Ham_authority95 said:
BonsaiK said:
Ham_authority95 said:
My band is writing some songs, and if we have more than 5-6 songs by the end of summer, we were planning on recording a demo.
Since I don't want it to sound like it was recorded on someones phone, I need some advice on sound quality and recording techniques.
Also, we're a metal band and will probably need different recording advice because of it.
Give me the lineup of your band, how many members, who plays what, also gender and style of vocalists (i.e is there screaming, singing, death metal growls, etc). I need sleep but I'll answer this one in about 10 hours.
Alright, I'm not saying anyone's last name.
Kellen(me): Bass.
Anthony: Lead/rhythm guitar and vocals(Uses a growl-like voice Influenced by James Hetfield of Metallica)
Kyle: Rhythm/lead guitar
Chris: Drums(Note: Its in debate about whether he's continuing with us, since there is something going on with him and Anthony, but if he leaves we have some people in mind already.)
P.S: Great thread, I have it bookmarked.
Here's an equipment list if that will help:
Me: Ampeg BA115HP, Ibanez SG strung with DR Black Beauties, Ernie Ball Music Man strung with Ernie Ball Flatwounds(For any soft songs)
Anthony: B-52 Half-stack, ESP custom explorer, ESP Kirk Hammet signature, and an Epiphone Les Paul for lower tunings.
Chris: Ludwig 4 piece(Its too old to tell what specific model)
Kyle: Hagstrom Swede, B-52 half stack
Rightio then. I should have asked you the metal subgenre but never mind.
Apologies to casual readers this is going to be way tl;dr and probably a bit jargonish too.
When mixing a loud band, what you're trying to do is fill a frequency/stereo spectrum with as much stuff as you can, to get maximum "oomph". (Jimmy Page as a producer understood this which is why Led Zeppelin's recordings still sound modern today compared to a lot of other stuff recorded in the 70s which has a kind of "dullness" to the mix compared to modern stuff.) Imagine what the listener hears as a grid. Along the X axis of the grid, you have the stereo field, left, center and right. Along the Y axis you've got frequencies, low, medium and high, so you've got 9 parts of the grid. You want to put
something in all those 9 boxes, yet still have the result sound good.
The problem with metal bands is that
everyone wants to be the low guy. That ain't gonna happen. A mix that is all low sounds like shit, frankly, even if individual instruments all sound good, everything's fighting for the same space so nothing has any definition. So let's look at instruments one by one, how to record them and then we'll look at how to mix them and where they sit in the field.
Oh, you need good mics and plenty of them. You need as many mics as you've got inputs into your desk/computer/whatsit. Bare minimum, buy as many Shure SM57s as you can justify for instruments and a Shure SM58 for vocal. They are the industry standard mic, they are really for live work not studio but they are durable and versatile, they will get the job done if you can't afford the really good stuff. Don't buy any mic with an on/off switch on it. Get pro mics from a music store, not amateur ass shit from an electronics shop.
Drums - to record a bass drum you want a large diaphragm microphone. Industry standard for years has been the AKG D112 or "eggshell" mic,- if you don't own one of these or something similar a Shure SM57 or SM58 will do the job but nowhere near as well. There are many ways to record a bass drum but I find the best way is to sit the eggshell half-in/half-out of the small hole in the drummer's front skin. If the drummer doesn't have a hole there,
cut one. If he's got a
huge hole there, buy him another drum skin just for recording, with a small hole.
You should hang two overhead microphones above the drumkit, using big boom mic stands. Ideally these should be condensor microphones and they should sit at least two feet above any cymbals the drummer might have. They don't have to be the absolute best thing in the park (like the Neumann ones I recommended the other guy) but they need to be sensitive. Condensor mics are more sensitive than "dynamic" mics, if you can't afford condensors (or don't have the phantom power to run them) just get the most sensitive dynamic mics you can. These mics get your entire kit, and they also get a nice stereo effect on the toms if you position them right.
Then, put a mic on the snare. Some styles don't even need a snare mic but in metal you kind of do. Micing the top skin will usually sound better than micing the bottom skin, but if you mic the top skin you have the risk of the drummer clipping it with his stick. Maybe try both. A Shure SM57 sounds good on a snare, those little "clip-on" snare microphones also work well.
You don't need mics on the toms - the overheads will get those nicely. However if you've got shitty quality overheads you might have no choice in which case just use anything you got. Sennheiser's clip-on mics are wonderful if you got 'em. 57s, 58s will do in a pinch. Most metal drummers hit their toms once in a blue moon.
Bass: mic the cabinet with whatever you got that's large-diaphragm and can handle lowness. The AKG D112 is a good choice, so is a Sennehiser 412, there's plenty of other brands. Also DI the bass. Some bass amps have a DI output built into them, but they vary in quality. You can buy a DI box pretty cheap, any one will do, they all do the same shit, just make sure it has a "ground lift" input or switch. If you get hum from the bass that you can't get rid of, try using the ground lift and your hum may magically disappear. If you only have a choice of micing the cabinet or DIing the bass, personally I'd DI it unless the guys bass amp and the mic you are using to mic it is AMAZING.
A little word about micing speakers. Don't point your mic right at the center of the cone. You'll get horrible wind-flap noise and the sound is really harsh. Put it at an angle or pointing to the rim of the speaker a little.
Guitars: mic the cabs, 57s are great. Experiment with mic position, you get pretty different sounds depending on where you put the mic. Ask your guitarists if there's one particular speaker in their cab that sounds best, and/or try to work it out yourself, then mic that one.
Vocals: always record these later, but also record a "guide vocal" track if you're going to be all playing at the same time, just for cueing. For guide vocals just use a 58. For real vocals, use a large-diaphragm condesnor if you got one, they are expensive though. If not, use a 58 or some other mic, whatever you got that's designed for vocals but ideally best quality you can get. Don't forget to pop-shield it so your P's don't explode the diaphragm. Don't be a sucker and buy a pop shield, just get an old stocking and strech it over a coat hangar, then insert the coat hangar upside-down into the mic stand. Then have that between the lips and the mic. Don't sing right up to the mic if it's a condensor.
Should you record all at once, or one instrument at a time? Well, if it's a demo and you're doing this at home you may have no choice. If you're only able to get a certain amount of inputs into your desk/computer/whatever at a time, or only have a certain amount of microphones, you're stuck with having to record instruments one by one. Or if you've got lots of inputs then you can record all at once, which is generally better because even though you don't get as much acoustic isolation (in pro studios they achieve this by having separate rooms for the amps) you get more of a "live feel" which I think is more important for a metal band than pristine sound quality, frankly. If you have a choice, do it all in one hit if possible and only overdubbing guitar doubletracks and vocals, ideally.
When you record the drums, if you're having to do it bit by bit, you still want at least one other person in the band playing along, so the drummer can cue and he knows where the changes are. If you gotta pick one guy make it your guitarist/singer. After that you can add instruments at your leisure, with players listening through headphones while they record.
Onto mixing. Bassy guitars sound great, so does bassy bass guitar, so does bassy bass drum, so do bassy vocals. But they can't all live there or your mix will turn to mush. Mix your bass guitar dead center of stereo field and loooow. Same with kick drum but wind a little high end into the kick drum for definition. I'm gonna assume your drummer plays double-kick a lot, as metal drummers often do (too much in my opinion but anyway...) Hopefully your drummer has wooden beaters or click pads, they'll give his bass drumming the extra definition it needs to cut through, otherwise he'll just sound like a blobby noise above the bass guitar. If he's got soft felty things, consider buying him wooden beaters, they're not expensive. Cymbals provide the "air" at the top of the mix, make sure they're trebly enough to be heard and pan those overhead feeds you recorded hard left and right. Guitars - pan them left and right too, not all the way but about 90%. Don't leave them in the center of the mix cos that's where vocals go. If you have only one rhythm guitar, double-track it. If you have two, if they are playing the same thing you don't need to double-track it but if they're not, double-track the one doing the fat "chug chug" stuff and then pan the two tracks left and right. By double track I don't mean make a copy of the track, I mean actually get the guitarist to record the damn thing a second time. Now because they're panned left and right you can wind bass into them and they won't get in the way of the bass drum and bass guitar, both of which are panned centrally. But guitars really need midrange to cut through as well, especially for solos. Vocals, sit in your normal vocal range which is kinda mid to high, even if the person is a growler. In metal the vocals have to sit on top of all the chug or they get buried and you can't hear what's being sung. Vocalist must be panned centrally. The guitar, panned left and right, shouldn't get in the way, nor should the drums, which are also panned left and right. All the vocalist is competing with is the snare drum which should be bang in the middle of the mix and LOUD.
Hope that helps. You probably have more specific questions about this so fire away. Damn I haven't even discussed mixing from a desk/computer point of view...
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