Top 5 Recording Mistakes You Will Definitely Make

The biggest thing that will hold back the sound of your mix is the quality of your RECORDING. Justin Colletti offers up the 5 biggest recording mistakes that practically everyone makes for far too long.
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[@undercrownhiphop9422]

I swear you described everything I’ve done wrong over 15 years. Yours podcasts are changing my life. Undoing a wasted decade of bickering on Gearslutz. Thankful🎉

[@SonicScoop]

Oh man, that is so great to hear! Exactly what I am going for. So glad it is proving useful to you. -Justin

[@legacyShredder1]

"Undoing a wasted decade of bickering on Gearslutz" That's hilarious.

[@joecaner]

*Two thumbs way up for #5.* Finding the proper key and tempo makes a huge difference to the finished song. One can cut a scratch and use their DAWs to try several different scenarios to find the sweet spot. The hook should be in the power range of the singer's voice instead of reaching for notes that are approaching the edge of their range unless that's the sound you're after.

[@stupendousmusic4190]

Ciba Mato ??? I haven't heard that name in a loooong time. 😆 For headphone monitoring, I have suggested at times, that a singer or drummer use a different or specific set of headphones to hear what they're trying to listen to better. 🎧 Jimmy Webb is a genius, and very moody. He was probably happy and relieved that you were able to "read" so well. 👍🏻 👏🏻Excellent as always Justin. Thank you. 🙏🏻

[@mageprometheus]

Thanks, Justin. I play parts into my DAW on a midi keyboard. Getting the right sound has an effect on what I play. Changing things later is never the same as I'm biased by the previous version and the rest of the tracks/harmony.

[@paulsaunders193]

I totally agree, the sound affects not only what you play but how you play it. It's not just bias, certain melodies, chords etc sound better with certain sounds. Recording MIDI is great in that you can totally change the sounds later if you want, but 99% of the time I never do. I once wrote something without my usual drum module so I used some crappy drum sounds instead, plannning to change them later. But when I did it didn't sound right. Even though I didn't like the drum sounds I used, I wrote the parts to fit it, and the better sounding drums just sounded wrong, so I kept the crappy drum sounds because they sounded right for that piece. So it's always worth choosing the most appropriate sound when you're recording and stick with it. There are exceptions but generally I find it's best to commit to the original sounds.

[@mageprometheus]

@@paulsaunders193 Perhaps this is one of the reasons why professional studios have producers, sound engineers, mixers and mastering engineers. It's more difficult to change stuff once you own it.

[@paulsaunders193]

@@mageprometheus Not sure exactly what you mean. Do you mean it's harder to change stuff after other people have done all that work for you? Having your own home studio and doing it all yourself makes it easy to change stuff, but like I said, I rarely do. I'm old school, I grew up recording on tape so I'm used to committing. It's still handy though if I ever want to do a radical remix or a different version of a song one day, so I do like to keep my options open.

[@ollonelycat]

Aww man. I wanted to hear you sing.

[@lukasrm5840]

Man, I can't thank you enough enough for these videos. As you said, I was expecting your advice to be about cables and DI boxes. But this was way better, haha. Also, please sing on the podcast.

[@MaPa60]

I've made all of these mistakes, also recently. Great and timely tips for me. Thanks!

[@samvouga]

This is great, as usual!

[@themebaby]

Thank you for making this video. I've been thinking about these kind of early recording ideas in music production and this was very helpful. I had already come to the conclusion that I needed to do rough mixing at this early recording stage...but I prefer your model of trying to get it to sound more and more like a finished record at each and every stage of the recorded tracks. This is a very good way to model it in my head. I also had not considered changing the tempos or the key of the song. So those were 2 new ideas I had just not thought about. Both seem like very smart pre-production things to do. The idea of getting the session and head phone mix ready ahead of time was probably something I might have thought about...but it is good to hear it none the less. If you ever get stumped for a weekly video for SonicScoop...or if you realize you have more details about how to make head phone mixes to get better studio performances in general...or specifically for each individual instrument (if the head phone mix strategy would be different from track to track)...I would find a video like that very interesting. There are probably some other information on head phone mixes online that I can get information on and I think Bobby Owsinky's book "The Recording Engineers Handbook" might have some interviews on this subject in it. I was thinking of ordering that book in the next year and reading it...so I might be able to get some good head phone mixing info from that...as well as recording info too. Once again I enjoy your videos. This one was very helpful. Thank you so much, Craig

[@SonicScoop]

Great to hear Craig! Thanks for listening. And for the ideas. Very best, Justin

[@adampeters9684]

Fun fact: my drivers Ed instructor used “Up, up & away…” as a mnemonic for us to remember which direction to turn your wheel when parking on a hill 🥸

[@skidogleb]

I like this advice a lot! I’ll be practicing my falsetto.

[@Beatledave7]

Excellent tips thank you Justin!

[@neal_laugman]

There are a few people I pay attention to and you are one of them. Thanks!

[@alexeysmirnovguitar]

One of the most interesting episodes! I learned a few things!

[@youthmanrecords965]

Here we go!!!!!

[@gradyholaday8585]

Very useful thank you sm

[@rashidjamal4820]

Love you dear ..I like the way you speak.

[@stephanaulenbacher9125]

Thank you for this great episode of your awesome podcast! Still I have a question: I totally agree to dial in an awesome tone at the source. But especially with guitars I"m struggling with one thing: Send effects. Most guitar players need for instance a delay or even more processing when it comes to playing guitar solos. But for the production I'd like to have them dry. So how would you record them. So far may way to go is to add delay on my amp simulator (Axe FX) and also record a DI. Later im revamping the track with the same amp and cab but without any sends. Thank you fror your answer. Stephan

[@LilBlazar]

I only venture in hip-hop mixing but wouldnt you just create a send, put eq on it, hypass and low pass filter so you won't muddy your sound; then go to your favorite delay and dial in the settings that sound pleasing. Then add a little compression for a tighter delay sound and then mix in your send to taste. Hope it helps.

[@thisjaymaloney]

Dude, Jimmy Webb wrote Witchita Lineman! 🙂

[@SonicScoop]

He wrote a LOT of stuff! -Justin

[@1337murk]

Gold

[@mikebozik]

Good stuff!!! You could have reversed this order. Lol...😊😊😊 They're all good!

[@Dangenoir]

5 because your hard only has 5 fingers ?

[@SonicScoop]

You know, I do have a second hand if I need it… 🙃 -Justin

[@Dangenoir]

@@SonicScoop Really ?