My First Engineering Job - Your Do's and Don't's Please

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I'm about 20 hours into it, prbably about 10 or so to go. It's been a hard slog at times, I wasn't present at the recording end for a lot of it and as such am dealing with some pretty poorly recorded elements (cheap nylon string guitar recorded with a computer mic, for instance!).

However, the lo-fi parts are sitting nicely with the hi-fi parts and I've got a new ruck of about 8 decent and moderately well recorded vocal takes to work with. The next stage is comping all of those (woo! fun!).

For stylistic pointers, the track is fairly New Order, fairly electroclash, quite hi-energy and damn catchy.

So what hints and tips can you give me? This applies to the non-techy as well as the techy.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 13 March 2003 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Depends what your editing interface is like but, when comping vocals, don't allow anyone to interrupt you. I find it needs a wee bit of concentration and tend to lose the thread if distracted.

Fairly obvious point, but watch for breath sounds (magnify the waveform to pick them out), and try to leave space for them from the end of each previous vocal element. Don't let them overlap and try to avoid any cut and paste operations that aren't delineated by zero-crossings or you'll get clicks.

I'd suggest as a general rule: headphones for editing, monitoring for mixing.

But I know nothing.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:13 (twenty-three years ago)

Monitors, I meant.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Michael, do you post on Home Recording.com?

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Remember: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR PANTS ONwhile in the studio.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I did do some work on the bassline without my pants on as I recall. The breaths are taken out completely which took a bit of work (except for before a lyric about breath, such is the want of the bored engineer).

I'm doing the biz on Cubase SX and to my delight it's being wonderfully stable.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 13 March 2003 15:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Take a 1/2 hour nap. Go outside and take a walk. Get away from your gear for a bit and then go back to work on your track. You'll notice how different things will sound.

i.e. give your ears a periodic rest.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 13 March 2003 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Remember: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR PANTS ON while in the studio.
Ignore the man behind the curtain. He always gives bad advice.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 14 March 2003 00:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Michael, do you post on Home Recording.com?

Oh, no. Like I say, I don't really know anything. Perhaps I should start browsing that place though.

Cubase SX looks the business - the nice people up the road at Antenna use it and it seems to be solid as a rock. I use an Akai integrated mixer/HD recorder, so I need to pay a bit more attention to my editing procedure, not having quite as many visual cues or a drag'n'drop interface.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 14 March 2003 14:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, ok, there's a guy on the BBS there who has a name similar to yours that I've gotten in arguments with a bunch of times. It's a great resource for technical stuff, lots of knowledgably people, but they are definately tech dorks and aren't always respectful of the more DIY/cheapo approach to things. I pretty much only go there when I have a specific technical question. It's http://homerecording.com/bbs.

― Nick A. (Nick A.), Friday, 14 March 2003 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I just mixed a track the other day and burned it to CD. It came out the best I've ever done due to the fact I was mixing on two very different sets of speakers. One set is your basic monitor and the other set is what I run my TV thru (20 dollar speakers). After I burned it I played it back on my everyday stereo system and it came out exactly as I had hoped.

Also, be wary of ear fatigue (as mentioned upthread)

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Friday, 14 March 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

If the drummer's name is DumbAss, quit immediately.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 14 March 2003 19:12 (twenty-three years ago)

It's kinda too late, but GET A SUBSCIPTION TO TAPE OP IMMEDIATELY. I learned more from this FREE magazine than from any book or studio comp class I took in college.

That said, keep the fellas off the drink - if you're lucky, shit will only go horribly wrong with the music, and you will be blamed. Drugs usually fine in my experiences as long as it contributes to the music positively (ie don't ask a reggae band not to smoke weed) but NO HEROIN.

Technical stuff? Do rhythm sections analog. SM57s are good acoustic guitar mics. avoid click-tracking unless band is completely inept.

But I'm not an engineer i've only assisted and recorded a lot. Get Tape Op.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 14 March 2003 23:09 (twenty-three years ago)

SM57s are good acoustic guitar mics.

Really? That's an interesting view - I wouldn't think of using anything other than a good condenser on acoustics, but maybe this is worth a try. Is it something to do with the proximity effect giving it more heft?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Saturday, 15 March 2003 12:03 (twenty-three years ago)

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