Dear TAXI,

I get so frustrated trying to record my demos at home that I'm ready to trash my equipment. I keep buying new gear and nothing really seems to help. I know Michael was an engineer, so I thought he might be able to give me some recording tips that would save my investment and maybe even my marriage. My wife is getting sick of me spending money on what she sees as a wasteful enterprise.

Thanks,
Kurt Oliveri

Dear Kurt,

I can't completely solve this problem (or your marriage) or give you enough advice in the space I have here, but I'll give you some pointers that might get you on the right track (no pun intended).

The tools that are available today are nothing short of amazing. The drum samples alone are enough to make a guy like me salivate. That being said, you still need to know how to use what you've got, and I don't mean from a technical or computer perspective.

Case in point. My wife bought me Final Cut Express for the holidays. And while I'm learning to use the software, I still need to develop an editor's "eye." You need to develop an engineer's "ears."

It's largely a matter of basic physics and taste. Having sounds that come out of the box, already sounding wonderful is a tremendous advantage. When working on drums for example, you don't have to spend hours picking the right mikes, finding the right place in the room to record the drums, tuning the drums, dealing with phase issues and all the other fun stuff required to get a great drum sound. It's already done for you.

You just need to know how to balance the drums within themselves and with the other instruments. The same is true for all of the other instruments as well. The first stage of becoming successful at engineering (assuming you've already got the great sounds) is to mimic what the professionals do.

How much bottom end does their overall recording have? How much top end? What does the panning landscape "look" like? How much reverb do you use and what kind?

The most common problem I notice is that many home recordings sound thin or tinny. Why? Not enough bottom or bass, and too much treble or top end in the mix. Think of it as balancing the color on your TV set (not that we have to do much of that any more ;-) Balancing the green and red hues will give you a nice flesh tone. Similarly, balancing the bottom and top will give you a nice sounding mix.

When you begin your mix, start by bringing up the kick drum fader first (my personal preference). Pan it down the middle and give it enough gain (fader level) to make your stereo mix meters hit around -3 or -4 with each beat. Add the bass guitar, pan it down the middle, and bring the fader up to the point where you get a nice blend of the two and they sound like a "unit."

Add the snare down the middle, and again, look for that punchy blend of bass, kick, and snare that sounds like what the pros do. Getting excited yet?

Now add the high-hat, and be careful to not bring it up so loud that it fights the other elements. That's often what makes a mix sound tinny!

Add the toms by panning the high one to three o'clock, the mid tom down the middle, and the floor tom to nine o'clock. Blend their relative volume with the rest of the kit so they sound natural. Pan the cymbals far left and far right, making sure that you keep them on the same side that they'd be on in "nature." In other words, if the ride cymbal is located between the mid to and floor tom (in a real kit), then keep it there in your stereo landscape to make it sound natural and avoid phase problems.

Again, as with the high-hat, keep the cymbals fairly low in relative mix volume. You can always raise them later if necessary.

The over-simplified version of adding other instruments goes as follows: pan things like guitars and keyboards opposite of each other to give a nicely balanced stereo spread. Set the pan knobs at three o'clock and nine o'clock to start then slowly raise the two faders until they sound blended with, not louder than the bass and drums. You can adjust their relative "spread" to become wider or narrower according to your taste and what the song will seemingly dictate to you.

Assuming that you've stayed in a fairly wide to very wide spread on those two instruments, then you may want to go "inside" or somewhat narrower on the next two instruments to give them their own "space." For example, put the second guitar part at ten or eleven o'clock and the percussion (or another keyboard) at one or two o'clock to get some balance going in your landscape.

If you're being careful and blending things well, the bass and drums should still be the foundation of the mix and your stereo mix meters should still be peaking under the zero mark. That's a good thing because you're going to need a little more room to add the lead vocal and that will kick the meters up some more.

I haven't talked about using a limiter or compressor yet because I'm assuming that many of your sounds are samples. That's less likely for bass and guitar, and certainly unlikely for your vocals! Limiters and compressors keep things from going into the "red." Recording your vocals with a little bit of limiting or compression is a good thing. It will prevent you from overloading your circuitry and causing distortion.

This is very basic advice, but if you set the microphone preamp on your console at eleven o'clock, and the ratio knob at 3:1 on the limiter, then all you need to do is turn threshold knob until you see the meter showing some gain reduction. A few db of reduction is normal and a good starting point. Too much reduction, and the vocal will sound "squashed." It's totally kosher to use some gain reduction (limiting or compressing) while recording your vocal track, and then using some more when you mix. By limiting the dynamic range of the vocal, you'll be able to raise its fader level high enough that it sits on top of the mix without making the stereo meters go into the red.

If you've added the vocals to the mix and your stereo meters are going into the red, then bring the master fader down in small increments until the meters are not going into the red. If you've had to bring your master fader down more than half an inch, then you'd be wise to go back and bring each individual fader down an equal smidge to lower their cumulative level going to the stereo mix.

There are many, many topics I haven't covered in this very basic primer, but I've run out of space. I'll try to cover some other basics in future Q&Ls. Until then, have fun and keep the bass and kick high and the cymbals low!
Michael