Recording Handbook - Hol.gr

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Table Of Contents 1. Sonic Fundamentals a. Loud vs. Soft b. Highs vs. Lows c. Speakers and Amplifiers and Rooms 2. Getting Your Sound On Tape a. The Analog Recording Process b. The Digital Recording Process c. Theory of Multi-track recording * synchronization of tape machines 3. The Sound Source a. Voices, Horns and Acoustic Piano * dynamic vs. condenser microphones * ribbon, PZM and other special types * signal processing b. Guitars, Basses and Things With Strings * amplifiers vs. direct * preamps and FX devices c. Samplers, Synthesizers and Drum Machines d. Real Drums and Real Drummers 4. The Mixing Console a. Inputs and Outputs * in-line vs. split consoles * input trim and fader output * what does -10 and +4 mean? b. Equalization * graphic, parametric, tube EQ's etc. * vintage vs. new technology c. Effects Sends and Returns d. Insert Points and Patchbays 5. Mixer Automation a. SMPTE b. VCA vs. Moving Faders c. MIDI automation 6. Effects Devices a. Reverb * Halls , Plates and Rooms * Reverse Reverbs and other Perversions * "Backwards" Reverb b. Echoes and Delays c. Flanging, Chorus and Phasing d. Harmonizers and Exciters 7. The MIDI Revolution a. Sequencers * Hardware and Software Based * MIDI Clock, MIDI Timecode(MTC) and MIDI Machine Control(MMC) b. Synthesizers c. Samplers d. Computers * digital editing 8. Recording With Your PC a. Software * What do you want to do? * Stereo? Multi-track? * Ins and Outs * CD-r software b. Hardware * The Computer * RAM * Monitors * PCI/ISA slots * Power Supply * Hard Drives: SCSI vs. IDE, USB and FireWire * Removeable Drives * CD-r's * The Soundcard * Wordclock * Drivers * Cost? By Antony’s PC 2 2
1. Sonic Fundamentals a. Loud vs. Soft Sound is moving air. Our ears are designed to be sensitive to these vibrations and interpret them. In music, the term, "Dynamics" refers to whether a sound is "soft" or "loud". The ability of a recording medium to reproduce the difference between soft and loud is called its "Dynamic Range". Vinyl records and cassette tapes have a limited dynamic range of 20 db or so while modern CD's and Digital Audio Tape(DAT) are capable of full dynamic range; that's 100 db! The limiting factor of how much of that range you get to actually hear is determined by the speakers, and amplifiers and the room you're listening in. Read on... b. Highs vs. Lows We've all heard terms like "bright", "dull", "deep" and "thin" used to describe music. Two major factors complicate this affair. The first is that we all hear the same thing differently; one person's "bright" is another person's "dull". The second is the accuracy or lack thereof, of our sound source, i.e. the speakers and amplifiers. Technically, the audible frequency range for human hearing is 20 Hertz(Hz) on the low end and 20 Kilohertz(Khz) on the high end. Most people's hearing range falls between 40Hz and 16 Khz and in fact, the specified frequency range of FM radio is 50Hz to 15Khz. A typical car radio, boom box or home stereo has two EQ knobs on it. The "Low" and "High" knobs are usually centered at 100 Hz and 10 Khz respectively with a broad "fixed Q". "Q" refers to the range of frequencies affected by the boost or cut and is expressed in octaves. Their effect is not subtle but for consumer applications this is simple, convenient and usually sufficient. The loudness button is simply a low frequency boost that compensates for the apparent lack of low frequencies at low listening levels. c. Speakers and Amplifiers and Rooms This is the last step before your ears get to do their thing. Any problems here affect the sound reproduced, and thusly, your ability to interpret what you hear. The amp, speakers, and the room they are in, all make up the listening enviornment. When your mix sounds great in the studio and terrible everywhere else, you know something is wrong. "Flat" is a term used to describe a system that reproduces all frequencies, equally, more or less. Some people spend thousands trying to achieve a "flat" room. As for me, it's great on paper, but it's not always great for music! As long as I know what the speakers and room are doing, I can deal with it. I like to mix on near-field systems at moderate SPL levels. This tends to decrease the affects the room may have. My current favorites are the Genelec 1031 A's, a compact 2-way self-powered monitor. They don't lie to me. Alesis and the Event 20/20 are recent entries into the more inexpensive 2-way self-powered monitor sweepstakes. Listening level is a very subjective matter, but the ear does respond to frequencies differently at different volumes. Constant loud levels tend to dull the high end response of the ear, while at low levels the low frequencies are not as apparent. As with other things in life, drugs and alcohol also affect the ears, and usually not in a good way. BACK TO INDEX 3 3
Page 1: 1 Από το Web Site του Αν
Page 5 and 6: 5 The "sampling rate", or how many
Page 7 and 8: . Guitars, Basses and Things With S
Page 9 and 10: levels of your boxes and how you in
Page 11 and 12: 11 physically replaying your moves,
Page 13 and 14: d. Harmonizers and Exciters Harmoni
Page 15 and 16: d. Computers Computers have become
Page 17 and 18: 17 Here is where the capabilities o
Page 19 and 20: Unfortunately, Syquest is out of bu
Page 21 and 22: • II. Specifications. • III. Pi
Page 23 and 24: No mic is perfectly linear; the bes
Page 25 and 26: MICROPHONE PATTERNS These are polar
Page 27 and 28: solve the problem by mounting the m
Page 29 and 30: 29 subtracted from the omni signal.
Page 31 and 32: Learning for yourself. Many student
Page 33 and 34: 33 The attenuation provided by a fi
Page 35 and 36: EXPANSION Expansion is the opposite
Page 37 and 38: Warning: Send me any SPAM and I'll
Page 39 and 40: jeibisch@revolver.demon.co.uk (Jame
Page 41 and 42: Some changes between 0.4 and 0.41:
Page 43 and 44: Table of contents -----------------
Page 45 and 46: S3. Recording Techniques Q3.1 How d
Page 47 and 48: "So your best bet is to use whateve
Page 49 and 50: "DiY" - Do-it-yourself (music) "ind
Page 51 and 52: Q1.1 What is a 4-track machine? A 4
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Michael Parrott writes: "Note that
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The term "graphic" is used to descr
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Q1.1.4 What are balanced and unbala
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two guitars each get a track of the
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to a line level input and hear the
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Table of Features Note: this is way
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Price - Price is in U.S. dollars, m
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There is a brand missing from your
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good mic) and you're halfway there.
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"The $11.99 omni-directional ones (
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ak748@detroit.freenet.org (Daniel W
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comes with Quad is fully supported
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or ftp://ftp.winternet.com/users/df
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I was reading [about] SAW when I ca
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You require one track of the 4 for
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This audio output is plugged into t
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hits that frame. So, going back to
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Q1.8 How does an 8-track machine co
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psu02178@odin.cc.pdx.edu (Joshua Me
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Q2.2 What is reverb? benl@mojo.euro
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ack down. Similarly, a compressor c
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is, vocals don't need as much as a
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Companding is a two-stage process o
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sound becomes [dirty] when you repe
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Q3.1 How do I get a good sound? Dav
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Add lead guitar to one of the remai
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will@iglou.iglou.com (William M. Wi
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onto his Hi-Fi deck. I have to say,
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miked amps and put on another track
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everything at once and not making a
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Q4.1.2 What are some related FAQ li
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***********************************
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XCF.Berkeley.EDU has IP address 128
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DAT-Heads mailing list. ***********
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in the body of an email message (*n
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Currently, archives for GAJOOB Maga
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Everything in the tips was done usi
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http://www1.uniovi.es/musica/ LA FA
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Direct any further questions, comme
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Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. 16380 R
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e-create sounds you hear on hit rec
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that old manual you've been looking
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This version was completed 12/4/96.
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139 Cons: It can be VERY expensive.
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141 Studio time is fairly expensive
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lead guitar, then rhythm guitar and
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SECTION V: MIXING 5.1) What is the
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Recording Handbook - Hol.gr

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