Recording Tips Archives

The internet has given us many gifts. Among them, the ability to connect with like-minded people from all over the world ranks as one of the best. Anyone with access to the internet can find people with similar interests and work together to build something great.

Brockhampton, the Billboard-topping rap group/boy band, is a good example. The members found one another through an online music forum and began working on music together before they had met in person. That initial connect has since spawned multiple albums, numerous sold-out performances, and press from seemingly every important entertainment publication in existence.

The problem for many trying to develop a band or group through the internet is sharing ideas without allowing incomplete tracks to reach the public. Soundcloud has no security measures beyond easily shareable links. YouTube has the same problem. WeTransfer and Dropbox are good, but they still require a lot of effort to access material, hear it, download it, update it, upload the changes, and share it once more.

Haulix is a superior solution. Though known as a hub for new and pre-release music promotion, Haulix is also used by many music professionals to aid in the development of songs by allowing artists and their team to share material still being refined without fear of piracy.

Let’s use an example to further illustrate this approach:

Red Springs is a metal band featuring members located all over the world. The vocalist lives in Chicago, but the bassist and drummer live in London. The lead guitarist is from Spain, and the rhythm guitarist makes their home in Southern California. Getting together for practice is no easy feat, but getting together to write and work on new material is financially impossible.

To make their metal dreams come true without risking member changes or extreme debt, Red Springs use Haulix to share new and incomplete ideas. The drummer and bassist record scratch tracks and upload those files to Haulix as a new promo. Once complete, they invite the other members of the band to stream, download, and review the material. The other members then use their unique access links to engage with the ideas.

From there, each member of the band can add their own part to the material or choose to create and upload an idea of their own. Those members then share their latest work with the group, allowing everyone to access the content and work on new ideas or suggestions on their own time.

Once their latest material is complete, the band can schedule studio time or work on properly recording their material themselves. They can continue using Haulix to save songs as they are complete, and in doing so push their band forward without worrying about conflicting schedules or time zones.

Every new Haulix account receives one-month of service for free. You can visit the company website to review their plans and find the one that best suits your needs. Cancel anytime during that first month, and you will not be charged.

Have questions? Email james@haulix.com for more information.

The following post is the latest in our ongoing content collaboration series with the fine folks at SonicBids. Enjoy!

Like a luxury car loaded down with options, recording with a ton of gear has some downsides. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and it’s expensive. What about stripping things down, all the way down, and recording your band with a single mic?

The Cowboy Junkies did it back in 1987 for their album The Trinity Session, and the results were solid enough that the record earned a four-star review from Rolling Stone, in which Anthony DeCurtis praises the consistent ambience in which “the entire record seems like one continuously unfolding song.”

But getting a good recording from a single mic seems like a tall order, and goes against everything we’ve been taught. Close mic’d drums, isolation booths, and attempts to eradicate any sort of bleed have been part of the business for recording artists almost forever.

Is it realistic to get a great sound with players gathered around a single microphone, and would that mic need to cost as much as that luxury car in the first paragraph? Yes… and no.

1. Pick a mic

Technology often does us the favor of reducing the price of things we need. You can get this Blue Microphones Yeti USB mic for under $140, and it’s made for just this sort of project. Of course, if you have access to a really nice large-diaphragm condenser mic, try that, too – but it needs to be a stereo microphone, like the Yeti.

If a stereo mic isn’t available, you might have to fall back on two condenser mics in the XY pattern (crisscrossing one another to form an X). Test your mic options and see what sounds best. You’re looking for clarity, even for the instruments that are farther from the mic capsule, and an ability to absorb nearer sounds (like lead vocals) without distorting.

2. Pick a space

The Cowboy Junkies set up in a church. Using a large room is preferred for this sort of project, like a lecture hall or auditorium. If that’s not an option, use a living room, complete with furniture and a TV.

It doesn’t matter where you go, but the room needs to sound good and be devoid of large outside noises like creaking radiators or someone mowing the lawn right outside the window. Avoid rooms with a lot of glass, and keep your single mic far away from any large windows.

3. Get everybody to play quietly

It’s absolutely critical that everyone in your band finds his or her quiet voice, a process that can be harder than it sounds. After all, the instruments need to be quiet enough that the players can hear your lead vocalist, and there needs to be a little headroom so you can all get a little louder on certain passages.

Drummers may want to switch to brushes. Guitarists may go acoustic. Bassists may turn to the upright. Practice something you’ve probably never practiced before: playing below conversational volume.

4. Create balance in the room

Once you’ve found the sweet spot in the room, arrange your instruments and players so that the loudest instruments are farther away. You lead singer needs to be closest to the microphone, close enough to hear vocal details, but not so close that sound from the instruments is blocked. Do test recordings and adjust the placement of your instruments until a good balance is achieved.

This is also the time to check for tripping hazards, tuck cords away, and remove extraneous sound sources from the area – vibrating phones in pockets, jingling wallet chains, or crunchy leather jackets. This will be a live recording, so breath sounds and creaky floors will be part of it. Don’t add any more sonic artifacts than you have to.

5. Record without telling your band

A live recording has to be as pressure-free and fun as possible to get everyone playing well at the same time. It goes without saying that you have to be well rehearsed, but you also need to be having a good time. Once your sound is good and your instruments are balanced, it’s time to discreetly press record and do some “practice” takes that could be the real deal. Work through all of your songs before anyone knows you’re recording. Chances are, some of these will be final takes.

Continue working until you have three takes of each song. More than that and people start to get bored with the material. Now you can sleep on it, leaving everything in position, and come back tomorrow for the enjoyable process of picking the best take. If you go zero-for-three on one of your songs, you can always track it a couple more times.

6. Resist the temptation to overdub

Remember that consistent mood that made the whole album feel like one song? You’ve just created that vibe for your recording… and you’ll ruin it by cutting and pasting stuff, adding overdubs, or editing the track for length (such as adding a fade-out). The beauty of live recordings is their immediacy and honesty. Glory in that, and make a record that will whisper in your fans’ ears.

Jesse Sterling Harrison is an author, recording artist, and part-time farmer. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, three daughters, and a herd of ducks.