BtecSoundOliverCharles: Unit 48: Music Recording - Being a recording engineer

Unit 48: Music Recording -

Being a recording engineer - Location, Microphones and Instruments

Scenario - You have been hired by a record label to ac as a recording engineer for an upcoming album. You are required to use a variety of techniques and locations to produce a professional quality recording.

Task 1 - Research a variety of different locations/recording techniques to use for your recording task: You must research at least 3 locations, giving information on techniques used to get the best audio quality on the recording. You must also research microphone types and create a recording plan using the most effective techniques for the space you will be using.

Locations:

Recording Studio
Classroom
Open air
Concert Hall

Microphones:

Dynamic
Compressor
Polar Patterns
Cardioid
Hypercardioid
Omni
Shotgun

Task 2 - Produce a short recording using different instruments in different locations to a professional standard. You must record at leas 3 different instruments in all 3 different locations researched.

Instruments:

Violin
Clarinet
Trumpet
Acoustic Guitar
Drum Kit
Vocals
Flute
Trombone

Task 1 - Recording in different locations using different microphones.

Briefly explain task, what you did, the different locations and different microphones used (equipment list).
Track list of recording - Include links to sound files on sound cloud.
Evaluations of recordings

Brief Explanation -

Firstly heading into a small office, we took three recordings - all with different microphones - of the set guitar using the audio recorder. Using the guitar, set cabling and audio recorder and three mics, two being the 'C1000s' and the third being the RODE NT2A. Using the two matching mics in attempt to get a stereo recording. Repeating the same chords for each recording we aimed to keep them all a very similar time, placing the mic a few inches above the acoustic guitar hole. This was all then repeated both outside and in the school hall.

Equipment Used -

C1000s
RODE NT2A
SM58
Wires to connect to microphones
Acoustic guitar
Olympus LS-100 Multi-Track Linear PCM Recorder

Track List -

Outside - Link to playlist

Hall - Link to playlist

Classroom - Link to playlist

Dynamic:

The diaphragm is attached to the coil. When the diaphragm vibrates in response to incoming sound waves, the coil moves backwards and forwards past the magnet. This creates a current in the coil which is channeled from the microphone along wires.

A common configuration is shown below:

Compressor:

A capacitor has two plates with a voltage between them. In the condenser mic, one of these plates is made of very light material and acts as the diaphragm. The diaphragm vibrates when struck by sound waves, changing the distance between the two plates and therefore changing the capacitance. Specifically, when the plates are closer together, capacitance increases and a charge current occurs. When the plates are further apart, capacitance decreases and a discharge current occurs.

A voltage is required across the capacitor for this to work. This voltage is supplied either by a battery in the mic or by external phantom power.

Polar Patterns:

The polar pattern of a microphone is the sensitivity to sound relative to the direction or angle from which the sound arrives, or easier worded how well the microphone “hears“ sound from different directions. The most common types of directionality are: Omnidirectional, Cardioid and Supercardioid

Cardioid:

A cardioid microphone has the most sensitivity at the front and is least sensitive at the back. It isolates from unwanted ambient sound and is much more resistant to feedback than omnidirectional microphones. That makes a cardioid microphone particularly suitable for loud stages.

Hypercardioid:

Supercardioid microphones offer a narrower pickup than cardioids and a greater rejection of ambient sound. But they also have some pickup directly at the rear. Hence it is important to place monitor speakers correctly. Supercardioids are most suitable when single sound sources need to be picked up in loud environments. They are the most resistant to feedback.

Omnidirectional:

The omnidirectional microphone has equal output or sensitivity at all angles, this means it picks up sound from all directions. Therefore the microphone has not to be aimed in a certain direction which is helpful especially with lavalier microphones. A disadvantage is that an omni cannot be aimed away from undesired sources such as PA speakers which may cause feedback.

Shotgun:

A shotgun microphone is a highly directional microphone that must be pointed directly at its target sound source for proper recording. Shotgun microphones use unidirectional microphones to achieve this high beam of concentration on the sound source to record the sound. Being that they use unidirectional microphones, they pick up sound well when the sound source is directly in front of them but begin to pick up the sound worse (much lower) when the sound source is moved to the sides and rear. A shotgun gets its name from the fact that the body of the microphone is shaped like the barrel of a shotgun, and just like a shotgun, the microphone must be aimed or pointed directly at its target source in order to effectively to pick it up.

Evaluation:

Task 2 - Recording different instruments in a recording studio

Briefly explain task, what you did, the different locations and different microphones used (equipment list).
Track list of recording - Include links to sound files on sound cloud.
Evaluations of recordings

Brief Explanation - For this task we headed to a recording studio with the task of recording 5 high quality sounds. For each instrument we held the microphone a few inches away from the sound source again trying to get the best sound we could. 2 people were in the recording studio playing instruments while 2 others were in the back office of the studio processing the sounds on the computer. This required us to use a mixing desk paired with 'CuBase 9' audio software to edit down the sounds trying not to produce clipping in playback. After this was done the sounds were exported to a memory stick and added to sound-cloud.

The PolarPatterns for each microphones are as follows -