Ch-ch-check it out!

yesterday's version of "the recording club" was, without doubt, the most exciting class we have had.
(click on the next two links to watch video!)

the fellas came to freestyle...

the ladies came to freestyle... (well, ashley came- and she was the queen of our day)...

anyways, go ch-ch-ch-check it out!!!

Mic Position, Labelling tracks...

Remember:
If you are going to be recording singers/rappers:
ideal thought is to have a hand between the microphone and the performer so that the pinkie is touching the mic and thumb is touching the performer's mouth.
This is just a basic premise to try to keep in mind.
We always want a level to stay OUT OF THE RED- and above, say halfway.
So if it is a 1-10- we want it to be between around 6-9.
If someone is quiet, turn up the level.
If they are too loud, either:
a) turn down the level, or:
b) back up off the mic
Yesterday, I showed everybody that whenever you hit "New Tracks"- you should try to always label them by double clicking on the track.
I am as guilty of being lazy as anybody- but if you simply label something "lead vocal" or "guitar"- you will save yourself time down the line when you are mixing and looking at a bunch of wave forms and wondering...
what track is that that just say "Track 3?"
Sooner or later you will learn:
the pros are the ones that label...
the rest are the guys trying to figure out if that wave form on track 3 is a guitar or a lead vocal.

Pro Tools and Reason: March 2, 2006...

Hey all-
We had a second straight week of live recording yesterday as we had Logan singing, Jai and Jonny engineering and a class full of producers helping them get going.
For those in attendance, I think you are all starting to see the importance of getting the fundamentals of recording down and how helpful these things are down the road in the recording process and so I am going to put together this little recap of our last two recording session at “the recording club.”
Here are the fundamentals of what we have gone over to set up Reason working inside Pro Tools. Ask questions (alan@alanelliott.net) if you got em!
1) Open up your reason track.
2) Check your tempo in reason track (is it 90 bpm? 120 bpm?- this is a very important step to note).
3) Quit Reason (don’t just close your sessions- quit the program all together)
4) Open a new pro tools session, name it… and get going
5) Click on “New Tracks” from the “File” menu (second from left on top menu)
6) Create “Stereo” “Aux Input”
7) On the new track, go to “Inserts” and choose “Multi-channel plug-in”- look under instruments and “Reason Stereo” should appear- click it and Reason will start up
8) When the plug in “rewire” shows up- as it will when you follow #7 above- it should read “Mix L – Mix R”- if it does, we are getting going.
9) Now go into the Reason program and open the file you were just working on
10) Switch back to Pro Tools and go to the “Windows” section (second from right on top menu) and select “Show Transport” and the counter (or “transport” will show up.
11) Click on the blue conductor button in “Transport” til he is no longer blue- then SET YOUR TEMPO TO THE TEMPO IT WAS FROM STEP #2!!!!
12) Click on the right side of the green top number bar and make sure it reads “Bars: Beats.” (I like to make the secondary green number bar “Min:Secs” so I know how much time is going by.
13) In the top left part of the screen, just below the Apple sign in the absolute left hand corner, select “Grid” (it will turn blue)
14) Go to the “Grid” below in the next bar down below the “Grid” you just selected (actually- to the green numbers just to the right of “Grid”) and hold it down (it is just to the right in the middle of the black area near the top of the Pro Tools screen)- and select, for now, “1 Bar.”
15) Done.
Now we have a perfect working world.
Next Wednesday, we are gonna be recording Tiffany.
Be on time- 3:30!
See you then.