Not only did this teach me as a PRODUCER on what to do for my own music. But also taught me how to have better expectations for the people I work with every week. Thank you so much this channel is better than some and most college courses. My career has only grown from watching you
16:40 I actually started to quintuple my guitars in the last year or so. I read in the book "Back to the Front" that's how Metallica tracked the guitars on Master of Puppets so I tried it, liked it, and that's what I've done ever since. I do hard left, hard right, 80% left, 80% right, and one dead center. You should try it, Glenn. I think you'll like the results.
That would also solve the mono compatibility issue. I only track 2 tracks hard left, 2 tracks hard right and that's it. Sometimes I will only do two tracks and use 2 microphones per guitar track to get a bit of extra thicness that is missing and it works fine for me but when turned to mono my guitars vanish :D I don't particularly care about that issue but having a rhythm guitar track in the center would certainly solve that. Also I did a recording of 3 rhythm guitar tracks with this band about 11 years ago - 1 Left/ 1 Right and one in the center and it turned out surprisingly good so I get what you're saying. I do have to say that with that setting I had a bit of an extra problem with the vocal fighting for space against that center guitar track.
I find it depends on the song to be honest. For more faster, tighter sounding tracks, I find that double tracking works much better. For more slow, sludgy tracks, quad tracking works really well. I think it’s actually most effective when you use quad tracking specifically in either the chorus or any specific part of the song that you want to make sound huge in comparison to the rest of the song!
Man, that gain staging one seriously helped. I was always wondering why my recordings would peak even though I was recording at 0 db. Definitely gonna record with at least -6 from now on
Remember when the Staples store used to have those big red button things that said “easy“ on them and every time you press it, it would say “that was easy“. I need one of those for the studio, but Glenn’s voice to just yell obscenities and instructions.... maybe just obscenities. Build it Glenn. We’ll all buy the fuckers.
On a related note, there is a bullshit button but Glenn's Voice would be awesome. Here is a site for custom buttons: adprospb.com/easy-button-large.html
@Daniel Drader Would watch a Matt Parkey/Twey Storn protagonist in a movie on Juul Mango going missing with the youth of today being replaced by "Shining"
This is what I’ve been trying to get myself into. Thank you for making this video. This is good not only for engineers, but for musicians in their bedroom recording their own music. It’s important that we make sure that we get our sound on the money.
When the assumption is ‘aw come on, man, everybody knows that’, you have not worked with users long enough. Pros compact their knowledge they acquired over a long time and internalise the message: because I know it everybody else knows it. But they really don’t. They only get that experience like everybody else does: by screwing it up a few times until they understand why it’s important (and then some of them still won’t care). Never assume common sense when working with people you don’t know. They have no idea what that is.
Why can I not upvote this twice? Once again Glen swoops down with the knowledge. Your demeanor and the way you put things literally inspires me to DO THE WORK. Thank you once again, sensei.
Thank you Glenn!! I'm trying to learn to record at home, this is gold. Greetings from a crappy bass player who quit his band cause he knew he sucked to practice more and actually try and make something good down the line. Cheers!
I went to the School of Audio Engineering in 1987, and just started recording digitally a few weeks ago, I've been aiming for 0db like I always have, so thanks for stopping me from fucking everything up! I also had no idea about auto crossfade on clips, so this video has been invaluable. Thanks Glenn!
You should really do some reading on the new metering, here is a bit of information because as we go into the future of high-quality streaming zero is not 0! LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It's a standardized measurement of audio loudness that factors human perception and electrical signal intensity together. Incidentally all of the streaming services have different dynamic controls you can look them up via Google and find out what’s the optimum level for the service you were going to submit your music to
@@DrRyman Thanks. There's a lot to learn, but plenty of tutorial material available thankfully. I was on both sides of the desk for a few years, but for the last 20 years or so I've been behind the mic and others have done the engineering, too many cooks etc etc. It's a fairly steep learning curve going from analogue to digital, but the software is mostly based on the old hardware anyway, so it's not totally foreign, you still have to do the same things essentially.
I got into the habit of retuning when I was a kid and had a guitar that ( probably because of me ) would not stay in tune for very long. 20 years later I still find myself checking my tuner every ten minutes or so and it has saved me a lot of trouble.
Last year was basically me learning almost everything what was mentioned here. After that I finished recording my EP and it took it to a whole new level just by applying the stuff you said. So glad this video took place.
I've always found recording drums with at least scratch guitars at the studio, then doing the rest at home after has always been easier than trying to do the opposite when time/budget for studio work is an issue.
Idk where to start.. this is all new knowledge as i haven't really mixed .. just attempt and delete everything i try to create the last 2 years. Glad i found this channel! Love your style of teaching.
@@JbfMusicGuitar If you use sample delay instead of all sit in your cut and paste his sample delayed past 300 or so will sound in phase and will pair in separate from the other side. Sample delay tool and logic audio is especially good for this
17:30-40, bang on!!!really the entire video is on point!!! You're a legend, and I wholeheartedly applaud and thank you for setting the mouth breathing musos of the world straight, and for helping engineers to have a better day at work!!! TRACK LIVES MATTER!
Oh man, this is exactly what I was looking for for home recordings. Even without passing them onto an external engineer, the advice here is applicable to doing everything at home. Awesome work!
I have an e-kit going into EZDrummer plus a Blackstar 100 watt head with an emulated output directly into logic. The neighbours are happy with my near silent recording !
Great info here and also the best humor I have witnessed in a long time! This is defiantly one of those videos everyone that comes over to my studio will have to watch as a prerequisite to a project. I just love the content and the way the humor just hammers it home (especially for those exceptionally talented musicians) Thanks Glen you made my day!
I always at least keep a whole bar open before I even say I’m ready to record. I had to explain that to my friends nephew because he let you start playing then he would hit record. You can always cut what isn’t needed but never add what’s not there.
Just recently found your channel, you preach the same stuff that I do. I have been performing in public for over 50 years, been in many bands and run a small home recording studio. Anyway....enough about me. Really digging your channel and all of your advice is spot on!! Rock on brother.
I love this guy!!! No nonsense, tell it like it is, no bullshit! Awesome video! I've been telling my clients a few of these tips for years.... eventually, they will get it!
A brilliant lesson. I love the humour and passion. Been recording since 1974 and every tip is so important. Also in the long run Glenn you want to produce quality and not go bust. You are a star. 😀
Thanks glen i have been recording for 35 years when reel to reel Technics was around, this day of home recording has come along way but you make it understandable thank you
First-time viewer: Spot on about everything! But when he said, "...SloTools!" Super-smashed the subscribe and notification bundle instantly!!! "Nobody Cares" is just plain brilliant...this is definitely music to any seasoned engineer's ears, and while shouting at them (with targeted insult) for the very reason that leads to the shouting is absolutely necessary! One can only express things calmly once and during the first interaction, but anything after that triggers the threshold by 20:1 and is subject to +db of human shouting with cherry-topped insults for being morons. This digital recording paradigm has definitely done something special with the limits of patience. Your straightforward presence is completely necessary!
Hey Glen, I needed this. Right before I watched this, I sent a friend some files and they looked liked the 2nd gain staging example. He sent me a reply, "dude, your signal is way too hot. You crushed your signal". I face palmed and admitted to myself I don't know what I thought I knew. Keep these videos coming
Ableton boy here. Automatic cross fades are an essential. Glad to hear Reaper has this feature, too. By the way, you never refer to keyboard players, Glen. Are we the perfect angels?
I learned a long time ago to check my ego at the door when recording...take criticism, deal with the fact that I’m not infallible. The guy that produced/recorded my old band loved that I (and the other guys)were open to his advice (he had recorded/mixed and played drums with many big name classic rock acts)...long time friendship forged and a wealth of knowledge learned...
I just saw this for the first time and I noticed I just did a couple of the things you just said, this is an eye opener and I have to say I laughed and enjoyed the video, but what you said is crucial in the business and true, thank you!
As a musician trying to learn as much as I can to do recording at home (because of this pandemic) I deeply thank you Glenn for the very valuable information, lessons, tutorials and the laughs to help get me the best sound possible. I have improved from a static and hum polluted pile of shit to a demo that sounds shockingly good (to my surprise). I wish I could send you the before and after so you can have a laugh at it as well... Thanks Glenn.. you are fucking awesome...
This was a great video. It could’ve been 15 sections of “set your levels correctly,” but above and beyond was the move. I have learned and forgotten this more than once.
For avoiding EMI noise, you should use balanced (XLR) wires when you can. Depending on the complexity of your home studio, this may not be much unless you have an analog mixer, but at least do it for your microphones. Their low signal levels make it easier to pick up noise. Electric guitars won't have it (I'm not a guitar guy but apparently you should use a DI box), but better microphones (especially the ones that need phantom power) do. Sometimes you will see TRS jacks that say "balanced". You can connect them together with a stereo patch cord, or the correct TRS to XLR adapter cable. When balanced connections are not possible, use shorter wires, and keep them tidy. The less things they cross, the less chance they have to pick up noise. And then there was the time I tried to hook up a MacBook Pro to an amp (I just wanted to chill to my iTunes) and got a ground loop. I was using the little plug dongle (no ground) on the power brick, and just changing it to a grounded AC cord fixed it. So don't skimp on power grounds. And use a cable tester on your XLR wires from time to time if you take them on the road (or score some cheap used ones)! I even found one where a manufacturing defect caused a signal wire to be shorted to the shield. I only found out because I had rigged up XLR adapters for a cat-5 tester. Then you can wind them all up on a power cord reel and test the whole chain again.
Plus - dont put any fades in and out of finished songs until the mastering process, otherwise the fades will interfere with any compression necessary at the matering stage.
I wish this video was made years ago. I always wondered what that computer noise was until one day when I turned away from the computer and the noise went completely away. I spent money on hardware that supposed to get rid of electrical interference. It didn't work so I was just stumped until I accidentally figured it out.
I'm no producer or engineer, I've sort of learned things as I've gone along when recording my own demos. Videos like this are so damn useful. Although, I still fear ever sending my stuff to be mixed by a professional 😅
Same here I just do what ever sounds good to me I don't really know jack shit when it comes to mixing but I've picked up a few things from watching some yt videos
The ironic part of his gain staging advice is....if you look at the computer monitor in the background, you can see he was recording a little hot himself.
The red line seems to be set at the level he wants, where there is still headroom for momentary peaks, which is the point of setting it 6-12db down. And it looked to me like his levels were good. Digital can't go higher than 0db because the numbers can't go any higher, so you lose the peaks, and it looks like a buzz haircut. If the levels are too low, it can be boosted in software, but then it still has less precision in the individual samples, which is also distortion. For some reason the moving part of the bar on camera is always red, but it's yellow in screen grab cuts.
He's slamming the mic pre signal with an outboard Distressor Compressor (probably)... so it's gona have that "wall of signal" appearance. He knows at what point he will get no more amplitude, and he's put that exactly where he wants it. His voice sounds good with the Distressor.... it sounds metal. That's the whole idea.... the screaming, the distressor... the cutting commentary. It sounds groovy and fits the content... it has become iconic. And hats-off for it.
i want every tutorial, guide, course and learning material in general to be shouted and screamed at me like this. it's really keeping my attention and i have to say it's very effective.
Fucking thank you. As a guitarist that DOES double and quad track my recordings, I can't stand when someone sends me something to work on and they "doubled" the guitar... but just copy and pasted it. I just had this conversation with my lead guitarist, He started into music late, so he's only been at it a year and a half, and is just learning to record, and his buddy taught him that was acceptable, and I had to tell him the reason his guitars sounded small compared to mine wasn't that I was using better software (Which, isn't better, just different from his, I was using Bias, while he was using Emissary) To prove the point I lined up the same free effects chain as him, and laid my tracks down again (for a total of 8 good takes, 4 just to prove a point) and the track came out, again, sounding absolutely massive. So he learned though, having witnessed it. The second lesson, He has an SG, and myself being a Les Paul player, had to explain he needed to retune, all the time, because SGs, and LPs, are notoriously unstable, and chorus easily when multi tracking. (Actually for recording purposes, I usually actually use a Schecter 7 string, and when I play live or rehearse, I use my LP. Because the Schecter is a monster in the studio, and stays in fucking tune. Still haven't gotten through to him to send me DI tracks even though he records as a DI, and then he isn't very skilled at tone creation yet, so he will have too much gain or, too much bass left in, etc, and instead of me, just rerunning it through either the same chain with a better tone setup, or you know, using other sims and IRs, I am stuck with the gain to the point of fracturing the guitars waveform (Dynamics are for pussies apparently) but yeah. All of this. And this coming from a fucking rhythm guitarist.. you know, the guitarist that hides in the back making sure the bassist doesn't wander off mid set...
Hell yeah. Imagine doing a full orchestra template print with hundreds of tracks without systematic numbering... either you don't know what you're doing, or you really don't like the guy who works with your stuff.
LOL yeah - yet i was SO proud when i got it Only they hadnt written PC drivers for the interface yet, so it stayed boxed up for months Then shortly after i'd got it doing it developed clicky clicky click disease (power relay kept dropping - (due to what i now know was a his res power loom)) You could only use their proprietary hardware back then so i was silenced for MONTHS Reaper for me :)
600 years from now this video will be studied as a core philosophy "text" like Tae te Ching. Every lesson is super practical, but also metaphysical af.
I always knew I was going to end up coming to your channel eventually. Good shit! You're helping an amateur become a bit less of an amateur with every video.
i was SO proud when i got dear ol SlowTools ;) Then the interface xxxxed up and I couhdt use non-Digidesign hardware (well, you codnt back then!) And I had a Label get interested in my stuff that week, but couldnt do vocals Reaper - never looked back ;)
Reaper is a godsend. For what I need, I don't think I have any reason to go to another daw. Just an awesome balance of affordability, simplicity, and capability
I so fucking love this. Hands down, experience speaks louder when you are a professional and the frustrations when no one listens and think they know how to do things. You hire an engineer, LISTEN TO THEM!!!
Haha!! Years ago I recorded some math metal with my old band. We tracked analogue and it was then chucked onto a pc to mix ( my friend was doing an engineering course so he bounced the project to disk to enable others in the course to use the studio) but when we first listened back to the tracks we were like " what the fark is this? my god dude, shits ALL over the place man".... and he said "isn't just how your tunes go? and I died a little inside, and felt a sense of pride at the same time that I still cant explain lol
Great advice right here. I didn't know a bunch of this stuff until a friend of mine (who happens to be a producer) guided me through this. Yeah, there's a lot of work to be done but if you want to have the best results you gotta start by upping your game and putting your best efforts into it.
It was a chuckle and PTSD rolled into one. From my experience, it's invariably a recording school grad who is computer illiterate and never bothered learning anything else. Take a task that is dead simple in my DAW (along with numerous others), yet they can't understand how. Then it's hours of me searching Profools manual to find an approximation, then going to the person's place to show them how. That's ......... slow.
Oh i felt so cool being a pro Fool, with my shiny new interface... But it almost killed ME too ;) The 002R caught clicky click disease (which I later learned was a high resistance power loom) so I had NOTHING to use, for like ages (as ProTools only worked with it's own hardware back then) Reaper! Fool no more ;)
honestly, if this guy was my algebra teacher in high school, i'd probably remember what algebra is.
I might have gone to algebra if he was my teacher
Probably not though the naps under the stairs was good
@@smiledespite that or any given gym closet or a friend's car or simply at the desk. Good times.
2+2=? Yo
Bro that hits hard. I feel that
Its exactly what everyone needs to remember something. Some old dude screaming at you..
Not only did this teach me as a PRODUCER on what to do for my own music. But also taught me how to have better expectations for the people I work with every week. Thank you so much this channel is better than some and most college courses. My career has only grown from watching you
"It sounds weird and abru-"
*ad plays*
Well played
I got interrupted by Tony Robbins UGH Giant weirdo
That was excellent. Never smiled at an ad break before.
Happened to me as well lol
Adblock
Man we are so lucky to have videos like these so freely available.
Glenn's personality is literally "Is nobody else here pissed off right now?" And i love him for it lol
Except it’s fake outrage.
The Alex Jones of studio engineering
@@altonlyter2024 It's still hilarious. This guy could be a comedian.
@@randolphgallagher7942 hed get heckled and quit day 1
@@randolphgallagher7942 He's an absolute shill.
I love how his voice recording is clipping like Mad in the background 😂
I noticed as well,
"but thats my sound, man"
"nobody knows who you are!"
i almost spit out my drink laughing 😂
That was comedy gold!
A legend in his own mind that one
Haha - I know: what a burn!
goddamn I was actually in fact drinking coffee so I had hard times to withhold the stuff and not filter it through my nose
Owh... I thought he was saying "but that's my 'sound man' " and makes me confused about what he meant...
16:40 I actually started to quintuple my guitars in the last year or so. I read in the book "Back to the Front" that's how Metallica tracked the guitars on Master of Puppets so I tried it, liked it, and that's what I've done ever since. I do hard left, hard right, 80% left, 80% right, and one dead center. You should try it, Glenn. I think you'll like the results.
That would also solve the mono compatibility issue. I only track 2 tracks hard left, 2 tracks hard right and that's it. Sometimes I will only do two tracks and use 2 microphones per guitar track to get a bit of extra thicness that is missing and it works fine for me but when turned to mono my guitars vanish :D I don't particularly care about that issue but having a rhythm guitar track in the center would certainly solve that. Also I did a recording of 3 rhythm guitar tracks with this band about 11 years ago - 1 Left/ 1 Right and one in the center and it turned out surprisingly good so I get what you're saying. I do have to say that with that setting I had a bit of an extra problem with the vocal fighting for space against that center guitar track.
I find it depends on the song to be honest. For more faster, tighter sounding tracks, I find that double tracking works much better. For more slow, sludgy tracks, quad tracking works really well. I think it’s actually most effective when you use quad tracking specifically in either the chorus or any specific part of the song that you want to make sound huge in comparison to the rest of the song!
I love the blunt reactions here. “If your track looks like this, you fucked up” 😂🔥
I lol’d
It's like Uncle Roger and fried rice, but with music
its perfect!
In his defense, that shit was horribly clipped.
yeah - he's good huh ?
Man, that gain staging one seriously helped. I was always wondering why my recordings would peak even though I was recording at 0 db. Definitely gonna record with at least -6 from now on
Remember when the Staples store used to have those big red button things that said “easy“ on them and every time you press it, it would say “that was easy“. I need one of those for the studio, but Glenn’s voice to just yell obscenities and instructions.... maybe just obscenities.
Build it Glenn. We’ll all buy the fuckers.
My boss actually got everyone in the office one waaaaay back when I was an IT guy. I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere around here. 😆😆
I'd buy one! Especially if it screamed, "Get your shit together dumbass!"
On a related note, there is a bullshit button but Glenn's Voice would be awesome. Here is a site for custom buttons: adprospb.com/easy-button-large.html
I new someone who took one apart and figured it out so that you could record onto the chip whatever you wanted. Pretty funny.
@@electricwhiterabbit Now I'm going to have to dig for it so that I'll have my very own blyat button. 😆😆😆
"But that's my sound man..." LOL HAHAH "No one knows who you are, STFU GUITAR HEROOOOOOOO." This dude is fucking excellent.
"stop huffing paint" as i am watching this in my freshly painted living room
Meh. It's water based. It's like acting drunk off root beer. BOOOOORING!
I felt personally attacked....
STOP THAT
@Daniel Drader Would watch a Matt Parkey/Twey Storn protagonist in a movie on Juul Mango going missing with the youth of today being replaced by "Shining"
wrong paint...
This is what I’ve been trying to get myself into. Thank you for making this video. This is good not only for engineers, but for musicians in their bedroom recording their own music. It’s important that we make sure that we get our sound on the money.
"You would assume that all of this is just common sense, but then again this is the music business" LMFAO so true.
When the assumption is ‘aw come on, man, everybody knows that’, you have not worked with users long enough. Pros compact their knowledge they acquired over a long time and internalise the message: because I know it everybody else knows it. But they really don’t. They only get that experience like everybody else does: by screwing it up a few times until they understand why it’s important (and then some of them still won’t care).
Never assume common sense when working with people you don’t know. They have no idea what that is.
Common sense is not so common anymore. 😂
Amazing. Thanks for the brief description.
Why can I not upvote this twice? Once again Glen swoops down with the knowledge. Your demeanor and the way you put things literally inspires me to DO THE WORK. Thank you once again, sensei.
yes def the DO THE WORK part
As somebody who works with mixing & mastering, you'd be amazed how many people sent me files that look exactly like those at 11:58
'-6db, -12db' I don't give a fuck, just give it some space!' Spot on Glenn!!
worzz of wizzum!
Just to be clear, he's always talking about the peak and never mentions the RMS, right?
@@AllanFelipe Yes, -6db RMS will or could be fekin loud
@@Al_Mac125 True, and not even have headroom to accommodate the peaks :D peak it is..
Glad to know that I've been doing 90% of this since I started recording myself just over a year ago.. lol.. Appreciate the tips as well brother
Thank you Glenn!! I'm trying to learn to record at home, this is gold.
Greetings from a crappy bass player who quit his band cause he knew he sucked to practice more and actually try and make something good down the line. Cheers!
I’m 8 minutes into this video and I think it’s one of the better videos on this issue, love your energy and approach 💯
I went to the School of Audio Engineering in 1987, and just started recording digitally a few weeks ago, I've been aiming for 0db like I always have, so thanks for stopping me from fucking everything up! I also had no idea about auto crossfade on clips, so this video has been invaluable. Thanks Glenn!
You can calibrate your equipment and DAW to read 0db while still being in the actual Goldilocks zone if it makes life easier on your brain.
@@legacyShredder1 Thanks! I read up on that after watching the video, so I'll be checking a few things out today.
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn If you use a ton of outboard gear calibrating can be helpful.
You should really do some reading on the new metering, here is a bit of information because as we go into the future of high-quality streaming zero is not 0!
LUFS stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale. It's a standardized measurement of audio loudness that factors human perception and electrical signal intensity together.
Incidentally all of the streaming services have different dynamic controls you can look them up via Google and find out what’s the optimum level for the service you were going to submit your music to
@@DrRyman Thanks. There's a lot to learn, but plenty of tutorial material available thankfully. I was on both sides of the desk for a few years, but for the last 20 years or so I've been behind the mic and others have done the engineering, too many cooks etc etc. It's a fairly steep learning curve going from analogue to digital, but the software is mostly based on the old hardware anyway, so it's not totally foreign, you still have to do the same things essentially.
I got into the habit of retuning when I was a kid and had a guitar that ( probably because of me ) would not stay in tune for very long.
20 years later I still find myself checking my tuner every ten minutes or so and it has saved me a lot of trouble.
As a bass player I don’t understand the open string complaint???? I only know how to play open strings !!!! Do want bass or not ??????
Great stuff Glenn
new strings?
satriani says he never changes his strings.
Love your jam tracks man
Last year was basically me learning almost everything what was mentioned here. After that I finished recording my EP and it took it to a whole new level just by applying the stuff you said. So glad this video took place.
Love this, Glenn! Family first. I will pray and play
I've always found recording drums with at least scratch guitars at the studio, then doing the rest at home after has always been easier than trying to do the opposite when time/budget for studio work is an issue.
Idk where to start.. this is all new knowledge as i haven't really mixed .. just attempt and delete everything i try to create the last 2 years.
Glad i found this channel!
Love your style of teaching.
Not gonna lie the whole 'don't copy & paste for a stereo sound' thing took me waaay to long to catch on to, lol
Yup same here
I used to offset one and didn't understand what being way out of phase sounded like.
@@wasserhahn903 Oh, man don't suggest stuff like that to me, lol!
@@davejohnsonmusic Same, I'd only notice on certain hi-fi speakers and wonder what on earth was going on!
@@JbfMusicGuitar
If you use sample delay instead of all sit in your cut and paste his sample delayed past 300 or so will sound in phase and will pair in separate from the other side. Sample delay tool and logic audio is especially good for this
17:30-40, bang on!!!really the entire video is on point!!! You're a legend, and I wholeheartedly applaud and thank you for setting the mouth breathing musos of the world straight, and for helping engineers to have a better day at work!!! TRACK LIVES MATTER!
Oh man, this is exactly what I was looking for for home recordings. Even without passing them onto an external engineer, the advice here is applicable to doing everything at home. Awesome work!
I have an e-kit going into EZDrummer plus a Blackstar 100 watt head with an emulated output directly into logic. The neighbours are happy with my near silent recording !
Great info here and also the best humor I have witnessed in a long time! This is defiantly one of those videos everyone that comes over to my studio will have to watch as a prerequisite to a project. I just love the content and the way the humor just hammers it home (especially for those exceptionally talented musicians) Thanks Glen you made my day!
Man, you are gold. Thank you for existing
I always at least keep a whole bar open before I even say I’m ready to record. I had to explain that to my friends nephew because he let you start playing then he would hit record. You can always cut what isn’t needed but never add what’s not there.
Just recently found your channel, you preach the same stuff that I do. I have been performing in public for over 50 years, been in many bands and run a small home recording studio. Anyway....enough about me. Really digging your channel and all of your advice is spot on!! Rock on brother.
The video went to advert right in the middle of when you said “abrupt”. Please tell me you had control over that. The comic timing was gold!
"The start of the song just sounds weird and abru-" EARN CRYPTO BY LEARNING ABOUT CRYPTO
You get ads with your videos?
@@braunhausmedia watching on console, plus it supports the channel to right?
@@drummerbombom It sure as hell does!
Wow!!! Awesome video, Glen! Thank you. 😃
Taking notes altho I know my music will still suck, but at least it will suck properly. Thanks man!
I love this guy!!! No nonsense, tell it like it is, no bullshit! Awesome video! I've been telling my clients a few of these tips for years.... eventually, they will get it!
A brilliant lesson. I love the humour and passion. Been recording since 1974 and every tip is so important. Also in the long run Glenn you want to produce quality and not go bust. You are a star. 😀
Thanks glen i have been recording for 35 years when reel to reel Technics was around, this day of home recording has come along way but you make it understandable thank you
I love every single moment of scolding/screaming/shouting/ranting in this vid.
Glad you liked it!
First-time viewer: Spot on about everything! But when he said, "...SloTools!" Super-smashed the subscribe and notification bundle instantly!!! "Nobody Cares" is just plain brilliant...this is definitely music to any seasoned engineer's ears, and while shouting at them (with targeted insult) for the very reason that leads to the shouting is absolutely necessary! One can only express things calmly once and during the first interaction, but anything after that triggers the threshold by 20:1 and is subject to +db of human shouting with cherry-topped insults for being morons. This digital recording paradigm has definitely done something special with the limits of patience. Your straightforward presence is completely necessary!
Hey Glen, I needed this. Right before I watched this, I sent a friend some files and they looked liked the 2nd gain staging example. He sent me a reply, "dude, your signal is way too hot. You crushed your signal". I face palmed and admitted to myself I don't know what I thought I knew. Keep these videos coming
You learned something and admitted you made a mistake that makes you better than 90% of the idiots Glenn is talking about
Ableton boy here. Automatic cross fades are an essential. Glad to hear Reaper has this feature, too. By the way, you never refer to keyboard players, Glen. Are we the perfect angels?
I learned a long time ago to check my ego at the door when recording...take criticism, deal with the fact that I’m not infallible. The guy that produced/recorded my old band loved that I (and the other guys)were open to his advice (he had recorded/mixed and played drums with many big name classic rock acts)...long time friendship forged and a wealth of knowledge learned...
Can’t pay enough for this kind of information. Thank you so much, sir. Video liked, subscribed, and saved.
So funny to see Glenn going crazy about everybody "recording everything in to the red" while the Reaper meter on his back was actually into the red XD
I also noticed that, angry stuff xD
Hey if I need to huff some paint fumes for inspiration that’s between me and Sherwin Williams
I just saw this for the first time and I noticed I just did a couple of the things you just said, this is an eye opener and I have to say I laughed and enjoyed the video, but what you said is crucial in the business and true, thank you!
I'm laughing and crying at the same time because every single point in this video is so true/important, yet so difficult for some to do properly.
I knew some of this, but the demonstration at 17:15 made the whole video worthwhile. I also enjoyed the cursing.
As a musician trying to learn as much as I can to do recording at home (because of this pandemic) I deeply thank you Glenn for the very valuable information, lessons, tutorials and the laughs to help get me the best sound possible. I have improved from a static and hum polluted pile of shit to a demo that sounds shockingly good (to my surprise). I wish I could send you the before and after so you can have a laugh at it as well... Thanks Glenn.. you are fucking awesome...
This was a great video. It could’ve been 15 sections of “set your levels correctly,” but above and beyond was the move.
I have learned and forgotten this more than once.
I just got Reaper. So excited to fuck everything up.
This is by far my favorite channel for this kind of stuff.
Common sense is a flower that doesn't bloom on every garden.
"In the fulness of time, a garden to nurture and protect."
Love is a nose and you better not pick it.
Going back watching a lot of this content and this one is really good! I could’ve benefited from this 3 years ago, not sure how I missed it then 😔
This vid is just plain GLORIOUS, music schools should have the transcript made into a mandatory recited pledge.
Love this guy, this is by far the best and most informative video I’ve seen in RUclips since the start of Covid.
From now on when people ask what they need to do to come in i'm going to send them a link to this video.
Please do!
@@TonyTenor3000 what?
Or you can just make a list of what you want. Shouldn't you be doing that anyway?
@@B3Band yes. But this is funny ;)
This is amazing! Your energy is fantastic! I love it!!
Glad you enjoyed it, Brad!
the aggression is strong in this one, he's gonna bust a few blood vessels
For avoiding EMI noise, you should use balanced (XLR) wires when you can. Depending on the complexity of your home studio, this may not be much unless you have an analog mixer, but at least do it for your microphones. Their low signal levels make it easier to pick up noise. Electric guitars won't have it (I'm not a guitar guy but apparently you should use a DI box), but better microphones (especially the ones that need phantom power) do. Sometimes you will see TRS jacks that say "balanced". You can connect them together with a stereo patch cord, or the correct TRS to XLR adapter cable. When balanced connections are not possible, use shorter wires, and keep them tidy. The less things they cross, the less chance they have to pick up noise.
And then there was the time I tried to hook up a MacBook Pro to an amp (I just wanted to chill to my iTunes) and got a ground loop. I was using the little plug dongle (no ground) on the power brick, and just changing it to a grounded AC cord fixed it. So don't skimp on power grounds.
And use a cable tester on your XLR wires from time to time if you take them on the road (or score some cheap used ones)! I even found one where a manufacturing defect caused a signal wire to be shorted to the shield. I only found out because I had rigged up XLR adapters for a cat-5 tester. Then you can wind them all up on a power cord reel and test the whole chain again.
Plus - dont put any fades in and out of finished songs until the mastering process, otherwise the fades will interfere with any compression necessary at the matering stage.
Problem is we got two decades of people that don’t know what the “mastering process” is… LOL
Do you mean putting Waves L3 Ultramaximizer on master track? Loud and Proud preset 'cause this is metal obvs. 😈
@@catwithoutsoul1531 if it dips below 0.01
is it even "metal"? lol
I wish this video was made years ago. I always wondered what that computer noise was until one day when I turned away from the computer and the noise went completely away. I spent money on hardware that supposed to get rid of electrical interference. It didn't work so I was just stumped until I accidentally figured it out.
I'm no producer or engineer, I've sort of learned things as I've gone along when recording my own demos. Videos like this are so damn useful. Although, I still fear ever sending my stuff to be mixed by a professional 😅
Same here I just do what ever sounds good to me I don't really know jack shit when it comes to mixing but I've picked up a few things from watching some yt videos
3:30 thank you so much!! So great to hear a professional confirm this with 0 BS :D
"..and it just sounds weird and abrup-" *ADVERTSTARTS*
Clever. lol
This awesome !
The ironic part of his gain staging advice is....if you look at the computer monitor in the background, you can see he was recording a little hot himself.
A) He's processing it before recording with outboard gear. B) He's recording for himself. C) He knows what he's doing.
I don't think you need so much processing for a youtube video, I mean what would you do with a voice track? Just cut the white noise and that's it xd
The red line seems to be set at the level he wants, where there is still headroom for momentary peaks, which is the point of setting it 6-12db down. And it looked to me like his levels were good. Digital can't go higher than 0db because the numbers can't go any higher, so you lose the peaks, and it looks like a buzz haircut. If the levels are too low, it can be boosted in software, but then it still has less precision in the individual samples, which is also distortion.
For some reason the moving part of the bar on camera is always red, but it's yellow in screen grab cuts.
He's slamming the mic pre signal with an outboard Distressor Compressor (probably)... so it's gona have that "wall of signal" appearance. He knows at what point he will get no more amplitude, and he's put that exactly where he wants it. His voice sounds good with the Distressor.... it sounds metal. That's the whole idea.... the screaming, the distressor... the cutting commentary. It sounds groovy and fits the content... it has become iconic. And hats-off for it.
YES! LMAO!
i want every tutorial, guide, course and learning material in general to be shouted and screamed at me like this. it's really keeping my attention and i have to say it's very effective.
The Group that will go to the studio out of town after watching this:
👁️👄👁️
Awesome video (though for the record, Flock of Seagulls were important and awesome).
"so even your signer can't fuck this up" Subscribed.
This is great! 👍🏼👍🏼
That consolidated Operation Glenncrime - Gulfoss track sounds amazing.
I like your subtle approach to teaching.
Fucking thank you. As a guitarist that DOES double and quad track my recordings, I can't stand when someone sends me something to work on and they "doubled" the guitar... but just copy and pasted it.
I just had this conversation with my lead guitarist, He started into music late, so he's only been at it a year and a half, and is just learning to record, and his buddy taught him that was acceptable, and I had to tell him the reason his guitars sounded small compared to mine wasn't that I was using better software (Which, isn't better, just different from his, I was using Bias, while he was using Emissary) To prove the point I lined up the same free effects chain as him, and laid my tracks down again (for a total of 8 good takes, 4 just to prove a point) and the track came out, again, sounding absolutely massive.
So he learned though, having witnessed it. The second lesson, He has an SG, and myself being a Les Paul player, had to explain he needed to retune, all the time, because SGs, and LPs, are notoriously unstable, and chorus easily when multi tracking. (Actually for recording purposes, I usually actually use a Schecter 7 string, and when I play live or rehearse, I use my LP. Because the Schecter is a monster in the studio, and stays in fucking tune.
Still haven't gotten through to him to send me DI tracks even though he records as a DI, and then he isn't very skilled at tone creation yet, so he will have too much gain or, too much bass left in, etc, and instead of me, just rerunning it through either the same chain with a better tone setup, or you know, using other sims and IRs, I am stuck with the gain to the point of fracturing the guitars waveform (Dynamics are for pussies apparently) but yeah. All of this. And this coming from a fucking rhythm guitarist.. you know, the guitarist that hides in the back making sure the bassist doesn't wander off mid set...
This bass player wandered off half way through your comment. But spot on.
Those were some useful tips, even when mixing at home and not recording metal music. Thank you, sir.
*"... the fact that tracks aren't numbered is a huge pain in the ass."* So damn true. 😣😆
Hell yeah. Imagine doing a full orchestra template print with hundreds of tracks without systematic numbering...
either you don't know what you're doing, or you really don't like the guy who works with your stuff.
love your vids man. my mixes have gotten better since i started watching your videos. keep up with the videos
The non consolidated song was a masterpiece
Nice to see there's still bands being influenced by The Shaggs.
@@surfdigby 😂😂😂
This video is most definively the best value content in the whole of the "music bussines" ever created.
Slow Tools. Vid of the year for that term alone.
LOL yeah - yet i was SO proud when i got it
Only they hadnt written PC drivers for the interface yet, so it stayed boxed up for months
Then shortly after i'd got it doing it developed clicky clicky click disease (power relay kept dropping - (due to what i now know was a his res power loom))
You could only use their proprietary hardware back then so i was silenced for MONTHS
Reaper for me :)
Haven't got a clue what he's talking about but fun to watch! Love his use of expletives!
600 years from now this video will be studied as a core philosophy "text" like Tae te Ching. Every lesson is super practical, but also metaphysical af.
Really, I just want people to not make terrible recordings, that’s all! :)
The modern Plato's Academy
darn man I've been realy needing to get out of my garage
The Analects of Glenn
Thanks for this Glenn, I’m getting into home recording and you just helped me avoid a lot of pitfalls
Mistake 16: Not sending tranquilizers to your mixing engineer.
Mistake 17: Tracking drums on 2 mics
I always knew I was going to end up coming to your channel eventually. Good shit! You're helping an amateur become a bit less of an amateur with every video.
When you mentioned that you use Reaper that was all I needed to hear. This is a guy who knows whats up.
i was SO proud when i got dear ol SlowTools ;)
Then the interface xxxxed up and I couhdt use non-Digidesign hardware (well, you codnt back then!)
And I had a Label get interested in my stuff that week, but couldnt do vocals
Reaper - never looked back ;)
Reaper is a godsend. For what I need, I don't think I have any reason to go to another daw. Just an awesome balance of affordability, simplicity, and capability
I so fucking love this. Hands down, experience speaks louder when you are a professional and the frustrations when no one listens and think they know how to do things. You hire an engineer, LISTEN TO THEM!!!
'...But I'm not sure how easy it is to fix in Slow Tools' - LOL
Absolutely hilariously needed thank you🤣
Engineer: „consolidate your tracks please!“
Animals as Leaders: „We did.“
Haha!! Years ago I recorded some math metal with my old band. We tracked analogue and it was then chucked onto a pc to mix ( my friend was doing an engineering course so he bounced the project to disk to enable others in the course to use the studio) but when we first listened back to the tracks we were like " what the fark is this? my god dude, shits ALL over the place man".... and he said "isn't just how your tunes go? and I died a little inside, and felt a sense of pride at the same time that I still cant explain lol
Great advice right here. I didn't know a bunch of this stuff until a friend of mine (who happens to be a producer) guided me through this.
Yeah, there's a lot of work to be done but if you want to have the best results you gotta start by upping your game and putting your best efforts into it.
Slow Tools almost killed me 😂😂
Same here
Me too.. That’s why I use logic audio
It was a chuckle and PTSD rolled into one. From my experience, it's invariably a recording school grad who is computer illiterate and never bothered learning anything else. Take a task that is dead simple in my DAW (along with numerous others), yet they can't understand how. Then it's hours of me searching Profools manual to find an approximation, then going to the person's place to show them how. That's ......... slow.
Oh i felt so cool being a pro Fool, with my shiny new interface... But it almost killed ME too ;)
The 002R caught clicky click disease (which I later learned was a high resistance power loom) so I had NOTHING to use, for like ages (as ProTools only worked with it's own hardware back then)
Reaper! Fool no more ;)