Recording - August 2015 - 23

If the guitar amp is placed in its own room
or closet, sometimes using a room mic pointed toward a corner of the room can capture
cool effects that you might have use for in
the mix. Capturing these unique reflections
is a very fun process and can give you a
new texture to work with. If you are overdubbing some guitar parts, try setting up the
amp in a hallway and set up some microphones at the other end of the hall. This can
pick up some cool natural reflections.
See www.recordingmag.com/videos.html
for hands-on demonstrations of these miking
techniques.
Keys to success
While recording keys with the group can
help capture more energy, most keyboards
will eat up two channels on your interface
for a stereo feed. Instead, use MIDI and
have your keyboard play a virtual instrument in your DAW. You can go back and
record "real" keyboard sounds after basics
are finished, or if you like the MIDI recording, you can play with different virtual instruments and patches to find one or more that
fit the song. As with bass, you won't need to
worry about mic bleed, as the only sound
will be coming through the headphones.
Setting up a headphone mix
Audio monitoring is a key part of the
process, and can make or break a recording

session. If the band can't hear the music correctly, they won't be able to get in "the zone"
and play correctly, either. Depending on
your situation, solutions may vary.
Getting the vibe right in the headphones
can be tricky. Try everything you can to
make the musicians comfortable with what
they are hearing. Anything you can do to
get the monitor situation feeling right will
contribute to better takes in the end.
Sometimes this means adding reverb for
vocalists, or a bit of kick for the drummer.
Most studios have headphone amps with
enough outputs to feed all the headphones a
band could ever need. Samson, Behringer
and PreSonus are options that can provide
possible cost-efficient solutions for headphone
monitor systems at home. These can power 4
to 8 headphones at a time. Everyone gets the
same mix but can control their own levels;
alternatively a multi-output interface could be
used to set up custom phone mixes.
Avoiding headphone bleed into the mics
mainly comes into play for vocals, as that is
when headphones are closest to the mic.
Make sure that you highpass-filter the bass
signal, at least enough to know that you
won't bottom out the cans and create distortion artifacts. Making sure the click track
is not bleeding too much can be a challenge as well. Always solo the first take and
listen back closely to check that there isn't
anything bleeding into the microphone.

And... we're rolling!
Now that the band is situated, the
microphones are set, the headphone
cues are dialed, it is time to let the music
take flight. This is a very fun and exciting process; don't lose sight of the original vision you set out to capture.
Ultimately, this process is all about
recording the music in an authentic way.
If you feel like something isn't sounding
right, don't be afraid to experiment with
your gear to find out what might work
better. Switch out a microphone, change
the positioning; it is ultimately up to you
to trust your ears.
Once you finish tracking basics, you
are ready to move on and start tracking
overdubs. Record that Marshall stack in
the living room, close mic everything, use
some unique room mics, and enjoy the
whole process. This is the fun part!
Once you finish recording all of your
tracks, return to the DAW and focus on
the fine details of editing, EQing and
compressing on your way to the final mix
stage. Remember the final destination: a
recording of your music with the whole
band sounding their best.
Alex Hawley (ahawley@recordingmag
.com) is a recording engineer and guitarist working in Boulder, CO.
http://www.recordingmag.com/videos.html http://www.primacoustic.com http://www.primacoustic.com/hearthedifference
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2015
