Recording Secrets For The Small Studios Part 3

   1 .3   S  ETTING LEVELS  You don’t want just any signal reaching your recorder track, though—you want something that actually sounds good! The fundamental prerequisite for achieving this is that you set appropriate signal levels throughout your recording chain. For one thing, low-level noise will inevitably be added to your recording by any recording equipment you use, so you want to keep your audio signal level higher than this “noise fl oor”—the higher the better, in fact, in order to maximize the recording’s signal-to-noise ratio. On the other hand, overloading or “clipping” your recording gear by feeding it levels that are too high will produce unwanted distortion, and the further you push the level beyond any unit’s capabilities, the more audible this distortion will become. So in the normal run of things your aim is to keep signal levels high enough to minimize noise, but not so high that you trigger undesirable clipping distortion.

Recording Secrets For The Small Studios Part 2

   1 .2   THE LINE-CHECK  Returning to our stated task (namely recording the output of a stereo playback device), in an ideal world you should now be able to start playback, make any necessary internal signal-routing assignments within your recording system, and see the appropriate meters on your recorder lighting up. Back on Planet Earth, however, it’s actually very common for source signals to go AWOL, which is why “where’s the signal?” is probably the most common setup problem in any studio. As such, one of the recording engineer’s primary tasks before every session is to “line-check” the rig, ensuring that all signals are reaching their intended destinations. “There’s nothing worse on a session, and nothing worse on an engineer than when things are just not working right,” comments Al Schmitt, 1  echoing similar comments from Simon Climie 2  and Stephen Hague. 3  “It’s like they say in the boy scouts,” continues Schmitt: “Be prepared. Be on top of your game. Make sure everything’s working.”

Recording Secrets For The Small Studios

 One Source, No Mics

   Recording a Machine,

  Although much of the magic in many productions stems from a marriage of live performers and microphones, I’d like to start this primer by eliminating both these variables from the proceedings, so that we can fi rst concentrate on the bedrock studio techniques you’ll need for pretty much every recording job you attempt. As such, our fi rst goal will be learning to record samples from playback machines that directly output an electrical signal—things like radios, TVs, CD players, and mobile devices. On the face of things, this might seem a rather unedifying prospect, but bear with me, because it’s actually the quickest way to fast-track your basic technical skills. If you can learn to do this task right every time, then you’ll avoid the embarrassment of elementary goofs and the frustration of unnecessary delays once musicians are in the room. In addition, this activity should iron out the most common small-studio confi guration problems, thereby preparing your core recording system for the rigors of serious music sessions. 

1  .1   H  OOKING THINGS UP  So what do you need to know to connect the outputs of such equipment to your recording system? First off, you should realize that plugging anything in can generate powerful signal spikes, which could easily damage your monitors and/or ears. Seeing as deafening yourself probably isn’t the best way to begin a recording course, do ensure that you mute your speakers or headphones at the outset. The simplest way to do this is by silencing your system’s monitoring outputs in some way: you could mute your mixer’s master output; you could hit your monitor controller’s Mute button or disengage its output selector switches; or you could just turn down the volume control on the amplifi er feeding your speakers or headphones.