noah's studio manual

8/10/2019 Noah's Studio Manual

1/16

Studio Manual

Equipment

Mixer

Channel Path

First of all a very simple concept that will help you

understand any mixer is that even though they are

generally big and have many different controls

most of the controls do exactly the same thing they

are just duplicated for multichannel recordings.

The Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer has a lot of

different buttons so we will start from the top of

one channel strip. At the top of each channel there

is a Gain control this lets you increase the volume

of a channel is the signal is too low. This is generally

on all mixers and is a very useful tool however it should not need to be used to an extreme as then

you may have a high signal to noise ratio. Microphone Placement can usually eliminate the use of the

gain control but its always nice to have it there to get your levels to their desired places. Be careful

when you use the gain control however as it can lead to channels clipping. Below the gain control in

the same section is the Phantom Power (48 Volts) this is used for mainly condenser microphones

which need the extra power to be able to function.

Also there is a line input button so if you are recording a guitar straight into the mixer then you will

need to press this button. Just below the line button is the phase button which you can identify by

the Owith a cross through it. This function is more complex but is highly useful in some

circumstances. The phase button allows you to reverse the phase of an input. You may be thinking

why would you need to do that? Well the answer is pretty simple. For example if you were recording

drums but your overhead microphones were different distances away from the drum kit the sound

you would be getting from one would be out of time

with the other. This is due to the sound taking longer to

be picked up in the closer microphone than in the

microphone that is placed further away. This is a more

amateur mistake but one that could easily go unnoticed.

This button reverses the phase and makes it easier for

you to record microphones from different distances.

Next is the 100Hz control this control is very helpful as it

allows you to cut out some of the lower unwanted

frequencies that maybe conflicting in your mix. This is a

good function in the mixer as a lot of people who mix

generally cut out frequencies lower than 100Hz. They do

this as a lot of instruments are spread over different


2/16

frequencies over the spectrum and to make all the

various elements of a song sound defined.

Generally apart from Basses, Kick drums and sub

Basses a lot of the frequencies under this range are

unwanted. The final button in this section is called

the sub grouper, this is allows you to group

channels. Its pretty simple; say if you wanted to

control 2 guitars you could select them both using

the sub grouper.

Noise Gate, Channel Fader and EQ

This section of the mixer is a somewhat noise gate. If you dont know what a noise gate is then

basically it allows you to control the volume of a signal. Its like a compressor but instead of

compressing audio it reduces sounds below a given threshold. So with that definition out of the way

lets get onto the controls. So to activate the Noise gate you have to press the gate button. The

Range control changes the range of the gate from 15db to 60db. The Threshold button allows the

gate to be varied from -40db to +10db. Below that there are bandpass filters with a frequency which

allows an alternation between 70Hz to 4kHz by the Fill control. After that there is the release control

which you can increase the hold of your recordings. The Channel fader controls the level of your

channel it can change the overall gain of a channel by 10Db.

For any extra control there is always the cut button located to

the side of the channel fader. The Bounce function allows you

to isolate your channel from the overall mix and bounce it

separately. In every mixer there will be a range of in depth EQ

controls which you can use to boost certain frequencies in

the Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer the controls are easy to use

and are separated into different boost and cut buttons.

HFFor a 15Db cut or boost of around 12Khz

LF - For a 15Db cut or boost of around 60Hz

HMF and LMF - For a 15Db cut or boost between 600Hz-

12Khz and 100Hz-2kHz


3/16

Outboard Gear

The term Outboard gear refers to external

effects units. These units are used to change

how a musical instrument sounds. They can be

used for live recordings or in a recording studio

like the Outboard equipment in Studio A. In

Studio A they are connected to the mixer via

Bantam leads. These leads allow the outboard

gear to be used for mixes via the mixer or

interface. This can be very useful as sometimes

having hardware beats software plug-ins asmost of these plug-ins are actually simulations

of real life equipment so having this gear like

this gives you a much more clean an accurate

sound in some peoples opinion. Outboard gear

comes in many types such as:

-EQ

-Compressors

-Time Effects units (such as Reverb, Echoes and

delays)

-Pre-amps

-Noise Gates

-Limiters and much more


4/16

Studio Monitors

In the studio there are two sets of studio monitors used for different reasons. The larger KRK E8s

are the most used monitors and rightly so they are extremely powerful and give a clean crisp andaccurate sound. Studio monitors like these are especially good for producing as they do not add any

unwanted frequencies that may make tracks harder to mix like some headphone brands do. They

are placed upon monitor stands as large

monitors like the E8s weight alot.The Second

lot are a pair of Fostex speakers used for

playing back mixes to see how they sound on a

wider range of speaker systems. They are

connected to the mixing desk via an XLR cable

into the output channels. Both Monitors are

active which means they do not need an

external power amplifier to be used. They are

pointed inward to get a better stereo field

which makes it easier to mix and pan tracks. It

is important that before you master your tracks

you mix them on multiple speakers to make

sure they sound good from not just the

powerful KRK E8s.

Audio Interface

An audio interface is a piece of equipment that

provides inputs and outputs to a computer.

They allow you to record with microphones,

electric guitars, Bass guitars, keyboards, DJ

decks and any other instruments that have a

digital output. They also have other features

such as phantom power and built in effects but

they are largely used with mixers like in studioA where they provide a means to record into a

computer via a Firewire cable for editing on

Logic.


5/16

The Mesa and recording amplifiers

The Mesa is a guitar amplifier which plugs into the patch bay which you can use to record basses and

guitars you plug in a jack lead in and put the other end into your chosen instrument and are able to

simulate real amps via this piece of outboard equipment. You also have a range of other knobs and

controls which are self explanatory such as the ON switch but the Mesa is a very useful piece of

equipment as you eliminate the need to record via an amplifier which you require a microphone for.

There are two main ways of recording basses or guitars. The first way is to record your chosen

instrument through an amplifier with a microphone. With this method you are limited to the

amplifiers that you have whereas the second method which is recording it straight into your interface

or pre amp using a jack cable. This method is sometimes better as if you have plug-ins such as amp

designer you can use it to manipulate it to sound like a real live amp and this way you have plenty of

variety to choose from and are not just limited to the amps you have.

To Record Basses or guitars using the first method you will need to make sure you have an amp

plugged in and ready to record. You would use a dynamic microphone to record off of amplifiers and

Then you will need to place a microphone on a stand and put the microphone so that is it pointing to

the edge of the speaker cone. Once that is done check the levels so there is no clipping. We did the

second method by plugging a bass into a pre amp and recording it straight into Logic. Before trying

any of these methods you need to make sure that the instrument chosen is appropriately tuned as

this may affect the overall sound of the recording. Guitars can go out of tune quickly due to

abnormal room temperatures.

It has a number of controls some are simpler than others such as:

-Bass (Which allows you to increase the lower

frequencies of your instrument)

-Treble (Which allows you to increase the higher


-Mid (Which allows you to increase the mid range


-Presence (Which adds more reverb)

-Master (Which increases the overall volume.

Basically a Gain control)


6/16

XLR

XLR cables are generally used for all high

quality microphones and are balanced. Using

a balanced cable is better as you can use

longer length cables with no worry of external

disturbances interfering with your recordings.

The usually have 3 pins and have two different

end connectors, one being the male side and

another being the female side. Some

microphones which use the XLR connection

need an extra 48 Volts. This is called Phantom

Power and is needed to power condenser

microphones as they have more.

Inch Jack

Unlike the XLR cable this cable is unbalanced meaning that it is

more susceptible to outside noise. The Inch jack is used in many

things such as Guitars, Keyboards, Synthesizers and headphones.

This connection is used in studio A between a guitar and an amp

or the Mesa.

Bantam

In studio A Bantam leads are used to route signals between

outboard gear and the mixer. This is done via a patch bay in

the mixer.

Firewire

Firewire cables are used to connect audio interfaces to

computers. They are used instead of USB as they are

generally much faster. In the studio, this is how the

apple Mac computer is hooked up to the audio interfaces


7/16


8/16

Parametric & Shelf EQ

Parametric EQ is different to a regular shelf EQ as it has more control over each frequency. A shelf

EQ is locked at 20HZ whereas a parametric Equaliser can be changed to control a centre frequency of

various amounts.

Outboard Compressor

An Outboard Compressor is like a compressor

you would find in a D.A.W. such as Logic but its

the real article. Plug-ins on Logic are just

simulations of what outboard compressors cando. In some peoples opinion they are better than

plug-ins as they can sound clearer and some have

more functionality depending on which outboard

compressor you have. These compressors can

increase and decrease the overall volume of a

recording and make the overall track the same

level.


9/16

Health and Safety

Being in a studio filled with all different types of equipment, cables and furniture can cause many

safety issues. So when operating the studio you have to be very careful of a few things. Trip Hazards

are one of the most important things to be aware of as with so many cables on the floor and having

to move between studios and live rooms could cause problems. One way around this would be to

tidy cables, stands and equipment and make sure it is out of the way. Ensure that there is nothing

left on the floor at all times and be generally aware as there is lots of expensive equipment.

Fire Hazards is also another thing to be wary about as all this electrical equipment is dangerous on

its own as if a its left on for too long it could start to overheat and cause a fire hazard. They way to

ensure that this doesnt happen is to turn off all equipment when done using it so that you do not

damage it as well as cause a fire hazard. However if there is a fire hazard you should grab your things

and leave through one of the fire exists. If you are unaware of a fire the fire alarm will warn you of

any incoming danger. In addition no food or drink is allowed into the studios as this prevents any

case of spillages and damaging equipment.

Microphones

Microphones are needed in the studio to record instruments for the bands. There are several

instruments that need to be recorded with each band and multiple types of microphones need to be

used for every different one. Some instruments need a more powerful microphone to get the most

accurate recording such as an acoustic guitar needs a condenser microphone as it is more powerful

and sensitive meaning that it will pick up a bigger range of frequencies.

One of the microphones we use is the Shure SM57 which is

used for many things such as recording snare drums and

amplifiers. Its a very versatile microphone and thats why it is

the industry standard when it comes to dynamic microphones.

One of the microphones we use is the Shure SM58 which is

used for many vocals. Itsused in lots of live environments and

is very hard to break however because of this quality it is used

in studios much more frequently. In fact itsvery similar to the

SM57 if you take the protective cover of off the top.


10/16


11/16


12/16


13/16

Recording Drums

When recording drums there is a lot of mistakes that can be made which limit the overall sound.

There are multiple areas in this process which you need to focus on, these areas area: Microphone

types, Microphone placement, Cabling and Maintaining levels. There are two main types of

microphones that we used There are different variations of each type but they all do a similar job.

Recording drums you mainly use dynamic microphones all with different diameters. For instance for

the Bass Drum we used a larger dynamic microphone to pick up the lower frequencies whereas for

the snare we used a Shure Sm57 which is much smaller and picks up less. The second type of

microphone we used was a small diaphragm condenser microphone for the overhead microphones.

We used condenser microphones in this instance to get a much wider and atmospheric sound to the

drums as condensers are more sensitive and require an extra 48 volts of electricity (referred to as

Phantom Power).This means that they pick up a wider range of frequencies which adds depth to the

recording. Cabling is important when recording drums as although it is a smaller aspect of recording

drums it can be easy to make mistakes. When using stands for instance you need to carefully wrap

the XLR cables around the leaning arm.

Microphone placement is one of the most crucial components in getting a good recording and for

each microphone there is a unique spot which gets the best sound. For the bass drum the best place

is inside the hole of the kick. It needs to be placed around about in the centre but not so far that the

attack of the drum is too fast. The first and second snare microphone needs to be facing the centre

of the snare to get a sharper sound but it needs to still be close to the rim as otherwise it could get in

the drummer's way. You need to be careful of as although having the microphone close to the

individual drums themselves generally gets a clearer sound you have to think about how a drummer

would play so this often needs to be taken into account.

The Toms are similar to the snare drum placement but they have a wider diaphragm so they can be

placed slightly further away. Some studios may have clip on microphone stands for the tom drums

this is often easier but you can still get a good sound by just using regular stands. The Hi Hat

microphone needs to placed almost directly above the Hi hat a few inches away from the bell of the

hat. The overhead microphones can be placed in two ways. It is debatable which way sounds better

as the first method gives you a more enclosed sound whereas the second feels much more open.

Lastly The Room microphone can be placed anywhere in the room which your drums are located in

and just adds more atmospheric depth to the overall sound of the drums. Cabling even though is a

more minor detail in recording drums it is still important to wrap cables around stands so that they

do not interfere with any recordings. Wrapping up cables when finished is also important as not

doing so may leave cables damaged or cause a trip hazard. Once all this is completed its always good

to check all your levels and make any necessary alterations so that no channels are clipping and they

are all more or less even in the mix. Some Drum recordings use sub kick microphones which are

made from old monitors, the one we used was made up of an old Yamaha monitor to record the sub

bass frequencies to almost record samples that sound 808 like. Before you record your drums make

sure that if you are using a under snare microphone that the invert phase button is selected as the

snare microphone may be at a different distance to your under snare microphone.


14/16

This is the drum kit after we had setup all of the

microphones and stands. This is the overall view

and you can see from the overheads that all of

the microphones have been positioned as they

have been positioned and directed to the same

point on the drum kit, which in this case was the

Snare drum. The Overheads are the exact

distance away from each other so that there are

no phase issues. You can also see that the cables

have been carefully wrapped around the stands

so they are out of the way of the drummer and

dont interfere with any of the microphones.

This is a picture of the Bass drum ready to be

recorded. As you can see the microphone used

has a larger diagram to pick up the lower

frequencies of the kick drum. Also it has been

directed straight into the hole of the drum

which means it will get a much more punchy

sound than when recording with the

microphone outside the drum. The stand is

lowered to make it easier to get a better angle

and also the cables are again out of the way of

the drum.

Here you can see the Floor Tom and the top

Snare Drum microphones before the recordings.

The floor tom microphone still has a bigger

diaphragm than the snare drum microphone

but it is smaller than the bass drum as the floor

tom. Both use stands directed to the centre of

the drum with both microphones pointing

downwards for a clearer sound. You need to do

this as otherwise you may get to much bleed

from your other drums.


15/16

Here you can see the Hi Hat and Rack Tom microphones.

The Hi Hat as it emits higher frequencies a microphone

with a smaller diaphragm is needed whereas the rack tom

has a noticeably larger diaphragm. The Hi Hat microphone

is the most unique to place as it needs to be 3 or 4 inches

away from the bell at located above the top cymbal

pointing directly down. On the other hand the Rack Tom

microphone is around the edge of the drum so it doesnt

hinder the drummer and is pointing towards the centre.


16/16

noah's studio manual

Documents