Sound Recording - the WellMixed.com Blog

Go ahead! Crank it up!

Oh wait… what’s that crackly hiss?

It’s the monster… behind the wall … well, from the grid really. Electricity can be DIRTY and noisy. Here are a few easy tips to help eliminate electrical noise.

1. Unplug IT. When Recording with a Laptop, unplug it from the wall and use only battery power. This isolates your equipment from anything else on the circuit that may be polluting the lines. It’s a very easy way to prevent grounding problems in your home from creating noise on your recordings. This works really well if you have a bus powered (USB or Firewire) system. You should notice an obvious reduction in electrical noise. (more…)

Obviously there have been some delays in getting the video up that I mentioned in the last post. We are busy putting in place a few improvements to our e-mail server to make things more reliable for WellMixed.com users.

I have also been busy with a couple of audio for video projects.

Despite these things though, the video should be recut within a week to reflect the e-mail changes we’ve made.

The first press release went out today informing select media about our plans. Hopefully there is some interest out there.

The internet is all about finding your niche market. Musicians in rural areas, like where I grew up, are still pretty neglected when it comes to professional sounding mixing. (Many little studios in the plains states are still chasing that Def Leopard sound - doubling guitars, gated reverb everywhere - not so in KC.) Also, not many studios target GarageBand users, so hopefully that will help us stand out from the crowd.

I’ll be posting a short video soon - hopefully tomorrow - about how easy it is to use the site.

Everyone - even the most casual music video watcher - is well acquainted with the pop filter. Even the most thug rapper can be seen in videos preaching to a microphone behind … pantyhose. And yes, it is The ultimate guerrilla-recording technique to make your own pop filter out of your mother’s Leggs and a bent up wire hanger.

The reason for these things is called the Plosive. The rush of air after a P sound really can mess up a great vocal take. It is the number one reason for punch-ins and overdubs when tracking vocalists. Professional voice talents often enunciate with even harsher P’s than ametuer musicians, and as such the pop gaurd is a very important tool for anyone recording a vocal track.

The metal pop guard pictured is a 15 dollar model. It is almost-certainly the best dollar value I’ve ever put into my recording toolkit. It reduces the wind hitting the microphone by a critical amount, yet lets the sound pass through. I recommend metal over nylon because it is much more effective at killing the Plosive. It also is far more durable. These let the vocalist worry about the vocal emotion and not swallowing their P’s.