In effect, posing one of these questions tells the world you’re an amateur. But I hope that by explaining why the questions don’t have the simple answers a rookie expects, you’ll appreciate how an experienced engineer thinks about each problem, and be better equipped to identify gaps in your own knowledge.

Questions

1. What are the best EQ settings for guitar?
Or its many variants: “What are the best compressor settings for vocals,” “what reverb settings should I use for mastering,” and so on.

This question has a straightforward answer: The best settings are the ones that sound right. But for most beginners, who haven’t yet learned critical listening skills, this advice seems trite.

Unfortunately, any other answer is meaningless. Every track, in every song, has its own unique requirements. And the best settings, for EQ or compression or any effect, are dictated solely by the requirements of the song. (See the Rule of Mixing for more.)

2. Which is the best microphone?
We’d all love to own a U87 or a C12. But engineers covet those mics because they’re reliable and versatile, not because either is inherently superior. In fact, there are as many ways to define “best” (and for that matter “worst”) as there are sounds to record. As with the question above, what’s best ultimately depends on what fits the song.

3. How do I record my song to sound like The Foo Fighters?
This question stems from the misconception that The Foo Fighters, or any band, sound the way they do because of their equipment. Acquire the same instruments and mics, the thinking goes, and you can duplicate their recordings.

Most professional recordings have deceptive clarity. They sound, at least to listeners unfamiliar with the process, as though they should be easy to reproduce. But the question above has only one honest answer. To sound like The Foo Fighters:

• Buy quality instruments, and learn how to play them well.
• Write songs suitable for the genre.
• Arrange those songs to support Foo Fighters-style production.
• Practice. Lots.
• Record in a great live room.
• Spend time on microphone selection and placement.
• Play every part till you get it right.

In other words, there are no shortcuts, and it’s not easy. Great recordings take time and talent.

4. What vocal chain does Paul Simon use?
Also commonly worded as “I want to sound like John Mayer. Which microphones and settings should I use?”

Beginners ask this question assuming that we can recreate a track by knowing how it was recorded. Unfortunately, even if you bought Paul Simon’s complete signal chain, you’d have little success matching his recordings. His voice, and John Mayer’s voice, and of course the voice of any famous musician, is unique, as are his performances.

To sound like Paul Simon, in short, you need to have him sing your vocal

5. How do I remove the room’s ambiance from a recording?
Conceptually, it makes sense that since we use reverb to add depth, there must be some way to reverse the process.

There isn’t. If you don’t notice until you’re mixing that a guitar track has too much room sound, you have 2 options: Live with the sound, or re-record.

6. Is this mix finished?
Rookie engineers like to think there’s a golden standard sound to which they aspire, and once they’ve attained that sound, their mixes will thereafter be perfect.

We should be so lucky! In truth, our learning never stops. We continue (hopefully) to improve, but none of us is ever done acquiring knowledge, as true of recording and mixing as it is of life. But this is OK. Learning, after all, is the fun part!

To the question: As a general guideline, a mix is finished when it best represents the song. Of course, “best” is open to interpretation here as it is everywhere in recording. You need to use your ears and your gut, and make the call when it feels right. In other words, only you know when the mix is finished.

Unless someone has paid you, in which case the mix is done when the deadline arrives.

Finally, a surefire question to signal your newbie status to the world:
7. How do I use this $1,200 plugin that I just happen to have installed on my machine?
Answer: You read the manual, which comes with the software when you buy it legally.

In Closing

You’ll out yourself as a novice by asking these questions of an experienced engineer. But really, there’s nothing wrong with that. In some senses, we’re all amateurs.

Take the colleague of my friend Paul, who once asked him, “what does a compressor do?” The question seems innocent enough until you learn that this colleague has been a film industry sound engineer for over 20 years, and has worked on dozens of major motion pictures. Of course, Paul now has difficulty taking his colleague seriously as an audio professional. But the guy still works on movies as a sound engineer, so the anecdote should be comforting for the rest of us amateurs!

See Also: Tips for more professional recordings

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But cheap doesn’t have to mean bad. With a little effort, even the most cost-conscious mic owner can capture great sounds.

To that end, here are 7 tips for getting the most from your cheap microphones.

1. Understand your mic’s shortcomings.
Correct use of a mic depends on knowing its characteristics, and cheaper mics tend to share some common traits. Cheap condensers can sound overly bright and tinny, where their dynamic counterparts tend toward a boxy, midrange sound. Keeping this in mind will help you decide when and where your mic should be used.

2. Don’t assume your most expensive mic is best.
If you have several microphones, and especially if you have a choice between different types (condenser, dynamic, ribbon,) resist the temptation to reach for the most expensive mic every time. Many professional engineers, with gear lockers full of names like Neumann and Earthworks, still swear by the SM57 for certain tasks. What’s “best” changes from musician to musician, and instrument to instrument. So try all your mics, and record with the one that sounds best, even if it didn’t cost the most.

3. Adjust the source.
Rather than rely on effects to compensate for your mic’s shortcomings, try changing sounds at their source, before recording.

If your mic sounds dull or dark, push more high frequencies from the source: Use fresh guitar strings, clean your cymbals, boost your amp’s presence. On the other hand, if your mic is too bright, work at softening the treble sounds in whatever you’re recording. Try heavier gauge strings, dampen cymbals and drums with felt or tape, and sing through a pop screen or other wind filter.

4. Play with position.
Getting the most from budget equipment always requires effort. With microphones, this effort should focus on positioning. Everything about a mic’s placement affects how it captures sound: Its distance from the source, the direction it’s pointing, even its distance from the floor and walls.

This takes time of course, especially for those of us without assistants. But the improved sound you capture can only help your recordings.

5. Check for mods.
To keep prices down, manufacturers of cheap microphones often cut corners, and use discount components. If you’re comfortable with pliers, most microphones can be tweaked to compensate for these production efficiencies.

I’ve discussed ribbon mic mods before, but virtually every mic can be modified. And in some cases dramatic improvements in sound are possible. Google is your friend here – see, for example, the myriad modifications one can make to an SM57. The Prodigy Pro forums are also a great resource, full of schematics, diagrams, and like-minded hackers!

6. Try wide corrective EQ settings.
Narrow EQ adjustments can introduce ringing, and in extreme cases will accentuate the characteristics of your mic that make it sound cheap. Broad EQ corrections sound much less obvious.

A high-shelf cut at 10Khz, even if only 2 or 3dB, can work wonders to take the edge off a brittle-sounding condenser. A gentle high-shelf boost at 8Khz can add some life to the sound of a dull mic without over-emphasizing its shortcomings.

7. Adjust your performance.
Imagine recording a “cymbal basher” with a cheap condenser. The drummer produces too many high frequencies to begin with, and the mic inherently captures extra treble, so the recording will likely end up a useless wash of high-end white noise. When you can’t change mics, there’s only one way to address this: Have the drummer hit the cymbals softer and less often.

And practically every performance can benefit from this removal of extra material. Remember what Debussy said: “Music is the space between the notes.”

Or think of it this way: The fewer notes you record, the less your cheap mic needs to capture!

A microphone’s ability to accurately capture these transients is known as transient response, and it’s an important property to consider when selecting a mic. To understand why, think of how a microphone works.

Diaphragm and Transient Response

All studio mics operate on the same basic principle: Sound energy moves a diaphragm, and the diaphragm’s motion is converted to an electrical signal which can be measured and recorded.

Diaphragms differ from mic to mic. Dynamic mics have a coil or ribbon, where condenser mics have a lighter capacitor membrane. (For background, see Wikipedia’s page on microphones and the comprehensive microphones section on GSU’s Hyperphysics site.) Regardless of type, however, the motion of all diaphragms is governed by the laws of physics. Specifically, inertia: Lighter diaphragms require less energy to move than heavier diaphragms. Consequently, lighter diaphragms react quicker than heavier diaphragms to abrupt changes in sound energy. That is, they have a faster transient response.

Generally, we find the lightest diaphragms in small diaphragm condensers (SDC’s) while large diaphragm dynamic (LDD) mics have larger moving-coil diaphragms. As such, SDC mics are more responsive to transients than LDD mics.

This diagram, taken from Shure’s indispensable Microphone Techniques for Music – Studio Recording, illustrates the response of a condenser mic and a dynamic mic to an electric spark impulse.

Though the difference is small, around 10 microseconds, the condenser mic (top line) responds more quickly to the impulse. Further, the dynamic diaphragm takes longer to stop moving after the impulse has passed. Note the continued “wobbling” on the right of the graph.

Diaphragm “stop” time

The difference in response is even more pronounced when viewed on a larger scale. To illustrate, I rigged an example with 3 microphones,

• Studio Projects C4 – an SDC
• Apex 205 – a cheap ribbon mic
• Shure SM58 – a small diaphragm dynamic mic

Here’s how the microphones respond to the click from a pair of drum sticks:

The differences are striking. The C4 (on top) has what I’d characterize as the “cleanest” response. The SM58 (on bottom) took about twice as long to “settle down” after the sound had passed.

And the ribbon mic (in the middle) has a completely different extended response. You can practically see the ribbon itself flapping back and forth inside the mic, taking almost 10 milliseconds to settle.

Choosing the right transient response

It’s important to note that just because a microphone has a faster transient response, it’s not necessarily a better mic. As always in recording and mixing, your ears are the final judge of “better,” and sometimes you’ll simply prefer the sound of a sluggish diaphragm. Many people, for example, opt to use ribbon mics as drum overheads precisely because the ribbon’s response softens harsh-sounding cymbals.

There are a few general guidelines, however, when considering how a microphone’s transient response will affect your recordings:

Compression: Larger diaphragms, with their slow response, tend to naturally compress a sound, smoothing out the transients
Smearing: Additionally, since large diaphragms take longer to stop moving after a sound has passed, they can also smear transients, sometimes blending one into the next.

These effects combine, in varying degrees depending on the mic, to yield a dark or flattened sound, generally suitable for bass, electric guitar, and edgy vocals.

Detail: Condenser mics, especially SDCs, better represent the transients we hear and, as such, yield a more detailed sound.
Higher frequencies: High frequency sounds tend to produce sharper transients, in which smaller diaphragm mics are better at capturing nuance.

These effects combine to yield a brighter, crisper sound, generally appropriate for acoustic guitar, drum cymbals, and delicate singers.

I’ve seen this all summarized as:

Faster – brighter, slower – darker.

Of course, that’s a very general guideline, because there are other important properties of a mic to consider (e.g. polar pattern, frequency response.) But when choosing a mic, it always helps to remember how its responsiveness will colour the sound of the instrument you’re recording.

John Vestman’s EQ Settings That Will Make Your Mixes Come Alive has just those types of getting-started tips. Advice like “Add 2 to 6dB at 2.5k to 5K, cut 2 to 8dB at 300 to 500hz, add 50 to 100hz.” for kick drum, and “the bass should have more mid-bottom from 150 to 200hz, and from 1K to 3K for clarity.”

John also outlines some of his general miking and mixing philosophies.

A great sounding kit starts with the player who knows how to dynamically balance his or her drums with the cymbals. BIG LOUD cymbals make your kic, snare, and toms sound softer… if you want the drums to sound BIG, hit the cymbals significantly softer.

Previously: Instrument-frequency chart

What is happening when you put a mic ‘over the shoulder’ is that the mic is hearing pretty much what the ear is hearing… except that the ear is able to distinguish between reflections as distinct events and a microphone does not have that capability.

… and some insight into phasing issues with overhead drum mics:

What will be immediately noticeable (in terms of phase issues) is the snare sound. If you are using a spaced pair (two mics seperated by a significant distance) one way to solve that is make sure both overheads are exactly the same distance from the center of the snare.

But make sure you understand what causes phase problems – it is what happens when the sound from a single source is picked up by two or more mics that are different distances from the source.