Don't Go to Recording School Info

This article contains Amazon affiliate links which help support the DGTRS web site.

If ever there was a topic that I’ve been redundant about in Real Home Recording videos it’s speaker calibration. It is the process in which a measurement microphone is used then software magic happens to provide a reference frequency balance.

Speaker calibration systems also take into account the room that your speakers are in. Even if you have flat frequency speakers (typically they are measured in an anechoic chamber which no normal human being records/mixes in) their frequency balance will change depending on your room acoustics. This is a topic that I’ve talked about in numerous RHR videos:

Back in 2008 is when I became aware of what I call the “chase your tail” problem. The studio I recorded/mixed out had very nice speakers (also called monitors) but when I would listen to mixes on other speaker systems/headphones my music would change. Sometimes quite drastically! At some point I became made aware of software from IK Multmedia called Advanced Room Correction or ARC for short. ARC is something I very much wanted to use but it had a high price tag of $600!

At the time, IK offered software crossgrade discounts so when they sold a plugin for $50 I had “Studio B’s” owner jump on it. ARC was discounted to I believe $350-400 but it was well worth it. Remixes still had to be made but it enabled me to get mixes a lot closer to where they needed to be.

ARC 2 was eventually released and I upgraded to that as well. But there was still the nagging issue of having to bypass it in order to mix the high end. So, in 2015 I became aware of a new company on the block (to me, anyway) called Sonarworks. They were releasing version 3 of their Reference speaker calibration software and it was finally going to be available on Windows operating systems!

Reference 3 not only can calibrate speaker systems but headphones as well. Technically headphones are speakers you where on your head but whatever. Unfortunately, just like ARC back in 2009 there is no way to demo the speaker system without buying the microphone but the headphone side of things you can. So I did and made a review:

The mixes I did with Reference 3 and a pair of Audio-Technica ATH-50 headphones were the best I had done. Since that review I have wanted to buy it and the speaker software as well but have not had a big enough audio project to justify the purchase. I’m still making do with ARC 2 but recommend Reference over it these days based on my experience with the headphone plugin.

Keep in mind, there is no universal standard for speakers. Frequency graph plots are all over the place with consumer playback devices. But, as world famous mastering engineering said during an interview with the Huffington Post:

Dr. Floyd Toole (of Harman International, makers of JBL speakers) showed that averaging all the different consumer speakers (some bright, some with too much bass or midrange etc.) one ends up with a very flat curve which is empirical proof that mastering with an extremely accurate and flat playback system yields a product that sounds correct on more systems. Like speakers, earbuds run the gamut from the old stock Apple earbuds that sounded tinny and lacking warmth to top-of-the-line Shure earbuds that are extremely accurate, to “hip-hop” earbuds that are overly bass heavy. One must master to sound as good as possible on all systems.

My preferred setting on Sonarworks Reference 3 is averaged speakers. Flat is OK but my mixes translated better on the averaged preset. Your experience may vary.

As far as which speakers I would recommend these days, it would be a combination of the Yamaha HS-10W or HS8S subwoofer and IK Multimedia’s iLoud Micro Monitors. Or if you can spare the expense Neumann KH 120A with a Yamaha subwoofer.

Genelec 8030b speakers often come up in conversations but I have read a lot of engineers switching from Genelecs to Neumanns but not the other way around.

If you absolutely must mix with headphones then use Waves NX software to simulate listening to speakers in an ideal mix room.

As far as which headphones to use if you absolutely must use headphones when recording or mixing? I covered this in the Mobile Recording article but it is worth repeating. Audio-Technica ATH-M70x, Sennheiser HD600/650, Philips SHP9500 or the Oppo PM-3. These recommendations come from the Sonarworks’ neutrality test not my personal experience. Believe me I would love to try out all of these headphones to hear which works best for me but money unfortunately does not appear from thin air often enough to make that happen.

Speaker calibration should come after room acoustics are taken care of. Read this article for more information.

Don’t Go to Recording School does not have any social media accounts. I did try to make one on Twitter but one day after signing up the account was restricted.

In order to gain access to the account I’ll need to give Twitter my phone number. That’s not going to happen. They have my IP address so there’s no reason they need my number. Since Twitter decided to play that game with me, I’ve decided to have no social media accounts for this web site.

If you run across any Don’t Go to Recording pages on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or any other site it is not official. And to be honest, I like it that way. It’s less work on my part and going against the grain as it were is an act of rebellion. If you want solid information on a regular basis then you’re going to need to put in a little extra effort and come back to this site. It will not be spoon fed to you.

That said, the Real Home Recording YouTube channel, Twitter and Facebook pages remain up. Currently I’m boycotting Facebook but am very active on Twitter and YouTube. If you would like to hear some of my audio work then Soundcloud is the place to go.

I won’t touch the topic of live sound reinforcement very often on this site. I have not worked in that capacity enough to speak on the subject. But, I will recommend a few resources in case that is one direction that you as a music production business entrepreneur want to head.

First, this book is the one I would recommend to buy first. It is filled with practical knowledge and is suited for both new and advanced engineers alike. Simply put, the author Bill Evans is the man!

Second, the Live Sound section of Gearslutz is a great resource. As a whole that place can be a little off the walls but the Live Sound section has a lot of smart men and women talking shop and answering questions.

Third, Rational Acoustics Smaart. I only bring this up because a few years back a colleague could not stop talking about it. If you have read my article about speaker calibration, you know that I’m all about using new technology to solve every day problems that audio engineers face. Smaart is the Sonarworks Reference for live sound. While both software products aren’t necessary, they do make your job a hell of a lot easier.

Fourth, the Radial JDX 48 Reactor or the Rivera Mini RockRec Loadbox. These two products can make live guitar amplification easier. The less stage bleed the better. Another great product is the Two Notes Torpedo Reload but it is on the expensive side. There’s also this but its impedance is fixed. Which means it isn’t very versatile.

Fifth, get supercardiod microphones. You’ll thank me later.

Sixth, if a recording of the live show is needed then so is a separate feed from the mix. An engineer to man that feed is also necessary. That’s what Radial OX8 splitters were designed for.

Seventh, ground stacked subwoofers suck. Fly them like you do the main  speakers and use a digital crossover so they gel together nicely.

Eighth, you’ll learn this soon enough with experience. Sound check is one thing but when you add an audience to the room acoustics change the way things sound.

That about covers it for now. Again, buy that Bill Evans book either digitally or in paperback. It is like having a seasoned professional mentor tell you nearly everything that you need to know.

If you have come across this web site at random, you may ask why Don’t Go to Recording School was started. The answer is simple. I could not sit by anymore and allow people to waste time and money while big businesses profited off (mostly) young people’s dreams.

As stated in the web site introduction, I have been railing against recording schools for a few years now. But everything came to a head this past December when a personal story was published in a Los Angeles Times article. Over $200,000 was wasted going to college for audio production/the recording arts.

$200,000 that could have been spent either majoring in a more in-demand career field or by starting a studio/audio production company. When I read that article, I was pissed off.

How dare these schools charge outrageous money for an education in a career field that is tough to land a job in! But perhaps more importantly, how dare the federal government subsidize these schools! I have no problem with tax money going towards business loans but student loans I have a serious issue with.

Why? Because colleges have set themselves up as a road block. A barrier to entry to landing an entry level job at many companies. Things weren’t always this way but colleges have set themselves up to be a necessity in life. Or so they WANT you to think!

It’s not the fault of the colleges…it is the fault of society. College degrees are overvalued for many areas of study. In other words, they aren’t really necessary. Back in the early 90s a degree in Information Technology didn’t exist. If you were good with computers you could apply for a job and prove yourself worthy of getting a pay check. The same is true for many other career fields. When a new one pops up, colleges jump on it. They create new majors which in turn is a new barrier to entry.

DGTRS isn’t just a site about teaching audio engineering and business skills. Oh no. I want the societal mindset of “You have to go to college” to change. I want high school guidance counselors to have alternatives to telling students to go to college. I want businesses to stop denying people who don’t have a degree listed on their resumes, because it is a piss poor way of determining whether someone is a good potential employee or not.

In case you are wondering, yes I do have a college degree. I got one before they became super expensive to get.

Student loan debt has increased to astronomically levels. At the time of this writing the total amount is $1.38 trillion and rising every second. Student debt is second only to mortgage debt in the United States. So, instead of just reporting on these numbers I am DOING something to help reverse this trend.

I am sick of colleges, universities and trade schools not feeling the recession burn. I’m sick of seeing them brag about their fancy new buildings and fancy new equipment that was purchased with federal student loans. Colleges are some of the biggest welfare kings and queens out there. Without the federal government, most would not exist. Or, they would be forced cut back on tuition costs big time.

It is time we make higher education businesses obsolete for a lot of career fields.

Hopefully this site inspires people in other industries to offer their knowledge and help their fellow men and women out. That way, articles like this, this and this one will be left to rot in the past. THAT is why DGTRS was started.

I could keep this information to myself or become a college professor at an audio school. But why become apart of the scam? I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror every day and be happy with what I’m doing. After each new article gets posted on this site a feeling of joy comes over me. Saving people from mountains of debt is a nice legacy to leave behind after I die. Not contributing to the problem is the solution.

The smartest person in the world can be the worst business person. A dumber person can also make the right business moves and succeed. Running a successful business has little to do with how intelligent you are and a lot to do with these important items:

Products or Services

Do you offer something that people need or want? Do you offer them at adequate qualities and reasonable prices? Is there something that sets you apart from the competition? If you answered no for any of these questions, change it.

Location

Is your business location convenient for customers? If not, that’s a problem. Do you know why people love Amazon and online shopping in general? They don’t have to drive anywhere, they know whether an item is in stock or not and prices are typically lower or the same as brick and mortar stores.

The same goes for why Netflix overtook Blockbuster video. Give people better value and more convenient ways of doing business with you and they will come.

Employees

I used to work on a show where successful business leaders were interviewed. The most common thing they said was they surrounded themselves with people who are smarter than them and better at what they do than them. But perhaps most importantly, they would trust those employees to get their jobs done and not micro manage them. Trust and hiring talented employees can make or break a company.

Presentation

Does your business location look clean and tidy? How about your web site and social media pages? Do you even have a web site and social media pages for your business? Do you post on a regular basis? Does the web site provide useful and concise information? First impressions are everything and you can lose a potential customer in less than 30 seconds if anything about your company/brand looks unprofessional or out of place.

This web site is a good example. To start Don’t Go to Recording School I had to learn a few new things about web sites and graphic design, otherwise it would look like my past web sites. If that were the case, people who come here may not take the information seriously. It still isn’t perfect but it’s better than what I’ve done before.

Marketing

You could have the best business in the world but if no one knows who you are then your business may as well not exist. I state this from experience. Marketing is crucial to a business’ success. Perhaps above all else because there are some bad businesses out there but they have a recognizable name. And guess what? They also have customers.

Finances

This is an area where even large businesses fail. They grow too fast. Or, they establish operations in an unnecessarily expensive area. They don’t take advantage of tax write offs. My cousin lost his job because a company did this. You can run a web site/app company from any part of the country. But what did his company decide to do because they got a large IPO injection of money from the stock market? Set up headquarters in the most expensive piece of real estate in the entire country. Less than two years later and they were bleeding money. So, they layed off a ton of workers.

All because they didn’t keep their finances in check. They didn’t save for a rainy day, as my grand parents would say. And they paid for it by having to fire a bunch of people.

It does not take a genius to make the above happen. It does take effort though and if it wasn’t clear already running a business is not for the lazy at heart. It takes a lot of behind the scenes leg work to run a successful business. Most businesses fail within the first two years. Mostly because there was failure in one or more of the above categories.

Recently I put a three part video series up on Real Home Recording that explains how to get excellent quality vocal recordings. Check it out:

 

This article contains Amazon affiliate links which help fund the upkeep of DGTRS.

This web site is all about providing alternative ideas to going to an audio recording/music production trade school or college. I imagine many who read this site will wonder how finding the money to lease or build a studio is going to happen.

As stated in a previous article, a business loan from the federal government or a bank is a possibility. But, if you don’t want to take that big of a financial risk then a good alternative is mobile recording.

What is mobile recording? It’s where you bring your audio gear to different locations and record. Whether that be at a musician’s rehearsal space, their home or at a concert venue…you are going to record sound on location. You could also record audio for TV shows/movies but that is a whole other field that is outside of this web site’s scope.

Recording music on location is a good way to get your feet wet. It has its pros and cons. The biggest one being that room acoustics will vary. If you have your own studio, your rooms are under your control. And unless you want them to change, they don’t change. This affects not only what is being recorded but what you hear as well.

That’s why with mobile recording I would recommend a good pair of reference headphones like the Audio-Technica ATH-M70x, Sennheiser HD600/650, Philips SHP9500 or the Oppo PM-3. These aren’t my personal recommendations, they are from Sonarworks’ neutrality test. And if there’s any company I trust when it comes to headphones it is them.

Couple a good pair of headphones with Sonarworks Reference and Waves NX for the complete package.

Headphone amplifier quality matters too…although this is another controversial subject like cable quality. But, if you are serious about fidelity and don’t want to cut corners, check out the Rupert Neve Designs RNHP or the Little Labs Monotor.

If you’re going to record at concert venues then a couple Radial OX8 splitters are essential. You’ll need to buy a small rack too to put them in.

Don’t forget to buy some cases to store all of your gear in! My camera gear goes in waterproof Pelican brand cases. I haven’t checked myself but I’m sure they have many products for safe audio gear storage.

The buffer size setting is one that will confuse the newbie audio engineer. It determines the rate at which data is sent and received to and from the audio interface. The smaller the latency, the faster the information is sent.

So, why not always keep it at the fastest setting? Data drop outs. Clicks, pops, crackle and sometimes software crashes. Here are a few videos on the topic of buffer sizes:

The key points to remember:

When recording, use the lowest buffer size as possible. When mixing, change it to a higher setting like 1024 or 2048.

The standard buffer sizes are 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 and 8192.

Higher sample rates = lower latency. 128 samples at 44.1 kHz is slower than 128 samples at 96 kHz, for example.

Drivers and how your computer is set up matters. In general, recording with a desktop is preferable to a laptop. PCI/PCIe and Thunderbolt (essentially, external PCIe) interfaces are better than USB.

Speaking of USB, I recently had severe problems after upgrading my USB host controller/hub drivers. Downgrading to the old version fixed that issue.

RME is the best company out there in terms of latency and driver stability. Their interfaces can handle larger amounts of CPU usage than other companies’ interfaces. Latency is always a hot topic of discussion, which explains the 50+ pages on this Gearslutz thread. But, with the information from the above videos you will know all that you need to know.

This article contains Amazon affiliate links that help support DGTRS.

Every professional level studio has the ability to record and mix a large variety of projects. From simple voice overs to modern EDM and pop music. Microphones are to real world instruments as virtual instruments are to electronic music.

Now, virtual instruments doesn’t imply an outer worldly or “futuristic” sound. It just means that instead of playing real instruments, keyboards and controllers with MIDI/USB capability are used. When you use virtual instruments, many more musical possibilities are open to you.

For example, take my first recommended virtual instrument, Komplete Ultimate from Native Instruments. Want the sound of a nice orchestra including strings, wood winds, horns, piano and percussion? Komplete has it. Is EDM more of your or your clients’ flair? Komplete has it. Guitar amp simulation? Komplete has that too. It’s the best all around virtual instrument package that I’m aware of.

Spectrasonics Omnisphere is my next recommendation. If Komplete’s Reaktor doesn’t cover it then Omnisphere can. It is packed full of synth potential. It and Reaktor are the current industry standard virtual instrument synths.

If you only occasionally need virtual instruments then my third recommendation may be perfect. It’s Composer Cloud from EastWest. For $30 per month you get access to a ton of virtual instruments. This is by far the best option for new studios that are on a tight budget.

IK Multimedia have been making some waves recently. Their Sample Tank library was viewed as the red headed step child compared to Native Instruments. But MODO Bass and the upcoming Syntronik are hot products that many composers are keeping a tight eye (ear) on.

Rap and R&B beat makers love Image Line FL Studio. You will too. The Beatskillz Urban Producer Bundle is also quite nice.

Need a virtual hard rock/heavy metal guitar? Look no further than Impact Soundworks Shreddage.

A huge collection of the best keyboards in the world? Keyscape, from the same people who make Omnisphere, is the best one out there.

If you have picky piano players the two best ones I know of are Modartt Pianoteq and Synthogy Ivory II Grand Pianos. With those two, you are covered. Be forewarned though that Ivory II’s library is HUGE! So, if you are limited on hard drive space Pianoteq is where it’s at.

A few more suggestions before this post is wrapped up. Need the best audience/crowd noises? Here you go. Boom have some nice libraries that are suited for movie trailers as well. Need radio station ad sound effects? VideoHelper’s Noise Generator collection is a classic. Still aren’t happy with your synth collection? The Arturia V Collection is another great one. Sound effects and a bunch of other things as well (in case you need them)? Digital Juice is a company I keep going back to.

That’s it. With those virtual instruments/sound libraries. you are set to make virtually any aural creation. Pun intended. You don’t need them all, but if I were to buy a comprehensive set for a new studio those are the ones I would get.