Recording 101

[OsvyRock]

Hi everyone!

I'm starting this thread to discuss the basics of recording, the how-to record, softwares, and other topics related to recording for beginners.

I recently purchased a Scarlett Solo interface and got Ableton Live Lite 9 as a recording software in my computer. I use to have Pro Tools First, but it's full of bugs.

How do we all start in this?

I would like to know the basics of vocals & guitar monitoring, recording, eq, etc.

Appreciate your contribution on the subject.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

Welcome to Hell.

Probably the BEST place to start is by registering an account at Sound On Sound, and perhaps Gear Slutz. Then, jog over to Youtube and subscribe to the following:
Produce Like A Pro
Waves Audio
PureMix
Recording Revolution
Sound On Sound
Sweetwater Sound
The Pro Audio Files
Mix With The Masters
Dezz Asante
Pensado's Place

... and any other channels about recording and production that catch your eye.

Don't get too caught up in the details, especially if you already have songs written. Just jump right in, let your ears be your guide, and get to work.

DO NOT get caught up in using 3rd party plugins; the stocks ones will last you ages and ages.

Oh, and probably most importantly: come to grips with the fact that you suck and don't get too precious about your mixes; take however long you need to develop your skills and the subsequent thick skin that comes with it, but don't let the fact that you suck stop you from putting material out there -- just try not to get too defensive about it when the arrows start flying, as they most certainly will ... this is a life-long process.

Edit: If you are a book nerd like me, make it a priority to buy Mike Senior's book, Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio. A lot of it won't make sense at first, but it will be an invaluable resource you will come back to time and time again.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

By the way, good choice with the Solo; I have 4 Focusrite interfaces, one in each room lol. One of 'em is a Solo, and I really like it.

 

[OsvyRock]

Re: Recording 101

Welcome to Hell.

Probably the BEST place to start is by registering an account at Sound On Sound, and perhaps Gear Slutz. Then, jog over to Youtube and subscribe to the following:
Produce Like A Pro
Waves Audio
PureMix
Recording Revolution
Sound On Sound
Sweetwater Sound
The Pro Audio Files
Mix With The Masters
Dezz Asante
Pensado's Place

... and any other channels about recording and production that catch your eye.

Don't get too caught up in the details, especially if you already have songs written. Just jump right in, let your ears be your guide, and get to work.

DO NOT get caught up in using 3rd party plugins; the stocks ones will last you ages and ages.

Oh, and probably most importantly: come to grips with the fact that you suck and don't get too precious about your mixes; take however long you need to develop your skills and the subsequent thick skin that comes with it, but don't let the fact that you suck stop you from putting material out there -- just try not to get too defensive about it when the arrows start flying, as they most certainly will ... this is a life-long process.

Edit: If you are a book nerd like me, make it a priority to buy Mike Senior's book, Mix Secrets For The Small Studio. A lot of it won't make sense at first, but it will be an invaluable resource you will come back to time and time again.

By the way, good choice with the Solo; I have 4 Focusrite interfaces, one in each room lol. One of 'em is a Solo, and I really like it.

Thanks for your amazing reply! Loved the ''HELL'' part xD
I will be subscribing to those forum and channels. If there are written articles and book about the topic, they will be appreciated too. Thanks to some, I improved my live performances (EQ, PA, Mixing Related). Sadly, the live and recording worlds are two worlds apart these days. While guiding myself with my ears works live, I don't have the skills or enough recording software knowledge.

The Focusrite Scarlett Solo 2nd Gen is pretty good for tracking. No Latency!
It's my 1st very own interface, but used to record to some other interfaces in the past and latency was always an issue.

I imagine with the ''jump right in'' means recording dry, right?

 

[ginormous]

Re: Recording 101

This is very much a hands-on, learn as you go thing.

There are some fundamental ideas that will do you well.

1) Not all distortion is created equal. There's the "power chord, dime everything" kind, which works for a lot of things.
However, distortion which exceeds the threshold of digital recording, which is harsh and chops the tops off every waveform, is to be avoided at all times.

2) Google is your friend. In addition to the excellent resources listed by Twilight, look up some of the Kenny Gioia YouTube vids.
Kenny is a whiz on Reaper (yet another DAW alternative; there's tons of them), but a lot of his advice is practical for all platforms.

3)When you do finally want to plunge in to plugins, you might be intimidated at first. There's so many of them, you'll feel like Tippi Hedren from "The Birds".
There's two basic types: the signal processors (EQs, compressors, echoes etc), and the "soft" instruments (drums, synths, etc).
I started with a decent drum plugin, got a few keyboard sounds, and that was it for a while.
At this point, you only need the basics.

4)Get the best you can afford... upgrade as needs and budget allow. You'll be grateful, and your recordings will show for it.

As for recording dry vs. printing with effects, I find that I just have to dial in the sound I want, and print that.
For others, recording dry (no FX) and playing around with the toys in the mix works...
for me, this is like diving down the rabbit hole. Lots of options, but it gets distracting after a while.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

I imagine with the ''jump right in'' means recording dry, right?

It means, whatever works for you: For some people it's setting out a mic and demo'ing songs with an acoustic guitar, for others it's offering to record or mix your friend's band. I like to start working with a template that has audio and MIDI tracks, as well as a click track, already set up and ready to go.

 

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: Recording 101

Great advice here so far...Twilight knows his **** for sure so listen up haha.

Start simple, and remember to HAVE FUN. If you're writing your own stuff start with a simple track and make a demo. If your DAW has built in E-drums (assuming you dont have another option) then use those. Start with just a simple beat to get the feel you want in order to get recording over it...you can always edit them afterward!

Learn the stock plugins for sure and don't get caught up in others unless its something you simply dont have built in to your DAW (I am not familiar with Abelton so I don't know what it comes with)

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

Great advice here so far...Twilight knows his **** for sure so listen up haha.

LOL Thanks.

 

[HiFiRebel]

Re: Recording 101

You will despise the results at first. Then you slowly begin to despise them less. That's ok. You will likely be your own worst critic.

Have fun and use less gain than you think you need.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Recording 101

Twist the knobs until you 'think' it sounds good, and then for every setting of EQ, compression, reverb, delay or other effects you have applied that you 'think' are making it sound good, cut them in half and it will probably actually just start to sound good.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Recording 101

Two words:. Headroom, Bandwidth.
Oh and remember, frequencies are cumulative, if you boost the bass on every track to make things sound heavy, you will have mud for your final mix.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[OsvyRock]

Re: Recording 101

This is very much a hands-on, learn as you go thing.

There are some fundamental ideas that will do you well.

1) Not all distortion is created equal. There's the "power chord, dime everything" kind, which works for a lot of things.
However, distortion which exceeds the threshold of digital recording, which is harsh and chops the tops off every waveform, is to be avoided at all times.

2) Google is your friend. In addition to the excellent resources listed by Twilight, look up some of the Kenny Gioia YouTube vids.
Kenny is a whiz on Reaper (yet another DAW alternative; there's tons of them), but a lot of his advice is practical for all platforms.

3)When you do finally want to plunge in to plugins, you might be intimidated at first. There's so many of them, you'll feel like Tippi Hedren from "The Birds".
There's two basic types: the signal processors (EQs, compressors, echoes etc), and the "soft" instruments (drums, synths, etc).
I started with a decent drum plugin, got a few keyboard sounds, and that was it for a while.
At this point, you only need the basics.

4)Get the best you can afford... upgrade as needs and budget allow. You'll be grateful, and your recordings will show for it.

As for recording dry vs. printing with effects, I find that I just have to dial in the sound I want, and print that.
For others, recording dry (no FX) and playing around with the toys in the mix works...
for me, this is like diving down the rabbit hole. Lots of options, but it gets distracting after a while.

It means, whatever works for you: For some people it's setting out a mic and demo'ing songs with an acoustic guitar, for others it's offering to record or mix your friend's band. I like to start working with a template that has audio and MIDI tracks, as well as a click track, already set up and ready to go.

Great advice here so far...Twilight knows his **** for sure so listen up haha.

Start simple, and remember to HAVE FUN. If you're writing your own stuff start with a simple track and make a demo. If your DAW has built in E-drums (assuming you dont have another option) then use those. Start with just a simple beat to get the feel you want in order to get recording over it...you can always edit them afterward!

Learn the stock plugins for sure and don't get caught up in others unless its something you simply dont have built in to your DAW (I am not familiar with Abelton so I don't know what it comes with)

LOL Thanks.

You will despise the results at first. Then you slowly begin to despise them less. That's ok. You will likely be your own worst critic.

Have fun and use less gain than you think you need.

Twist the knobs until you 'think' it sounds good, and then for every setting of EQ, compression, reverb, delay or other effects you have applied that you 'think' are making it sound good, cut them in half and it will probably actually just start to sound good.

Two words:. Headroom, Bandwidth.
Oh and remember, frequencies are cumulative, if you boost the bass on every track to make things sound heavy, you will have mud for your final mix.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

I just want to thank each of you for your replies and advice. It's truly very appreciated.
These last 2 or 3 days I dived into playing with the Ableton Live Lite 9 program and may confess that got quite a nice and decent ''beginner'' recording.
Played with compression, a little bit of EQ, amp models, and even a little bit of reverb on vocals and one guitar track.
The song sounded a little bit like a would like the song to sound on an official EP Release, but I have some things to say.

Recording acoustic guitar (specially plugged in via the preamp) is quite very easy to do. The EQ plays the most part. You can record it dry and apply a little reverb later on, and it will sound good. Vocals. Singing in tune is very important, pre-equalizing a (monitor) mix helps a lot at time of recording, and applying/re-recording other tracks and effects later on. Just like the real thing you can say.

The only thing I confess I couldn't pull off are electric, overdriven, distortion guitar tracks. How do you all put it off?
Power chords suck! I imagine you all use some kind of playing variation or recording approach to just record power chords or other high gain tones.
Would like to know a little bit about that on low and high gain recording situations.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Recording 101

^^
Headroom. You want to record your guitar tracks so that they approach redline but just fall short by a few dbs.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[OsvyRock]

Re: Recording 101

^^
Headroom. You want to record your guitar tracks so that they approach redline but just fall short by a few dbs.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

I imagine that could be done easier recording a real live guitar amp instead of using digital, plug-in amps.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Recording 101

Well really, as long as you keep it in mind, either way.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

The advantage of higher gain guitar sounds is that the dynamic range is already reduced. A big part of the equation is finding sounds that complement each other and fit together; that is why recording and mixing your own stuff can seriously suck. It takes many many hours of actual hard work before you start getting good results.

Although I think your issue may be related to gain staging, I don't know if you are ready for that concept or not. Watch Dezz Asante's video on how to gain stage properly.

If your tracks are peaking at just a few dB below zero, they are WAY too hot. In a 24 bit digital recording that is about 10dB too loud!

A mixing fader is logorythmic: the sweet spot is between -6 to 0 dB. That means you do not want your faders lower than -6dB. If you have 8 tracks averaging -6 dB, you will already be clipping your 2-bus. Every time you have two waveforms in phase at the same amplitude, the sum is 3dB louder. So, if you have 8 tracks at -6dB, your master bus is being slammed with a +6dB average level.

If you had those same tracks at a sensible level, averaging at -12dB (for argument's sake; this is still too loud in my opinion), your master bus is now seeing 0dBFS -- which is dangerously close to clipping.

How do you get those levels balanced out and under control? There are a LOT of ways to skin that cat! I like using sub groups with gain plugins so that my automation on each track stays in the sweet spot.

One final thought: it is IMPERATIVE that your levels remain the same pre and post plugin! eg; If your volume level is X before EQ, it must be the same after it. This is not something you can see, you have to listen VERY CAREFULLY.

Now, get to it.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Recording 101

A couple resources you may find useful:

http://tweakheadz.com/posts/the-guide/
http://stash.reaper.fm/10391/WDYRSLA 8x11.pdf

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

Forgot all about Tweakheadz!
Great resource!

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Recording 101

Hopefully, Beer$ will chime in.
He is an expert at tracking hi gain guitars.