Introduction to music production

Coursera

Week 2- Assignment

“Prepare a project in your DAW” -using the project checklist from the material as your guidelines.

On this second assignment I will show you what kind of technical specifications need to be configured before you start working in your DAW. I will use screenshots from Cubase LE5 during the lesson to explain myself better.

STARTING A NEW PROJECT IN YOUR DAW First of all, you have to open your DAW and then a window for a New Project will appear.

If it doesn’t appear automatically, you can go to the File options of your DAW and start a New Project from there.

Personally, the most of the times I prefer to open a default new project, because the basic preferences are already adjusted, the way I need them.

PROJECT NAME AND LOCATION

It is very important when you start a New Project to define exactly the folder in which you are going to save it.

It is even better to have a specific folder on your computer where you actually store all of your projects ( ex. Cubase files )

Naming your project properly is also something that you should not forget, so that you can find your projects easily without getting lost in a chaos full of Project 1, Project 2, Project 3..etc (ex. Coursera Project)

DIGITAL AUDIO PREFERENCES

There are two parameters, which are important in audio studio. -word length (bit depth or resolution) -sampling rate (how often we do the measurements when we are converting from analog to digital)CD standard is 16bit and 44.100 samples/sec

• After finishing the first step, it is very important to set your digital audio preferences. In Cubase LE 5, for example, you go to Project Menu and you choose the option Project Setup.

DIGITAL AUDIO PREFERENCES

It is nice for sample rate to be set to 48.000 kHz , because the higher the sample rate, the higher frequency that can be represented accurately in the digital domain.

Record format (resolution or bit depth) is good to be set to 24bit, because it provides wider dynamic range.

RECORDING FILE TYPE

In DAW we are using uncompressed file types like WAV or AIFF. You can see in the left that I have chosen to record a wave file.

If there is an option to choose between interleaved or non-interleaved file choose the interleaved one, which is a single file that contains both left-right audio channel.

HARDWARE SETTINGSMake sure that your DAW is configured to work with your audio interface. So, you should go to the DAW’s preferences (in my DAW I go to Device Setup VST Audio System) to configure it to use your interface for audio in and out.

Audio Interface here: Lexicon Lambda

ASIO

BUFFER SIZELarger buffer size: more plugins, more software synthesizers, computer works efficiently but there is some latency during recording.Lower buffer size: the less the latency but also less plugins and software synthesizers.

In order to avoid the delay while recording it is best to set your buffer size at 128 samples before recording and change it to 1024 samples and make your computer more efficient before the mixing-editing process.

For example the interface I own doesn’t show the buffer size but indicates the milliseconds of the delay. So I set the lowest latency before recording and I bring it up during the post-production process.

IN CONCLUSION

Pre-Production Check list

1.Proper Project Name and Location

2.Digital Audio Preferences

3.Recording File Type

4.Hardware Settings

5.Buffer Size I suggest you to go to your DAW and find how to adjust all

these preferences there and get used to the whole process

•Thank you very much for attending my presentation!