Step1
Getting solid recordings track by track is key to having a great mix at the end of the production. Here are a few 'inside tips' that I've picked up in studios around the NY/CT area through the years.
I've also compiled these ideas and many, many more into the successful "Pro Techniques for Home Recording" manual on www.joedocmusic.com - it contains diagrams and audio to accompany the ideas, and also tells you how to get better, clearer sounds with the gear you have, AND contains a glossary of terms (explained in clear english, no tech-babble) and loads of effects, mixing and mastering tips!
Here is a hint for each instrument I mentioned in the title:
Step2
ELECTRIC GUITAR:
Quite often, the novice engineer will start off by jamming a microphone way in close to the amp. We'll use on of those as well, but let's start a little differently. We want to create a 'picture' of the amp - give it a little 'air' and a nice image in the final mix.
Start off with your ears as the mic. Have the guitarist play, and walk around in front of - and behind - tha amp until you hear a sweet spot, where there is a nice blend of room tone, and the amp sounds well balanced. Place a large diaphragm condenser microphone there. A Neumann TLM 103 U87 M149, MXL v6 or v69 , AKG 414 , AT 4033 4050 or 4060 or something from Rode or even a cheap one from T-Bone will do the trick!
Now, get in close to the amp with a Shure SM57 Sennheiser 421 or 109 and aim it at the cone, and then put it a little off center. This position may need to be adjusted - use your ears! There are a load of diagrams and audio files in "Pro Techniques for Home Recording" at joedocmusic.com
Now, bring up the close mic in your monitors, and begin blending in the room mic. You may even want to pan them slightly apart (learn delay-based panning tricks in "Pro Tech. for Home Recordings"!)
This should give you a great starting point for a full guitar tone.
Step3
BASS GUITAR:
Many engineers depend on a DI for bass, but there is a lot that an amp offers bass tones. Tip - the Countryman Bass D.I. is a studio favorite. It's Class A design assures strong, solid bass notes!
First of all, an amp (and especially the speakers) acts as a filter, EQ'ing the sound and cutting off some highs and lows. These cutoff points add a certain contour to the tone that a DI often misses.
Second, the amp/speaker combo adds a small (sometimes not-so-small!) amount of distortion to the signal. This distortion produces overtones which are harmonically related to the fundamental tone, and act as as type of natural 'exciter' and fill out the bass sound.
SO! What to do? Use a DI - no problem - but run that bass into an amp as well, and mic it up with an AKG D12 or EV RE20 to handle the extra bass energy. Run this signal to a separate track than the DI.
After tracking a bit of bass, zoom in on the waveforms if you are on a computer based recording system (DAW). Using a sharp plucked or picked note on the DI track as a reference, line up the attack of the amp signal to the DI signal (the amp signal is probably just a few milliseconds later, depending on where you place the mic)
By aligning the bass signals, you assure that the is NO low-frequency phase cancellation (whew! what a mouthful of words!) What this cancellation sounds like IF it's there in your recordings is often a 'weak bass' or 'disappearing notes'!
Aligning the two tracks will assure you a solid bass sound to drive your track, and the flavor of the amped signal will give you the edge over other more sterile recordings!
Step4
ACOUSTIC DRUMS:
This is a cause of frustration for many budding engineers. I also learned a lot of things the hard way. Let's use a little common sense before starting to cut tracks -
1) Drums, like any other instrument, need to be tuned. Make sure the instrument sounds great before beginning! You may want to beg or borrow a better snare for the session if you're not knocked out by the snare sound. In a rock or pop mix, the snare can sometimes be the loudest instrument! Make sure it sounds great.
2) Drums are loud. The room will respond. Try to use a good acoustic space. Again - no amount of EQ or microphones or crying and screaming will fix the room tone after the fact. Use your ears.
3) Less can very often be more - in this case, less microphones. The more mic's you put up on the drum kit, the more bleed through you'll get from mic to mic, and therefore more muddiness and phase cancellation. If you do use separate tom mics, gate them!
Let's start micing!
A close kick and snare mic are pretty much necessary, so that you may later trigger samples or replace hits. This is just a fact of modern production. HOWEVER! Don't forget to 'take a picture' of the kit with one of your large diapragm condenser mics - same trick as the guitar amp - just walk around till you hear a sweet spot. Try to find something 6-8 feet in front of the kit. This will give you a nice blend of all the pieces. I've mixed records using 60% or more of a front-of-kit mic as the drum sound. It can be great!
TRICK: Consider remic'ing parts of the kit. Run the kick and snare through a guitar amp, or a guitar amp plug-in and back to a track. Then, blend in a bit of this sound. You'll see that it gives a depth and punch to the kit without sounding artificial, like drum samples or triggers sometimes do. Of course, if you blend in a lot, you could wind up with some far out sounds for the song, or even just for the bridge, intro or outro... Oh, so many possibilities!
For LOADS more drum tips, check out joedocmusic.com! The Recording book is the most popular course at the moment.
Step5
VOCALS:
Recording the human voice can be the most simple or the most agonizing aspect of the record production process. I won't get into the technical setup side here, but rather the more philosophical. Obviously, a great room, killer large diaphragm mic, a top notch preamp and compressor and a high grade converter will do you good, but you can cut great tracks on a cheap mic, too!
That's the first tip. If you've set up a whole tower of gear and acoustic treatment, your best mic, etc etc, and the sound is still not happening, stop and take a break.
Then, come back in to the studio, plug in a Shure SM58 and tell the singer to just 'throw down a rough take'. Many of us are not working with trained and/or experienced pro singers, so the pressure of the studio (big mic, 'don't touch it', pop filter, millions of LED's, gawking drummers and guitarists, "this is THE take") can ruin the vibe. You may find that the quality of the performane will be so much better on the simple setup, due to the pressure being off, that you'll wind up using that track, even at the minor expense of sound quality.
TIP: Don't fall into the 'deader is better' trap. Many novice engineers will use loads of acoustic foam, pillows, rolled up carpets, and ping-pong tables stood on end to 'deaden' the acoustics for the vocal track, only to search wildly for a good 'room reverb' at mix time! If you have a little space, or the neighbors are tolerant, then have the singer sing a few lines in the bathroom, hallway or stairwell. Try it out! You may find just the right overall vibe is there, and it may also be conducive to an inspired performance as well.
ANOTHER TIP: Air pops and hisses in the mic are one of the major problems that you'll run into. Two solutions:
1) Have the singer back up a bit. "Eating the mic" is not always a way to get great tone. In fact, some mics will distort in a bad way as well.
2) You should get a pop filter anyway ($5-10), but sometimes they still don't work well. So, tape a pencil upright (vertically) right on the mic's housing - placing it between singer's big mouth and the mic's diaphragm. This can split off those bursts of pepperoni-breath, and stop the mic from popping, sputtering, and (maybe) from smelling bad afterwards.
Step6
Hope You've enjoyed this handful of tips. The "Pro Techniques for Home Recording" is a regular adventure in the studio, full of great anecdotes and loads more recording ideas, all with audio, diagrams and more. Check it out at joedocmusic.com
image and text copyright joe dochtermann. may not be used without express written permission
Enthusiast 
