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Workshop: Home Recording

The Hierarchy of Things

At the beginning of my workshop, I stress the relative importance of the elements of a recording session. I assign them numerical values, from 1 to 10, and I explain why each gets its ranking:

The artist and her/his instrument or voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
The room where the recording is made . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The placement of the microphone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The choice of microphone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The choice of microphone preamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.5

Many home recordists learn about recording from sales staff at music stores or online vendors, or from reading equipment reviews in music industry magazines. The former are primarily interested in selling gear, so the most influential element in the recording process, the recording room, often goes unmentioned. Fortunately, this has begun to change, as materials for treating room acoustics have become widely available and affordable.

Depending on the interests of attendees, my goals are to help them learn

  • which rooms to use to make fiddle recordings that their fiddler will actually like!

  • how to record an acoustic guitar for a bluegrass band, and how to help the guitar sit well in the mix, not fighting with the upright bass.

  • microphone types, selection, and placement.

  • how to get good, clean punchy mandolin and banjo sounds, and how to place them in a mix so that they add the necessary energy while not cluttering the sound.

  • how to get your guitar and bass players to work together to provide an exciting, propelling groove.

I like to answer questions from attendees. I travel frequently to Nashville and Austin to record, and also work in my own studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cool stories frequently emerge about my recording experiences.

Please come and participate!

Joe shows how to mic a mandolin at recording workshop, Wintergrass, 2011

Joe gives mixing tips at recording workshop, Wintergrass, 2011

Joe Weed is a fiddler, recording artist, writer, and producer. He has released six albums of his own. His music productions have been used by Ken Burns, PBS, NPR, the Martin Guitar Company, and at Arlington National Cemetery. Joe has composed music for film scores at The Lincoln Museum, the National Steinbeck Center, and many others. He has written fiddle tunes that are played at contra dances, festivals, and jam sessions across the country.