How to make a fantastic recording.

I think deep down everybody knows that a new preamp, compressor or plugin won't improve the sound of their recordings THAT much, but hey, everyone lusts over a big VU meter and 3 units of rack space filled once in a while. I engineered a session for Sydney band "Eush" last week and it was one of those sessions where you remember why you liked recording in the first place. Lets face it, when you started recording you didn't even know about the slathering of analogue channel strips and other ego satisfying monster units on the market, but what you did know that if you play music better, it sounds better.

Let's begin by looking at the recording chain. If you were to ask a student at any common audio school what was the first part of the signal chain they would probably say the microphone preamp. If you were lucky they might tell you it is the microphone, hell call me crazy they might even say the instrument! A tiny percentage would mention the vitally important real first part of the chain...the musician and their music.

With that cleared up, we can safely presume the average recording path is as follows (noting that I've included not only the electronic signal path but the acoustical one as well):

1. Song/piece of music

2. The performer

3. The performers instrument

4. The room 

5. The microphone position

6. The microphone

7. The microphone preamplifier

8. Any further processing like EQ and compression

9. The consoles channel strip (if used)

10. The recording medium

11. The console channel (if used)

12. The consoles master section

13. The monitor speakers

14. The room

15. Your ears

16. Your brain

In bold are the components of the recording chain that most amateur recording engineers don't give enough attention, and that amazing record engineers focus bucket-loads of attention on. Now here's a profound, but simple idea that I think a lot of engineers overlook. If you make sure every part of the chain I have listed is as good as it can be, you are guaranteed a great recording. It's practically a checklist for constructing a fantastic record. Think about it:

A great musician, playing a great song on a great instrument is inside a fantastic sounding room...

The song has hooks and a killer chorus, its a singalong smash! Their guitar is well set up and constructed from great timber, and of course it has brand new strings on. The amplifier has new valves and didn't cost less than a weeks pay, the rig sound hot. The amp is in a beautiful room, with the right amount of absorption and diffusion and balance of frequencies, it adds a beautiful air to the sound.

is captured by the right microphone in the right piece of air...

The engineer has taken the time to find the microphone that captures this beautiful tone in the room, and then LISTENED to different positions until he was entirely happy that the sound inside his control room was every bit as inspired as the tone emanating in the live room.

and only then is it amplified by the microphone preamp, compressed lightly and EQ'd.

The engineer has a fantastic studio where he can instantly patch the microphone into a number of different preamps to see which one imparts a pleasant character on the microphone. It could be valve warmth, or transformer based solidity, but context is important here. The engineer keeps in mind the sound that is to be achieved. The musician controls their dynamics well, but let's face it, on this modern pop record, The even dynamic range required could never be achieved by a human, so the right compressor is used to keep the levels in check. Finally, an EQ might be applied to emphasize the air of the live room, or to make up for the dulling effect of the compressor.

This signal passes through the channel of the console and on to the recording medium.

The recording medium in this case is analogue tape, but the engineer knows that it could have been Pro Tools, DAT tape, cassette tape or a wax cylinder and it wouldn't matter so much. Sure each of those recording mediums impact on the recording, but the engineer has put in the leg work at the beginning, and the recording is will sound good on any medium. I'm not saying the medium isn't important, but too many engineers fret over the brand of their converters more than how well the song they are recording is arranged.

This recorded track is fed back out to the mixing console and to the monitor speakers...

We've seen the signal pass through the console a number of times now, but the console in the engineers studio is very well designed (and this does not come cheaply), and as a result their has been no excessive noise or unwanted coloration added to the signal. The control room outputs of the console feed the engineers monitors. He uses monitors that are relatively accurate, and appropriately loud for the size of his room, but most important, he knows them very very well. He's listened to his favorite records hundreds of times on them and he knows every detail in their sound.

Finally, the speakers spit the mix out into the room.

The engineers room is treated properly, with an even frequency response and not too much or too little reverberation, which allows him to judge the sounds he is achieving properly.

If you've read this far, well done, and as a reward I'll condense this long winded blog into a short statement that hopefully you'll keep in mind on your next session: if you ensure that every aspect of the recording chain (even the ones you don't usually think of) is as good as it can be, there is no way you can make a bad sounding recording.