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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Tips for studio and live recording
Tips for studio and live recording
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Martic
44 posts
Oct 17, 2013
7:38 PM
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Well, on february this year I reached 21, and I promised myself I was going to record an album before reaching 22. I think it's time to start working on it. I've been working hard on my technique, tone and phrasing (still with a lot to improve), but I'm feeling the need to work on the engine of all that: microphones, amps, EQ, isolation, reverb and everything else.
If somebody could help me with recommendations for both live and studio recording, such as gear and tips (specially if you include audios or any audiovisual sample) I would be really thankful.
I'm planning to work with a sound expert, but, as you can imagine, the sound engineers usually don't know too much about how to record a harmonica.
Any information will be welcome. As usual, thanks in advanced :D
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kudzurunner
4312 posts
Oct 17, 2013
8:20 PM
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Tips of various sorts:
--To get the best harp sound, bring different size amps to the studio--assuming you've got 'em and use 'em on gigs--and try miking them at various distances. Try close up (right up against the grill cloth) and a few inches away. Also, have at least two room mics about 8-10 feet away, and experiment with how high off the ground they are.
--drink bourbon, but deploy it strategically. Don't drink too much too early.
--get the right feeling before a take--the right feeling in you, the right sound in your ears, the right feeling between you and your fellow musicians
--Figure out pretty quickly whether you're going to record live in the studio, with everybody or almost everybody playing at the same time, or whether you're going to track (lay down one track at a time, starting with the drums over a click track). I've recorded seven or eight studio albums in the past 25 years and I've never used a click track
--tune up your harps, if possible, before you record. Make sure, at minimum, that you're in tune with the guitarist and/or piano player.
--be willing to start a tune a dozen times or more. Be willing to interrupt bad takes early on and restart. Don't be shy about that. And recognize when, after a dozen failed starts, it's time to put that song aside and try something else.
--find a good, capable recording engineer who is willing to help you produce: i.e., who offers comments about your playing and singing, about song choice, and about whether you should put a song aside after it's just not working
--when something doesn't work, when there's a real problem, be creative. When the very expensive ribbon mics I was singing into kept picking up too much of my percussion rig from down below (because they weren't cardiod pattern), I ended up pulling out the Shure vocal mic I use on gigs, a $49 mic designed for karaoke, and recording the whole album with it. It was a cardoid mic. It did the job. It saved the day. And it sounded great. At some point in every album recording process, things look like they're going south. You can't give up; you have to keep trying different things. Humans are much better than computers in this respect. Be a human, not a computer.
--Sometimes the coolest, most original songs on an album are the ones you were least sure of before you went in. They were little more than an idea or a rhythm, something you never played on a gig. But you feel them, and if you've got fellow musicians who can just go along with that, you can make a good song. A good instrumental.
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1847
1217 posts
Oct 17, 2013
9:39 PM
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recording is like going to the world series
no sex 24 hours before the show!
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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
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Mirco
13 posts
Oct 17, 2013
9:41 PM
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Adam, when you write "drink bourbon", do you mean only before recording, or do you mean that we should be in the habit of drinking bourbon regularly? Does regular consumption of bourbon alter my throat and vocal chords?
In other words: Will drinking bourbon help me get a voice like Tom Waits?
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rogonzab
399 posts
Oct 18, 2013
5:38 AM
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- Make an album when you have something to say, not because you are 21.
- Ask favors. If you dont have a good amp (or mic), then try to borrow one (I will lend you my SF Champ and my mic if you are in town), you need to sound good to get the "right feeling".
- Take your time.
- Make a free MP3 version, the money is in the gigs (and in the cds that you sell in gigs)
- Good luck!!
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The Iceman
1220 posts
Oct 18, 2013
6:25 AM
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It's ok to ask for tips and help, but there is no substitute for experience.
Just do it. You will learn a lot as you go.
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The Iceman
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LSC
519 posts
Oct 18, 2013
9:36 AM
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I would very much agree with kudzurunners tips but I would perhaps place a caveat on the experimentation with mics, amps, etc. Although all these variables have an affect on the sound the problem is you're on the clock. All that experimentation is costing money. That's fine if you have some sort of deal where you're not paying by the day or the hour or enough resource it doesn't matter but if trying to keep within a budget it becomes a problem. Problems will always occur but keeping stress to a minimum is vital. Recording is capturing a moment in time. You want the environment to be as conducive as possible to great moments which means being comfortable.
I could write loads more about choosing studios and engineers etc. but I think two of the very most important things I was ever taught are: 1) Live is for the moment. Recording is forever. Never leave anything you're not really happy with. 2) Performance is everything. If you crack off a good performance but there is some little slip or knock the performance is everything. Besides these days there are ways to take out the odd grunt or whatever but even then I wouldn't worry about it if it was otherwise a great take. Adds character.
Most of all have fun. Being in the studio is one of the very best things every invented by man.
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LSC
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walterharp
1200 posts
Oct 18, 2013
10:55 AM
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search down Walter Tore on the internet.. he used to post here but does not do forums any more. He will answer emails and talk on the phone. He has worried as much about recording harmonica as anybody on the planet I bet....
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JInx
587 posts
Oct 18, 2013
11:50 AM
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Yup, just do it. Start with the simple voice memo function on your cell phone. work to the achieve best possible results on it alone. Understand it's limitations, look to improve them with settings, position, performance technique etc. It's an exercise, to develop ability to achieve desired/effective results.
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Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
Last Edited by JInx on Oct 18, 2013 11:53 AM
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Martic
46 posts
Oct 18, 2013
11:59 AM
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Wow, thanks a lot guys. Thanks Adam for sharing your experience. I don't drink or smoke anything when I play harmonica, because I get drunk or high very easily, so I try to not do it too frequently. Anyway, I'll keep your advice in mind, may be a little bourbon could give me some extra mojo.
Right now I'm taking an intense schedule, playing live 80 nights a year on bars, small clubs and outdoor summer festivals. But I just can't keep myself playing on bars forever, I need to take the next step, and I feel it's time to put myself into a new challenge. So thank you all guys. Have a good weekend!
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Barley Nectar
135 posts
Oct 18, 2013
5:56 PM
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But I just can't keep myself playing on bars forever
Whad he say???
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Martic
47 posts
Oct 18, 2013
9:04 PM
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@Barley_Nectar I mean I can not stay doing ONLY that. I love playing live, but there's a whole lot of experience to achieve by doing other things. One of them is recording.
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nacoran
7238 posts
Oct 18, 2013
11:29 PM
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Micro, I don't know about the bourbon, but I've got an asthma inhaler that makes me sound like Satchmo. :)
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Nate
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barbequebob
2354 posts
Oct 19, 2013
8:28 AM
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Adam's post is largely dead on in my experience because just on the tuning alone, even the slightest bit off will stick out like a sore thumb and every recording engineer will let you know about it in a hurry, and when I cut the session for the soundtrack of the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, using top notch engineers and producers, they got on your butt for every little and they hear, and their ears are SHARP!!!!!!
In most sessions, from personal experience, smaller, lower powered amps (25 or fewer watts) tend to record much better than amps that are larger (40 watts++) and one of the main reasons why is that there is FAR LESS of a problem with your sound bleeding thru the other mics and large amps make this a HUGE problem.
The only real time larger amps record well is when you're doing on overdub rather than live (in a studio, live means recording with everyone together all at once in the same room, wheras the majority of recordings, especially on major label recordings is done first with the rhythm tracks with a reference vocal and then everything else is overdubbed).
For recording harp, especially when overdubbed, the old school ambient mic technique rules, where you have one mic directly on the speaker of the amp, one on a stand in the middle of the room, and another on a boom stand in the back of the room has the best overall sound because the way you're recording is more like the way the human ear really listens to the music.
One time, doing an overdub for a band, I actually had to teach the engineer how to do this as he had no experience with this at all.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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