Recording tips for bands (and recorders)

Even though this blog is geared more towards home recording and DIY recording, there are some things that can be done to drastically improve studio efficiency not matter the level. The things that transcend all tiers of studios is usually on the side of the musician. Today I'm going to give a few tips on how to be prepared for studio time and help the process go smoother/better/faster/stronger...

Aaaaannnnd we're back

Well that was fun, been doing a ton of things over the past year which i guess seems like a lifetime on the internet. While I Get back in gear, have a listen to one of the projects I worked on.

Small break

Sorry for the lack of posting ladies and gentlemen, I've been out this weekend practicing and recording a local band's demo. I may upload a track or something later in the week when it gets closer to finished.

Oh yeah, The Flaming Tsunamis' released a few tracks of their new album the other day, everyone should go check them out right now. They scare me sometimes.

Recording

Here's a recording that me and one of my friends (the guitar player for my band) made in about 5 hours of total work about a year ago!


These hands (acoustic) by Hutchsmusic

Beta 52a

Today I'll be reviewing the Shure Beta 52a

The Shure Beta 52a is large diaphragm dynamic microphone designed specially for kick drums, bass cabs, and other low-frequency intensive sources. The frequency range on this microphone is awesome! It picks up the really lows, but can also pick up highs for overtones in your sound. Whenever I use this on my kick drums it gives it a nice punch, but my bass drum is also naturally punchy being a smaller size.

This microphone can also make a killer vocal microphone since it's responding frequencies are broad, and it's a dynamic microphone so it won't pick up TOO much and can be used for live sound

The only drawback that I've noticed is that sometimes the frequencies are too broad, and you have to rolloff the ending frequencies to make it sound cleaner and usuable

 The Shure Beta 52a can be picked up for a little over $150 USD, and can also come in a sweet mic package that comes with this and 3 SM57s, which I'll get to another day

NT1-A

Today I think I'll start off my reviews of microphones, starting with one of my personal favorites, the Rode NT1-A.

The NT1-A is a large diaphragm condenser microphone, slightly tweaked from the original NT1 and released in an anniversary package which includes...

The Cat Empire

The Cat Empire is an awesome latin/ska band out of Melbourne, Australia and have been one of my favorite bands for a couple of years now. They're very energetic and relaxed at the same time. They play the perfect kind of music to go along with a day of cruisin' around. They play shows around Melbourne and other parts of Australia but they rarely come to the states from what I hear. The best album of theirs, in my opinion, is their first. The later ones are good, but nothing beats the first one. If they ever play in a town near me you can bet I'll be at that show