Qualities of Sound

Good Sound in a Pop Music Recording

• Well-Mixed
  Loudness of vocals and instruments are balanced - important parts are louder.
  Nothing sticks out, nothing is hidden.
  Appropriate to musical style.
  Level changes are subtle and/or appropriate.

• Wide-Range
  Extended lows and highs - crisp and distinct cymbals (not sizzly or harsh), deep bass and kick ( not overwhelming or muddy).
  Results from high quality mics and recorders, good tape, good levels, high tape speed, clean tape heads.

• Tonally Balanced
  Neither too bassy nor too trebly.
  

• Clean
  Free of noise, hiss, hum, rumble, distortion.
  Uncluttered instrumentation - non-overlapping parts and not too many in the same frequency range.

• Clear
  Instruments do not crowd or mask each other's sound.
  Adequate reproduction of the harmonic content of each instrument - upper harmonics are not rolled off.

• Smooth
  Easy on the ears, not harsh.
  Sibilance is clear, not piercing.
  No sharp peaks or valleys in frequency response, nor excessive boost in the midrange and upper midrange.

• Presence
  Apparent closeness of the instruments.
  Achieved by close miking, overdubbing, using mics with presence peaks around 5-6 kHz.
  Use less reverb and effects.
  Bring out the high end transients in sound sources.

• Spacious
  Without air or ambience, instruments sound as if they are isolated in stuffed closets.
  Achieved by adding reverb or by more distant miking.

• Sharp transients
  Attack of cymbals and drums should be sharp and clear.
  Bass and piano may or may not require sharp attacks.

• Tight bass and drums
  Should "lock" together.
  Kick is damped and bass recorded direct.

• Wide and detailed stereo imaging
  

• Wide but controlled dynamic range
  Avoid too much compression.
  Vocals and bass often require compression to maintain their presence.

• Interesting sounds
  Interesting sound sources - percussion, synths, sound effects, exotic instruments.
  Effects - EQ, echo, reverb, doubling, chorus, flanging, tremolo, vibrato, compression, stereo effects.

• Suitable production
  Country, pop, rock, blues, folk, acoustic, jazz, classical, gospel, R&B, soul, Christian, New Age - each genre invites its own production style.

Good Sound in a Classical Music Recording

• Good acoustics

• Natural balance

• Tonal accuracy

• Suitable perspective

• Accurate imaging

Troubleshooting Bad Sound

• Bad sound on all recordings
  Upgrade your monitor system.
  Adjust tweeter/midrange controls on speakers/
  Adjust relative gains of amplifiers in a biamped/triamped system.
  Relocate speakers.
  Improve room acoustics.
  Equalize the monitor system.
  Try different speakers.
  Upgrade the power amp(s) and speaker cables.

• Bad sound on tape playback only
  Check that oxide side of the tape is against the machine heads.
  Clean and demagnetize the tape path.
  Try another brand of tape.
  Align tape heads, calibrate the electronics.
  Do maintenance on the tape transport.
  Check and replace the tape heads if necessary.
  To correct playback distortion:
  Reduce recording level.
  Increase the bias level.
  Use tape that can accept hotter recording levels.
  To correct excessive tape hiss:
  Increase recording level.
  Use noise reduction - Dolby, dbx, etc.
  Use better tape.
  Align and calibrate the tape recorder.

• Bad sound in a pop music recording session
  Muddiness - leakage
  Place microphones closer to their sound sources.
  Spread instruments farther apart to reduce the level of the leakage.
  Place instruments closer together to reduce the delay of the leakage.
  Use directional microphones.
  Overdub the instruments.
  Record electric instruments direct.
  Use baffles (goboes) between instruments.
  Deaden room acoustics - add absorptive material, flexible panels or slot absorbers.
  Filter out frequencies above and below the spectral range of each instrument without compromising the true timbre.
  Turn down the bass guitar amp/speaker in the recording room.
  Muddiness - excessive reverberation
  Reduce effects-send levels or effects-return levels. Or don't use effects until you identify the real problem.
  Place microphones closer to their sound sources.
  Use directional microphones.
  Deaden the room acoustics.
  Filter out frequencies below the fundamental frequency of each instrument.
  Muddiness - lacks highs
  Use microphones with better high-frequency response, or use condensers rather than dynamics.
  Change microphone placement. Put the microphone in a place where there are sufficient high frequencies. Keep high frequency sound sources (such as cymbals) on-axis to microphones.
  Use small diameter microphones which generally have flatter response off-axis
  Boost high frequency equalization.
  Change musical instruments, replace guitar strings, drum heads, reeds, etc.
  When bouncing tracks, record bright instruments last to reduce generation loss.
  Avoid excessive recording levels with bright sound sources, as recorder's high frequency response gradually rolls off as recording level increases (especially true of cassette recorders).
  Use an enhancer signal processor, but avoid excessive noise.
  Use a direct box on electric bass. Have bass player play percussively or use a pick if the music requires it. When compressing the bass, use a long attack time to allow the note's attack to come through (if appropriate to the song, style and production).
  Damp the kick drum with a pillow or blanket, and mike it next to the center of the head near the beater. Use a wooden beater, if the song and the drummer allow it.
  Muddiness - lacks clarity
  Use fewer instruments in the arrangement.
  Equalize instruments differently so that their spectra don't overlap.
  Try less reverb.
  Using equalizers, boost the presence range of instruments that lack clarity.
  Distortion
  Switch in the pad built into the microphone.
  Increase input attenuation, or insert a pad between mic and mic input.
  Readjust gain-staging - set faders and pots to their design centers (shaded areas) with each stage in its "sweet range".
  Tonal imbalance
  Change musical instruments, strings, reeds, etc.
  Change mic placement. Reduce bassiness of directional mic by moving the mic farther away (less proximity effect) or roll off excessive bass.
  Use 3:1 rule to avoid phase cancellation.
  Try a different mic or pattern. If a cardioid's proximity effect is causing bassiness, use an omni instead.
  When miking near a hard reflective surface, try a boundary microphone on the surface to prevent phase cancellations.
  Change the EQ - avoid excessive boost.
  Use equalizers with broad bandwidth, rather than narrow peaked response.
  Lifelessness
  Work on the live sound of the instruments in the studio to come up with unique effects.
  Add special effects - reverb, echo, doubling, EQ, etc.
  Use and combine recording equipment in unusual ways.
  Try overdubbing little vocal licks or synthesized sound effects.
  If leakage is not a problem, put microphones far enough from instruments to pick up wall reflections.
  Add reverb or echo to dry tracks.
  Use omnidirectional microphones.
  Add hard reflective live surfaces in the recording room, or record in a hard-walled room.
  Allow a little leakage between microphones. Place mics far enough from sound sources to pick up off-mic sounds from other instruments.
  Noise - hiss
  Check for noisy guitar pick-ups, effects, amps, keyboards.
  Switch out the pad built into the mic.
  Reduce console input attenuation.
  Use a more sensitive microphone.
  Increase the SPL at the mic by miking closer. With PZM's, mount them on a large surface or in a corner.
  Apply any high frequency boost (pre-emphasis) during recording rather than during mixdown.
  Use a lowpass filter.
  Use a gate.
  Noise - rumble
  Reduce air conditioning noise or shut it off temporarily.
  Use a highpass filter set to 40-80 Hz. vUse microphones with limited low-end response.
  If the cause is mechanical vibration traveling up the microphone stand, put the mic in a shock-mount stand adaptor. Or use a mic that is less susceptible to mechanical vibration, such as an omni, or a directional mic with a good shock mount.
  Noise - thumps
  Change mic position.
  Change the musical instrument.
  Use a highpass filter set to 40-80 Hz.
  Use microphones with limited low-end response.
  If the cause is mechanical vibration traveling up the microphone stand, put the mic in a shock-mount stand adapter. Or use a mic that is less susceptible to mechanical vibration, such as an omni, or a directional mic with a good shock mount.
  Hum
  Vocal pops
  Place the microphone above or to the side of the mouth.
  Place a foam windscreen (pop filter) on the mic.
  Stretch a silk or nylon stocking over a darning hoop, and mount it on a mic stand a few inches from the microphone (or use an equivalent commercial product).
  Place the microphone farther from the vocalist. vUse a microphone with a built-in pop filter (ball grill, i.e., Shure SM58 instead SM57).
  Use an omnidirectional microphone - it is less likely to pop than a directional mic.
  Sibilance
  Use a de-esser.
  Place the mic farther from the vocalist.
  Place the mic toward one side of the vocalist, rather than directly in front.
  Cut EQ in range of 5-10 KHz.
  Change to a duller sounding microphone.
  Bad mix
  Change the mix - perhaps hire a remix engineer.
  Compress the vocals or instruments that occasionally get buried.
  Change equalization on certain instruments to help them stand out.
  During mixdown, continuously change the mix to highlight certain instruments according to the demands of the music.
  Unnatural dynamics
  Check the tracking of noise-reduction units - a 10 dB level increase at the input of the encode unit should appear as a 10 dB level increase at the output of the decode unit.
  Use the same type of noise reduction properly calibrated during playback that was used during recording.
  Use less compression or limiting.
  Avoid overall compression.
  Isolated sound
  In general, allow a little crosstalk between the left and right channels. If tracks are totally isolated, it's hard to achieve the illusion that all the instruments are playing in the same room at the same time. You need some crosstalk or correlation between channels - some right channel information should leak into the left channel, and vice versa. Place microphones farther from their sound sources to increase leakage.
  Use omni mics to increase leakage.
  Use stereo reverb or echo.
  Pan effects returns to the side opposite the side of the dry sound source.
  Pan extreme left and right tracks slightly toward center.
  Make the effects-send levels more similar for various tracks.
  To give a lead guitar solo a fat, spacious sound, use a stereo chorus. Or send its signal through a delay unit, pan the direct sound hard left, and pan the delayed sound hard right.
  Lack of depth
  Achieve depth by miking instruments at different distances.
  Use varied amounts of reverb on each instrument. The higher the ratio of reverberant sound to direct sound, the more distant the track sounds.

• Bad sound on a classical music recording
  Too dead
  Place the microphones farther from the performers.
  Use omnidirectional mics.
  Record in a concert hall with better acoustics - longer reverberation time.
  Add artificial reverb.
  Too close
  Place the microphones farther from the performers.
  Place the mics lower on the floor - as with a boundary microphone.
  Roll off the highs.
  Use mellow-sounding microphone - perhaps a ribbon mic.
  Too distant
  Place the microphones closer to the performers.
  Use directional microphones.
  Record in a hall that is less live, less reverberant.
  Stereo spread imbalance
  If the spread is too narrow,
  Angle or space the main microphone pair farther apart.
  If using midside stereo miking, turn up the outside output of the stereo microphone.
  Place the main microphone pair closer to the ensemble.
  If the spread is too wide (hole-in-the-middle),
  Angle or space the main microphone pair closer together.
  If using midside stereo miking, turn down the side output of the stereo microphone.
  In spaced-pair recording, add a microphone midway between the outer pair, and pan its signal to the center.
  Place the main microphone pair closer to the ensemble.
  Lack of depth
  Use only a single pair of microphones out front.
  Avoid multi-miking.
  If you must use spot mics, keep their level low in the mix.
  Add more artificial reverb to the distant instruments than to the close instruments.
  Bad balance
  Place the microphones higher or farther from the performers.
  Ask the conductor or performer to change the instruments' written dynamics Be tactful!
  Add spot microphones close to instruments or sections needing reinforcement. Mix them in subtly with the main microphone signals.
  Muddy bass
  Aim the bass drum head at the microphone.
  Put the mic stands and bass drum on resilient isolation mounts, or place the mics in shock-mounted stand adapters.
  Roll off the lows or use a highpass filter set to around 80 Hz.
  Record in a hall with less low end reverberation.
  Rumble
  Check the hall for background rumble problems.
  Temporarily turn off the air conditioning.
  Use a highpass filter set to 40-80 Hz.
  Use a mic with limited low end response.
  Distortion
  Switch in the pads built into the microphones.
  Increase the console input attenuation.
  Bad tonal balance
  Change the microphones. Generally, use flat-response microphones with minimal off-axis coloration.
  Follow the 3:1 rule.
  If a microphone must be placed near a hard reflective live surface, use a boundary microphone to prevent phase cancellations between direct and reflected sounds.
  Adjust equalization.
  Place the mics at a reasonable distance from the ensemble - too-close miking sounds shrill.
  Avoid mic positions that pick up standing waves or room modes. Experiment with small changes in mic placement.

Excerpted from Practical Recording Techniques by Bruce & Jenny Bartlett (SAMS, A division of Prentice Hall Computer Publishing: 1992)

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