If you were going to venture into the great unknown of the wilderness you wouldn’t go unprepared for the trials of surviving a host of unusual and unpredictable situation. So why would you show up at the recording studio equally unprepared?
As an assistant engineer, engineer, or even producer there are a few things that you might want to pack in order to survive this harsh unforgiving land. Below I will show you my list of things I would definitely have and also a few other less common things that sometime just might save you from starvation and eating your buddy (its continuation of the metaphor! Don’t actually eat your buddy if you forgot to bring something to the studio!). Here they are…
Essentials... in my opinion anyway!
Tape- Duct Tape, Electrical Tape, Masking Tape – Used for everything from labeling gear, insulating your quick electrical work, and taping the singer to the wall out side the studio to prevent blabbering when you are recording the real talent.
Writing tools- pens, pencils, and markers for marking console/outboard gear… and drawing on inebriated band members who fall asleep on the studio couch.
Pad of Paper – Good for jotting down notes… or doodling when the singer is telling you how artistic they are and that they always sing on pitch.
Unused paper work - This includes track sheets, recall sheets, maintenance forms etc. Some of this may be unnecessary if you are one of those really hip people that carry their laptop around just in case they get a spare minute to play a game of solitaire, or instant message their friends what they had for lunch.
Soldering Tools – for on the go emergency repairs.
Batteries - An assortment of these would be good… lots of 9 volts are always good for those guitarists who put a little too much trust in the Energizer bunny.
Multimeter- for testing wires, cables and components.
Multi-tool- with screwdrivers/wire cutters/plier etc. is always handy. If not get individual versions of the tools.
Flashlight- Places with lots of wires always tend to be poorly lit. This also comes in handy when telling spooky stories about good sessions gone awry.
Earplugs- For those times you end up working with free jazz musicians, Dave Grohl playing drums… or maybe even the glass shattering high notes of Mariah Carey.
Chromatic Tuner- Tuning is pretty important but some musicians apparently haven’t heard of it. A regular chromatic tuner will do well but if you can get a strobe tuner for a decent price it will work even better.
Drum Key!- for tuning drums… unless you are recording the sex pistols or something where you don’t need tuning… the man wants you to tune, down with the man!
Drum essentialsand maintenance products
-Cymbal cleaner is good for those occasions you can’t get a bright enough cymbal sound… a little cymbal cleaner can go a long way with this… and it makes things shiny. Drummers love shiny things, it will amuse them for hours.
-Snare wire sometimes break or are too old… a few snare strings is a nice addition to the bag.
-Felts sometimes are worn out and compressed… or not there. These are cheap like Borsch (soup) so there is no reason not to have a bag of them (felts, not soup).
-cymbal stand sleeves are handy for the drummer who doesn’t have anything isolating the cymbal from the stand. If you are cheap and like to do the MacGyver thing a bit of surgical hose and a utility knife can go a long way here.
Utility Knife – good for everything. Especially holding the studio’s secretary hostage to get discount rates… more often though its jail time.
Lots and Lots of Audio Adapters – Every kind you can get your hands on. You never know when you will need a Male SXVGA to Female MIDI adapter. Well…maybe not that one.
Headphones – These come in handy doing line checks and setting up headphone mixes for the artists. You can use them to listen to a good CD if a headphone mix isn’t going to help the artist anyway.
Nonessentials…but still good to have!
Power Adapters – One of those DC power adapters with interchangeable ends can come in handy for pedals and gear that somehow becomes separated from its power adapter.
Amp Tubes - having a couple of amp tubes on hand can’t hurt… unless you grab a hot one thats still plug into the amp! 12AX7′s and EL6′s seem to be the most popular, see what amps are being used for the session and be prepared if the guitarist has had the amp since he started playing guitar and just thought the tubes were there to make his amp look cool in the dark.
Strings- Guitar and bass strings are good to have on hand. Guitarists will sometimes completely forget to bring extras. They might have an accumulation of rust as well… the musician might even say “It’s part of my sound man!” to which you reply, “but its not part of mine buddy.”
Cables- A few extra cables is good to have. A couple of XLR’s and a couple of 1/4″ instrument cables just might be enough to save you sometime.
Plectrums - an assortment of guitar picks of different thickness can come in handy sometimes. Its amazing the difference in tone you can get just by changing picks.
That there is MY list. I may have forgot something… or left out something absolutely essential. If you think of anything I implore you to drop us a little message in the comment box. I hope it helps save some poor unfortunate soul someday in the session from hell.
Problem: Your recording room is too large or not properly treated for vocals, you need some way of reducing the room sound before it hits the mic.
Solution: A device that helps to isolate the room from the mic, that’s much more sophisticated than making a fort out of blankets to record in.
There are several companies making room reflection reducing solutions, each with their own take on it.
1 -SE Electronics – Reflexion Filter. (List $399) The most well known out of the bunch. Expensive and heavy, but seems to work surprisingly well.
The Reflexion Filter is basically a portable device for recording live sound sources with reduced room ambience. It is an advanced composite wall which is positioned behind any microphone by means of a variable position stand clamp assembly which ships with the product. The main function is to help obtain a ‘dry’ vocal or instrument recording. This is especially useful in studios without proper acoustic treatment, but can also be used to help record takes in control rooms, where the performer also has to operate the recording device, or in rehearsal studios to reduce ambient noise.
2 – SM Pro Audio – The Mic Thing. ($319) Not quite as professional looking, but lighter and is adjustable. Available in Black or White.
The Mic Thing is a portable multi-purpose acoustic treatment panel suitable for minimizing room artifacts and improving separation during microphone recording sessions. Great for a range of applications including helping to control room ambience, minimizing spill from instrument amplifiers, or even creating temporary control rooms the Mic Thing is certainly one handy thing!
3 – RealTraps – Portable Vocal Booth. ($299) Lightweight and XL size sets this one apart from the rest. See site for a comparison with the Reflexion Filter.
Since the RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth is larger than competing products, it blocks unwanted sound and reduces room ambience much more effectively. As you sing or speak into the booth, it prevents your voice from getting out into the room in the first place. This is far more effective than trying to block room ambience and reflections after the fact.
4 – ModTrap. ($99 small $149 large) A newcomer to the market, they come in 2 sizes, and are the most affordable.
The most versatile acoustic panel in the world. ModTrap acts as an absorber to tame unwanted room reflections, and as a tool to shape your sound. What makes ModTrap so special, is that it fits directly on to your microphone stand, enabling you to place it where you need it most.
5 – DIY Vocal booth ($235) An example of what not to do, not only is it huge and bulky, it will likely increase reflections to the mic.
4 x 100 cm x 100 cm cheapest acustic foam = 10X4 + 10 (from germany) euros = 72 USD
8 x 200 cm x 50 cm wood panels = 8 x 8 euros = 93 USD
furnitures +/- = 16 + 2 + 30 (scratch) euros = 70 USD
so it’s 235 USD and 2/3 hours of “work” taking your time.
I think the both the RealTraps and ModTraps are an excellent value. They are large enough to work well for vocals or to improve isolation between instruments, they are lightweight and portable, and they are both USA made products.
I’m in shock, I didn’t think we would get all 9 songs recorded today, but Jordan pulled it off. We just got a huge chunk of the album done, we now just have a few more tiny extra overdubs to do and then on to the mixing.
Jordan used his Pearl kit, and he rented the biggest snare he could find, a Vinnie Paul model, because he only owns piccolo snares. Awesome snare. We did everything with a single pair of Vic Firth TW11 tala wands. Normal drumsticks are just way too loud and since it’s an acoustic album these worked out perfect. We used Evans E-Rings on the low and floor toms and moon gels on the high tom for dampening.
Mics:
Overheads – SE3 stereo pair
Room – M-Audio Sputnik tube
Kick – Shure PG52
Snare – AKG D5 [top], Audio Technica AT2021 [bottom]
High tom – AKG D22 (moved to low tom when needed)
Floor tom – Audio Technica AT2020
Everything went through Soundcraft Spirit M4 preamps and into an M-Audio Projectmix I/O. Recorded in Pro Tools of course.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got 6 hours of drums across 20 playlists to organize.
Yes, that time has come where I try to sell you something from my blog. I’ve had this 90% finished for a long time, finally got the push to finish and release it. This is the result of months laboring over a hot soldering iron, days of manual editing, and 3rd degree burns. The cost is $10.
Over 1400 samples of circuitbent toys
Standard 16 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV files.
If you were going to venture into the great unknown of the wilderness you wouldn’t go unprepared for the trials of surviving a host of unusual and unpredictable situation. So why would you show up at the recording studio equally unprepared?
