7 Things I Wish I Had Done Differently on my Album 9 Sep 2010, 5:00 pm

I shared the other day 7 Tips for Finishing Your Album.

Today I’d like to shift gears a bit and share with you 7 things that I would do differently, if I had it all to do over again.

As you may know, my latest album Out of Indiana is available over at joegildermusic.com. Next week it will be officially released on iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Before I jump into the 7 items below, let me state that while my album is far from perfect, I’m very proud of it, and I’m excited about the next one.

Alright, here they are. 7 Things I Wish I Had Done Differently on my Album:

1. Recorded better acoustic guitars

The entire album is centered around acoustic guitar. I’m pretty happy with the acoustic guitar tone on the record, but it took a LOT of EQ-wrangling to get it to where I wanted it. On a few songs I had to simply let the acoustic guitar be “good enough.”

What did I do wrong? I recorded the guitars with the microphones too close to the instrument. My thought process was:

• The closer the mics, the less likely they’ll pick up room noise.
• The closer the mics, the more low end they’ll pick up, and I can always EQ out the excess low end.

I proceeded to record all of the songs this way. And while everything sounded fine in my tracking headphones, I realized when I started mixing the songs that there was WAY too much bottom end in the guitars. I was able to salvage them, for the most part.

Lesson learned: Backing the mics away to around 12-inches from the guitar yields a MUCH more natural result, and they doesn’t really pick up any more noise than the close mics did.

2. Mixed all the songs on the same system

I moved THREE times over the course of making this album. 2 apartments, 2 houses. I started mixing the record in apartment #2, and I finished mixing in house #2.

As you can imagine, those very different acoustic environments produced different issues/problems in the mixing process, resulting in some inconsistencies across the different mixes, particularly in the low end.

On top of that, after mixing the first three songs, I upgraded my headphones to the Sennheiser HD-650’s, which are AWESOME, but they sound very different from my other headphones (HD-280’s). I used them a lot when mixing, but I didn’t have them for the first three songs, so that affected how I mixed the final seven songs.

3. Involved more musicians/singers

I sang everything on the record, which was a lot of fun (especially when it comes to the huge background vocal tracks), but it would’ve been nice to have a few female singers sing harmonies on some of the songs.

I played most of the instruments on the record, except for bass (all songs), lap steel (“How to Fish”), and the guitar solo on “Treading Water.” It would have been a lot of fun to recruit more musicians and have a greater variety of instruments on the record.

4. Finished sooner

It took me way too long to finish this thing…probably two years. I would have loved to produce at least two albums during that time, and it would have been doable. However, like I’ve said before, I’m thrilled to have finished this one, and I already have my sites set on the next one, which won’t take two years to finish…this time.

5. Recorded real drums

All the drum parts on Out of Indiana are from EZDrummer. I programmed the parts myself. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s amazing how good it can sound. (I actually had a drummer friend of mine ask me who played drums on the record, because he loved ‘em so much.)

That said, nothing can replace a real drummer. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

I didn’t have the facilities, connections, or the money to pull off a real drummer on this album, and it was fun to showcase EZDrummer, but I’ll likely be pulling the trigger on a real drummer for the next one.

6. Recorded real piano

The final song on the record is a piano ballad. It’s a pretty song, and it features the piano sounds of Mini-Grand, the virtual piano that comes with Pro Tools 8.

I’m blown away by how good Mini-Grand sounds, but I would have loved to use a real piano. Maybe I’ll buy a piano for the next record. We’ll see.

7. Recorded in an isolated room/booth

The bane of every home studio owner’s existence is noise. You sometimes simply can’t escape it. Homes are noisy. They’re not sound-proof, and computers/hard drives tend to make a lot of noise.

This last point is more of a wish than anything. I really don’t have a place to install a vocal booth, and I’m not really set up to add another room to my studio setup, so we’ll chalk this one up as a pipe dream.

However, if you have serious noise issues, you should think about experimenting with different ways to record your instruments in some sort of isolation. If nothing else, use packing blankets to create a faux booth in the corner of your studio. You’d be surprised how well it can work.

Well, that’s it. Thoughts? Anything you would add?

If you want to hear/buy the album, go here: www.JoeGilderMusic.com.

If you want to mix the whole album yourself, go here: www.MixWithUs.com.

[Photo by koalazymonkey]

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Should I get a Pro Tools Certification? 7 Sep 2010, 10:33 pm

It’s been a while since I’ve answered a reader question. I hope to do more of that in the coming weeks and months, either via blog posts or the podcast. If you have a question you’d like me to cover, click here.

Today’s question comes from Angela. She writes:

Hey Joe,

My mom can’t find a reason to sign my school loans for IPR. I want to get my Pro Tools Certification and my 2-year degree. How much on average does a person with those qualifications make?

This is a GREAT question. In fact, Fathomless Regression (a guest writer here on HSC) wrote about this in his article Do I Have to Go to College to Learn to Be a Recording Engineer? I’d recommend giving that a read. He makes some great points.

For a lot of aspiring engineers, going to college for engineering might not be a viable option. Some might opt for a Pro Tools Certification course. These can still cost quite a bit of money. I did some Googling, and it looks like it could potentially be a couple thousand dollars, depending on the school.

So, is it worth it? Well, I’m not a Pro Tools-Certified engineer, but I have some thoughts on the matter. (Also, see this interesting article I found: Pro Tools Certification – Is it Worth the Money?)

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

What are your goals?

This may seem obvious, but if you don’t know specifically what you’re wanting to do as an engineer, it’s hard to answer the question, “Should I get a Pro Tools Certification?”

Is this a hobby or a career?

Another fairly obvious question, but are you wanting to make a living at this, or are you simply wanting to have the coolest hobby in the world.

Do you want to work for yourself or someone else?

If you’re wanting to work for a major recording studio, TV station, movie studio, etc., then having a Pro Tools Certification might give you a certain edge over the 800 other engineers who are applying for that same job.

I would ask around. Call a few studios (or a place you want to work), and simply ask them, “Do you require/prefer that applicants have a Pro Tools Certification?” If they say yes, then there’s your answer.

Let’s pretend I’m hiring an assistant engineer. I’ve narrowed it down to two applicants. One has his PT certification. The other has a high school diploma and a portfolio of 20 different album projects he’s worked on independently. Who do you think I’m going to hire? The guy who takes initiative and gets things done.

It’s just like any other industry. If you’re an accounting firm, do you hire the CPA with a 4.0 GPA fresh out of college with no work experience? Or do you hire the one with a 2.4 GPA who took 6 years to graduate college because he was working full-time as an assistant at a local accounting firm?

It’s all about what you bring to the table. Whether or not you get a certificate is really irrelevant. That’s just ONE piece of the puzzle.

Let’s say you want to work for yourself as a freelance engineer. Well, in that case a PT certification may not make as much sense, but only if you are committed to learning Pro Tools on your own or through other means (such as tutorial videos like my Understanding Pro Tools series). You can’t just have a passing knowledge of Pro Tools and hope to impress clients.

Conversely, knowing every Pro Tools shortcut in the entire system won’t help you make better recordings or get more clients. As with most things, it’s a balancing act.

Be an Entrepreneur

Whether you want to work for someone or work for yourself, you need to have an entrepreneurial spirit. Read business books, make yourself a valuable commodity. Don’t just do the bare minimum. Get out there and start recording someone this weekend.

The best way I know to find the job you love is to already be doing the things you love (recording, mixing, etc.) on your own initiative.

Can I guarantee you’ll get a job? Nope. But the worst case scenario is that you become an awesome engineer while you’re looking for that dream job. Mission: accomplished.

To answer your question, Angela, “How much does the average engineer make?” It really depends on the engineer. Some never get a job as an engineer. Some make millions. In a lot of ways, it’s up to you.

[Photo by anyjazz65]

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Is Editing Cheating? 3 Sep 2010, 11:59 pm

I released a tutorial video series last month called Understanding Editing. On the order page, I basically talk about how cool I think editing is, and what a big difference it makes on my projects.

I even included a before-and-after audio sample right there on the page.

A few days after launching UE, I got an email from a reader who basically posted a parody of my order page on his website.

He was essentially making fun of the idea that editing is a valuable part of the recording process, emphasizing instead that the musicians should simply practice more.

I completely agree that musicians should practice their craft. If you’re a musician, you really shouldn’t walk into a recording session unless you have properly rehearsed the material you’re about to record.

To me, that’s a given.

As I’ve said a bajillion times, you need to get it right at the source. No amount of editing, EQ, compression, effects, etc. can rescue a bad recording.

If the musician is horrible…the edited tracks will also sound horrible.

If the guitarist’s tone is wretched…the EQ’d and compressed tone will be wretched.

Garbage in. Garbage out. Right?

That said, editing still plays a huge roll in the production process. It’s where you take a great performance and polish it. You tighten up those little spots where the player came in a bit early or late. You’re essentially removing any distracting components to the recording.

You’r not altering the performance, you’re enhancing it. It still sounds like the musician. In fact, if you edit the tracks properly, the musician won’t even know that you changed anything. He’ll just be really impressed with how tight everything sounds.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know.

Also, tomorrow night at midnight Eastern time, I’m raising the price of Understanding Editing from the introductory price of $37 to $47. Either way, it’s a good value for 3+ hours of videos and practice tracks. You can grab a copy here:

www.UnderstandingEditing.com

[Photo by jaydesphotos]

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Listen to the Artist, Not Just the Music 1 Sep 2010, 5:00 pm

Telling an audio engineer to listen is like telling a doctor to heal. Of course we’re going to listen! How else do we get a great-sounding recording?

You’re good at listening to the music, but how well do you listen to the artist?

I’m producing an EP for a really talented singer-songwriter named Whitney Winkler. She asked me to play acoustic guitar on the project. Once we had the guitar and scratch vocals recorded, she went home and left me to add various elements to the songs to fill them out.

Her songs have a killer groove to them, so I naturally thought some light drums would be perfect. I worked for a couple hours, programming a quirky little drum groove and recording some extra percussion.

She had mentioned that she really liked the song “I Won’t Fly Away,” from my album, which features a very unique blend of acoustic instruments with a hip-hop-sounding drum loop/percussion. So I thought I’d take this song in that direction.

The song quickly took on a very different feel. I kinda liked it, but before I dove in and booked a bass player and really committed to the arrangement, I emailed Whitney a bounce of what I had done so far.

She wrote back that she really wasn’t crazy about it.

As it turns out, she wants the EP to have more of a “coffee-shop” feel than a produced, full-band feel. She didn’t really want drums or lots of extra production. She felt like the songs needed to maintain an acoustic feel.

My response? Did I get all defensive and angry that she would dare to question my production prowess?

Heck no.

These are her songs. I want her to be absolutely THRILLED with the finished recording. The ideas I proposed were fairly over-the-top. I had a feeling she might not like them, but I gave it a shot anyway.

Have I given up all creative input now? No, not at all. In fact, this process really helped us focus.

Up until that point, I hadn’t done a great job of asking her what exactly she was wanting out of this EP. That was my fault. Now that we’ve heard an example of how she doesn’t want it to sound, we’ve been able to hone in on exactly what her goals are, and things are coming together very nicely.

Moral of this story? Be creative. Take chances, but don’t alienate the artists. Including them in the decision-making process is a wise move, and it makes the entire process more productive, more creative, and more fun.

[Photo by striatic]

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How to Record Violin (or ANY new instrument) 30 Aug 2010, 11:14 pm

At various points throughout your recording career, you’ll have chances to record certain instruments for the first time. Maybe you’ve never recorded an actual piano, or a drum kit. Or maybe you’ll need to record an accordion, or a hammer dulcimer, or bagpipes.

Having never done it before, where do you start? I had the pleasure of recording a violinist in my home studio last week. I’ve recorded violin before, but never in my home studio. It’s a lot of fun to mic up a new instrument, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.

You don’t have to re-invent the wheel

Chances are someone else has recorded the instrument you’re about to record. Before your session, take a few minutes to find out as much as you can about recording that particular instrument. Don’t make this a 4-hour research session, though. That’s how people end up researching for years and never actually finishing anything. Ask a friend. Hit up your Twitter/Facebook friends. Post something to a forum. All you’re looking for here is some quick feedback for where to start. I’d also recommend simply doing a Google image search. You can learn a LOT from pictures of recording sessions. (I just googled “violin recording session,” and in about 30 seconds of perusing the image results I had 2 new ideas for recording violin.)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great idea to try new things. There are no rules, but just because everyone uses an SM57 on a guitar amp doesn’t mean you can’t use it, too.

Keep it simple

For my violin session, I simply used single mic (large-diaphragm condenser) into my Presonus Eureka preamp. I set the mic up about two feet above the violin and about two feet in front of the violinist. Could I have used 2 mics? Sure, but if the violinist moves around (most do), it would’ve caused all sorts of weird phase issues.

Besides, the violin is a small instrument. One microphone tends to capture the sound just fine. I didn’t mic the violin too closely, because violins don’t sound all that pretty from 6 inches. They tend to sound much better from a distance. That’s why I moved the mic back a few feet from the instrument itself. (Having good acoustic treatment in your room REALLY helps when you don’t want to close-mic something.)

When the violinist was warming up, I moved the mic around just a little bit to find a spot that sounded good. I recorded a quick practice take and played it back. It sounded great to me, so we jumped in and started recording. I didn’t waste 45 minutes trying out different techniques. I guessed at one setup, it worked, so we moved forward.

Some Quick Tips

If you’re recording an unfamiliar instrument, here are some things to keep in mind:

• If you’re using a directional mic, you can adjust how bass-heavy the signal is by adjusting the distance between the mic and the instrument. The closer the mic is, the more bass it will record (proximity effect).
• If the instrument is fairly large (piano, upright bass, orchestra), you’ll want to think about using multiple microphones. Keep in mind that the more mics you use, the more likely you are to have phase problems. (See 3:1 Rule.)
• Use your ear FIRST. Stand in front of the instrument and find the spot where it sounds best to your ear, then put the microphone there.
• If things aren’t sounding great, try using a different microphone. Changing from a condenser to a dynamic or ribbon can provide a whole new range of tonal options.

Do you have an upcoming session involving a new challenge? Tell us about it by leaving a comment.

*Photo by arquera

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Pre-Order “Out of Indiana” 24 Aug 2010, 11:02 pm

After much scrambling and decision-making, I’ve hit my deadline of pre-releasing my album today. After all, you’re apparently supposed to release new music on Tuesdays and Tuesdays ONLY.

What does “pre-release” mean? Well, since this is obviously an independent release (meaning I’m paying for everything myself and there are no record labels involved), it’s fairly typical to see a pre-release before the album is officially released.

What this means for my album, Out of Indiana, is that the digital download of the full album is available now exclusively at my music website, joegildermusic.com.

On the official release date, September 14, 2010, the album will be available “worldwide” in places like iTunes an Amazon. That’s when the physical CD orders will start shipping, too.

All that to say, if you’d like a copy of my album, which was recorded and mixed entirely by me in my home studio, go grab your copy now and let us know what you think. Here’s the link again:

www.joegildermusic.com

Thanks!

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Win a Copy of “Out of Indiana” 21 Aug 2010, 12:10 am

Next week you’ll be able to pre-order a copy of my album Out of Indiana. I’ve been so immersed in this record for the last several months, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Want to win a free copy? Head over to joegildermusic.com this weekend and download the 3 songs I’m giving away for free.

After you’ve listened to them, come back here and leave a comment. Your comment should include two things:

1. Which of the 3 songs was your favorite?
2. What project are you currently working on (or about to start), and when will it be finished?

I’ll be reading each comment, and will be picking the winner(s) next week.

Have fun!

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7 Tips for Finishing Your Album [Part 2] 19 Aug 2010, 1:29 am

In the last article, I shared with you the first three tips for finishing your album. Today, let’s look at the last four.

4. Get it right at the source.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again many more times I’m sure, but no matter how good your editing and mixing skills are, your mixes will only be as good as the tracks you record. It’s imperative that you place a high level of importance on making your recorded tracks sound as good as possible.

Speaking from experience, I’m really proud of my album, and I’m excited for you to hear it soon. However, I could have done a better job of getting things right at the source. Those of you who joined Mix With Us have heard the raw audio tracks from the album. The acoustic guitars, in particular, could’ve been recorded a little better. The mics were too close to the guitar, so there’s a lot of unnecessary bass in the raw tracks.

I was able to wield some EQ magic to make them sound okay, but all in all I could have done a better job of getting it right at the source.

5. Don’t insist on perfection.

This may seem contradictory to #4 above, but let me explain.

While the guitar parts I recorded weren’t perfect, they still worked. I could have re-recorded everything, but that would’ve taken more time, and would have likely delayed my album by months.

Ask any recording/mix engineer, and he’ll tell you that he never feels finished with a project. There comes a point where you just have to turn it in.

There are plenty of things I could’ve tweaked and changed on my album. There are places where I played out of time. There are a few notes where I sang out of tune, but all in all, I love the feel of the album, and the imperfections are almost endearing to me.

Besides, if I insisted on perfection, and it took me 5 years to finish my album, there’s no guarantee that it would really sound any better, and I could finish 3 albums in that time (which, to me, sounds like more fun).

6. Step Away

This is a really important step. After I had finished mixing the album, I stepped away. I took a few weeks off and didn’t listen to the songs. Then I came back and did a final listen-thru before handing the mixes in to my mastering engineer.

This allowed me to approach the songs with a relatively “fresh” set of ears. It let me make some final obvious tweaks. AND it got me excited about the songs again. If you never step away from the music, you sometimes loose sight of what you’re doing. Stepping away lets you listen to the album as if you’re a new listener for the first time. Pretty fun stuff.

7. Have someone else master it.

I’ve talked about mastering before, and I know some people tend to think mastering is a scam. I disagree.

I disagreed before, and now that I’ve listened to my finished, mastered album, I wholeheartedly disagree. My mixes sound balanced. The bass is consistent from one mix to the other. The songs are louder, punchier, but they still have dynamic range.

In short, they just sound polished, finished, professional. I’m thrilled with it. If you have the means, spend a few hundred bucks on a good mastering engineer. You’ll be glad you did.

What about YOU?

What do you think? Do you have extra tips for us? Leave a comment below.

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7 Tips for Finishing Your Album 16 Aug 2010, 6:00 pm

As I mentioned last week, my album is finished, and I’m getting ready to release it in the next couple of weeks. If you’d like a free sample, head over to JoeGilderMusic.com. I’m giving away 3 songs from the album. These were all recorded and mixed in my home studio.

I’m planning some pretty cool things for the album release, so make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter, or subscribed to the HSC RSS feed. More to come soon.

But first, let me share with you some tips for finishing an album. There are a bajillion steps involved in producing any recording project, and today I want to share with you 7 tips that really helped me as I went from “I’m working on my album” to “I’m finished with my album.” I’ll share these over the course of several articles. Enjoy!

1. Finish writing the songs before you start recording them.

As tempting as it may be to start recording a song as soon as you’ve written it, resist the urge. As you probably know, songs aren’t written, they’re rewritten. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written a song, started recording it for a few days, then realized that the song needed some major work. Usually that meant scratching everything I’d recorded.

Make sure the lyrics and arrangement are finished before you start recording. You’ll be glad you did.

2. “Chunkify”

I just made up that word, I think.

Whenever there are chores to do around the house, my wife has this habit of saying, “We’ve got a lot to do today.” I always respond with, “What exactly do we have to do?” After she lists out the two or three tasks, it then becomes clear to both of us that it’s not really that much.

It’s the same way with recording. If you speak in terms of “I’m finishing this song” rather than “I’m comping the lead vocals,” you’ll always feel like you have this insurmountable mountain of work to do.

The solution is to divide your projects up into chunks, small individual tasks that, when added up, equal a completed project. For example, rather than saying,

I need to edit all 10 songs.

I would say

I need to edit the acoustic guitars on “No Time” and “Home.”
I need to edit the piano no “Come Quickly.”
I need to edit the bass on “I Won’t Fly Away.”
etc. etc.

Suddenly, I have a list of 100 tasks that I need to complete to finish the album. Sure, 100 tasks is a lot, but it’s measurable. As you chip away at one, you feel a little bit of satisfaction and motivation as you scratch if off your to-do list forever.

[By the way, for more on editing, check out Understanding Editing.]

3. Set deadlines, even if you miss them.

This is nothing new, but it’s worth re-emphasizing. Having a deadline looming in the back of your mind will make you focus more on the task at hand. I missed all sorts of deadlines with my album, but having those deadlines helped me keep moving forward, otherwise, it would’ve turned into one of those 7-year projects that’s always “in the works.”

I would suggest setting deadlines for each of your “chunks.” This will help you with both gaining focus and determining how long it will actually take to finish your album.

Okay, that’s enough for today. I’ll post a few more tips in the next article, but before I do, I need 15 comments on this post. Let me know what you think. What are YOU going to implement today?

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Using Distortion on Vocals [Video] 13 Aug 2010, 8:00 pm

Are you ever mixing a song, and the vocal just won’t cut through? You try to EQ out some lows or boost some highs. Nothing. You try to compress the daylights out of it. Still not cutting through enough. Try using distortion.

I’m not talking about distorted vocals. I’m talking about using distortion to help the vocals cut through. Check out this video, then leave a comment!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpA_cy_1-9c

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