Re: [Harp-L] Harmonica recording / Audio Interface

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Below I give my take on Alex's question, and then go beyond it because his 
question infers larger questions.

I use an M-Audio card in my desktop and like it fine for many uses.  In 
recent months I've recorded music I composed for a play on it, along with 
some VO's and I've edited LOTS of audio material.  For those uses, as for 
your language instruction and harmonica lesson projects, the home setup is 
fine.  You should not skimp on the mic or the mic pre-amp, and you should 
work to find the optimal distance between the mic and the talker.  You 
should not speak directly into the mic, but rather above or below it.

I recommend getting a pop filter as well.

A few weeks ago I listened to a webinar by a really informative marketing 
expert.  He had all this great information, and a really good "voice-print" 
too, but he had dry mouth (causing him to make somewhat disgusting moist 
clicky sounds as he talked) and it was clear that he was using a cheap 
mic.  I wrote to the guy with some advice, mainly from my wife who is a VO 
producer, actress and teacher.  I told him he could cure his dry mouth by 
having some apple juice or an apple just before the session (always 
recommended).

I also suggested that he shell out for a better mic.  He was using a cheezy 
headset mic.  He went out and got a Marshall MXL2001-P, not on my 
recommendation as I have never used one.  I do not know what kind of 
mic-pre he used, or if he even needed one, but he sent me a recording and 
he sounded about a million times better.

If I had bought a training audio recorded the first way he did it I would 
have felt like I had bought cheap stuff, even if the info was good.  Or 
really like I was getting good info from a guy in a hillbilly 
getup.  Harder to take seriously.  But recorded product (not straight 
music) just needs a little bit of care to make it perfectly adequate, no 
matter whether you're recording on a laptop or a desktop.

So, for the projects you mentioned, absolutely use your laptop and an 
M-Audio card, just spring for a good mic and a good mic-pre, and your 
products will sound as good as I presume the content will be.

Extrapolating. (This may or may not lead to a discussion about recording 
music CDs in project studios.)   I am not recording my current project in 
my home studio and won't for and future CDs.  I used to, but I decided I 
liked that really grown up sound that will stand up to repeated 
listenings.  I record my elements in a master studio, bring 'em home, edit 
and then bring them back into the master studio for mixing.

On mixing in weird spaces.  I do know a rap producer who has mixed hit 
records on a laptop with earphones, on  flights between the coasts.  He 
knows what he's going for and somehow can tell if he's gotten it, but I'll 
bet he plays it back in his master studio before sending it out for 
fabbing.  The hard fact is that most people will almost certainly find that 
mixing in a non-studio space will give you a result that only sounds good 
in that space.  After repeated hearings elsewhere you may regret having 
gone the affordable route.

For instance, in the music I wrote for that play, I thought I had gotten 
terrific sound (I'm always fooled) until I burned a copy for the director 
and verified the disk on my living room sound system.  The bass range, 
which had sounded terrific in my recording closet, was pathetically weak 
and needed a 3dB boost.  It could have used alot more help, but the sound 
was perfectly adequate for a single listen over a nice theatre sound 
system. But even fixed it would not have borne repeated listenings for 
pleasure.  It would have become obvious that it wasn't done in a 
professional studio.  I went to the play last week and was pleased with the 
sound AND with the fact that it wasn't part of a CD project, though I like 
the music alot.

Engineers.  It drives me nuts that for every few hours of studio time I 
could buy another computer or a week in Hawaii, but the sound is so much 
better where the big boys play.  I do not agree with anyone who claims that 
you can get anything approaching a master sound in a home studio and an 
amateur engineer.  One guy I used to work for, and who used Tommy Morgan 
for chrom sessions on my recommendation, started with a home studio and 
slowly grew it to where he could record masters in it.  He built a 
beautiful recording room and a beautiful engineering space.  He worked in 
it all the time, and he had excellent ears so he could engineer stuff like 
radio spots and sell-at-gigs recordings really well.  But when he was 
producing a recording artist for a label he called in a fine professional 
engineer, and the recordings sounded obviously better.

If anyone is planning to make a CD, here's my recommendation.  Rehearse 
like crazy.  Record demos in your project studio, and craft them until you 
have a really good idea of where you want the various elements to be in the 
arrangement.  When you have demos you're really satisfied with, don't fool 
yourself into thinking they're good enough to put out.  Buy a few hours in 
a master studio and see if you can get a few tracks down.  Take 'em home, 
listen to them carefully, see what you can learn from them, go back in the 
studio and make a few more tracks.  Treat yourself like a pro and learn how 
to use the master studio to make your recordings.

Again, for Alex's projects it sounds like his simple setup will be perfect 
if he uses a good mic and mic-pre.  A project studio is great for demos, or 
for records you're intending to sell at gigs, as they are often just 
souvenirs.  But don't be fooled by the fact that many of our favorite blues 
recordings were recorded primitively - that ain't happenin' now.  Really 
well recorded music makes a great first impression if the music is in the 
grooves.  You may think that the audience doesn't have such good ears, but 
people who have never heard your music don't expect that you're going to be 
all that good, and a mediocre recording of your music will tend to 
encourage strangers to close their ears before they've given you a real shot.

Using amateurish equipment or engineers makes no more sense than using 
amateurish musicians.

By the way, Juke, by Little Walter, was recorded by Bill Putnam.  More than 
a few engineers I know say Putnam was the greatest engineer of all time.