Home Recording/Tone Enhancement

[milofultz]

I know I might be stepping on a couple toes here (Sorry Sam), but being the poor bastard I am, I want to record all of my music myself on my laptop and thus, decided to bring to you a couple of techniques for home recording and getting your tone closer to the sound you hear in your head. I'll post some references to websites and clippings that just give little ideas and techniques for certain recording aspects, tone placement, and real tone enhancement.

Recording drums with a stereo pair - If you've only got a couple mics, or very few tracks to play with, try this: Place a pair of SM-57's 10 feet in front of the drumset, 3 feet high, 3-4 feet from each other pointed straight at the drum set. You can actually get a pretty good sounding recording with this method, especially if you've got a nice live room to record in. Adding some compression really gives it some balls, too.

www.jakeludington.com/project_studio/20050321_build_your_own_microphone_pop_screen.html


Some Equalization Values:
80hz - rumble of the bass
100hz - thump of the kick
200hz - bottom of the guitar
250hz - warmth of the vocal
350hz - bang of the snare
400hz - body of the bass
500hz - clang of the high hat
600hz - clang of the cymbals
800hz - ping of ride cymbal
1000hz - meat of the guitar
1200hz - body of the snare
1400hz - meat of the vocal
1600hz - snap of the kick/plectrum on guitar (attack)
2500hz - wires and snap of snare
3000hz - presence of the vocal
4000hz - ring of ride cymbal/top end of bass guitar
6000hz - sizzle of the high hat
7000hz - sizzle of the cymbals
8000hz - top end of the kick
9000hz - brightness on snare and cymbals
10000hz - brightness on vocal
12000hz - air on vocal
14000hz - air on cymbals

More to come when i find them.

[milofultz]

These are all pulled off of this site:
www.guitarists.net/lessons/view.php?id=152

Here is a reference of instrument frecuencies:
To understand EQ and its intricacies you need hands-on experience, but to help you get started, here's a table of general uses and the different ranges that EQ can affect. As every sound is different, though, these are necessarily very general guidelines...

Kick Drum
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Try a small boost around 5-7kHz to add some high end.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom to the sound
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
5-8kHz ~ Adds high end prescence
8-12kHz ~ Adds Hiss

Snare
Try a small boost around 60-120Hz if the sound is a little too wimpy. Try boosting around 6kHz for that 'snappy' sound.

100-250Hz ~ Fills out the sound
6-8kHz ~ Adds prescence

Hi hats or cymbals
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. To add some brightness try a small boost around 3kHz.

250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Bass
Try boosting around 60Hz to add more body. Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz.If more presence is needed, boost around 6kHz.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness Area
800-1kHz ~ Adds beef to small speakers
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds high-end presence
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Vocals
This is a difficult one, as it depends on the mic used to record the vocal. However...Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the mic and song.Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

100-250Hz ~ Adds 'up-frontness'
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8kHz ~ Adds sibilance and clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Piano
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off around 300Hz. Apply a very small boost around 6kHz to add some clarity.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom
100-250Hz ~ Adds roundness
250-1kHz ~ Muddiness area
1-6kHz ~ Adds presence
6-8Khz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Electric guitars
Again this depends on the mix and the recording. Apply either cut or boost around 300hz, depending on the song and sound. Try boosting around 3kHz to add some edge to the sound, or cut to add some transparency. Try boosting around 6kHz to add presence. Try boosting around 10kHz to add brightness.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6Khz ~ Cuts through the mix
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8=12kHz ~ Adds hiss

Acoustic guitar
Any apparent muddiness can be rolled off between 100-300Hz. Apply small amounts of cut around 1-3kHz to push the image higher. Apply small amounts of boost around 5kHz to add some presence.

100-250Hz ~ Adds body
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

Strings
These depend entirely on the mix and the sound used.

50-100Hz ~ Adds bottom end
100-250Hz ~ Adds body
250-800Hz ~ Muddiness area
1-6hHz ~ Sounds crunchy
6-8kHz ~ Adds clarity
8-12kHz ~ Adds brightness

[Shayne the Kid]

OOO I wanna toy around with this!

[milofultz]

Do eeeeet.

[tyler]

Sweet dude. I might be getting an electric drum kit here in the near future so I will have to try this out.

[Take92]

I don't give a fuck, that'll give me more time to record my own shit. Lots of people want to know this. Spread the word.

[milofultz]

Sweet.

[ryankojan]

if you have any recording questions shoot me a message, i record music for a living and have a pretty nice studio.

[milofultz]

More EQ information.

www.recordingeq.com/EQ/req0400/OctaveEQ.htm

[Ladon]

Anyone know where to download some sweet VST plugins at?

[milofultz]

The internet.

No, but really:

www.kvraudio.com/

[Take92]

stillwellaudio.com

[Ladon]

Fuck yeah!!! Thanks guys!!!