This information covers a wide aspect of recording. I won't go into too much detail, but I will touch on a few main points about each subject. If you have any more questions, then you can email me with your question, and I'll try my best to get back to you with an answer in a timely fashion.
Sound has two main characteristics: frequency and amplitude. Frequency is basically the pitch of your sound, and amplitude is your volume or sound level. Sound travels at a speed of 344 meters per second, or 1,129 feet per second, at 20 degrees celsius. This is equivalent to about 770 miles per hour. Pretty fast, huh? Well, not exactly. If you have ever heard an echo, then you have heard how slow sound really is. Sound is merely a vibration. The way we perceive sound is the air particles that move in different directions, as a result of this vibration. The air particles vibrate small fibers in our ears, that send electronic impulses to our brain, which tell us THIS SONG ROCKS, MAN.
In microphones, there is an element called the diaphragm. This small piece of plastic, or sometimes mylar, is vibrated by these moving air particles. A microphone is a transducer, which converts acoustic energy (sound) into electric energy. The voltage levels from a microphone are very small, as this tiny diaphragm moves at the slightest amount of vibration. Microphone signal needs to be amplified (through a preamp) before it reaches its destination. This destination may be a multitracking device (two-inch, DA-88, Pro Tools, etc.) or a two-track recorder (tape deck, CD-recorder, half-inch, DAT, etc). We will leave out the part of monitors for now, as we're talking about recording, not listening.
Now you're getting what we call signal flow. Signal flow is basically: where the source of your sound comes from, where it comes in on your mixing board, where it goes to "tape", and where it comes out. A multi-instrument band will record every sound at the same time, through different microphones. Each microphone will be assigned a channel in the mixing board. Each channel will be assigned a track in your multitrack recorder. You will listen to all of this in stereo (or two-track) as your mixing board assigns everything to your stereo bus. Your stereo bus (controlled by the master fader in your mixing board) will go to a number of two-track recorders, in order to be mixed-down to stereo. Simultaneously, the stereo bus will also go to your monitors, so you can hear what the hell is going on in this complex environment you put yourself in.
Got me so far? Well if not, try to follow along anyway. Now... before talking about tracking, I will touch back on the subject of frequency. Every instrument has its own characteristics, and frequency range. Some instruments are considered your low-end, and they are typically your kick drum and your bass guitar. Others are considered your mid-range, and those instruments are typically your keyboards, and guitars. Your high-end consists of predominantly cymbals, hi-hats, crashes, and rides, but vocals fit into this category as well. Vocals can also be considered mid-range, but for clarity of recording, the high-end of your vocal frequencies must be recorded. To be more specific, vocals are your high-mids.
When tracking, the first thing is to make sure you have the proper microphone for the situation. The different types of microphones are dynamic, condenser, and the less popular ribbon mics. Dynamic mics are more rugged and durable, and have a rougher diaphragm in them, which usually requires a higher SPL (sound-pressure level) than condenser mics. On stage, you can drop dynamic mics and they'll probably take the beating, and ask you to do it again. But condenser mics? Don't drop one. Ever. The diaphragm in a condenser mic is much more fragile, and sensitive to lower SPLs. For instance: you wouldn't typically put a condenser mic in front of a kick drum, because you will get distortion. Distortion is when you overload a device or electric component at any stage of signal flow. This can happen in your microphone, in your channel in the mixing board, in your multitrack recorder, in your stereo bus, or in your monitors. Well, it can happen more places, but we'll keep it simple for now. Every mic has a different frequency response. Some mics are really good for picking up the low frequencies that a kick drum or bass guitar give off. Other microphones don't pick up as many low frequencies, and are better for crisp-sounding hi-hats and cymbals. And other microphones sound warm, and have a nice mid-range. Ribbon mics are a good example of warm-sounding. Sorry, but this is it on my microphone frequency-response section. If you need to learn more, then just type in "frequency response" and "microphones" in google. Go do some research and come back later. Also, it's good to know about "polar patterns" of microphones. There's a lot to learn there. Come back later though. Really.
Alright...still there? Damn, I can't lose you for anything. I think my mom's calling me. Awww...you didn't fall for it. Ok, I'll keep going. When tracking, like I said, there is a different microphone assigned to each track in your multitrack. (If you noticed, I skipped channels. If you didn't notice, then you should have been reading about signal flow.) Anyway, a basic setup would go something like this: Kick, Snare, Hi-hat, Tom1, Tom2, Tom3, Overhead Left, Overhead Right, Bass Guitar, Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals. This is extremely simple, and if you counted, there would be 12 tracks being recorded to tape. When I say tape, I mean any device that can record. Although "tape" is almost obsolete nowadays, in terms of tracking, we still call it "tape". (When monitoring, you would typically monitor "after tape", to make sure that the levels being recorded are the levels that you hear. This ensures that you're not distorting anywhere along the way). Wow, I'm jumping all over the place. Sorry if you can't keep up; I'm trying to cram years of knowledge in a web page marked "Basic Recording". If you can explain this better, then help me out. If not, then shut the hell up and continue reading! he he.
Okay, so you hit record, and you told your band to "just jam". So they're banging away on the drums and playing their guitars and screaming into the microphones. And wait... there are all these red lights on your board and it sounds like hell. There's this buzzing noise in every sound! What is it? It's distortion. So, before you're actually ready to record, you must get good levels!!! This is the key to tracking. Now, I'm going backwards here, so follow me. I'm not sorry for going backwards either. Deal with it. So once you have all your channels configured in your mixing board, before you're really concerned about the tracks, you have to make sure nothing is clipping, or overloading, or distorting. You have to check every gain stage. Gain stages are every point in your signal flow where things are being amplified, or turned up. Here are a few stages: The microphone, The microphone preamp, the channel in your mixer, the track in your multitrack, the monitor section "after tape" on your mixing board, (look it up if you don't know about it) your stereo bus, your amplifier, and your monitors. Okay... that's a LOT of places where distortion can occur. This is why getting good levels to tape is one of the most important things you can do. (For more about levels, look up signal-to-noise ratio. I just don't have time to explain). Usually, there are "overload" LEDs that turn red when you're distorting somewhere. Follow the path of the signal flow, and check every point for distortion, while getting the "hottest" level to tape without distorting. Now that you know a little about tracking, let's move on to the basics of computer recording.
Okay... This is where I fill in some random blanks and tell you where to find more information. Here are some terms you can look up to better your recording experience: Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), polar-patterns, microphone placement (and three-to-one rule), polarity, in-phase and out-of-phase, digital vs. analog recording, distortion, clipping, serial and parallel processing, compression: (ratio, attack, release), ADSR (attack, decay, sustain and release), equalization, reverberation (reverb) and delay, sends and returns, busses, mixing (quite a vast amount of knowledge there), mastering, Hertz (Hz - cycles per second), KiloHertz (kHz - thousands of cycles per second).
Like I said: this is "the basics". I'm sorry if I forgot to mention anything, or the information on this page was difficult to understand. If you can think of things that I may have forgotten, please send me an email and let me know. In case you were wondering, I attended the Art Institute of New England in Brookline, MA. They have a very good audio production program there, and I would recommend the school to anyone interested in recording.
© Hypnotik 2005