I have done research both on a computer and by physical action. Firstly, I looked into some music production techniques to help me in my work. The first thing i looked into was acoustic recording techniques regarding the microphones and acoustics.
The selection and placement of microphones can have a major influence on the sound of an acoustic recording. It’s a common view in the recording industry that the music played by a skilled musician with a good quality instrument, properly miked up of course; can be sent directly to the producer or recording engineer with little to no modification needed. This can often sound better than if the instrument was edited and reshaped.
After this i looked into general microphone techniques:
Use a microphone with a frequency response that is
suited to the frequency range of the sound, if
possible, or filter out frequencies above and/or below
the highest and lowest frequencies of the sound. Place the microphone at various distances and positions until you find a spot where you hear from the studio monitors the desired tonal balance and the desired amount of room acoustics. If you don’t like it, try another position, try another microphone, try isolating the instrument further, or change the sound of the instrument itself. For example, replacing worn out strings will change the sound of a guitar.
As well as looking at recording techniques I also looked into other producers’ work and researched further into their music and some of the techniques they’re using or have used in the past. One of the few producers i looked into was Rick Rubin. He has done works spacing from 1981 all the way up until current day. He has worked with everybody from Metallica to Linkin Park, Johnny Cash and Ed Sheeran. He notably worked with Slayer. Whilst working with Slayer Rubin had a few things he tried; Specifically, his super-tight recordings allowed the band to play faster and harder than any band had done previously. This is exemplified by his work on their ‘Reign In Blood’ album. In 1986, when the album was released, a lot of heavy metal was drenched in reverb and delay – Rubin got rid of all this, lending real clarity to the recordings – all that was left was the brutal playing of a band at the top of their game.
Whilst looking into a few mixing techniques i discovered a couple of things. Firstly i found out that panning individual instruments in a mix can give the overall sound a fuller feel and a rounder atmosphere. Also making the stereo sound a lot better. I also came across things involving compression, adding compression to your mix makes it breathe more and gives more dynamics to the mix.