The 123's of Recording?

[WyrmDL]

Hey everyone,

I have almost no idea how to record, and not that I have any mics yet, but I would like to know for future references.

Can someone explain to me exactly what kind of equipment, software, etc I would need? Is there more than one way, and if so, what are the benefits of each?

If possible, please explain in layman's terms and in slow steps, as I pick new things like this up fairly slowly.

I appreaciate the help.

[Seafroggys]

Okay the first step is to decide how many mics you want.

Typically, this is what you can do.

One mic: A microphone in front of the drums about 6-8 feet.

Two mics: One mic in front of the drums about 4-5 feet, pointed lower than the previous setup, and one mic above the drums pointing down.

Four mics: This is what I would consider the start of the "hi-fi" microphone setup. This is what I use, and many records were made using this setup. One mic right on the snare, right on the bass drum, and two overhead mics pointing down.

Full mics: One mic on bass, one on snare, one on each of the toms, one on the hi-hats, and two overhead microphones.

These are just the basic mic setups mind you. You can obviously deviate from this.

[fishbulb]

Now all of those microphones will lead into a mixer of some sort. Most mixers that you buy have built in pre-amps and i'm not exactly sure when the signal is amplified if you get a separate pre-amp.

If you have a firewire mixer then the signal from the mixer will go into your computer and you can record into Cubase or Sonar or ProTools and you can edit each microphone's sound independently of one another.

[WyrmDL]

Thanks guys.

Right now I have a mixer, but not a firewire (seen in my thread in the G&M). From this mixer, where exactly would I want to go with it?

[fishbulb]

You can take the left and right channel outputs on your mixer and send that signal to your computer but you must have all of the EQ/effects/levels adjusted before you record because you cannot edit the tracks separately. I.E. If you wanted to make your snare drum louder you could not do that after you record with just the left and right channels being outputted.

[WyrmDL]

Awesome, thanks for all the help.

I think in some time I actually might have some audio up!

[Yield]

Use audacity for the best sound quality

[WyrmDL]

That would be the program right, and if I remember correctly, it was free?

I dont really know about it, but what does it really do?

[Yield]

It is free that is correct

what it does? all you have to do is plug in the microphone and it'll record something ten times better than what you are actually playing

[Chippy569]

use protools/logic/cubase for the best sound quality. use audacity for the best sound quality for free.

you can sit in a room with all the gear and software you want, but that won't make a recording. first, you need to decide what it is you want to record, specifically just how good the audio quality needs to be. What do you need the recording [i]for[/]? just to tape rehearsals? making a band demo?

Then, you need to remember the 2/3 rule. That goes like this. Pick two of these three options:
-Good
-Fast
-Cheap

I'm sure there's a really flashy name for this business principle, but i know it as the 2/3 rule. anyway. You can have a good and cheap recording, but it'll take a lot of time. (even more since you don't know what you're doing.) You could have a good and fast recording, but it won't be cheap. or you could have a cheap and fast recording, but it won't be good.

Never, never ever ever underestimate the ability of your local basement studios. If you really need a good quality recording relatively soon, these little startup studios are your best bets. They usually go for pretty cheap hourly rates and the quality is usually very good. ask around at your local music store about some places people have recorded at in your area.


Now if you're truly serious that you want to start doing your own recording, we can start getting down to basics.

[Chippy569]

what it does? all you have to do is plug in the microphone and it'll record something ten times better than what you are actually playing
this is not true.

[Yield]

this is not true.

dude, what. you got some beef with me or somethin?

[Chippy569]

yeah, don't talk bullshit, especially in a recording thread. there's enough misconceptions and outright false ideas floating around in people's minds about what recording is and isn't already, and you're hot helping.

[Yield]

yeah, don't talk bullshit, especially in a recording thread. there's enough misconceptions and outright false ideas floating around in people's minds about what recording is and isn't already, and you're hot helping.

lol, the guy would have to be a total dumbass to believe me

[Chippy569]

some people think recording is "just plug some mics in and hit record"

and then they get really confused when it's not what they expect...

[WyrmDL]

Well thanks for the helpful input. I guess I have the bare-bones knowledge of recording now?

Can you still clarify what audacity/protools/logic/cubase do? Im still dont know what those kinds of programs do.

Thanks.

[Seafroggys]

They are called a DAW program. Digital Audio Workstation.

They are a means of working with what you record. When you record stuff into your computer, the program displays it in a functional sense so you can play it back and edit it in an easy way, by applying plugins, EQ, modifications, etc.

[WyrmDL]

Ah, ok, im starting to get a hold of how to get this working now.

Thanks for the help everyone. When I get everything ready I think I'll post up some test audio.

[Chippy569]

ok... if you regard learning guitar as learning "an instrument," then learning to "Record" is learning three instruments; the microphone, the mixer, and the EQ. A secondary, but crucial other factor, is the room you're recording in.

The microphone is, apart from the actual sound source, the most crucial instrument to truly learn well. Microphones can even be loosely compared to guitars. Every microphone has a different "Sound," called a pickup pattern. Some microphones have awesome high-frequency response, but very little low-frequency clarity. Some microphones have amazing lower frequency pickup but poor high frequency response. These differences have to do with the actual transducer element. (a transducer is anything that changes one type of energy into another. in the case of microphones, we're transforming sonic energy into electrical.) There are two basic categories of elements -- dynamic and condenser. The dynamic microphone works the opposite of a speaker, in that you have a coil of wire with a magnet moving in and out with the vibrations of the air. the magnet moving in the coil creates a very small current, essentially a "sine wave" or periodic function (an alternating current function) which gets sent out from the mic. a condenser microphone works on a more complicated electrical element - a variable capacitor. If you study electronics ever, this will make more sense. when you have two plates with opposite charge (a minus plate and a plus plate) some distance apart, they create a little flow. read the wikipedia article on capacitors, specifically the "DC Sources" section. Basically, a condenser mic capsule has one plate charged by your phantom power, and the 2nd plate moves in and out with the sound pressure. the change in capacitance translates to different voltages.
Anyway. back to frequency response. the element of a dynamic mic is quite large compared to the size of a capacitor plate. The "speaker" of the dynamic mic is relatively heavy and weighty and hard to move really fast (by small frequencies). by comparison, the capacitor plate in a condenser is TINY! the connector wires measured in microns sometimes.

more on mixers and the all mighty EQ later.

[Seafroggys]

I honestly believe you blow things way out of proportion.

I would hardly consider EQ to be a "third instrument" just because it doesn't take much to master EQ. Just know that you don't need very much EQ modifications, only do small adjustments, you'll be using high pass filters the most probably, and one track's valleys is anotehr peaks. Just basic experimentation using that advice will take you far.

I would mix EQ with the "mixer" using your model.

[Chippy569]

the mixer is the magical device where you combine all of the incoming signals into more organized outputs. Typically, when you're doing a live show, you'll have a left and right out for the main house, plus maybe a center, and then if it's a big show you'll have an Aux 1 (and maybe 2 and 3 and 4) for monitor mixes, back of house mixes, the bathroom mix, etc. etc. so anyway, the whole idea is to combine the signals in whichever way fits the needs.
back in the day when you'd record on tape, you had Left and Right. your mixer was what got 2323410234029343 mics down to 2 channels. Nowadays, with multitrack recording on your DAW (Through protools/logic/whatever) the purpose of the external mixer has shifted to a mixer built into the software. (if you have something like the presonus firestudio or similar, it takes all the incoming signals, sends them to the PC, where your program typically records them and mixes them to what's probably your left/right monitor mix.)
think of mixers kind of like a big matrix. you have X number of inputs, Y number of outputs, and can connect them just about anywhere at any desired level. that's what the mixer does.

if you look at a mixer, there's a lot of knobs and faders. Mixers work in channels. your input comes into the channel, usually at the top or the back of the mixer, and works its way down the controls of that channel. You'll first typically find a "Preamp" or "gain" knob. That signal coming from your microphone is very small and weak. it needs to get "amplified" to line-level for noise from the rest of your electronics to not be noticeable. Preamplification should occur as soon as possible to reduce signal noise.
anyway. a quick touch on the preamp. somewhere in your channel, there is probably a "solo" button. if your mixer is equipped with either old-school meters or new-school LED bars, you'll probably notice that more lights come on/the needle moves further as you input signal. your goal with the preamplifier is to get the loudest practical sound to register around the "0" of that meter. (the 0 means 0dBV, wiki if you want a headache). the 0 on the loudest practical sound leaves some headroom for mics getting bumped or an unusually loud sound, but keeps the signal loud enough to reduce the noise.
next, it'll typically go to the mixer's EQ knobs. I'll talk about these later.
Then, you'll probably hit your Aux controls. There should be one knob for every aux out you have. Some are "pre" fader, and some are "post" fader. Aux pre-faders are great for when you want two independent mixes. As you move the fader (at the bottom of the board) around, there's no change to the aux signal. Awesome for monitors! Aux post-faders are great for effects (efx) units. As you turn down the fader, you also turn down the amount of signal to the efx, keeping everything in proportion.
Finally, there's probably a mute button, and then a fader, and along side the fader, some bus select buttons. There's one for L-R typically, which is your "main mix." then there's probably like a 1-2 and 3-4 for "sub-mixes." Usually submixes are great for when you're doing live sound and you have your whole huge band, and there's 23402934 mics on the drumset, and you want to turn the entire drumset down. if all your drum mics are on submix 1-2 (and not L-R), then you move down to the right of the board, find the "1-2" fader, and turn it down. the entire kit turns down, all at once, with all the levels staying in proportion! it's beautiful. (works well for a chorus or backup vox or whatever, too!)

Then, really, the only thing about mixers that gets confusing is where to route everything, because you have so many options! the real trick of the mixer is figuring out where everything goes and how to use it most efficiently.

[Chippy569]

next, you've got the quintessential Equalizer, or EQ for short. an equalizer is a set of frequency-dependent circuits which split the signal apart into its frequency ranges, alters the levels, and puts it back together. If you've ever used a home or stereo, you might have messed with the "bass" and "treble" knobs or settings or whathaveyou. those are very basic shelving EQ processors. There are two (well... three) types of equalizers that you will encounter -- shelving, parametric, and an offshoot of parametric called graphic.
a shelving equalizer works like this. It has one dominant frequency. usually, a "bass" frequency is around 80-100Hz, and the upper "treble" around 5-10kHz. the shelf works in such a way that everything below (for a low shelf) or above (for a high shelf) is raised or lowered equally. so, if you set your low shelf to +6dB, then everything at 80Hz down to 0Hz will be raised by 6dB.

Conversely, you will also run into a parametric EQ. it works like this. there'll be a knob or setting for "frequency." You can sweep it down to a low frequency and up to a high one. There'll be another setting for "gain." this is your volume editor. next, there's probably a "Q" factor. This is how tight or how broad the effect works around the frequency set by the frequency knob. The shape of a parametric EQ's gain is, well, parametric, or like a parabola roughly. if you set it to +6dB at 400Hz, then 400Hz will be +6, and then 800Hz and 200Hz will be at the same level below six. (remember frequency is logarithmic). In this example, the parabola is crossing 3 octaves, which is a very, very low Q. a very high Q can make 400Hz +6dB and 399 and 401Hz at +2dB.
lastly, you might encounter a "Graphic" EQ. if you've been in a Pontiac vehicle made circa 2001, they've usually got a little 10-band graphic EQ right on it. Graphic EQ's can go right up to 31 band. Essentially, they are a series of # of band parametric EQ's with fixed frequencies (it'll say right around the control) and a set Q factor. With this, you can adjust the volumes of frequencies sometimes down to 1/5 of an octave!

working the EQ is like working the tuning. you're getting the sound you want out of the signal. Mics are not perfect. the EQ is there to fix what the mic lacked.

the EQ can also be there to compensate for the sound of a room. but we'll not go there today.




now, the EQ on your mixer. Cheap mixers will probably have a low shelf, a high shelf, and a "High Pass" or "low cut" button. The high pass button will usually make a nice little roll-off in your eq down from its frequency, typically 60Hz. as you get into nicer mixers, they start adding some parametric capabilities, usually a "Mid" frequency and gain knob. Even fancier mixers will have two little mid frequency knobs.





all right, you know enough about some basic recording ideas to hurt someone now. fire off the questions and start experimenting!

[BummerJonny]

would now be a good time to scan in and post the 2 sound on sound articles i nicked from college, one about recording drums, and the other about micing each drum in more detail?

[We_Love_Lime]

I vote chippy greatest man on earth

[We_Love_Lime]

I vote chippy greatest man on earth

this.

[Panopticon]

this.

hey...why don't you get your own ideas and stop agreeing with everything lime says?

[Chippy569]

lol.

micing drums is just as easy (or hard) as micing any other instrument. the same rules apply -- choose your mics wisely, and then place them where you'll get the least issues.


for a really great drum sound, you want the drums in the biggest, largest, most open area you can get them. recording drums in a small room with give you phase issues between the source sound and the primary reflections off the walls. If you get a space big enough to negate the bulk of those primary reflections (like a living room with a high ceiling) then the phase issues disappear and your drums sound fuller. That's the real trick to a good drum sound... putting them in a good room first!

[ant_182]

I hav'nt had a proper read yet, so this might be said...

Has anyone got any mic recomendations for each like, level? etc.

[Chippy569]

what are you talking about?

[ant_182]

Like, "entry level"/mic packs? then intermediate, then pro. level ones?

[Chippy569]

what are you trying to record, how good of a recording do you need, and what are you using the recording for?

[ant_182]

Not right now, but for the future, I'd like decent mic's recording for various uses. Mic's for all drum gear. I also thought it might be helpful for other people to see what mics are better etc.

[Chippy569]

if you just want to record stuff for shits and giggles, get a Zoom H4. put it in the center of your room, about shoulder height, and hit record. it records onto a CF drive, just like a bigger digital camera.

[Imperial Star]

Chippy you said that you want to record drums in a big open area to get a good sound. Your prolly right if you want a pro sound, but Bonham got some famous sounds from recording down a stair well etc.

[AdultSwim815]

The set up I use which cost me a grand total of $15 is just a cheap vocal mic plugged into the back of my computer with a mic adapter. I record with audacity.

However, I'm going to be getting rid of this set up as soon as I can. Most likely I'm going to go with 2 over head mics, 1 mic for the bass drum, 1 for my hihat and most likely 1 for my ride, along with a cheap mixer.

[Chippy569]

Chippy you said that you want to record drums in a big open area to get a good sound. Your prolly right if you want a pro sound, but Bonham got some famous sounds from recording down a stair well etc.

the stairwell had something like a 20' ceiling.

[Panopticon]

The set up I use which cost me a grand total of $15 is just a cheap vocal mic plugged into the back of my computer with a mic adapter. I record with audacity.

However, I'm going to be getting rid of this set up as soon as I can. Most likely I'm going to go with 2 over head mics, 1 mic for the bass drum, 1 for my hihat and most likely 1 for my ride, along with a cheap mixer.

should go for a snare mic as well. It will sound a lot better.

[BummerJonny]

yea. scrap hihat / ride close mics, they arent needed. overheads capture them fine. get a snare mic :P

[The Chemist]

just because it doesn't take much to master EQ.


I normally wouldn't call you out, but wrong. EQ takes years and years to get right. I still have problems with EQ, and I've been at it for about 8 years.

[Seafroggys]

Master was a strong word.

Really the most important EQ function is High-pass that I've found. Once you know how to use that and where to put it for whatever instrument, that solves most of the issues right there.

Of course, the #1 cure for bad EQ is a good arrangement.

[Chippy569]

eq is the polish in "you can't polish a turd"

if you want good sound, start with a good sound :)

[The Chemist]

A High-Pass can really clear up and tighten some instruments.

But yes, that is true.

[_Austin_]

Wow, that was a good read! Cheers chippy :)

Spose if you did try to polish a turd you'd get poo all over your EQ...
And who wants that?!

Not me...