One of the rules of home recording states: There are never enough tracks. Even if you are using the latest whiz-bang computer setup, there will still come a point where you just can’t add any more tracks without crashing the whole system. (Of course, this point may not come until you try to add Track #79!)Obviously, the problem is much more acute if you are using a standalone recorder unit with 4, 8, or 16 tracks. You may ask, How can I “shoehorn in” just one more part?
The best way to get those extra parts on there is to combine two or more instruments on some of the individual tracks, “premixing” these combinations to free up tracks for additional recording.(See my article Record A 16-Track Song On Your 8-Track Recorder for a very methodical approach to cramming lots of parts into a limited number of tracks.)The question is, which parts does it make sense to combine on a track? And what should I not do? Here are some tips that will help you get the most out of your track stacking.
If your studio is based on a computer workstation running ProTools or Cubase, you probably don’t have to worry about running out of tracks to use for your musical recordings.These days, most commercial recordings use dozens of tracks to achieve the sample-heavy, layered sound of today’s music.A new track for that subtle timbale part is just a mouse click away!
If you are using a hardware-type recorder unit, though, you have a certain number of tracks - usually 4, 8, or 16 - to work with, and that’s it.That’s how “wide” a single pass at your song is.When those tracks are full, there is no way to add anything more.It doesn’t matter that the song needs another keyboard and two more vocal tracks.You’re done.
Or are you?Here are a couple of techniques for cramming extra parts into your song by “premixing” groups of tracks, both of which allow you to record up to 16 tracks of music for your song on your 8-track recorder.Double your pleasure, double your fun!
As long as you keep your multitrack recorder safely ensonced in your basement studio, perhaps taking it upstairs to record a piano part every now and then, you really don’t need to think much about its safe transportation.But what if you decide to take it on-site somewhere to record your band playing live?Or what if the local community singing group asks you to record one of their concerts so they can make a CD?
You could just set the unit carefully on the back seat of the car when you drive to the gig, and it would probably be OK.But if you want to be sure about it, or if it looks like you are going to be going places with your recorder fairly often, you are going to want to put it in something.If nothing else, this will make it easier to get the thing from your parking place to the recording area!
Have you ever considered getting one of those multi-effects boxes to play your guitar through in your studio? If you play guitar and you don’t have one of these units in your studio you are like, so totally missing out! This podcast tries to convince you to buy a multi-effects box, using a Digitech RP100 (pictured) to demonstrate some of the many cool sounds you can get out of one crummy electric guitar (mine, in this case)!
Back in my Wonder Years (actually more like the mid-70s) I worked as an electronics engineer for a government systems contractor.(You didn’t think I made a living playing music, did you?)The projects I worked on involved racks of equipment, mostly “homebrew,” with all kinds of lights and knobs on the front panel and a lot of wiring between units on the backside.
While we were developing and trouble-shooting a system, the various wires and cables in the back could go any which way, but when we prepared a final prototype all of the wiring was grouped into “harnesses,” sets of cables with a cable tie around them every 6 to 12 inches that could be neatly routed around the backplane as a single unit.A similar idea pertains to the wiring in your car, wherein harnessed sets of mystery cables can be seen wending their way hither and yon.
The overlap between my old systems projects and a home recording studio is obvious.After all, a home studio also consists of a set of equipment with lights and knobs on the front and interconnecting cables on the back.So would a similar approach to cabling be appropriate?
Most mixes, whether simple or complex, end up with some of the sounds coming from the exact center of the stereo field. It is conventional, for example, to have the lead vocal positioned dead center, along with the kick drum, the bass, and (usually) the snare. The reason for this is fairly obvious: these easily heard parts carry most of the power and message of the song, and to have them be off to one side or the other would seem arbitrary and distracting.
Even under the scrutiny made possible by headphones, though, it is not necessary to have all of these centered sounds be exactly centered and thus exactly right on top of each other! You can give each of these parts a little micro-position of its own by panning one of them a tiny bit to the left, another a tiny bit to the right, and so on. The idea is to give the parts a little breathing room without anyone but you being the wiser.
[An expanded version of this Mini-Tip appears in my eBook, Cheap Advice On Home Recording.]
When music is played live, each song must have some kind of ending, whether it be a strike-and-hold final chord, a snappy “cha-cha-cha,” or one of those crazy all-out noisefests with everybody in the band going nuts on their instruments for awhile and then suddenly stopping, to tumultuous applause (and possibly some jeering).
With the advent of recording, the need to definitively end each and every song was eliminated.Now, if you couldn’t come up with a proper ending you could just vamp along to some simple chords from the song for 20 or 30 seconds at the end and then gradually fade the level down to zero during the vamp when the song is mastered.Needless to say, this production technique became very popular, and remains so today.
Whether you do your fadeouts “by hand” or use an automatic fadeout function built into your DAW or software, there are certain guidelines you should follow to make sure that the fade sounds natural and that it provides a suitable, if somewhat inconclusive, ending for your song.Here are some tips to keep in mind.
When we mix a song, there are basically two ways to hear what we are doing as we tweak our faders and spin our knobs: monitor speakers, or headphones.Although each has its advantages and disadvantages, there is general agreement that your mixes will come out better if your listening is done through a pair of high-quality monitor speakers in a sonically appropriate room.
Monitor speakers are designed to give a fair, “colorless” reproduction of your mixes.Over time, and with the use of techniques like listening to CDs you know well through your monitor speakers for reference and EQing the signal the speakers receive from the recorder or DAW to match your room, you will develop a sense of exactly how your mix needs to sound in the mixing studio in order to sound great in a car or a living room, or through an iPod with earbuds.
Having said this, there are reasons to mix using headphones, such as not being able to afford proper monitor speakers or needing to mix late at night when others are asleep.And naturally, you will check each candidate mix by playing it in your car and living room (and through your iPod) to see what final tweaks may be needed anyway.The final evaluation is made through “real world” sound systems, not studio monitors or studio headphones.
These days, with the popularity of portable mp3 players soaring, an awful lot of listening goes on in headphones (or lo-fi earbuds).Given this, you can make the case that it could be more appropriate to use headphones if you are mixing a song that you know will be heard mostly in headphones.
One of the rules of home recording states: There are never enough tracks. Even if you are using the latest whiz-bang computer setup, there will still come a point where you just can’t add any more tracks without crashing the whole system. (Of course, this point may not come until you try to add Track #79!) Obviously, the problem is much more acute if you are using a standalone recorder unit with 4, 8, or 16 tracks. You may ask, How can I “shoehorn in” just one more part?
If your studio is based on a computer workstation running ProTools or Cubase, you probably don’t have to worry about running out of tracks to use for your musical recordings.
As long as you keep your multitrack recorder safely ensonced in your basement studio, perhaps taking it upstairs to record a piano part every now and then, you really don’t need to think much about its safe transportation.
Have you ever considered getting one of those multi-effects boxes to play your guitar through in your studio? If you play guitar and you don’t have one of these units in your studio you are like, so totally missing out! This podcast tries to convince you to buy a multi-effects box, using a 
Back in my Wonder Years (actually more like the mid-70s) I worked as an electronics engineer for a government systems contractor.
Most mixes, whether simple or complex, end up with some of the sounds coming from the exact center of the stereo field. It is conventional, for example, to have the lead vocal positioned dead center, along with the kick drum, the bass, and (usually) the snare. The reason for this is fairly obvious: these easily heard parts carry most of the power and message of the song, and to have them be off to one side or the other would seem arbitrary and distracting.
When music is played live, each song must have some kind of ending, whether it be a strike-and-hold final chord, a snappy “cha-cha-cha,” or one of those crazy all-out noisefests with everybody in the band going nuts on their instruments for awhile and then suddenly stopping, to tumultuous applause (and possibly some jeering).
When we mix a song, there are basically two ways to hear what we are doing as we tweak our faders and spin our knobs: monitor speakers, or headphones.