Recording 101

So you are ready to make your first recording. You have a mixer and DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) with a recording interface & multitrack recording software loaded. Here we will keep it simple and record using no more than 2 tracks at once.
And we will add tracks as we go along. But before we can record there are a few preparations to consider.

The room you record in has a lot to do with what your end result will sound like. When using microphones to record Vocals and Instruments you also pick up ambient sound in and out of your room.
This can be very undesirable, but there are ways around some of the things you may encounter.
First thing to do in setting up a studio space is to determine what kind of sound treatment you need. This can depend on the size of the room and it's given acoustics and susceptibility to exterior noise.
Does the room sound dead (no or very little reverberation) or is it alive and sound is pinging all over the place. Choose a room with a dead quality to it. To help deaden a space there is sound treatment available from AMS and other Pro music shops. For a cost effective solution you can also use some foam bed pads. Of course this is not the best but it will do until you can afford the real stuff. Now you don't have to pad the entire space, all you need to do is break it up a little. One good attempt to this would be to install some Bass traps. You can accomplish this by treating the corners of your space with 2 x 4 sheets of acoustical foam. If you can't place a Bass trap in a corner because of a door place the trap on the door. You can build better traps but just remember that this is a basic studio a little bit is better than none. Some go as far as building a Vocal Booth. This can be good if you want to isolate your singer or anything mic'd, Instruments, percussion or drums. The most important thing is to try and isolate the outside world from your space.
Sometimes we just have to do what we can, any improvement is better than none. When you get your space treated as well as you can the rest is up to your ability of using a noise gate on your open mics. When singing directly into your mics or while your mic is busy with recording an instrument, other ambient sound will pretty much get drowned out, as long as it's not too loud. You can set noise gates to actually shut off the signal until it is at a certain level. Try not to make the setting to close to the actual event source volume or you can cut off the first syllables and or events you wish to record.
This helps stop ambient sound from bleeding through into your recording. One good thing to do is make sure you don't have any squeaky stools or chairs in your recording environment, believe me as these can be a nuisance.

Now that we have our room treated we can learn about microphone placement. This will differ on what you are trying to mic. Also remember what you mic will be either stereo or mono in source, so make sure your recording inputs reflect the source.

If your are trying to mic a grand piano get a PZM and tape it to the underside of the lid and close it. I have tried many different ways to mic a grand and this way is the best. A PZM mic can be found at AMS or any Pro Shop. Radio Shack has an inexpensive PZM, they call it a boundry mic, which can be modified to have an XLR connector.

Cool Tip! PZM's (Pressure Zone Microphones) are omnidirectional boundary microphones. PZMs prevent phase interference from surface reflections, allowing a wide, smooth response. Microphone sensitivity is boosted 6 dB by surface mounting. PZM are designed for use on flat surfaces, they can be placed where conventional microphones do not work well. Their wide, smooth frequency response makes them ideal for miking pianos, harps and other orchestral instruments. Their small size and low profile also make them an excellent choice for recording projects.

These mics pick up a 360 degree pattern, which is why we close the lid. They are very sensitive to ambient noise. Use two PZM's to mic the piano in stereo. One over the Bass String bridge about 3/4 of the way from the Capo Bar to the bridge. This will give you the best balance between string noise and tone. The other over the mid to upper Treble bridge and plate, You want a mid tone quality. Now pan your inputs accordingly. You can also use these on any upright piano as well. If you just have dynamic mics, or better yet large diaphragm condenser mics, in your studio you will need to mic the mid and treble bridge sections of the piano. If you plan on singing and record both piano and your voice then cover the openings with a blanket to help with not having your vocals bleed into your piano recording. Of course you'll have to record the vocal over again later because of the piano bleed in the vocal.
I use a digital piano so I don't have to worry to much about the bleed issue other than the thumping noise than bleeds into the vocal, which I will record over late. We will consider the vocal a reference track until then.

Many acoustic guitars have built-in pickups or mics which are great for live performances but really suffer in the recording process. But fear not you can still utilize them if you also use a large diaphragm mic to get that acoustic sound and record them on separate tracks. You may have to experiment with placement giving the room your in. Now you can get a good balance in the mix.
A better way would be to use two small capsule condenser mics to record in stereo and place them between the bridge and neck about the 12ft fret with the capsules facing each other one pointing to the neck the other pointing to the sound hole or bridge. You might need to use phase cancellation if it's available in your recording software. This will help you get a true polar effect and a great acoustic sound.

Electric Guitars:

Now to get that great sounding lead guitar solo you will need to mic the amp using an SM57
The amp is part of the sound and you need to capture it. Just plugging your guitar in and recording direct will only give you half the sound. You can use an amp simulation direct box also. If I know the sound I'm going for such as for a lead guitar part or rhythm part with distortion, flanger, Phase shifter, etc... Such as with a guitar processing unit I might want to put this in the signal path pre-mixer or recording inputs.

There are a couple of ways you can mic a drum kit. The most important parts of the kit are the Kick, Snare, Hats and overheads (Toms & Cymbals). That would be 4 Tracks, You can also just use 2 condenser mics overhead and record the entire kit in stereo also. This doesn't give you much of control over the kit after the stereo track has been recorded though. The best way is to record the kit using at least 8 Tracks. Use SM57 mics to mic the Hats, Snare, High Tom, Mid Tom, Floor Tom, use a Shure Beta52 or similar for the Kick, and two condenser mics for the over heads. You can buy drum mic kits from AMS or your Pro shop also, the better kits come with mic clips. Now when recording drums you need to treat the Kit as one. You also might want to use gates on all the mics to help isolate the drum they belong to.
As far as the over heads go I like not to gate them too much as they help bring the entire kit together for that real feel.

For vocals it depends upon what kind of vocals you are recording.
Lead vocals you will want to use a Tube mic or Large Diaprhagm mic with a POP filter.

A POP filter is a 6" circle or hoop with a nylon material stretched over it. They help diffuse the puffs of breath before they get to the mic. These filters can be acquired through AMS or any Pro music shop.

Cool Tip! A way to make an inexpensive "pop" filter (so you don't have to spend $20 for one at a music store), is take a 6 or 8 inch needle-point hoop, take the interior hoop and stick it inside one leg of a pair of nylons. Place the outer hoop over the inner one, tighten the screw on the outer hoop, then cut the remaining nylon off. You can make a bunch of these from a single pair of nylons (of course, black ones look much cooler! ). You can attach it to your mic stand using a coat hanger wire or some electrical wire. You could probably even glue a stick to it and tape the stick to your mic stand.
Voila! A $3.00 pop filter.

You also will want to adjust for proximity effect. The closer you are to the mic the bass or low end will be boosted. So place the mic to get the desired effect with out eating the mic. Too close and you will pick-up pops and clicks even if you are using a POP filter. If you have built an isolation booth you have to take in consideration the space.
All this depends on the style of music you are recording and the singer. Singers that sing with a more intimate style of singing such as in a deep worship song, you may want to place them closer to the mic to capture that intimate sound and feeling. Singers that are singing a rock type tune and are prone to screaming the lyrics into the mic should stand further away. I usually take a stance with one foot towards the mic and the other back. This way I can move closer to the mic when it calls for it and then pull myself back when I need to with out displacing myself to much so that the signal I'm recording is pretty consistent.
Back up vocals sound great in an isolation booth as you can place the singer away from the mic and further back in the mix to help separate them from the lead vocals.

I have tried different approaches and techniques in this part of the recording process. And it depends on what I'm recording. Some things I like to leave the EQ out or flat and sometimes I like to boost or cut some frequencies. Sort of like a cook seasons to taste their food while cooking. You need to remember that the recording process is an attempt to capture the best possible signal or event as possible. You need a good signal to work with as it's hard to add quality to your recorded event after the fact. I try to take in consideration the instrument I'm working with at the time and where it is in the entire frequency range. Also the type of music needs to be considered as well, where and how this instrument will sit in the mix. Now remember I said cut or boost some frequencies, it's more like tweak a little. Now when it comes to processing (Chorus Reverb or the such) you want to record with a dry signal, which is no processing. If your system has the ability to let you hear a Wet signal, which has processing applied this is up to you. There is a difference of opinion on using processing other than compression, gate, limiter when recording. Some people will have trouble with keeping pitch, phrasing and other vocal dynamics when singing due to the artificial environment, some need to hear it depending on the type of song to help with placing themselves more in the mix or create and interact with a certain atmosphere. As for the actual recording we will add this processing to the tracks in a non-destructive way. That is to say we can add processing and it is applied to the sends or inserts of the desired tracks and the main output to be mixed down, with out over writing the track we have recorded. This way we can change the effect if so desired without ruining our track. Cubase SX has this feature as well as non-destructive editing and unlimited undo.

This is an important area in recording digitally. You want to record at an acceptable level, not too high (hot) and not too low. The digital realm doesn't like to record above -3 on your volume level meter. To do so will result in a distorted sound. In the days of analog recording the ceiling was 0 to +3 as the tape would act as a natural compressor, keeping the signal from distorting. How ever if your recording app can record in 32 bit float, like in Cubase, it is virtually impossible to distort a signal. I for one always record in a 32bitFL 44.1khz environment. It makes for a larger recorded file but such is life in the digital recording environment. And it sounds much better also. I also choose to record at 44.1khz because this is the media I will be ending up recording to, CD. I could record at a high bit rate such as 96khz or 48khz but this would create some artifacts when dithering down to 44.1khz for CD. And of course I could also record at 88.2khz, this would be less work for the computer to calculate when dithering down to, 44.1khz, but there is still the issue of file size and from many people I've conversed with you can't really tell the difference. The human ear can't hear those high frequencies. So unless your dog is gonna record and mix down your masterpiece I recommend to stick with 32bit float or 24bit 44.1khz. When I go from mix down to the mastering process I will dither down my sound files to meet the CD specifications of 16bit 44.1khz. But as long as I'm in the digital environment I will keep my specs at 32bit FL 44.1khz.

One very important thing to do is to calibrate your analog mixer levels with your digital recording interface levels.
The main objective is to obtain signal unity, 0dbu on your analog gear which will result in -18dBfs to -20dBfs for your digital recording interface levels. Also you can operate at -10dBfs and still have enough room (over head) to work with. Doing so will give you better quality recordings without bit hogging.
Also another important thing is to make sure the I/O voltage of your analog gear match the I/O voltage of your sound interface be they either +4 (Pro) Balanced connectors (TRS/XLR) or -10 (Consumer) Unbalanced connectors (TS) as this will influence your volume levels in and out of your software.

Your signal chain (the path your signal takes to get to and from your computer) starts at the Sound Source (mic or Instrument) into your mixer. If you have a good quality recording console (highly recommended) and depending on how many sub busses you may have and recording AD/DA IO's (Analog to Digital inputs /Digital to Analog outputs) , you can send your live events to the sub group busses of your mixer. Remember your sound source is either mono or stereo so pan your input channels accordingly. Your sub busses should be panned accordingly as well depending on your sound source, mono or stereo. The sub buss pan settings affect only the main output stereo buss for your studio monitors. For mono signals sent to a specific sub buss the pan should be dead center or you will hear the sound source in only one monitor. The signal path from your sub outputs are usually pre panner so the signal will be true mono. To record a stereo signal just send your input channel to 1 pair of output busses i.e. with mixer input channel 1 panned dead center send the output to subs 1&2 this way you can record a stereo signal using recording inputs 1&2 grouped to make a stereo input in your recording software. For a mono signal from mixer input channel 1 pan hard to the left, this will send the signal to output bus 1 only.

Confused??? I will make an attempt to reference you some illustrations later when time permits.

From your output busses you want to pass the signal through a gate, compressor, limiter. You can get multi channel GCL's called Dynamic Processors from AMS or your Pro Shop. I use the Behringer Mutlicom, nice 4 channel Dynamics Processor in it's price range. From your Dynamics Processor go directly into you AD input Converters to you computer. You can also use direct outputs from each channel to go directly into your AD Converters but remember to pass them through your dynamics processor.

For your DA output Converters going into a mix-B bus on your mixer works great. as you can send the signal to phones as well as the main output bus on your mixer for your studio monitors. Doing this you can fade off the main send to your monitors while recording and listen with your phones.

1. Sound Source
2. Input Channel on Mixer (these are your built-in mixer preamps)
3. Route signal internally to Sub-bus output
4. Out to Dynamic processor
5. Out to AD input Converters
6. DA output Converters to Mix-B bus on mixer.