3.Acoustics

Big studios earn their crust, due in large part, to their acoustic designs and they often spend a fortune on this too! Most people do not have the budget or physical ability to affect their environment to this degree and in most cases they don't really need to in order to attain acceptable results. In the simplest case there two different types of room, a live one and a dead one.

 

To imagine a live room, think of a big cathedral and what happens when you start clapping or singing. It sounds “bigger” due to all the reflections of the sound you are making coming back off the bare stone walls creating that interesting but haunting sound. This is of course an extreme case but does demonstrate the power of sound reflections and their ability to change the sound you perceive. One of the important factors here is the timing of these reflections, a bigger room means that the sound will take longer to return to the source thus smearing the sound through time making it less focused and bigger

 

A small “live room” also has reflections but these return much quicker and it may be hard to separate the sounds of the source sound and its reflections. These are what are known as “Early Reflections” and, although hard to perceive, they play an important part in creating sonic character. The Engineer Bruce Swedien (the guy who recorded Michael Jackson) swears by the manipulation of early reflections in creating his“Acusonic” methodology which aims to use the acoustic environment to create a natural result (often using stereo micing).

 

More on Bruces's "Acusonic" process HERE

 

A treated dry room is usually small and has no flat hard walls but panels of tiles with lots of pits which catch the sound and prevent it from reflecting back at you. The material is usually soft which aids its ability to “deaden” the sound further.

 

Unless you have a fantastically designed room, its usually a good idea to record “dry” in a home studio. An untreated room can yield varied results and in some cases seriously harm the quality and timbre of the recorded subject. The room itself can be filled with furniture and fittings such as sofas and heavy curtains or, if you have the budget, acoustic tiles can be applied to walls (especially to areas where you are either recording critical things such as vocals or monitoring to give an accurate account of the sound).

 

 

Also available now is the SE portable vocal booth

 

 

4 Vocal Recording

 

A lot of listeners give the lead vocal a big proportion of their attention. Its delivery, intelligibility and quality is greatly important when getting a song’s message across. For this reason it is wise to apply the same amount of attention yourself when recording it.

As I have mentioned in the acoustics section, the vocal recording can be recorded “dry” without any interference from the room using the techniques explained and then given artificial “space” using reverb and delays later on at the mix stage.

As a general rule it is wise to use the best mic you can afford for the vocal however there is also the factor of suitability. Some vocalists prefer unlikely candidates for this job, it is said that Bono often uses a hand held SM57 in the control room to track his vocals so the theory could be applied that anything goes but generally you should use the best condenser mic your budget allows.

 

Most manufacturers ship a cradle with their mics these days for shock absorption .If yours comes without, it is wise to use one to prevent shock affecting the recording, often caused by a stamping foot or other movements in close proximity ruining an otherwise fantastic performance.

For vocal recording it is advisable to use a “pop shield”. This is simply a nylon mesh placed between the singer and mic to minimise the plosive sounds, which are sudden bursts of air produced by the vocalist. These are unavoidable in some circumstances, for example when producing certain sounds such as words beginning with “B” and “P”. They can be bought fairly cheaply or you can actually make them the old fashioned budget way from a coathanger and a pair of tights (preferably unused though...).

 

An even cheaper way is to get the singer to wave their hand in front of their mouth when they make those problem sounds (a technique used by John Lennon!), this can be tricky to get right sometimes though so a pop shield would be a better choice.

 

Another thing to consider when tracking the vocals is whether you want to use any EQ and Compression as the voice is a very dynamic instrument. The use of EQ or compression can minimse the possibility of having the levels too high and causing clipping, which in digital terms is a very unpleasant effect and should always be avoided. This cannot be removed, so you have to be sure you have achieved the sound you originally intended.

 

Sometimes a better way to cope with this problem is to take advantage of 24 bit recording, which allows more dynamic range, and record without compression. It is also a good idea to do a few test recordings to check the loudest and quietest parts of the song to prevent unexpected clipping. Another thing to note here is that a vocalist will “warm up” during the first few takes and often get louder as their lungs open up.

 

5. Instruments

Drums

Having a good selection of different mics is a good thing, for example a drum kit will need several microphones that are engineered to focus on the particular frequency range they are recording. A simple set up for drum recording would be a kick drum mic (such as a an AKGD112) and two overhead condenser (paired) mics (such as the samson CO2 and an SM57 on the snare). This is is just one of the many ways to record a drum kit and, if you had some other mics available, then you would maybe mic up the Hi Hat (condenser), bottom of the snare (dynamic) and the toms (dynamic). You may also have room mics to add “bigness” to the sound as well. For drums you can now buy packs that contain the basic mic set up, which can be a great buy when on a budget.

 

Click the image for more info

Audix Fusion 7 Drum Microphone Package could be a great start and provide stunning results for the price. $399.95

 

 

The problems you may encounter when recording drums are those of phase and bleed.

 

Phase problems occur when the sum of two sound waves emitted from one source combine to produce an inaccurate representation of the sound.

There are some ways this can be minimised and the 3 to 1 rule is a good start whereby Two microphones, intended to pick up two sound sources should be at least three times further apart than they are close to their respective sources. More info HERE

 

Bleeding occurs when a sound is picked up by a mic that is meant to be picking up something else (eg the snare mic picking up the hi hat). This can be minimised by the use of dynamic mics where they are appropriate, for example on the snare and toms. However, due to the nature of the loudness of the sounds, there will inevitably always be a degree of bleed that you will have to be content with.

A processing device called a “gate” can be used in the mix to only let the intended sound through and this can be a good way of tightening things up.

Acoustic Guitar

The paired mics mentioned for use as drum overheads can also be used to record an instrument in stereo. A true paired mic set should be identical and therefore ideal for capturing an acoustic guitar from two different points in space. This can be good when panned in the mix to give a very true picture of the sound although it is always wise to listen out for phase issues when dealing with stereo pairs.

A good method here that is excellent for minimising phase problems with two mics is the X/Y combination.

 

The most common form of the coincident-pair techniques is the X/Y combination. The angle between the microphone grills can vary from 90 to 120 degrees, facing towards the sound source. Cardioid microphones are the best choice for this setup, as the stereo images will appear more dramatic and focused. Be sure to pan each track to so that you can hear the imaging. The X/Y array always uses two microphones of the same make and model to ensure a consistent stereo image.

 

 

If you are recording an acoustic guitar with one mic then it is a good idea to start by placing the mic around the area where the neck joins the body to get a portion of body and also some of the higher end. It is important to watch out if the mic is directly facing the sound hole as this can often sound very boomy with a lot of bass so listen carefully to the recording to ensure that you are getting the sound you are looking for.

 

 

Electric Guitar

 

Guitar amplifiers nearly always sound great (if the amp is a good one!) with an SM57 in front of the cab. The position of the mic in relation to the speaker can yield differing tonal results so you should experiment with this to get the desired tone. A condenser mic set back away from the cab may also give you a some interesting results especially if you have a good sounding room.

 

 

Bass

For a bass amp you can try a very similar approach and experiment with your cab mic, a good start would be the AKG D112 or anything that can withstand high sound pressure levels (SPL) and pick up low frequencies. You may also want to record the bass through a DI (Direct Injection) box, in order to have all the frequencies available for you to blend with the “air” sound of the cab mic, which could prove very useful if you need to re-amp the clean sound either through a real amp or an emulator such as the as the Ampeg svx plug in.

Keyboards

For those lucky enough to own a piano then the real thing will almost always be preferred over emulations due to their harmonic richness, which is very hard to capture in virtual form. The common practice for micing a piano is to first of all cover the range of notes from low to high. This can be done with two mics placed inside the top to capture the hammer sound as well as the sustain of the strings. Presuming you have an upright piano, a third mic could also be used at the back near the wood for another rich sound of the wood sustain.

 

Modern electronic keyboards, whether they be virtual or hardware, can be left in the mix as they are. However if you are looking for something with a bit more character, then you can also put the keyboards through an outboard device such as a guitar amp, stomp box, cassette deck or anything that you think might sound a bit different to give it some unique character.

 

Electronic Drums

For those who don't have the space or simply cannot make much noise then a good alternative for drums are electronic kits such as the new Alesis DM5 which, coupled with software such as EZ Drummer or BFD, can provide amazing results that have the ability to fool a lot of drummers of their authenticity due to the velocity layered design. Because the drum parts are performed on a drum kit (albeit electronic) the end result is a lot more espressive that that given by simply drawing in MIDI parts or tapping out on a keyboard.. In the case of BFD the number of velocity layers (number of samples triggered depending on how hard you hit it) is over 40 which is why it sounds so good and is very convincing (not to mention much easier to set up and control!).

6. Monitors

It is important to get a good impression of what you are recording by affording yourself some speakers that can accurately translate the sound you have recorded. As with recording, the acoustics of the room can play a part in the sound achieved in your listening environment but a good set of monitors are is a good start. Proper studio monitors almost always have a reasonably flat frequency response across the range so as not to falsely extenuate any particular part of the sonic spectrum. For example; Hi Fi speakers have a tendency to have a nicer more pleasurable sound but this is because they will have small peaks and troughs in certain areas of the frequency spectrum.

This flat response therefore should then give you some warning if you have too much bass, an annoying harsh sound at 2khz or piercingly loud cymbal crashes. This is most needed when playing your music on other systems. For example, if your monitors have a dip around 200 hz and you have over compensated for it in your mix if you then play the mix on a system that has a tendency to over emphasise the low end, it could sound horrible and nothing like what you listened to at home.

You don’t need to spend a fortune to get decent monitors suitable for home recording.

 

Click the images for more information

Basic M Audio Studio Pro 3 $99.95

 

Intermediate Yamaha HS50 $399.00

 

Professional Yamaha HS80 $700.00

 

Deluxe Mackie HR824MKII 2 $1295.00