Recording Tips for Engineers

For Cleaner, Brighter Tracks

Tim Crich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317302940
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Akustiktechnik

Recording Tips for Engineers, Fourth Edition provides the knowledge needed to become a proficient audio engineer. With years of experience working with big name rock stars, author Tim Crich shares his expertise and gives all the essential insider tips and shortcuts. A tool for engineers of all levels, this humorous, easy-to-read guide is packed with practical advice using real-life studio situations, bulleted lists, and clear illustrations. It will save valuable time and allow for fast, in-session reference.

Additional resources are available on the companion website (www.routledge/cw/crich.com).

The fourth edition has been updated to:

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• Lead discussions of modern file storage and processes for uploading, downloading, sharing, and transferring files and data.

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• Address digital audio workstations.

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• Provide expanded coverage on room treatment.

Chapter One

The Recording Engineer

In session, the recording engineer is responsible for keeping the session running smoothly, including understanding how all the gear works, setting up the control room, choosing the microphones, organizing the signal flow, choosing the track layout, getting the sounds, and pressing record. Good sounds or bad, the buck stops with the recording engineer.

Becoming a Better Recording Engineer

• Praise the lowered. There is nothing as important as your hearing. Your ears are like diamonds: once they are gone, they are gone. Working at lower volume levels will result in accurate sounds, and ear fatigue will be minimized. Longevity in the studio means good hearing for decades to come. So set your playback levels low. This will protect your hearing. Plus the loud levels may wake up the producer.
  
  
• Earplugs and hair plugs. Some of the old school rockers still want everything loud all the time. If the level gets too loud, insert your earplugs and then turn it up. Of course, occasionally listen at lower levels without the earplugs.
• Get musical. Recording music is so much easier if you understand music. Music plays a key role in a vast majority of recordings, so most clients prefer ‘musical’ engineers. If you don’t play an instrument, buy a guitar or keyboard and learn some basic songs. While learning to play an instrument may seem daunting, you don’t need to become a virtuoso player, you just need to grasp song structures and musical progressions. If you get musical, you get work.
• Adapt and learn. Technology and equipment change fast in today’s recording milieu. Adding new techniques and technologies into your workflow gives you the edge over the engineer who is behind the times.
• Learn your equipment. Take the time to sit down with every effect, every microphone, every recording device in your recording room, and learn what it does and how it sounds. Test the input with maybe a guitar, or a sine wave tone, or a click track. Dig around the Internet and see how other engineers use the device, then learn how it works by listening. Not only does this help when you need to reach into your bag of tricks for something, it also impresses the client when you accurately answer his question about what you are doing and why you are doing it. When you totally grasp something’s limitations, you will know what it can and can’t do.
• Using your bedroom to mix will only get you so far. It’s great to work in a home studio, but the best mixes come from properly tuned and designed control rooms. If you are serious about mixing, then at some point you need to work in a proper room that you know you can trust, even if you have to build it. But good news—surely there are people nearby that want the same thing. Collaboration in the music industry helps everyone.
• Be consistent. Quality is no accident. Success comes from working every day at your craft, and that requires hard work and dedication. You become what you practice. The ultimate goal is to be the recording engineer that everyone wants to use because of your ears, your expertise, your vibe, and your impressive collection of Ramones T-shirts.
• I’m maintaining. Keep your body well maintained or long hours will take their toll. Just like your car, if you give it the best gasoline you will get the best results. Eat healthy and drink enough water. Enjoy a healthy meal before the session.
• Avoid drugs and alcohol. This is your craft, and you must work at it. I have seen engineers lose gigs because they got wasted and became idiots. Do what I do—wait until your day off to start drinking at 7 a.m.
• Service with a smile. Attitude is everything. Keep a metaphorical smile on your face throughout the session. Show the client the respect he feels he deserves. If you treat him like the talented musical genius he thinks he is, everyone is happy.
• Don’t get mad, get even. An even temperament goes a long way. Mistakes and frustrations happen in all jobs, and in the long run, so what? A good engineer keeps the session at ease, especially during stressful times. Do you want clients and co-workers to remember you as the engineer who blows up, or the engineer who is a pro and can work around anything?
• Do not hurry or let anyone hurry you. No one benefits when tracks are recorded incorrectly. Trying to hurry a player along has the opposite effect. I once worked with a producer who would tap his watch in the player’s face between takes and say “Tick tock, man, tick tock.” This did not help the vibe of the session.
• A breath of fresh air. When you sit at the console next to someone for hours on end, a toothbrush, mouthwash, and breath mints may be in order.
• If you mess up, you fess up. As the engineer, you are responsible for the content of the recording. If you make a mistake, and you will, say so. You will get more respect in the long run.
• Discrete recording. Discretion for an engineer means knowing when to crank the volume for a playback, when to be quiet and twiddle the knobs, and when to move on. As the engineer, you lead the session. The producer has the road map, but you drive the car.
• Make it look good. Some engineers go through their careers simply setting up a microphone and pressing record. Being somewhat of a showoff, I feel that engineering is an art. Much like cooking and sex, presentation is part of the package.
• 1 2 3 Red Light. The amount of people in the control room is directly proportional to how quiet you should be. If it’s just you and the artist in the session, often you are free to chat about musical parts, what may be needed, or what works or what doesn’t work. Once two or more involved people with opinions come in, unless you are the producer, be quiet and press the buttons.
• So shut up already. There’s no reason to broadcast to everyone that you are manipulating an instrument or vocal sound. Just quietly do it, and if they ask, tell them any changes are minor. Announcing “I really had to use a lot of equalization on your vocal” helps no one. Just get the sound and, as Joe Perry said, “Let the music do the talking.”
• Record what the song requires. If the song requires bagpipes, don’t use something that sounds sort of like bagpipes; get the bagpipes. Whenever you compromise, you might save a couple of hours and a couple of dollars, but a mediocre substitute haunts you long after the money and time are forgotten. Money comes and goes but a recording is timeless. Especially the bagpipes.
• Record an instrument how it’s supposed to sound. This may be obvious, but if you are recording an unfamiliar instrument, go into the studio and listen to the instrument being played. Maybe discuss how it’s supposed to sound with the player. Some instruments are heavy within a certain frequency range and are frequency dependent. If the sound dwells within a limited frequency range, don’t ‘fix’ it with processing—record it how it’s supposed to sound. Then, if the natural sound of the instrument isn’t working, maybe it’s the wrong part or the wrong instrument, or both.
• Approach the song as the writer intended. Different genres lend themselves to different styles. Metal songs would be heavy with loud snare. Reggae would use fat bass and delays. A country love song might have steel guitars. So, if your project is a boy band, give the client what they want and aim your boat toward pop style sounds. If your clients walk in with cowboy hats on, this is an indication you may not be doing a polka session. The songwriter’s approach is your template for how to approach the recording.
• Get a good sound fast. People lose perspective when the engineer takes three hours getting a bass sound. Unless it sounds horrible, move on.
• Spend the most time on the most important factor of the record. If the main part of the session is scheduled for vocals, don’t spend hours on the drums.
• A/B and see. Once you process a sound, press the bypass button to compare that the processed sound is an improvement over the unprocessed sound.
• Leave the solo button alone. An instrument in solo sounds a lot different when the rest of the tracks are in the monitor mix.
• Use microphone choice, setting, and placement over processing. If you can get a better sound by slightly moving the microphone, do that before adding equalization and compression. Really try and avoid drastic equalization when recording basics.
• Commit to the sound. The confident engineer says, “This is the sound we want, let’s record it,” rather than, “Hey, how’s this?” Unless someone really doesn’t like the sound, everyone should go along. But you must be correct. Without confidence in the engineer, things can quickly deteriorate from, “Sounds great” to “Gee I don’t know, what do you think?”
• Rule of thumb. Make the guy who signs your check sound best.

Dealing with Clients

• If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time you’re late. Be punctual. By showing up late, you are saying “Your project is not that important to me.” Clients want to be sure you take them seriously. If a few minor things go wrong, one guy always says, “Yeah, and he’s never on time either.”
• As well, leave your mobile device alone, remember everybody’s name, and consider every band or project you work on as ‘the next big thing.’ The session deserves your full undivided attention.
• Respect the music. Keep your own funny versions of a client’s songs to yourself. Be a professional and respect the people who wrote the lyrics. Don’t suggest lyric changes, and never say “Y’know, this song sounds just like….” This serves no creative purpose, and makes the songwriter look like a hack.
• No more rehearsing and nursing our parts. Encourage the players to rehearse all the songs, with the click track, as much as possible, and to record and analyze the rehearsals.
• If you want loyalty in the music business, buy a dog. Don’t get too attached to a project. They will say they love you, love your engineering, are definitely going to use you next time, you’re in the club, the sounds are brilliant. Next week you hear they are using another engineer. Well don’t let it bug you. Do your job, take pride in it, and at the end of the day, realize that no matter what they promise, you don’t have the gig until you’re in the chair.
• Save a copy of everything you do. Who knows who the next major stars will be. As well, you can track your progress as an engineer over the years. Keep a copy—even if you think you will never use it again.
• Seven days in the studio makes one weak. Some clients will expect you to work long hours without a day off. This benefits no one. The eighteenth hour of the tenth day in a row is when mistakes happen. You want your clients to remember you for your skills as an engineer, not for erasing the kick drum due to fatigue. And once you start working long hours, the client expects it.
• Although it may not be your job, keep in mind the budget of the project. Spending tons of time on a part that really isn’t that important might take away from precious mixing time. You can’t explain away an average mix. As well, your job is to move things along when the session bogs down. A quiet reminder, “Okay guys we have to keep moving forward here,” may be necessary. If something is killing the momentum of the session, sometimes it’s best to move on, and analyze the problem when you are off the clock.
• Watch it or I’ll flatten your EQ. If you don’t get along with someone in the sessions, deal with it. Probably you (the lowly engineer) will go before he (the high and mighty musician) does. But, life isn’t long enough to take abuse from anyone. But, if you’re being ill-treated, give them a serious staring at, then walk.
• Be the heavy. Sometimes the engineer must also be the heavy, doing the unpleasant tasks when sessions get out of hand. State firmly and professionally, “You can’t smoke in the control room.” “Please don’t set your drink on the console.” “You girls put your clothes on this instant!”

Getting Paid

• Don’t record for free. Sometimes to get experience, junior engineers record bands for free. Don’t. Engineering a project for ‘nothing’ makes the client think you are worth nothing. Even if it’s a token payment of ten dollars for lunch, take it.
• Due time or do time. Independent engineers often get payment in full without any tax deductions. Because you are a professional, keep all receipts, notes of sessions, who paid what, and all work orders. You know the government and taxes. Man, they make a federal case out of everything.
• A taxman attacks man. Recording engineers have certain tax write-offs. Take advantage of these write-offs. Subscribe to all the applicable magazines. Buy lots of books, meals, tapes, guitar picks, earplugs, hairplugs, whatever. Write them all off.
• Paper covers rock. Professional-looking paperwork tells your clients you are a professional recording engineer, not some hack with a handwritten invoice and no business card. If you do business like a professional you will be treated like one.
• Now be honest. No matter how hard you work, or how great your sound is, always be honest, professional, and generous. This industry is small, and bad news travels fast.

Keep Up

• Install the best DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) audio recording program on your computer. While there are a lot of mid-level editing programs available, using the one or two programs that the professionals use is recommended to improve your ability to edit, equalize, compress, and record. Before buying any studio software, go online and read some reviews, check out the website, and download demos. All product sellers have websites with demos available. Once armed with the facts, purchase and install the best software and hardware for your situation.
• Purchase a quality sound card. The cheap sound cards use low-quality electronics that overload sooner.
• Save. Copy. Save. This is the mantra for a good recording engineer. You have no excuse for losing tracks or files. Better to have too many (properly labeled) files than too few.
• Buy at least one good microphone. You’ll soon learn its characteristics and be able to compare it with other microphones. When you hear a different microphone next to it, you can say, “That’s a little brighter than mine, or the low end is cloudier.” Today’s microphones are inexpensive and high quality.
• Beware. The audio industry sometimes goes through ‘fads’ where every studio buys the newest thing, then realizes it isn’t so hot. Buy equipment that will last for the long haul—and buy from a reputable dealer.
• The joy of specs. Read all the industry magazines to keep up with the latest technologies. Read all the studio manuals, attend trade shows, surf all the websites, hunt through all the YouTube videos, and check the available equalization and tone reference programs/apps/DVDs. Grasping all the workings in a modern recording studio can only help you. You can bet the big name recording engineers understand this stuff.

Finding Work

• The music business is tough. Work is elusive and you have to hunt it down. Check out all the local studios. Leave a card. Try to get a rapport with certain studios. If you bring in a few bands, you may get a break on the cost of the studio. As well, if they know you and are familiar with your work, they may call you when they need an engineer.
• Check your hearing. Before you seriously become an active, working recording engineer, get your head, er … hearing examined. If your hearing is questionable, it ain’t getting any better. It may be disconcerting if the client sees you adjusting your hearing aid in the session.
• Build a website. Load some of your best work, maybe a few songs—even if you must book studio time to do it—onto your website. Perhaps even get these track...