Crank It Up! - Industry Standards For Recording

Last modified on 2008-08-17 02:58:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

We’ve all been in this situation before: you are watching a TV program when suddenly, the commercial break comes up. The commercial is much louder than the program you were watching. You turn down the volume, only to have to turn it back up once the program resumes.

This isn’t some technical error at your local TV station or even your cable provider. This is an intentional strategy in the broadcasting industry. The idea is to get people to pay attention to the commercials by making them so much louder than the program. This is something also done in the recording industry with regards to music as well. This is changing the way that people record music, even the way people listen to music has changed as a result.

Average volume levels were once much lower in the recording industry. The norm would be 2 to 3 as the volume standard. Recordings would be done at this volume to make for a more pleasant experience for the listener. This also allowed for greater dynamic range on recordings, with a better blend of sounds on record.

Lower volume levels gave engineers the freedom to showcase arrangements and instrumentation. It also allowed them the ability to create greater freedom for movement where volume was concerned. Volume while recording music is a range in which you can increase or decrease the amount of sound. When you work with negative numbers on your volume dial; somewhere between -6 and -1, you have a lot of room to increase the volume if needed.

However, the standard volume has increased as the recording industry has progressed technologically. Currently, the industry standard is closer to 0 – one of the highest possible volumes. Many people do not even notice this and just turn down the volume during playback. This decision by the recording industry has, however, changed the way everything is done in the music recording industry, from the way instruments are recorded to the way that people listen to records.

This higher volume has changed the way that musicians and recording engineers think about dynamics, volume range and instrumentation and arrangements themselves. This has eliminated some of the possibilities for recording which were once parts of the music industry’s palate. If you take a close listen to music which has been recorded recently, you may notice that there is a lot less dynamic range than once was the norm, a change in the types of instrumentation used and so on. This is all due to the fact that the volume has been turned up as high as it can go! This has limited the possibilities for musicians and recording engineers.

Volume control and in fact, the entire process of mastering differs according to the format you get your music in. There is a different volume standard for the radio than for CD, which is in turn different than that for MP3 format. Those who have custom recording technologies and setups at their disposal, there can be more freedom in the volume levels and mastering process used. Before recording, you should think about what sort of volume you want your finished product to be at. This will help you make your own way towards the industry standards of producing CDs.

When recording, you should always think about the different volume levels which you can use and the big differences they can make to your recordings. You certainly don’t want to sacrifice your vision for the recording for the sake of volume. While you do want to fall within the parameters of industry standards, you also want to give yourself as much room to create as possible. This will let you make the recording you want at a volume level that invites the listener to turn it up and have a deeper experience.

Tags:
Home Recording,
Instruments,
Music General,
Musical Performance,
Recording Studio

Source: Musical Performance

Ever Wonder What Those USB and MIDI Connections On Your Keyboard Are For?

Last modified on 2008-08-17 02:08:17 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

If you look at the back of a keyboard, you will see a bunch of connectors. Each connector has a specific function. Today we will look at the USB connection and the MIDI connections and how you can use them with your keyboard.

To begin with, the USB Port on a keyboard lets you talk directly to a computer. It lets you actually connect your PC or your laptop to the keyboard. Now there are two parts to this connection. The first part is the hardware part and that consists of connecting the cable. The second part is the software part and that involves installing some software onto your computer.

The software part is installing what is called drivers. The drivers allow the recognition of the keyboard. When you get the keyboard and the cable, there is usually a CD-Rom that contains the correct drivers. If you do not see a CD-Rom, you can go to the manufacturer’s website, find the correct drivers for your keyboard, download and then install them to your computer. Here are some of the things that you can do once you have that connection:

Send and receive MIDI messages
Change the sounds your keyboard will produce
Store data that you have recorded on the computer’s hard drive
Install a new keyboard operating system
Download new songs, styles and sounds to your keyboard

The next area that we will look at is the MIDI IN and the MIDI OUT connections. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI, in case you are wondering, is a protocol. In laymen’s terms it is a type of language that allows a musical type keyboard to “speak” to your computer, to help create a particular sound. Now the MIDI communication doesn’t actually record sound. If you record through MIDI, you are actually recording the note that was played, how hard it was played and how long it was held.

With any MIDI work, it is necessary to have a sequencer. The sequencer actually records your events or sequences that occurred on the keyboard. This is then communicated through the MIDI connections. The MIDI connections on the back of the keyboard are the 5-PIN DIN connectors. One will say “in” and one will say “out”.

If you use the MIDI connections, you also need a cable known as a MIDI interface cable that will be connected to your computer. With the MIDI cable you will be able to do the following:

Record songs into a sequencer, play them and store them
Play software synthesizers that might be running on your computer. This will allow you to add some new sounds to your keyboard.

This article has discussed the USB connection and the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connections that are on the back of your keyboard and given you some ideas on what you can do when you connect your keyboard to the computer.

Courtesy of Cyndie King

Recording Yourself Live

Last modified on 2008-08-17 02:09:38 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

As a new band to the music scene, we were extremely excited when we first started gigging. For a few months, we had a steady weekend performance two times a month. It doesn’t take long for people to start asking you for your CD. The only problem was, we didn’t have one, and we hadn’t really given much thought to recording one either. Of course, the bug was now in our ear, so we decided that we would record our next gig. To help YOU avoid the mistakes that WE made, this article will talk about recording yourself live.

There are basically two types of live recording. One is the 2-track recording and the other one is the multitrack recording.

2-track Recording

The least expensive and the easiest is the 2-track recording. This type of recording is either a recording from the board mix that gets recorded directly onto the CD or a room mic mix. Sometimes this 2-track recording is a combination of both a board mix and a room mic mix. Now we did not have anyone to record for us, so we had to set it up for ourselves. If you have to record yourself, you can use either a camcorder or a minidisk player. For both of these pieces of equipment and for the best results, you want to be sure that there is a built in microphone. For the camcorder, you’ll need to “volunteer” a friend to turn the record button on and off. If you already have the equipment and it doesn’t have a built-in mic, make sure that you have the necessary microphone attachments. For the best results, you will want to place your camcorder on a tripod.

Multitrack Recording

This kind of recording lets you record more than one input microphone at the same time. Multitrack recording is best when you are new and you have several songs that you need to record right away. This is a good type of recording to use if you are trying to release a demo. If your band is more of a live stage band than a studio band, multitrack recording is the way you want to go. If you are going to release a live album, again multitrack recording is the best way to go.

There is something about performing before a group of people that is magic. Every performance is unique in its ability to capture the enthusiasm and energy of the public and what better way to capture this than through a live recording. Finally this allows you to hear how you connected to the audience as well as how you played. This will allow the band to know what to practice and what areas in your music to pinpoint for improvement. A win win in my book!

Courtesy of Cyndie King

Getting Started In Recording

Last modified on 2008-08-17 02:58:29 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

The innovations that have been brought about since the advent of digital music recording have changed much in the recording industry. One of these big changes is that it is easier than ever for musicians to record themselves rather than go into a studio. If you are looking to record on your own, you can set up a home studio and start working towards putting together a CD. What follows is some of the “must have” equipment to get started with a home studio.

A computer and software - There’s a lot of different software out there for the purposes of recording. Regardless of which software package you pick to use in your home studio, you will need something. You’ll find that this will become the center of your home studio. You’ll need a relatively powerful computer with a lot of RAM and a large hard drive so that you can easily store and work with your recordings.

Foam – Soundproofing is important. The echo which can occur in some rooms can ruin your recordings. Using soundproofing foam will deaden the sound in this room, which depending on size and shape may only need to be partially soundproofed to provide you with the echo dampening you need for your home studio.

A mixer – You’ll need this to get the sound from the instruments and voices to your computer. You’ll need a mixer with enough channels to handle everything you want to record all at once (it is a good idea to get a mixer with a few more channels than you think you will need).

Pre-amps – These will give your instruments much better sound than can be achieved by running them directly into the mixing board. You can set the sounds of instruments individually using pre-amps, offering you much more control over your recording.

Monitors – While some prefer headphones for this purpose, you may want to consider some high quality full range monitors; these will let you hear the full dynamic range of your recording during the mixing phase, if you do opt for headphones instead of monitors, be sure to use headphones specifically designed for the purpose.

Microphones – You’ll want high end microphones for recording which will capture the full range of voice and other sounds recorded in the room. For voice recording you’ll want a pop filter – this prevents hard consonants from overloading your recording.

Compression – This can be done either by a separate compression unit or after recording, but shouldn’t be neglected. Compression allows you to limit the peaks and valleys of sounds and match these peaks between different tracks.

Using this basic setup will allow you to create good sounding recordings from the get go. You can add in other equipment as you go on, or take out equipment you find yourself not using, but the equipment listed above will get you off to a good start with your home studio.

Tags:
Home Recording,
Music General,
Music Theory,
Musical Performance,
Recording Studio

Source: Home Recording

The Process Of Recording – From A To Z

Last modified on 2008-08-17 02:58:28 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

You may think that we are only going to be learning about recording instruments and vocals, with the results immediately going on to disc. Of course, it is a more complicated process than that. There is a lot of work done behind the scenes which goes into getting the finished product to sound exactly as desired. These steps are postproduction, mastering and engineering the recording.

After recording is complete, the next step is pre-mixing. In this process, the sounds of the instruments are normalized so that the recording engineer can determine the peaks and valleys of the various tracks. This process can be performed automatically using a normalizer (which does the work of averaging out the peaks for each instrument). If you want to customize your normalization, you can find formulas for working with the normalization tool you are using to build your own peaks and valleys.

During this part of the production process, there is the chance to enhance the sound of individual tracks. Extra sounds can be added at this stage, as can effects upon the tracks which have already been recorded. The engineer can add life to dampened studio recorded sound at this stage.

Next is the mixing stage. The engineer will at this point be looking at each instrument individually to optimize their sound. The first step here is to create envelopes for each sound – these are the peaks and valleys of each instruments sound. Effects will usually be added at this stage, as will compression if normalization of individual instruments is desired. The object here is to ensure that each part is even and sounds great on its own.

With this done, it is time for pre-mastering, which involves working with the arrangement of the recording as a whole. The equalization should be balanced out at this point. Not only the EQ, but volume control should be adjusted at this time.

Pre-mastering will include the use of industry standards for recordings along with engineer or producer’s preferences for the recording. There is a lot of software in use in the recording industry which includes analytic functions for the comparison of high to low frequencies for the purpose of getting the optimal mix. Keep in mind this one principle when it comes to pre-mastering: you want to get the recording as a whole sounding as good as possible before mastering.

The last step is mastering. You will now take all of the songs slated for the CD and make sure that their volume is in balance with each other. Check all the levels of each track and compare them against each other – check both volume and equalization. It is a good idea to test out recordings on different CD players to this end. Unless you have a specific plan for the mastering involving unconventional volume levels for your tracks, your songs should be normalized at industry standard volume levels.

Now that you know a bit about the steps along the way from turning your recorded sounds into a finished CD, you will be better able to control the process as it goes along, meaning you will end up with a better sounding recording for your finished product.

Tags:
Home Recording,
Music General,
Musical Performance,
Recording Studio

Source: Musical Performance

How To Get Your Recording Just Right

Last modified on 2008-08-20 17:20:52 GMT. 0 comments. Top.

So you have reached the stage where you are all done recording your piece and you are ready to start mixing everything together. However, there is one thing bothering you, and that is the fact that before you can start with the mixing there is just one small hiccup right bang in the middle of your piece. This does not mean you have to start all over again, or at worse, abandon your song altogether. All it needs is the appropriate tools to get the recording just right.

What you need is software. Software for use in recording is always designed taking the human element into account. What this actually means is that you can play your instrument in the way you know best and then with the use of such software you can create the sound you really want to hear afterwards. You may well want to be perfect while you are recording but you have to accept that this does not always happen and on these occasions it is necessary for you to put the whole thing back together using the right tools.

One of the most beneficial software tools available are punch ins. With these, you can flag up a particular area which you think needs redoing and you can go back a number of seconds and then replay. You then move into the area needing attention and record over what is already there. You can carry on playing afterwards and gradually fade out putting everything back as it should be.

Using this method you need to ensure that you can put all the sound waves next to each other. Some of the punch in programs will divide slightly upon commencement so giving yourself sufficient time to prepare for the punch in will help you to create a smooth tie and everything will come together just as it should.

When you have all of the instrumentation as you want it you can then begin to put in the right sounds. This is what is referred to as the pre-mixing stage and it is used to achieve the right effects and resonance within your particular instrument. This procedure often makes a difference to the volume as well as to the way in which your instrument mixes with other instruments so it needs to be perfected before moving on to the next stage of mixing. .

The normalization process always starts the pre-mixing stage and this makes the frequencies go up or down. This simply involves taking the setting of the waves and ensuring it peaks at both ends. If your volume is set as it should be you will see that everything normalizes around the same peaks and this allows you to mix the sounds together more easily.

When this is done, you can set the sound you desire for your finished instrumentation by the use of reverb options, such as flange, fades and many others. This will add a little flair and originality to your piece. When you do this, make sure you think about what will sound best with your instrument and bear in mind how it will change the overall sounds of your song. When the right sounds are being heard, this is the time to preset and doing this will save you time when you are ready to start the mixing process.

When your check list for the pre-mixing is all done and the sound you hear is just right, you are ready to go ahead with the mixing of the instruments.

Tags:
Home Recording,
Music General,
Musical Performance,
Practice,
Recording Studio

Source: Practice