10 Basic Terms Artists Need to Know in the Recording Studio
by T. Perry Bowers
Tracking
Tracking is the process of recording the parts of your song. Sometimes this is done with the entire band at one time. Sometimes it is done track-by-track with each player laying down his or her part separately.
Multi-Tracking
Multi-tracking is the same as tracking, but specifically refers to the concept of being able to lay down one track, keep that track and lay down another over the top of it.
Mixing
Mixing is the process of making all of the tracks sound good together. The goal is to create a version of your song that sounds as good as possible. Once you have “tracked” all of your parts, the engineer mixes them together. He adds compression, adjusts equalization, effects some of the tracks with reverb, delay, etc and gets all the levels right so that it sounds perfect. In a good mix, you should be able to hear everything clearly. Nothing should be “buried.” A good mixing engineer uses tried and true techniques to make everything sit properly in the mix.
Click Track
A click track is a metronome. The engineer sends the sound of the click track through your headphones so all of the players can hear it when they are tracking their parts. It keeps everyone in time. It also makes editing much easier in the mixing process. If your band is not comfortable playing to a click, you need to spend time in the rehearsal space practicing to a one. Check out my earlier blog about this:
Editing
Editing is usually done before the mixing process happens, although a good engineer is always editing. If you sang the chorus once and nailed it you might ask the engineer to copy and paste the vocal track into the second and third chorus. Maybe you bonked a string during your guitar solo. The engineer can go into the track and edit the bonk so you can’t hear it. Editing is a great feature of the modern recording environment, but use it in moderation. Music is magic. Sometimes if a song is too perfect, it can sound lifeless. You need to find the right balance between humans and computers.
Compression
Compression makes everything sound even. It takes the sound above a certain threshold and “pushes it down.” So if a vocal line is too dynamic, throw some compression on it and the scream won’t blast out of the mix. Throw a little compression on the overhead microphones on a drum kit and the kit will sit in the mix. Compression saves you from automating certain things. Which bring us to our next term.
Automation
Automation usually refers to volume, but these days you can automate just about anything (panning, compression, effects etc). If you want the guitar in the verses to be softer than in the choruses you automate the volume on the guitar to turn it down during the verses. When huge analog mixing consoles were industry standard, you would often see two or three people at the console during a mix. They would be turning things up and down, switching channels off and on, panning things left to right, all in real time. Now we have computers for that. If you can dream it, your engineer can program the computer to do it. Just tell the software and it’s done.
Panning
Modern records are made in stereo. This means there is a left and right channel. Everything comes through either one or both of those channels. If you pan a guitar to the right, you only hear that guitar in the right channel. If you own a Beatles record, pan the volume from left to right while you’re listening to it. You’ll find that the drums are only on one side and the vocals are on the other. The Beatles used some very extreme panning methods to get their signature sound. Most bands use it in much more subtle ways, but it’s a good effect to create a bigger sound in your mixes.
Effects
Reverb, delay, phase, flange, leslie, tremolo. These are all examples of effects – the final touches in the mixing process. Reverb is commonly used on the vocals to get a good feeling in the vocal booth, but don’t let it make up for bad technique, pitch or performance. Try a little delay on the guitar solo or put a leslie effect on the bridge vocal. Effects are the icing on the cake of a well-performed song.
Mastering
Mastering is the process of matching the volume and tone in a series of songs. Mastering is performed on an album or EP or sometimes just two songs that will be released at the same time.
There is a lot of confusion about mastering. Sometimes artists tell me they want me to master their single. But mastering a single is not necessary because there is no companion song(s) to it. The single stands on it’s own as long as it’s mixed well. When you have a group of songs, like a CD, you want all the songs to sound similar in tone and volume. The mastering engineer listens to each song, going back and forth from one song to the next, sometimes rapidly, to make sure they all have the same qualities. Good ears and mastering software gets your album smoothed out, so when your fans are listening to it they don’t have to keep adjusting the bass, treble or volume.
