Professional Documents
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The Handbook
The Handbook
1
GOLDEN H A N D B O O K
OF
By Timo Tolkki
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INTRODUCTION
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good and make the job of mixing engineer much
easier. There is nothing worse than badly recorded
basic tracks. Also, this book does not cover mixing. It
is an entire universe of its own and needs its own
book. This book is concentrating to help you to get
the best out of the gear you have at your disposal,
whatever they are. You will basically be able to get
good results almost with any gear if you follow the
instructions I am giving in this book.
I run a small mixing and mastering service and I am
at your disposal for mixing jobs. I am quite busy and
I select the jobs based on my work situation. You can
write to me to timo@tolkki.org for more information
regarding mixing.
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DRUMS
Introdu ction
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The basic principles of Drum Recording
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WORST ROOM:
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room. One thing you can do is that you go and buy
some sheets of plywood and place them around the
room so they are leaning against the walls. This is
not much but it is something I highly recommend if
you have to record drums in a place like this. Drums
are percussive instrument and every hit travels in the
room. In a dead room the drums are suffocated and
do not have any sense of air in them.
GOOD ROOM:
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has a relatively lively sound in the recording room.
Your drums will appreciate this.
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apart from kick drum skins because we will use only
samples with kicks. So make sure you have a new set
of tom and snare skins before the recording starts.
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RECORDING OF THE DRUMS
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these places for possible later use. Pay attention if
there are some annoying frequencies in the room,
particularily from the crash and ride cymbals.
Next things to mic the kit so add the microphones to
the drum kit and to the room as well the room is good
enough. You can add considerable air, depth and
bottom to the sound of the kit with room
microphones. The examples here are how I recorded
Joerg Michaels drum kit at Finnvox Studios for
Stratovarius album “Visions”. I am describing which
microphones were used and possible alternatives for
them, their positioning and also equalizing.
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liked the sound of the mic pre amps of SSL desk.
They are too clean and do not have character and
attitude. It is a great desk for mixing but for
recording drums, I would not use that. Instead I
used 16 channel Soundcraft Spirit desk, which
probably cost at that time like a 1000 Euros. It must
have looked weird to have this plastic desk next to
the Titanic sized 5 meter SSL. But I like the sound
of that desk. You can use Mackies, Behringers but
you are going to need to eq the drums. So make sure
that the studio you are recording has a desk with eq
mic preamps. If they have 16 channels of NEVE
1081 mic pre’s, you will be in heaven but most likely
this will not be the case. But worry not. I will show
you how to craft a great sound with just about any
desk.
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distorting the sound. Aim for the 0dB so the red led
blinks occasionally.
KICK(s)
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First I take out 5 to even 10 dB’s from around
300Hz area. 250Hz-300Hz usually is the area I
take out. Not completely but a lot of it.
To compensate this I add some low end around
70Hz-100Hz. 2-3dB is usually enough.
I also add just a little in the mid sections around 1
KHz. Maybe just one dB.
And to finish, I really crank the top to the max.
Between 10KHz-15Khz I might boost all that the
knob gives me. Even 12dB.
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SNARE
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mixing stage. Therefore we are trying to use the
option one. If possible, try to convince the drummer
to maybe move one of his toms if possible. Usually
they are prepared to do this.
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With the you must reverse the phase from the
bottom microphone. It’s a switch like “O” with a line
a cross the O. You can do this either now or in the
mix. This does not matter. But you must do this.
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to roll of some of that. For these equalizing settings I
am going to assume that the phase has been
reversed and the situation is therefore like it is in
mixing. The amount of faders, if all 3 microphones
have their own channel is:
Mic 2 (bottom) 60 %
Mic 3 (top consend) Varies. You have to listen to
what sounds good. I tend to keep it from 30 to 80%.
Equalizing Mic 1
Equalizing Mic 2
In generally I roll the bass off with a high pass filter
or cut 10dB’s from 100Hz. You have to listen to the
amount of bass because the phase reverse makes the
bass build up quite extensive and there might be too
much bass information.
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Equalizing Mic 3
TOMS
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recording toms. You must keep an eye on this as you
record the songs because toms go very easily out of
tune and require almost constant tuning in between
the songs and takes. You must take care of this
because without having the toms in tune, it is
impossible to have a good sound from them and they
might end up sounding like garbage cans (unless you
want that. Some people do). I already emphasized
the importance of having new skins in every tom. If
the drummer is not able to tune the toms it is worth
to bring a person into the studio who can do it. You
will thank me later for that. Again under no
circumstances should you try to dampen the toms in
any way. So no tape or any “special dampening
devices” should be used. Drums are meant to sound
alive. Not dead. And our tools in making them sound
like that are the tuning and new skins, mainly. So
keep your toms free from these. Otherwise you will
again have problems getting the toms audible in the
mix.
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So first you place 5 Shure SM57 microphones near
each tom. Then you put 3 fingers together and place
it against the rim of the tom. This gives you the
height of the front end of the microphone. Its about
5 cm. Use this method for the 3 rack toms. The
adjust the rear end of the mic to be in 13.30-14.00
using the clock method. This results that the mic has
quite deep angle. You should place the front end of
the mic about 1 cm inside of the rim edge of the tom.
For the 2 floor toms you should use the same
technique except you should place the mic deeper
from the edge rim. The front of the mic should be
about 5 cm inside from the edge rim of the tom. This
way the floor toms seem to have more clear and
naturally bassy sound. For years I was placing the
floor tom mics same way than the rack ones and I
was always struggling with the sound. By moving the
mic more towards the center of the tom, the sound
changes quite dramatically. Once again easy and
simple solution is usually the best.
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EQUALIZING THE TOMS
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sake of comfortability in recording, you might want to
lower the tom tracks a bit because the leakage from
the cymbals might be really unpleasant with these
eq settings. In the mix there are ways to deal with
the problem the eq is causing. The main thing is that
it sounds good and also that the drummer hits the
tom properly. Many drummers tend to underplay
what comes to how hard they hit the toms. Keep
listening if the toms actually are played with enough
force and attitude.
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HI HAT
For the right high hat you are coming in from the
front of the kit but using exactly the same diameters
than for the left hi hat. If there is a cymbal close to
the rear end of this particular mic, make sure it
doesn’t touch the mic when the drummer hits the
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cymbal. If it does, you can make the angle to 14.00
to 15.00 o’clock that should fix the problem.
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mics like Neumann or AKG 414, be careful with the
polar patterns of the mics which are variable usually
with these. It should be cardioid or super cardioid.
Shotgun consender mics are the best for the hi hats.
CYMBALS
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the cymbal. The same way I treat the center and the
left. If there are no cymbals in the center, I do not
naturally place any microphone there. But as a
starting point, 50 cm is a good height aimed to the
outer edge of the cymbal or group of cymbals. If the
group of cymbals has some of them deeper towards
the drummer, aim the mic to the outer rim of the
closest cymbal towards yourself.
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I roll (again) off the bass frequencies with a high
pass filter or cut from 100 Hz around 10 dB’s. There
is actually some logic to this since hi hat and cymbals
do not have much, if any, information below say
400-500HZ, it makes sense to cut it because
otherwise you end up recording also snare, kicks and
toms and they do have the low end information.
Some people check phase by pressing the reverse
phase button but to my experience, the only place
where you really need it is the low mic of the snare.
You might try to press the button of kick channel
and listen to any difference but since we are cutting
the bass frequencies out and the phase cancellations
are mostly there, you will probably not hear much
difference.
I also take out, sometimes a lot of, middle frequency
information from the cymbals. That is in 800Hz and
I always add some high end like 3-5 dB at 16KHz.
Then in the mix I really squash all the cymbals with
a limiter and that usually does the trick. Then it is
only about how loud you want to cymbals to be.
Because they fight with vocals you should be careful
with the levels.
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Again any condenser microphone with cardioid or
super cardioid pattern will do the job but the ones I
have been using are really good for the purpose. All
these settings, techniques and microphones have
been used in Stratovarius:Visions album.
RIDE CYMBAL
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hard, I will go for the record from down method. And
if the drummer has a good balance in his playing, I
will record it from the top.
I place the mic 10 cm from the center of the ride
cymbal pointing the center. Looking from the side,
the 414 is at 16.00 o’clock angle towards the center.
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You will notice that most of the time ride cymbal is
not used. You might leave it on or close the channel
in the mix. It depends. I tend to keep all the drum
tracks open in the mix.
If you don’t have AKG 414 you can try some other
vocal mics or consender mics there are in the studio.
Same eq settings apply. Be careful with the low end
if you are using mics like Neumann 87 which have a
lot of high end. You might also not want to place and
expensive 8000 USD vocal mic close to a drummers
reach with his sticks. I have seen a couple of nasty
things happening this way.
CONCLUSIONS
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anything to the sound. In my opinion it just captures
the room. This leads us to:
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(on Visions record I used 87’s for this). You place
them in FRONT of the drum kit. The drum room of
Finnvox is quite large. About 70 square meters. So
you have to place the 2 microphones at an equal
distance from the drum kit. So lets say the distance
from the drum kit to the left 87 is 6 meters. Then the
distance from the left 87 to the right 87 must be 6
meters as well. And when you place the mics like
this, you will get a triangle in which all the sides are
as long. So 6m x 6m x 6m (fits to Metal!). You can
move the two mics further if the room is big enough
but the sides must always be equal. So 8 x 8 x 8 etc.
This is the sound you hear in the beginning of “The
Kiss of Judas”. The you pan these 2 microphones to
left and right and add as much as you dare. It will be
a totally different sound than captured from above
with overheads. The polar pattern of the 2
Neumanns should be omnidirectional.
In your studio you also might have places where you
did not even think you could put a microphone in.
But open some doors and you might find some
rooms or corridors. I miked the coffee room when we
were recording “Dreamspace” album. On “Visions”
record, right outside from the recording room is a
corridor about 30 square meters. So I opened the
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door, left it open and put one Neumann 87 in there.
This usually brings really cool low end sound that
you can mix together with a kick if the song is slow
enough. The best example is “Eternity” on
“Episode” album. The polar patter of the 87 should
be omnidirectional so it captures as much
information from the space. Omni because it does
not have to be so precise.
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USING P.A SYSTEM IN DRUM
RECORDING
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really took care of even the small detail in the sound
and equipment.
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USING DRUM SAMPLES
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Tommy Lee’s toms were sampled in their self titled
album “Motley Crue” recording sessions.
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to craft an acceptably good drum sound in almost
any conditions.
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ELECTRIC BASS
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of. Also make sure that your bass has new strings. It
is very important. And keep checking the tuning
regularily.
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good later. So go there yourself and listen to the
amplifier. Does it sound good? If it doesn’t, fix it and
tweak the amplifiers settings or the distortion
settings to achieve a sound that pleases you and
then go to the control room and see how it sounds.
Very often then you don’t have to touch the eq. It is
always better if you don’t have to use eq but very
rarely this is the case in Heavy Metal music.
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HEAVY RHYTHM GUITARS
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with the bass. I experiment with bass, mid , treble
and presence knobs. I go down and hear how it
actually sounds there. It doesn’t make any sense to
make judgements about your sound while you are
standing. You have to hear how it actually sounds
down there at the speakers. Then experiment how
much gain you need. Most guitar players use a lot of
gain including myself. But if you can back off 20%
from your ideal gain stage for the recording, you will
achieve more clear sound and help also the overall
sonic picture.
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After adjusting the amp to my liking I place one
single Shure SM57 in front of one of the speakers
right in the middle so that it touches the speaker
grille. From there I usually like to go to a Neve 1081
mic pre amp but anything from Neve would benefit
your sound tremendously. If you don’t have a Neve,
you just have to use whatever the studio has but
don’t use ANY eq in recording guitars. Now that you
have adjusted the amplifier, bring the amp head to
the control room with a long cable and listen to the
sound through the speakers. Whatever you need to
adjust, do it in the amp, not with the eq. Heavy
rhythm guitars are very sensitive to the phase
problems and using heavy equalization like some
people do, will create a lot of problems later. In a
distorted heavy rhythm guitar sound there is no
sound information above 5 KHz. Anyway, all the
possible eq adjustments are better left to the mix.
I in generally record 2 tracks of rhythm guitars that
are identical. So I am doubling one track. Sometimes
in slow and heavy songs I record a third track and I
pan this to the middle but the fader of the mixing
desk will be lower than with the other 2 tracks. This
creates a really thick sound with 3 guitars playing
identical lines.
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Few words about the room where you record the
guitars. Since the microphone is so close to the
speaker, the room doesn’t matter that much. But
don’t do anything like cover the speaker with a
mattress or something like that. I have seen people
doing this and all it does to the sound is to make it
muddy and unclear. Also do not use ANY effects
when you record your rhythm guitars. Leave that to
the mix. The goal is to get as clean and direct signal
to Pro Tools as possible (or whatever you are using).
Also do not place the amplifier to any small room
since high volume sources do not sound good in
small spaces, especially if they are acoustically dead.
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SOLO SOUND
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Some people use a voltage device called Variac,
which lowers the voltage. Finland has 220 Volts
electricity. With Variac you can lower the voltage to
60 Volts which makes your amplifier to sound very
electrified. The way to do this is to crank pretty much
everything up in the amplifier, lower the voltage with
Variac and feed that signal to a power amp and to a
speaker. Eddie Van Halen used this method in the
first Van Halen albums. It does sound very good bit
it also consumes a lot of tubes since they will be gone
quite soon. This method works the best way with old
Marshall amplifiers that doesn’t have so much gain
in them.
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CLEAN GUITAR SOUND
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recording. Over compressing at recording stage will
always result a permanently compressed signal. So
stay away from that. Adjust the compressor to a
gentle setting with slow attack and release time and
make sure you will not knock out more than 1-2 dB’s
in the peaks. This way you maintain the dynamics of
your playing and you can later compress the living
daylights out of it if you wish to do so.
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back of a few dB’s from that. But in generally it
should make the sound sparkling and shiny on the
top. Pay attention to the settings of your compressor
as you are adjusting the eq. You might need to
adjust the compressor accordingly. Especially that
you do not cross the 1-2 dB line.
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ACOUSTIC GUITAR
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RECORDING NYLON STRINGED GUITAR
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nylon string guitar can be considerable, so you might
have to make large cuts of even 10 dB’s from 100
Hz area. Depending on the player you might have to
either cut or boost 1-2 KHz area a few dB’s and add
2-4 dB’s at 10 KHz. This should give you a nice
presence with the instrument. Be careful with any
breathing sounds from the player and tell him to be
careful with his breathing because the microphone
will pick that up very easily.
You should also add a touch of compression again
when recording but just like before, do not kill the
dynamics of the player. Keep it within 2 dB’s with
relatively slow attack and release times of the
compressor. It is also good to add some reverb to the
monitoring of the player but not to the track. You
should always record all the instruments without any
effects in my opinion. At this point of the recording
process, your job is to capture the best possible dry
sound. The effects will be added in the mix. You can
use them in the monitoring but do not record them to
the track.
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RECORDING STEEL STRINGED GUITAR
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then in the mix equalize more and you most likely
have to. I have recorded 20 or even 40 tracks of steel
stringed acoustic and it can sound wonderful but you
have to be really careful with the compression and
the breathing sound.
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LEAD VOCALS
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THE ROOM
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and even as far as 4 meters away from the sound
source. So I knew that at least would not be a good
place to record vocals. How about a small room but
live? That was even worse because the vocal
reflections where even closer.
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CONCLUSIONS:
MICROPHONE
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having these microphones. If you manage to get a
hold on these 4 microphones, put them in that
acoustically treated space and record some lines with
vocalist singing to each microphone and then do a
blind test. This is the best way to decide which mic is
the best for that particular session.
To make it more complicated, a microphone
preamplifier, so either mixing desk or a separate one
makes also a dramatic effect to the sound. There are
some microphones that sound good with only
particular mic pre’s. I know this sounds a little weird
but according to my knowledge, this is the case. I
have made blind tests with Manley Reference
Cardioid to 3 different mic pre’s and for that singers
voice, only one of them was good. With the same
setup with a different vocalist, another mic pre was
good. So there are a lot of variables in this. If you
have the luxury to have this equipment at your
disposal, these 2 combinations have been working
great for me:
Manley Reference Cardioid Microphone into Great
River MP-500NV, Vintagedesign M581mk2 or
Buzz Elixir. These are all API Lunchbox 500 series
where you place the mic’s into the lunchbox. Then
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you have to test the different pre’s with Manley for
the particular singer and decide which one works
best. This is the start of my signal chain these days
and I have found that Manley is the best
microphone for my use from Pop to Metal. It is a
brutally honest microphone which doesn’t color the
sound in any way. For that I have the choice of 3 mic
pre’s.
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outboard mic preamp, then you have to just use the
mixing desk of the studio.
COMPRESSION
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listen to the compressor as well and adjust it from
song to song. With vocals, the peaks should not go
over 3 dB’s. This should give you some control to the
vocal sound and make it easier to make decisions in
the mix.
EQUALIZING VOCALS
I will make this one really easy for you. You should
not use ANY eq when you record vocals. If you
record vocals through a mixing desk, make sure the
eq button is off because it affects to the sound even
if the settings are on zero. So one more time that you
get it: NO eq when you record basic vocal tracks.
None. Zero. Nothing.
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BACKING VOCALS
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singing. This will be done 8 times so we are getting 8
tracks. Between each take I ask the guys to change
places. It has an effect to the sound. Then I figure
out which other things fit to the chorus and all will be
sung 8 times. Changing places continues always
between each take. I usually end up with 4 different
voices times 8 tracks so 32 tracks of backing vocals.
To ease my workload in the mix, I usually use the
mixing desk and record each voice to a stereo track.
So 8 voices become 2. At the end I should have 4
stereo tracks of backing vocals.
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how you want the backing vocals to be. You can
experiment. I usually play each voice with a guitar so
the backing vocalists have easier time to sing it. I also
always mute the previous take so they only always
listen to the current track.
KEYBOARDS
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Modern keyboards have massive low ends and
sparkling highs not to mention the effects. I would
here apply the first rule that can save your session:
record keyboard without any effects. I mean the
effects of the keyboard. Do not under any
circumstance accept keyboard tracks that are full of
lush reverbs etc. You need to control the sound and
you need to have the option to decide later if the
sound needs reverb. This is a basic rule. Of course
there are some effect sounds where it is okay to have
them but usually all the keyboard tracks that I
receive for mixing are full of reverbs and then it is
almost impossible to make them audible. So make
sure that you record or receive your files dry. It is
really important. Usually keyboard players do not
like to do it this way because they want to decide
how their instrument sounds but they are not able to
think about the big picture. It is not possible to
achieve a clear mix with a massive keyboard sound
with 4.2 secong hall reverb.
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any effect. Other than that, there is no big mystery
in recording the keys. You have to use eq but this
should be again done when you are mixing. You
have to watch the low end of the keyboards in the
mix.
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TIPS AND ADVICES
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