the ballroom, you’re immediately lost in a sea of people, shouting for directions and hopelessly trying to be heard above the Mötorhead tribute band. Your ears are ringing. Time passes, and you somehow find the press room door and a waiter shoves a drink in your hand just before you leave the ballroom. Slow attack. You arrive, dazed and confused, in the press room (high ratio, 10:1 and above).
These simple scenarios should help you understand the parameters of compression. It’s very important you know that all of these scenarios are equally and musically valid, and by no means exhaustive. Want that “When the Levee Breaks” drum sound? Low threshold, high ratio, quick attack/release. Want your acoustic to sound natural and dynamic? High to medium threshold, medium attack/release, medium to low ratio. Remember, the focus of this article is to explain the five parameters of compression (TKARR). Based on their highly varied and different designs, not all compressors give you access to every parameter. So, this will be our subject next month!
It's been nearly 10 years since Mod Garage guru Dirk Wacker taught us how to series-wire a Fender Stratocaster. Now he says he's got an even better way.
Image 1 — Drawing courtesy of singlecoil.com
Hello and welcome back to Mod Garage. Today we'll talk about a kind of evergreen mod for a Stratocaster, to implement series wiring of the pickups. Longtime followers of Mod Garage might recall that way back in late 2011 we talked about this, but it's almost been a decade since that article, “Adding Series Switching to Your Strat."
Over the years, I've received many emails about this wiring, and a lot of people failed when trying to set it up … first and foremost because it's not an easy wiring. But even some of you who sailed through it had problems, so it was time to think about this mod again in order to enhance it.
This wiring is at least 20 years old and was the first version we used in the shop. It's not easy and it has some downsides, such as possible phasing issues depending on what middle pickup is used. It also has some problems with the controls. For example, you can't use it with the typical Strat configuration, leaving the bridge pickup without a tone control. No wonder that so many people failed with it! We don't use it in the shop anymore, since over time we developed a new circuit that does the same wiring but without all the aforementioned downsides. Now we have new downsides, but we'll get to that.
The problem with the first version is mostly the standard 5-way switch in combination with only a DPDT switch. When this wiring was developed, the 5-way super switch was not invented yet, and finding switches with multiple switching stages was a real and expensive challenge. But times have changed and today's hardware market is better than ever.
The new solution is still using the standard 5-way switch plus an additional on/on multistage toggle switch. The first "parallel" sound stage is the normal Strat operation we all know:
- Bridge pickup alone
- Bridge + middle pickup together in parallel
- Middle pickup alone
- Middle + neck pickup together in parallel
- Neck pickup alone
While you're playing the two "in between" positions—bridge + middle pickup together in parallel or middle + neck pickup together in parallel—you can engage the second sound stage with the toggle switch to get the two in-between positions in series rather than in parallel. This makes this wiring very easy to handle, because you only have to fiddle around with one additional toggle switch. I think it's a very useful addition to any Strat if you're looking for series pickup tones.
Only a few guitars use series wiring for their pickups. The most popular examples of series setups are the Brian May “Red Special" and almost all vintage Danelectro guitars. But there are several good reasons why you might want to wire your Strat pickups in series. If you want more volume and midrange out of your pickups, the parallel/series switching may be the perfect option.
In contrast to the classic parallel combination of the pickups, wiring two pickups in series produces a longer path with increased resistance, adding volume while preventing the highest frequencies from getting through. With series wiring, the output of one pickup goes into the input of another pickup. Meanwhile, with standard parallel wiring, each pickup takes its own path to the output. Besides being noticeably louder, series wiring emphasizes low and midrange tones, and this is a perfect combination to drive any tube amp into saturation—and also the perfect tone for lead playing.
Before we start, just a note about one of the most popular misunderstandings: Series wiring (also called out-of-phase wiring) is only possible when using two pickups together.
So what do we need for this mod? Not much, only an additional 4PDT on/on toggle switch. These switches are expensive and have a certain physical size, but it's no problem to place them on a regular Strat pickguard. Take care to buy an on/on type, not an on/off model. It's more likely that you'll find such switches in electronic stores rather than guitar supply stores. A 4PDT toggle switch is kind of a rare bird, but there are still plenty of manufacturers and finishes.
So what about the new downsides of this wiring? Because we need a 4PDT switch, you can't use a push-pull or push-push pot because they are only available with SPST or DPDT switches. But you can use a Fender S-1 pot for this, because the switch on these pots is a 4PDT on/on type. For more info about the Fender S-1 system and how to adopt the wiring to this switching matrix please have a look at my April 2011 article “Mod Garage: The Fender S-1 Switching System."
You also can't use this wiring as a kind of "deck wiring" with two preset stages. In series mode the three positions on the 5-way pickup selector switch where each pickup is dialed in alone are not connected and will have no signal output. It's possible to incorporate this feature into this wiring but you will need a 6PDT switch for this and these are really hard to find.
Any more downsides? Yes and no. You'll have to decide on your own if the following two situations are downsides for you or not:
1. There is no way around using two tone caps with this wiring—one on each tone pot. It's not possible to share one common tone cap like in a Stratocaster's standard wiring. I think this is more an advantage rather than a downside, because you can use a standard 0.022uF tone cap for the middle and a lighter 0.01uF cap for the neck pickup.
2. If you want to install the Stratocaster 7-sound mod to get access to all possible pickup combinations, this wiring cannot connect the bridge and neck pickup in series. You'll need an additional parallel/series switch if you want to do this.
So, here it is (Image 1). I tried to clear up the drawing wherever possible, replacing some ground wires with only the grounding symbol so there are no unnecessary connections across the diagram that might be confusing. As you can see, there is a strict separation of the two switching stages on the switch this time, and no jumper wire to connect them. The first switching stage is the stage for the tone controls while the second stage is used for the pickups. This is essential for this wiring and also gives room for further modifications. It's definitely not a beginner's project, so if this is your first attempt to mod a guitar, you should start with something easier. Otherwise chances are good you'll run into troubles with this one.
Next month we will take a deeper look into grounding—some common errors and misunderstandings about it, and, of course, some embosomed fairy tales, so stay tuned.
Until then ... keep on modding!
Why you should consider tracking the acoustic sound of your solid-, semi-, or hollowbody axe in addition to the amp it's plugged into.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Dojo. This month we are going to do something rarely done and counterintuitive. We are going to mic our electric guitar in addition to the amp! Why? Because there is something to be gained. The Dojo is now open, so let's get started.
I first remember hearing about this technique back in 1989, when I bought the CD Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint, composed by American minimalist Steve Reich and featuring the Kronos Quartet and one of my guitar heroes, Pat Metheny. Pat played all 13 guitar parts called for in Electric Counterpoint with great aplomb, and the result was gorgeous—vertical, pulsating clouds of harmonies weaving into tightly knit, horizontal, rhythmically imitative, melodic fragments that are constantly changing. Can you tell I like this piece? Hopefully you've already started listening to the recording as you're reading this.
Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint (complete), Pat Metheny
One of the subtle things I noticed was that in addition to Pat's characteristic dark archtop timbre (achieved by rolling back the tone dial on the neck pickup), there was also a clear attack of the note from an additional microphone that was placed near the guitar itself, and not the amp. The result was something quite unique and not really possible without using this technique.
Now, think about this for a moment. When we practice, chances are we're not playing at maximum volume—pissing off the parental units, girlfriends, and neighbors. (There's a time for that, but not all the time.) Most of us will play at room volume or practice volume. Which means, that you are hearing a slight mix of your amp as well as the snap, ping, and buzz of you plucking the guitar that's in your lap. Most of the time, we tune this out and place our focus on our amp volume, but we're missing something here. That little bit of pick attack that happens acoustically is part of our sound, and most of the time isn't captured.
That's the crucial difference of recording an acoustic guitar and an electric. The acoustic will have a microphone or microphones placed around it that are relatively close to your ears and will sound much more natural on playback. Whereas when we dime our 100-watt full stack, we're not going to place our ears right next to the speaker.
That little bit of pick attack that happens acoustically is part of our sound, and most of the time isn't captured.
That little bit of pick attack that happens acoustically is part of our sound, and most of the time isn't captured.Try this: Get your guitar out, mic your amp your favorite way (if you need ideas, read past Dojo articles for some inspiration). Get some distance between you and the amp, and now place a mic four to eight inches away from your neck pickup. Be sure to aim the amp speaker and the acoustic mic directly towards you. Put on your headphones, and as you set the gain level for the acoustic mic, don't overdo it. We're not trying to make it as loud as the amp mic (although you can experiment with that in playback!). We're just trying to get a little bit of that ping and snap of the guitar as if it wasn't plugged in at all. Hit record and play for a couple of minutes. Play something loud, something funky, something soft, single notes, chords, even take a solo.
Now, before you listen back, bring down the level of the acoustic mic and then slowly start fading it in. You'll know when you get the level right, because it will start to sound like you're right in there and playing it without headphones on. Note how your spatial perception changes. If you have a solidbody, a semi-hollow, and an archtop, each will yield varying results.
Until next month, keep an open mind, experiment, and have fun.
[Updated 10/11/21]
That's the crucial difference of recording an acoustic guitar and an electric. The acoustic will have a microphone or microphones placed around it that are relatively close to your ears and will sound much more natural on playback. Whereas when we dime our 100-watt full stack, we're not going to place our ears right next to the speaker.
Try this: Get your guitar out, mic your amp your favorite way (if you need ideas, read past Dojo articles for some inspiration). Get some distance between you and the amp, and now place a mic four to eight inches away from your neck pickup. Be sure to aim the amp speaker and the acoustic mic directly towards you. Put on your headphones, and as you set the gain level for the acoustic mic, don't overdo it. We're not trying to make it as loud as the amp mic (although you can experiment with that in playback!). We're just trying to get a little bit of that ping and snap of the guitar as if it wasn't plugged in at all. Hit record and play for a couple of minutes. Play something loud, something funky, something soft, single notes, chords, even take a solo.