Bringing
In The Pros
by John
McKay
In this era of
affordable recording equipment and
software based recording workstations,
many artists are choosing to record
themselves at home. While it is possible
to get very good results in a home studio,
often projects are less impressive than
they could be, for a number of reasons.
There may be technical limitations,
equipment problems, or a simple lack of
knowledge on the part of the engineer.
On the other hand, if you've spent money
and time on your own recording set up, you
may be very reluctant to pay a
professional to do what you could do
yourself, regardless of whether the end
result would be better.
There is a third way.
Many well-known artists do demo work at
home, then bring those demo tracks to the
studio, as a reference. And occasionally,
the performance on the demo has a certain
magic to it that is impossible to
recreate. In these cases, the great
performance track is often copied to a new
project, and the backing tracks rebuilt in
the studio. There are several variations
on this idea that can greatly benefit home
recordists.
Imagine you have your Pro Tools rig set
up, and you have 2 channels of 24 bit A/D
converters. You can easily track your
acoustic guitar and vocal, and even
overdub some bass. But you've decided that
you'd really like to have live drums.
While it is possible to record drums with
two mics, or to submix the drums down to
stereo tracks, you're going to be very
limited in what you can with those tracks
sonically. You really need to have the
kick and snare on their own tracks, with
at least two more tracks for the
overheads. And if you want room mics, tom
mics, maybe a mic on the batter side of
the kick, you're really stuck.
So, what can you do? You can buy a new
audio interface for $500, and add some
quality drum mics for another $500, pick
up some stands and cables, and start
learning how to record drums (not to
mention that you'd likely want some decent
outboard compressor/limiters, etc.)
This would make sense if you intend to
record drums a lot, but there is another
way to do it. You can hire a pro, who has
the gear and knowledge to come in and
track the drums for you. Basically, you'll
spend half a day with the engineer, either
at the studio, or if they have a mobile
rig, at your place. You get the drums
down, transfer the individual tracks into
your DAW, and you're done. Now you can
track the other instruments yourself, at
your leisure.
Another place where bringing in a pro
makes sense is during vocal tracking.
While it is possible to buy a decent
condenser microphone at a reasonable
price, recording vocals is truly an art. A
high quality mic, mic pre, compressor, and
eq will make a huge difference in the
overall quality of your finished
product.
Lastly, you should seriously consider
bringing in a pro for the final mix, even
if you've tracked the project entirely by
yourself. Having a fresh pair of ears can
help you avoid mistakes, and having a
knowledgeable engineer will make solving
problems much easier. I've heard many many
recordings done on home Pro Tools rigs
which would have benefitted immensely from
having a mix engineer with more
knowledge.
The great thing about this "third way" is
that it leaves creative control in the
hands of the artist, yet produces an end
product that is truly professional
sounding. And from an economic standpoint,
hiring an engineer to spend a few hours
with you will be money well spent. Watch
what he does, ask questions, learn as much
as you can. Few things are as educational
as watching a pro work up close.
So, next time you're doing a home project
and you hit a brick wall, think about
giving me or another pro a call. I can
guarantee it will be money well
spent!
|
