Improving Your Musical Skills to Make Better Recordings

Improving Your Musical Skills to Make Better Recordings

Picture a good recording session. The instrumentalists and vocalists work well together, songs come together pretty quickly. Different takes are similar enough that (if necessary) editing between takes is possible. If parts will be overdubbed later, the tracks leave room for that. The artist, producer and engineer are happy with the results. Later, the mix session goes well with little time spent "cleaning up" performances or riding faders. What's involved in getting these things to happen?

An Imaginary Session

Look at recording from the viewpoint of the people who will work with the music after the session -- the producer, the mix engineer, and the artist.

The producer is looking for tracks that satisfy both her/himself and the artist. That includes good time and pitch, coherence from beginning to end, style and mood, band tracks that accompany vocals well, mix well, and won't pull focus from the vocal.

A mix engineer wants performances within the dynamic range of the recording equipment. Playing too loudly can cause clipping and too softly could mean tracks with hiss, leakage from the headphones, other problems with noise.

The artist-vocalist is looking for instrumental performances that she feels comfortable singing with and that suit the mood of the song. Each instrumentalist's performance needs to feel connected to the vocal, and instruments generally need to avoid doubling the vocal with the top notes of their voicing. That's important -- comping instruments need to learn to avoid playing the melody.

"Suiting the song" can mean checking out the meaning of the lyrics and considering the artist's overall tastes in music. There's nothing to be gained by imagining that anyone knows what the record needs better than the artist-vocalist. There are plenty of sessions where male musicians and engineers subtly marginalize a female artist-vocalist who has hired them. If the artist is less experienced than some of the other personnel, that doesn't change anything. It's still her CD. Everyone else has been called in to make her sound good.

Improving Your Musicianship

How does this apply to musicians? Time and pitch issues are two problems that can stick out right away and keep you from being asked back. Here are some practice tips:

Many musicians have good "downbeat time" but rush particular figures, or else they have slight unevenness in their lines. To combat these problems, try recording loops of both straight and swinging 8th notes at every tempo and play rhythmic figures along with them, listening closely.

Work at "compressing yourself" when recording. First try playing with little or no dynamics. Then work at having real control of your dynamics, being able to play an entire tune softer or louder.

To improve pitch accuracy, practice playing or singing with headphones over one or both ears. Instrumentalists and vocalists inexperienced with headphones will usually have a hard time with pitch. Practice recording with the headphones at soft levels -- loud headphones will bleed into the mics.

Vocalists, violinists etc. can make ultra-slow recordings of the lines they're going to sing or play using a keyboard, sequencer etc., then practice centering each pitch with the recording.

Gaining Recording Experience

Bring a Zoom H2 recorder to gigs. Record yourself rehearsing. Also record yourself playing or singing with a metronome and with recorded music. Sequencers, metronomes and recording devices can be great practice tools.

There's no substitute for playing sessions. If possible, walk into the booth at each session to hear the sounds and hear how the engineer is monitoring.

Create your own recording opportunities. Get together with players to record yourselves. If you can multi-track (never cheaper or simpler than it is today) then have a go at mixing what you record so you can hear the results.

Sitting in on mixing sessions, talking to engineers, learning about recording -- even doing some engineering yourself -- will all help you to record better. Listen to recorded music and try and figure out how the tracks were recorded. Recorded with a click or not? All at once, or with overdubs? Can you hear edits? Try to hear how the mics were placed on particular instruments.

Paul Tavenner, owner of Big City Audio in Chatsworth, a popular studio for recording jazz, says that musicians sometimes insist on a microphone choice and placement, or other aspects of recording. Remember that engineers develop their ears for years, just as musicians do. The engineer is on your side! It's good to come in to a session open-minded, then listen to the recorded sound and offer suggestions if needed.

Instrumentalists can become overly focused on minute aspects of their track, ignoring the big picture. At a recent session a soloist asked the producer endless questions about subtleties, eating up studio time and preventing listening back. Ultimately the producer started saying, "Play as you think best. I'll tell you if something needs changing."

There are plenty of anecdotes about session musicians who "nail the first take," never having heard the song before. That's great, but don't let that stop you from carefully transcribing vocals and guitar parts from the songwriter's demo, then writing and rehearsing lines that mesh well with them. Recording a great part can justify extra hours of preparation.

Situations come up where gear malfunctions, or one person is having a hard time. Sometimes it becomes necessary for everyone to play one good take after another in order to get even one usable version of the song. Those are situations where having great recording skills really pays off.