The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => Recording => Topic started by: pompeyjazz on January 31, 2017, 09:40:00 PM
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Just a general query, but do you guys record dry or Wet? Personally I record everything Did dry as I can't be noisy in the house apart from vocals and I generally record them when the students next door are banging it up. A bit of counteracting noise I guess. Then with a dry track I can experiment with any fx I want to
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Yup - always recording dry is good practice
If hearing some reverb / fx helps with the performance then it is normal to add reverb to the monitor mix the performer hears back - but this is NOT recorded
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i think it depends on your setup.
personally, i too record dry. my setup is simple. computer running reaper, focusrite scarlet 2i2, guitar & mic.
i have a friend who is much more highly skilled at recording and mixing than myself. he has a 24 track mixing board, and some outboard effects. instruments and mics plug into this setup. from there 8 tracks out to a tascam digital recorder. he then dumps the raw wav files to a computer and manipulates them with his DAW. he leverages the outboard effects during the live recording because he loves the way these outboard effects work and sound. he feels that these analog tools offer audio textures that are not available with plugins in the digital realm.
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It would still normally be good practice to record dry and then run the outboard gear as physical effects
There is nothing stopping you recording "wet" and there are no rules
If you are confident in what you are doing then you can record with fx - but in all honesty the advent of digital recording and higher bit depths you can record at much lower levels so I can't really see any reason to record with any fx at all (it used to be common to record with light compression on to tape)
By recording the dry signal you can then experiment with adding fx later either using "in the box" plugins, outboard gear as send fx or you can even re-record your dry signal played back through a speaker/amp and put through an fx as you record on to a separate track
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Always dry,water and electrickery don't mix well kids.
Sorry,someone had to.. :D
I'd be the last to advise anyone on recording technique,but I find in a lot of cases an effect on a guitar/vocals can inspire me and add a dimension to my playing or singing.Sometimes that's where it all starts.
If a song needed a heavily overdriven lead passage,do you dry lot play that clean,then add crunch later? I don't think that would blow my skirt up at all,does it not sound a bit weedy and lame?
Or have I got it all wrong again? :D
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I mainly use an amp sim so the signal is recorded "dry" but I am hearing it wet
If I was recording an amp then I would class distortion and any fx contributing to the "tone" of the guitar - part of the "sound" rather than an fx (if that makes sense)
However, I would probably add reverb, delays etc. to my monitor mix so that I hear them when recording to get the inspiration and "feel" but by keeping the recording dry I have scope to experiment later on
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i don't disagree, but i also can't argue with results. i believe it is a good rule of thumb to record dry and that is what i do. however, i know there are some guys doing other things and getting great results.
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Yes, dry for me - I have to say I never really understood those that add compression, eq, even reverb at the recording stage. Not only can you do all this later but if you do then if you ever want to punch in a revised section then you have many more parameters to recreate.
Boydie makes a great point that the headphone mix is different - for guitar I'm not too bothered about hearing the dry, but for vocals you usually want something that approximates to how you want it to sound later.
Having said that, for acoustic guitar I am experimenting with some more natural room sounds. So I record a stereo track with two mics panned hard left and right, one close to the strings and one maybe 6 feet away to get some natural "space". I then split into two mono tracks and mix to taste. But I still have the dryer track as the prime track.
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For me the best thing about recording dry is that you have almost a blank palate. You can go back to ideas at a later stage, change all of the FX, drum sound, rhythm and there's a new song !
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@ADAMFARR
You might want to play with this little technique for acoustic guitar as well:
http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4459.0
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Boydie: thanks for that - super interesting - will definitely try that out. Maybe also with the room sound as well?! (though soon I'll have as many guitar tracks as drum tracks... :P)
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Guess recording dry but monitoring wet, and then being able to change everything is the beauty of using a DAW. I had an old eight track digital thing fifteen years back and hated that I had to make decisions about adding reverb in advance, so to speak. Never really got to grips with it and have never used any old analogue gear. Computers give fantastic flexibility.
Great to record vocals as if you're in an empty Albert Hall awash with reverb, gives me confidence cos it sounds great. Then tone the verb right down as soon as the mic is switched off!
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Always record dry here, same as most of you guys
I am completely in the box. Record everything dry but I do supply a reverb effect for my vocalists but that doesnt record. Then I add it later.
Plus, tried mixing tracks with pre reverb on and it becomes tricky.
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Yup - always recording dry is good practice
If hearing some reverb / fx helps with the performance then it is normal to add reverb to the monitor mix the performer hears back - but this is NOT recorded
Unless you have some nice sounding rooms available ;D
Some stuff we do when recording:
- Overdubbed vocals often dry, with some reverb in the monitor feed if it helps the performer
- When in situations where there will be significant bleed between mics (like making a live youtube vid or something), will often try to use the best available room and position mics to get a nice/sympathetic natural reverb.
- Often record with multiple mics - one to record as dry as possible (e.g. close mic'ing the acoustic with 1 or 2 mics) and then one or 2 set further back to capture the ambience. You then have a natural reverb for the performance which can be mixed in at will, or thrown out completely. I often setup some ambience mics even in small or rubbish rooms. I usually throw it out, but sometimes I get a nice surprise...
It depends a lot on the style of music and what you want to do with the song I guess. I record a lot of indie/folk stuff that responds well to a more natural feel. Sometimes you might have some specific effects in mind that you want to apply to the vocal or whatever so recording dry is a must there....
One instrument I always record dry is acoustic bass. Sounds so nice but I just cant ever capture properly. I usually end up blending a tonne of close mics and a DI feed and compressing the bejesus out of it...
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Sounds like a great plan ramshackles,
Nearly all of mine is DI purely coz my home studio is in my room in the roof, Not sure my neighbours would appreciate a massive Bass stack going off.
On vox I do use multiple mics just so I can blend 2 different tones but reverb is always a VST.
Normally a large condenser mic and a SM58, Mix the two
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Unless you have some nice sounding rooms available Grin
Definitely
I saw a great video on the recording of Jame Bay's album and the rooms and reverb spaces they had were amazing - although for control they did use the large "reverb rooms" as send fx "plugins" with a speaker and re-mic approach
A James Bay overdub for a backing vocal was even recorded by James on his iPhone and emailed to the producer, which was used on the final album!
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I record a rough vocal to a track with no reverb, compression, EQ or anything then process that guide vocal. More often than not I delete that take and record on the new track. It doesn't make much difference to me because I always have that track muted when I record vocals. I record with one headphone on my left ear and the other one off so I can hear myself in the room.
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Sometimes it's a necessity to track wet, but if possible I will track dry and apply effects ITB. Tracking wet would limit my possibilities during the mixing phase.