If you could offer only ONE piece of advice....

[Trelwheen]

Awhile back, a friend who was just getting into recording asked me what I'd say if I could only give one bit of advice...so I told him ...

"Boost early, cut late."

And by that I meant, get as hot a signal as you reasonably can going in, and cut levels as late in the signal chain as possible. This will ensure that you have good levels on all your instruments with the lowest possible noise floor.

If your incoming signals are weak and you have to boost them further down the chain you will also be boosting your noise floor. Even if you keep your levels as high as possible, anytime you boost ANYTHING you are increasing the noise floor.

Keeping this though in mind throughout the recording process will help keep your recordings cleaner and free of background noise, yielding a more professional-sounding finished product.

What would YOU say if someone asked you for only one bit of recording advice?

 

[PelliX]

That's a fairly solid piece of advice, though if dealing with a 'complete rookie', let's say I might have warned him about the perils of clipping (too) when using digital and how one should stay around -18dB which - intuitively - seems totally wrong. I think "record as dry as you can and do any wetting later" might be another 'nugget'. It depends a bit on what this person is doing, but there's often magic in the first take if it doesn't go horribly wrong - hold on to it until you're done with the session(s).

 

[Len]

Never assume you can fix it later - make sure the initial recordings sound great on their own.

 

[mickeydg5]

Keeping your signal hot and as clean as possible is the most important thing and the next is to have equipment that compliments that as in the most efficient gear and cables/connections possible.

Have the maximum because it always best/easiest to cut back but it is always hard to create/produce.

 

[Cal Nevari]

Awhile back, a friend who was just getting into recording asked me what I'd say if I could only give one bit of advice...so I told him ...

"Boost early, cut late."

And by that I meant, get as hot a signal as you reasonably can going in, and cut levels as late in the signal chain as possible. This will ensure that you have good levels on all your instruments with the lowest possible noise floor.

If your incoming signals are weak and you have to boost them further down the chain you will also be boosting your noise floor. Even if you keep your levels as high as possible, anytime you boost ANYTHING you are increasing the noise floor.

Keeping this though in mind throughout the recording process will help keep your recordings cleaner and free of background noise, yielding a more professional-sounding finished product.

What would YOU say if someone asked you for only one bit of recording advice?

Record clean, add effects later.

 

[10kDA]

Get as close as possible to nailing the sound/tone/feel when recording, make sure the recording is faithful to your concept of how you want the final to sound, and give the pahdoosah in you as little to do as possible.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

"If it flies, floats or [does the other one beginning with F], rent it by the hour".

 

[ITburst]

Look for a way to get 3 pieces of advice.

 

[PelliX]

What would YOU say if someone asked you for only one bit of recording advice?

I've already had more than my allotted number of shots (1), but after considerable reflection I came to a drastic re-appraisal of the entire situation; "don't get carried away spending or get conned out of your money by missing out the necessary homework".

Practice fixes most things, but the wallet doesn't work like that.

 

[67mike]

Don't.

 

[johan.b]

I'm sorry, but it has to be two...

When tracking:
Your best take might not be the one with prefect pitch and timing. It's the one that moves you

when mixing:
Low cut is THE most essential eq. Everything gets it and it's many times all it takes. Getting rid of energy robbing lows, often not even heard, makes everything sound cleaner and punchier
J

 

[chocol8]

You need less gain than you think you do.

 

[playloud]

Get a decent monitoring setup. It doesn't have to cost the earth (especially nowadays) - the key thing is to get familiar with it, so you have a constant reference.

Awhile back, a friend who was just getting into recording asked me what I'd say if I could only give one bit of advice...so I told him ...

"Boost early, cut late."

And by that I meant, get as hot a signal as you reasonably can going in, and cut levels as late in the signal chain as possible. This will ensure that you have good levels on all your instruments with the lowest possible noise floor.

If your incoming signals are weak and you have to boost them further down the chain you will also be boosting your noise floor. Even if you keep your levels as high as possible, anytime you boost ANYTHING you are increasing the noise floor.

Keeping this though in mind throughout the recording process will help keep your recordings cleaner and free of background noise, yielding a more professional-sounding finished product.

What would YOU say if someone asked you for only one bit of recording advice?

I actually think this is quite outdated. It was certainly true in the analog era (when noise floors were a major issue), and mostly true in the 16-bit digital era. With 24-bit digital and modern A/D converters (even "prosumer" ones), I'm less convinced.

The modern version of this probably relates to EQ. Subtraction is easier than boosting, especially with digital gear/plugins.

 

[Trelwheen]

Get a decent monitoring setup. It doesn't have to cost the earth (especially nowadays) - the key thing is to get familiar with it, so you have a constant reference.



I actually think this is quite outdated. It was certainly true in the analog era (when noise floors were a major issue), and mostly true in the 16-bit digital era. With 24-bit digital and modern A/D converters (even "prosumer" ones), I'm less convinced.

The modern version of this probably relates to EQ. Subtraction is easier than boosting, especially with digital gear/plugins.

Well, let's examine the current situation.

I'll agree that with a simple high quality rig with little to no outboard/analog front end there will be less noise floor to deal with. E-drums and direct recording of electric guitars, etc may present little in the way of extraneous noise. So at the low end of the spectrum the recordist may indeed only have to contend with vocal and acoustic instrument mics being the only potential sources of line noise. And too, there is always still an element of analog in every rig.

From there to the other end of the spectrum is every possible form of hybrid setup, with a full analog rig at the extreme. In my case for example, there's a lot of analog front end and mixing gear, and almost everything is live miced. I record to HDD recorders and also to tape. High quality tools can minimize the disadvantages inherent to analog gear, but the noise floor is always going to be something to be dealt with. It's also not unheard of to find oneself faced with a noisy digital signal chain.

The vast numbers of analog gear manufacturers and sales outlets, and the huge number of people populating recording forums and the subjects they discuss indicate that I'm not the only guy with a mountain of analog gear in the studio generating all kinds of extraordinary hisses and hums. It's an epidemic (but one that I embrace with open arms).

The recordists who populate this board are not representative of the demographic you see at Gear Slutz and other dedicated recording forums. Lots of stubborn analog holdouts, lots of people turning to analog tools to improve their digital recordings, and I'll wager there will be more tomorrow than today.

The advent of high-res digital audio has certainly changed the face of recording as a whole, and has opened the door for just about everybody to be able to afford to produce decent recordings.

 

[Derek S]

Don't always trust your own ears, tell yourself it's totally okay and necessary to let others offer advice, they will listen and notice parts a bit differently then you...it doesn't hurt any way to hear them out.

Always examine your mix on every device you can drop it into. It might sound awesome on your studio monitors but shitty in your car, etc, so keep working until you're happy with it everywhere.


(sorry it's two slices of advice)

 

[PelliX]

Always examine your mix on every device you can drop it into. It might sound awesome on your studio monitors but shitty in your car, etc, so keep working until you're happy with it everywhere.

Aye. Unfortunately, these days you need a mobile phone and an empty glass to simulate how the masses are playing your stuff...

 

[Crikey]

Awhile back, a friend who was just getting into recording asked me what I'd say if I could only give one bit of advice...so I told him ...

"Boost early, cut late."

And by that I meant, get as hot a signal as you reasonably can going in, and cut levels as late in the signal chain as possible. This will ensure that you have good levels on all your instruments with the lowest possible noise floor.

If your incoming signals are weak and you have to boost them further down the chain you will also be boosting your noise floor. Even if you keep your levels as high as possible, anytime you boost ANYTHING you are increasing the noise floor.

Keeping this though in mind throughout the recording process will help keep your recordings cleaner and free of background noise, yielding a more professional-sounding finished product.

What would YOU say if someone asked you for only one bit of recording advice?

Great advice

 

[SmokeyDopey]

Your first recordings will sound like shit, but don't let it discourage you. Keep going, eventually things slowly start becoming familiar, and your ear slowly starts picking up nuances.
Put in the hours, there really isn't a shortcut.

 

[Neil S]

Digital Clipping is bad, don't let it happen. This sort of goes against the original "record hot" way of thinking but the modern digital recording world (once you have the signal digitised) has virtually no noise floor and everything is best left way below Zero dB. I usually aim for around -18 dB inside pro Tools then lift the signal on the master before exporting the file.

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Never assume you can fix it later - make sure the initial recordings sound great on their own.

All the above sounds like sound advice.
The quote above says it for me. Try to nail the instrument sounds as they are rather than attempting to fix it later. Don't EQ the heck out of it especially before mixing and mastering!

In general?