As many of you already know, I am now teaching at two colleges: University of Massachusetts Lowell and the New England Institute of Art.  At both schools I teach in the Audio Production departments, but at UML, it is called SRT or Sound Recording Technology. I can recommend both of the text books.  They have different perspectives and both are well established texts in the field.

The first book that is required reading for UML’s  class 78.305 “Survey of Music Technology” is Experiencing Music Technology by David Williams and Peter Webster.  The book is quite expensive in stores, but is a little cheaper at Amazon as usual. A new edition of the book has just become available to update the content with internet technologies, contro surfaces and other innovations from the last 10 years.

Experiencing Music Technology

The second book is also expensive unfortunately. Audio in Mediais in its 8th edition and is one of the most updated books on the subject. This text covers everything from acoustics to post-production. It’s fantastic overview of music technology from mics and loudspeakers to control surfaces and signal processors.

Audio in Media

As a lot of you already know, I have been working on moving the stuDIY blog into the video blog realm. I have a few people helping out, but I did this first video solo, just as a proof-of-concept.

I use Windows XP machines with Cakewalk’s Sonar (Hate that ProTools!) and a pair of M-Audio Delta 1010’s as my interfaces. I have had the two 8 in-8 out interfaces for 8 or 9 years now and one of them was starting to act a little wonky. It was an intermittent problem that sounded a lot like a bad cable. Unfortunately I had to completely disassemble my patch bay in order to find out that the problem was in the interface itself. Many users have complained that the electrolytic capacitors have crapped out over the years.

M-Audio is great about fixing their stuff, so I set up a Return Authorization with M-Audio but before sending it, I cracked it open to see what was inside. I ended up noticing a couple of bulges on a few of the caps and I put a black dot on every single cap in the box, so I could see exactly what was getting replaced in the repair.

Here’s the video:

Please let me know what you think of the first rev of the theme song!

HDGXIX

This is a response to a student question, from Akeem Custis, about how to get rap vocals to sound thicker, warmer and better in general.

First, your mic and preamp are very important. Some mics are warmer and fatter than others. The same goes for preamps. I have gotten some great results with the EV RE-20, which is a dynamic mic. Mic placement is pretty important on rap vocals too. You want to use a cardioid mic to boost up the lows a little with the proximity effect. Make sure that you have at minimum one really good pop filter. I often use two pop filters: one foam “windscreen” on the mic itself and a metal Stedman pop filter as well. Sometimes I use one pop filter in front of the other or different types. Turn the mic slightly so that the mic isn’t pointed directly at the artist’s mouth. This is called an “off-axis” mic placement and also helps with plosives.

Since I don’t know what you’re recording with, I would suggest first compressing the vocal heavily. With the attack and release in auto, use a 6:1 ratio to reduce gain up to 15 dB, then boost the vocal as far as you can without peaking. If you put a boost of 2-5 dB at around 150 Hz that can also fatten up a track, especially in the male vocal range. If it starts to sound muddy, then just back off on the peak filter. Your bandwidth should be between 100 Hz and 200Hz or about 1 octave.

When you add additional vocal tracks of doubling, you can also create phase problems and end up with a thinner sounding vocal than if you hadn’t added the additional tracks. One way to handle this is to pan the additional tracks so that they’re not all sitting on top of each other. This will tend to sound much bigger than tracks all panned center. Usually on rap vocal tracks, the hooks use doubled voices (or tripled or more) panned out. This creates a bigger vocal production to set the hooks out from the verses. Most of the time, the verses aren’t panned out so heavily and there are many fewer vocal doubles.

I have had really good luck with doing doubles, but using different tones of voice to avoid phase problems. For instance, have the MC record the first take of the track in the tone they would use live. Now do a whisper double. This one won’t interfere with the frequencies in the first take very much. Now do a hard aggressive double. Listen to these 3 takes together in mono to see how you’re doing. Mix the different voices up or down as appropriate.

If you have already recorded the tracks, then you can try using a doubler with the additional voices panned out. This will probably cause some of the phase problems that I already mentioned.

Good Luck Mixing!

Are you new to recording? Do you want to get the most out of your recording dollars? This is a guide that I provide to clients so that they can make sure that they do their best work in a recording session.

Come Fully Rehearsed.
Don’t waste your money by rehearsing or writing in the studio. You want to come in and start working immediately. As a vocalist, you should have the songs completely memorized. You shouldn’t need to read lyrics or music. The phrasing and flow should already be worked out and you should be able to perform the songs acapella, without any background music at all.

All of your concentration needs to be on creating emotion with your voice, getting the tone that you want and performing your best. You shouldn’t have to worry about the words or the notes at all.

Wear comfortable, but quiet clothes.
When you come to record make sure that you are wearing your quietest, most comfortable clothes. Any clothes that rustle like polyester track suits, corduroy, squeaky shoes, big bulky sweaters, and leather jackets are all no-no’s.

Don’t wear jewelry– you don’t want that jingling on your recording. Earrings can hurt if they’re getting pinned to your head with headphones. Leave you cell phone in the control room, because they can cause interference with microphones. I have noticed that “press-to-talk” phones from Nextel and Cingular are the worst culprits in the studio and the Sidekick can cause lots of sound problems.

Get the sounds that you want.
Bring in CDs that have the sounds that you are looking for. Want to get the aggressive distorted vocal from Korn or Nine Inch Nails? Do you want a mellow R&B sound like Al Green or Marvin Gaye? Do you want to get the delay sounds from Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction? The engineer that you’re working with should be able choose mics, preamps and compressors to get the tone you want. Everything matters when you’re trying to dial into a sound. How close you are to the mic matters a lot. Most vocals mics are cardioid and they have a proximity effect. This means that as you get closer to the mic, you also get more bass response from the mic and a greater sense of intimacy. Artists like Frank Sinatra and Barry White utilized the proximity response to tune their vocal performances on recordings.

Don’t ask your engineer to put reverb or delay into you headphones. Time based effects, like these, should be added during mix down and actually can cause problems on your recording if they are being piped into you headphones. If you just can’t stand the sound of your own voice in the headphones without effects, then ask the engineer to add as little reverb as possible to avoid any problems later.

Getting a great headphone mix.
One of the engineer’s jobs is to make sure that you have the best possible headphone mix. You should be able to hear yourself and the music that you’re performing with. MCs usually want the headphone mix to be heavy on the drums and the bass so their rhythm is as tight as possible. Singers usually want to emphasize the bass and whatever chordal instruments (piano, guitar, synths) are in the mix so their pitch is correct.

Some vocalists prefer to leave one ear piece off their ear to allow them to hear their voice in the room. This is often a big problem! When you take the ear cup off your ear, the sound from that ear piece is bleeding into the microphone. This can cause the sound of the band to end up on your vocal track causing phase cancellation problems or mix problems for the engineer later on.

If this is what you need to do, ask for headphones that have only one ear piece or bring your own headphones. It’s a good idea to bring your own headphones anyway so that you can listen to yourself on headphones that you already know. Don’t bring crappy headphones! Invest in a set of professional headphones from a good manufacturer. You want the kind that covers your whole ear and feels really comfortable.

Here are my recommended pairs of headphones:

Vic Firth Isolation Headphones. These headphones fit TIGHT on your head and are great for preventing bleed through to mics in the studio. If you need a loud head phone mix and you want to minimize bleed then these are for you. They are made special for drummers who usually need a very loud headphone mix to be louder than their drums. They also block out other sounds in the room and can be used as hearing protectors. Only downside seems to be the rubber ear cups get sweaty in hot or long sessions. These are also not the best sounding headphones in the world and really aren’t designed for critical listening, but for under $50, what do you expect?

Sony Pro MDR-7506 Headphones. These are an industry standard set of studio headphones and they really sound pretty good for the money ($100 or less). They have a “closed ear” design which blocks out some of the outside sounds and prevents bleed into microphones. One of the advantages is that these headphones fold up and come with a nice leather bag for carrying them around. They have both the professional 1/4″ stereo plug and the consumer 1/8″ Stereo plug so you can use them with an MP3 player.

Beyer Dynamic DT-770. These are my favorite all around studio headphones. They have a closed-back design and they block out background sounds. They also do a great job of preventing bleed into the mics. These headphones have some of the best audiophile quality sound that you can buy and they sound simply amazing. After you get used to listening to music with these, you will never go back to an inferior set of cans. They are a little pricey ($250 or less), but they are worth every penny. All of the parts can be ordered in case you wear them out.

Almost a year ago I was introduced to Michelle Lipinski, the director for the Northshore Recovery High School. One of the folks working at the school knew Woody Giessmann from Right Turn and Woody recommended that I might be a good guy for the job of designing and building a recording studio for the school. I have built 3 studios for myself and helped put together a bunch of others. I have done a lot of remodeling and design work, so recording studio construction really floats my boat!

Michelle won a grant to build the studio and she had several rooms at the school that she could convert into studio spaces. My task was to design a space that didn’t break any of the many rules for altering the building, that worked as a teaching studio, and had some security to keep the neighbor-hoods from wanting to break in and hurt themselves with police batons. There were a bunch of choices of spaces, but we settled on the existing computer lab for both security and ease-of-conversion reasons. This is what the space looked like last Fall:

Some of the things that are really nice about this space are that there are already rooms attached that are separated by glass, so making isolation rooms will be much easier. The room has tall ceilings and there a lot of space to move around in. The bank of windows makes for a lot of natural light which is (for me at least) MUCH more conducive to creativity than sitting under the flicker and buzz of the banks of fluorescents.

Due to the fact that the school is part of a public school system, I had to put together 3 different quotes from 3 different vendors for all of the equipment. As it turns out, this is much harder than it should be. The first problem is that not all vendors stock the same equipment, so you can’t really compare the price of one piece of gear to another. I found that I would have to price out similar pieces of equipment from different manufacturers, or find pricing from different vendors all together.

I got quotes from Guitar Center Pro Audio (Chaz from the Boston store), from Sweetwater, from Parson’s Audio and some pricing from Full Compass. The only vendor that could get all of the equipment that I wanted was Guitar Center, but initially they didn’t have the best price for everything (just most things.) Fortunately, they matched all of the prices and Chaz really took care of us. Guitar Center turned out to be the best as far as price went and Chaz is quite knowledgeable. Unfortunately he is drastically over worked and super busy. There aren’t a ton of folks at Guitar Center that know very much, so I found that I pretty much had to work with Chaz or the other managers of the departments.

I decided to go with a studio based around a Dell XPS super-swoopy computer and Cakewalk’s Sonar. The school’s tech consultant already had a good relationship with Dell and he was able to take care of ordering the computer and peripherals. The other equipment, software and hardware was my responsibility. The main components of the studio were as follows:

1. M-Audio’s Delta 1010: a PCI based audio interface with great stable drivers and solid workmanship. I used these in my personal studio for years and I have always been really happy with the drivers and the stability of the unit. It works with all the software platforms out their and with Pro Tools.
2. Mackie Onyx 1640. This is a premium version of the 1604 VLZ. It has much nicer pre-amps and EQ, longer faders and a much better feel. Another advantage is that all of the channels have direct-out via D-Sub to TRS fans.
3. Mackie HR-824 Studio Monitors. These are my favorite monitors for under $2000. They sound great and are flexible for set-ups in many locations. They have built in power amps tailored perfectly for the speakers. The imaging is great and they have plenty of low-end for modern production.
4. dbx 1066’s. My favorite mid-price compressors. Very flexible and transparent, the 1066 has a sidechain, expander and limiter built in. They work great as dual mono and in stereo link mode. I have been really happy with their performance and they are very common in lots of studios.
5. Sonar Producer 6.2. I believe that Sonar is the best DAW available today. It has a suite of great sounding plug-ins, many software synths and drum modules, full looping tools, the best MIDI implementation around and fully customizable workspace.
6. FL Studio Producer (Fruity Loops). Many of my fellow pro’s think that this software is a toy. It’s actually much more powerful than Reason and it works with VST and DirectX plug-ins. It has an amazing built in Vocoder and tons of capability for mixing and sound design. It can run as a Rewired app inside of Sonar. It is also one of the easiest software applications to learn and get started with that’s out there. I feel like it’s an ideal tool for teaching audio, sound design and mixing.
7. Sony’s Sound Forge and CD Architect. This is the easiest to use audio editor out there and they actual have tech support. Steinberger’s WaveLab is great unless anything goes wrong and then you are completely out of luck. I gave up on WaveLab after spening about $600 for a full version. I didn’t upgrade because they completely suck on customer support. Sound Forge with CD Architect costs about HALF what WaveLab cost by itself. I did like Sonic Foundry a lot before Sony bought them, but they haven’t seemed to go down the tubes! Hurrah!
8. Rode NT-2A, NT-5 Matched pair. Rode is an Australian mic company that I have worked with since 1997 when I bought the original NT-2. These are great mics and they are priced very competitively. These guys are flexible and sound great. The NT-2A will be our main vocal microphone and we will use the NT-5 both with omni and cardioid capsules.
9. Sennheiser MD-421, Electro Voice RE-20, AKG D-112, Shure SM58, Shure SM57. These are THE mics to have to start a studio. Every single one of these is a classic.

It is now free to download and use a high quality 3D modeling software application. Just visit Google’s new 3D modeling center: http://sketchup.google.com/

The drawing above is a scale model of the control room at Indecent Music with one monitor, sans equipment and furniture. Measuring the SPLs in a room and using a model like this helps you to interpret the data you get from your SPL. It also helps you to see how sound might be reflecting in your room. The walls and other surfaces are easy to understand in 3D.

A floor plan view or a horizontal slice lets you write in data points to make the a data model.

It’s pretty easy to see how this kind of a tool could make working in your room easy and and more scientific.

The other thing that I love about SketchUp is that it has a built in tool to get models from Google 3D Warehouse and to upload your own models to share with others. This allows for both online collaboration with colleagues and for collabs with people you don’t know. One of the things that makes 3D modeling so painful, is the need to recreate all of the models that you need to use yourself. Most people end up buying a library of components for use with their own industries. For instance, Kitchen Designers use a variety of different CAD applications to design kitchens, but who wants to model 2300 variants of a Kraftmaid cabinet? So you buy the models from the source.

With the 3D Warehouse, you can check to see if anyone has made something similar already that you can reuse or recycle. Extremely useful. As long as everyone shares, this kind of system works very, very well. Did you notice the model of the monitor? That model was downloaded and imported straight from the 3D Warehouse. I probably saved an hour or more!