Recording - March 2015 - 40

By Greg Ogan
Getting a good monitor mix for a
recording artist is one of the most important stages of the recording process. I've
always found that if the music sounds
amazing in the headphones while recording, the artist will be more likely to get
into the vibe of the song and perform better. This is contrary to the practice of
some engineers that I've seen. They send
dry, loud tracks to whoever is recording,
so that everyone can accurately judge
what is going on with the signal.
Simply put, if the music sounds good in
the room, then I will simply send that out
to the headphones and use that as a starting point for the headphone mix. I only
have to tweak a little from there to make
it comfortable for whoever is recording.
Then there are some tricks I use to get certain performances out of people-more
on that later.
The premise
In my early days as a recording engineer, I often struggled with getting the
right headphone mixes, whether it be for
bands or for singers. If I was recording a
band, it would be a constant balance
struggle for each member. If it was a
singer, it was always a trial getting the
vocal to blend well with the music for
them. I later realized that sometimes I was
dealing with psychological issues and not
engineering issues, but that comes with
the territory, right?
40

RECORDING March 2015

Through trial and error, working with
different producers and engineers, I realized my main issue was that I was creating a completely separate mix for whoever was recording. I was adding a whole
new stage to my process. Why not just
send the control room mix that I was
working so hard to perfect? So I did.
Whether it was sending the main outputs of my DAW straight to the headphones or sending individual post fader
signals to a headphone mixer, I started
including all my EQ, compression, reverbs,
delays, etc., in the headphone mixes.
There was an immediate, drastic change
in my sessions. Singers and musicians
would get excited when they first put on
their cans and loved the way their instrument or voice sounded. When the backing
tracks sounded full, big, and polished, they
could relax and focus more on the song
and their performances, rather than getting
bogged down with technicalities.
The details
The most important technical rule of getting a good headphone mix is to check the
headphones before the band enters the
tracking room! In addition to avoiding
potential ear damage due to loud levels,
you can make sure the music and mic
sounds great before the artists arrive.
When I'm recording a band, I usually
have the luxury of a console with many outputs, and each member of the band will

have his or her own headphone mixer with
different groups of instruments, effects and
all. Generally, I'll give them all the click,
drums (grouped), bass, whatever instruments
that are tracking (pianos, guitars, etc...), and
scratch vocals. If one or two people are
recording to a backing track I'll group certain instruments and send to their mixers.
This way, everyone can control their own
levels for themselves to their own liking.
Usually everyone wants to hear themselves
the loudest, and this gives them the option. I
know that a lot of home or project studios
don't have the real estate for these headphone mixers, but if you're running a facility
and are tracking full bands regularly, I highly
suggest investing in headphone mixer/amp
rigs and then setting up your mixer or interface outputs to accommodate them.
When I'm recording a vocalist (or a single
musician), the situation is a little different. I
always give them the main outs of the DAW.
I want to hear exactly what they're hearing.
I don't care if I have to turn on the click in the
control room, or raise/lower one or more
instrument levels significantly (as long as I
remember to mark my settings and return
them to normal afterward!). As I explained in
February 2015, I have session template settings with dialed-in EQs, compressors,
reverbs, delays, and other effects, so that
when the vocalist approaches the mic, a lot
of the settings are already there, ready to be
adjusted. The mic signal is EQed, compressed, and up front, and I always have a

Recording - March 2015

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