Recording tricks for private fun

I hope nobody minds if I post some tricks I have used once. Maybe they are not useful for your setup!

Trick "Doubling the signal path for the drumcomputer":
Short signalpath: drums to A/D-device (e.g. US-122). Regular: Drums L/R line-out to Channel 7/8 of Mixerconsole; Mixer to A/D.
New: Double signal via Patchbay, drums to Ch1/2, too. Insert analog compressor there. Add reverb via mixer. Get rid of build-in reverb and comp. Mix 4 channels by taste, change stereo-pan of new channels. Use mixer-Eq to get rid of awful Hihats.

Trick "Adding a little cheap EQ in Reaper" for midi-samples:
Record track. Apply very radical EQ to elimate awful boring Hihat-sounds. This equed signal sounds awful thin if soloed. Now reduce percentage of wet signal by taste to 10 to 30 until you get a very slight reduce of artificial Hihat-sounds. Same trick added as above: use digital compressor but mix wet and dry signal by taste. Get rid of internal effects in the device.

If you like to share your trick...
:)

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Edited by Neronick on March 05 2016 14:32

This could be a funny trick, too. But I never used it!
Trick "Singing in a bucket". Use a small condenser mic close to your mouth. Wear a big bucket as a big helmet and sing underneath this bucket! Of course you could build a little "vocal corner" if you are able to fix the big bucket in the room where you are standing. Try some foam in the bucket. Try to sing with little earphones under the helmet and play back the melody if you have fun.
If it gets too hot inside the bucket do a rest for some minutes.
:)

Another trick: "Use ducking for vocals on overcompressed backings".
Sometimes there is not enough free room for the vocals because the instruments are heavy compressed. Solution: compresse it more but use ducking.
In Reaper: place vocal-track over backing-track. Open Compressorwindow for backing. Click I/O-buttom of vocaltrack and drag into compressorwindow. Now compressor works in overducking mode. Apply little compression for backing when there is a vocalsignal. If no vocal appears the backingtrack stays unchanged.

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Edited by Neronick on March 05 2016 12:29

Trick "Some tricks for old versions of Band-in-a box".
Don't use computersoundcard, never GM, not virtual synth. Use external sound modul. De-activate "send patches". Adjust sounds on modul itself. Mute at least one track of five. Get rid of musical overload in each style. Edit style, e.g. select one instrument in the 4-beat-patterns and kill all variations in the b-part by putting "9" (means play always) in the pattern options. Leave others unchanged. What and how to reduce depends on the leadsheet you write, e.g. "A" or "A A" or "AAAA", these are four beats but they trigger different patterns. The basic rule is almost the same: less is more because your instrument needs room. :)

This is a very secret trick: "Play your arranger-keyboard without your fingers but with a written leadsheet". You need band-in-a-box and a keyboard. Put the keyboard in a remote mode and define channel to receive the triggernotes for the arranger. Now Band-in-a-box sends no information but clockimpulses and the notes which define the chords, e.g. "c-e-g-bb". The trick: the velocities for these notes on the remote-channel are only "1". They trigger the arranger of the keyboard but you can't hear them sounding! Mute other channels of Biabox. You can switch the styles with the keyboard and you can try out some melodies etc. Use the mixer of the keyboard to mute parts etc.

why not play a nice cd and enjoy real musicians instead of the plastic lifeless band in a box ? listen to great masters and sharpen your ear ... try to make out what they play this is your best bet to improve your own musical vocabulary !

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Trick: "Use a signal path with some dirt". Maybe you have never listened to an old Casio keyboard. You got 1000 sounds but every instrument voice sounds as "Casio". Add another device in the signal path, e.g. take a bass-sound, run it through an amplifier and record the speaker with a mic.

Split a submix of 3 instruments of one soundmodule into two takes and use 2 tracks, e.g. one stereo submix and a mono track. Insert a pedal in the signalpath to override the manufacture's timbre of all samples.

Some dirt can sound nice in a clean mix.

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Edited by Neronick on March 06 2016 13:02

Hi This is a very interisting thread to follow ^^
Some tricks you are explaining here are not that easy to understand for me as far it's partly based on software abilities.
I use a digital multitracks recorder and mainly record guitars and vocals...
Keys and midi, technical work on sound etc... are out of my skills.

I make it basic: Plug, find your sound, play, record...
That kind of guitar player ;-)

However, I try to imagine and understand how your tricks work.
In any case it is a creative work, and it's great to share this...
In some way it remains me the creative attempts to get to a sound as far as my only hardware was a 4 tracks tape multitracks recorder, a guitar amp, and headphone, a poor mic and that's it...
No reverb, no good mic., no proper amplification stuff, no effects, etc...
Not even a way to control or modify the sound when recorded...

I was smiling when reading your post around the bucket...
I've done many things with an old big metal bucket...
So, I don't want to comment on technical stuff I could hardly bring something on, but, I guess sometimes we still can use some "old fashion" technics:

- Acoustic guitar takes, mic. positionned at the neck jonction with a bucket behind can create a particular sort of reverb.
- Same with the voices takes mainly if used as back vocals.
Everybody knows the bathroom reverb, etc...
- Special microphonic sounding when using an headphone as a microphone.
Just plug an headphone in an amp, sing and check it out...

Etc...

This is also creative a kind of creative work which doesn't need a dime and can provide fun and a unique souding "when it works out" ^^

I don't know if my post is in this thread spirit, but seems like it's "recording tricks for private fun" too, and I've plenty of these ^^

I'll follow the thread^^

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Hi friends Wikiloopers,
If you have trouble getting a large audio file with your software to edit audio ... maybe this idea could help you!
What follows, is like a 'junk' trick / track?
No matter, maybe this clip will be useful to someone! :)
Ray

https://youtu.be/VmapQUmHiBA
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[youtube]VmapQUmHiBA[/youtube]

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Edited by StJray on March 01 2018 06:34

Merci Ray,

Excellent truc que je vais mettre en pratique.

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Here's a trick which is particularly useful on Wikiloops.... How to isolate a part even when the uploader didn't use an HD track!

Suppose someone uploaded a drum part and then the next remixer uploaded a remix with rhythm guitar and drums.

When you come to do your remix you wish you could mix the guitar a bit differently to work with your bass part but it's difficult to do when it's already been mixed in with the drums. Here's what you do...

* Download the drum track on its own.
* Download the drum+guitar track.
* Line up the two tracks using the waveform view in your DAW.
* Reverse the phase of the _drum_ track.
* Play both tracks together and adjust their relative volume until you hear the guitar without the drums. (In practice you won't be able to _completely_ eliminate them but you can often come surprisingly close).
* Now you can render the 'solo' guitar to another track and use it along with the solo drum part to get a mix that you like!

In reaper the 'reverse phase' button is a little circular button with a diagonal line through it. I'm sure other DAWs have this capability.

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Edited by GrooveEnth on March 01 2018 20:06

Nice wiki-hack. How it sounds If there are more instruments?

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It's most effective when there's less going on in the background (and it helps when there's good frequency separation) but it still works with more instruments. :)

Here's a good one..use an old Pringles tube or cheap coffee tin filled with lentils, rice or sand to get a cheap shaker..sounds great, The tube and sand combo is particularly effective on Latin music! Yes, so you get a snack for watching that favourite movie, or a few weeks coffee supply and then a shaker the following morning! look for the sales at the supermarket..sometimes on offer for £1...and the nescafe azera coffee tin I recommend! Compare that to £7.59 for the canz shaker on amazon which is basically a baked bean can!! The cool thing about my suggestion is you can pop the lid off and fill with a different material for a completely different sound - something you cant do with commercial shakers as they are sealed...

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Edited by pconey on March 03 2018 11:07