Quiet Time for Recording

[johnnydobbers]

How to you find it. How do you deal with the interrurptions of life?

[b1j]

It’s really tough. I can hear the road noise outside my house. It relatively quiet, though, unless it’s a truck or a Hot Dog whizzing by.

For me it’s also the space. Our large room is the best place to avoid flutter echo, and my wife prefers to have clutter out of the way (not complaining here; I benefit too from having a tidy house.

But for noise, I use close mics, about 9 inches from the guitar. This keep the signal/noise ratio high enough that I don’t hear noise in the recording. But I’m an amateur/hack; I’m not recording Abbey Road.

I record vocals in my wife’s closet, surrounded by hanging clothes.

Or, did you mean quiet TIME itself? Time without other demands, time with no hard endpoints? I suppose you could do like the later Beatles and record in the wee hours. That would take its toll on your sleep hygiene, but would solve the other problem.

[j3ffr0]

Late evening and weekend morning have been working for me.

[rmp]

My studio is a finished room in an isolated place in the walkout side of our basement. No one bothers me in there, and the traffic noise isn't really much of a bother there.

[FrankHudson]

This has been an increasing issue for me over the past couple of years. I have technical mitigations, but no complete relief. I've been recording on a very aggressive timetable for the past six years.

When I need to record acoustic guitar in my little home office "studio B" I use a clip on iRig Stage. Mono of course, picks up more pick noise, but the sound quality is acceptable.

When I have to do vocals in that same space I use my ElectroVoice RE20. I can work close with less proximity effect and I actually like how it matches up to my singing voice as well as spoken word.

I able to get good sound from electric guitar amp sims, and there are other advantages to them as well, but emotionally I never quite feel the same with them as playing guitar in a live room.

I have had short periods of "recording time" in my studio space in the past few months, but even though I have recorded "live in the studio, all players in the live room" in the past, I always feel rushed and constrained when it's just myself with a hard time limit. I'll often make mistakes when I tell myself I just have time to record a take or two, rather than getting an acceptable take in a similar 2-3 passes when I have a broad, more open-end time scheduled.

I wanted to do two pieces for some August 6th anniversaries as part of my Parlando Project, and I was behind in composition completion time for the first which led to zero time devoted to the second. I had maybe an hour to record the acoustic guitar track with vocals for the first one, a setting of a Longfellow poem. I felt rushed, I could have done a better vocal. I wasn't sure I'd even get an attempt at the second, a performance of a poem written by Sadoko Kurihara, and I had 10 minutes in my live room without any composition work done. I warmed up my fingers and then just improvised one take, one pass for the main electric guitar track on my Guild Starfire I. I recorded the vocal with the RE-20 when I got back to my "studio B" home office matching the guitar performance so that it sounded a bit like the guitarist was "following the vocals" as in a live performance. The bulk of the work was in getting an acceptable drum track, also following the guitar rather than the guitar locking in to the drums.

I accept both of those piece's results, and I've produced worse with open ended time over the six years of my Project, but there's a longing on my part for those more expansive time frames I once could devote to recording with open mics in a quiet room and several hour blocks of time.

[Dave Hicks]

Since I retired I can record most any time I want.

I live on a main street, not too far from the schools, so some times of day are noisy. Friday is garbage day, and Sunday is clothes-washing day.

As long as I'm willing to push the stop button when a loud car goes by, most times work pretty well.

D.H.

[KevWind]

Luckily not only am I retired, but it is pretty quiet hear the road noise is infrequent and about a 1/2 mile away so only hear it outside

[b1j]

Originally Posted by rmp

My studio is a finished room in an isolated place in the walkout side of our basement. No one bothers me in there, and the traffic noise isn't really much of a bother there.

This is at least as valuable as any guitar you might have! Enjoy.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

This has been an increasing issue for me over the past couple of years. I have technical mitigations, but no complete relief. I've been recording on a very aggressive timetable for the past six years.

When I need to record acoustic guitar in my little home office "studio B" I use a clip on iRig Stage. Mono of course, picks up more pick noise, but the sound quality is acceptable.

When I have to do vocals in that same space I use my ElectroVoice RE20. I can work close with less proximity effect and I actually like how it matches up to my singing voice as well as spoken word.

I able to get good sound from electric guitar amp sims, and there are other advantages to them as well, but emotionally I never quite feel the same with them as playing guitar in a live room.

I have had short periods of "recording time" in my studio space in the past few months, but even though I have recorded "live in the studio, all players in the live room" in the past, I always feel rushed and constrained when it's just myself with a hard time limit. I'll often make mistakes when I tell myself I just have time to record a take or two, rather than getting an acceptable take in a similar 2-3 passes when I have a broad, more open-end time scheduled.

I wanted to do two pieces for some August 6th anniversaries as part of my Parlando Project, and I was behind in composition completion time for the first which led to zero time devoted to the second. I had maybe an hour to record the acoustic guitar track with vocals for the first one, a setting of a Longfellow poem. I felt rushed, I could have done a better vocal. I wasn't sure I'd even get an attempt at the second, a performance of a poem written by Sadoko Kurihara, and I had 10 minutes in my live room without any composition work done. I warmed up my fingers and then just improvised one take, one pass for the main electric guitar track on my Guild Starfire I. I recorded the vocal with the RE-20 when I got back to my "studio B" home office matching the guitar performance so that it sounded a bit like the guitarist was "following the vocals" as in a live performance. The bulk of the work was in getting an acceptable drum track, also following the guitar rather than the guitar locking in to the drums.

I accept both of those piece's results, and I've produced worse with open ended time over the six years of my Project, but there's a longing on my part for those more expansive time frames I once could devote to recording with open mics in a quiet room and several hour blocks of time.

Frank, you’re describing what I feel when squeezed into a time constraint. Know that you’re not alone.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by johnnydobbers

How to you find it. How do you deal with the interrurptions of life?

This is always a problem for the home studio recordist. Trying to work your recording time into a schedule that's dictated by all the other noise that happens in a normal house can be difficult to say the least.

One thing that really takes the pressure off is to simply do your recording direct in for your instruments. It does take a bit of experimentation to find pickups that are at least somewhat close to what you want to ultimately hear, but that's a TON better than having your take ruined by traffic, your HVAC system, family noises, pets barking, doorbell ringing, appliance noises, or even a squeaky chair. (Yes, I've experienced them all and more.)

I do acoustic guitar stuff all the time with a K&K Pure Mini pickup and do overdubs with other instruments with pickups. I save the vocal overdubs for last and do them in one of those "quiet times" if necessary.

Here's a example of doing a recording using only a pickup. It's done with a looper, but a multi-tracker is done the same way.



Do pickups sound as good? No. But they sure make life easier!

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by b1j

Frank, you’re describing what I feel when squeezed into a time constraint. Know that you’re not alone.

Thanks for saying that.

Others here with more open-ended recording time (as I had for a few years) -- be thankful for what you have.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

This is always a problem for the home studio recordist. Trying to work your recording time into a schedule that's dictated by all the other noise that happens in a normal house can be difficult to say the least.

One thing that really takes the pressure off is to simply do your recording direct in for your instruments. It does take a bit of experimentation to find pickups that are at least somewhat close to what you want to ultimately hear, but that's a TON better than having your take ruined by traffic, your HVAC system, family noises, pets barking, doorbell ringing, appliance noises, or even a squeaky chair. (Yes, I've experienced them all and more.)

I do acoustic guitar stuff all the time with a K&K Pure Mini pickup and do overdubs with other instruments with pickups. I save the vocal overdubs for last and do them in one of those "quiet times" if necessary.

Here's a example of doing a recording using only a pickup. It's done with a looper, but a multi-tracker is done the same way.



Do pickups sound as good? No. But they sure make life easier!

Rudy, only one of my acoustics has a pickup. The LR Baggs Element in the J-45 sounds fine through my Loudbox Mini, but it feels a little too quacky to think about using it to record (that notion is more relevant for spare guitar-centric or guitar-only songs, less so with a lush instrumentation that can drown out a noise floor).

I feel like I want the natural sound of my great-sounding guitars, and that says mics. And of course I need mics for the other two guitars in any case. Using mics in an imperfect space says close mics. So for now, that’s my go-to setup. I also crank up the AC for several minutes before tracking begins so I can turn it off during tracking.

Yesterday I was mixing and focusing on a quiet passage with light picking, ending in a chord held for a full measure. I listened carefully on high playback volume and could hear nothing but the full ringing notes from the strings. No room noise at all. My theory is that close mic’ing gives a favorable signal:noise ratio. That gives me encouragement to stick with the plan for now, and not worry about recording through the pickup, even in my far-from-perfect recording space.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by b1j

Rudy, only one of my acoustics has a pickup. The LR Baggs Element in the J-45 sounds fine through my Loudbox Mini, but it feels a little too quacky to think about using it to record (that notion is more relevant for spare guitar-centric or guitar-only songs, less so with a lush instrumentation that can drown out a noise floor).

I feel like I want the natural sound of my great-sounding guitars, and that says mics. And of course I need mics for the other two guitars in any case. Using mics in an imperfect space says close mics. So for now, that’s my go-to setup. I also crank up the AC for several minutes before tracking begins so I can turn it off during tracking.

Yesterday I was mixing and focusing on a quiet passage with light picking, ending in a chord held for a full measure. I listened carefully on high playback volume and could hear nothing but the full ringing notes from the strings. No room noise at all. My theory is that close mic’ing gives a favorable signal:noise ratio. That gives me encouragement to stick with the plan for now, and not worry about recording through the pickup, even in my far-from-perfect recording space.

A ToneDexter might be useful if you want to use a pickup to tame the quackery.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by b1j

Rudy, only one of my acoustics has a pickup. The LR Baggs Element in the J-45 sounds fine through my Loudbox Mini, but it feels a little too quacky to think about using it to record (that notion is more relevant for spare guitar-centric or guitar-only songs, less so with a lush instrumentation that can drown out a noise floor).

I feel like I want the natural sound of my great-sounding guitars, and that says mics. And of course I need mics for the other two guitars in any case. Using mics in an imperfect space says close mics. So for now, that’s my go-to setup. I also crank up the AC for several minutes before tracking begins so I can turn it off during tracking.

Yesterday I was mixing and focusing on a quiet passage with light picking, ending in a chord held for a full measure. I listened carefully on high playback volume and could hear nothing but the full ringing notes from the strings. No room noise at all. My theory is that close mic’ing gives a favorable signal:noise ratio. That gives me encouragement to stick with the plan for now, and not worry about recording through the pickup, even in my far-from-perfect recording space.

I totally understand your desire to go the mic route.

The point that I was attempting to make was that its sometimes better to settle on a less than perfect method of recording if it allows concentrating on the more creative aspects of "making music".

If our space isn't conducive to getting clean recordings without background disturbance then it might be better to utilize a different process. Nothing wrong with not settling on second best methods, but we have to either accept all of the spurious noise or work on doing whatever we can to eliminate that.

If you are unfamiliar with Doug Fearn's "My Take On Music Recording" podcast series you may find "Recording In Improvised Spaces" worth a listen to shed a bit of light on possible solutions for your particular problem.

[TBman]

I finally decided to use a small part of our basement for recording, although carrying a guitar and some gear downstairs every time I want to record is inconvenient. I was recording in a bedroom, but we do get air traffic and it seemed that whenever I hit the red button a jet would fly overhead. After years of dodging the noise I gave up. The good side is that my recordings are free of much of the background noise I use to have to deal with. I'm also using 3 ATS 2x4 sound panels to form a 3 sided recording "booth."