On-line recording studios

Here are some links to sites offering on-line recording and production services. For more musicians' resources, see the Songwriting Toolbox, compiled for my book The Complete Singer-Songwriter.

Mixing and Mastering, www.mixingandmastering.com. A network of engineers and producers that offers audio mixing, mastering, and recording, with per-song rates and on-line submissions.

eSession, www.esession.com. A Web service connecting musicians (including some high-profile studio players), engineers, and producers for recording projects.

Session Players, www.sessionplayers.com. For booking Web-based sessions with studio pros.

Studio drum tracks: www.e-studio-drummer.com (Phil Robertson), www.daveweckl.com, www.drumsforyou.com.

Strings/fiddle parts: www.e-fiddler.com.
Horn charts and tracks: www.hispeedhorns.com.

Studio-Aid, www.studio-aid.com. Low-priced guitar, bass and drum tracks, geared toward the home-recording singer-songwriter.

Sterling Sound, www.sterlingsound.com. One of New York's top mastering studios offers reduced-rate AfterHours services for indie musicians.

StudioTraxx.com, www.studiotraxx.com. Web portal for hiring studio musicians and collaborating on-line.

NetMusicMakers.com (www.netmusicmakers.com)
and Indaba Music (www.indabamusic.com). Two sites that combine social networking with virtual studio capabilities, providing a platform for finding musicians and working together on songs and tracks.

Online recording feature and Chris Whitley review in Acoustic Guitar

The September issue of Acoustic Guitar includes my feature about online recording--a follow-up to my NPR story that gets into the nitty-gritty about hiring a session player online or playing long-distance sessions yourself. Read the story here.




The same issue includes my review of the great Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang CD, Dislocation Blues, also posted at the AG site.

Home studio log: Audio-Technica microphones

A more techie note on recording gear...

I'm working in my home studio with a couple of Audio-Technica mics--especially the 3060, a large-diaphragm tube condenser. I've found that to be a great vocal mic, and I have also gotten good results with acoustic guitar and assorted percussion.

However...I was having a hum problem with this mic and spent a lot of time trying to isolate the source. I concluded it wasn't the mic cable, the fridge upstairs, the lights, computer noise, or an electrical issue...and finally called Audio-Technica for advice. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself quickly on the phone with a knowledgeable person in the service department who suggested checking the screws at the base of the mic--apparently loose set screws can cause hum. Some of the screws were, in fact, a little loose. I tightened them a bit and it seemed to help, but two of the screws seemed to be partially stripped and wouldn't tighten all the way. So when I called back she suggested sending the mic for service.

And here's the second pleasant surprise: She checked out the mic and wasn't able to reproduce the hum but confirmed the problem with loose screws. So she replaced the casing and shipped it back the day after it arrived. No charge, even though the mic is out of warranty.

I thought it might be nice--for a change--to share a tale of good customer service.

Now back to the music...

Home studio log: recording with click tracks and loops

I've started work on the new CD, tentatively titled Humming My Way Back Home. Wrestling with lots of philosophical and pragmatic issues down in my home studio. I'll be posting some thoughts about the process over the coming months, especially for the benefit of other home recording musicians.

First of all, I hate the damn click. That machine sound is, to my ears, so anti-musical and anti-groove... But there are plenty of practical advantages to having a steady time reference in a song, especially for editing. So I'm trying an alternate approach: using percussion loops.

Here's how it's going so far: I set the meter and tempo in Pro Tools, start up a MIDI click, and then record a little minimalist percussion part along with the click--something very basic and unobtrusive that fits behind the whole song. For instance, last night I did a four-bar groove with sticks on a pillow (for a sorta kick drum sound) and a tambourine. This percussion part will obviously be replaced later.... Then I shut off the click and record the basic tracks (guitar, voice, etc.) over the percussion loop.

Advantages? The loop is custom made for the song, and it's a basic groove rather than a mechanical click. And I have a steady tempo/measure reference that'll come in very handy later on.

Disadvantages? I'm still playing to mechanized time rather than letting the tempo breathe...

I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this.

Onward,
JPR

Home studio gear

In the wake of my NPR story about online recording, several people have asked me to share details about the gear I use at home. So here goes.

The main component is a Digidesign MBox, which comes packaged with Pro Tools LE. Pro Tools is a ridiculously complex program (600-plus page manual) but I've been able to figure out how to do the simple stuff I need to do. It's a bonus that so many studios use Pro Tools--that should make it extra easy to take home-recorded tracks into a real studio for mixing and mastering, as I plan to do later this year.

The Mbox plugs into the computer via USB and provides two channels of input, good mic preamps, and monitoring controls. The box itself is very straightforward. It's a minor annoyance that you can't open Pro Tools LE unless the Mbox is connected to your computer.

I record onto a Seagate external hard drive and back up audio files on DVD.

The main microphone I used to record guitar and vocals for "Wasting Time No More" was an Audio-Technica AT3060--a large-diaphragm tube condenser mic. That needs phantom power (which the Mbox provides) and has worked very well for me. My other mics are so-so, and I plan to buy a small-diaphragm condenser mic for additional miking of acoustic instruments.

Back in 2005 I did a series of articles for Acoustic Guitar about home recording, and here's some general advice I gleaned from several pro engineers/producers about microphones. Prices quoted here may be out of date.

For all-purpose single-mic recording of vocals and acoustic instruments, a large-diaphragm condenser mic is a good choice. Audio-Technica offers a range of models from the bargain-priced AT2020 (street price around $100) to the AT4033/CL ($400) and AT3060 ($500), a phantom-powered tube mic. Other options include the AKG C 3000 B ($300) and Rode NT2-A ($400).

For stereo miking of acoustic instruments, and for what John Keane calls “the Nashville sound, really bright but not much bottom end,” try a small-diaphragm “pencil” condenser (or a matched pair, for stereo miking). The Neumann KM 184 (circa $750 apiece) is a perennial favorite. Recommended budget options include the Audio-Technica AT3031 ($175), AKG C 1000 S ($200), and Rode NT5 ($400 for a matched pair).

Aside from the above, the main missing piece in my home setup is real studio monitors--I currently use headphones, crappy computer speakers, and home stereo speakers. But I rarely fiddle with EQ or anything based on what I hear from these sources. I try to get a good balanced tone in the mic and then leave well enough alone.

Hope that's useful to some of you home recordists out there...

NPR story on online recording--amateurs vs. pros

One important postscript on my story for NPR's All Things Considered about online recording. Here's part of the host introduction--which I did not write:

It takes place every day and every night, in back rooms and basements, garages and even kitchens: Amateur musicians are using computers to make home recordings that sound like they came from a studio.

The implication here is that computer-based home recording is the domain of amateurs, who are now able to access professionals online. This spin on my story misses the essential point: that computer-based home recording and the Web obliterate the wall between the so-called amateurs and pros; and that many recordings by full-time musicians both famous and obscure are made at least partly in home studios. That's the reason why so many commercial studios, as noted in the story, have been wiped out in recent years.

I argue that the amateur/pro distinction is pretty dodgy in this Internet era anyway. How about a guy who never performs and has a nonmusic career but makes widely popular downloadable tracks: amateur or pro? How about someone who performs lots of dates and sells self-produced CDs off the stage and the Web but pays the bills with a temp or day job: amateur or pro? Is the difference between the two how much money they make in music? I, for one, don't want to value anyone's music based on gross income.

So, if the intro to my story were a Wikipedia entry, I'd go and cross out the word "amateur."

"Wasting Time No More" now downloadable

The band version of this song, recorded for my NPR story on online sessions, can now be downloaded for free on MySpace.

A new recording of "Wasting Time No More" will be included on an in-progress CD.

Cheers, and thanks for all the nice feedback on the story and the song.
JPR

More on the NPR online recording story

Thought I'd introduce my musical collaborators for this piece (available at the NPR site).

Phil Robertson, aka e-studio-drummer, drums and electric bass. He's based in Vancouver. A bonus for me was that he (unlike some studio drummers) was willing to work with a guitar/vocal track that was not recorded with a click. My time was steady in the original performance but certainly not machine-perfect--I prefer music with imperfect human rhythms.

Tim Kobza, slide guitar. This session was arranged through Joey Finger of Sessionplayers.com. Kobza is a versatile player who lives in the LA area and teaches jazz guitar at USC. Here's his MySpace page.

William Nicholson, mixing help. He's a very fine guitarist--check out his site.