Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 59

RECORDING
Craig Broombaugh of Octiive is a veteran DIY musician/producer and frontman of the power trio
Filmspeed, whose 14-song LP Hexadecimal was entirely recorded and produced in his home studio
and distributed via Octiive. Octiive is the largest international independent digital music distribution
network. Learn more at www.octiive.com.
By Craig Broombaugh
6 Steps to Better Recordings
at Home
B
etter recordings at your home studio result from a blend
of quality gear, skill, and knowledge. Every home engineer
puts in time to learn (knowledge) and time to record (skill),
but not everyone can afford the best gear – and how truly
important is gear compared to the other two, anyhow?
Here are six steps everyone can take to get far better recordings
out of today’s home studios.
1. Take Time to Arrange the Room
When talking about what you can do for free, simple acoustics are
your best friend. Remember the basics: soft things like foam, carpet,
and blankets absorb sound; hard things like wood and plaster reflect it.
First, cover the walls with something to absorb. Hang ceiling clouds
over dividers to keep sounds from bouncing up and over. Install bass
traps in all of the corners, floor-to-ceiling, whenever possible. Bass is
hardest to control and it builds up.
Record something, listen, rearrange, and repeat until the best re-
sults are achieved. Depending on how dedicated your space is, you
may have furniture in the room. Move that loveseat around, too. These
things make a huge difference.
2. Take Time to Arrange the Mics
Very closely related to number one is the placement and angle of your
microphones. It’s a little unfair how, after spending so much time and
effort on the acoustics of the recording space, just nudging a stupid
microphone a few inches to the left can make 10 times the difference.
Every mic has a polar pattern you can look up online (many have
a little symbol painted on the side showing it). Use the pattern to
screen out reflected sounds you don’t want while concentrating on
the sounds you want to record.
If your mic has an HPF (high-pass filter) switch, use it if you don’t
intend to record low frequencies. That’ll cut out noise like air condi-
tioning, foot tapping, and trucks going by outside.
Check the distance between your source and the mic. Getting close
might capture less reflected noise, but every inch closer gets more low
frequency, too. Your tone can get mushy really quickly.
3. Use the 24-Bit, -18dBFS Rule
Set your DAW to record at 24-bit and set your peaks to -18dBFS. You’ll
get much less distortion this way, nice, crisp recordings, and -18dBFS
gives plenty of room for pesky peaks.
Plenty of old-schoolers will say recording at -18 is too quiet, but
computers peak out before analog recording gear. Not to mention,
DAWs have poor digital meters for reading peaks. -18 winds up being
around 0 electrical equivalent, which means mixing boards operate
right around there. Trust in the -18.
4. Download an SPL Meter
When you’re listening to your mix, use a sound-pressure level meter.
You can get an SPL meter for Android or Apple phones free, or you
can splurge for a nice one, which is probably not necessary. The
point is to measure your monitoring sometimes so you can hear it
at 85dB. That’s the baseline listening level for the human ear, where
the ear’s own responses are the flattest. If you want to hear the mix
the way most people will hear your mix (which you should) then
listen at 85dB at least some of the time.
5. Sample a Pro-Grade Mix into Your Own Session
Let’s say you’re recording a rock group who want to sound like
Zeppelin. Take a piece of Zep, drop it into a track in your mix, and
compare what you’re working on to that selection within your DAW.
This comparison sample will sound louder (and frankly better) be-
cause it’s been mastered, so you’ll want to drop its volume a little.
This trick is wonderful for many obvious reasons, but especially for
comparing bass levels.
6. Use the Car Stereo Test (!)
If the home audio engineer takes only one tip from this short list, let
it be this one. When you really want to know how your recording
sounds, put it on your phone and listen to it through your car stereo.
Then listen to it through your artist’s car stereo. Then listen to it with
earbuds and on a Bluetooth speaker, if you can. The point is that it does
not sound the way it sounds in the studio. Ever. Car stereos have been
the touchstone of audio reality for decades. Use them.
Suddenly, your recordings will be much cleaner and crisper – maybe
not totally devoid of sonic detritus you’d rather not have picked up in
your mix, but certainly a heck of a lot better than before you followed
these simple suggestions.
Recording is a magical thing, and as with all wizardry, the magic
is in the details. Here’s hoping these tricks help you create something
truly spellbinding.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 59