Studio Manual

Fire exit

Studio A live roomStudio B live room

Fire exit

Studio A control room

Studio B control room

Office

Fire exit

Studios will have a control room and a live room. A control room is where the whole recording process is controlled and recorded. It is also where all the postproduction is done. These rooms contain various equipment- mixing desks, outboard equipment, a mac with logic, monitors, soundcards, and a keyboard/synth. A live room is where clients will record the vocals and acoustic instruments. This room will usually contain a drum kit, the correct microphones and cables connecting them to the control room. The diagram on the next page will show a control room.

Mixing DeskTape machinesSound modulesSound cardsPatch bayComputer screenSpeakers

In a studio, there are a varied amount of cables. Each cable is either balanced or unbalanced, an unbalanced cable has 3 black lines on the end of the cable- 2 conductors - one to ground it and one to carry the audio signal. These cables can pick up unwanted noise or fuzz in the background.MIDI keyboardOut board equipment

Balanced cables have 3 conductors a positive, a negative and a ground. When a balanced cable is used the positive and negative conductors carry the signal but the do not cancel each other out. This is because the negative conductor has its polarity inverted. This means that the signals are different and do not cancel out. The reason that balanced cables do not pick up interference is because the signal is on both positive and negative and therefor cancels itself out.

Types of cables youll find in a studio XLR cablesTRS and TS cablesRCA cablesJack cablesUSB leadsBantam leads

Health and SafetyStudios contain lots of expensive equipment. Therefor it is important to make sure that the room is safe of hazards. You should not have any food or drinks in the studio as a spillage could damage equipment. Cables running along the floor should be covered up or kept tidy as not to trip over them (not only for sound technicians but for clients too) meaning the rules apply to the live room also. If cables are pulled out it may also cause damage to the studio as well as people. Knowing where the nearest fire exit is also important.

The channel stripA mixing desk is a large part of a studio. On the desk it will have multiple channels. On a program like logic you will have a mixer on it that you use to control the levels on each track, a mixing desk is basically the same. When recording it is important that you get a good recording and adding effects should be left until the end as you wont be able to change the final recording in post production. It is important to do a sound check before starting the recording, to set the levels, make sure the client can hear what they want and have tuned instruments.

Chanel Strip

GainTape Return

Phantom PowerLine Instrument/Jack

PhaseLowcut (Cuts frequencies bellow 100Hz)

Noise Gate

Flip

Frequency

Range

Threshold

Noise gates will cut off a signal when it dips below the threshold. This is usually used to cut out the bleed from tracks during a recording.

Channel

Release

Hold

Shelving EQ and Semi-Parametric EQShelving EQ

High Frequency Gain (12k)

Semi-Parametric EQLow Frequency Gain (60Hz)

The HMF and LMF are the dials that will select the frequency and the gains will control if you are boosting or cutting them. Allowing you to control gain and frequency where as shelving EQ only lets you control gain.

HMF

Gain For HMF

Gain For LMF

LMF

When pressed it will put the channel into post fader and when un-pressed it will go to pre faderHeadphonesAuxiliary Control

Reverb

Aux 1 and 2 are usually used to send the mix through the headphones for the client, allowing them to play along to a track or other recorded parts.

FaderBouncePre Fader LevelCut/MuteOutputsPan (when you select output 1- pan left and when selecting output 2- pan right and so on)Chanel Fader

FaderMaster MutesMuteSoloPanMonitor Fader

The Patch BayOn the right hand side of the mixing desk is the patch bay. This connects the desk with outboard equipment such as compressors, pitch shifters, reverb ect.RoutingEach channel has its own auxiliary sends and controls, this means you can route the signal through the desk to the outboard equipment effects and back into the desk. Meaning the same effect can be used on multiple channels.

Recording in the StudioAn audio interface connects the sound or instruments to a computer. Recordings of vocals, acoustic instruments and drums are done in the live room; this connects to the control room. Depending on how you want to record drums will change the microphones you need, for vocals and other acoustic instruments you would need to set up a condenser microphone. If recording drums you can just use the same microphone but some people may prefer to use different microphones to record each drum at once. The microphones will need to be connected to the input in the live room via a XLR cable. If you put the microphone into input 1 you will need to select input 1 in the control room.Direct injection (commonly know as DI) is commonly used to record guitars and bass. A VU meter shows the amount of level the instrument; you can change this by increasing or decreasing the gain.To record with a DI the client can be in the control room. This means that they can play alongside another client in the live room.

Multi-Channel DrumsWhen recording drums you will need a selections of different microphones for the drums and high hat, the symbols do not need to be recorded and they are picked up by the overheads.You will need to select the correct microphones and stands then place them so that they are not in the way of the drummer to avoid damage, however they still need to be close enough to pick up a good signal, while pointing at the center of the drum.This is necessary as the microphones are directional.

The microphones for the floor and rack toms should be placed at the side of the drum but still pointing at the center. For the Snare you need to put on microphone on the top and one on the bottom (you will need to phase one of these to prevent them canceling each other out). The high hat microphone needs to be placed directly above the high hat and pointing down. The microphone for the kick drum should be placed at the back of the drum. The placement of this microphone depends on what sound you want, but dont place the microphone too far away as you will not pick up any sound. 2 overhead microphones should be placed above the kit to capture the whole sound. There is 2 ways of setting up overhead microphones:

It is important to make sure that the microphones are the same height and distance from the drums and they have been panned left and right to stop them cancelling out.

When using a mixing desk it is important to manage what your doing. You can do this by naming each track correctly, placing things in the right order and using the correct inputs. Once everything is done you should do a sound check to make sure everything is working and your getting the sound you want, also checking that the drummer can hear what he want in their headphones (metronome). After the sound check you should be ready to record.