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Producer's Desk
It all starts with the tuning!
A production tip from Van VerHoeven
You can have an incredible guitar, expensive drums, great microphones and all the plugins in the world, but none of it matters if the instrument isn't properly in tune.
It sounds obvious, but tuning is one of the most overlooked parts of getting a professional recording. And I'm not just talking about checking your guitar tuner once before you hit record. Everything that creates a pitch needs attention.
GUITAR & BASS: THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN THE TUNER 🎸
Before recording, a guitar or bass needs to be properly set up and intonated. Intonation determines whether the instrument stays in tune as you move up the fretboard. Your open string might be perfectly tuned, but if the intonation is off, those chords higher up the neck can still sound sharp or flat.
That's why a good setup before a recording session can make a huge difference.
Another trick I've learned over the years is to tune the way you're actually going to play.
If you're tracking a heavy song and digging into the strings, don't tune using the lightest pick attack possible. A hard pick attack can initially pull the note sharp before it settles into pitch. I want the tuning to represent what I'm actually going to hear in the performance.
This becomes especially important with heavily layered productions. One slightly out-of-tune guitar might not jump out at you, but stack multiple rhythm guitars, bass and other instruments together and those tiny tuning differences start adding up fast.
The tighter the tuning going in, the bigger and cleaner the production can sound coming out.
YES... DRUMS HAVE NOTES TOO 🥁
Drum tuning is just as important.
For recording, I use a Tune-Bot, which allows me to measure the actual frequencies and musical notes produced by the drum. Instead of simply tightening a head until it "sounds about right," I can tune every lug consistently and get the drum exactly where I want it.
I actually tune my drums to musical notes.
One technique I like is tuning the resonant, or bottom, head a minor third higher than the batter head. So, for example, if I'm working around C on the batter side, I'll tune the resonant side around E♭.
That relationship between the two heads helps control the character of the drum. Changing the relationship between the batter and resonant heads affects the drum's sustain, attack, pitch bend and overall resonance. There isn't one magic tuning that works for every drum or every song. The goal is finding where that particular drum sounds its best and where it fits into the production.
I also want the individual lugs around each head as consistent as possible. When one area of the head is significantly higher or lower than another, you can introduce strange overtones and ringing that you'll eventually be fighting with microphones, EQ, gates and samples.
I'd rather fix the source.
GET IT RIGHT BEFORE YOU HIT RECORD
That's really the bigger lesson.
A huge part of producing isn't fixing things later. It's making sure they sound right before the red light comes on.
Fresh strings, a properly set-up and intonated guitar, consistent tuning between takes, properly tuned drum heads and instruments that are working together musically can make a bigger difference than another expensive plugin ever will.
And don't just tune once at the beginning of the session. Keep checking it. Strings stretch. Drum heads settle. Temperature changes. Hard playing moves things around.
Taking 30 seconds to check your tuning might save you hours later.
Never underestimate tuning. The better the source sounds, the less you have to "fix it in the mix."