Here are eight tips that will help you to improve the overall quality of your recordings and get them to a more professional-sounding level.
Hello, and welcome to another Dojo! I want to focus on eight tips to help your recording techniques have more professional-sounding results. Because this subject is so deep, I created a free companion to this article at my website, bryanclarkmusic.com. Tighten up your belts—the dojo is now open.
1. The Right Space. The first and most crucial step is selecting an appropriate space for recording. You want to choose a room with minimal ambient noise, good acoustic properties, and enough space for your equipment and instrument(s). Remember that all rooms can benefit from strategic soundproofing via acoustic panels and diffusers that help control reflections and resonance (standing waves), resulting in a more controlled and balanced sound.
2. Gear. Buy the best gear you can afford because it will make a massive difference (see my September 2020 PG cover story “10 Recording Mistakes Guitarists Make (And How to Avoid Them).”
Microphones: Choose microphones that suit your needs. For vocals, a good condenser microphone is often ideal, while dynamic microphones are better for loud sound sources like 100-watt amps or drums. Also, get a pop filter to reduce plosives in vocal recordings.
Audio Interface: This is the bridge between your microphones and your computer. Invest in a quality audio interface with low-latency and high-resolution capabilities.
Headphones and Monitors: Use studio-quality headphones or monitor speakers to accurately hear the nuances in your recordings. This gear is highly personal yet essential for critical listening.
Cables: Use high-quality cables to connect your equipment. Well-shielded, low-noise cables can reduce interference and maintain signal integrity. (I love Asterope’s XLR to TRS cables, $55–$120 street.)“Sometimes, the most innovative and unique recordings come from pushing the boundaries and questioning ‘rules.’”
3. Optimizing Recording Techniques. Proper recording techniques are the key to professional results. Experiment with microphone placement until you find the sweet spot for your sound source(s).
Recording Levels: Maintain optimal recording levels to prevent clipping and distortion. Aim for an average reading of -18 dB to leave headroom for mixing.
Multi-Microphone Techniques: When using two mics on the same sound source, such as a drum kit or choir, or two mics on your amp, etc., make sure all microphones are in phase. Check by first recording for several seconds, then zoom in on the two mics’ waveforms in your DAW to see. If they’re not in phase, move one of the mics either forward or backwards to get better alignment of arrival times.
4. Software and DAWs. Select a DAW tailored to your needs and preferences and invest the time to learn the software’s features and shortcuts. Popular options include Pro Tools, Logic Pro, LUNA, and Ableton Live.
Take advantage of virtual instruments (Arturia, Native Instruments, Spectrasonics) and effects plugins (Waves, UA, FabFilter, Soundtoys) to enhance your recordings. High-quality virtual instruments can replicate the sound of real instruments, while effects plugins offer various processing options for mixing and even mastering.
5. Recording Environment. Minimize background noise by turning off fans, air conditioners, and other noisy appliances during recording. If your room has persistent noise issues, use noise reduction software (Izotope RX), or record during quieter times of the day. You can also control sound reflections by using acoustic treatment in your room(s) to prevent unwanted reverb and echoes. If recording vocals or acoustic instruments, consider using isolation shields or reflection filters to reduce room noise and improve clarity.
6. Editing and Mixing. Remove unwanted noise, fix timing issues, comp the best parts from multiple takes, use EQ and compression (sparingly), and use reference tracks from professional recordings to compare and gauge the quality of your mix.
7. Monitoring. Listen to your recordings on various playback systems (headphones, monitors, car stereo) to ensure they sound good across different contexts. Don’t be afraid to re-record and remix as needed. Improvement will come from learning from your mistakes.
8. Continuous Learning and Experimentation. Finally, the world of audio recording and production is continually evolving. Keep learning and experiment with unconventional recording techniques and/or effects. Sometimes, the most innovative and unique recordings come from pushing the boundaries and questioning “rules.”
I’m always here to help, and remember that improvement takes time, patience, and practice. Until next month, namaste.
Both the type of delay you're using and whether your amp is equipped with an effects loop can have a huge impact on how good your echoes sound in the final mix.
You might not have given much thought to your delay pedal, other than adjusting the time, mix level, and how long you might want the feedback to be when using it. But there are more things to consider, and where you place it in your signal chain can make a big difference in your tone—especially when recording. This month we’ll cover the main ways to use delay, depending upon your pedal and amp setup.
Let’s begin by dividing types of delay into two categories: analog and digital. Traditional analog delays, like the Echoplex, Roland Space Echo, and Binson Echorec, achieved their delay by using a loop of analog tape and three heads: erase, record, and playback (see Fig. 1). Moving from left to right, the erase head removes any previously recorded audio, then your guitar signal is recorded at the record head before moving to the playback head. The further the playback head is away from the record head, the longer the delay. After leaving the playback head, it’s looped back around to the erase head, and the process starts all over again.
In order to get the signal loud enough to be captured on tape and minimize noise, a discreet preamp was needed to boost the incoming audio. These preamps are a huge part of the analog tape sound. In fact, guitarists liked the tone so much that many companies started making “boost” pedals and leaving the tape delay behind, especially as the digital age arrived. This is where the term boost pedal originates. (Xotic’s EP Booster—with the EP derived from Echoplex—is a great example of this.)
Digital delay usually involves a set sample and bit rate (i.e., 44.1 kHz/16 bit). Audio is sampled (recorded) into the digital domain, and all settings, like time, mix, and feedback are adjusted digitally. Some digital delay pedals like Eventide’s TimeFactor (which has both analog and digital options) will allow you to adjust these parameters (and many more) so you can make your guitar signal sound like it has gone through a bitcrusher.
What’s the difference? In the digital domain, whatever audio is sampled can be recreated exactly without any degradation, no matter how long the feedback. With analog, there are several anomalies that happen as the result of slight glitching of the mechanical gears moving the tape across the heads (flutter), the tape misalignment as it travels across the heads (wow), and the tape itself loosing fidelity as it ages. While this might seem like a drawback, it’s actually the main reason you might want to use analog delay!
Try this: If you’re getting your distortion sound from your amp, see if the amp has an effects loop I/O in the back. If it doesn’t, like old Marshall and Fender amps, then you’ll want to use a delay pedal that has a vintage delay profile instead of a digital delay. Think Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, early Clapton. This is how they got that tone: using an analog tape delay (with those preamps) going into a screaming tweed Fender or Marshall plexi. If you try this with a digital delay, you’ll probably notice that your tone will sound brittle, grainy, less smooth, and it will be harder to tell the difference between the original notes and the delayed notes. The good news is that many contemporary delay pedals, like the Boss DD-8, have both analog and digital options for you to choose from, and you can A/B the difference.
If you’re getting your main distortion sound from your pedals, then a digital delay won’t affect your tone as much, and if you’re looking for that great digital delay sound à la ’80s David Gilmour and The Edge, sprinkle a little chorus into your sound before the delay and you’re “in the stadium,” shall I say.
Finally, if your amp has an effects loop, try isolating your delay (regardless of type) by running it through the amp’s effects loop. You’ll need two more cables, but you might find that your tone has more clarity overall and you can control your delay with more finesse.