There are a miliion ways to mix. I urge you try them all and find what works for you.

1) Listen to well produced songs on your playbacks for hours. Move around the room and get feel for the tonality of the room.
2) AB your mix with something you feel suits your style.
3) Don't go crazy w/ eq and compression. If it sounds that bad, you might need to rerecord.
4) Imagine a mix being 3 dimensional depth and width.
5) Reverb can smear and ruin a good mix
6) Think of having someone more objective than you mix your music. (Paul Lipinski - My Platinum Sound)

Here are some clues;

Drums.
There are 2 common methods for mixing drums.
1) Get most of your sound from room and overheads. move close mics up to fill in and boost power.
2) Cut the shit out of the overhead's low end and raise them until the heavy gated close mics sound natural.

There are arguments that support the validity of both methods. I find that punk indy rock and jazz sound good w/ method 1. I find metal and hardcore sound good w/ method 2. Do not discount either. Make 2 sessions and try them both. I generally prefer method 2 and get alot of shit for it cause it only suits part of our style, but conversely so would the other method. Little dave's kic is way to busy and muds the shit out of the mix w/ method 1.

more on method 2
1)bring up the kick
2) cut boxiness in 300-200hz
3) add attack 7-10k
4) gate the shit out of it set the release to move to the vibe of the song
5) compress
6) crank that fucker
7) balance the other close miced drums to the kic.
8) don't gate the snare to hard or you'll miss ghost notes and side sticks
9) toms that sound like kics w/ different low end are cool
10) cut everything out of the overheads under 350hk
11) add 12k shelf couple of dbs and cut the 1ks if it sounds cheap.
12) don't pan the overheads to wide i do 60% both ways
13) make sure they sound balanced
14) turn them up until the drum mix glues and stop. cymbals will kill your mix. they should glue it together and that's it.
15) bus the snare to a room reverb if the room mics fail (happens a lot) cut evrything under a 100hz out of the reverb.

Bass
1) smash it w/ compression until it sounds even but not unatural and to tubby.
2) eq w/ wide q settings at 200-400hz balancing octaves 1 and 2 is the name of the game. 80-150, 150-250
3) eq narrow boosts at 700-1k to achive mid presence in the mix.
4) keep it in the center. no panning at all, for any reason.
5) solo bass and kic get them working together bass hits at 100? cut 100 out of kic. kic hits at 50? cut 50 out of bass.
6) i like when bass sounds like the tonal sustain of the kic thing.

bass and kic relashionship is everything.

vocals
1)don't over eq or compress
2) automate the vocals and use less compression
3) mud at 200-300
4) presence 2-5k
5) air 12k and up
6) move the q of a low shelf to see how much lowend you can cut and still sound natural.
7) if vocals are chewed up by just drum and bass mix, find the culprit by muting 1 thing at a time. usually it's the snare.

guitars
1) add them last get the tone to work w/ the band
2) turn them up until the mix is mean and still makes sense
3) kick the guitar player out of the room and turn them down a hair
4) think of them as icing to much ruins a cake.  to little and the kids won't eat it.

Philosophy. drums and vocals can constitute a song on their own. You call shenanigans. I say fuck you look at hip hop. the groove comes from the drums the melody from the vocals.  rappers don't even sing notes. the visciral comes from beating drums and vocals adding humanity. the rest has to find space the mix to hype up reality. i guess i'm saying go tribal bitches works everytime.

What mic. eq compression preamp?????

If your room is less than desireable which most of ours are, use a dynamic mic?  What about a condenser mic. To much ambience and the real nice ones cost sick money. you can however get a peluso capsule and reload a rode nt1 and get great results. You would need to build a vocal isolation booth to reject room sound and still may want to for a dynamic.

Quiet voice = ev re20


Loud voice = shure sm7


preamps what's you budget. i personally am not a big fan of presonus, uad, joe meek, focusrite.

art voice =channel nice for the price but you will upgrade later.
fmr rnp = cheap and amazing results plus it's 2 channels drum overhead solution.
vintech = yeah that's the spot
api = seriously hands down unbeatable. they make a rack channel it is expensive but you will never need anything else. I will own one one day. I got to use one and it is the best.



Compression hmmmmm save your money and automate the vocal track.  leave plenty of head room and record at 24bit. Recently as in yesterday, I sang the whole record through a compressor and realized I hated how it colored my sound. I have tried many compressors and feel as though the voice is not natural sounding when smashed. Limiting peaks w an erratic vocalist, is a problem. Use a compressor on a vocalist that has no mic control. 2:1 limit by 3db fast attack medium release.

More and more i find myself using less and less. I would rather reamp tracks than print them wet, save the original and run the copy through the paces. Experiment all you want, but don't loose the original performance, as you will find yourself going back to it. I will record w/ outboard eq's. I know what I'm looking for and I knmow my monitoring system. If your new to the game??? Do not use presence boosts or hi pass filters going in. you can not add something that isn't there once tracked. cutting in the mixing stage can be done, undone and redone a million times. A good performance can truly be unique.

MIC-CABLE(nice)-PREAMP-CONVERTER

ok so your guitar sounds just the way you want it. how do i get that sound on recording. ouch tips and tricks below.

1) Don't use so much treble. remeber your mic will be pointed at the speaker, your ear isn't.
2) Turn down the distrotion. We want punch not grind.
3) Tune and intonate your guitar
4) Take those fucking pedals and throw them in the trash. they are ruining your signal chain. Short chord.
5) Move the mic in and out left and right. an inch is a mile
6) Try every mc in your collection
7) AB your sound w/ the one you are trying to achieve
8) Use a tube amp low wattage cranked is best. I use a 20 watt mesa and a 50 watt marshall. the VOX nighttrain is epic I wish i owned one.
9) Layer tracks. I do 2 performances for heavy guitars left and right and play them the same w/ different amps
10) Don't settle. I spend 10x more time getting the sound than playing.
11) Monitor you tone through the studio monitors. that's what is going into the recording. You can do this by isolating the cab in another room and running a long speaker cable to your head where the monitors are.
12) Parametric eq w/ shelfs can do wonders, but only after you get the best tone you can from the mic placement and amp tone. Try mild cuts in the 250-400 hrz to kill that lowmid mud. And a shelf at 80 hz turn it all the way down and then raise it until sounds natural. 10k and up shelf same approach. People laugh but a $100 non digital outboard para sounds more natural to me.

Ok on to what I used. After auditioning every mic in my collection a cheap chinese ribbon mic won the knife fight. I used a nady rsm4 ($79) w/ all the mesh removed. google the mod. I did not change out the transformer. If I was using the mic for anythng other than guitar I probably would. I pointed the mic so it was paralell w/ the speaker cone and pointed at the dust cap. I started 2' out and moved in until the lowend and sizzle balanced w/ the mids. It ended up about a foot out. I know "what about the room gettng in the mic" so what fuck your room it sounds good so it is good.

I used my mesa for left. turn up the presence. Mesa's shunt their highs to ground to avoid inharmonic high end distortion on the drive channel. NEVER EVER EVER just use a mesa. I used a Marshall on the rght it has that sizzle. So when you listen the guitar sounds likes it starts from the right and ends on the left. Just like our band sets up.

I used a cheap old parametic that I modified w/ new opamps and caps. Good chips are OPA2134, NE5532 and LM4562's stay away from surface mount shit. It sucks to solder. DIP sockets are cool they allow you to try different OP amp configurations. The LM4562's are great for mic pres I like the OPA 2134's for eq's they seem sublte and warm.

So after hours of micing, cab and amp changes, I tried using the record out on my marshall and wow perfect clean tone. That "wind cries mary" sound. Makes since, basically using a tube amp as a high voltage tube pre. Don't try to use a tube pre, most of the low dollar tube pres are low voltage and don't get that sing. As a matter of fact, avoid tube pre's unless you know that they are high voltage. I think art makes a nice cheap one. The steel of the strings comes out and using the amps eq i was able to get he sound i was looking for. touch of reverb. I use amp reverb tube spring = guitar. i find room reverb boxy and and dull. and save plate for vocals. 

The issue of phase. It has been brought to my attention that I have not covered phasing issues. My plan was to discuss them in the mixing portion of the blog. If mics or DIs are out of phase they will destroy the low end of the instrument. If you mute a mic and the bottom gets fuller, you have a phasing issue.  The cool thing about pro tools and other computer based recording, is the edit window.

For drums I will zoom in on a really loud snare hit. Observe the direction of the wave itself In all the mics. Is there 1 or several mics where the wave is moving in the opposite direction? Those mics are out of phase. Flip their phase and whoola good tone. Some people will also time align snare top and bottom mics. I am one of those people. Just nudge the bottom mic back so the waves line up perfectly.

This is an individual source issue. If you are using 2 mics on 1 guitar make sure they are in phase. If you have 2 guitar performances, do not align their phase. The phase cancellation brought about by multiple guitar performances is goooooooood. 

Man o man o man.
Take your time. Bass and vocals are the 2 hardest things to get right. Yesterday J and I started the tone hunt. Something struck us as odd.  Bass that sits well in the mix sounds thin as shit on flat studio monitors. We were AB ing our bass w/ an epic mix that sounds good in every stereo (TOOL's Jambi). On our monitors it sounded thin hmmmm......it should. Consumer stereos boost lows and highs.  Solution put some consumer audio in your studio. My neighbor was nice enough to give me some floor standing speakers 2x10" w/5" mid drivers and 1"horns. Perfect. I have them set up so they sound the way I like to listen music. Now we're cooking w/ grease. Flat speakers for accurate midrange detail. Consumer speakers for real world playback. So........ here are some do's and dont's.

Do
1) Mic the cab.
2) Use a different mic than you used for the kic. (different mics different = tones creating unique space in the mix for both instruments)
3) Use a DI (your mix taste will change and DI's can be reamped nicely)
4) Leave the eq settings flat on the Bass itself.
5) Compress the DI  to avoid clipping. I use an FMR RNLA. 2to1 slow release 3-5 db gain reduction.
6) Record multiple samples of different placements/ compression settings.
7) Take breaks. Bass will wear out your ears.
8) Be creative you never know what will work.
9) Tune everytime you hit stop
10) Have a professional check your intonation w/ a strobe tuner.

Do Not
1) Eq on the way in (unless you are extreamly familiar w/ your playbacks.)
2) Change your sound once you get it right. If you start to question AB w/ another mix after a break.
3) Let your bass player slide. Tight kic and bass makes for a good record. (sometimes I will turn up the kic and snare mics so they pop out while the J is tracking)
4) Use old strings. You can always use a high shelf eq to remove top end, but you can not add string ting that isn't there.

Wow... this process is different for many people. 

There are many  methods

1) Get it right the 1st time or retrack it.
2) Punch in what you messed up
3) Cut and paste. 1 bar of the verse sucks, copy one that doesn't and replace the one that does. Crossfade and listen for clicks.
4) BEAT DETECTIVE commonly referred to as the devil......


Depending on your views, choose the method that suits you. Personally I find beat detective a little to robotic. Drum machines are $125 at a pawnshop. I live w/ a little ahead or behind the beat feel. We are humans not watches. The Swiss would probably make one hell of a bad ass drum machine.

Do I cut and paste?? Yes when a take feels really killer minus one hiccup. Sometimes you wont hear mistakes until later. Fix them or they will hunt you.

Do i sound replace? Sort of. I will use the acoustic drums to trigger a sample that I mix under the acoustic drums. I like this method better than compression. Remember those samples I told you to record?

Tricks;
1) cut out the noise between toms hits on the edit window (sounds better than gates)
2) replace single tom hits w/ your samples (this way the drum can ring as long as you'd like)
3) if you have a rolls and want the drum to sustain replace the last hit by dragging your sample backwards until it lines up. (don't forget to zoom way in and smooth the wave out)



Where is that click comming from?

Getting your drummer on a click is hard period, but crucial. Songs that drag cause the listener fatigue. Songs that speed up cause anxiety. People hear time better than pitch. It's evolutionary. Time variables are used to locate sources of predator or prey. Ever wonder how you can point right to the location of a gunshot, bang etc...? Buy your drummer a metronome to practice w/. Little Dave has been using his metronome and it showed when he went to track. DRUMS ARE DONE.

So here's the tracking process;
1) Feed a click to the drummers headphones, but not his drums.
2) Get the drummer to practice all the parts w/ the click while recording.
3) Let him listen to the tracks so he can see where he falls off.
4) Tell him to hit his drums harder and the cymbals lighter or you'll get the girl w/ the lemonade stand down the street to do the tracks
5) Now get him to record the song from top to bottom.
6) Have someone else in the band hum along to make sure the drummer has the right # of phrases.
7) Take 5, hit the bowl and tell the most offensive joke you know. People this step is so important that your tracks will surely fail w/out it. Keep in mind, if you are recording living room style, you are not paying. Take your time to get it right
8) Listen to the mediocre performance and realize you can do 10 times better. Track a second version. Put some real stank on it. Whatever take shines is your workable take.
9) Now punch in the dodgy parts. Weak hits can be copied and pasted. Stick clicks suck to edit so punch them in. Make sure you give the drummer 20 seconds of preroll and mute his drums when he takes over.
10) Record samples of every drum. 4 hits each. Let the drum or cymbal ring to it's fullest between hits. You will need these later, believe me.


Remeber this whole music thing is supposed to be fun. Chances are, you are not going to die tomorrow. Take your time & enjoy the process. Quality will always beat quantity. Focusing on the moment causes less regret.
Next post DRUM EDITING
Wilson



Here we are discussing the layout of a song.





There must be something on the ceiling.

We will be documenting the making of “The Songs of the Mighty Bullfrog”.

The writing process will not be covered. All I can say is that all the songs are personal observations and have no names to protect the guilty. The inspiration for the record’s title and some of its tracks came from a PBS special on frogs. The frog is the most environmentally empathetic animal on earth. It drinks and breathes through its skin, lives on land and water, has huge eardrums, sings to attract a mate and a group of them is referred to as an army. I decided that economically the poor and lower middle class are much like frogs, hell I’m a frog. The runoff from corporate America is distorting the fabric of the family unit.

Yesterday we tuned and re headed the drums. I will cover the process for all my indie buddies producing living room records. First off, there is no such thing as fix it in the mix or eq it out. If it sounds like shit in the room, it will sound like shit recorded. It is not uncommon to spend more time getting the “sound” than performing. So, for the next couple of weeks I will cover our process for recording. Microphone placement, choice, technique etc… So to catch you up, we will cover drum tuning and micing.

Tuning the drums is an art and takes practice. Major studios hire techs that have amazing ears and tune the drums between every song. Once recorded, they are what they are. Many people have resorted to sound replacer to replace out of tune drums. I can’t lie. I have. Recently after listening to “No One Knows” by Queens of the Stone Age, I decided I wanted that organic drum sound. The toms have that ruthless attack and just kick ass. Remo Pinstripes for the toms (great attack). Kic Evans emad. Snare and timbale Remo Weather King coated.

Tuning;
1. Remove batter heads
2. Put the drum resonant head up on carpet
3. Tap 1” from the lugs w/ a stick. Match the tone at each lug.
4. Never tune down to a note always up into the note.
5. If you go over, turn the lug lower than the note, press the center of the head and then tune up into the note.
6. Once you have matched the lugs raise the drum and hit it (not to hard dimwit). Is the shell vibrating? Do you like the tone? If the shell isn’t vibrating you have to tune up. I like to get the drum as low pitched as possible w/ the shell vibrating (for toms and kic)
7. Now back to the carpet and seat the batter head. Do this by tightening the lugs opposite each other ½ turn at a time until there are no wrinkles. Go watch Dave Weckl’s Youtube tuning video. He has the best seating method.
8. Tune the batter head to match the pitch of the resonant head.
9. Keep tweaking it takes time. Over tones ruin drum sounds. A good drum will have attack, a note, some punch and will not sustain to long. I have heard $50 pawnshop kits sound better than $3000 DWs, because they were tuned better.

Affodable Micing :
1. Kic- AKG D112 or Shure beta 52 or Audix D6. I place the mic about 12” from the batter head pointed at angle towards the beater. We don’t use a front kic head. I find less overtones and more punch. RECORD A SAMPLE. Listen, move the mic in and out, left and right until it gets the sound you want. Pointed towards center = more attack. Towards rim = more low end and sustain. This is the same for all drums.
2. Snare & toms- Shure sm57s or Sennheiser e604s,
3. Overheads- Octava Mk12 stereo pair. Position them in the XY configuration. This takes out the guess work for phasing issues. Google XY mic technique. Try to put the mics directly over the drums so get some tom attack. I screwed a XY mic bracket to the ceiling.
4. Do not ever clip the input of any digital recoding media Protools, Cubase, Sonar whatever. Digital clipping is shit Leave some headroom.
5. Do not compress gate or eq on the way in. Do it in digital so it can be undone. You will make bad decisions.


Email any Questions about micing or tuning DRUMS to thetwentyweight@yahoo.com
Please be patient I will cover compression, eq and mixing later. Along w/ guitar, bass and vocals.