Recording Tip 36: When recording, record with the mix in mind.

The ability to record with the mix in mind is a bit of a lost art these days.  When someone gives me a song to mix, I can tell within a few minutes if the person who recorded it understands this concept.  A well recorded song has certain characteristics technically, and I don’t mean subjective preferences of sounds.  These characteristics have to do with how the tracks were recorded, and consequently, how they play back.

When a well recorded song has a good basic balance, the faders should sit in the “sweet spot” of the fader track; somewhere between -15dB and 0.  Also, as the mix plays, a lot of fader pushing won’t be required to keep the mix balanced.  A well recorded song maintains a good balance with the faders sitting still.

This is something which was taught to me from day one as an assistant.  In the bad old days we couldn’t click a mouse and have the song open up with the exact levels we had last time we worked on it.  We’d load up the tape machine and have to quickly get up a mix from scratch with each song.  Good engineers soon learned that if they recorded with consistent fader levels, moving from song to song was much easier.  And of course as the label exec would invariably appear unannounced, they’d be able to make the best showing for the producer and artist, not to mention showing their own skills at things sounding good when they were at the helm.

To do this, engineers developed the idea of setting the monitor faders at an even level, and adjust recording levels into the stationary monitor faders.  We’d record almost like a live mix; adjusting recording levels as we worked so a lot of the balancing was already done.

Back in those days, the old joke was that if you recorded things well you could mix with a nickel and a yardstick.  Line all the faders up evenly with the yardstick, put a nickel under the lead vocal fader so it was a bit louder, move the yardstick up, nickel and all, until there was a good level on the stereo buss, and the mix would be done.  Of course I never saw such a thing happen and I doubt anyone ever really did that with a final mix.  But the story made for a good point about how to record well.  As an assistant I was fortunate to work with a lot of great engineers.  And every one of them worked this way.  Bill Schnee, Jack Joseph Puig, Elliot Scheiner, Al Schmidt....every one.

Now there’s no Grammy for “Best Fader Position in a Mix.”  And you may be thinking, “That sounds like some old fart spouting some old school technique which is pointless today.  Isn’t that why we have automation?”  Sure.  You can put your faders wherever you want and sort it out later. But there’s an additional benefit of setting the faders and adjust your recording levels to fit.  When you do, you end up choosing better parts and sounds.

The reason is this.  By not moving faders around so much you start thinking more about how each part works with the rest of the track.  A good part with a good sound blends into the mix more easily.  When recording if I can’t find a good level...if it always seems too loud or too soft, I wonder about what’s being recorded.  If I can’t find a balance where the part works throughout the song, I probably need to change the part, the sound, or both.

One last thought about this.  While recording with the mix in mind has a lot to do with levels, it also has to do with coming up with parts that will work well in the stereo field.  A great stereo mix has a good balance of parts in both speakers, giving the mix size and power.  So when recording, think of where a part may end up getting panned in the final mix.  Spatial interest is a huge part of good mixes..and makes song much more fun to listen to.  I always love it when I get a mix where somebody took the time to make parts that work well in stereo.  Of course, there are no rules.  Sometimes having a big guitar part on one side can be great, in particular if it’s a power trio.  But most songs sound better with a balanced feel between the two speakers.

But whatever you do, don’t get caught up in layering part after part, focusing only on the overdub of the moment.  Listen carefully, keeping the end in mind...a great mix for the song. 

Recording Tip 35: On a related note, I’ve heard of a fellow turning on a vacuum cleaner as he listens with the same purpose.

Now this is something I’ve never done, nor am likely to do, but it’s worth bringing up as it relates to Tip 34.  Again, maybe 1% of people who hear your mixes will listen in a quiet room with their head between the speakers.  At best it will be with headphones, but they’ll still most likely be doing something else when listening.  

The vacuum noise will mask a lot of things.  And if your mix is in good shape, you should be able to hear all the important elements over the din of the motor.  

I’m not saying to do this, but on the other hand, hey...if it works, do it!

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. A look back after Jobs' passing

A few months ago I wrote a blog about Steve Jobs upon his decision to step down from his position at Apple. Not long after that, he passed away. Recently I read the fantastic biography on his life by Walter Isaacson. It was one of the quickest 900+ page book I’d ever read and I highly recommend it. With that on my mind I felt it good to rewrite the blog a bit and update it after his passing. So here are some of my thoughts. I think there’s a lot to be learned from his life, no matter what field of endeavor we pursue.

In the fall of 2011 the news came from Apple which most of us knew we’d hear sooner rather than later. Steve Jobs resigned his position at the company he started. Over the last few years many of us watched with concern and sadness as Jobs’ physical condition deteriorated. We knew of his tremendous drive and passion for his work and that if he ever stepped down, it would only be because he was very ill. That proved to be more true than any outsider (and many insiders) knew. And as Isaacson revealed, Jobs dealt for a long time with pain very few could handle during his last year on the job.

It’s no stretch to say that Jobs’ vision and creativity has impacted all of us to one degree or another. It’s likely that a majority of you are reading this on some device created under his watchful eye. Even those using Windows or an Android phone are using technologies clearly traceable to Apple’s innovation. And beyond that, who doesn’t have at least an iPod or iTouch? Job’s influence in our world is all around us and his vision clearly set a standard for how things should work.

I remember when I bought my first Mac. It’s still in my studio, now sitting silent on top of my rack of gear. It’s a Mac SE, with a 20 MB hard drive and 4 MB of RAM. I had Speed Doubler installed so it runs at what was then a screaming 8Mhz. It’s a 1984 product which cost $2000. (Funny thing about that...That price point is still the cost of a decent desktop over all these years) It still works and had zero problems over the years. And like all Macs, Y2K came and went without any need for patches to make it cross the millenium boundary.

So what’s to be said for the end of the era of the Silicon Valley Pirates? There are probably some still in trenches who began back with Jobs and Gates, but these days Gates is a figurehead, and has been for a long time. Jobs however was the last active leader of that group. His passing marked the end of the era of the creators of personal computing. Jobs and others like him were Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers.” They had the right skills, were born at the right time, and put in the ten thousand hours required for world-class proficiency. His retirement closes the book on one of the most significant eras of human invention. The world has forever changed due to their ingenuity and drive.

By now there are numerous articles and blogs written about Steve Jobs by folks much more connected and reputable than I. I’m just a knob jockey who’s never purchased anything but Apple products. So what’s to be said that hasn’t already been written? I may echo other’s writings, but here’s what comes to mind.

When I think of Steve Jobs the first thing that comes to mind is his passion. You could see it every year at the Mac Expo when he spoke of the innovations Apple was going to release. No other CEO has ever commanded such anticipation and spoken to a live and web audience of such number every year. More than once I’d be in the studio and someone would ask, “Hey, did you see the Apple webcast?” It was that significant. But as good as the new products were, we didn’t watch just for information. We watched to be inspired by Jobs himself.

Yet not only did I feel passion when Jobs spoke, I felt it when I used Apple’s products. And that’s something truly remarkable. To be able to create a product which causes an emotional response by the user is nothing short of amazing. I recall the first time someone showed me an iPod. There was no need to demonstrate how it worked. It was as plain as day. After a few seconds of fiddling with it, I was breathless with the realization of what I had in my hand. It was complex, sophisticated, yet agonizingly simple to operate.

Wired writer Steven Levy was the first to show one to Bill Gates at a dinner after the iPod’s unveiling which sort of says it all.

I brought along my new iPod. At the end of the meal, just as the other guests at the table were pushing away their chairs, I pulled out the iPod and put it in front of Gates.
"Have you seen this yet?" I asked.
Gates went into a zone that recalls those science fiction films where a space alien, confronted with a novel object, creates some sort of force tunnel between him and the object, allowing him to suck directly into his brain all possible information about it. Gates' fingers, racing at Nascar speed, played over the scroll wheel and pushed every button combination, while his eyes stared fixedly at the screen. I could almost hear the giant sucking sound. Finally, after he had absorbed every nuance of the device, he handed it back to me.
"It looks like a great product," he said.
Then he paused a second. Something didn't compute.
"It's only for Macintosh?" he asked.
Yes, it was. (Then.)

The iPod was a paradigm shift in handheld digital products. The Mac OS was the same. There was a brilliant clarity about how it worked, and a kind of sex appeal about it. Sure Windows OS worked...at least sometimes. (I’m still baffled at how Vista left Redmond for release.) But somehow Apple continued to make product after product that worked with great efficiency and beauty.

The other thing which occurs to me with Steve Jobs is the personal power of a human being. Of course Jobs had his flaws. His rants and tyrannical behavior are legendary. (Again, read the book!) Perhaps such things were necessary for his work, perhaps not. Yet one cannot deny the very large mark he left on the world.

In 2005 Jobs gave the commencement speech at Standford University. At just under fifteen minutes long, it’s one of the most profound speeches you’ll ever hear.

In it Jobs tells three stories from his life. Three simple stories, all related to what he called “Connecting the dots.”

In this brilliant speech which he wrote himself, (He tried to get a famous Presidential speechwriter to write it for him. But when the writer’s commitments were too great, as was typical, Jobs just did it himself.) In it Jobs discussed how events in life which might seem unrelated today, often have great meaning later. He began with his experience at Reed College, his creation of Apple and his getting fired, then rehired. And finally, his experience with cancer.

I could hardly do justice to Jobs’ speech with some expository ramblings. Do yourself a favor and listen to it yourself. It’s perhaps the finest commencement address ever given. But I will include a few quotes from the speech in the hope that it will provoke you to take time to hear it.

CONNECTING THE DOTS
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.....You have to trust in something....Because believing that that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart...even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.”

LOVE AND LOSS
“I didn’t see it then. But it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced with the lightness of being a beginner again...less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one of the most creative periods of my life.”

“You’ve got to find what you love....Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied...is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”


DEATH
When he was seventeen Jobs read a quote which said, IF YOU LIVE EACH DAY AS IF IT WAS YOUR LAST, ONE DAY YOU’LL MOST CERTAINLY BE RIGHT. Jobs said, “And for the next 33 years I’ve looked in the mirror and asked, “IF TODAY WERE THE LAST DAY OF MY LIFE, WOULD I WANT TO DO WHAT I’M ABOUT TO DO TODAY” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Jobs always felt he would die young. Perhaps that was a part of his unshakable drive.
As he gave that speech in 2005 he thought his bout with his illness was over. So of course those words carry even more weight today.

As I said before I’d be a fool to summarize Jobs’ speech. His words and his immense passion speak well enough on its own. My desire is to take them to heart and apply them to my own life. It’s probably no stretch to say that most all of you reading this are blessed to be doing what you love, or working toward that goal. But as the years and decades roll on, we still need to be sure we’re still doing what we love. Times change. We change. And with these changes most all of us are needing to adapt. So while we’re hopefully involved in a career we love, we may need to refine again what we’re doing.

Jobs finished his speech with a quote from the last issue of “The Whole Earth Catalog.” For those of you too young to know what that was, it was an indie magazine published from the late 60’s to the mid 70’s. Jobs described it as, “One of the bibles of my generation.” It was sort of like Google in paperback form....it was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions.”

They published several issues and when they felt it had run its course, they published their swan song. On the back cover was a photograph of a early morning country road. Jobs described it as, “The kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on, if you were so adventurous.” The quote under the photo was, Stay hungry, Stay foolish. Jobs closed his speech to the assembled class by saying, “Stay hungry, Stay foolish. And I’ve always wished that for myself. And now...I wish that for you. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

Recording Tip 34: When printing a mix, I’ll often go to small speakers at low volume and turn on the TV to check the mix one last time

This was another happy accident found when working. I was printing a mix, listening on my small speakers with the volume low. As it played, I turned to take a look at the muted TV, which I keep behind me so I don’t get distracted. I had a news channel on and as the mix played a story came on which was of interest to me, so I unmuted it.

As I listened to the news report and continued to listen to my mix, I discovered something rather fascinating. One might think the audio of the news report would have made critically listening to the mix rather pointless. However I found that the dialog over the mix actually helped me hear the mix in a different way, and for the better. I found the that TV playing over the mix revealed bits which needed a bump in spots, a vocal line or solo or whatever. I found something which might seem fine listening to the mix on it’s own was covered by the dialog.

Well if course that wouldn’t do, so I stopped and made one more pass and this time I left the TV on. Once I could hear everything important in the mix with the TV dialog over it, the mix was right. As bizarre as it seems, I’ve found this a very useful way to check a mix just before printing it. Now this only works with dialog. It doesn’t work if any music is playing.

This may seem a bit kooky, but think of the places we hear music. We hear it at the mall, at your house, or a friend’s, restaurants, bars, clubs, the car, etc. Most of the time we hear music there’s some other sound source competing with it. I’ve begin to pay a good bit attention to mixes in those environments. With a great mix, no matter the other noises, it still sounds like a great mix and I hear everything. And as I said in Tip 32, very few people listen to a mix in total silence and with their head between the speakers paying full attention. So it really makes sense to listen to your mix with some sort of sonic competition.

So I’ve now adapted this this as the last way I listen to a mix. And I’ve rarely found that after listening like this the changes don’t work. It’s one more way to get your mix in a typical consumer situation and see how it stands up. And it’s less trouble than turning on a vacuum! (Tip 35...the next tip to come)

Home Recording Tip 33: I’ll often listen to a mix playback outside of the control room….mostly with the door closed.

This is a tip is another happy accident. I was working on a mix one day when a client arrived to hear what I’d done. As he sat in my chair to hear the mix I hit play and then stepped outside the control room to grab a drink. As the door closed and I decided to remain outside, mostly so he’d listen to the entire mix before picking it apart. (The minutia this guy would tweak to is legendary in this town) But while outside the closed door, I began to hear the mix differently. I began to hear a number of things that no matter his impending notes, there were things I desperately wanted to fix. (Yes I’d given him a legal pad to write on. Something one should always do...and always make your clients listen to the whole mix before commenting)

After the playback finished I came back in and we went about our changes. But this closed door thing really made an impact on me. I was amazed at what I heard listening from there.

So after that, I began to do that on a regular basis. This is a bit related to my last post about monitoring with my small monitors off to the side. There’s something that happens when the door closes. I’m able to hear balances that I don’t hear when inside the room. I read that George Massenburg would listen to mixes outside the room with the door open. I tried that as well. And depending on the door to your control room, that might be better for you. But for me it was much better with the door closed.

So now, even before the clients arrive, I’ll grab my own legal pad and listen to the mix outside the closed door. I found it especially good for vocal levels as well as, oddly enough, if the bottom end is right. It’s now a secondary listening spot. The third of course, my car. (I’m working on a way to mix from there!)

Recording Tip 32: Keep an eye on playback levels. Listening at varying volumes.

This may seem a no-brainer. Most of us know listening too loud for too long rarely results in a great mix. But it’s tempting to do, and even veteran mixers get tripped up with this at times. There’s a natural tendency to listen loud when insecure about a mix, especially when clients are in the room. Loud playback levels have a sense of authority and that can often cause us to listen louder than we should when the mix isn’t right. The problem is it’s rarely helpful.

After my own battles with this for too many years I finally developed a system which keeps me from listening too loud and also gives consistent results. I’ll begin a mix at decently loud levels...about 90dB. I get basic levels and pans and begin to apply eq and compression at that volume. Once I’m going, I’ll listen a bit louder, up to 100 dB or more to feel the presence and power of the mix. I’ll then go back and forth in level for a while and when things are feeling pretty good, I’ll back the level down to 85 dB, listen a bit more. Once I feel pretty good with what I have, I then switch my smaller monitors.

For the curious, my mains are the Mastering Lab Tannoy 10” Golds, run by a Yamaha P2200 amp with the Mastering Lab modification. My smaller monitors are the TOA ME120, also powered by a Yamaha P2200. (unmodified) The smaller monitors are located in a different location than my mains. I have them off to the side of the room like a separate stereo system.

I ended up having them there not by design, but by necessity. There simply wasn’t enough room to place them next to the mains. I tried a few locations near them, but they never sounded right. Finally in desperation I got a small wooden shelf and put them on top of my power amps which are off to the side of my room. My intention was just to put them somewhere and deal with the problem later. But surprisingly, it ended up being a happy accident. I immediately loved them over there, outside the normal listening field. By having them off to the side they sort of mono a bit acoustically and are similar to how most consumer stereo systems are setup. Rarely do people sit right between the speakers when listening to music, so it makes sense to listen that way when mixing. Until I had this setup, I’d even walk around the control room to get this very effect. Now my small monitors give that to me every time I switch to them. And from this experience, when I mix in other studios, I do the same thing. I’ll move the small monitors off to the side and it works great.

OK, back to my mixing theology...Once I get things in good shape on the little speakers and decide it’s time to automate the mix, I go back to the mains, set my volume knob at the 85dB spot and begin to mix.

At this point you should be saying, “There’s no 85dB spot on a volume knob!” And you’d be right in most places. However, there’s a spot on my volume knob where I know the mix should play at 85 dB when doing most pop mixes.

The concept of listening with a specific volume pot setting is something I learned from the legendary mastering engineer, Doug Sax. I was in a mastering session with Doug when he told me he most always listens with his volume pot at a specific place. He knows his setup well enough so when his volume pot is at a certain position, the resulting sound should be a certain dB. If it was too loud or too soft, he knew he need to make an adjustment to what he was doing to achieve the level he wanted rather than changing the volume. Of course Doug’s role and mine are different. But the end game of getting consistent results apply for mixers as well as mastering engineers. So I took this concept to mixing and have found this to be very helpful at getting them right. It’s not a complex idea, but really makes a lot of sense. By the way, this is also an idea espoused by Bob Katz and his K-System. The article is a bit technical for some, but worthwhile reading on the subject.

So I set the volume knob at that spot, and if I think it’s needed, I’ll check the dB reading to make sure it’s near 85dB. By watching my master level, adjusting my compression on the master buss, I’ll make sure it ends up there. If the mix requires more compression, making the mix sound louder, it might be more than that. But most mixes sit at that place. I’ll take my time and make a pass there automating the mix. Once I get a good pass I’ll switch back to the smaller monitors and do another pass without changing the volume knob. (By the way, be sure your alternate monitors have been set so when you move from mains to small, the level is consistent. Don’t use a meter for it, do it by ear.) Most often by making a pass on both monitors my mix will be very close.

One thing that is critical to know concerning volume is that there is there is a difference between true level and apparent level. A mix that is very aggressive with heavy compression and severe eq will sound louder even with the volume knob at the same place. Music with real dynamics, such as jazz or classical music may have peaks at or near 0 dB, but will not feel as loud as metal, rock or pop records with lower peaks. As a mixer, you need to be aware of this and let the music dictate what you should do. But of course remember, louder isn’t always better.

Now when it comes to listening in your studio, one of the most important thing one needs is a good, clean path to the monitors. This is something often overlooked and many will use whatever comes with their system. I understand this, but one thing I’d advise is to take time to make sure your path to your monitors is as good as it can be.

I will recommend a few things now and then, but one thing I highly recommend is the Dangerous Monitor ST.

This little box has made a HUGE improvement in my studio. When I got it, it was like I got new speakers, amp, and a tuned room! It may be the best $1800 I’ve even spent for my studio. It’s not cheap, but has really helped my mixes in ways I never imagined. It may be more than some can afford, but I feel it’s been very worth every penny. Whether you can or can’t afford it, be sure to clean up that path as much as possible. Remove extra connections, bad cables, etc. Monster Cables
may sound than the cables you have. But whether you buy them or not, at least remove anything unnecessary so there is only one good cable in the path.

All this to say, experiment and find what mixing level works best for you. 83 dB is the standard for film mixing, so I went with something close to that. It’s been proven to work for decades now, and I’ve found it works for me. Your mileage may vary.

So how do you know at what dB level you’re listening? There are several dB meters one can buy. I have an old Radio Shack dB meter as well as one for my iPhone. I found the iPhone dB meter to be very accurate, so I’ll use either. Of course you don’t have to use a dB meter at all. Most mixers don’t. Once I got my setup figured out, I rarely turn it on. Like Doug Sax, when the volume pot is at it’s place, I know how things should sound.

Again, for me listening at loud volumes is good to get the mix in place. But spend most your time tweaking at moderate volumes, and do it consistently until your mixes begin to be reliable. Like anything in music, there are no rules. Experiment and find what gives you great results consistently. Once you find that volume, be sure to stick to it. You’ll find your mixes much better!

Recording Tip 31: Alcohol of almost any kind will mess up your hearing, especially on the top end.

This tweet has generated a lot of reaction and questions. Some of the comments were quite funny, and some more serious asking if I meant permanent hearing damage. While of course heavy, long term abuse of alcohol can result in any number of negative outcomes, all I really meant was that whenever I’ve had a drink I notice my hearing suffers.

Beer probably has the least affect...wine and hard liquor more so. What I find is when I have something to drink the top end of my hearing goes away to some degree, and what remains sounds odd. Of course that makes things like mixing a bad idea when one imbibes. Critical listening is pretty difficult when that’s going on, so when mixing I refrain from even wine at dinner, much less anything else.

Now when it comes to editing, tuning, etc where critical listening isn’t a factor, alcohol may only play a role in good judgement. You may approve something, thinking it's good, but when listening the next day wonder, “What the heck was I thinking??” It could be that you approved something awful....or perhaps you were loose enough to have an inspired idea! More times than not though, it won’t be the latter.

I’m certainly not advocating drinking while working, but certainly it happens. My advice is to be aware and know your tolerance. When in doubt, don’t! Especially if you need to drive home.

I’ll finish with a funny story I was told that happened here in Nashville a number of years ago. There was a country singer attempting to track a song with a full band. They’d been working all day and well into the evening on a little country waltz. Drinks were flowing freely and they were hard at it without success. For some reason they couldn’t get the song to feel right. Finally around 4am they had a track they were happy with and they all staggered home.

Of course no one arrived in the morning. It wasn’t till early afternoon or so when they returned to the studio and pulled up the track they’d worked on so hard. They began listening and after a minute the producer stopped the playback with a funny look on his face. “Play back the demo” he said. The assistant played back the demo and the producer yelled, “STOP!!! What that #$^%#!!! He just then realized why they’d had such a hard time with the song. The demo was a ¾ waltz, however their 4am track was a 4/4 two step! Sometime during the night the entire band added an extra beat to the bar and totally changed the song....and one one noticed!

I guess Jack Daniels isn’t much a fan of the waltz!