Stretching The Budget

April 5, 2021 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, home recording, independent music, music business, nquit music, recording magazine, recording on a budget, save money on recording

How to get the biggest bang for your recording studio buck

This article first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

Not so long ago, a recording project required a full-fledged studio. Things have changed now, and many projects are done entirely at home. But there’s still a place for a dyed-in-the-wool recording studio, and still plenty of reason you may need one.

This means money. No one’s recording budget is unlimited, so let’s talk about how to make that budget go as far as it can, without sacrificing quality.

Pre-Production

You can save money at every stage of the production process, but the preparation stage, or pre-production, is your best opportunity to save money in the long run.

Rehearsal

Recording sessions are usually charged hourly. Nothing makes a session take longer than doing take after take because the artist isn’t ready to rock n roll. It’s even longer if you never get a whole take and have to comp them together, and that’s seriously compounded if those comps have fluctuating tempos.

So, first and foremost, rehearse. Whether you’re a band or a solo artist, tracking sessions can be incredibly efficient if you’re well-rehearsed. Some things to do in rehearsals:

Practice with a click – You’ll be asked to sync to one in the studio, and if you’re not used to it, it can be difficult to say the least.
Practice in public – Preferably, you’re recording songs you’re already killing with on stage. In the studio strangers will be watching and when tape rolls, nerves can be a factor. Plus, if you’re recording well-vetted material, you’ll have fewer decisions to make later
Practice as a group – If you’re a group, you probably want to record as a group, at least to begin with, so obviously you should practice together.
Practice alone – The tape never lies. In the studio, you can’t hide behind the group, the crowd and the fleeting moments like you can on stage. So put your parts out there where you can scrutinize and perfect them.
Practice recording – Even if all you have is the voice recorder on your phone, practice recording however you can. Roll on rehearsals and listen back, making notes and practicing the little things you wouldn’t have noticed.

Writing And Arranging

Even if you’re cutting new material, you should still be rehearsing and finishing songs ahead of time. Writing songs in the studio is a huge money waster.

Lyrics, song, and arrangments should be completely finished. Get feedback and edit songs in pre-production. Don’t pay money to send rough mixes to find out you should have sung “I love your mom” instead of “I love your man”. You can find that out with an acoustic scratch track or a lyric email.

The same holds for melodies, chord progressions, breaks, fills, everything musical. If you’re a band, work as much of the cool production stuff out live as you can. Bring your producer to rehearsal and implement their ideas. You’ll wildly improve your live act while you’re at it.

If your music is more sequencer based, you should be arranging everything at home. Get feedback on your home versions first, before going in the studio.

Session Planning

Once you’ve finished your songs, plan the sessions. Communicate with the studio ahead of time. Share your tech rider with the engineer and discuss mic choices, physical arrangement, song order, headphones mixes, everything. Anything you can figure out ahead of time when the clock isn’t running will make sessions faster.

If you can visit the studio beforehand so you know what they have, what you’ll need to bring, and who will be working on the project, do it! If you can have a pre-production meeting with your engineers, even better. You can even plan how many tracks you’ll need and what to overdub.

In any case, communicate everything you can with the studio, so they can be ready for you.

Tracking

When the day comes to start work, there’s still plenty you can do to maximize your budget.

Use The Right Room

In pre-production, you should outline what you’ll record in the main studio and what you’ll do at home or in a cheaper studio. Higher-end facilities often have multiple recording rooms, and studio B or C might be cheaper than studio A.

Also consider booking time in different studios. You may be able to track a bunch of vocals in a small project studio that costs half the big studio, for example. Save the expensive rooms for work that can only be done there. Grand piano, full orchestras, or full band captures, for example.

You may be also able to do some work at home. If your music is sequenced, you’ll certainly do that work at home, but you may be able to do more. If you’ve got a simple interface and there are guitar overdubs that would work with a direct input, plan to do that at home. You may even be able to grab backing vocals at home, or keyboard parts. These audio files can be integrated into the main DAW project. You may even have enough home studio to track everything at home and save money for mixing and mastering.

Also ask about intern engineers. Studios often let the new guy record on off hours at significantly discounted rates. Just remember that the engineer is bearing the brunt of that discount, so be nice!

Finally, you may be able to save some money overall by booking a day or week-long lockout. That won’t be cheap, but it will remove the pressure of the clock.

Gear Maintenance

Prep your equipment ahead of the session. Make sure strings are new, drum heads are in good shape, fingers and vocal chords are fresh, and anything else you need is ready to go. The clock doesn’t stop if you break a string, so be as ready as possible before you get to the studio.

Of course, your body is equipment too. Sleep well, eat right, and come to the session fresh and ready to go. The fresher you are, the fewer mistakes you make, which makes everything more efficient. And it should go without saying but being snot-slinging drunk will not get you your best performance.

Studio Day

Just a few things to note when you get to the studio:

Be early – Arrive at least 15 minutes early to the session. Once your booked time begins, small talk and intros cost money, so create relationships before and after the session.
Be even earlier (and organized) – Next, be organized when you arrive and leave extra time for load in. If you can bring help to carry gear, that will make things quicker and leave the engineer free to set up. Aim for being in the room fully set up 5-10 minutes before the session start time, if possible. Many engineers won’t start setup until the clock starts, but if you can do anything to facilitate pre-session preparation, great. Just remember to be respectful of the studio’s time too.
Warm up – You’ll be glad if you warm up before the session rather than on paid time. Run through scales or vocal drills at home, and then quickly when you’re waiting for the session to start.
Bring documentation – Bring anything you wrote during pre-production like set lists, tracking plan, “stage” plot and the like and be sure the engineer gets copies. Give the engineer lyric sheets, too, with enough space for notes.
Keep it professional – Just like in rehearsal, the more you jabber, the more time things take. But beware, being too tight makes performances rigid and leads to mistakes. So, keep yourself in the sweet spot between fun and focused. Say stuff, laugh, be creative – and be ready and able to shut it at a moment’s notice. You’d be surprised how much time this habit can save.
Take breaks – Recording sessions can get grueling. It’s not uncommon for a session to drone on for 12 hours. Don’t do this. Break every two hours, eat a meal every four, and unless you’re trying to maximize a lockout, keep days to eight hours. You’ll stay fresher over the duration of the project, which will lead to better efficiency.

Mixing

Oh happy day! You’ve finished tracking. Hopefully you’ve sought feedback on rough mixes, and you’ve been careful to throw away advice you can no longer implement (that lyric should have been edited in pre-pro, remember?).

Now you need a mix. Every studio on Earth will try to convince you that you need to mix at their studio, since you tracked there. Poppycock. That studio may be the best place to mix, and it may not.

In either case, we’re thinking about the money here, so you want to consider a few things to help you maximize the mix budget:

Pay per song – Mixing can be involved and unpredictable, and it’s in your best interest NOT to pay an hourly rate. It just so happens that dedicated mix engineers prefer it this way too.
Provide references – If you’re going for a certain sound, provide references to the mixer.
Organize tracks – This is really the tracking engineer’s job, but don’t leave it to chance. Make sure the mixer gets well organized, properly labeled tracks. There shouldn’t be 34 guitar tracks labeled “eric” or “rickenbacker 45000 uptown one chicken fried awesome track”. Edit and comp tracks and label them plainly, ie: “electric guitar”.
Pick a leader – The whole group should get to feedback, but one person should have final veto power. Otherwise things may never get done. If you have a producer, this is their job.
Limit revisions – Most mix engineers (especially with a per song fee) will do this for you, but you should make sure there are only one or two revisions. You can tweak forever and never get done, and if you’re paying hourly, this will cost you severely.

Mastering

If you’re on a budget, you may not be thinking about sending mastering out to yet another studio/engineer. This is ok. You can have your mix engineer put together a master, and that mix engineer might very well be the same person who tracked you. Maybe this isn’t the aural ideal, but It’s no crime.

If you do have a mastering budget, some guidelines apply:

Don’t fix it in mastering – Never leave anything wrong with a mix for mastering to fix. If it can be done in mixing, do it.
Organize songs – Similar to sending a mixer well organized tracks, the mastering engineer needs clean, well-documented material. Make clear filenames and include notes telling the engineer what’s where.
Clear deliverables – Be very clear ahead of time what deliverables you need. Do you want CD quality files? A CD master? Streaming-ready MP3s? Provide a detailed list of deliverables so there’s no back and forth.
Limit revisions – What’s true in mixing is true in mastering too. Keep the tweaking to a minimum.

The After Party

As you can see, maximizing your recording budget is often done in increments. Each time you add efficiency or cut something unnecessary, you stretch the budget. Yes, you can cut your budget to nothing by setting up your phone recorder and jamming out some tunes (call it lo-fi, it’ll work!), but what you’re really trying to do is create something awesome.

If you’re efficient, you can actually improve the quality of your recording, because you won’t have to cut corners after wasting a bunch of money – for example – drunkenly re-writing a song in the $250/hr main room at Ocean Way.

And if you do it right, you’ll have just enough left over for a few beers at your fabulous post-recording party!

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I like to think of myself as the McGiver of recording. I “funded” my first CD by rebuilding a boneyard at the University Of New Mexico, dragging 80 pounds of gear there every Saturday, and re-tarring the roof of my mentor’s studio to earn mix time. Ask me about it on Facebook @AaronJTrumm – or email me aaron @ aarontrumm.com

Master Your Own Domain

March 29, 2021 by Aaron

aaron trumm, audio mastering, can you master your own music, do it yourself mastering, home mastering, mastering, music mastering, nquit music, recording magazine

When (and how) to master your own mixes

This article first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

Conventional wisdom says you should never master your own mixes. Conventional also wisdom says you should never mix your own song, or produce your own music, or become a Grammy winner as an indie (*cough* Chance The Rapper *cough*).

Then again, conventional wisdom doesn’t have a laptop capable of landing a human being on Mars and a $100 album budget.

So there may actually be a reason (and a way) to successfully master your own.

But Wait!

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. First we should understand why conventional wisdom says what it says. After all, it may have a point. It has, after all, been in the business a long time. Here are the basic reasons not to master your own mixes, and it turns out they are good reasons:

Another set of ears – When you’re trying to finish up a track and make it the best it can be, it really is helpful to have someone new take a listen. With a different perspective (especially an expert one), they may see the very thing you can’t, and that can push the song over the edge.
A different room – It’s also a fact that a mastering room is a very different animal than a mix room. It’s not just “better”. It’s built specifically for the job of finishing off mixes, not the job of tracking, writing or mixing. Monitors are incredibly accurate, limiters are incredibly expensive, EQ’s are built specifically for mastering, and the room itself is built for only this purpose. Not being built to serve multiple purposes, a true mastering room is much better situated for critical listening.
A different mindset – A true mastering engineer is a very different type of professional than a mix or recording engineer. They know their gear and the process of mastering intimately, and their ears are tuned almost entirely to listen to the technical aspects of a track. Mix engineers, by contrast, need to cultivate a balance of technical knowledge and creative intuition. Think of a spectrum between Spock (logic and science) on the left and Bones (raw emotion and creative energy) on the right. Divas float about on the right. Mix engineers sit in the middle. Mastering engineers sit way over to the left.

That’s Great But…

All these reasons are well and good, and really if you can, you should probably heed them and hire a mastering engineer. But mastering engineers are expensive, and they take time. If your budget is low, time is tight (single day turn-arounds are common in licensing, for example), or if you just need a client mix that’s loud enough to impress, hiring out may not be an option.

Or, you may be trying to crank out two tracks a week for sync opportunities and the sheer volume (pun intended) of tracks would mean even the cheapest mastering house would break the bank.

These situations may not be ideal, but you’re not lost. While we’re not covering mastering in great depth here, we can offer a few tips to help you lay a decent foundation on which to finish your tracks.

New Ground Rules

First off, we can mimic some of what you get with a mastering engineer by modifying conventional wisdom a bit.

Get more ears – You’re probably already letting other people listen to your mixes to get feedback. If so, great! Now get a few more fresh ears on the mix. Let them know you’re not making creative changes like rearranging or re-performing. Some of what you find out may actually be things to fix in the mix, but that’s ok, it’s your mix!
Listen elsewhere – Again, you’ve probably done a bunch of this in the mix phase, but getting some more listens on a variety of devices in a variety of environments at a variety of times will help. This is the time to listen on “bad” devices, like a phone or a pillow speaker.
Get the mix right – This is true when you’re hiring out too, but especially when you’re self-mastering, get your mix as close to perfect as possible before mastering. A good mix should sound like the record, just perhaps a bit quieter due to not over compressing and giving the mastering engineer (or you) headroom to work. Don’t rely on mastering to fix imbalances or make the mix sound generally “better”. If you get the mix right, mastering is a simple matter of polish and finish. On some great mixes, world class mastering engineers have reported doing next to nothing!
Start fresh – Don’t just throw a few mastering plugins on the master buss in your mix session. Instead, export your finished mix at the same resolution (don’t dither or down sample) and prepare each version as stereo files, just like you would if you were sending them out. Start a brand new DAW session for mastering and import your mix. This will help you get into a different mindset, and keep you from making mix decisions when you should be making mastering decisions. It will also give you more processing headroom and be less confusing later.
Don’t just slap up a fancy plugin – Speaking of plugins, here are some really ones out there nowadays. It’s certainly ok to let a plugin help your efficiency, but use your own knowledge and ears. Trust that you are the one, not the computer, that knows what the final master should sound like.
Be a new you – Don’t master the same day as mixing. In fact, the more time you can put in between the sessions the better. If you can wait a month, great. But if you really are on a one day deadline, at least take a lunch break, leave the room, and maybe even recalibrate your ears by listening to a few similar tracks before you start again.
Be subtle – If your song were a sculpture, tracking would be the big cuts. You might be working with a chainsaw or a sledgehammer. Mixing is the stage where you switch to chisels, maybe small hammers. The moves are smaller, but still enough to make real, fundamental change. By the end of mixing, the piece is fully formed, looks great, and in a pinch could be shown to some art snobs. Mastering is the final shine. At this point, you’re using a rag, some fine polish, and in the worst case, a little sandpaper. If you find yourself trying to alter individual tracks, change the balance or nature of the track, or otherwise pick up actual “tools”, you should go back to the mix itself. Again, it may be tempting to do your mastering in the same DAW session as the mix to make this convenient, but you’ll get a lot more out of keeping them separate.

Study The Game

Mastering is a funny thing. It’s highly technical, it’s the stage where you do the boring stuff like meta-tagging and file organizing, and it’s the most subtle stage. Yet, there’s more to mastering than meets the eye. The subtleties of file types, dithering, loudness, compression, limiting and mix-wide EQ are amazing and deep. It’s no wonder there are still professionals dedicated to the craft. You can do yourself a world of good by learning from those pros, so we’ve put together a few resources so you can get started. You can find them in the “resources” sidebar.

Finish Strong

The main thing to remember about mastering is that the tools available now and the knowledge you can gather CAN empower you to put a professional polish on your work, if you’re willing to put in some effort. And if you find you don’t take to it and you have the money, by all means return to conventional wisdom. It’s not wrong, it’s just old!

In either case, may your masters shimmer and your listeners be impressed.

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I master most of my own stuff – shocking! I have used a mastering engineer and it was fun and awesome – but expensive. We can talk about it though – email me aaron @ aarontrumm.com or Facebook me @AaronJTrumm.

It’s A Small World, After All

March 22, 2021 by Aaron

aaron trumm, audio collaboration, modern music production, music collaboration, music production, recording magazine, remote collaboration, remote music collaboration

These days, you can collaborate with anyone, anywhere

This article first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

The other day, I sent a PayPal payment to my friend Javier for his half of a licensing fee, after our song was used in an MTV reality show. Javier has been a joy to work with. He’s super talented, easy going, and I can count on him for quality. I’ve also never met him.

I live in Albuquerque, NM and he lives in Corpus Christi, TX. We met on a Facebook group and we collaborate entirely remotely. As it turns out, I have collaborations with people from Texas, Canada, Australia…you get the picture. I even have collaborations with local people that weren’t done in person.

It seems remote collaboration is the new world order, and it makes sense. Digital audio and quick internet make it possible to meet and work with anyone who’s willing, and that means doors that were previously locked are now wide open.

Not Really New

In truth, remote collaboration isn’t entirely new. In fact, ISDN technology, which is a system of digital telephone connections that allow recording between far-away studios, has been in use since the 80’s, mostly in the broadcast and voiceover worlds. ISDN allows talent to perform in a studio or even in their home on one coast and have the receiving studio on the other coast record the signal in real time. It’s incredibly useful for voice and broadcast work, but it would be hard to perform against a music track that way, as the delay would be prohibitive (more on that in a bit).

What is (sort of) new is the sheer number of ways you can collaborate on recording projects from lands afar, using either normal internet resources, or purpose-built solutions designed specifically for music.

Many Ways

Assuming you’ve got a partner somewhere else and you want to do a project, you’ve got a number of options for how you might collaborate. What tools you use depends on the general method, and there are basically three categories of remote collaboration.

“Offline” Sharing

Probably the most widely used method, “offline” simply means that collaborators use their own tools on their own time and use normal file sharing and communication tools to share tracks and talk about projects. This method comes with its share of potential issues, but is probably the easiest way to start, and offers the greatest flexibility as far as tools used and scheduling.

When simply sharing files, each of you can work in your DAW of choice which is great if you like different systems, because you don’t have to worry about a learning curve. There are some things to take special care about, though, when going back and forth between DAWs.

First off, if you have different DAWs you can’t just share projects back and forth, and you can’t just grab the audio folder and give it to your partner. You’re going to have to export tracks and send them via some file sharing method like Dropbox, Box or Google Drive. This will take some extra time, so plan accordingly. It’s often a good idea to zip files before uploading, especially if there are a lot of them.

You’ll need to coordinate the sample rate and bit depth you’re working on (best to agree on that ahead of time), and what file format you each prefer. What tracks you send to your partner depends a lot on what each of your roles is. Perhaps you’re producing a track and you’ve hired a session vocalist to track a lead vocal. That vocalist might just need an instrumental mix that they can sing against, or they might want you to separate drums, guitars and pianos.

In any case, you’ll want to send them direct exports, and NOT edit the front. Make sure what you send and what they send back start from true zero, and make sure each of you is using the same tempo in your DAW. Let your partner know if there’s a pre-roll (space on the track before the song actually starts) and at what measure to expect the song to come in.

In the previous example, your vocalist would end up sending back a lead vocal track, also exported from zero. If you’re in that position, don’t chop off your track to save file space. Send the full-length version, even if there’s a minute of silence before your part comes in.

If you’ve got tempo or time signature changes, be sure to set that map up properly in both DAWs so you don’t end up in trouble.

If you happen to be using ProTools and you do want to save time by not recording from zero every time and not exporting the whole track audio folder, here’s a slick trick:

Go forward in the song to a couple measures before where you want to come in.
Set the playback head to an exact measure, eg: measure 55.
Rename the track with the measure in it, eg: “lead vox meas 55”.
Record, and then find the clip in the audio folder named “lead vox meas 55”.
Send that a long with a note. When your partner imports it, it will be in the wrong spot at the beginning of the file. They can move it to exactly measure 55 and voila.

Note: Not all DAWs name clips this way, but if you know how your DAW names clips, you can manipulate it in similar ways. When in doubt, though, just export your tracks full length.

All in all, there’s a reason simple file-sharing is still the most widely used method of collaborating. It really gives you and your partners the most flexibility, and keeps you working in the environment you’re most comfortable with.

Cloud Based Session Sharing

A hybrid option between extremes, cloud-based session sharing, where collaborators work on the same session online but at different times, is getting more and more popular. This option offers a lot of convenience, and with some tools, the added benefit of social-media style open collaboration.

There are actually quite a few cloud-based solutions. For cloud collaboration using existing DAWs, ProTools now has Avid Cloud Collaboration, Cubase has VST Connect (which also has some real-time capability) and uploading directly to your BandLab account is now built into Cakewalk.

Other tools, like Splice, Bandlab or Soundtrap, are their own DAWs that run online or can be downloaded. Some of these tools offer a unique opportunity to open projects for contribution by anyone in the community. Of course, if you do this be aware of the legal ramifications and communicate clearly.

Splice is like Facebook meets Soundcloud, with an app to download for cloud backup, a web based pseudo-DAW which can create projects and edit in popular DAW formats (like Ableton or Logic), and a lot of options for meeting new collaborators, sharing work, and hearing new music. For a fee, you can also get access to samples, loops, effects and presets, and even rent-to-own popular plugins.

BandLab has a similar social media vibe, and the option to work in an online DAW which includes a bunch of handy (if odd) presets for getting started quickly, like a one button drum machine. And since BandLab recently bought and resurrected Cakewalk, there’s cloud collaboration integrated into that software too.

Cloud collaboration is a great option for working with people across the globe who have vastly different schedules, for keeping things organized, and for opening up a world of new collaborative possibilities.

Fully Real Time

It is possible with the right software and good enough internet on both ends to do a recording session in real time, as if you were sitting in the room together. This is the hardest option to implement, but productions take a lot less time when you can sit together at the same time, and you get the benefit of almost real human interaction.

A surprising number of tools exist to accomplish this, among them the aforementioned VST Connect by Steinberg, Source Elements Source Connect and OhmForce OhmStudio, to name a few. The thing to remember with real-time tools is that both parties’ internet connections need to be fast and reliable enough. For example, Source Connect requires 300kbps upload AND download streams, and VST Connect requires 256kbps upload speed.

For real-time to really work, you’ll want to connect to your router at the fastest possible speed (preferably using Gigabit Ethernet), and if possible, connect using wired ethernet rather than WiFi. Check into your upload speed as well as your download speed. You should try for at least 20Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speeds.

Try also to minimize the amount of other activity using bandwidth, such as browsers, Skype or other internet connecting software. If you’re in a home studio, you might also need to minimize the amount of other internet activity going on in the house, such as streaming videos or downloading music.

Once your internet is humming right, you’ll have to coordinate which software to use. Source Connect runs as an app which allows you to route audio from whatever DAW you prefer to your partner’s DAW. With VST Connect Pro, one person can run the main DAW (Cubase 7 or above) and a performer on the other end can run VST Connect Performer, which is free to download.

Other packages like OhmStudio can be used real-time or asynchronously and have the added bonus of opening up projects to community members who are signed up for the service. OhmStudio is also a standalone DAW.

One thing to note: In almost all cases having more than two parties in the “room” is either impossible or unrealistic. And of course, you’ll have to schedule sessions like you would in person, which may be difficult if you’re in vastly different time zones.

Pitfalls aside, it can be a pretty cool thing to get back to real-time communication, making changes together on the spot, and being in engaged with a real live human being. And when it works, this method is certainly faster than others. It’s worth giving a try if your gear is right.

Actual Jamming?

To dovetail a bit from the section above, what if you want to play together with a group of people? Maybe you like that vibe, or you want to rehearse, or for whatever reason you’d like to sync up like musicians tend to do, but from across the world.

This is technically possible, and a few real-time collaboration tools allow it, if your connections and computers are robust enough. Contrary to what seems intuitive, you can’t jam together over something like Skype or Zoom (you could do a simple writing session that way though). The latency in normal communication apps is too great, and you won’t be able to sync up. You certainly can’t record together that way.

Still, there are tools cropping up for online jamming. Jammr (jammr.net) is in beta testing as of this writing, and JamKazam (jamkazam.com) has been around for a few years now.

If you want to learn the real nitty gritty on this topic, there’s a free online course offered by Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music And Acoustics (CCRMA) which will teach you how to set up online jamming using open source tools. Learning these techniques will give you a deep understanding of the process and problems of online sync, and really deepen your knowledge of issues like latency and audio related networking. You can find the course by navigating to this address: https://tinyurl.com/y6ecz66r.

Finding New Collaborators

You may be collaborating long-distance because your favorite guitar player moved to Tallahassee, or you may even be doing remote collaborations because your drummer had a baby and can only record at his house while you’re at work, but more than likely, you’re looking to branch out and find new people to work with.

There are as many ways to find new partners as there are new partners, but there are some tried and true methods. First, you can meet people when you’re out in the world at a conference, or touring with your metal cello quartet, or whatever it is you do.

You might also meet people on Facebook groups. There are hundreds of Facebook groups dedicated to production. You might also find new people on LinkedIn, Twitter or other social networks. And of course, you may find new collaborators by opening up your projects to others as mentioned above.

Another option is to search for players on platforms like SoundBetter.com or even Fiverr or UpWork. There’s even a cool service called Audio Hunt (theaudiohunt.com) which can pair you up with gear owners so you can run your tracks through that coveted analog compressor or tube preamp you just can’t afford.

The thing to remember in all these cases is that you want to vet people and make sure the working relationship will be good. It may be a good idea to get to know a person for a while, check out their work, interact with them in a public forum like a Facebook group, and maybe even meet them in real life at a conference before you decide to work together.

Even you don’t take a bunch of time, you want to talk business first, or at least very early in the process. Make sure everything is clear up front and you’re on the same page about the project. Is it your act? Theirs? A duet? Who will be allowed to pitch the track, and who will control distribution? What are the master rights splits and what are the songwriting splits? How do you want to handle a third party who may come in to contribute? Define everyone’s rights and responsibilities ahead of time so that there are no surprises and put it in writing.

Music may be just a hobby to some of your partners (or to you), but it’s also a business, and though it may be tedious, getting the paperwork out of the way ahead of time will save you a lot of trouble in the long run. Plus, talking business first can help weed out shady people before you go too far down the road. Once that’s out of the way, you can let the creative juices flow, and being open-minded about your partner’s contribution is usually the best way to go about things.

A Small World

It really is a small, connected world. Before writing this, I sat on my back patio looking at flowers, cats and bees, relaxing back while I nonchalantly discussed arrangement changes to a new song over Facebook Messenger with a collaborator who is 1000 miles away. Using my phone, I was able to send him a rough mix through Box.com and without breaking a sweat or leaving my lunch, I had all his notes and ideas, ready for the afternoon session.

Working remotely will never replace the vibe of multiple people creating together in the studio, and it doesn’t have to. But it’s a great way to open new options, keep connected to great partners who travel or move, and in general just add a whole new flavor to the process of making tracks. Perhaps you’ll be my next collaborator!

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I live in Albuquerque, NM, but it doesn’t matter. I use Cakewalk, MixBus and Ableton but that doesn’t matter either. Find me to present a collaborative idea at aaron @ aarontrumm.com or on Facebook @AaronJTrumm.

Turn It Down, Sonny!

March 15, 2021 by Aaron

audio volume, home recording, listening level, nquit music, recording magazine, sound, turn it down sonny

Listening at the right volume levels

This article first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

I’m 42 (45 now but I think I’ll stop updating this) years old, and although that’s not old, I admit to being a little crotchety (aka sensical) about certain things. Listening level is one of them. Turn it down! You’re too loud! Get off my lawn!

It’s a topic oft-covered, especially if you read or take a course about mixing, but it bears repeating, since we’ve been talking about monitors and acoustics this month. The question is, how loud is too loud, and why? After all, aren’t listeners generally listening to the final product loudly?

Well, actually no. Not as loud as you. And if you watch life go by, you’ll notice a whole lot of music being played at low levels so that people can still talk to each other, so your mix needs to sound good at that level.

Partially to that end, it’s common (and good) advice to mix at a low enough level that you can still hold a conversation. Said with numbers, that might be around 75-80db in a small room, and maybe about 85db in a larger control room (ie: sitting farther back). There are actually several reasons for this:

Fatigue. Your ears and also your whole body tire quickly when listening at high volumes. Your length of session and effectiveness thus decreases. Bad decisions get made earlier.
Long term hearing damage. You want your hearing to stay with you as long as possible. Very loud listening is damaging over time. We tend to lose high frequencies as we age anyway. You don’t need to speed this process up.
SHORT term hearing damage. Listen loud enough, and you could actually damage your hearing NOW. That’s hard to fix, and it can cut your musical career short.
The Fletcher-Munson curve. Basically, this curve describes a phenomenon of human hearing where perceived loudness changes per frequency as volume changes. That means that the balance of a mix sounds different at different volumes. In practice what this ACTUALLY means is that if you achieve good balance at a low to moderate volume, your mix will continue to sound balanced as it’s turned up, but the reverse is not true. If you achieve balance at a high volume, your mix will tend to fall apart at lower volumes.
Monitors can be damaged at very high volumes. This is expensive and time consuming.

Now you do need to check at various levels. Personally, I mix mostly at a low volume, one where I can still converse. Early on, I crank it up for very short periods of time to get the subwoofer pushing so I can really understand what’s happening with the bass. It IS actually easier to hear problems with low end mud at a higher level. Then I turn it down again. Late in the mix, I turn it up again for a short bit to check for harshness that would annoy or hurt a listener who wants to crank it up (this often appears somewhere between 2 and 5k). Then I turn it down again. Then at the end, I listen loud once through the whole song, just to get happy and have fun.

Of course mixing isn’t the only place where this comes into play, and I get even more persnickety in a live scenario. Guitarists, I love you, but turn your amps down. Yes, as your amp gets cranked up, it has a moderately different tonal character. However, that character difference isn’t worth the sacrifice in mix quality in a room that’s properly manned by a front of house engineer. If you turn it down, she can control it in the mix, make your vocal shine, give each player exactly what they need in their monitors, and actually make your band sound good. Otherwise everyone keeps saying “I can’t hear the vocal! Where are we in the song?”, and your audience thinks you’re mediocre, which is wrong, because you REALLY ROCK. Right? Turning your guitar amps down is the number one way you can help the sound person help you.

Ok, now that you’re off my lawn, I will admit that cranking a great tune is about the quickest way I know to get to musical euphoria, so I get it if you want to give it a crank every once in a while. I do. Every mix, at the end, when I’m done making decisions, and often in the car. But as a professional who relies on his ears, I keep it below the pain threshold – ALWAYS. And when I’m working, I’m working, so I keep it where it needs to be for me to make the best decisions, achieve the most sonic control, and have the most energy at the end of the day. I also take earplugs with me everywhere just in case, especially for concerts, which are pretty much always too loud.

Thanks for reading. I’ll go back outside to my rocking chair now.

If you want to talk to me about this – well find me on Facebook @AaronJTrumm! 🙂

Listen Different

August 6, 2020 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, audio monitors, audio recording, home recording studio, home studio, listen different, listen differently, monitor speakers, music, music recording, nquit, nquit music, recording, recording magazine, recording studio, speakers

This article first appeared in Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

There’s nothing in the world like a great pair of…monitor speakers. It’s true. Whether you’re into Adam, Genelec, K-Rok, Events or Mackie, even if you’re old school and can’t get by without your trusty NS-10s, whether sub or no sub, there’s nothing like a beautiful set of monitors (in a properly treated room!) with an incredibly clean, accurate sound to not only get you in the mood, but make that mood shine through when other people hear your brilliant opus. You need that accuracy, and you need to be used to your go-to monitors. You need to know their ins and outs, their strengths and weaknesses, and what tends to happen to a mix when you use them. You need to be loyal enough for long enough so that you really feel comfortable and master your monitors.

But comfort can be a dangerous thing, and no one, not even your mom, will ever listen to your mixes on your monitors in your room. Maybe not even your client. So your loyalty, while strong, should flex. You may need, as they say, to have an open relationship with your monitors. In fact, in order to really get your mix right, you might need to be rather promiscuous with your listening. Of course that includes the obvious: if you’re in a big studio, you’ll have loud speakers, mid fields, near fields and great headphones to check mixes against. But don’t stop there. If possible, how about another set of nearfields, maybe an alternate pair of mid fields?

Of course, that kind of buying power is rare, and in reality, you might have to settle for one set of really great, perfect-for-you monitors. That’s ok, because there’s more to do anyway. Check the mix on your go to headphones. Check on it $10 computer speakers. Check on the laptop speakers. Download an mp3 to your phone and listen with earbuds, then listen without. Does it still sound like a record? Listen on a boom box – a crappy one. A famous studio/label who shall remain nameless is said to have had a small broadcast station, which they would tune in to while sitting in an old truck in the front. Listen in mono. Get a cheap “pillow” speaker and try that out. DEFINITELY listen in your car. Listen a LOT in a LOT of cars. Make a CD and take it to every boom box in every department store in town.

When you’re not in the studio, make a lot of notes. When you are, make small tweaks. Return to your favorite monitors and check to see that your adjustment didn’t throw things out of whack there. Usually you can find a balance between disparate systems with small tweaks, but be careful of chasing your tail. Just check and check and check, and at some point, stop.

This advice is especially for those self-mixed musicians, producers and dreamers who don’t have access to the Bob Clearmountains and Chris Lord-Alges of the world (or their gear). Your lack of the absolute BEST resources need not stop you from achieving great and translatable mixes, and where that begins is with multiple listening environments.

While you’re at it, go ahead and get multiple ears on the mix too. E-Mail an mp3 link to some people who will listen differently than you. If you can stand it, bring somebody into the studio who is NOT an expert. Yes, bring the lay people in on it! Let your kids, your mom, your dog and your neighbor’s best friend’s plumber in on the fun. Don’t try to get technical terms out of them, just listen for their reactions. They won’t say “the vocal is a bit muddy, can you trim 100 HZ a bit?” They’ll say something like “what’d she say?”

That’s not to say you should leave your expert friends out. Don’t be afraid to send the mix all around, including to feedback groups you trust out in the social media world. Just make sure you make small tweaks, and remember that you may not be able to please EVERYBODY. But try. And listen, listen, listen.

Oh, and that means listening to other music. That’s obvious, right? Certainly you tune your ears a bit with known tracks before starting a mix session. But have you been listening to those tracks on those other systems too, learning what the mixes you like do in those situations? That can be quite enlightening and pretty encouraging too, because no, the great mixers’ stuff doesn’t necessarily sound that great on a pillow speaker! If it sounds better than yours though, think about why. What do you hear, and how can you get it?

This kind of critical listening is just that – critical – and you will be glad you upped the ante on perspective. There is a limit, and at some point you need to go ahead and finish and move on, but there’s great value in listening around, as it were. Try it, you’ll like it!

I’m a producer, vocalist, pianist and listen differenter. Look for me on Twitter or Facebook at @AaronJTrumm.

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File This

July 30, 2020 by Aaron

5.1 surround, aac, aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, ac-3, aiff, audio, audio file types, cdda, lossless, lossy, m.c. murph, mp3, nquit, ogg, recording magazine, wma

A Brief Discussion of Audio File Types

This article first appeared Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

In my article “Keeping Track”, we covered data. We talked about the information you need to keep with your songs in order to sell, license and organize them. We covered metatags; data about data that gets embedded in files. We talked a little about the file types that carry metadata and how to use them, and that brought up a wider topic: audio file types.

There are hundreds of audio formats and an endless variety of settings and options. So, without a whole lot of fanfare, we’ll dive into some of the formats that exist as of now, but first let’s delineate a few traits and categories.

Compression

An audio file (or a video file for that matter) is either compressed or uncompressed. What this means is the file is either whole and complete or it has been squashed down to save space, like using a .zip file; or in physical terms, like using one of those infomercial vacuum bags to suck the air out of your Christmas sweaters. A WAV file is uncompressed; an MP3 is compressed.

Don’t confuse compression or the lack thereof with the terms lossy or lossless. Lossy and lossless are two types of compressed files. If a file is lossy, it means some data has been thrown out because in theory that data isn’t necessary, usually because the human ear can’t hear it. That data cannot be recovered. On the other hand, a lossless file is compressed, but no data has been thrown out. Think of the difference between cutting off the sleeves of your sweater (because it’d be fine as a vest) and sucking it in Mr. Popeil’s vacuum (lossy), and simply sucking it in the vacuum, but leaving it intact (lossless). As you might guess, lossless files are generally bigger. MP3s are lossy. FLAC files are lossless.

File Format and Codec

You may never need to know this, but there is a difference between a file’s format and it’s codec. The format, or file type, is simply the wrapper in which the audio data is kept. The codec is the meat of how it’s encoded. Not all file types support all codecs, but there are some surprising possibilities. A WAV file might not be encoded with PCM, for example. We don’t have room here for a comprehensive list, but it’s likely you’ll only ever need to worry about a few possibilities. We’ll say more on those big ones momentarily.

Sample Rate, Bit Depth and Bit Rate

These are the main measurement of audio quality, and there can be some confusion about what they all mean.

Sample rate is used to refer to an original or uncompressed recording. It’s how many times per second a snapshot of the signal is taken. 44.1k means 44.1 kilohertz, or 44,100 times in a second. You probably know that CD quality is 44.1k, 16 bit.

Bit Depth is how many bits are in each sample. If you record at 44.1k, 16 bit, you’re taking 44,100 16 bit samples every second. Crudely, more bit depth corresponds to more dynamic range.

Bit Rate can be a bit fuzzier. Bit rate simply means the number of bits that are processed over a given amount of time, and it is a measure that can be applied to any file. A CD quality file is 1,411 kbps (kilobits per second), for example. In practice, though, bitrate is more often used to refer to the quality of a compressed, lossy file. To be crude again, it comes down to a measure of how much data we’ve thrown away. The highest bit rate for mp3s is 320 kbps, and the default iTunes rate is 256. A 128k MP3 is noticeably smaller than a 320k file, but in many situations, not all that different sounding. A 32k MP3, however, would sound awful, except in special circumstances (audiobooks, for example, often use low bit rates, because that doesn’t much affect a spoken track).

The Big Ones

While there are actually tons of audio file types and different combinations of format/codec possibilities, there are only a few you’re likely to see very often. In fact, we can narrow that down to three. WAV, AIFF, and MP3.

WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) files are Microsoft’s format, used in PC applications, and based on RIFF (resource interchange file format). Usually WAV files are encoded using PCM (pulse code modulation) encoding, which is uncompressed and the same basic encoding used in CDs, but it is possible to encode a WAV file with other codecs, even compressed ones. A “RIFF Wav” is a normal WAV file, and a “Broadcast WAV” is a WAV file with extended headers, originally used by broadcasters. WAV files have .wav extensions.

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) files are Apple’s uncompressed format, also based on RIFF, and usually using PCM encoding. The only practical difference between WAV and AIFF files is that AIFF files allow more metadata by default (so you can see stuff like album covers in iTunes), but you will notice that certain DAWs won’t deal with both. That’s not a problem, as you can easily convert between them with something like Sox or FFMPEG, or free software like Audacity. AIFF files typically carry .aif extensions.

EDIT with a sneak pro tip: AIFFs and WAVs are literally the same format, from an audio standpoint. So if Joe Schmo who uses GarageBand sends you a bunch of AIFFs that your Windows DAW can’t read – you can just change the extension and voila.

MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer III) files are compressed, lossy and very common. MP3 shouldn’t be confused with MPEG-3, which is a video format. MP3 compression is done by throwing away data which isn’t needed, mostly due to a phenomenon in human hearing called auditory masking. That’s a pretty fancy way of saying we don’t hear everything in an uncompressed file anyway, so we might as well throw some away to save space. There’s no shortage of debate there, but it seems to work pretty well. MP3 was a proprietary format, owned and licensed by the The Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits, and that’s why not all software could make an MP3, at least until very recently. The Fraunhofer Institute declared MP3 an obsolete format in May of 2017, and terminated its licensing program. Whether this means the MP3 will die or proliferate further remains to be seen. For now, it’s still the de-facto compressed file format, and typically what you get when you rip a CD with iTunes or other software, or download that free track from your favorite polka band.

Other Major Formats

There are so many audio formats, we’d be hard pressed to talk about them all here, but there are a few you should know about.

CDDA (Compact Disc Digital Audio) is the format for compact discs. It’s just an AIFF file with different headers. If you happen across a .cdda file (probably ripped from a CD), you’ll probably be able to play it in anything that can play a WAV or AIFF.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is a compressed, lossy format created by Dolby which was designed to be a successor to MP3. Apple subsequently developed a copy protected version that uses DRM (digital rights management) for iTunes, and that’s generally the format of files you buy from iTunes.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is exactly what it sounds like, a free, lossless, compressed format. Great for archiving files, since it can reduce size up to 60% without losing any quality.

WMA (Windows Media Audio) was originally a compressed, lossy Windows format designed to compete with MP3. It’s been expanded to include a lossless version, a multichannel version, and a lower bit rate version used for voice. You may encounter Windows system files or other similar things in WMA format. WMA files can be copy protected.

AC-3 is a lossy 5.1 surround sound format used by Dolby Digital in DVDs, HDTV and DTV (digital television). Its highest sample rate is 48k. A side note: The “point one” in surround sound refers to a Low Frequency Effect (LFE) channel which has less bandwidth. The LFE is where the shake your boots BOOM in movies comes from.

What To Use?

At this point your question may be why should I care, or what should I use? The truth is, audio is audio, and when it comes to format choice, utility is the main consideration. Your DAW will do what it does, and I recommended letting it do that. When you’re deciding what to export, think about the use at hand. You’ll want to export either WAV or AIFF for mastering, making CDs, importing into a video project, or other continuing full resolution work. They’re really the same thing, so think about the software you’re using next, or what the person on the other end needs, and use that.

When it comes to delivery to the general public, think about the end user rather than entering into an endless debate about the perceptual quality of various algorhythms or codecs. If you’re selling downloads to normal people, you’ll probably want to use MP3s. If you’re delivering files to a digital distributor, you’ll probably be asked for CD quality WAVs, and in some cases, distributors will take AAC files for iTunes. If you want you can also distribute lossless files in FLAC format, or give people access to WAVs, or even distribute OGG/Vorbis files, which is an open source container/codec combination very similar to MP3. Beware, though, that not all players support these less common formats, and your user may end up with no way to listen.

As far as bit rate, I like to give my loving, devoted fans the highest quality MP3s I can, so those are encoded at 320k, but it’s also a good idea to make a 128k version for web-based preview listeners, because the smaller size will load faster and stream better. Some submissions you make (say to internet radio or licensing folk) may have size limits, too, so those smaller MP3s are useful. In the end, this is a judgement call, and if it’s for your own personal listening, then do whatever you like best.

One other consideration is something we addressed in “Keeping Track”, which is metadata. There are many situations where you’ll want some data other than audio in your file. Whether it’s so consumers know who you are, or licensing agents know who to contact, you’ll need some extra info in there, so the file type you use to send to certain people needs to contain that data. That’s what we covered in “Keeping Track”, so if you haven’t seen it, check that article out.

Resources

As with any very technical topic, an exploration of audio file types can go quite deep, and we don’t have room here to cover everything we could think of, so here are some recommendations for further reading:

Principles of Digital Audio by Ken Pohlmann
The Audio Expert (chapter 8 especially) by Ethan Winer
Mastering Audio by Bob Katz
How Music Got Free by Stephen Witt (for a great history of the MP3 format)
Any Wikipedia page about “audio file types” or specific types – google “WAV Wikipedia”, for example.

If you’re new to audio or recording, then hopefully we’ve helped you at least begin to sort out file types in digital audio, and if you’re a veteran, I hope you’ve reminded yourself of a few things here. For the most part, file types are pretty straight forward, but you can run into confusion at times, especially when a DAW or other piece of software gives you a thousand choices. It’s nice to remember a few basic tenets, cut through the noise, and get back to creating. So file this away, and we’ll see you in the studio!

Did you know I have a master’s degree in “Music, Science and Technology” from Stanford University? That means I can go back and forth between Macs and PCs in the studio, and talk at length about debt. Find me on Facebook and Twitter and other various stuff @AaronJTrumm.

Keeping The Rhythm – Part 2

July 28, 2020 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, diy drums, do it yourself drums, do it yourself recording, drum programming, drum recording, drums, MIDI drums, nquit, recording magazine

DIY Drums – Part 2 – Programming

This article first appeared Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

Last month, I talked about recording acoustic drums yourself within whatever limitations you have. This month, we’re expanding the conversation into programmed drums. Just like last month, the main thing I want you to get is inspiration to experiment and maintain your relentless pursuit of cool.

If you’re an EDM producer, dubstep guru or drum n bass oldie, programming drums is your bag. You may also be a singer/songwriter looking to do something fresh, an electropop person making licensable, “current” records, or you may just be completely without mics or recording space, relegated to headphones and a laptop, trying to make something sound “real”.

That last scenario is the root of all electronica, including hip-hop, and the thousands of genres that have been created over the last 30 years should be a testament to the idea that limitations really can be the mother of creativity.

Whatever your Reason (pun intended), here you are, wanting to make a sick drum track, or at least tastefully augment your tune. First, let’s talk about “reality”.

Keepin’ It Real

The first question when you start any drum track is whether you want it to sound like a real drummer. When you’re doing rock n roll, singer/songwriter, world or other “natural” music, the answer may be yes. In that case, start with my article on acoustic DIY drums from last month’s Recording. People aren’t easily fooled, and my experience is the more I try to make programmed drums sound “real”, the less “real” and legitimate they actually sound. Rather, I recommend letting an electronically created track sound electronic. That’s not to say you won’t have acoustic elements, but let each part do what it what it does best.

That doesn’t, however, mean you shouldn’t employ some techniques that people might refer to as making a track sound more “human”.

To begin with, picture a drummer. She has two feet and two arms at most. More than 4 different drum hits at the exact same time might not make sense to the ear. Then again, it depends on what they are. You can certainly get away with conga laid over drum kit, for example, because that could be a whole other person.

Another thing about human drummers is they’re never computer-perfect. Try using your software’s swing or groove-quantize (Figure 1) to create a more human feel. If swing doesn’t work, try sliding hits around a hair to make them a little less uniform in time. This is a technique not well suited for techno and dance genres but if you’re aiming for something more “real”, it could help.

Subtly randomizing velocity, phase or pan is great too, especially for hi-hats, to make the track more “lifelike”. Even if you’re not going for a natural sound, programmed hi-hats can get pretty boring and lifeless, so messing with them is often a good idea. I’m a fan of a little distortion and subtle (or not) auto-panning on programmed hi-hats.

All that said, if you need real sounding drums, another way to achieve that which wasn’t available even a few years ago is to use live loops. Loop libraries like Loop Loft use real live drummers to play loops and fills you can use. Some freelance drummers even keep loops lying around that they’ll sell or even give you, if you’ve got a good relationship!

I wasn’t a huge fan of loop libraries before multitrack versions started showing up; a pre-mixed stereo loop is too hard to mix and too generic-sounding. With separated tracks, though, you can treat them like you would anything delivered by a session drummer. EQ to taste, pan how you want, use distortions, compressors and pitch shifters, and make it your own. You can even stretch or compress to change tempo (within reason).

BYOB – Bring Your Own Beats

Most drum tracks created electronically make no attempt to sound like real drums. This is great, because what used to be a limitation is now an unlimited palette of options. This may be overwhelming, but like I said last month, you can start by thinking of the functionality of a drum kit.

My usual process is pretty typical. First I build a virtual “kit”, by picking a kick sound I like, then snare, then hat, etc. I make a basic pattern while I do this, usually starting with kick/snare. If you do this work for long, you’ll realize there are only a few workable kick/snare patterns in 4/4. You can always experiment, say by changing time signatures, but it’s not necessarily bad to start with a tried and true four-on-the-floor “pop” pattern. The pattern itself is only the first of many places you can be unique!

You can build drum patterns any number of ways. You can use a pattern editor (Figure 2), which is how old drum machines work, you can step enter into your MIDI sequencer (Figure 3), you can play live using your MIDI interface (Figure 4) and then quantize (or not), or you can copy/paste actual samples or MIDI data right into a timeline, such as with Ableton (Figure 5).

If you enter MIDI data rather than audio samples, you can easily experiment with different patches, or create remixes later by using different sounds with the same pattern. In any case, avoid placing different drum sounds all on the same track. Just like with acoustic drums or loops, you want separate kick, snare, hat, etc. tracks so you can control and manipulate properly in the mix. You can get away with having some stereo loops here and there, but you’re usually much better off giving yourself some mix control.

If you’ve played your MIDI performance simultaneously into one track, say by doing kick/snare or kick/snare/hat all at once, simply create a new track, select only one instrument (eg kick) using the filtered selection option (Figure 6), and cut/paste to a new track. If you don’t have this option, you may be able to route different patches to different outputs on your device or any number of other things to get your tracks separated. If there’s no way for you to do that, then play one part at a time.

Be Cool

Creating basic patterns is pretty easy, but you want them to be cool. Think of your basic pattern as a roughed in Michelangelo’s David. You can see that it’s him, but now it’s time to start chiseling in that six pack.

One of the best ways to improve a groove is with what I like to call tiered turnarounds. Consider this basic pattern:

If you loop this, you’ll notice an odd sensation of wrongness when it repeats. The second measure needs variance. So instead, I might do this:

That feels better, but on measure 4, we get a similar sense of wrongness, so I’d add another variant, a bit more like a fill.

I usually take this out to 8 measures, where I might even use both the last 2 measures as “fill”. Once I have an 8 measure groove, I feel more comfortable repeating it. Each of these little variances or fills, which usually happen over proportionately longer periods of time (ie: a quarter of the length of the loop) is basically a turnaround, which creates the feeling of balance in a passage. The number of tiers and variances you use may vary, but the concept is to create a push-pull while repeating. You don’t really want to NOT repeat – that would be chaos, but turnarounds work with repetition to keep the listener engaged. The same concept can be applied to any kind of riff – guitars, pianos, bass, etc.

Oh Yeah, The Song!

Hopefully you’ve already been considering the song as a whole, but if you haven’t, this is a good time to refer again to the song itself. Once you’ve got one pattern you like, consider a larger variance or different pattern altogether for your chorus, and maybe a third for your bridge. The song should have informed your basic pattern, and it will probably inform your chorus, and it should certainly inform you what to do with the bridge and other odd sections.

Thinking of the song as an arrangement when you’re building drums is one of the best ways to make your rhythm track stand out from the crowd, even if you’re starting with drums, and even if you’re not going for a standard song structure. If you’re going for a build over time track or a trance track with subtle progression, do these things in the drum track as well as any other instrumentation, rather than letting the drum track plod along with no change.

Once you’ve got an arrangement, start augmenting with effects, variable velocities, new parts, and even recording acoustic parts to go along, if you can. If you’re using hardware synths, you should probably record that audio to the DAW now, so you’re not fumbling around when you try to mix. This is a good opportunity to use cool things like tubes or even more drastic effects to give the tracks even more life, grit or uniqueness. Make sure to mute and record one by one (or use your synth’s L/R or aux outputs strategically) so you still have separated tracks. Don’t just record the whole stereo mix from the synth, especially if you’re sending tracks to a mix engineer.

Timbre And Flavor

Once you’ve got some cool sounds, killer patterns and an arrangement that doesn’t just drone on, try going back to timbre. Is anything off? Does your snare fit, is the kick awesome? You’ve probably already found some cool sounds to start with, but no matter what they are, they probably came from a sample pack or a synth, which means other people have access to them. That means you should start making the track your own. You might try layering certain tracks to strengthen them or make them cooler, or try adding elements in certain sections. You may even change something like the snare in a chorus or bridge, or bring in a vastly different sound for a one measure breakdown. Look at your arrangement again and see if there’s anywhere you can cut the drums entirely, or break down to just hats, or kick.

At this point, your track probably sounds pretty cool. You’ve probably already laid in any other tracks, if you’ve got them, and you’re well on your way toward a mix. You may have spent 4 hours, and you may have spent 4 weeks. Either way, it’s probably time to go outside!

Hopefully you’re inspired now to experiment and search. Drum tracks, like anything in the record making process, are a matter of purpose, an open mind and that relentless pursuit of cool. Groove on, baby!

I’ve been programming drum tracks for long on 25 years (well…more now I guess), and I’m still pursuing cool. Talk to me about it on Facebook or Twitter @AaronJTrumm

Tweak Your Own

July 28, 2020 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, audio computer, audio pc, build your own windows pc, music computer, nquit, optimize windows for audio, recording magazine, sound computer

Studio computer, that is…

Optimizing your Windows computer for audio

This article first appeared Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

If you read my “Roll Your Own (studio computer, that is)” article, you’ll remember I promised to talk later about setting up that computer for optimal audio performance. Even if you haven’t built your own machine, you’ll still want to optimize audio performance, so this is for you too.

Before we dive in, make a note of a few things:

We’re talking about Windows. Macs and Linux boxes are different beasts.
Screenshots here are from Windows 8. Instructions apply to both Windows 10 and Windows 7/8 machines, but your screens may look a little different.
We’re assuming you’ve got your hardware set. If not, you can refer to “Roll Your Own” for some guidelines about specs (even if you’re not building it yourself). Most modern, good machines will work. 4GB RAM with a 2.5Ghz multi core processor would do.
We’re just covering the system here, not setting up audio software.
Finally, not everything is necessary, especially if your hardware is great, so you can use your judgement and adjust your settings to taste. Think of this as a list of things you CAN do, some of which you probably should.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Basic Optimization

We’ll start with the easiest stuff. First of all, make sure all your drivers are up to date, as well as your plugins and software (both audio and other). Outdated drivers especially can cause performance problems.

Next, uninstall unnecessary software. If your computer is ONLY for audio work, this can include Office products, accounting software, extra browsers – anything you don’t need. You can uninstall Windows components that aren’t necessary like games, or apps like extra music players, painting programs, etc. This really just saves space and distraction, but it’s a good start.

Next disable programs running in the system tray. These are the pesky items here:

Right click on those items and you should be able to find a settings section (you may have to actually open the program) where you can tell it not to run on start up. You don’t want to disable your virus protection or system critical applications, but you can trim the fat.

Next, defragment your hard drives, if they need it. The easiest way to get to this is open the control panel and put “defrag” in the search box. You should do this whenever that utility says the drives need it.

Next up, tweak your screen saver. Fancy screen savers take up resources. Disable it or set it to just turn off the screen. Increase the time so it doesn’t kick in while you’re recording. This can happen because Windows doesn’t consider audio activity “activity”, so you could be singing your heart out on that 10 minute rock opera, but if you’re not touching the mouse or keyboard, the screen saver could come on, cause a glitch, and ruin your life.

Next, disable system sounds. You don’t need extra dinging and binging, but more importantly these sounds can grab control of the sound device. Search for “sounds” in the control panel and click “change system sounds”. Pick “no sounds” from the system scheme dropdown.

Next tackle visual effects. Windows has some cool animations and transparencies which you don’t really need. They’re actually not that bad, but it could make some difference. Search for “visual effects” in control panel, and choose “adjust the appearance and performance of Windows”. It’s easiest just to pick “adjust for best performance”, but you can pick and choose which effects to keep.

Next, you could disable automatic Windows updates, or tell Windows to “check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”, so that Windows updates aren’t running when audio should be prioritized. If you fully disable automated updates, be sure you remember to periodically check for updates manually. To do any of this, search for “Windows update” in the control panel. You can pick “turn automatic updating on or off” to change automation or “check for updates” to manually update.

Now look into your virus software. Disabling virus software is definitely not recommended, but you might be able to tell it when to do scans and otherwise tweak its behavior so as not to interrupt audio processing.

Next, if you’re not using it, consider disabling the onboard sound card. The onboard sound drivers don’t always play nice with other audio drivers, and to boot, they sometimes introduce noise into the system. Search for “device manager” in control panel, click “device manager”, find the sound device in the list, right click and pick “disable”. Note: I didn’t do this on my laptop, because I want that device working if I’m not in the studio with my interface. I did do it on my desktop.

Next up, if your system is a 64 bit system and your Windows is 64 bit (find out at control panel->system), AND your DAW has a 64 bit version AND your plugins are all 64 bit, run at 64 bit! This allows the software to access a lot more memory. Beware though, because 32 bit plugins generally don’t work in 64 bit DAWs, and vice versa. If you’re starting from scratch though, you might as well stay in 64 bit mode. You do this by simply installing and using the 64 bit version of your software.

Finally, consider using hardwired keyboard and mouse devices instead of Bluetooth (wireless) devices. Bluetooth communication can affect audio performance.

Advanced Optimization

Power Options

Here’s where the fun begins. By default, Windows is set up to balance between power saving and performance by doing things like putting the computer to sleep, throttling down the processor and other tricks. This is a great place to get a significant boost.

Go to control panel and search for “power options”. Click on “power options”. Start by picking “high performance” under “choose or customize a power plan”. Now click “change plan settings” to further tweak this plan. You’ll see two settings: “turn off the display” and “put the computer to sleep”. If you’re using a laptop, there will be an “on battery” option and a “plugged in” option. You can leave the “on battery” option alone to conserve power, but for “plugged in”, pick “never”. Next click “change advanced power settings”. Here you have a whole bunch of options.

For the plugged in options, use these settings:

Hard disk: turn off hard disk after “never”.
Internet explorer: JavaScript timer frequency, “maximum performance”.
Desktop background settings: slide show, “paused”.
Wireless adapter settings: power saving mode, “maximum performance”.
Sleep: sleep after “never”. Hibernate after “never”.
Intel CPCC energy efficiency settings: enable energy efficient operation, “disabled”. Energy efficiency aggressiveness 0%.
USB settings: USB selective suspend setting, “disabled”.
Graphics settings: graphics power plan, “maximum performance”.
Processor power management: minimum processor state, “100%”. Maximum processor state, “100%”. If you do nothing else, do this. It prevents the processor from throttling down when it’s not active. It can take a long time to throttle back up when an audio process needs the processor.
Display: turn display off after “never”.
Multimedia: when sharing media, “prevent idling to sleep”. When playing video, “optimize video quality”.

Here’s a very advanced extra. Under “processor power management”, you probably DON’T see an option called “processor performance core parking min cores”. This is a feature which allows Windows to turn off (aka “park”) cores in a multi core processor to save power. This can affect performance because it takes time for the core to un-park. It’s turned on by default, and the option to change it is usually hidden, but you can just turn it off, which I’ll tell you how to do.

Warning, this is advanced stuff. Do not attempt if you’re not comfortable with advanced configuration and paying attention to detail. Even then, attempt at your own risk!

Make sure the “high performance” scheme is selected in power options (you probably just did this).
Click the Windows start button, and in the search window, type “cmd”, which should pull up “Command Prompt”.
Right click on this and pick “run as administrator”.
A command line window will appear. Type the following on one line:

powercfg –setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_processor bc5038f7-23e0-4960-96da-33abaf5935ec 100

Hit enter and then type:

powercfg –setactive scheme_current

This will turn off core parking, but it won’t give you the new option in your power options window.

Other Options

Besides power options, there are quite a few more things you can do boost audio performance. Try these on for size:

Processor scheduling: Search for “performance” in the control panel. Click on “adjust the appearance and performance of Windows” and go to the “advanced” tab. Under “choose how to allocate processor resources” select “background services”. Note: this is usually the better setting because most audio processing is done in the background, but there are times when it actually harms performance, so if you change this and notice a dip, change it back.

USB hub power: Search for “device manager” in control panel, go to device manager, scroll down and click on “Universal Serial Bus controllers”. There should be one or more items called “USB root hub” or similar (look for the words “root hub”). On those, right click and pick “properties”. Click on the “power management” tab and UNCHECK “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

While you’re in device manager, you can disable devices you don’t need, but be careful! Don’t disable a device if you don’t know what it is. In general, don’t disable devices in the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, processors, system devices, universal serial bus controllers or computer groups. Some devices that are usually safe to disable are batteries, Bluetooth, imaging, network adapters (wireless especially), sensors and sound, video and game controllers. Obviously you don’t want to disable devices you’re using (the network adapter, for example).

Don’t actually uninstall device drivers unless they’re for hardware that no longer exists in your system. Instead just right click and pick “disable”.

Drive properties: In windows explorer, right click on your hard drive, pick “properties” and uncheck “compress this drive to save space” and “allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties”. If you have an extra drive that’s JUST for storage and isn’t getting accessed by audio software, you can go ahead and use “compress this drive” to save some space.

Graphics card: Some graphics cards have a throttle setting much like the processor setting, which allows the card to throttle down when not in demand. This can cause the same problem of lag when it throttles back up. If you can, turn this setting off in your graphics card settings.

Page file settings: The page file is also known as the swap file. Basically it’s how Windows uses the hard drive as additional random access memory when it needs to. Windows dynamically chooses the size of this swap file unless you tell it not to. That dynamic sizing takes time, so while you’re still in the performance options window, tell it not to by going to the “advanced” tab. Under virtual memory, click “change”. Uncheck “automatically manage paging files size for all drives”. Next, for each of your drives, select “custom size” and enter in your desired initial and maximum size values. If your RAM is small, use about one and a half times the size of your RAM memory. Eg, if you have 4GB of RAM, use 6GB (6000MB). If you have more than 8GB of RAM, you probably don’t need a paging file that big. On my desktop, which has 16GB, I use a 6000MB paging file.

Finally, pay attention to things like backup software or other tasks that run regularly. Make sure they run when you’re not working on audio. You can use the task scheduler to dig into that further, but be careful. The task scheduler does a lot of necessary work and it’s a bit out of this article’s scope to dig into it.

Testing

If you have problems, or if you’d just like to get a bench mark before and after you do all this optimization, there are a couple of highly recommended (and free!) programs that can help you get a gauge on how your system is performing, what applications are hogging memory, and even which drivers might be causing issues.

LatencyMon is a free and thorough program that monitors latency issues and CPU load and reports on problematic drivers and software. You can find it here: www.resplendence.com/latencymon.

DPC Latency Checker is another similar tool. It’s a simpler tool which doesn’t point out problematic drivers and the like, but it’s great for checking whether your audio stream is getting interrupted. You can find it at www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml.

Ok Go For It!

We’ve covered a lot here, but it shouldn’t take you long to make these adjustments. They’re foundational adjustments, and you’ll find yourself tweaking settings in your DAW and other software to taste, but you should be in a really solid place at this point. There are some other more advanced things I haven’t discussed, like spread spectrum, Nagle’s algorhythm and digging into Windows services and startup apps.

If you’d like to dig deeper, I highly recommend a free PDF download called “Glitch Free”, by Brad Robinson of Cantabile. Brad goes into great detail and gives wonderful background information on this topic. His book is one of the best resources on this topic I’ve come across. You can get the book for free (you don’t even have to sign up for anything) at www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree.

Even if you don’t want to dive deep, you’ve got plenty here you can do to get your machine rock’n’roll ready. Have fun with your new computer!

I’m a singer, producer and recovering developer. I’ve built a lot of computers, but I love people more. Contact me on social media at @AaronJTrumm

Roll Your Own

July 16, 2020 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, audio computer, build your own computer, nquit music, recording magazine, studio computer

Studio computer, that is…

This article first appeared Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

I went to a tiny elementary school in Taos, NM called Vista Grande, which we affectionately referred to as “roll your own academy”. The meaning should be apparent, but I took something else away: a DIY ethic that stays with me to this day.

You may have that ethic, or you may just find yourself in need of more power for less money, but in either case, if you’re mindful, your studio computer is a great place to apply the roll your own philosophy and save some serious scratch. I thought I’d lay out the process, based on my latest build.

Basic Pre-Requisites

Let’s talk basics first. First of all, we’re talking about PCs here. Building a Mac is another story, pretty much untold. Second, you’ll need a basic understanding of computer hardware, some tools, a clean work surface and time. Keep your current machine in operation, and plan on transitioning slowly, over weeks. Keep an attitude of learning and problem solving and you’ll have more fun and do a better job. If things don’t work at first, don’t be discouraged, they almost never do. Just like you almost never nail the mix on the first draft. Right??

You will also need SOME money, but less than you would to buy a machine with the same specs. Do remember, though, that a build may NOT be the right path for you. Consider the opportunity cost of spending your time versus your cash flow and when you need the machine. If you do decide to build, think of it as educational and fun (appeal to your inner geek) as WELL as potentially useful and frugal.

Tools

Your main tool is a Phillips head screwdriver. You may need a couple sizes, and depending on the case, a right angle screwdriver may be useful. An anti-static grounding device that you wear on your wrist is a good idea, or at least something grounded and metal nearby (like a rack). You’ll want to touch that to release your static build up before touching computer components. Some compressed air might also come in handy to blow away dust, but be careful about too much force on small internal parts.

Finally, make sure you have your reading glasses. You’ll want to be methodical about reading manuals and instruction sheets. Trust me on this one – don’t be flip. You know who you are!

Cost

You probably want to know what this’ll cost. As mentioned, it’ll cost some time, and I recommend a slow process, even if you can spare some focused time for the bulk of the work. Financially, your mileage will vary, as there’s no limit to how much you can spend on doo-dads. As a very rough guide, though, I built my current machine for just under $1000, matching the specs and power of machines that generally cost $2000-$2500 when bought outright. So I cut my cost in half.

Parts

Some of this may be obvious, but let’s go through all the parts you’ll need:

Essential (can’t run without):

Monitor (if you don’t already have one)
Keyboard (obviously)
Mouse
Computer case (the basic housing – you may want a case built to be quiet – Figure 1)
Mother board
Processor
Internal hard drive(s)
RAM (memory) (Figure 2)
Power supply (Figure 3)
Operating system

Optional (but probably a good idea):

DVD or CD-ROM
Extra cooling (Figure 4)

Optional:

More hard drives
External hard drive(s)
KVM Switch
Graphics card (probably essential if video editing is a goal) (Figure 5)
Extra monitor(s)
Fancy cooling or neon things

Specs

So what specs are we looking for? Well this machine isn’t just for email and Farmville. You need some power, and you need decent storage. How much you go for is mostly a matter of budget, because if money were no object, well…you see my point. There are some minimums to think about though. First, decide what your goal is for the machine. How many tracks you intend to be able to record or mix at once, how many soft synths and plugins you have, and whether you intend to do video as well. The more you intend to push it, the more power you need.

If you’re just doing audio, what you need is actually pretty minimal by today’s standards. Common DAW minimum requirements hover around here:

Windows 7 or later
2.5GHZ processor multi core
4GB RAM
5-20GB space for the DAW software itself

It’s never a bad idea to beat the minimum specs, so I might opt for an i5 quad core chip, 8GB of RAM and maybe 120GB hard drive, with some kind of extra hard drive storage. As a matter of fact, I do a lot of my audio work on my Sony tablet, which is a 1.5GHZ i5 chip with 4GB RAM and 120GB drive. With the right system tuning, I’m able to record 32 tracks and more simultaneously at 96k 24 bit and mix with plenty of plugins without a glitch. Video editing – not so much – and some DAWs are more processor intensive than others. Mixbus, for example, does a lot of work, and therefore needs a lot more power to work well at 96k than Sonar.

As far as storage is concerned, bear in mind the size of audio files. 44.1k 16 bit audio takes up 5.292 megabytes per track minute. So a typical 3 minute song, 24 tracks, recorded at CD quality takes up 381 megabytes. 10 of those is 3.81 gigabytes. At 96k 24 bit, those numbers jump to 17.280 MB per track minute, or 1.22 GB per 24 track pop song – 12.44 GB for a 10 song collection (not including mixdowns, mp3 versions, etc).

Sample libraries of course take up space, as does software, presets, notes, Word documents and so on. So depending on how much you do, you might want anywhere from 250GB to 2 terabytes and up worth of space. My advice is to get as much storage as you can afford. You may also consider an SSD (solid state drive – Figure 6), at least for your main drive if not storage drives, as SSDs can be quite a bit quicker. They are more expensive though, so bear that in mind.

If you’re doing video work, your specs need to be quite a bit higher, and you probably need a video card. That video card should have at least 1GB of its own memory, 2GB would be a better minimum, and 4 or 8GB would be even more awesome. Your CPU needs to be faster and you probably need 8GB of RAM at minimum. Here are the basic specs of my aforementioned build, which I use for video and audio:

Intel i5 3.0 GHz quad core processor
16 GB DDR4 3000 RAM
GeForce GT 730 video card with 4GB RAM
250 GB SSD Hard Drive (for OS and software)
2 TB 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive (for project and sample storage)

Were money no object, I would have gone a lot farther, but that machine serves beautifully for anything I can dream up to do with audio, and has been doing great with video footage for music videos and such, with the proper workflow. I would probably need a few upgrades to make a feature film for Warner Brothers, but for me, it’s a great machine.

As far as which parts to buy, specs are your main concern, but read carefully about compatibility. Not all motherboards work with all chips, for example. Another common problem is skimping on the power supply and not having enough juice for all your components. Read carefully before you order, and here’s a little trick: Use a custom build site to “fantasy build” your machine virtually, then note the power supply and other components. This is also a good way to track how much money you’re really saving.

The Build Itself

The build itself is pretty straight forward, but you want to be accurate, respect the delicacy of components, and there are a couple of areas you want to be especially careful. Here are your basic steps:

Open the case
Install the power supply
Install the motherboard
Install the CPU and cooling
Install the RAM
Install the video card
Install the hard drives
Install extra components (DVD, etc)
Connect data connections from drives to the motherboard
Connect the power supply to the motherboard and drives
Connect LED and front panel connections
Close the case
Connect power, monitor, keyboard, mouse and audio interfaces
Power up for first test
Scream in frustration
Open case
Use manuals, wit and Google to figure out why it won’t power up
Kill yourself over your stupidity
Fix problems
Close case (repeat steps 14-19 ad nauseum)
Power up for umpteenth test and achieve victory
Install operating system and drivers
Configure and tweak OS
Install software and configure
Pay credit card bill
Rejoice

The order you do steps 3 through 8 doesn’t matter much, but be aware of your layout. In many cases, it’s necessary to install the CPU and cooler before the RAM, simply because of the proximity of parts. If you find a component is in the way of another, you can always take it out and put it back, but in the case of the CPU, that can be a can of worms. Better to get the CPU installed first, and then everything else.

While we’re at it, be extra careful with the CPU. Make SURE you have it oriented right (refer to installation instructions, which should show you an arrow), because you can bend pins and ruin the part pretty easily. Also pay close attention to instructions on mounting the extra fan, or the extra awesome cooling tower you’re replacing that stock fan with. You’ll be applying a cooling gel onto the chip itself, so do that carefully, as you don’t want that stuff all over the motherboard. Remember to connect the CPU fan to its power source (a 2 pin plug on the motherboard). CPU cooling is quite important, and I highly recommend springing for a super awesome better cooling tower. If your CPU heats up too much, your computer will intermittently power down, or worse yet, you could damage or destroy the CPU itself.

In addition to that, here are some other common mistakes you can avoid, most of which will cause the computer to not boot up:

Forgetting the 4 (or 8) pin CPU power connector (Figure 7).
Forgetting power on the graphics card
Seating components incompletely or incorrectly (especially RAM)
Not plugging in CPU fan (Figure 7)
Loose screws or incorrectly screwing down the mother board
Forgetting to turn on the power switch on the power supply

If your computer doesn’t boot, start by checking those.

Don’t fail to discharge your static energy, work in a clean space, or be careful with the parts. Apply gentle pressure rather than force, and pay attention to notches in your plugs and components. Don’t force something that doesn’t seem to want to plug in.

Configuration

Once you’ve got your computer built and booting up, you can start having fun with your software. Install your operating system first (probably some flavor of Windows, or Linux if you dare), then tweak your system for audio performance, then install your hardware drivers (such as audio interfaces), DAW, plugins and other software. Prioritize audio performance over fancy look and feel stuff, and make sure your DAW is humming alone before you start with stuff like word processors and games. Be especially careful about high end games – they can do a number on your system, from an audio/video point of view. I advise leaving games to another computer entirely.

We’ll get into more depth about configuring a machine to really kick tail for audio and video in another article, but until then you’ve got plenty to do!

Resources

There really is a wealth of information out there on this subject, so I’d like to refer you to some online reading that you can keep pulled up on another computer while you build – these resources will give you another perspective, which will be really valuable.

Tom’s Hardware – a great resource for building and troubleshooting, especially this page: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems
PC World – has another handy “common mistakes” page: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2049100/how-to-avoid-common-pc-building-mistakes.html
CNET – also has a “rookie mistakes” page that’s quite a handy reference: https://www.cnet.com/news/how-to-fix-diy-pc-common-issues/

There you go. Hopefully you’ll have a blast building your own custom studio machine, and while you’re at it, save some money and put together a box that suits you perfectly. Have fun!

I’m a singer, producer and recovering developer. I’ve built a lot of computers, but loves people more. Contact me on social media at @AaronJTrumm

Keeping The Rhythm

July 16, 2020 by Aaron

aaron j. trumm, aaron trumm, diy drum recording, diy drums, do it yourself drums, drum recording, drums, home recording, nquit, nquit music, recording drums, recording drums at home, recording magazine

DIY Drums – Part 1 – Acoustic

This article first appeared Recording Magazine. I reprint it here with permission, and I encourage you to subscribe to that publication, as they are a stand up bunch of folk!

It’s a common problem. You’ve got some mics, great chops, a decent voice, cool songs, and decent recording gear. You’re even happy with your space, now that you’ve referred to my DIY Acoustics article from October 2016’s Recording. You’re ready to rock some tracks, and whether you’re recording songwriting demos or an honest-to-goodness record, you run smack dab into a major stumbling block: drums.

It’s a rare rock or pop song that gets away without percussion, and often that’s what separates the women from the boys on a record. It’s easy to tell a low or no budget production immediately by the sound of a stock MIDI snare, and nothing screams “lazy” like throwing down a default loop from a synth or Session Drummer and calling it good.

On the other hand, booking a drummer and studio time is expensive, especially if you’ve got a lot tracks (Figure 1). You can hire drummers with their own studios for decent rates, but even that may be out of your budget. You can still achieve a cool percussion track, though. It just takes creativity and work, and even if you hire a drummer and book studio time, you still want to think creatively, or you may yet get something generic.

Figure 1 – A great but expensive drum studio

There are myriad options when creating a rhythm track, but in the most general sense, they break down to two: acoustic percussion and programming. Which direction you need to head is mostly a matter of genre and style, but there’s nothing wrong with a little genre bending if it’s done well, and you may be surprised how much crossover happens in any genre.

In part one of this two part series, we’ll focus on acoustic tracks. You probably want to go this direction if you’re doing any kind of “natural” music like singer/songwriter stuff, world music or even rock and roll. On the whole, the subject of drums and percussion, and the role they play in a production, could cover volumes, so the main thing I’d like you to take away is inspiration. Be creative and resourceful (Figure 2). After all, relentless pursuit is the key to great tracks even when resources are unlimited.

Figure 2 – Resourcefulness – Step ladder, vacuum, and cymbal stand as mic stands

Trap Kit

“Acoustic tracks” partly means actual “drums”, or more precisely: trap kit. Recording a kit is a whole art unto itself, but it needn’t be so daunting that you can’t do some things yourself. If you’re a drummer (Figure 3), hey, you’re a step ahead, but you needn’t be. If you can play an instrument, you (hopefully) have plenty of rhythm. So, if you happen to have an old drum kit laying around, or even a good one, or can borrow one, or just have a drum or two, this part is for you!

Figure 3 – A drummer in his natural environment

Obviously you’re dealing with some limitations here, or you wouldn’t be reading this. But just because you don’t have Dave Grohl or Animal’s direct line doesn’t mean you’re lost. And just because you can’t keep time with your feet doesn’t mean you can’t have a kick drum! Think outside of the box and you can do any number of things with the drums and skills that you have. You can hit one drum at once and overdub others, ala Fleetwood Mac. Purists would scoff, but we’re not trying to be pure, we’re trying to be cool. Try arranging a kick/snare combo so that you can slam the kick with a mallet and whack the snare with a stick in a pattern of your design, then overdub a hi-hat. Create a simple pattern with two sticks and a tom. When it comes to musicality and drums, your limitations can be your greatest asset. Producers sometimes fight with virtuoso drummers to get them to keep it SIMPLE. If you’re not a drummer but you’ve got a little rhythm, you HAVE to keep it simple, so that’s an advantage! You can make things more complicated with overdubs.

Figure 4 – Drums moved into a living room

A limited drum selection is ok too, as that can also force creativity. Try moving drums to different rooms (Figure 4), retuning, or augmenting to achieve different timbres (Figure 5). Try the living room, try the bathroom, try a closet, or try outside. Music is often about searching, so search for inspiring timbres and sounds, and think about how your environment and drums interact.

Figure 5 – Snare augmented with foam to ring less

You can also do plenty in the mix. Try using extreme EQs, crazy compression, and one of my favorite things to do, pitch shifting! You can use delay to create new patterns and reverbs, phasing and other plugins to create drum insanity.

Figure 6 – 2 capsule kick mic plus condenser on snare

What about miking drums? Much has been written on the subject and you can refer to previous Recording articles for more detail, but here are some basic tenets that might help as you search for cool:

Close mics on drums are usually best handled with dynamics, because their slower response will help smooth the transient nature of drum hits.
You might want to keep your ribbons away, as high SPLs could destroy them.
Condensers are good for room or overhead mics, but don’t count them out for close miking too. When I first started recording, my boss would routinely record kick drum with an AKG 414, placed right in the hole like a normal kick mic. It sounded great!
Try using mics in un-orthodox ways. (Figures 6, 7)

Figure 7 – 2 capsule kick mic, 57, and overhead small diaphragm on floor tom

If you ARE a drummer or you have one, and your limitation is mic selection, remember that less can be more. Many great drum tracks were recorded with one mic (Figure 8). The key here is experimentation with what you have, and close attention to what the drums are doing in the room. Don’t be afraid to move things around and manipulate the acoustics. Blankets in corners or on walls can help deaden a room, or, perhaps you want to remove furniture to liven the room. Next, move your mic or mics around and listen. If you have to record test swatches, do that. What sounds awesome won’t necessarily look right. Do bear in mind, as you play with rooms, that once you record the sound of a room, you can’t take it out, so a really dead space might be want you want. Think ahead about the overall acoustic space you want for the song.

Figure 8 – Heart mic – also mic stand resourcefulness!

Beyond The Kit

Figure 9 – Bundle sticks on kitchen table

You may have a drum kit and a drummer, but if you don’t, you’re not doomed! You can create rhythm tracks out of almost anything, and sometimes a big drum track isn’t even right. If you can hit it and it makes a sound, you can create rhythm. Some sounds may not be all that awesome, but others could surprise you. You can start with traditional percussion instruments: bongos, conga, shakers, cajón, etc. If you haven’t got any of that (even if you do!), plenty of household items have potential. Sticks, tables, sinks, buckets, and your body all make sound when you smack them! (Figure 9) I once made a decent high frequency snare sound out of an upside down coffee can, and there’s no shortage of hand claps these days. Try tracking 3 or 4 tracks of those. In some cases, you can thump on a cardboard box and come up with a kick sound, or use the body of an acoustic guitar to thump out a rhythm. If you have a piano, you can bang on that in several places. If the “instrument” is loud, see how it sounds in the room, and try a room mic, or a combo of room and close miking. If it’s a quiet thing, close miking might work better. Don’t be afraid to try a combo of mics, because whereas less may be more, sometimes more is more! (Figure 10)

The important thing is to think about the FUNCTION of each drum. If you picture a drum kit, and think about the functionality of each part, you can create that same function with alternative means. Kick would be some kind of low frequency element, lower in pitch and with less crack than the snare function, which operates as your back beat, or the two, with requisite creativity. A hi hat functions as a more constant rhythmic bed in some even higher frequency, and sub-divides your beat so the listener stays in the groove. Cymbals are for annoying producers. Try stepping on the cat to simulate (Figure 11).

Your thinking outside the box shouldn’t stop there though. You don’t necessarily need to simulate the functionality of a drum kit. You can create a rhythmic bed that shirks that convention, or you can use the other instruments in a production to create the foundation and use percussion to add spice, emphasis and flavor.

The main thing that’s going to give your production a feeling of legitimacy is doing things on purpose, and spending the time to find unique and interesting sounds that serve the purpose of the song.

Programmed Drums

In part two next month, we’ll talk about creating cool rhythm tracks with synths or computers, but it is worth mentioning now that you may want to augment or support a mainly acoustic track with something programmed. The most common and obvious version of this is drum replacement, which happens a lot more than you might think. Programs like Drumagog or Steven Slate’s Trigger can replace the drums in a performance with sampled drums, and this technique is used all the time to help engineers mix drums. Most often, it’s kick or snare that gets replaced, but other drums are candidates as well. Replacement can be used creatively too. You could replace a normal snare with a crazy one for a measure, or create a layered sound. You could flip the beat by replacing snare with kick! My favorite augmentation is a simple addition of a nice crisp kick drum to augment a trap kit or other track that lacks the character I need to fit the mix. I do this often, because kick drum recordings often sound bad, and in a lot of tracks, an electronic kick doesn’t stand out as “fake” as easily as something like a snare. Most often, I don’t use replacement software, I just play or program a kick pattern that matches the kick or kick like element in the acoustic tracks. The possibilities here are endless, and we’ll go into more detail next month in part two: DIY Drums – Programming.

For now, keep using your imagination and experiment! There’s a whole world of variety you can find in your rhythm tracks if you just keep searching!

Oh – and now – go to part 2 – programming – and then mix and match between them!

I’m an awful drummer, but I keep a crappy drum kit stuffed in a corner, with a cajón for a throne. Some part of it gets used on almost every song. Talk to me about on Facebook if you want.

Audio Instruction

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Keeping The Rhythm

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Programmed Drums