Anthony D. Beardslee

Tips and Techniques for Making Better Recordings of your BandTips and Techniques for Making Better Recordings of your Band

Anthony D. Beardslee

Instructor at NECC in Norfolk Audio Recording Technology 14 Years Experience in Teaching 20+ Years Experience in Professional

Audio Sound System Consultation

Can You Help Me?

Common Problems

Making Decisions Based on Hunches

Misinformed On Their Own Misinformed Support Personnel Lack of Training

Don’t Know the Entire Picture

Don’t Have a Known Budget

A Good Recording Means…

Good Sounding Instrument Skilled Musician Acoustics

Good Sounding Room Inside Inside Noises Eliminated Outside Noises Eliminated

Good Microphone Proper Placement

High Quality Recording System Tuned and/or Configured Properly

Skilled Engineer

What Are You Trying To Do? Reference Recordings Recordings for Auditions

All-State, Scholarships, etc. Keepsake for Students or Parents CD Sales – Local

Fundraisers, etc. CD Sales – National Grammy Submissions

Adds 4 to 6

years to my

presentation

Equipment

My, how times have changed!

What’s Wrong With This?

Cassette is noisy Moving parts picked up by internal mic External mics are not professional

quality

Today’s Better Options…

DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Laptop or Desktop with I/O and Software

Record direct to CD – Stand-Alone Burner

Portable Digital Recorder Hire Someone

DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Computer with lots of RAM (Memory) High Processing Power I/O (Input/Output) Device Required

Sound Card External I/O Box

Familiarity With Software Avid Pro Tools Sony Movie Studio (Video editor w / great

audio tools) Roland (Sonar) Cakewalk Adobe Audition Apple Garage Band Mackie Tracktion MOTU Digital Performer

Direct to CD Burner

“Music” CD-R’s Only!

Stand-Alone burners usually will not accept standard CD-R’s typically used for computer burners

Beware CD-RW’s

More expensive Must erase the entire disc to re-use it Not as compatible with standard CD

players as CD-R media

Don’t Forget to FINALIZE!! CD projects on stand-alone burners

can be left “open-ended” to accommodate a project that might occur over several days

HOWEVER… until it is finalized, it will not play in any other CD player.

Portable Digital Recorders Higher Quality Internal Microphones More Reliable, Less Noisy Medium

Often removable flash media No Moving Parts!

Best bang-for-the-buck!

Some provide inputs for professional-grade microphones

Can be configured to record in a wide variety of formats, i.e. .WAV, .MP3, etc.

Connect directly to computer for burning or emailing

Most mount directly on stands

Look for… Editing Capability

Very helpful if you have no computer Trim head and tail of any recording

Removable Storage SD

Ability to Record in Multiple Formats .WAV or .MP3

Direct Connection via USB If it has XLR jacks for external mics,

does is provide phantom power?

Acoustics – Good Sounding RoomTo Improve a “Bad” Room…Reduce reflective surfacesHang dense blanketsBuild or purchase movable gobosMount absorbers and/or diffusers

Diffusers

Absorbers

Packing Blankets have excellent absorptive properties

Source: www.kevinkemp.com/homerecordingtutorial

+

= Instant Gobo

When Hanging Blankets…

Putting blankets around the source is more effective than hanging blankets on the walls

If hanging on walls, try to have some air space between blanket and wall, rather than hanging in direct contact with the wall

Acoustics – Inside Noises Eliminated

Fluorescent Lights Heaters, Air Conditioners, Air Ducts,

etc. Computers Projectors Inside noises can also be avoided

with isolation, gobos, blankets, etc

Acoustics – Outside Noises Eliminated Hallway Noises

People Tardy Bell

Windows? Outdoor Noises Traffic People Birds, Dogs, etc.

Avoid Noisy Times of the Day

Microphone/Musician PlacementGenerally Speaking…The further away the mic is from the source, the more “room” you will hearBalance issues can easily be solved by repositioning the instrumentsMic’ing too close will result in unnatural sound

X-Y Pair Spaced Pair

Natural Sound Bigger, Wider Sound

Not too far back – too “roomy” sounding Raise mic to avoid “too much front row” “Aim” microphone to cover entire

ensemble as if the microphone was a camera

Mic too close to trumpet – unnatural sound

Too much trumpet and not enough piano

Mic is too far away – too much “room”

Balanced approach Do a few practice recordings to get

balance right

Where to point the mic

Pointing at the sound hole or bell is a good start (usually)

Internet searches are often helpful Put a finger in one ear and move

around the instrument to find the “sweet spot”

Mixer divided into channels Each of the channels combine to the

master Master output feeds input of recorder

Watching Levels

1. Microphone Preamp (gain)2. Channel Fader (volume)3. Master Output Level (mix)4. Recorder Input Level

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Sound Check

Always do a sound check Checking Levels

Always RECORD your sound check So that you can listen and check balance

& sound Use the loudest portion of the

song/program Set levels at about -6 dB at loudest level

Digital Meters

Levels too low – poor signal-to-noise ratio Forces you to increase volume of the final

product, which also increases the noise Exception: If this happens to be the quiet

passage of a piece that gets very loud at the end, then you’re ok

Digital Meters

Levels too high – no headroom Running a high risk of

overload/distortion

Digital distortion is much less “forgiving”

Digital Meters vs. VU Meters

*Average Operating Level

Microphone Choices Generally Speaking… Condenser

Mics are Better for Recording Quality of low-cost condensers have

significantly improved

Microphone Choices Need Phantom Power Prone to “wind turbulence” – Use

wind screens or position mics away from air

Microphone Choices

Use Shock Mounts

Microphone Polar PatternsLong story short, generally speaking…Avoid Omni-Directional and Bi-Directional

Pick up too much “room”Cardioid, Super-Cardioid, and Hyper-Cardioid reject sound coming from behind themUni-Directional is a poorly-worded nomenclature (cardioid is better)

Does this look uni-directional to you??

File Formats

.WAV or .BWF .MP3 .WMA .AIFF .SDII .M4e, .M4p, .M4a .RA AAC

.WAV or .BWF

Uncompressed – no loss in quality due to file size reduction

CD quality .WAV is about 5 Megabytes per mono minute

Example: 5-minute stereo recording = about 50 Mbytes

Good for burning, bad for emailing Attachment size too big

.MP3 and .WMA

Compressed formats Loss of sound quality

Data ratio compared to .WAV can be around 5:1 to 30:1, depending on bit rate

Better for emailing or web streaming Do NOT use for CD sales (use .WAV)

Comparison of Bit Rates*

BIT RATE DATA RATIO SOUND QUALITY

256 kbps** 5:1 Transparent

128 kbps 11:1 CD Quality

96 kbps 14:1 Near CD Quality

64 kbps 22:1 Near FM Radio Quality

32 kbps 30:1 Bad AM Radio Quality*Compared to CD Audio ~ 10 Mbytes per stereo minute

**kbps = kilobits per second

If Recording for CD and Web… Record using uncompressed WAV first…

Use these files for your CD Then convert files to MP3 for web

publishing Most DAW’s and media software will do this

Converting MP3 back to WAV will NOT restore original sound

CD Burning Software

Necessary to create AUDIO CD’s Dragging a folder full of .wav files

into a burn folder is NOT creating an audio CD It’s a CD-ROM with .wav files on it Won’t play on CD players

CAN use standard CD-R’s since you are using the computer and not a stand-alone burner

CD Burning Software Apple iTunes

Free Windows or Mac Reasonably intuitive and easy to use

Roxio Easy Creator Around $90

Sony CD Architect Around $100 Many more mastering options

Windows Media Player Not as user-friendly as iTunes

Burner XP Free Windows Only