UP TOP

This month its all about what you have up top… not in terms of your new seventies fling back hair do (or not new in some cases), but your front end.

It is common sense that in order to get the best sounding mix, you need to have the best sounding recordings to begin with. If you can get a quality signal onto “tape” in the first place, it prevents the need for this endless quest that some people undergo to ‘save’ the mix.

One of the first things I was taught, was the age old industry slogan that “you cant polish a terd” and this is very true (although some vocalists we’ve all come across really try to push the boundaries on that making you salvage more than you want to and they themselves hoping ‘autotune’ or ‘melodyne’ will turn them into the next Aretha… hmmm…).

EQing a poorly recorded signal can only get rid of some of the unwanted frequencies, and can only cut and boost what is already there so if your signal lacks low end and warmth, an EQ plug in will not be a quick fix solution.

If you are recording a vocal in a home studio you have further considerations. The first one being the actual recording space you are using. If your studio room does not have a nice sound and is not acoustically treated, using a very sensitive condenser microphone with a hypercardiod, figure 8 or omni pick up pattern may pick up unwanted and undesirable room noise. Instead opt for a cardiod pattern and try and position the vocalist in a suitable area of the room where the reflections are likely to be less. If you have a problem with a condenser mic picking up too much background noise, especially when you boost the gain to try and get a better signal to “tape”, perhaps try using a dynamic microphone instead.

When using a close mic technique with a cardiod pattern Dynamic mic, it tends to be very directional and should pick up more of the direct sound source (in this case a vocal) and less of the room noise. You can also benefit from the proximity effect taking place on weaker vocals, which is where bass tones sound more prominent as the mic is closer to the sound source. This effect is good for female vocals and also male vocalists that have a sweet spot in the lower fundamental frequencies.

If you find that even with your favourite condenser mic, you do not have much sensitivity, or the quality / tone of your recorded signal is lacking an apparent ‘space’ or ‘depth’, it is probably the preamp that needs looking at.

With most soundcards, the preamps built in are not of a very high standard in most people’s opinions. If you consider that on a £300RRP soundcard how much is spent on the A/D and D/A converters for one, then the casing, the manufacturing, etc, then per mic pre, it is probably around 50p!

It is definitely worth investing in a good quality mic pre to add to your set up, whether you have a budget soundcard or a more high end interface, a dedicated preamp can offer a good alternative and allows you to have greater flexibility over the quality, tone and depth of your recordings. For people on a tighter budget, channel strips tend to be the best value purchase as you get several functions included on one unit, making it good value for money and more flexible in use.

Going back to my cooking analogy last week, I feel recording and mixing in analogue as opposed to in digital is the difference between cooking in the oven and in the microwave. The microwave might have some fancy touch screen controls and be quicker and easier, but it just doesn’t ‘taste’ the same as when cooked in the oven.

These days, as with cooking, a combination of microwave oven and conventional oven recording and mixing seems to be the answer. Time efficient without sacrificing ‘taste’.

You need to know when to take advantage of different technologies, something that I intend to help with over the months.

Having a nice analogue front end can make a huge difference to your finished sound.

So put some thought into what you have up top and turn your studio heat up to ‘number 11’ (gas mark that is).