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Recording and Mixing: Part 1

Written by Willie Green. Published: Monday, February 22, 2010.

In this column, I will provide tips and techniques for engineering better records; from recording and mixing, to file management and delivery. These will be hip-hop focused, but can be applied to many other genres in an appropriate setting. I have worked in all levels of studios, from the smallest project studios to the largest multi-million dollar facilities, and these techniques and practices can be used across the board. Anyone can set up a mic and hit record, but that doesn’t equal professional results – it’s just the very beginning. Many readers will be using ProTools, but these are all cross-platform practices, and just plain good engineering.

Recording Part 1

Session Setup:

When recording for music, the standard Bit-Depth/Sample Rate is 24-Bit/44.1 kHz .wav files. 24-bit will give you more dynamic range than 16-bit. The reason for 44.1k rather than 48k is simple math. The probable destination at some point will be a CD, and 48k will require an unnecessary conversion and change in your audio; probably undoing any benefit of the higher sampling rate. And trust me, your listeners will not hear the difference. There are high res sample rates, 88.2k, 96k, and above, but these are very rarely used in hip-hop, so for the purpose of this article, I won’t go into that, but rule of thumb: when tracking music, multiples of 44.1k are easiest.

Label all your tracks AHEAD OF TIME. This way you won’t wind up with an Audio Files folder full of “Audio_01, Audio_02″ etc. Your files will be easy to find and manage, and your sessions will be neat and clean. (A good rule is to always assume someone else will be working on your session, and will need to understand at a glace what is going on.) Make a template with your standard recording setups that you can start from for each new session, this will save time and nitpicking when it’s time to create.

Find the tempo of the track and make sure your instrumental lines up to it. This will make the editing stage far easier. As you record, also place markers noting each section of the song, (Verse 1, Chorus 2, Bridge, etc.) the more information you can have in a session, the better.

Mixing Part 1

The first step to good mixes is a good listening environment. This doesn’t have to mean an expensive studio and high-end studio monitors, (although these things don’t hurt) this just means a proper setup. You should have FULL RANGE speakers; despite the stories floating around the internet, computer speakers really aren’t ideal. You need to be able to clearly hear your low end, and computer speakers just can’t reproduce that. Even if they have a subwoofer, that sub will most likely be inaccurate. Studio monitors are ideal, if that’s not possible, you should be using full range speakers you are very familiar with. Know what your speakers sound like, not just the music that plays through them. (That said, I always check my mixes on multiple systems, including computer speakers. You should know how your mixes translate to a number of different environments)

First your speakers should be setup so the tweeters are level with your ears. High frequencies are far more directional than low ones, so the tweeters should be at ear level to hear the high end accurately. Your speakers should be in front of you (obviously) and the two of them and your head should create an equilateral triangle – all three points should be the same distance apart. This will give you proper stereo imaging.

Room treatment can be an expensive can of worms to open, but very important. The room makes an enormous difference in both tracking and mixing. Acoustics is a much deeper topic than I have room for here, but there are affordable home treatment kits. They may not be perfect or solve all your problems, but when dealing with home recording/mixing, they can be a great help. (Lining your walls with egg crates DOES NOT work. It does absolutely nothing) Ideally you want your room to be neutral, not overly bright and reflective, and not boomy. One common mistake, however, is to make the room too dead. Our ears are not used to completely dead spaces, and speakers aren’t made to play in them, so it will do nothing but throw off your listening perspective.

Spend time listening in your space. While it sounds obvious, you need to be aware of the strengths and shortcomings of your room. Do your speakers sound overly bright? Is bass lacking? These are things you will need to compensate for when you start mixing. Listen to recordings you are familiar with (of your own and others) that you think are great mixes, and see how they sound in your room. In fact, it’s a good idea to burn a disc with your references to bring to other studios when you work elsewhere. That will help you learn other rooms quickly.

Willie Green
www.WillieGreenMusic.com

Willie Green is an in-house producer for the Brooklyn-based Backwoodz Studioz record label, and a freelance mixing and mastering engineer. The Berklee College of Music graduate has also managed a number of recording studios throughout the Northeast.

Category: Columns, Pro-Logic