12 EXTREMELY Useful Recording HACKS!
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Here are 12 Extremely useful tips, tricks and hacks that I use all the time to achieve better recordings and mixes.
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Got some of your own hacks? Drop a comment and Let us know!
When I was taking an ear-training class, we learned about sympathetic-vibration the hard way. There was a metal cabinet in the classroom that would vibrate at a specific frequency when my professor played the piano. It drove her crazy. If you have guitars in the room where you're trying to mix, sometimes one of the open strings will hum. You could waste time chasing a frequency that isn't even in your recording. It's in the room. Fret Wraps/sock-trick will help.
Something I figured out - to overcome 'red-light-fever' (anxiety when the record button is hit): Don't stop recording everytime you mess up. Just keep recording until you get the part right - then edit out all of the mistakes. I did this with my last acoustic guitar piece. I hit record once - played it six times - then deleted everything but the best take. If you hit record - knowing that mistakes will be made - but that they don't matter because you're going to end up with a good take eventually - that really cuts down on the red-light-fever.
Great tips and great video as always.
I always record everything! Even when bands say they just want to practice a part through before we record… I always hit record - sometimes they nail it because they aren’t worried about the take thinking it’s just a practice run!
I have a loose light fixture in my practice room. It's not usually an issue, but every time I play bass through a big cab it rattles like crazy. But only at certain frequencies. I've tried taping the fixture in place and that hasn't worked. There's not even a bulb in there, so I've considered taking it out completely. But it would require messing with the wiring and I'm hesitant to do that. I have visions of accidentally electrocuting myself.
Good tips.
When testing a final mix my hack is I always listen to it in a "secondary" way. So I'll press play then walk around the studio rolling up cables, changing batteries in pedals that need replacing, anything that involves keeping the mathematical side of the brain distracted from the music but focused on what I'm physically doing. You can kind of trick your ears into feeling like your listening as a general listener not a mix engineer, therefore gaining a fresh perspective that you most likely lost by that point. I find that instantly my ears pick up things particularly balance wise that need adjusting.
Hey Rhys - Just wanted to say I'm loving your work! Only found your channel a couple of weeks ago but you've fast become my go-to for mixing tips. You have a real knack for making the complex seem simple and approachable. Can't believe you've only got 14k subs - keep doing what you're doing and that will sky rocket.
Total agree with your comment Rhy has amazing and valuable content, he’s converting his self as a we’ll trusted Audio GURU, I admire him so much and very thankful for sharing his knowledge
Thanks James! I appreciate that a lot 😊
My recording hack is very simple, yet often overlooked. That is to "know the song before entering the studio". Some people laugh when I say that but I've seen it so many times where a band comes to record with me and they don't have the songs finished or well rehearsed. So what happens then is people waste a lot of time and money in the studio figuring out their own songs, and you don't quite get those super solid confident takes.
What I mean by "know the song" is just that, KNOW YOUR SONG. Drummers: have your fills and accents already planned out, know when the changes are. Guitarists: have your tones dialed in ahead of time, have your leads/harmonies written already, have your effects dialed in. Singers: please for the love of whatever you believe in have your lyrics written already and your melodies planned out, as well as harmonies.
Rehearse your song to the point where you don't even have to think about it, where it's borderline boring to play because you have it locked in so well. Once it gets to that point I firmly believe your recording session will be 1000x better than walking in with an un-rehearsed song and finishing writing your parts.
And as a bonus you will probably end up with some "creative time". This is where you experiment with keyboards and cool effects and maybe even trying out other various melodies and parts. That is the time to do that stuff, not upon entering the studio.
This is just my opinion of course, and some people are really good at improving parts. I am not lol. I personally have learned over the years I need to be insanely well rehearsed or I can't record my parts. Just something to think about :)
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Haha I feel this! But we are working with musicians and creative people… 😅
This goes for playing live as well. Back when I was still gigging, it was crazy how many bands didn't have their set dialed in. Our band practiced three nights per week. There were some practices where we would spend an hour-or-two just practicing a transition in a single song. Practice the A-section - then practice the B-section - then practice the transition between the two. By the time we played live, we knew the material so well, it was second-nature. We could focus on our interaction with the audience - instead of staring down at the necks of our guitars. People would comment that we made it look effortless. It wasn't effortless. The effort was put in in the practice room. We didn't bring it to the stage.
Vocal harmonies is another issue for live bands. The Eagles used to do something they called 'the circle of fear'. They would sit in a tight circle with their guitars and sing. If someone's harmony was off, it became instantly apparent who the culprit was. This is a great way to get tight harmonies.
The sock trick also works for a guitar with a trem. The springs in the back can sometimes come through and putting the sock behind the strings helps mitigate that.
Some great tips there and used quite a few of them. Placing a pencil across a pop filter can also sometimes help with plosives.
Guitarist here - your sock trick is for lead, but I have a sock trick for rhythm. Where the pickups are, I wrap a thin sock around the top two or three high strings, while I play my riffage on the lower strings. Keeps things quieter and cleaner for the recording like your lead sock trick.
For sure! Even a bit of tape works well too.. just use tape that doesn’t leave residue 😝
Mate, as someone just about to finish building my own studio, I'd love to get a peek on what you're using. in terms of workflow, how does every part of your set up help you to get where you want to go, etc.
A studio tour would be awesome, thanks for all your work, top bloke.
Sounds like a great idea. I’ve been thinking about a studio tour video recently, so won’t be far off!
When you use a capo you can pull the strings to correct tuning. Works pretty well!
Yes! If you’re doing a riff up the neck, putting a capo closer to where you’re playing and tuning it can fix the intonation if having issues!
Great tips! I've run into all of these problems. Compression and especially limiting really reveales alot about the recordings so limit your mix and listen through before sending!
Lovely tricks of the trade where many are only discovered through blood, sweat & tears!
Great vid Rhys.
Thanks Nick, hopefully some people can avoid some of the tears by trying these out haha
Sending mixes to clients right after a long session is indeed one of the lessons I had to learn the hard way, haha.
Haha yep
I often tune guitars slightly flat, particularly on metal riffs depending on what gauges and tension is being used on the guitar. Because when hitting the strings harder they sometimes go sharp. I do a bit of metal and sometimes the player hits the strings with thick picks and hard, so if the guitar was tuned it sometimes edges sharp.
Yep! This was also part of the problem, it was a drop C tuning and when striking it, it was visibly going sharp on the tuner, I said they were better off tuning it slightly flat because as they play it actually goes sharp. More so when played aggressively!
Also, sometimes if you're fretting a chord and you're not a super skilled player, you'll bend the notes of the chord sharp. This is especially true for chords that are awkward shapes.
@@rome8180 For sure mate
I’m always watching guitarists fingers when I hear pitchy notes to check if they are bending the strings!
I've had success tuning out-of-tune guitar and bass notes using Melodyne. I wouldn't use it if an entire part was out of tune. At that point, I'd retrack. But it works for the occasional note. Not as useful for full chords, though (even though it does have a polyphonic function).
As for avoiding the click sound, that's why I always play to the drums if possible. If you have a little bleed from your headphones of the drum part, it's not usually an issue because it's just doubling the drums people are already hearing. Obviously this doesn't work if there are no drums in that section. At that point, you're stuck with the click. But I also find I perform better if I'm hearing a drum groove. I hate playing to a click. It has no vibe, no groove, no push and pull.
Totally, I usually track to midi drums instead of just a click, and I find most people do better with that too, but even that can bleed out if you’re not careful, that’s why I love isolation headphones for that purpose!
Melodyne is great at saving tuning issues. Annoying though if you have multiple mics or for a bass, maybe di + amp and you want to blend them in the mix, if you want to melodyne you basically have to sum them down and then melodyne..
Bold of you to assume I own socks
😂
Thank you!
Dibble pop filter… genius
It can work well on certain vocalist!
Legend mate. Love your presentation style
Thanks Aidan!
Excellent information bro thanks!! 👌
Thanks mate!
Thanks for the great tips. Can you review your studio gear?
Sounds like a good idea!
Not sure if these are tricks or not, but when I record solos I'll have about 3-4 keeper tracks (probably out of like 40-50 takes, with many getting deleted instantly after recorded since I knew they sucked) and find sections in each that sound good and either splice them in the box or record a new take using the best parts from of all of them. Then right after that I video myself playing the solo (just a quick thing on my phone) and sometimes even tab it out because down the road you may find you don't know exactly what you did, the scales used, and all the little nuances if you go to re-record it or play it live.
Love your channel!
Thanks mate!
I'm definitely going to introduce some of these!! Golden content as always!
Thanks man!
Rhys, can you do a video review on your Lauten Audio mic?? Cheers!
Sure! It’s a great mic!
Great tips. Gotta disagree on the Vic Firth headphones, though. While I’m glad yours have lasted, they have a long history of breaking very easily. A drum teaching studio I taught at had many of these break over the years. I find that cheap in ear headphones work best for isolation, but not so great for sharing.
Thanks! I suppose being a drum teaching studio they would be getting used way more and handled by more people, so probably any headphones would wear quickly in that setting. But I’ve owned a few brands that cost $200-300 a pair and they were terrible build quality - not to mention the sound reproduction was bad too. The Vic’s are half the price of these competitors so even if they last the same amount of time, it’s still a better return on investment!
Don’t send anything with tired ears ❤
Could just intonate the guitar instead of doing a strange timing which will only sort of work and only if there are no open string parts.
Obviously setting up your guitar properly before recording is ideal - and I did say if you are in a pinch you could try this - most people aren’t going to have time mid session to intonate a guitar (and most guitarist don’t know how)- time is money in the studio, and sometimes there are issues with guitars that make them difficult to intonate. Again - it’s hit and miss and just for emergency use.