Joe Public Studios Recording Studio Blog / Recording tips and advice:

1) Get some PROPER audio engineering books and READ THEM! For the price of a couple of issues of your favourite audio magazine, you can get a PROPER book or two that will give you a genuine and detailed insight into the techniques of the pro guys. You can learn things from the ground up and some have an accompanying CD so you can HEAR how they build a track. A few titles I found helpful and a great read: Behind The Glass (Howard Massey); The Musician's Guide to Recording the Acoustic Guitar (Dallan Beck); Sound Advice on Recording and Mixing Drums and Sound Advice on Recording and Mixing Vocals (Bill Gibson); The Mixing Engineers Handbook (Bobby Owsinski); Modern Recording Techniques (by David Miles Huber and Robert Runstein); Mastering Audio: the Art and the Science (Bob Katz).

2) Make sure your recordings sound as good as possible in the first place - i.e. whilst you're actually recording the guitar or programming the drums.  If you're not sure what 'good' actually sounds like, listen to a few of your favourite records whilst you are recording - have iTunes running and keep referring back to it. Also make sure you use duvets / acoustic tiles etc to make a suitable acoustic ambience - a dead vocal or acoustic guitar sound perhaps, or a very live drum sound - think about it and control it - a crap room echo will be magnified in the mix and could ruin an otherwise good take. A well played guitar part will always sound better than a badly played guitar part , a well sung vocal with good timing and pitching will be easier and quicker to mix, an out of tune bass guitar will ruin everything, bum notes are BAD, out of time-ness is BAD, naff lyrics are BAD. You get the point...

3) Don't mix whilst recording or programming - separate your work flow into two distinct phases: Recording and Mixing.  Go ahead and record lots of stuff: layer it up, try different guitars, record loads of vocals, chuck in some loops or keyboard parts - don't worry yet about the exact amount of EQ, reverb, delay or relative volumes and edits or you'll run out of creative juice before you've finished the song! Once you have a song that sounds pretty good and full WITHOUT having spent any time mixing, tweaking, adding echo etc, a good mix will send it into outer space!

4) Before mixing clean up your act! As well as a fresh pair of ears and a clear head, tidy up your project on the computer. Clean up any edits to ensure you don't cut off breaths unnaturally and make sure you cross-fade between sections. Delete significant periods of silence from any audio recordings that don't add anything but noise, remove any clicks, pops, police sirens, screaming children, coughs and creaks that make it into your recordings! Delete any redundant audio from the project (NOT the hard drive, just in case you need it again). Colour code things and label parts to be easily recognisable to you (i.e. massive-synth-stab-1, weird-jumpy-loop, lead-vocal etc). If you do a fabulous job of cleaning it all up and ensuring it sounds tidy and still natural, your mix will be easier, faster, more fun and more instinctive!

5) Low cut / high pass EVERYTHING. Even the bass can be cut at 40 or 50hz, cymbals much higher perhaps at 250hz, vocals at 60hz, guitars at 100hz. You will be amazed how much the low end builds up with 'wooliness' and random thumps and hum over 24 tracks!  I even HIGH CUT stuff like guitars and cymbals sometimes to take out the real high stuff over 10 or 12kHz.  All this top-and-tailing leaves room for the main instruments to really shine: the kick and bass will have more room, the vocals will have more presence, each instrument can be 'EQ bracketed' to contain only the important and audible  part of the sound and take up less sonic 'space'.  Cut EQ BEFORE any compression. OBVIOUSLY this is guideline advice and you'll have to see if it works for you - a natural sounding acoustic act my need very little 'cutting', a thrash-metal band may need lots!

6) Use lot's of different effects and plug-ins. I don't mean use LOTS of effects on each track, I mean use a WIDE SELECTION of DIFFERENT effects in the project - different compressors, reverbs, delays, plug-ins, guitar-pedals etc. These give a variety of very different characters and it's that variety that adds character to and removes sterility from the song. There are lot's of affordable (and even free) plug-ins you can get so get some and play around.  Seriously, you will be amazed how great a vocal sounds smashed by a decent and quirky compressor rather than the built-in one with a 'vocal' preset.  I have got great results from Stillwell Audio plug-ins (loads of character, not too much money), the Focusrite LiquidMix (loads of plug-ins in one box and some added processor power into the bargain) and free ones like: Digital Fish Phones; Kjaerhus Audio, SSL, Voxengo, MDA, Jeroen Breebaart.  Check out Mike Senior's Mix Rescue feature in Sound On Sound magazine for a regular name-check of great freebies and how to use them!

7) Don't mix loud.  Mix at a volume that you can talk over - everything SEEMS to sound better when it's loud but that is an illusion - it probably only sounds good BECAUSE it is so loud and this won't translate to the outside world. If it sounds amazing when playing quietly, it'll sound DOUBLE amazing loud.  Also listen from OUTSIDE the room - you may hear something sticking out horribly from this weird listening position and wonder why you didn't spot it earlier!

8) Constantly compare your mixes to a selection of your favourite commercial songs WHILST you are mixing.  Keep flicking back and forth between the professional track and yours and try to match the general sound. Is your track as bright and bassy? Is your track TOO bright and bassy? Are the drums on their track really loud or soft? Are there lots of effects and can you hear the reverb tails and delays or is it more natural? Again, you are LEARNING so don't expect to get that close - YET!

9) Don't believe your monitors.  It may sound great in the studio but what if there is a massive amount of bass so low that your monitors can't reproduce it?  Or some brightness that your monitors can't reproduce? Maybe your monitors over-emphasise the bass so you always mix it too low. Maybe your room has a weird resonance that makes the vocal sound louder than it really is and you end up compensating by having it too quiet.  Yeah - you may not hear it in the studio, but you may hear it on your iPod or Car Stereo or night-club or TV. Try using the 'Rule Of Three' - listen to your mix on THREE separate sound systems outside the studio - maybe car, computer, iPod.  On each system list the problem areas of your mix - too much bass? too dull? not enough reverb? drums to loud?. Anything that appears on the list of all three systems is definitely a problem; anything that appears on only two lists is probably a lesser problem, anything that appears on only one list is probably the character of that system and can be largely ignored.

10) Treat yourself to a professional mastering job. You can get some great deals online these days - from only £50 a track in some cases.  There is a great feeling of finality and 'this track is ABSOLUTELY FINISHED'  that comes from getting your track professionally mastered.  It will sound fresher, fuller, better balanced, louder (if you want) and hold no nasty surprises when your mates play it in their car. It's the final sign-off from someone with amazing ears, amazing gear, accurate speakers and the experience of working on professional music all day. Sure you can try doing it yourself (give it a go!) but you won't do such a good job!  I can personally recommend John Webber at BluePro Mastering or Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering.