The Uncarved Block

ANDY: Great points to remember, again stressing that the primary recording quality is vital. So does this translate to vocal recording, too, as often this can make or break a song? What are the optimal conditions for the vocalist to consider?

JONNY: Vocals are definitely the main focus of most modern songs. It is important for your vocalist to be in good physical condition and properly hydrated. Make sure you have warm tea, honey, lemons, licorice, throat lozenges, and even potato chips handy. (Potato chips are salty and oily, and can help when screaming and doing aggressive vocals!) Remember it is important to use a pop screen and not be too close to your microphone. That way you don’t have to use a lot of de-essing or get too much low end and plosives in your recordings. The singer should also be aware that when they are singing loud or quiet, they can move a bit closer or further from the mic, but nothing too extreme, just forward and backwards, never off axis from the mic. When you are producing your vocals, you need to really pay attention to the pronunciation of words, as well as timing and pitch. And above all you need to remember to sing with emotion. When you are doing vocals in a room or an isolation booth, it is important not to have too many reflective surfaces around the microphone. You don’t want an entirely dead and flat sounding room, but you definitely want as quiet as possible of a location. You are trying to capture all of the delicate nuances of the human voice without external noises or too many other factors affecting the tone of the vocals. Sometimes simply hanging a heavy blanket around the microphone is enough to prevent strange frequencies and reverbs from interfering. You can always add the perfect reverb and delay effects with additional plug-ins, but if you pick things up by accident that you don’t want in your mix, they can be very troublesome to remove or mask. 

ANDY: And continuing on from that, how many takes would you recommend for each part?

I tend to try to limit my number of takes of any instrument to four or five at the most. Musicians should have the pieces rehearsed well enough that they can execute them accurately every time. Then, if you only do a small number of takes, you just need to listen for the one with the best emotional output. From there, if there are any tiny things to fix, you can usually take them from one of your next best choices and patch them in to get the perfect take that way.

As for vocals, I prefer to try and do 4 or 5 initial takes, and then edit a good basic master guide track. Then I would let the vocalist listen to this “ideal” performance and have him or her try to re-create that take another 5 times, paying close attention, trying to double all of the timing and note performances, but really getting expressive about the emotion. With that much to choose from in your final mix down, you should be able to take the very best performance and maybe just replace a word or two if necessary at all. Then when that is finally done, the best thing is to come back in and do another series of takes where you try to double perfectly that master performance,  and maybe take several passes of the choruses. This way you can double your verses and triple or quadruple your choruses with the additional vocals very low in the mix, creating a very thick result for your final vocal. Then do the same for your harmonies and backups. On a final mix you may only consciously hear the main vocal and a couple of harmonies, but there can often be dozens of tracks buried in the mix that are creating this. Main vocals can have both low and high octaves doubling them, but those tracks are barely audible unless you really listen closely with high end headphones. Backup harmonies can be produced the same way, and spread all over in different panning locations to create a huge choir effect. Often the main line of any vocal is thickened by multiple other layers mixed underneath at -10 to -20db compared to the forward track. The importance of timing and pitch when multiple vocals are layered is obvious when you try to layer takes that don’t sync up, so be sure you are really tight about the performances, or edit them with Melodyne so the timing is correct.  

ANDY: So that is a great insight into the  recording process, but what about the editing and mixing process? When it comes to using plugins, what would you consider the most useful types for a beginner?

JONNY: Fortunately, all the modern computer-based recording systems come with the basic plug-ins that you need. These are always usable, and when you are starting out, you should play with them and really see what all of the knobs do so that you can learn how these plug-ins affect your recordings. Later, additional plug-ins can be purchased or used with a subscription and you will expand your pallet of audio colors, then you will find additional options to your basic choices, and everybody comes across particular plug-ins that they tend to find the most useful for their own applications. But the ones that are the most important are reverb, compression, and EQ. Other ones are time effects like delay, choruses, flangers and phasers. Envelope filters can make cool special noises, and pitch effects can be useful to create octaves and fixed harmonies. Take your free time and just play around with your system and all it’s plug-ins. Even if you think you may never use some strange effect, its good to know what they are capable of doing. You never know what you might want to create! And you can always double a track, add crazy effects, then A/B it or blend it in with the dry track to create something unique in a breakdown or intro! 

ANDY: I like that you advise experimenting with all the elements, too. So, when it comes to the final edit, how can you optimise the mix when getting ready to master the song?

JONNY: A big part of preparing your master is to not make it too loud. You want your tracks to have lots of dynamics yet still have headroom so that the mastering process has plenty of room to apply additional compression and be able to put a final EQ on the finished product. I like to mix my songs so that the loudest point of the song is still around -6db below zero. Then the mastering studio has a good clean signal to both turn up the quiet parts and compress the peaks. You will find that when mixing, your room environment is one of the most important things to pay attention to. You really want to try to tune your mixing room so that it doesn’t build up particular frequencies because that can negatively affect your mix. Sound treatment in your mixing environment is the most important thing to spend your time and money on, well before choosing high end studio monitors. You can have all the best equipment in the world, but if the sound in the room itself is bad, it will affect your mixes in the worst way. And by comparison, a very well tuned room can produce incredible mixes on very inexpensive monitors. Once you create your mix in a good flat mixing environment, you can listen to it on a few external systems in other locations, and it should sound consistent. If you are finding big differences in other locations, it is very important to still continue to treat the sound of your mixing environment before you bother tweaking your mixes anymore.

ANDY: For those artists that have already mastered the basics of recording, are there any hints or techniques that you use to add that extra level of precision in the final mix?

JONNY: For me personally, I try not to use the same technique on every single song. I think each song is an individual creation, and will always need different things applied to the final mix in order to bring out the best of the particular piece of music. However, one thing that I often do is reference my mix against other recordings that have a similar vibe. I do this both by listening closely and also opening the other tracks and looking at their overall EQ through a spectral analyzer. Visually, I can compare my mix overall to what is happening in a song that I want it to sound similar to. If I see a huge spike or gap by comparison, sometimes a bit of EQ adjustment in that area can bring out some thing that might be missing, or cut it back to reduce some thing that is overpowering. But even this trick is often only a boost or cut by a couple decibels in a small band on the EQ, and often I just play around with it, but still rely mostly on my ears for the final critique. Importantly, one other tip that I could give to other engineers and producers is to use low cut when recording most of your tracks. The only things that I really allow the full low end spectrum to come through on are bass recordings, some piano or synth tracks, and kick drums. Otherwise, I tend to roll off the super low frequencies on everything so that they don’t build up too much low response in the final overall mix. This also gives more room for the lowest notes of bases (and possibly pianos) and kick drums to cut through the way that they are intended. You certainly don’t need frequencies below 80hz in your guitars, snare drum, cymbals, vocals, and other high end instruments. This just creates muddy mixes. Cut it out when you track and save the headaches! 

And my final piece of advice is to try to create a mix where the listener can close their eyes, and imagine that they are sitting in the front row of a live concert. You want to be able to feel connected to a group of musicians, as if you are in the same room with them. or if you are doing a quiet section or a simple song, make it feel intimate, as if you are literally sitting right across from someone as they sing and play the guitar or piano right next to your ears. I try to mix the song, as if I am in the same room as the artist who is singing it to me personally. Because ultimately artists want to connect with someone in a personal way, and we all want to listen to music that really speaks to our hearts. We are spiritual vibrations at our core, and that is why music is so powerful: it is pure vibration and spirit. So try to capture that in its purest form and refine it to reflect the truth and light that the song speaks of. At the end of the signal chain, after all the knobs and buttons, remember that we are just using the gear to transport one’s heart to another. 

ANDY: Such a beautiful way to round off the interview. Thank you so much for all of your brilliant advice - I know this will be invaluable to myself and others seeking to expand their recording experience. Hope to hear more from you in the future.

​

"No Regrets" by Imaginary Dreamers, was recorded, edited and mixed by Jonny when he brought his mobile studio over to London for a few days in 2022, and you can hear the finished track, below. As well as his work as music producer, Jonny can be found doing solo gigs around The Netherlands and Europe, plus he is the vocalist of "Sounds Of Seattle" tribute band.