The Woof Factor

W.C. Fields once said “Anybody who hates animals and children can’t be all that bad”. But  no, this is not an article about dogs.

When my band Mississippi Shakedown played the Goulburn Blues Festival this year, I was asked to do a lecture based upon an article I’d written called “The Bullet Points of Recording” - basically the do’s and don’ts of a recording session. 

This was to be a one hour lecture, I asked around the room to see what the general vibe was, and about half the audience wanted to know how to record an acoustic guitar, so I spent the next half an hour on that subject alone.

I have recorded over 300 full-length CD’s and over 1,000 demos, so I can say categorically that the three hardest things to record are: 

1. An acoustic guitar;
2. A kit of drums; and
3. A double bass. 

Everything else is WAY easier to record.  So, to the acoustic guitar incorporating the “woof factor”.

For me, the enemy of a recording is “woof” – what’s “woof”?  It’s hard to show you or tell you, but I’ll give it a whirl.

We’ve all been at a set of lights when a young lad rolls up with his lowered car with a heightened hi-fi... so the “doof-doof” he’s hearing is a clear “doof-doof” but the “doof-doof” you’re hearing is “woof-woof”.

Get someone to talk to you and then get them to put their hand in front of their mouth and talk again – can you hear how the sound is “masked”?  Not as clear, slightly muffled – that’s the difference  between a clear sound and a “woofy” sound - it lacks clarity.

Now, similarly, get someone to talk into a mic and then get them to turn away 45 degrees and talk.  You can still hear how it sounds OK, but when they go back on mic, it’s just more ‘in your face’, concise, more pleasing to the ear. It has greater clarity.

Again, imagine looking at a clear sky, it’s a perfect blue – now add some clouds, the uninterrupted blue is foiled by cotton wool clouds (no – I haven’t been smoking).  It’s the same concept – the view is not clear any more – something is in the way. 

A very excited, good mate of mine, brought his new pride and joy, a $5,000 Gibson acoustic... no matter what I did, I could only get an acceptable sound from it.  When he played a chord in front of me, the guitar had a good tone, but had “woof” around the sound. It didn’t speak to me. It had ‘exaggerated’ lower frequencies. All the frequencies were there, but because of the “exaggerated” frequencies, mainly in the bottom end good, the tone wasn’t clear... it sounded “woofy”. 

Sit down in front of an acoustic guitar and get the muso to play an open E chord and see if the guitar is “speaking” to you clearly, or does there seem to be some “wool” around the tone??  Some loose bass end stuff?? – some “woof”?  Unfortunately, 2 times out of 3, it will have.

What to do? Buggered if I know. I presume Jimmy Barnes would project more into a mic than Dannii Minogue, so not a problem if you’re recording Jimmy, but big problem if you’re recording Dannii.  My experience is that great singer have little “woof’, bad singers have lottsa “woof”

The purpose of this article is for you to try and identify “woof”. 

There is a BIG difference between “woof” and bass, by the way. A simple example is, if you add bass to a snare drum, you’re just adding “woof” because of the fact that the snare drum doesn’t have much information in the bass area, you’d just be adding “woof” to the snare sound. Adding a bit of bass to a bass drum, on the other hand, will be adding bass, but every time you add bass to a sound that doesn’t possess a lot of information in that area, you’re adding “woof”. 

There’s another issue, all of us LOVE our choice of instruments, and are less than pleased, with less than flattering comments about them... “Man, my Fender Squire sounds just like a real US Strat and it was only 1/16th of the cost... it’s from the first shipment!!”. Sorry mate, it only sounds 1/16th as good no matter what shipment it came from. It sounds cheaper because it WAS cheaper!!!

Imagine introducing your baby daughter to someone for them to say “Oh, she’s a bit ugly. Her nose looks like a pig’s nose – no I take that back – pigs have got prettier noses”.  You’d be less than pleased. So one has to be a bit cautious in relating the truth to some musicians about the tones / qualities of their instruments or lack thereof... we're a delicate bunch!!!

Mic-ing

Got a guitar with a bit of “woof”?  It’s OK, you’ll have to wait 10 years – the wood gets better, the guitar settles, and will improve.  Another option – start buying old guitars. 

For homework

Listen to a Robert Plant/Alison Krauss “Raising Sand” CD, produced by T-Bone Burnett ... it has lots of bass stuff on the songs, but no “woof”.  An extraordinarily difficult and brave thing to do – it’s an amazing CD.

Listen to Duffy, an English Lass whose CD, or some of it, is reminiscent of the 60’s English recordings – again lots of body and fullness, but no “woof”. 

OK, class dismissed, I expect a report in triplicate in the morning.

Permission to reproduce this article is available to all,
as long as you include attribution to myself including contact details
and let me know where you have used the material.
Jeff Cripps
A# Sharp Recording Studio
Email: jeff@asharp.com.au
Phone: +612 9153 9988

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