Archives for February 2020
How To Get Great Drum Sounds From Your Home Studio
Nothing makes a home recording, any recording for that matter, sound better than great drum sounds. Pro engineers spend more time getting their drum sounds than any other instrument on their recordings and it shows. I've personally seen situations where engineers have spent days, several days in fact getting the drums to sound just so, before they'll move ahead with the rest of the record. What a bunch of wussies! Do they actually think the drum sound will sell any more records?!! Maybe not, but it's still very satisfying to get a great drum sound, and most engineers will go to...
How To Get A Great Bass Sound In Your Home Studio
I spent more time in the early part of my engineering career trying to get a great bass sound than anything else. I tried going through a direct box. I tried miking the amp. I tried different amps. I tried different mics. I tried everything! No matter how hard I tried, I always fell short of the mark. I went in search of the Holy Grail for bass sounds but never found it. I realized with time that the answer wasn't a singular prescription for success, but a collection of techniques that could be used as each situation dictated. The...
How Good Do Your Demos Have To Be?
"Good" is a subjective term. It can mean a couple of things when used in the context of making demo tapes. "Good" can mean the song (with a slant toward "hit" potential), or it can mean the engineering or production values on the tape. If the ultimate use of your demo is to land a record deal, and not to impress your friends and relatives, then this article is for you. Imagine this scenario: The Vice-President of A&R at a major record label is sitting in his office listening to tapes (which by the way is how they typically spend less...
Mixing Made Easy
Most people think mixing is complicated. It's really not. Most pros (myself included) like the fact that there's an air of mystery surrounding what we do. It makes us look smarter. It also allows us to charge more money. But, let's face it. It's not rocket science. It's really just the practical application of basic physics, a little bit of psychoacoustics, and a pinch of good taste. The best way to learn anything is to copy the masters. Listen with headphones. Listen with nobody else around to bother you. Shut your eyes. Take a blank piece of paper and diagram what...
The Fastest and Easiest Way to Make Money With Your Music Will Be Staring You In The Face Tonight — I Guarantee It
In one of my recent columns I wrote about recognizing opportunity and then seizing it. This month, I'm going to make it even easier for you. I'm going to show you the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way to make money with your music. I'm surprised you haven't figured it out for yourself yet. You stare at it night after night, and it stares right back at you. As a matter of fact, it even talks to you (and millions of other people). That's right you slackers, wake up and smell the half-caff, low-fat, double mocha-latte, it's your TV! Think about...
How To Get Expensive Guitar Sounds From a Cheap Home Studio
I'm always amazed by how many people working in home studios think you need a $750,000 console, a 48-track digital machine, an arsenal of $2,000 microphones, and tons of outboard gear to make your tapes sound "professional." It's just not true. What you need is some basic knowledge about the physics of audio (most of which you can learn by dropping a pebble in a puddle of water), and some pretty basic and inexpensive equipment. This is especially true for recording the electric guitar. Trust me--if it were brain surgery, I would have become a brain surgeon and made my...
How I Turned A Trip To The Music Store In To Gold and Platinum Records On My Wall
Lengthy headline for a simple concept. The concept: Recognize opportunity. Seize opportunity. Be persistent as hell and you'll get what you want. This is a true story. I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show when I was about nine or ten years old. I knew at that moment that I wanted to make records when I grew up. When I was nineteen, I happened to be in a music store and overheard one of the employees say, "I'm taking this Arp String Ensemble to Criteria for Stills." I knew that Criteria was one of the largest recording studios...
Recording The Acoustic Guitar
While the acoustic guitar remains one of the most simple instruments by design, it also remains one of the hardest to get a great sound on in the studio. It's really not brain surgery, but knowing some of the basic laws of physics doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, I skipped school that day and didn't learn my physics, so I had to learn how to get a great acoustic guitar sound one mistake at a time. After making those mistakes, I sat down and formulated these laws which are considered to be the Ten Commandments of recording the acoustic guitar (by me...
Hocus Pocus — It’s All About Focus
I usually wait until the deadline draws near before I write this column. But, I just flipped the page on my daily desk calendar and was inspired to write it now by what I saw: "Keep your mind focused on what you want and act accordingly. You will achieve success." Words to live by. As a matter of fact, "Focus" is my favorite word. Everything I have achieved in my life has come to me because I was able to stay focused. I'm no rocket scientist. I didn't have anything handed to me on a silver plattter. I'm a pretty...
What You Need To Know To Get A Record Deal
Getting a record deal gets harder every year. The days of record impresarios like Phil Spector discovering a group, taking them into the studio and making them famous overnight are long gone. These days, the music business is sometimes more about the business than it is about the music. While record companies and music publishers still rely on hit songs falling from the lips of superstars to make their profits, the way they find their talent has changed a lot from the past. There actually was a time that an artist, band or songwriter could send their demo tape in to a...