By Gene Smith

I hope that you read my first article on setting up a home recording studio. Perhaps, now you have some of the equipment and are eager to get started. Maybe you already have layed a few tracks and mixed-down you effort.

These tips are from experience and are not all inclusive. In fact, with a little effort, you may become more profecient than me next week, next month, next year.

Let's look at the recording scene today. I'm older than dirt so I won't bug you with what I like and don't like. I'll try to be objective in presenting to you tips on recording. Whether you're into Rap, R&B, Punk, Rock and Roll, Country, Gospel, or Folk. I won't cover classical since I don't know much about the genre.

If you listen to a lot of music, you've probably noticed that some is engineered well and some of it is junk. In my opinion, the best recorded music is Rap, R&B and Country. But music is like flavors of ice cream: not everyone likes the same taste.

Let's get started.

Placement of the microphone:

-For vocals, have the mic about 6-10" from the singer directly in front. A sound-pop device is a good idea. These can be purchased at your local music store.

-For guitars, acoustic-place the mic stand about 4 inches below and 6 inches from the guitar. On playback, if you hear a "click", it probably means that you are occasionally striking the pick guard with the pick. I had this nasty habit for years. Try not to do that. With a little practice, you can overcome this obstacle if you have it.

-For woodwind, horns, sax, flute, recorder-Place the mic slightly above and about 6 inches from the end of the instrument. Experiment, you might even find a better way!

-Upright Bass-Have the mic on a stand and placed low about 2-3 feet and 6 inches from the instrument. Again, you might find a better way.

Piano-That's a tough one. If you have a Grand. Place the mike about one foot over the piano strings (with the lid raised). A spinet-Raise the top of the piano, have the mike about 1 foot from the casing. If you have two mics, place one above the treble and , on the other side, place one above the bass strings. Experiment with the spacing. With the two mic system, you have two tracks of piano, bass and treble. Mix them down to a pleasing sound for you at mix down.

Now let's talk about vocals.

Vocals should be the last tracks layed on your machine. Put the rhythm down first, then rhythm guitar, piano, etc. then lead and bass.

Duets-For the life of me, I can't understand why live TV has such bad engineering on duets. Most of the work would get a C- from a 10th grade teacher! I guess the engineer is following the levels indicated on his mixer. Wrong. Except for the most expensive mixers, the treble is much higher than the bass. I heard that these machines take a middle tone as the standard for volume. But you'll have to talk to someone more edumakateed than me for that!Try this- Run main vocal on the meter at 95% and run the higher alto or soprano at about 40%. Listen! Listen at the playback-make the two singers blend appropriately. Don't let that higher voice drown out the lead. Set your pans like you like it. After all, it's your recording!

Something to think about. Don't hotwire your amp directly into your recording machine without checking to see that it won't mess up your machine. It's best to put the plug from your guitar directly into your recording machine and use the built-in effects to get your sound. Today, there are many effects to choose from-grunge, rock, blues sound, echo, reverb, delay, raving maniac, octave changers, etc. I'm sure you'll find one right for you and your song.

Housekeeping-The following will help you take care of your masters and keep things in order. Track Log-This is a form. Keep it in one of those 50 cent paper term paper things that you get at the department store. I you don't know what it is, you can puchase them on the web. If you have an 8-track, get an 8-track log, etc. If you don't want to buy them, you can make one out of a sheet of paper. Just take a ruler and make 8 columns and some horizontal lines. Fill in at the top, 1,2,3,etc. The first box you have created below the number one, put the type of thing that's on track one-vocal, bass, drums, etc. and so on.

You can add notes in the boxes below on each track indicating start time-stop time of the track information. Play around with this, keep the info that you need, to recreate a mix if you want to do it later. The instruction book that came with your machine might even have more extensive tips for you on the track log. Read it through. It can be a great help.

If your master is on a zip-drive or some other removable media, make sure to lable it correctly and thoroughly. You might even want to document the date. Who knows? You might want to use your walker to get to the closet in 2066 to play your stuff to your bored grandchildren!

Have fun and if I'm still on Planet Earth next month, I'll have more stuff for you.

Happy recording!