6 tricks to minimize editing time
Audio editing is one of the tools used in music recording, but it shouldn’t be the default approach—unless you meet one of the following conditions:
The sound you’re aiming for is like that of tight math metal, djent, or other genres characterized by being locked to the grid of each bar; or
You’re a mediocre musician who isn’t interested in learning your instrument, or you work with mediocre musicians and don’t want to be the one pushing them to improve their skills.
So, if you need to edit everything you record by default… it’s because you don’t know how to record. Not only are you contributing to the mediocrity of music, but you’re also wasting a huge amount of time that could be spent on more important stages of production. But don’t worry, there are some tricks I’m going to teach you so you can stop sitting there cutting every note in your digital audio workstation.
I’m Nicolás Atehortúa, and I’ve been recording music for almost 10 years. I’m going to give you six tricks I’ve learned over that time that have saved me hours of editing. These tricks have nothing to do with plugins or technology, so anyone can use them, and here they are.
Practice your damn instrument, especially before recording.
If you are a musician and you do not practice your instrument, you are doing things terribly wrong. It is well known that the Punk Rock legend Sid Vicious did not know how to play bass well, yet he became an icon of an entire music scene because of his rebellious personality. He could afford that luxury and still make history as the defining personality of punk aesthetics. But the chances of that happening to you are about as likely as finding a needle in a haystack. So if you do not know how to use your damn instrument, you are doomed to fail as a musician.
Anyway, there is nothing to worry about. There are thousands of online resources on how to learn to play any instrument and become a true professional, even if your voice is your instrument of choice. If that is the case, all the more reason to go take lessons and finally learn how to sing without depending on pitch correction. Or, if you already know my work and want to take lessons directly with me, you can write to natehor@kondorstudios.com and I will gladly help you improve your skills so you do not show up to a live performance and end up covered in eggs, tomatoes, and flour, with your credibility as a musician on the floor.
Likewise, if you know how to play your instrument and you know the song you are going to record well, you will save the producer a lot of headaches. If it is a good producer, they will increase the price you have to pay for the editing service and do a good job correcting your mediocrity. If it is a bad producer, they will simply leave the horrible mess you recorded exactly as it came out of your hands, and your music will not be at a professional level. That is why you should simply learn to play your instrument and practice your songs.
Record full takes
Nowadays, musicians seem to be used to recording in sections: 4 bars and that is it; let us move on to the next 4 bars. And by the way, afterward we will have to fix the fades and adjust section by section so it sounds like a single performance and not a sonic Frankenstein. This recording style is useful if the only thing you need to record is a specific section of the song that you want to improve, doing a punch-in or punch-out. But recording section by section is simply slower and more boring.
If you are a musician, you presumably enjoy music, and it is more fun to do a full take than to record the same section a thousand times. I recommend recording the full song and doing several takes of the performance. You will notice that once you have recorded 4 or 8 takes (sometimes more), in the last takes there is no need to edit, or at least not much; that way, when you do need to edit, you only have to choose from other takes you recorded in the same section earlier. Recording this way is a thousand times more fun and will also make you a better musician because you will know how to play a song from start to finish.
Use a metronome when recording (and when practicing)
Tick-tock, tick-tock. What is music if not controlled noise over time meant to convey something? If it is not controlled, it stops being music and becomes simply noise; if it is not made with the intention of conveying something, it stops being art. It is clear that music depends on deliberate order through time to be more than noise, and a useful tool for this is the metronome, which, if you do not know it, is simply a time counter that helps you know when to play a note and when to stop. Keeping time is a key skill in music, and if you do not master your instrument enough to play a simple rhythm, you will not be able to make music properly.
The metronome was invented in 1815, and Beethoven himself popularized it by using it as part of his tools. It is not hard to understand why it became widely used: it simply guaranteed greater consistency in musicians’ performances, and composers could write the exact speed at which they wanted their work to be played directly into the score. It does not only help with tempo; the metronome will also give you a better sense of rhythmic subdivisions within the bar.
Bands like Tool, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, or many jazz musicians can record without a metronome because they have mastered time perfectly. Most likely, these musicians are fully capable of keeping time with a metronome and can afford not to use it. But if you are not able to use one properly, you will hardly be able to keep the rhythm in your recording without something marking a consistent metric reference. First learn the rule, then decide if you want to break it.
Now, do not come at me with excuses that you do not have a metronome. There are several free resources on the internet, and a simple Google search will instantly give you the basic metronome sound you can use to practice your songs before recording. Also, when it comes time to record, as far as I know, every DAW in existence has the option to activate a metronome that will help you maintain consistency and rhythm within your song.
Move your body when you record
Surely at some point you have seen musicians constantly making gestures and moving their heads or feet while recording. Even Michael Jackson could not stay still and gave producers headaches because he had to move like crazy while singing in front of the microphone. All of this has a reason: humans have the ability to feel connections between sound and body movement because the brain has strong links between the auditory cortex, which processes sound, and the motor control center, which is responsible for movement. This means that moving your body to the rhythm of the music makes it easier to internalize and understand musical rhythm.
That is why I recommend moving or dancing while you record. Not in the strict sense of dancing, but tapping your foot on the floor, moving your head, moving your hips, all in time with the music. If you move your body, regardless of which limbs you are using to record, it will ensure a better performance and will also help you get more into a state of enjoyment while making your music.
Set your mix properly before recording
Musicians tend to perform better on their own instrument if we can clearly hear both the guiding instrument and the one we are playing. That is why, when you record or play live, you need to properly adjust what you will hear as a reference. This means you should test your mix levels before you start recording. I am not talking about EQ, compression, or other production magic tricks, but about the gain levels of the instruments that make you feel comfortable enough to perform well.
In practice, this means learning which instrument helps you most to play in time and with good rhythm while you are performing your own part. Maybe you need the bass to be louder than the drums, or maybe the drums should be the only thing you hear. If you have multiple guitars in the recording, perhaps one should be heard and not the other. It all depends on what works best for you to record more accurately.
That said, I would especially recommend following the percussive instruments or the bass. I personally find the bass great when recording vocals, so I turn it up quite a bit to use it as a reference and stay in tune more easily. Still, you are the one who must decide which reference works best for you.
Record slower than it will sound
This recording technique has been around for quite some time. Even Metallica used this trick when recording Master of Puppets, but back then it was much harder to do because the instrument had to be tuned down so that, when sped up, it would sound in the desired pitch. James “Riff Lord” Hetfield was able to play faster than what ended up on the recording, and it was done this way to ensure that the four guitar takes playing simultaneously sounded consistent, creating what is known as the “Wall of Sound” without unwanted dirt or artifacts in the mix. Also, they did not record the entire song at a slower speed, only certain key sections where it was needed.
I am giving you all this context so you do not become mediocre by using this technique all the time. Just because it can be done does not mean you should do it. First, you must be able to play well at a speed faster than the one you want to record at. This technique should only be used if you want to ensure that a specific section sounds very precise for the tone you are aiming for and to avoid editing everything mathematically. The trick is to decide the final tempo of your song, practice it faster, and record it slower. For example, record a take at 80% of the final speed and then speed it up in your digital audio workstation. Again, I repeat: you must be able to play it even faster than the final speed, because the last thing we want is to record something you cannot actually play. If you cannot perform it properly without lowering the speed, do not use this trick. I strongly recommend you keep practicing before recording.
In short, if your song will be at 180 BPM, practice at 200 BPM and record at 144 BPM. This way the recording will sound great, and when you have to play it live, you will be able to perform what ended up on the record.
In conclusion
To wrap up, here is a summary and a few final words: the tricks I talk about here are techniques I have personally applied and learned throughout my time learning home recording, and I am sure they will help you because they made me a better musician and saved me hours that I used to waste in the editing stage. So if you want your music to sound good and not lose its humanity, apply them all at your own pace:
Practice your instrument and know the song before recording
Record full takes
Use a metronome when recording
Move your body while recording
Adjust the mix for comfort during recording
Record slower than the final speed
If you have any other tricks you use, do not forget to leave them in the comments so we can all learn and make better music. And if you want to hear how these tricks sound when put into practice in a real song, go listen to the latest single I released for Clumsy Clown by clicking here.
