Sarah Lauren Productions Recording Tips
- Use the digital output of your computer based audio card as the input converter to your Dat recorder rather than using the A/D converter in the Dat recorder. Some Dat recorder input converters are just not up to the job of making recordings of the best quality.
- When recording a session, put a new Dat tape into the recorder and just let it record the entire session. I don't know how many times we've come up with a great improvison only to loose it to memory. Then, when we somehow manage to get it back, it has lost it's originality.
- When recording a group, live, in the studio. Make yourself a setup where you can control the volume, and tone of each of individual player's headphones, rather than using a common headphone bus. By adjusting the mix of each players phones, you can actually control how the player plays, and help everyone come together to make a tight take. In a way, the recording engineer now becomes the conductor. This is where a multi-bus mixer really comes in handy. An alternative would be to use the FX, or aux sends to feed each of the headphone line amps. In a real pinch, a mono aux send patch to each headphone will get you through.
- When recording vocals, I'll use at least two different type microphones placed closely together and recorded to separate tracks. Since the lead vocal is usually a mono patch the variety of mics allows me more ability to choose which sound I want to use at a later date. Many times the vocal mike that sounded good in solo doesn't quite make it when it comes to overlaying the pads. The additional tracks, even though slightly different still give me the opportunity to fix a problem with a secondary track instead of having to re-record. With a good DAW, the splice is a piece of cake. This method does not cost anything, but provides big time payback when you need it.
If you would be interested in contributing your own tip, or idea to this page, send me an EMail with a detailed description of your tip.