Tag: "Recording"

Inspired by his new tourmates Waka Flocka Flame, Drake, and Meek Mill, “Rise” Competition winner Jitta On The Track decided to build a makeshift studio on his tour bus. Check out this video of Jitta rapping over some fresh beats and follow OurStageLive on Instagram for behind-the-scenes photos from the Club Paradise Tour!

After a rough recording experience with 2009′s Armistice, New Orleans rockers MuteMath decided to reclaim creative control. The result is Odd Soul, a back-to-basics, bluesy record that speaks to the band’s live strengths, first and foremost. The album inspired the band’s upcoming Odd Soul Tour, which features breakthrough 3D video technology on top of stellar performances from both MuteMath and opening act Canon Blue. OurStage caught up with drummer Darren King to talk about how the band were able to revive their creativity, what gets him pumped up to perform and his goals for 2012.

OS: You had some difficulties with the making of [2009's] Armistice, specifically with songwriting and working with a new producer. What did you learn from that experience and how did it influence your approach to recording this time around?

DK: I learned a little bit about not making things any more difficult than they need to be. I learned, through that process, the most valuable lesson I learned in my career so far. Of course, there are difficulties and parts of it that are frustrating, but you’re not supposed to hate music. You’re not supposed to hate the process. It’s fine if it’s a little arduous, a little frustrating, if you get stuck and get writer’s block…all of that’s good. But there’s always supposed to be this passion in it, it’s not supposed to be just this uphill climb, feat of strength just go get through it. From that point on, I vowed to make it fun. And whenever it gets gross, I start over again, in regards to songwriting, or the process of creating. You’re supposed to feel like you’re cheating at life by getting to do this for a living. And I try to present that, I try to fight for that now, and a big part of that, oddly enough, was not having a producer for this record, and it being just the three of us.

OS: Odd Soul is the first album you’ve made without original guitarist, Greg Hill. How did this change affectyour approach to the new album?

DK: Todd [Gummerman, guitarist] didn’t come into the picture until after the album was finished, so we had all of the guitarists that any band would ever need, and our bass player, Roy [Mitchell-Cárdenas]. [Roy] did a marvelous job of bringing all kinds of creativity and spark to the process to the process. I think he had a lot pent up in him too; he’s a talented guy.

He was a guitar player before he did anything else, so that was an easy transition. He stepped up, too. He’s a father of two, and both he and our lead singer were expecting children during the recording of this album. Roy would drive all the way from Miami to New Orleans, he’d drive through the night, and show up with a great attitude. It was really inspiring. And now we have our new guitarist. As we were finishing our songs in the studio, I would send them to him, and he would tell us that they were fun to play. He worked really hard to get ready for his audition. We were expecting to audition Todd in person, but he got to a place where he knew the songs well enough that he got tired of waiting for us, and he’d just email us his takes. He would play the songs, record himself, sing along, play along and he’d email it to me…and I thought that was ballsy! It made it easy; definitely our first audition via email!

OS: It’s rare to see a drummer that is so involved in the songwriting process. Does Mutemath have a certain method for how you write together?

DK: I think I’m more involved than you even know! Right now, I’m putting together our live video show and it’s time consuming, but I love it. This is probably the first time I’ve mentioned this…we’re doing a very exciting, 3D video show on this next tour. It’s been very tedious, but we’re working with some people in New York and some people in Nashville and we decided to try and go all in on this tour to make it big. So currently, my days are spent programming and animating video for this live show…it’s a new-found interest of mine.

OS: Odd Soul has a more blues-influenced sound than Armistice. What was the cause behind this shift in sound? Were there any particular artists that influenced you while writing this record?

DK: It’s so funny how the influences that I think I’m going for the most, don’t really seem to be the ones that come through in the end product. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, either. But Roy’s playing opened up a lot of opportunities for us. All we were going for was something that would go great live. All the bluesy-ness didn’t so much come from us saying, “Let’s try to do something a little Jimi Hendrix-y,” or, “Let’s do some Led Zeppelin riffs.” It was really that we didn’t want to make a sleepy album. We didn’t want to make something that would be convoluted, live. We wanted to make something that would allow us to play to our strengths as a live band. The whole idea behind the record was to set up the tour that we’re about to do now. The big tour, with the video show and the lights and all of the antics. After Armistice, we released a live record, and I remember reading a review of it that said something like, “Why is this MuteMath’s best record? Why is their best record this live record?” And I thought, well, it probably makes sense that it is, to them. There’s probably some switch that we turn off when you go into the studio. Music can be a little like taxidermy. You can start replacing the real stuff with the glass eyeball and get real meticulous with making things seem real. And I think it has to be that way, to an extent, whenever you do music in the studio. So we tried to make [Odd Soul] sound more real.

OS: You’ve had your songs featured on the soundtracks for major motion pictures like Twilight and Transformers. How have these placements changed or impacted your fan base?

DK: Don’t forget The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2! Yeah, we did get some younger fans through Twilight, and I loved it. We got some hatred through Transformers. Some people loved it, but there were some hardcore Transformers fans that were livid that it wasn’t heavier, like…[metal growl]

OS: Before the new album dropped, Mutemath played some smaller clubs on the Odd Soul Introduction Tour. How will this upcoming tour be different from those shows?

DK: It will be longer. Right now, I’m not making any promises, but right now, the setlist we have has about twenty to twenty-two songs in it. We’ll have a great opening act in our friend Canon Blue, he’s out of Nashville, on Rumraket Records. He’s great. A great musician, great songwriter. We just decided, at this point, not to take out bands that we don’t like, but will sell tickets.

I’d just really rather not subject our fans to that anymore. Actually, we’ve done a pretty good job at taking out artists that I like. But we had a couple opportunities to tour with bands, and we’re gonna go for quality. We do want to make this the most absurd show we can and I want everyone to feel like they got way more than their money’s worth after the show, and I want to make it the best tour we’ve ever done. I’m certainly excited about this 3D video. We’ve got this really neat set behind us, and I think it’s technology that’s going to be pretty common in a year. I’m glad that we’re doing it now…I feel like we’re ahead of the game if we do this tour this way. If we did it next year, someone else will have done it before us.  I know [electronic musician] Amon Tobin has done crazy stuff with projecting on 3D structures…you see it a lot with electronic artists, but I don’t know a band that’s done it yet on a tour. So the goal, unless someone sneaks in there next week, we’ll be the first band to take that kind of stuff on the road.

OS: You mentioned Canon Blue earlier…what can people seeing him for the first time expect from his performance?

DK: He’s an electronic artist. He’s opened for Miike Snow, I think that was a really good fit. So, stylistically, fans of Miike Snow will also enjoy Canon Blue. He’s done a good job with mixing a lot of really beautiful elements with some intense, glitchy electronics, as well. I know he got the Amiina Quartet to play on his record, the same group that played for Sigur Rós. So he’s got a lot of pretty strings on his record, and he’s a good singer too…it’s going to be my favorite tour, I’m pretty positive of it. Unless something goes wrong! [laughs]

OS: You guys are known for having a pretty wild live show. What inspires your stage presence? Do you tendto be more consistent with the performance aspect of the set, or more spontaneous?

DK: I’ll only speak for myself, because I think the other guys would give you a different answer… but I’ll tell you what makes me wild on stage. I’m a little hungry for attention, and you certainly get it whenever you perform. People clap for you after every single song. I can’t think of anything else where I get that much attention. From the very first show we ever did, God, it got me really excited. I’m not an only child, but my brother and sister were both teenagers when I was born, and I was just alone a lot. I would spend hours in my bedroom playing drums, pretending there was an audience in front of me. Or I would put on my Paula Abdul record and dance as a background dancer and pretend there was an audience. I look back and realize that a very large portion of my time alone as a kid was pretending I was in front of a bunch of people.

I’d even do speeches. I memorized the Gettysburg Address and I would do it in my bedroom for, I guess, a bunch of soldiers? I was raised in church, and Paul did this too, he’d preach, his family would make him preach for people…and I would preach to no one in my room. That was just my thing, I guess…pretending I had an audience. And when I finally got one, I think I got way too excited. I just get pumped up. It’s exhilarating. And to be honest with you, I’m addicted to it. Sometimes I play hard because I love it. If I’m tired but I’m still playing hard, it’s because I don’t want it to end. I’m scared of the day when I don’t have an audience in front of me. I don’t like myself when I go too long without playing a show. I’ve gotten a little bit better about it, I think being married helps [laughs]. If one person approves of you after seeing you at your worst, then that does mean more than a bunch of people who think you’re cool whenever you’ve got a bunch of smoke and mirrors. I used to go through intense withdrawal, really bad, whenever we didn’t tour enough [laughs]. So yeah, it’s kind of an addiction thing. I get excited about people, I’m like a dog! [laughs]

OS: Since we just started a new year, what’s something you hope to accomplish this year that you haven’t done yet?

DK: Like my resolutions? My New Year’s resolutions are: to not sit down to pee, because I end up playing Words With Friends on my phone…just sitting on the toilet for too long. It’s just such a waste of time. Being on the toilet for five minutes after you’ve gone to the bathroom is just dumb. I’m also going to stretch daily. As a band, we’ve already made a couple music videos, we want to make another one. We get to go to Australia and we want to make a good impression there. And I want to be a good son, a good sibling, a good husband, a good drummer. OK, here’s the real one: to get into a creative habit with music. When we’re control freaks like this and we’re working on video and working on the tour so much, I’m starting to miss getting to make new songs. So just to do a little bit every day, with songwriting, so it doesn’t take too long to come out with the next record.

This is definitely a show you don’t want to miss! Catch MuteMath’s Odd Soul Tour on these dates:

01/26 Houston, TX at House of Blues
01/27 Austin, TX at Stubb’s
01/28 Dallas, TX at House of Blues
01/29 Tulsa, OK at Cain’s Ballroom
01/31 Denver, CO at Gothic Theatre
02/02 Los Angeles, CA at Club Nokia Live
02/03 San Diego, CA at 4th and B Concert Theater
02/07 San Francisco, CA at The Regency Ballroom
02/08 Sacramento, CA at Ace of Spades
02/10 Seattle, WA at Showbox SoDo
02/11 Spokane, WA at Knitting Factory
02/12 Boise, ID at Knitting Factory
02/14 Salt Lake City, UT at Club Sound
02/16 Kansas City, MO at Beaumont Club
02/17 Chicago, IL at House of Blues
02/18 Minneapolis, MN at First Avenue
02/28 St. Louis, MO at The Pageant
03/01 Grand Rapids, MI at The Intersection
03/02 Detroit, MI at St. Andrew’s Hall
03/03 Columbus, OH at Newport Music Hall
03/04 Cleveland, OH at House of Blues
03/07 Boston, MA at House of Blues
03/08 New York, NY at Best Buy Theater
03/09 Philadelphia, PA at Trocadero
03/10 Washington D.C. at 9:30 Club
03/11 Norfolk, VA at The Norva
03/14 Charlotte, NC at Amos’ Southend
03/16 Ft. Lauderdale, FL at Revolution
03/17 Orlando, FL at House of Blues
03/18 Atlanta, GA at The Tabernacle

A few months ago, we featured a post celebrating twenty great years of music by Opeth (which you can read here ). Obviously, we have lots of respect for Mikael Åkerfeldt and company. They’re progressive death metal juggernauts who never seem to disappoint fans and critics. Despite numerous great albums, amazing tours and boatloads of positive critical reception, they’re still hard at work, releasing their tenth album Heritage earlier this year. Not too long after our article was published, we were able to put together an interview with the frontman of this iconic band, and it was well worth the wait.

OS: Opeth has been in the metal world for quite some time now, and you’re considered by many to be one of the best metal bands of all time. What helps you put out such great material so consistently?

MÅ: Well, we don’t really regard ourselves in any way as one of the best bands or whatever, we just try to write and record music that we want to hear, and I guess the big difference is that we have a wider range of influences than your regular metal band. I mean, we’ve been around a while of course, but really we’ve just been putting out records we want to listen to, first and foremost, and I guess we’ve just been fortunate that other people like that shit as well.

OS: Speaking of that, the critical reception of Heritage has been pretty great, and it sold pretty well, even though it’s quite different than your other material. How do you feel about the album’s reception so far?

MÅ: I’m pretty happy with it I think, but I don’t really go looking for it. I’m not really seeking approval from anyone. You know, even if I like getting good reviews and people telling me they like the new record, it doesn’t really matter so much for me anymore, I can’t really say why. I love it, you know, and that’s all that matters.…If you go on the Internet looking for some type of approval you’re gonna end up with a lot of shit too, and I don’t really need that in my life right now, to be honest. Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q&A: Opeth Unleashes Their Heritage’

With the cost of recording and manufacturing albums these days, many artists are opting to record and release songs in smaller bundles more frequently throughout the year. They are then forced to decide if it’s more beneficial to release a single or an EP.

The perfect middle ground is the “3P.” The 3P derives its name from the combination of “three songs” and “EP.” So what makes this tiny collection of songs so perfect?

From an artist’s perspective, the 3P is much more convenient than making an LP, on nearly every level. If you’re starting from scratch, writing three songs shouldn’t take more than a few weeks. In addition, recording (even with a producer who charges more than most) is significantly cheaper than it would be for an LP. Ultimately, you’re giving more music out than you would for just a single and providing a more in-depth look at your band’s sound.

Justin Branam's 3P

The 3P is also perfect for sending out with press materials  to booking agents and promoters. You aren’t flooding them with too much material, but you’re providing them with just enough music to show off your style and versatility. It’s also the ideal length for streaming on a Web site and will allow for cheaper album prices that fans will be much more willing to pay.

OurStage artist Justin Branam released a 3P called Introducing Justin Branam in May of last year, which showcased his soulful acoustic songwriting in just under 15 minutes. Though short, the album received rave reviews (and is available for just $2.97 on iTunes!). On the opposite end of the musical spectrum, rapper Bubba Sparxxx released a 3P called Miracle on Gamble Road just two weeks ago, his first new release since May of 2009. In this case, the 3P is being used in between LPs as a way to keep fans satisfied until his next full-length drops.

If you’re short on cash but still want to make a record, look no further than the 3P. Whether you choose to make a cohesive mini-album or have three completely different songs, you’ll be able to give current fans (and future fans) a taste of what you can do!

OS: Can you tell us about the tour you’re going on?

DF: Yes…we are touring with opening bands that I think are great.  We are very, very excited.

Catch Meg & Dia on tour this fall with Joey Ryan and The Spring Standards:

It’s been a few months now on this Tune Up column, and I’ve spoken a lot about recording techniques, studio equipment and gear reviews. While I reviewed the Line 6 TonePort, I haven’t  given you a review of any large recording/audio interfaces yet. Well, this week I will oblige fellow recording nerds with a review of one of the current interfaces that I use in my own home studio. The PreSonus FireStudio 26×26 is a firewire-connected recording interface with a complete arsenal of inputs, outputs and features.

PreSonus FireStudio 2626

— 24-bit/96kHz sampling rate

— 8 preamp mic inputs

— 8 channel ADAT (ins and outs)

— S/PDIF ins and outs

— Surround mode (quickly switch from this and stereo)

While there are obviously a lot of other really in-depth control options (both through included software and on the device), these are the ones that I really want to draw attention to. To begin, the FireStudio 2626 has the highest bit depth/sampling rate that I would ever need for recording (much too high for the human ear to hear any bad artifacts).

The most attractive feature, to me, is the amount of parallel mic/line inputs. They are combination TS and XLR inputs (two of which are Hi-Z instrument inputs, and the rest are line; all the XLR’s have phantom power). The XMAX preamps are some of the best I’ve used. They are very clear and are even a little warmer than normal, dry interface preamps, eliminating the need to use external preamps in most cases. The ADAT in/out can easily extend your microphone inputs by connecting it with other ADAT devices that have more XLR ins (commonly referred to as “lightpipes”). The device is rounded out with S/PDIF and surround sound options.

I’d like to close this post by mentioning that the “FireStudio” and “FirePod” lines contain many different options at different pricepoints. The FP10 and FireStudio Project contain all the preamps and line ins/outs but don’t offer the ADAT flexibility. Beyond this, PreSonus also offers a FireStudio lightpipe (connected using ADAT). Just grab two of these and you have an interface with 24 parallel mic inputs, all seen separately on your DAW even if recorded simultaneously. The units can be a little expensive (anywhere from $399–$699), so I would only recommend this for at least a mid-level home studio. It’s great for drums, vocals and live instruments, though. Even PreSonus advertises it as a means for recording full bands at live shows. With such versatility, I recommend looking into this for your project studio.

Perhaps the biggest source of income for independent artists these days is merchandise. Bands keep all of the money from the merch they sell at shows in order to finance future recording projects, touring costs, practice space rent and more. If you’re not on tour or playing shows, however, you can still make money off your merch.

Setting up a web store for your band will allow your fans to buy items online. With sites like Big Cartel, CafePress and Merch Lackey, starting and managing a web store has become incredibly painless.

happygolovely's BigCartel store

As seen in the photo to the right, OurStage artists happygolovely have a store on Big Cartel.  In the store, they sell tickets to upcoming shows, T-shirts, CDs, stickers, posters and even a “Date with the Banana Man.” The options for items to sell are virtually endless, so get creative with your merch and make sure to have photos for everything you’re going to sell.

Now, let’s walk through the steps of setting up a Big Cartel store. There are three different memberships you can select from: Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Gold accounts are free and allow bands to have one custom page, offering 5 products and access to basic statistics and customization. The Platinum accounts cost just $10 a month and offer the ability to sell 25 products, have 3 custom pages, more access to sales stats and full customization. Finally, the Diamond accounts allow sales of 100 products, 10 custom pages, even more stats and full customization for $20 a month. Best of all, you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel an account at any time and Big Cartel doesn’t charge any fees for listings or transactions.

happygolovely's shirts look awesome in their webstore!

The store is organized by a side bar that divides items by “Categories,” “Newest Products” and “Top Selling.” As with most shopping Web sites, customers can add items to their virtual shopping cart and then select “Checkout” when they are ready to pay.

Payments for items on Big Cartel are completed through PayPal, so make sure you set up an account there. Your fans, however, do not need to have accounts in order to purchase items. They can pay for items using a regular credit or debit card, or PayPal if they so desire.

As far as shipping goes, you can choose to offer free shipping on all items, or you can charge specific shipping rates based on location. You can also choose to use your default PayPal shipping settings.

Of course, nobody will know your store exists unless you promote it! Be sure to have links to your store on all of your Web sites, and offer fans special discounts from time to time to bring more traffic to your store. You’ll be making bank in no time.

Last month, OurStage teamed up with the Goo Goo Dolls and Clear Channel to offer upcoming artists a chance to open for the band on a future tour date. Artists across the US entered their music into 10 regional “SUBWAY FRESH ARTISTS™” Competition Channels for their chance at making it into the Finals. The Top 50 artists from each of the regional channels are now competing in the “SUBWAY FRESH ARTISTS™” National Finals Competition Channel.

The 1990s saw many bands come and go, but the Goo Goo Dolls have proven that they are here to stay. With their new record, Something For the Rest of Us, the Dolls are back on tour and ready to take the world by storm—again. We got a chance to chat with bassist Robby Takac about the new album, the tour and what it’s like to spend 25 years in one of the most recognized bands in the world.

OS: The new album, Something For The Rest of Us, was written to be a voice for the average person dealing with difficult times. What inspired that concept?

RT: Difficult times, I think! I think when you try to put a record together that talks about what happened for the last few years since you’ve done that last, you take a look at the stuff around you and if you’re doing something that’s relatively honest to what’s going on at the moment…I think you can’t help but to feel what some other folks are feeling right now. I think if you look at the news, or if you read the newspaper at all, and you see the things that are going on out there…obviously the general sentiment within the country right now is that things are a bit tougher than they have been in years prior. I think that concept itself is something that is pretty universal at the moment, aside from that top 1% that keeps making more and more money. And I think if you take a look at that entire scenario that I just mentioned, there’s a huge problem there. I’ve been asked, “What does ‘the rest of us’ mean?” and I think it’s pretty much everybody at this point. I think all the major decisions that are being made at this point are made to benefit that top 1% and that’s a very scary thing, because there’s not a huge remedy or any outcome other than this getting worse if we don’t change that idea. So, I think we really just took a look at what was going on around us and did our best to represent that.

OS: Instead of working with one engineer and one producer for the whole album, the band opted to work with numerous people. Why was that decision made?

RT: That wasn’t really a conscious choice. We made the record with Tim Palmer…we went and started it on our own and then we brought Tim on after a few months of work. We worked with Tim at our studio in Buffalo and then we went back out to L.A. and finished the record with him there. He moved to Austin and we had some time between when we finished the record and when we were going to put it out, so that gave us some time to listen to it and start to think to ourselves, there’s some things that we would probably would have done differently. So we ended up spending some time working on some stuff on our own with some of the guys in our touring band and a couple of opportunities opened up…we always wanted to work with Butch Vig, he’s been a friend of ours for a long time and we never really had the opportunity. He’s a staff guy over at Warner Brothers now, so we were able to work with him and do a song with him…and a friend of ours, John Fields, who we were always interested in working with…we were able to go in and record a song with him. That’s really the only song that we recorded from scratch; “Home” is that song. We went in and actually recorded that song when the record was done, we recorded one extra and it turned out to be that one. I think it ended up being the single because it was just the freshest in our mind, the most current-sounding. So that’s what we ended up leading with.

OS: What were some of the second-round changes made before the release?

RT: Korel Tunador, our touring singer and keyboard player, came in and played an awful lot of stuff. We went back in and re-sang some background vocals and just kind of tightened stuff up a little bit more. I think we just felt like the record could have been a little bit more focused than it was, and so we spent the time going through all the tracks and finding the things that worked and fixing the things that didn’t….we put real strings on stuff, too. Originally, we had sampled strings on some of the songs, so we went in and recorded some real strings, as well. Most of the changes were fairly minor, but I think when you put them all together, it was a pretty large amount of changes, although they’re barely discernible, probably, to most people.

OS: The Goo Goo Dolls have been a touring band for 24 years. When going out in support of a new project, how does the band balance out promoting the release while also honoring the older material?

RT: I think we know the songs that have made their way into normal life for folks through the radio, or walking through the supermarket, or whatever it might be. I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on what those songs are, so we try our best to get those thirteen, fourteen songs in that we’re pretty sure that someone has come there to hear and might be disappointed if they don’t. We do our best to work in about half of the new record, about six songs, and then throw in a couple that we think are gonna be big numbers in the show that aren’t necessarily the most popular on a mainstream level. Those moments that we think are representative of what we can do that are a little bit outside of what people know of us.

OS: How have Goo Goo Dolls fans changed over the years?

RT: Some of them got older, many of them have had children and they’ve been bringing them to the shows, which is one of the more interesting things that we’ve seen over the years. There are some kids that come to see us play, they’re fifteen, sixteen-years-old and they don’t know the world without this band. I mean, not that they focus on it all day and night, but we just always have been. If their parents were fans, our records have been around their house. If their parents were fans in college, then they’re maybe a little bit more knowledgable about what we did…but at the least, they’ve heard “Iris” somewhere, so they have some sort of connection to what we do, be it good or bad. I think having those concepts gone on within what we do, the crowds have gotten pretty varied. There are kids, there are older people there…we don’t draw 4,000 goth kids, we don’t draw 4,000 housewives, we don’t draw 4,000 accountants or 4,000 hipster kids…it’s like we draw 1,000 of each of those to the show. And I think that’s what makes our crowd pretty interesting.

OS: Many OurStage artists have named Goo Goo Dolls as a big influence in their careers. What advice would you offer to them?

RT: Make sure you like what you’re doing, because you might be doing it 25 years later. Be as honest as you can…at some point, you might get called on it. And aside from that, remember that success—monetary success or commercial success—is a by-product of doing something well. The success is not the product, and I think that’s what you need to keep in your mind. Just because you’re doing something and you are not making great financial strides, doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. And I think that that, to me, is the most important thing you can keep in your mind. It’s your craft, it’s your art, it’s your ideas and if those are good ideas, not whether anyone else likes them—that’s a whole ‘nother issue. But I think you’ve got to hold that stuff close to your heart and know for yourself that you’re doing the right thing.

Continue to judge in the “SUBWAY FRESH ARTISTS™” National Finals Competition and you could win big, too. The fan who earns the best predictor score in the channel will win two tickets to see the Goo Goo Dolls perform live along with a meet and greet with the band!

Check out this video of “Broadway” from the Clear Channel Radio performance we attended in NYC! Also, make sure you check the tour dates below the video to see the Goo Goo Dolls on tour this fall.

10/6 Stranahan Theater -Toledo, OH
10/7 Indianapolis, IN  - Murat Theatre
10/10 Green Bay, WI  - Weidner Center
10/ 11 Sioux Falls, SD - Augustana College
10/ 15 Myrtle Beach, SC  - House of Blues
10/ 16 Chattanooga, TN  - Tivoli Theatre
10/ 18 Montclair, NJ  - The Wellmont Theatre
10/ 19 University Park, PA - Eisenhower Hall
10/ 20 Kingston, NY  - Ulster PAC
10/ 23 Latrobe, PA - St Vincent College
10/ 24 Mansfield, PA - Decker Gymnasium
10/ 26 Portland, ME  - State Theatre
10/ 28 Fairfield, CT  - Pitt Center
10/ 30 Salamanca, NY - Seneca Allegany Casino and Hotel
11/ 07 Glasgow, UK  - Academy Glasgow
11/ 08 Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK – Academy Newcastle
11/ 09 Leeds, UK – Academy Leeds
11/ 11 Birmingham, UK – Academy Birmingham
11/ 12 Manchester, UK – Manchester Academy
11/ 13 London, UK – Academy Brixton
11/ 15 Norwich, UK – Norwich UEA
11/ 16 Bristol, UK – Academy Bristol
11/ 17 Leicester, UK – Academy Leicester
11/ 20 Liverpool, UK – Academy Liverpool
11/ 21 London, UK - HMV Forum
12/30 Thackerville, OK – WinStar World Casino
12/31  Thackerville, OK – WinStar World Casino

So you’ve got your studio equipment: that shiny new audio interface, your rack processing units, your monitors, mixers, guitars—everything. Your home studio is complete. Well, almost. This week I’ll talk briefly about some of the accessories I recommend to help you keep your studio or rehearsal space as high-quality as possible. They may seem small and unimportant, but they will all improve your music and productivity.

Microphone Accessories:

There are a couple of things I always recommend having around to make sure your mic’s sound awesome while recording. While many mic’s come with cables and clips, they often don’t come with some of the less-obvious accessories. I always have a couple of pop filters so I can make sure my microphones don’t pick up any of those “P” pops. In addition, I usually have some windscreens designed for dynamic microphones so that there isn’t any wind noise when I capture those great sounds. These may seem minuscule, but they make a big difference. Your condenser mic’s will thank you.

If you read my post about cables, you know how important it is to shop at the right place and to get the right cables. In this article, I would recommend simply making sure you have a lot of cables around—specifically several XLR and short patch cables. You never know how many microphones you need set up simultaneously and how many different types of patching you’ll need to do. The bottom line is you don’t want a lack of cables to stop you from achieving a certain studio setup or configuration.

Sound Proofing:

Sound proofing is the single easiest way to get the clearest sound out of your mic/audio interface. When you’ve taken the time to buy decent equipment that’s been well researched, the number one cause of poor results is almost always room noise. For this reason, I always have a bunch of different soundproofing materials handy. First on the list obviously soundproofing foam as a permanent fixture in your studio. This foam absorbs vibrations and eliminates a lot of inherent room echo and reverberation. It allows you to get a completely dry sound. Positioning this foam on each wall in occasional areas as well as in corners and grooves will help to make sure that you have complete control over the reverb you assign to your raw audio.

Additionally, it’s important that you have foam, boards and barriers for further “middle-of-the-room” isolation. The most important studio sounds to isolate are very often drums and vocals; you need to form a makeshift “isolation chamber” around these performers. You can purchase small, specially designed barriers to be placed behind your condenser mic so that it isolates the sound, not allowing any reverberation to escape behind the microphone. You can also purchase larger versions of these barriers designed to create a similar isolation for drum sets.

While you can buy any of these soundproofing materials at a music store or online retailer, I recommend a little ingenuity to save some money. You can purchase eggcrate or flat-cut foam at any local hardware store and cut it yourself. A friend of mine even created some very effective drum isolation barriers out of plastic palettes and standard insulation. While they weren’t very pretty, they did the trick.

Microphone accessories and sound proofing are very basic studio accessories that you might not have thought of. There are many other accessories that deal specifically with instruments and live performances, and I’ll talk about those in a later post. This post, however, was meant to encourage you to make sure you are stocked with the basic tools to make you home studio sound as good as possible.

Microphone placement is one of the most complicated and technically difficult tasks in recording/live sound. Ironically, it is also one of those things that people think they’re doing right without actually having looked into the proper techniques. The topic is broad and is obviously different for every application, so in this article we’ll focus on only two kinds of placement: acoustic guitar and vocals.

Acoustic Guitar

You may recall our recent post about acoustic guitar pickups; microphone placement is a completely different ballgame. Say your best guitar doesn’t have a pickup or, even if it did, it probably sounds better acoustic rather than direct in. So, capturing that full rich sound is often really tough. Let’s first talk about where to place the microphone when only using one. As a rule, the most bass sound comes from the sound hole area and the most treble sound comes from around the 10^th–12^th fret area. So, guitar is often recorded just over the 12^th fret. Sometimes though, you may want a little more bass, so try and gauge your placement to taste. It can be helpful to listen to someone playing the guitar and actually move the microphone gradually until you hear the sound you like.

If you intend to create a stereo track, there are a few other ways to do it. One technique is to leave one mic in the same place as if you were recording mono (see above) and to place the other mic the same distance from the strings down by the bridge of the guitar. However, you often get better results by placing two mics near the 12^th fret (i.e., one pointing at the 14^th and one pointing at the 10^th). Again, be sure you do some gradual movements and place the mic’s where the guitar sounds the fullest and most realistic.

Vocals

Almost as tough as effectively recording an acoustic guitar, capturing a vocal take is more complicated than it sounds at first. It is quite rare to record vocals in a pop, rock or hip-hop song in stereo, so we’ll focus on mono microphone techniques. For live settings, you’re probably familiar with the popular Shure SM57 microphone being sung into directly in front of the mouth. This is the most popular (and arguably most effective) live vocal placement. Keep in mind that many backup vocalists stand further back from these mic’s to create a more-distant, blending backup sound.

Where things can really get creative is in the studio setting. Most engineers have a good collection of large diaphragm condenser microphones that they use for different vocalists and different applications. Placement, however, is certainly not an exact science here. Most often, you’ll find a microphone placed directly in front of a singer, a few inches from their mouth. This will create a clean, full sound and, if a pop filter is used, won’t have many unwanted artifacts. However, based on the vocal style, you can place the mic further away or even off-axis. Another popular placement is about 7–8 inches from the face at forehead level, pointing down toward the mouth. This will give the singer the ability to sing louder and with more emotion without a lot of artifacts or the strong possibility of clipping.

Microphone placement is something that has been studied by physicists and sound engineers for years. It can be way more complicated than the scope of this article (for example, when recording a full orchestra or using non-directional microphones). But for home-studio settings, these are some standard tricks to use when making sure you get the best sound possible. As a closing note, be sure to always use your ears. After all, we can give you all of the statistics and techniques in the world, but when it comes down to it, your goal is to record what sounds the best. So trust your ears and experiment with your placements. You’ll get a better track.