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For almost 15 years I’ve recorded and mixed my own music, but have always avoided doing my own mastering. Partly because I enjoyed a fresh, unbiased set of ears on my mixes. Partly because [...]]]> tl;dr I’m learning the dark art of mastering, and will master your music for free so I can gain more experience.

For almost 15 years I’ve recorded and mixed my own music, but have always avoided doing my own mastering. Partly because I enjoyed a fresh, unbiased set of ears on my mixes. Partly because I never understood what mastering engineers did. But mainly, because people more talented than myself always told me “that’s just something you leave to a professional”. But about 3 months ago, I decided to finally give it a shot. And to be honest, it is tough! Even with today’s professional tools (Elephant, LL316, etc) getting your mix at radio-ready levels without smashing it beyond recognition is pretty hard. Even theoretically simple things like “adding a bit more top” are more complicated than they seem. Should I be using a linear phase EQ, or traditional EQ? Should I be using a “colored EQ” or something more transparent? Why did that 8k boost sound great on everything but the hi-hat? Without a doubt, making broad stroke changes to a stereo track is a very different beast than mixing, and also kinda terrifying knowing you could possibly undo all the hard work you spent on a mix. However, through a lot of painful but fun experimentation, I feel like I’m finally getting a good footing in the process. And now I’d like to take my skills to the next level by mastering some music that isn’t mine. So if you have a mix that you think is good, I’d love to take a crack at taking it to the next level.

Here’s a track I recently mastered:

One Thousand Times by flightcrashcompanion

And here’s a snippet of the original:

Unmastered snippet of One Thousand Times by flightcrashcompanion

The goals I wanted to accomplish with this mastering job were: 1) get it to a radio-friendly volume 2) add some sparkle 3) add some deep, sub-harmonic bottom that shook my subs without sounding muddy 4) add some tasteful glue so the punch of the drums sounded more natural

You can hear more of my work here: http://flightcrashcompanion.com

So if you have a mix you’re happy with and would like to get it mastered, I’d love to see if I could help make that happen.

One Thousand Times :: Section A Full Kit by flightcrashcompanion

The Dilemma
Outside of a proper studio, recording drums is always a pain in the ass. Lack of [...]]]> The following drums were recorded in 4 passes using only 2 mics. Read on to see how it was done.

One Thousand Times :: Section A Full Kit by flightcrashcompanion

The Dilemma
Outside of a proper studio, recording drums is always a pain in the ass. Lack of mics and pres, lack of interface inputs, poorly tuned rooms, noise concerns, bleed from other sources and sloppy drummers all make guerrilla drum recording very difficult.  I have a decent setup for tracking mono sources, but as soon it’s times to track drums, things get complicated. Historically, the options have been: pay for studio time, rent a bunch of gear, or try to fake it with drum software samplers.  If your song is really straight forward, sometimes you can get away with drum software like BFD, Superior Drummer or Addictive. However I find I end up spending too much time tweaking it to sound “real”.  Recording in a proper studio is always the best choice, but laying out upwards of $800 for an 8 hour day can get expensive quickly, not to mention the added pressure of The Clock. Gear rental is sometimes an option, but gear selection and availability are often limited,  and deposits costs can reach into the thousands.

One Limb at a Time
I had heard of 80s recording engineers and producers using the “shells only” technique, where they’d record kick + snare + tom on one pass, and then the hihats + cymbals on another. (I think “Girls Girls Girls” by Motley Crue is an example of this). This was an intriguing approach, but my main interface at the time [Apogee Duet]  could only record two tracks simultaneously which severely limited my options.  Not wanting to be one of those whiny punks who blame their poor recordings on gear, I decided to see if I could make a quality multi-track drum sound by tracking each drum element separately.

Mic & Kit Setup
The following setup took a bit of trial and error. My first attempt yielded great direct sounds, but didn’t capture enough room  / overhead sound, where much of the character lives. I found my AT4050 in the Figure 8 position was very good at doubling as an overhead and room mic. Mic’ing a bit farther and higher than usual worked for the natural sound I was looking for. I also found it’s important to have the full kit setup when recording all your passes. Little things like snares rattling on your kick drum track and the vibration of other shells all add to the realism.

The Performance
A good drummer and a good performance are the biggest drivers for a good drum sound, and recording individual pieces is no exception. Aside from the obvious attention to dynamics, consistency and rhythm, it’s important to be mindful that the individual elements will eventually be summed together. For example, make sure you “pull off” the hihat and ride when appropriate to create the illusion of a player that only has two arms. You wouldn’t be bashing away on the hihat while you’re doing a big complicated drum fill. Or less obvious,  don’t hit the crash and the hihat on the downbeat – it’s unlikely you’d do so in a traditional performance.  Maybe as a drummer I pay  too much attention to the drums, but being wary of these things can make or break the realism of the recording. Also, after you’ve recorded each pass, be sure to “sample” indivual elements at multiple volumes. These can come in handy for sound replacement, patching mistakes, or even creating a playable sampler version of your  kit.

Lining It All Up
This is where things get a little tricky. You basically have three options:  be a good drummer and play each part in time, manually line things up in your DAW, use audio quantization tools  like Logic’s Flex Time. I’ve found the latter works really well, and is dead easy once you get the hang of it. As long as your performance is in the ballpark, Flex Time can quantize your drums perfectly with very little artifacts.

The Mix
To get the most realistic mix, I create busses that simulated a real drum mix. All room / OH tracks gets sent to an “Overhead” buss, and all the directs get sent to another buss. Then, both those busses are sent to a third buss and hit with a compressor which acts a glue for the whole kit. When mixing drums, I almost always employ some kind of double bussing, but that’s more a matter of personal taste.

Here’s a snippet of the overhead buss I created ( EQ + heavy Comp). I prefer a roomier drum sound so I led the final drum mix with this buss:

Section A – Overheads by flightcrashcompanion

And now here’s the direct tracks (EQ + light comp + CLA Drum plugin on the kick):

Section A – Direct by flightcrashcompanion

Since each element is on it’s own track, sound sculpting with EQ is a breeze, as is making edits. I can alter every piece of the kit without effecting other elements, all while retaining an organic room sound.

So that’s basically it! None of this is really ground breaking, but I’m very happy with these results, and am looking forward to trying this technique again.  Please feel free to ask any questions, and if you’re so inclined, check out the final version of “One Thousand Times” when it’s released on May 10th.