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Is This The Ultimate Guitar Interface For Your iPad With GarageBand?

Big Al — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:00:25 +0000

Now that we have a solid and inexpensive DAW for the iPad (GarageBand from Apple for just five bucks, released March, 2011), how about a really pro way to get signal into it, especially guitar, so you can take advantage of all that portable power, amp sims, etc.

Apogee says they have the answer for just $99…

Apogee is an acclaimed professional manufacturer of high end audio/digital converters. They certainly have the ability and credentials to make an interface for your iPad that really rocks. Here’s what else they say about this new product…

JAM – Studio quality guitar input for iPad, iPhone and Mac

JAM brings the legendary sound quality of Apogee to iPad, iPhone and Mac for just $99. Now guitarists can have a pocket-sized, plug in and play interface at an unprecedented price and experience ultimate tone with the guitar amps and effects in Apple’s GarageBand software or other compatible applications.

Pristine digital sound for ultimate guitar tone

JAM is a premium digital converter featuring PureDIGITAL technology which delivers your guitar’s true tone to your iPad or Mac without compromise. JAM is the first high quality interface that makes a digital connection to both iOS devices and Mac. You will notice the sonic difference between JAM and other similar products immediately.

JAM Highlights

PureDIGITAL instrument connection for pristine sound quality
Designed specifically for electric guitar and bass
No configuration, just plug in and play
Easily adjust input levels for any instrument
Multicolor LED for status indication and input level monitoring
Made for GarageBand, Logic, and MainStage

See the Jam at Apogee’s Web Site

Is This The Ultimate Guitar Interface For Your iPad With GarageBand? is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Controlling Microphone Sibilance When Recording Voice

Big Al — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:51:11 +0000

This is a great little tutorial on combatting sibilance while recording that resulted from a poll taken by @CreateMusicTips and answered by @RandyCoppinger, a professional recording engineer and audio mixer since 1991. Regarding techniques used to help deal with sibilance on the microphone, Randy says…

I may adjust the microphone placement, including rotating it slightly off axis, raising it and/or moving it further away from the mouth. I’ve heard of people taping a pencil across the grill to break the path for high frequencies to the capsule, but I’ve never tried that one.

For me, microphone selection is a big deal. If someone sounds sibilant, my first instinct is to change the microphone. Since different people seem to have different frequencies for their “S” sounds, it isn’t the same choice every time.

I do find that the Lawson L47 (a microphone that aims to sound like a Neumann u47) seems to tame most sibilance problems. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a single, “perfect” microphone for anything, and having multiple microphones from which to choose for sibilance issues is one of my key examples to prove this point.

Empirical Labs ELDS DerrEsser
At work we have a LilFreq EQ by Empirical Labs that includes one of the best de-essers I’ve ever heard. Last year I saw that they’ve spun off the unit into its own API 500 lunchbox module called the Empirical Labs ELDS DerrEsser (see the image on the right).

The key with any de-esser is tuning it. You only want the de-esser to activate when there is sibilance and to be neutral when there isn’t.

Setting the unit to trigger at the frequency of the sibilance usually starts with a Real Time Analyzer (RTA) so I can figure out where today’s mouth is producing that sound.

For men it tends to be 3-7k Hz, and For women it tends to be 5-9k Hz. Once you get the frequency sorted then it’s just a matter of setting the threshold so the de-esser clamps down enough without going too far.

Vocal recording words to live by!

When it comes to plugin de-essers, my favorite is the Massey De:Esser. Another one that comes with high praise is the Eosis E2 Deesser.

Empirical Labs ELDS DerrEsser De-esser and Dynamics Module

The DerrEsser from Empirical Labs is a multi-function dynamic filtering device, in an API 500 series module format. Perhaps the most flexible de-essing tool available, in its basic "DS" mode, the DerrEsser is an effective, level-insensitve de-esser that adjusts the high frequency gain on overly trebly or spiky vocals, or other source. By using a crossover technique, and dividing the audio up into a high frequency range and a low frequency range, the ELDS DerrEsser can use its Voltage Controlled Amp to turn down comparatively high or harsh high frequencies in an extremely musical manner.

However, unlike other de-essers, the ELDS is not limited to just de-essing, and allows for multi use of its circuitry. It also features a high-frequency limiter that can almost entirely remove unwanted fret and finger noise from dynamic acoustic guitar performances, as well as tame aggressive, diaphragm-shaking vocals, in a very musical way. Besides Bypass, there are essentially four modes of the DerrEsser: DS Mode— (Bypass Button IN, all other buttons OUT).

As a de-esser in the DS mode (HF Limit OFF), one can set the threshold to tame harsh S's (sibilants) that result from an overly bright singer or from EQing to make a vocal sound aggressive and clear. In this mode, the dynamic action is "level insensitive," as the detector circuitry compares the high-frequency content to the low-frequency content. Overall signal level doesn't matter at all. When there is enough HF compared to LF, the threshold is exceeded and the DerrEsser starts to turn down the frequencies above the crossover point set by the Frequency control on the front panel.

Great care was taken to ensure this DS section meets the Empirical Labs reputation for originality and ease-of-use by employing the latest technology VCA, specially selected for glitch free, distortion free, and noise free performance. The time constants were carefully selected and the corner frequency is user adjustable with a high-performance active crossover. HF LIMIT—(Bypass Button IN, HF LIM IN, all other buttons OUT). In this mode, the DerrEsser looks at the general level of the high frequencies only. Think of it as a high-frequency compressor. If there is enough high-frequency content to exceed the threshold, then gain reduction occurs. It's level sensitive, but responds much more to high frequencies. This mode can also act as a de-esser but is more of a general high-frequency smoothing device.

The HF limiter is probably the first carefully tailored soft knee HF limiter in existence. Both the DS and HF LIM modes offer what is perhaps the highest performance of any similar device. HIGHPASS—(Bypass Button IN, Listen IN, HP/LP OUT, HF LIM doesn't matter). By using the "LISTEN" Function, the user can employ the superb filter circuitry inside the DerrEsser to process their audio. With the LISTEN button IN, and the HP/LP switch OUT, the user will be hearing the high freq

Controlling Microphone Sibilance When Recording Voice is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

7 Tips For Recording Voice From Randy Coppinger

Big Al — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:06:54 +0000

Randy Coppinger - Recording Studio Dude

When doing any kind of recording, the issue of multi-day sessions will arise. And that brings up the challenge of keeping the sound of instruments and voices consistent over two, three or more days.

Randy Coppinger is a pro mixer who has many years of experience with voice recording, including the multi-day session scenario. Here are some quick tips he offered on Twitter today on coping with this and keeping things consistent.

When you start recording again, listen to what you did last time with the actor. “Play him/her in” so they can match.

Try to sneak a pic (no flash!) of the actor at the mic so you can have the height and general position documented.

Better yet, just ask if he/she minds if you take pics during the recording. Posed pics are not as reliable.

People’s voices change a little bit from day to day. Try to work at the same time of day for each session if you can.

Make note of beverages and their temperature (hot or cold) at the first session. Offer the same subsequently.

Take detailed notes of the mic (pad, rolloff) plus everything in the acquisition chain and settings to use again subsequently.

Usually it’s important to put the mic in the same location within the room. In some rooms it may not be a big deal, but in little rooms with low ceilings in can make a big difference. Get the same basic position in the room. Don’t sweat it down to the inches though. I’ll often get an actor to perform some standing, some sitting…totally different mic positions. It’s usually not a huge problem.

7 Tips For Recording Voice From Randy Coppinger is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Tips For Recording Appalachian Dulcimer

Big Al — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:26:08 +0000

Here’s a couple of quick tips on recording Appalachian Dulcimer from Ronan C. Murphy. He’s not just another studio guy when it comes to this topic. He keeps one these instruments in or near his studio all the time. He loves to play it and he loves to record it.

Appalachian Dulcimer

Here are his short and simple tips on recording this interesting instrument:

“Recording Appalachian Dulcimer is all about the right microphone positioned about half a meter out. Microphone choice is very important depending on your goal for the sound, to either tame or enhance the sparkle.

“For thin-sounding dulcimers, try bringing a directional microphone in close for added proximity effect. Be careful of ultra bright condenser microphones.”

Ronan’s Recording Show
Ronan on Twitter

Tips For Recording Appalachian Dulcimer is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

The Fab Faux Cover “Abbey Road” Side 2 Live In The Studio

Big Al — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:33:17 +0000

This is a pretty ambitious undertaking by the The Fab Faux. And it’s nice to see a live performance in this format!

Here’s the bio of the Fab Faux from their web site:

The Fab Faux are a labor of love that was born in 1998 when neighbors Jimmy Vivino, Music Director/Guitarist for The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and long time music partner of Levon Helm, John Sebastian, Laura Nyro and Max Weinberg (to name a few), and Will Lee (who’s played with all 4 Beatles), bassist for Paul Shaffer’s CBS Orchestra on the Late Show With David Letterman kicked around the idea during an elevator ride in their NYC building.

Rounding out the line-up are lead-singing drummer/producer Rich Pagano (Rosanne Cash, Patti Smith, Ray Davies, etc.), guitarist Frank Agnello (Marshall Crenshaw, Phoebe Snow, etc.) and ace keyboardist/guitarist Jack Petruzzelli (Rufus Wainwright, Patti Smith, Joan Osborne Band, etc.). All five principals contribute vocals, making the Faux’s soaring harmonies as resonant as their multi-instrumental chops, which are further enhanced by the four-piece Hogshead Horns (with Blues Brothers, Blood, Sweat & Tears and SNL band alums) and Creme Tangerine Strings.

The Fab Faux Cover “Abbey Road” Side 2 Live In The Studio is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Stereo Microphone Techniques

Big Al — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:08:11 +0000

Here a nice little video that will show you the basics of stereo microphone techniques with audio examples of each.

Using a screen reader? Click here for the video.

Click here for more info on microphones suitable for stereo miking

Stereo Microphone Techniques is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Six Tips For A Great Kick Drum Sound

Big Al — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:00:02 +0000

#1. First, and probably most obvious is to experiment with mic placement. Try to get as close to the sound you want with the mic before you add any EQ.

Take a look at where the drum beater is contacting the head, and mic to capture that attack.

How far in or out of the drum you place the mic will have a large effect on the tone you capture. Further out will give you a more “resonant” or “woody” tone, while closer up should give you more attack, with less of the drum’s shell.

#2. Try miking from the beater side of the drum in addition to your normal kick drum mic placement (assuming you are currently miking from in front of or inside the drum). This should give you more attack.

A few caveats: Watch for phase problems, be careful with mic placement and pickup pattern to avoid getting too much of the underside of the snare, and be sure that the kick pedal is squeak free!

#3. Try using a different beater. One made of a harder material may give you more slap. We’ve even heard of drummers and engineers taping hard materials to the kick drum head where the beater strikes it to emphasize the “click” and beater attack.

#4. Take a look at your musical arrangement. Are there other instruments in the kick drum’s frequency range that are masking it, diminishing its punch? Getting a kick drum and a bass guitar or bass synth to “sit” together in a mix is a real art. Maybe the problem is not in your kick, but in the bass EQ?

#5. When all else fails, try adding a little EQ. A parametric (or console EQ with sweepable mids) works well for this application, but a graphic can work fine.

Boost the gain on the EQ, listen to the kick, and slowly sweep the EQ frequency until you find the frequency you want to bring out. Next, adjust the EQ gain to your taste. In addition to boosting some frequencies, you might want to experiment with cutting some of the boomier frequencies out to clear the top end a bit.

#6. As you are trying various things, work at low volume levels. If the kick drum sounds good to you at low volume, it will probably sound even better when the level is wound up a bit.

These excellent tips come courtesy of Sweetwater.

Six Tips For A Great Kick Drum Sound is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Can A Choir Be Captured In A Home Studio, With Just 3 Singers?

Big Al — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:18 +0000

This is a great article this month from Recording Magazine on capturing the sound of a choir in a home-based recording studio using just three singers.

Choir in a Closet
Can a choir be captured in a home studio?
By D. Bruce Moore

I was recently recording a contemporary gospel tune, and thought wistfully, “Wouldn’t a choir sound great with this!” But, alas, where would I find a choir and the space to record them? While my home studio is adequate for small endeavors, I would have to find a choir and rent space to record them.

Since my budget amounted to just about zero I wouldn’t be doing a choir in the near future. However, I decided to try a recording technique that creates a choral sound with only a few singers and a small space – and here is how it went…

Prep, prep, prep

The time frame was really tight-three hours to record all tracks. It had to happen during that session, or not happen at all. There are many things that can “torpedo” a recording session, so I did everything I could think of to prevent the session from failing. These things included:

providing the singers with an MP3 of the song along with sheet music via my website;
testing the technique (using myself and my wife as singers) in the planned recording space to see if it would work as envisioned;
setting up and testing all the equipment prior to the session;
pre-allocating tracks in my recording software, deciding on panning and basic effects ahead of time;
estimating how many minutes we could spend per track to get it all done within the three hours, to keep us on schedule during the session.

The plan

Based on previous experiences I told myself (and the singers) that getting the first take would be the hardest as we would have to get used to the headphones, get the mic levels set properly and just get the singers used to each other. I figured that if we got the first good take in one hour we would be doing fine. The following takes would go much faster.

To get the choral sound out of three people meant having them do something rather foreign to them. Each singer would sing on every part: the male singer in falsetto for the soprano and alto parts, the female singers in their chest register for the tenor part. (I decided I would drop the bass part, partly because I only had 3 sets of headphones and partly because the women could not sing low enough for it.)

This creates a similar blending of voices that happens with a choir instead of multi-tracking the same voice on the same part. They would sing each part three times, making 9 voices per part for a total of 27 voices. The choral track could be sung in two parts easily, so I planned to record the first half, give the singers a short break, and then do the second half.

I used the biggest room in my house (which isn’t very big) as the recording space. The redeeming qualities of the room include a 9-foot ceiling, hardwood floors and openings to other rooms at odd angles (reducing the number of parallel surfaces and standing waves).

I pushed the dining room table up against the wall and covered it (and part of the wall) with pillows to reduce any direct reflections. In spite of its size, the room created a short but rich reverb which sounds great on vocals (and drums, incidentally).

The three singers would surround the mic, two in front and one behind. I used an AKG C 3000 in hypercardioid mode to pick up all of the singers, including the one singer from behind. (Remember that hypercardioid mics often have a strong pickup lobe at 180º. I used this to my advantage.)

The control room was in the back part of the house, with cables running through the heating ductwork. A talkback mic allowed me to communicate with the singers via their headphones. The headphones were rigged to play the cue track through only one ear. This is significant for two reasons:

With only half of the headphone providing the cue there was less sound to bleed through to the recording mic, and
The singers needed to uncover their other ear to hear themselves. I did not feed their singing back into the headphones because of latency issues (hearing their own voice with a slight delay would be confusing). This worked well, as the room was nice to sing in and because the singers could control how much they heard of the others by how much they covered their other ear with the silent headphone speaker.

The session

2:00-Two of the three singers have arrived

Unfortunately we got off to a late start when one of the singers was half an hour behind. I didn’t waste the time, though-I went through the plan with the other singers and they were solid with it once we were ready to start.

2:30-First technical glitch

The headphones were cutting in and out. A quick piece of duct tape stabilized a loose connection (note to self…ALWAYS have duct tape handy).

2:40-Initial takes

It was immediately apparent that, barring technical difficulties, this was going to work! The singers had an amazing blend. Steve Newransky’s falsetto was up to the task and easily balanced against the two women. Sandra Park brought her Mariah Carey-ish style to the group while Tannis Penner’s choral/opera technique provided a rock-solid foundation for the ensemble. Mic levels were tinkered with, a couple of unsure notes were corrected and we decided exactly where to put the consonants.

2:50-Finished 3 of 9 tracks!

In spite of starting later than planned we accomplished more than I planned! Within the initial hour we had recorded the entire Soprano part and were ready for a well-deserved break.

3:00-Record Alto part

For the Alto part I wanted to get more of the alto sound that Tannis provided, so I moved her in a little closer to the mic while shifting Sandra a little further away. Steve stayed put with his booming falsetto. The singers decided that it would help them keep the consonants together if someone conducted, so Steve was nominated for the job. We immediately fired off three good takes in rapid succession.

3:15-Record tenor part

It was time for the women to sing in their “boy” voices and for Steve to open up in his Tenor range. The amazing blend continued as the two women managed to balance off against Steve.

3:30-Computer crash!

Uh oh. The “Joys of Computer Based Recording.” I told the singers to take a break while I rebooted and tried to remember the last time I clicked the Save button. It turned out it was before I started recording the Tenor part. The tracks were still on the hard drive, but their positioning in the song was lost.

I needed to import the files and try and get their start positions correct. The good news was that I was saving each part (Soprano, Alto, and Tenor) in separate folders with the part name as a prefix. I just opened the “Tenor” folder and saw several Tenor WAV files inside. I imported one and fiddled with it until I got it into the correct position. Seeing how long that took I decided to import the others after the session and continue recording with the single Tenor track for a cue.

3:45-Break time

We finished the Tenor part. It was time to give the singers a break and for me to do a full backup. I copied everything to do with this song onto another computer through a network connection. Whatever happened from here, I would still have the first half of the choral track.

4:00-Record choral part #2

I took five minutes with the singers to go over the second part, singing it for them and working out where to put the breaths and cut-offs. We tried a take and Steve forgot that he needed to switch back to falsetto-we were back to singing the Soprano, Alto and Tenor parts (in that order).

4:15-Another computer lockup

You start learning to hit the Save button after every take when recording with computers. Fortunately, I had just done so-we were back at it in about 3 minutes.

4:20-Give me a “P”

It’s hard to get a good “P” sound without popping the mic. The singers were about a foot and a half away from the mic which was great for a blended sound and avoiding pops, but not so good for capturing the elusive “P” on the last word of a phrase (“hope”). We hammered away at this to little avail-and would have started doing creative and drastic things had a larger issue not raised its ugly head…

4:30-The “Russian” take

After recording the Soprano part I called the singers to the control room to hear the non-existent “P.” We were all surprised to hear that they were significantly rushing their part-the last couple of takes just wouldn’t work! I muted them and sent the singers back to get the timing right.

4:45-The “Russians” are here to stay

For some reason they could not seem to reign it in. I would have loved to stop and work it out beat by beat, but we only had 15 minutes left and about 1/4 of the song to go before one of the singers had to leave! I listened to the “Russian” takes again. The material had several breaths where I thought I could do a digital edit and move the singing back into time. I decided to take my chances and fire through the rest of the tracks before the clock struck 5!

4:57-Down to the wire

We finished the Tenor part with just minutes to spare, so I got the singers to do another two Soprano takes to replace the extremely rushed initial takes.

5:00-DONE!

And on time. It took serious planning, flexibility, and a bit of a gamble, but we were finished by 5. Tannis said “bye” and ran off to a choir rehearsal while we started tearing down the gear.

Post-Session

With the singers rushing the second half of their track it was time to find out if I really could “fix it in the mix,” as the old saying goes.

First of all, I had nine separate tracks, three for each part. I didn’t want to edit each of these separately, so I bounced them all down to one stereo track. I panned each part hard left, hard right, and slightly off center for a nice stereo spread.

I fired up my digital editor and took a look at the vocal parts to try and isolate the rushing. Sure enough, it was easy to see-the vocal entries were about 1/8th of a beat early in each case. To maintain the overall timing of the track, I cut an 1/8th of a beat from the breath after the phrase and pasted it in front of the phrase. This moved the vocal part over enough to put it in time, but didn’t throw off any of the material that followed.

How about tuning? Tuning was great overall-and a good thing this was, because pitch-correcting plug-ins don’t work well on an ensemble. There seemed to be one voice in the bunch going just a tiny bit sharp in the last two chords, though.

My solution was to isolate that section and bring the whole ensemble down in pitch by about 20 cents. The sharpness disappeared and the rest of the ensemble was still close enough not to sound flat.

In the end, did it work?

The planning, preparation and risk-taking paid off! A true choral sound emerged out of three singers, providing a gospel vibe to the tune that took it to another level of musicality-all in the space of a large closet!

D. Bruce Moore () seems to make a career out of clever ways to create sounds you didn’t think you could do in a home studio. Readers can check out his website at www.gracenote.ca.

Can A Choir Be Captured In A Home Studio, With Just 3 Singers? is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

Recording With The Original Universal Audio 610 Console

Big Al — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:00:39 +0000

Universal Audio teams up with engineer John Nowland, and Neil Young’s original UA 610 console. The men’s room was used for reverb and the real Cooper Time Cube was used for pre-delay as UA employees played a rendition of Miles Davis’ “All Blues”.

This is the origin of the tech included in most all of Universal Audio’s products today.

Using a screen reader? Click here for the video.

Recording With The Original Universal Audio 610 Console is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru

In Front Of The Glass With The Session Musicians

Big Al — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:00:32 +0000

A great look into the world of sessions musicians and the songwriting community.

Using a screen reader? Click here for the video.

In Front Of The Glass With The Session Musicians is a post from: Home Recording Studio Guru