Production and recording on a budget pt.2 Production

Intro.:
There seems to be some sort of debate on what a producer is. Honestly, I do not see why.
Let's just start by ending this debate right now. The producer has two jobs:
1. He/She is responsible for selecting the technology used on the recording.
2. He/She is responsible for quality control on the record.
If you are not fulfilling these 2 simple criteria you are not producing a record.
It is important to remember that if someone is hiring you to produce a record they are depending on you to make sure that their record meets your (hopefully) high standards.




A producer doesn't have to lift a finger to do his/her job, only help the artist make the important decisions and being a musician does not instantly qualify you as a producer. You need to have a vision of what the record should sound like and the means to reach your vision.
So can a record exist without a producer?
Yes, I've had the misfortune of being hired to mix producer-less recordings. If you are showing up to a mix session and you still have not organized your stems, and the engineer has to wade through all of your takes and pick which ones should make the record then the very least you should do is pay him/her some extra money and give him/her a co-production credit.
That kid on the internet who sold you a beat and then walked away does deserve a writing credit but he/she is a musician (there is definitely no shame in that) not a producer, and so he/she doesn't deserve a production credit. I don't know why people fight for production credits when the truth is a writing credit is where you get residual payments from the record anyway.
As stated in part one of this series,
"What I will be covering in this series are those little tips that will take your productions from amateur to entry level/pro."

This post is broken up into 3 sections; recording live instruments, synths and samplers, and soft synths.
Remember the key to being a good producer is creativity. It is up to you when it comes to choosing what techniques/effects etc. are used on your production projects.

1.Live instruments:
Now, since this series is about recording on a budget there is a chance that you will never record any live instruments in your home studio. But you should learn to record these three instruments in the "proper" manner because it will open your mind up to techniques that you can apply to your tracks even if you never see a "real" instrument in your studio.
The three instruments I have chosen are; drum kit (which you probably will be faking with a drum machine or soft synth), Acoustic guitar (you never know when you might want to record one of these), and Electric guitar. I'll leave mic selection up to you. what I am outlining here is the "traditional" technique used to record each one of these instruments.

Drum Kit:
Micing a drum kit is fairly simple. Basically you mic each drum skin or you can use an "area" mic between drums (remember drums are loud), and mic the cymbals with two overhead mics. Most of you have seen a concert before so I don't have to explain this part to you.
For extra tone you may want to "double mic" a particular drum, like the snare or the kik. To do this place an additional mic facing the other side of the skin and reverse that mic's phase (you can do this in most DAWs, on some mixing boards or with special cables). This will prevent phase cancelation. In addition to tuning, the kick drums tone can be adjusted by placing and moving soft objects inside of it, this is handy to know when you want to get the kick drum sound just right.
Overhead mics are the ones most amateurs set up wrong. Remember your overheads aren't just picking up the cymbals, they are picking up the whole drum kit from above so it is important to set them up correctly. Draw an imaginary line from the snare drum to the kick, then at the half way point draw another line throught the first one at a right angle. Your overhead mics should go an equal distance apart from where those two lines intersect, along that second imaginary line. Why? Because in the "traditional" method the kick drum and the snare drum are always at the center of the mix.
Now that your drum mics are all in position pan them across the stereo image. Pan the right overhead mic the furthest right (but not neccesarily all the way right), then the right most Tom, etc. and you should pan your left overhead mic the furthest left followed by the left most Tom etc., leave the kick drum and the snare in the middle of the mix.
The compressors you use are up to you, but I would strongly suggest compression on the snare so that there is room in your mix for vocals.



That is how it is done, hopefully you can see how this knowledge will help you get a bigger drum sound even if you are using Fruity Loops.

Acoustic Guitar:
Acoustic guitars are an incredibly popular instrument, so chances are at some point you will get to record one. They can be mic-ed in three ways; with one mic, two mics or the traditional 3/4 mic arrangment (which requires a fairly large recording space).
Mic1 is placed facing the body of the guitar, if you are using a semi-acoustic you can (if you choose to) replace this mic by plugging into a DI box and then into your recording device. When you only have one mic available this is the setup to use. Mic2 should face the same direction as Mic1 (to prevent phase cancelation) and be aimed at the fretboard to pick up the movement of the fingers on the strings.
Mic 3/4 is either a stereo mic or two mics placed at a distance from the musician (say 6 feet) to pick up the natural reverb, decay and room tone created by the guitar.



Electric Guitar:
Electric guitars are pretty simple to mic. I am only including them because alot of you have them. There are two ways to record an electric guitar, with a DI (no self respecting producer would do this though) and by mic-ing your amplifier.
What mic you use, how far away, and where you place your mic is up to you. Some people like to run Bass guitars straight through a DI, personally I think you get better tone if you mic them. In the ideal scenario I would both mic and DI the bass guitar and either mix the two signals together or pick the one I like the most. Electric Pianos like the Fender Rhodes also sound better (in my opinion) when you run them through an amp of some sort and mic it instead of recording them directly (unless you modify them some how).



2.Synths/Samplers:
There are three types of synths; Analog synths (I'm including digital synths that approximate the old Analog gear here as well), Sample based synths, and combination synths (they combine both Analog and Sample based sounds) and two types of outboard samplers; keyboard based and drum machine based.
Analog:
If on your travels you come across one of these things, even if it only has two oscillators buy it.
Like all the instruments in this section you can plug them directly in to your recording system. These things are the mother of all phat synth sounds/electro etc.
Basically they work by generating various types of tones in their oscillators, sine tones bieng the smoothest and saw shaped tones bieng the roughest. By de-tuning, and combining different types of tones you can create an infinite amount of synth sounds. If you are lucky enough to find one with 4 oscillators you could pottentially mimic every classic synth but 2 will be more than enough if you are looking to make some "nasty" sounds. Don't be afraid to run these bad boys through some effects units...



Sample based:
Sample based outboard synths really should be obslete by now but they are not. We are talking modules like the Proteus 1 here. These things use audio samples to try to recreate actual instruments. Of course soft synths on computers can do a much better job of this than an outboard piece of gear becuase of the sheer amount of samples and processing power needed to do this accuratley. But if you stop thinking of these things as approximations of reality and start seeing them as a source of kitchy "nearly real" sounds suddenly they become relevant again. Not to mention you can find alot of these things like the Proteus1, the Planet Phat (EMU ruled this stuff...where did they go?) for cheap at second hand music places.



Combination Synths:
Most digital synths are combination synths. They have the ability to generate tones and they have a bank of sample based sounds in their library. Really it is up to you as producers, and musicians to dig into your machines and make your own sounds. Why not combine a tuba with a Moog?



Samplers:
Everyone reading this is aware of how samplers and sampling is used in Hiphop.
What I am hoping is that if I talk about the intended use of these instruments (from their creators) you will start to see why I stress the importance of thinking outside of the box. Nothing that I have written is a set rule, just a starting point for you to develope your own techniques from.
Keyboard based Samplers:
These are the oldest type of audio samplers you might add to your studio. Most of these are rack based. So what was their initial intended use? Basically the same as the sample based synths, they were intended to map realistic instrument sounds across a midi keyboard with the added flexibility of accepting user created sounds.
Drum machine based samplers:
The oldest bieng the Linn Drum. Roger Linn decided to make a drum machine (most early drum machines were sample based like the 808, the DMX etc.) but his machine would allow the user to create their own drum sounds through its sample function. This eventually lead to him designing the Akai MPC60 on which all of the MPC's are based.

We know how Hiphop took these tools and transformed music. Never let anything limit your art.



3. Soft Synths:
Sure there are expensive soft synths capable of replicating an entire orchestra or a choir, but for the most part you don't need to worry about those things.
Soft synths lack the "character" of all the other synths and samplers listed above, they are certainly not collectible in the same sense, nor will your copy of whatever soft synth program ever go up in value. But what they may lack in in "character" they make up for in 2 ways.
Now at this point I could talk about the different types of soft synths and the advantages of using certain programs, VSTi's etc. but I won't. I'm just going to tell you the two reasons why you should, as a producer think about using soft synths instead of "real" ones and call it a day.
No hiss; That's right no hiss. The first guy I knew to start using Reason (over real gear) was a trance producer and when I asked him why his answer was no hiss. Soft synths, because they are already part of your recording gear, your computer, are easy to record without any sort of problems often attached to recording live instruments.
They are cheap; remember this series is about keeping things on a tight budget, and the truth is you can have a studio worth of sounds for the price of Reason, Fruity loops, etc., which also means you won't be limited by your equipment if you intend to make synth based music.



That said, a good producer will also realize that limitations are often the mother invention.
Volume 3 - "The Mix Stage" is next.

peace,

One Love.