Return to Return
February 21, 2008 Filed in: Recording
Mike records bass and vocals on a song for his
upcoming album, The Return of Spring.
Picking
back up on a stalled recording project is sometimes
welcome. Sometimes, it can be a drag.
On Tuesday, I pulled up a few tracks that I had started for my on-hold recording project, the Return of Spring. I was pleased. Everything sounded unclouded and in-the-pocket. There have been times when I've returned to a postponed session and not liked what I heard. This was not one of those occasions.
A little perspective helped. I had a free day on Wednesday to do some work on these tracks. I randomly picked “Fallin' in Love Too Fast” on which to cut some bass and vocals. “Fallin'...” is a fingerpicked song that has a “4 and” groove. Rhythmically it's a little odd, but it works. Dale had no trouble playing percussion to the scratch guitar last summer. The “keeper”acoustic guitar has a few foibles, but it's fairly tight to the groove. Everything sounded good to me, at least good enough to continue tracking.
As a songwriter who often doubles as a studio engineer, it's easy to get wrapped up in the minutiae of the recording. Things like pre-amp choices, compression ratios, EQ values, and mic selection, while relevant and important, can distract and subtract from an inspired moment if you think too much about them. A happy compromise that works for me is selecting a pre-amp and mic that works well for the situation and then applying conservative compression and EQ settings...kind of a “set it and forget it” attitude.
For bass and vocals, I favor gentle limiting settings and minimal EQ. This affords me natural sounding tracks. If they sound good in the cue mix, I know they're going to work in the final mix down. As I begin to layer things, I may consider different EQ values, but I generally stick to limiting when tracking. Limiting, of course, is a compression ratio of 10:1 or greater...it's usually transparent on most outboard units if your gain reduction is less than 6 db.
On an acoustic album, like the one I'm recording, it's wise to consider the roll of the bass guitar before tracking it. If I played a lot of shows with a bass player who had a particular sound, I would certainly call that person in to play the bass part. Since I'm looking to just fill out the low end of the acoustic guitar and marry it to what the percussion track is doing, a slightly different philosophy is needed. What I've found effective is to lock in the rhythm of the bass and the kick (or low percussion); that is, play notes where there's a beat to connect with. Then, for the tonal part, play either the root note of the corresponding chord or some harmonic equivalent (fifths or fourths usually do). The trick is to not get too fancy. A little bit goes a long way with this approach.
After I've tracked a bass take that is about 90% there, I usually go back and tweak any errors or blemishes. I also check the position of the bass to the rhythm track. I usually land between 6 ms and 10 ms behind the instrument that's “leading the group.” If I'm a bit off from that amount, I'll scoot the bass note forward or backward a bit to fill the “pocket.”
For vocals, the most important thing for me is getting a good and inspired monitor mix for tracking. I like to get a decent rough mix going, one where I can hear things they way they'll probably be in the final. I don't like to track with a lot of reverb, though. Reverb tends to cloud up a performance; pitch is a little fuzzier when the sound of one's voice is echoing about. Generally, if a voice sounds great bone dry, it'll sound good with any kind of effect you can imagine.
From an self-engineering approach, another useful function that saves a lot of time is the “loop record” mode. This is available on most computer based digital recording systems. The idea with this is that, once you get a sound that you like, you can simply focus on the performance of the vocal, rather than constantly worry about compression and EQ. I recorded six takes for “Fallin'” and formed a composite, master take from the six attempts. While tracking each take, I tend to go focus first on pitch accuracy, followed by performance style, followed by feel. Getting pitch right from the start produces better vocal tracks than using an “auto tune” tool later down the road. Now, I don't always sing perfectly in pitch, but I only pull out the “auto tune” tool if a performance style or feel factor outweighs the pitch of a performance. Then, as long as there are only a few of those blemishes, its usually a snap to fix them up. And, sometimes, it's fine to leave things a little bit off. If it sounds good in the scheme of things, chances are, it is good in the scheme of things.
After tracking and editing, (which took about three hours), I decided to make a rough mix to hear on my iPod an in my car, just to see how things would sound in the real world. I was quite happy with the sound of everything so far. With very little processing and studio trickery, the track is shaping up the way I imagined it. That's a good place to be.
On Tuesday, I pulled up a few tracks that I had started for my on-hold recording project, the Return of Spring. I was pleased. Everything sounded unclouded and in-the-pocket. There have been times when I've returned to a postponed session and not liked what I heard. This was not one of those occasions.
A little perspective helped. I had a free day on Wednesday to do some work on these tracks. I randomly picked “Fallin' in Love Too Fast” on which to cut some bass and vocals. “Fallin'...” is a fingerpicked song that has a “4 and” groove. Rhythmically it's a little odd, but it works. Dale had no trouble playing percussion to the scratch guitar last summer. The “keeper”acoustic guitar has a few foibles, but it's fairly tight to the groove. Everything sounded good to me, at least good enough to continue tracking.
As a songwriter who often doubles as a studio engineer, it's easy to get wrapped up in the minutiae of the recording. Things like pre-amp choices, compression ratios, EQ values, and mic selection, while relevant and important, can distract and subtract from an inspired moment if you think too much about them. A happy compromise that works for me is selecting a pre-amp and mic that works well for the situation and then applying conservative compression and EQ settings...kind of a “set it and forget it” attitude.
For bass and vocals, I favor gentle limiting settings and minimal EQ. This affords me natural sounding tracks. If they sound good in the cue mix, I know they're going to work in the final mix down. As I begin to layer things, I may consider different EQ values, but I generally stick to limiting when tracking. Limiting, of course, is a compression ratio of 10:1 or greater...it's usually transparent on most outboard units if your gain reduction is less than 6 db.
On an acoustic album, like the one I'm recording, it's wise to consider the roll of the bass guitar before tracking it. If I played a lot of shows with a bass player who had a particular sound, I would certainly call that person in to play the bass part. Since I'm looking to just fill out the low end of the acoustic guitar and marry it to what the percussion track is doing, a slightly different philosophy is needed. What I've found effective is to lock in the rhythm of the bass and the kick (or low percussion); that is, play notes where there's a beat to connect with. Then, for the tonal part, play either the root note of the corresponding chord or some harmonic equivalent (fifths or fourths usually do). The trick is to not get too fancy. A little bit goes a long way with this approach.
After I've tracked a bass take that is about 90% there, I usually go back and tweak any errors or blemishes. I also check the position of the bass to the rhythm track. I usually land between 6 ms and 10 ms behind the instrument that's “leading the group.” If I'm a bit off from that amount, I'll scoot the bass note forward or backward a bit to fill the “pocket.”
For vocals, the most important thing for me is getting a good and inspired monitor mix for tracking. I like to get a decent rough mix going, one where I can hear things they way they'll probably be in the final. I don't like to track with a lot of reverb, though. Reverb tends to cloud up a performance; pitch is a little fuzzier when the sound of one's voice is echoing about. Generally, if a voice sounds great bone dry, it'll sound good with any kind of effect you can imagine.
From an self-engineering approach, another useful function that saves a lot of time is the “loop record” mode. This is available on most computer based digital recording systems. The idea with this is that, once you get a sound that you like, you can simply focus on the performance of the vocal, rather than constantly worry about compression and EQ. I recorded six takes for “Fallin'” and formed a composite, master take from the six attempts. While tracking each take, I tend to go focus first on pitch accuracy, followed by performance style, followed by feel. Getting pitch right from the start produces better vocal tracks than using an “auto tune” tool later down the road. Now, I don't always sing perfectly in pitch, but I only pull out the “auto tune” tool if a performance style or feel factor outweighs the pitch of a performance. Then, as long as there are only a few of those blemishes, its usually a snap to fix them up. And, sometimes, it's fine to leave things a little bit off. If it sounds good in the scheme of things, chances are, it is good in the scheme of things.
After tracking and editing, (which took about three hours), I decided to make a rough mix to hear on my iPod an in my car, just to see how things would sound in the real world. I was quite happy with the sound of everything so far. With very little processing and studio trickery, the track is shaping up the way I imagined it. That's a good place to be.