Home studio ideas

The home studio can be incredibly sophisticated these days, very much capable of recording, mixing and even self finalizing your tracks to a high standard in the comfort of your own tailored musical space. If you are willing to invest some time into learning some basic engineering skills and invest some money, great results can be achieved. You will be able to potentially save money on studio bills and benefit from the great convenience of a studio in your house. This would especially have benefits at the composing, arranging, recording and idea building stage for an acoustic musician and potentially the entire production process for an electronic musician.

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Hearing protection

Ears are important for your work.

Working in the music industry means ears and hearing are especially important, without good hearing it will be impossible to do your job as a musician, producer, instrument tech or engineer. As such it is vital that you protect your most sensitive assets. I am sure almost everyone is aware of that ringing in the ears after a night out in a club or at a gig. Well the bad news is that means you have likely exceeded the safe level vs time exposure period for your hearing.  Do not panic, it does not necessarily mean instant and or permanent damage has been done. (although with very high sound pressure levels, such as 135dB-140dB it certainly can be.)  However ringing is your ears way of objecting to the level and exposure time. These signals must not be ignored and the response is to use ear plugs, the basic means of hearing protection in noisy environments. I am sure all of us are familiar with the foam roll up type ear plugs and these do offer a good level of hearing protection. This protection will attenuate sound between 125Hz and 8kHz (and above) by approx 20-40dB. The lower the frequency the lower the attenuation because the sound waves are very long at low frequencies and cannot effectively be blocked by a small 2cm foam plug. (i.e. at 125Hz the wavelength of a sound is 2.7 meters).

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Analog vs digital

A constant source of debate for audio professionals and musicians is analog vs digital. The fact is most digital devices have analog components within. A sound card converts the digital PCM data stream into an analog signal and it passes through and analog amplifier en route to the outputs (and vice versa). Much of the debate has been fuelled by the perception that analog sounds warm and digital sounds cold. This is a subjective issue and ‘warmth’ means different things to different people. Historically sound studios employed all analog equipment such as mixing consoles, tape machines and high quality outboard equipment such as compressors and equalizers.

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Setting up a home studio

Setting up a home studio is an exciting and fun activity but when you are planning what equipment to get and allocating a budget it can sometimes be difficult choosing what to spend money on. Many of these questions will relate to whether you have a main instrument that you play. i.e. guitar or keyboards for example as without doubt your main focus will be around composing, playing, recording and mixing this very instrument.  

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Understanding phase

The phase of 2 waveforms is a very important aspect within the realms of audio engineering. I am writing this because I occasionally hear out of phase (or nearly out of phase) signals in the 2 track mix downs that I receive for mastering. It can be quite a serious problem as it has the potential to render the out of phase source silent if the mix is ever summed to mono. (and this might happen more often that one might think) The phase relationship of 2 signals can directly dictate the sonic quality of a 2 microphone recording or synthetic waveform. Initially I will explain phase by explaining the definition of mono and stereo recording in the traditional sense using microphones.

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Loudness war and the side effects

By explaining something I occasionally experience as a mastering engineer I think I can help people understand some of the detrimental issues that relate to the loudness war in an easy manner. I will often send a master to a client and they will then say the track sounds excellent but they have had a listen to the track and it is not as loud as “X” as a reference. Firstly if loudness is an important factor it is always a good idea to provide a reference track so that the mastering engineer understand this is an important aspect of the audio mastering. My response to the client is often one which explains the non existence of a “loudness button” that exists independently of overall fidelity.

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Mixing on headphones

For many musicians, producers and engineers mixing at home can bring up some limitations for music making. It may not always be possible to utilize loudspeakers for one reason or another. A common reason would be working in a flat or other domestic situation where disturbing ones neighbours is a distinct possibility. This text is about mixing on headphones. Mixing on headphones is from the outset a compromise situation although these days many people will in fact be listening to music with a pair of ear buds so it is certainly an important aspect of audio reproduction to be aware of.  

For people who have to start mixing on headphones the first thing to be aware of is hearing damage. Make sure you do not listen for too long periods of time at loud volumes. The ear quickly adapts to loud listening volumes and it should be avoided at all costs it is especially important when mixing on headphones. It can be easy to not realize how loud you are listening and I suggest that you listen no louder that you need to in order to hear the balance requirements in your music. Closed back headphones can assist in attenuating some of the external sounds if need be so you can listen less loudly, though they do tend to be less comfortable over longer periods of time. When it comes to headphones you should be expecting to pay between £50.00 and £100.00 for a good quality set. If you peruse the quality manufacturers sites you will come up with a few options. Personally I like open back headphones for mixing in a quiet environment because there is some airflow to the ears and they tend to be more comfortable for longer.  

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Mix reference

I often suggest using a good sounding mix reference track to compare your own mix tone to. This is often in response to receiving a mix which has far too much or too little low frequency content for mastering. In these instances it is best to address the core problems in the mix down by using a mix reference.

I would use a track which relates to the genre of the mix your are working with. Select a track based on tone, clarity, space and definition, not it’s perceived level. This will help when getting the right tonal balance for the track, i.e. balance of lows, mid range and highs. I suggest bringing a track into your mix session with it’s own separate stereo track. Ensure the file is a high quality .wav file or .aiff file. Choose a track that you feel has a great mix which works on a lot of different playback systems. It helps if you like the track but don’t just choose a track where you love the song itself, try and discern what qualities give the track a good mix down.  

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Single driver loudspeakers and their role in mixing music

There was once a time when any credible mixing studio would not be seen without a pair of Yamaha NS-10 monitors. They are the black speakers with the white cones and are well recognized even by lay persons, in fact many people still swear by using them today. However another very common but less well known loudspeaker was the Auratone 5C. This speaker was very unassuming, a 5 inch single circular driver in a small wooden box. The goal of this speaker was to allow an audio engineer to have a focus on the critical mid range frequencies of an audio mix.

Almost all instruments and voices have mid range components and it is a frequency range which can easily get cluttered and such a speaker as the Auratone 5C allowed the engineer to reference the mid range without the ambiguities of multi driver loudspeakers. This type of speaker also approximated the reproduction characteristics of television sets, small radio receivers and other small devices from which sound would be reproduced.

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The musical force that is Ozric Tentacles.

As a mastering engineer I listen to a lot of music, I love my work, it’s what I do with my life and I have no regrets whatsoever. However at the end of the day I need to rest and being a music lover it causes the dilemma of what music to listen to. When I work the listening is both with an ear for the artistic elements of the music and the purely technical as I make decisions on the tone to ensure the music translates well to all reproduction systems.But for relaxing I tend to like a fairly wide range of genres but there is only one band of which I can truly call myself a fan. Ozric Tentacles have helped my mind calm down after a days work in the studio for a the best part of 2 years. After a 10 year period of having the CD’s on the shelf I started to listen to their music again and I am so pleased I did.I first encountered them back in 1990 in a record shop in Camden Town London. Intrigued by the colorful CD/Vinyl artwork and even more colorful sounds that was the start of what was to be a very long musical listening journey.

The band was born of the festival circuit way back in the early 1980’s and they have had a rich and interesting path of growth since then. It is said that the bands name was invented when discussing potential names for fictitious breakfast cereals.With 28 albums under their belt they are a very long running band. The line up has changed numerous times with members coming and going but the core values remain the same. Uncompromising musicianship, excitement and a listen like nothing you have ever heard before. Still gigging, still releasing albums and still gaining respect and new open ears. Ozrics have certainly been successful with their music despite keeping control of exactly the sound they wanted. A true underground band that has preserved their values whilst navigating the music industry.

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Understanding the audio mastering process

Audio mastering is a final procedure where your stereo music mixes are committed to their final release medium, this could be a CD-R pre master ready for duplication, a DDP (Disk Description Protocol) or correctly encoded audio files. In any event it is the mastering engineers job to ensure that the music is equalized and processed in a way that ensures it will translate across the widest range of reproduction sound systems. A mastering engineer should have a long standing history of professional work within the music/media industry and should be highly experienced. He or she will be able to confidently decide the best processing (if any) that should be applied in order for the music to sound as good as possible. In addition the engineer can work with the fades, spacing, leveling of tracks and increasing perceived volume if required. Finally the music should not suffer from defects such as pops, clicks, bad edits or other sonic glitches.The medium for duplication or distribution should also be error free and quality control should be applied to ensure the client receives the best product possible. Mastering usually works with the final stereo mix downs but can also take the form of stem mastering. This utilizes groups of instruments (i.e. drums, bass, guitars, vocals) to further enhance the result. Mastering is very different from mixing which is where the multi tracks or sequenced elements of the music are individually equalized, compressed,  effected, automated and leveled.  
 

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Getting your bass levels right at mix down

As a mastering engineer one of the most common issues with a music mix is the bass levels. Commonly there is not enough bass, far too much bass or uneven response throughout the lower musical octaves. There can be a number of causes for bass level problems.

1)Inappropriate positioning of monitors/speakers in mix room.
2)Lack of acoustic treatment to deal with low frequency energy.
3)Speaker size inadequate to produce full range audio.
4)Low listening volume.

Ideally your loudspeakers should not be positioned in the corners this produces what is known as “bass tip up” or the proximity effect. It means that low frequency sound waves are reflected and appear in phase at the monitoring position. This means you get a bass boost at the listening spot. This can fool the mixer to believe there is more bass present than there is. I suggest trying to keep speakers 1 meter away from walls where it is practical to do so.

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Stem mastering vs Stereo 2 track mastering

Stem mastering is a different method of mastering audio which traditionally uses the stereo 2 track mixdown files. There is some confusion surrounding stem mastering as it appears to be akin to mixing, however this is not the case. Stem mastering utilizes groups of instruments such as bass, guitars, vocals, drums, synths, brass section etc. The mastering engineer requires these groups of instrumentation to successfully perform stem mastering. Stem mastering allows the engineer extra flexibility when adjustments are being made to the overall sound of the music. the goal is still based on ensuring your music translates as good as is possible to as many sound reproduction systems as possible.

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Online mastering - advice on choosing the right service for your music

Online mastering studios have been around for a number of years now and many musicians maybe be attracted to the lower prices. There is no doubt that saving some money is on a lot of peoples minds these days. This is understandable, however the online mastering services you can find on the internet are wide and varied along with the pricing that you can find. As an operator of a professional online mastering studio myself I find it quite alarming when looking at the websites of some people offering online mastering services. It is very obvious to a mastering professional what studios seem ill equipped or lacking in experience and skill that mastering requires. As such I thought it would be a good idea to list some of the things to look out for when choosing mastering. Firstly I will clarify what mastering is. Mastering is preparing a body of music works for final release medium. This involves fades, spacing, tonal sonic tweaks, tweaks to the dynamic range of the material, entering sub code data such as ISRC codes and UPC/EAN codes  and quality control. (click, glitch removal etc) A master format might be a CD-R pre master disk or a DDP file or .wav and MP3 files.

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