New to Recording? Try This

here's the deal we're going to have fun today if you are new to recording this is especially for you if you've got a microphone and you know how to make it record into your software but you've never done much of anything else I want you to do this challenge that I'm going to do with you today in this video and if you're a cranky old veteran like myself and you've done all the things before you should do the challenge as well I think it would be really good for you creatively because I've been doing home studio stuff for a couple of decades and it's easy to forget how fun it was at the beginning how every new discovery was just like a you know brain exploded with something new and exciting and one of those big new exciting things for me early in my journey was doubling so what is doubling is the idea of I can record my guitar then I can put it over here on the side and I can record Another guitar part play the same thing if I want and then put that over here and it creates something magical that if you've never experienced it before you're probably going to get lost in it and it'll be a couple hours later and you realize I haven't stopped listening to this and playing around with it so the challenge of the day is what I'm calling the double which is not the burger at in andout although that sounds delightful it's also not the poem The Shakespeare witches poem Double Toil and Trouble no this is a simple challenge that only requires four tracks you're going to record one at a time and it's really simple you're going to record a guitar then you're going to record that guitar again on a second track panning them left and right then you're going to record a vocal and then you're going to record that vocal again I'll come back at the end and talk about why I chose to do this and how it can be beneficial for you but let's just dive in and have a little bit of fun shall we one two three today is going to be the day that they're going to throw it back to you by now you should have somehow realize what you got to do I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now today is going to be the day that they're going to throw it back to you by now you should have son how realize what you got to do I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now so yes it's Production 101 and yes you can go too far with doubling if you double everything you've doubled nothing so you want to use it sparingly but exercises like this are really handy from a musical standpoint one it helps you work on your time feel which is like the essence of being a musician right I can play guitar just one guitar at a time that's great but can I play in time with another instrument now playing in time with yourself is different than playing with other musicians that's another story for another day but being able to play consistently to where when I record that part again they jive together that's it's a valuable thing to do and then from a singing standpoint being able to sing the part again doubled vocals especially if you do anything in the realm of rock or folk doubled vocals are everywhere if you can't sing it the same way twice then you're missing out on a huge production opportunity because doubled vocals are really the name of the game go listen to your favorite album you'll notice there's a lot of doubling happening plus if you get into doing things like harmonies and background vocals this is great practice ice for singing the exact same way every time so everything lines up nicely you're not having to do a bunch of editing later it's much easier just to get good at singing the thing the same way with the same timing the same inflection over and over again and that really just comes through practice all right now it's your turn go do this or let us know in the comment what is your favorite production trick that you've learned over the years especially one that kind of blew your mind the first time you use it doesn't have to be super complicated obviously something as simple as doubling was entertaining for me so everything is fair game here by the way if you don't have a checklist to help you figure out when you're in these recording sessions okay what do I record next because dubling checks several of these boxes on this ultimate recording checklist that I made it's one page comes with a video explaining how it works but it gives you ideas of okay I've got stuff in this box and this box I don't have anything in this box over here that's a great place to go next has to do with thinking like a producer more than just thinking like either a

musician or even a recording engineer because producing is different from recording and I know you're thinking I already wear too many hats already the producer hat is the funnest hat to wear so it behooves you to get good at this so go to recordingrevolution. com checklist to enter your email address and download a free copy of that that's it for this video thank you for your time I'll see you in the next one