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Here are some tips for home recording studios. Some of these are obvious and some are not. We hope you find them useful. If you have a question please E-mail us.

Remember, rules are meant to be broken. They are also meant to be learned. In the realm of audio recording there really are no rules, but there are some things that just seem to work well most of the time. Please keep in mind that these are general tips for beginning engineers and don't apply to all styles of recording.

Microphone Techniques
1) With musicial instruments or multi voice groups, always try to capture a stereo sound in a real environment with your microphones. This creates a more interesting sound for the ear.

2) Don't always close-mic everything. Try giving a little space, especially to acoustic instruments with delicate arrangements. Some instruments that can work well with distant mic techniques are violin, mandolin, concert hall recordings. Also, experiment with distant stereo mics on drums for a more "vintage" and "live" sound.

3) Vocals - Every vocalist has a slightly different quality that may need different microphone selection. There is no end-all microphone that is best for every vocal. Experiment with your vocalist on different microphones and distances. General distance for vocals is anywhere from 3-12 inches for most recordings. Try a pop filter, and suspend the microphone if possible.

4) Toms - A lot of people like to mic underneath the toms and snare. We haven't had much luck with that combination. However for a jazz recording where the drummer uses brushes, try adding an additional mic underneath the snare. You'll have a little more control at mixdown to mix in the snare sound to taste.

Compression
Compression is a matter of taste. If you compress everything you can sap the life out of the recording. For most recordings if you DON'T compress ANYTHING you can lose a little of the punch. Exceptions could be some acoustic, concert hall, orchestral and smaller jazz combo recordings.

Typical instruments that are compressed: Vocals, kick, snare, most bass players, rock guitars, some acoustic guitars.

Typical instruments that are NOT compressed: Cymbals, distant recital recordings, smaller delicate recordings like jazz combos.

Reverb
Reverb shouldn't be used to hide a bad vocal or performance. Reverb is used to create an acoustic space, and for distance. Use your panning to control placement left to right and use your reverb to create distance. This way you have a slight three dimensional control over your finished sound.

Pre-Delay - Make sure to experiment with the pre-delay setting on your reverb, especially for vocals. Try a 10ms pre-delay on vocal reverbs as a starting point.

Snare - If possible try to have a dedicated reverb for your snare and drums. As a starting point, time the reverb on the snare to decay before the next hit of the kick.

Guitars - Instead of reaching for the reverb on electric guitars, try some chorus. Often you can get the same effect your ear was looking for, without making the mix muddy.

Instruments that normally do NOT have reverb: Kick and Bass.

EQ
Try subtractive eq instead of additive. First fine tune the frequencies you DON'T WANT down, then add where needed.

Bass and Kick - Try to give the bass and kick their own frequency range. Some people like the kick on bottom and the bass right above, and vice versa. (Depends on the style of music too). Also check the higher frequencies to add a little attack and snap on the kick, and a little treble definition to the bass.

Vocals - In general the vocals should be full but have a presence in the area of 4-8k.

Don't Get Caught In The Gear Hype Game
Try not to get too caught up into the latest gear, but when you do buy gear try to get the best you can. There are some great recordings out there done on inexpensive digital 8 track machines.

Most of the projects that come from home recording studios to us to be mixed are weak in the performance or recording technique, not in the gear they have. Common engineer's phrase is "It's Not The Gear, It's The Ear".

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