Recording - September 2013 - 24

and not get too nitpicky about noise that no
one will ever hear.
But speaking of noise that can get in the
way, one of the worst culprits is the click
track. Once it gets in where it doesn’t
belong, it can be really hard to get out
again. So before you hit Record, listen
through everyone’s headphones! They may
have their rig so cranked up that mics in
front of really loud stuff will hear the click.
This can really be a nuisance! And often,
especially if you’re in a space where there’s
no real separation between the play area
and the “control room” area, you may not
notice it’s there until you get to the mix.
If you’ve spent a long time getting just
the right take, then suddenly notice there’s
click or other noise bleeding into that track,
you may be in some trouble. Make sure
you keep tabs on what’s being recorded
as you go along! After the first take, check

Figure 1. Grouping tracks to provide a common room reverb that
brings them together.

what’s been recorded, especially in quiet
spots, to see what’s coming through.
Also, knowing what’s going through
every player’s phones will help you get better performances out of them. Many musicians think that whatever’s coming through
their phones is what ought to be coming
through their phones! They don’t know they
can ask for different stuff to help themselves
and the recording be better. A headphone
distribution system that provides customized
cue mixes doesn’t have to be expensive,
and it can help things enormously.
Mixes and fixes
“The mixes don’t sound as good as I want
them to!” A/B-ing with CDs you love the
sound of can make a huge difference in the
quality of the mixes you create. Even in great
studio rooms with high-end speakers, sometimes mixes that sound great in the room
don’t completely translate to car or home
stereos. And these days we must also take
computer speakers and iPods into account.
Find a mix you love and listen to it in
your control room. Hear what you like
about it there, then listen to your mix. You’ll
immediately hear things that might make it
work better. Listen to your mixes in the car
and on other systems. Does it translate
well? You can A/B with other CDs there
too! Going back and forth in this way will
help you find the correct balance in your
mix, and help it to sound better no matter
where the listener is playing it.
Curing humdrum drums
“The drums don’t sound as ‘tight’ as I’d
like...” I often find that ringing toms can be
the culprit. The mic on each tom is hearing
that drum react when other drums are hit.

This ringing tone can often get in the way
of a good, tight drum mix, especially if the
tom is not in tune with the song!
Gates can be used to get rid of this. But
gates can be tricky to set, and can cut the
attacks off of lighter tom hits. So what I do
is a sort of manual gating. I go through
each tom track and separate and mute
that track where there isn’t a tom hit, leaving only hits exposed and sounding. This
way, I can eq a bit more low end into toms
that need it without having that ringing
tom tone and low-end buildup throughout
the drum tracks. See Figure 2 for an example of several hits treated this way.
Go forth and do likewise
These are just a few ideas to help you
find better tones, better performances and
better mixes. Experimentation is always
good, too. Use these ideas as a starting
point to try and find your own ways of
doing things in the studio. Rock on!
John McVey (mcvey@recordingmag.com) is
an engineer/producer working at Coupe
Studios in Boulder, CO.

Figure 2. The two tom tracks are being manually “gated” to tighten the tom sound.
24

RECORDING September 2013

Recording - September 2013

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