Matthew Range

Recording Analysis
Studio 1 is our main studio space within college that allows us to create music and record
instruments, this studio has a wide range of equipment and different prices. Each piece of
equipment does a different job which means it is vital that you know how each piece works and
what it even does.
The image below is our studio 1 work space with all the equipment that we have and use.

Yamaha HS5
monitor speakers

Adam AXX7
monitor speaker

Computer
monitor with
Logic Pro X

Apple Keyboard/mouse

Adam AXX7
monitor speaker

Focusrite ISA One Direct

Input Box and Pre-Amp
SPL Monitor & Talkback
Controller

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The Studio
Our recording studio within college is split up into 3 separate sections which means that you can do
different jobs in each section. Each of the 3 sections are different from each other so it is important
that you know which task should be completed in each section, otherwise you may do the task
wrong but also could fail. The three separate sections are; The control Room, Vocal Booth and The
Live Room.
The Control Room:
The control is the main room where all of the equipment is based, it is the room which has the
diagram above within it. So basically it is the main room where the recorded sounds go to which are
processed from analogue to digital, this is done through the soundcards. This room is where you can
edit and mix recorded instruments. Everything from the other rooms are routed to the control as the
control room is where everything can be controlled and changed to how you want or like it.
The Vocal Booth:
The vocal booth is the area of which you record vocals for a project that you are creating. The vocal
booth is its own small confined room, the purpose of this is so that the best quality sound will be
picked up by the microphone. For example if you was recording vocals in the live room for example
they would be less of a good quality as this room is larger so the soundwaves would travel further
and bounce of the walls which would create an echo effect. In result of this the sound quality of the
vocals will not be good. Also the vocal booth is heavily treated in sound proofing so no unwanted
rebounded sound waves will get picked up as they will be absorbed.
The Live Room:
The live room is the area of which we record amped instruments or the drum kit, this is because its
a good sounding room to record live loud instruments as, for your recording, and it gives the
recorded sound an essence of a live sound. Also this room is big enough to have the drum kit set up
with all the specified microphones around it to pick up a clear sound when recorded.
The Equipment.
There is a large amount of equipment that is used in the control room to allow you to record
instruments but also to have it processed from analogue to digital. All equipment on the desk allows
us to do this, without one piece of equipment we are unable to as all of it is needed.
Yamaha HS5 Monitor Speakers:
These are one set of two different monitor speakers that we have in the control room, the
reason that we have two different sets of speakers within the control room is because
different speakers have different frequency parameters. So for example one set of
speakers may have a high bass frequency and another may be equal in bass, mid and high.
In order to have a good mix it is good to have two different types of speakers. The Yamaha
HS5 speakers are a 2 way bi-amped powered speaker, this means they are plugged into the
mains to get their power. The Yamaha speakers are a fairly flat speaker so everything is
equal, these speakers are good to mix with as they do not boost the bass frequencies or
cut the high. If you was trying to mix a track with a bass boosted speaker you would EQ it
to sound good on those speakers but it may sound rubbish on another set. The frequency
range of these monitor speakers are 54Hz 30kHz this is quite a small frequency range this
means that we are able to hear all aspects of the speaker without it damaging our ears. The Price of

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the speaker is 130 on Amazon. These are a small speaker is a 5 cone woofer 1dome tweeter. All
specs of this speaker has been taken off of the Yamaha website.
Adam A77X Monitor Speaker
The Adam A77X monitor speaker is the second set of speakers that we
use within the control room, these are slightly different to the Yamaha
HS5 speakers as the frequency range of these are 38Hz 50kHz. The
Adam speakers offer a more of a bass sense so this is good for listening to
your final mix, however not mixing as they would make you decrease the
bass as the speakers would make it sound like there is a lot of bass there.
However these are a good speaker with a 7 subwoofer and 5 carbon speakers, they are designed
to be placed on their side for a better sound quality. On Amazon the one speaker is priced at
635.00.
Focusrite ISA One Direct Input Box and Pre-Amp
This is a useful piece of equipment as it converts analogue instruments
such as Guitars and Bass into digital so that the music software, such
as Logic Pro X, can understand what is being played so you can then
edit it and play it back. This piece of equipment serves as a bridge
which converts unbalanced output to a balanced output. On the unit it
has a jack cable port which allows you to plug in your guitar or bass
instrument, you can even use a microphone if you want to. This piece
of equipment is highly useful, one reason is because you can easily
record an instrument with a clear recorded source as if you didnt use
this you would have to link up a microphone facing a guitar amplifier, this is a good way of recording
it but it may not be a good sound quality, whereas having an instrument plugged straight into the DI
box it will mean there will be no interference in the recording. The average price of this piece of
equipment is 366.00 on Amazon.
SPL Monitor & Talkback Controller (SPL SMC 2489)
This piece of equipment is useful for when it comes to you recording a musician and you needing to
communicate with them and make sure that everything is at a good level for them. It gives you the
ability to talk to your instrumentalist even though they are not in the room, this saves time when
recording as you dont have to go between each room to communicate, and this also makes
communication easier. This piece of equipment is used very often as it has many different controls,
one of which is giving you the ability to control the volume from your monitor speakers in the studio
but also the headphone volume level at which the instrumentalist is wearing. The dynamic range of
this piece of equipment is 120dB with a frequency range of 10Hz 100kHz. This product is at the
price of 449.00 on Amazon.

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Focusrite OctoPre MK2
This is one of the first soundcards that we use in the studio, a soundcard is used to turn analogue
audio into digital audio. This is so the computer can understand what noises and notes are being
picked up by the microphone, without this no recorded audio can be placed onto the software which

means when you press play no sound will be produced but also you wont be able to edit or mix
what you have recorded. The Focusrite OctoPre MK2 has eight channels which can be assigned to
eight different microphones, however in our recording sessions we only used 4 on this soundcard as
that is how the studio is set up. It has 3 different inputs and 1 output. The 3 inputs are; Mic, Line and
Instrument. And the single output Is Analogue. The piece of equipment links up inputs 9,10,11,12 in
the live room, these inputs consist of using 2 different types of microphones. On amazon this piece
of equipment is 469.00.
Universal Audio Apollo Firewire
This is the second audio interface that we use
alongside the Focusrite however this interface comes
with a mixer programme which is displayed on the
computer monitor, this mixer programme allows us
to control all of the inputs (including those coming
through the Focusrite one) whether we can mute
them or even add plugin effects. This mixer
programme gives us a wider range of effects and it
basically controls the whole sound system within the
studio and it acts as real time monitoring and
tracking. The Apollo interface controls 5 inputs in the
whole studio area, they are inputs 1 (vocal booth), 2,
3, 4, 5 whish are in the live room. Overall this interface is really good as it gives you many different
options to change things and make things such as recordings the way you want it. This audio
interface is 1,546.50 on amazon.

Samson Sphone Headphone mixer/amp

This is the headphone controller that we use within the studio, this allows us to control the
headphones which the instrumentalists use. We can control the volume of the headphones and also

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we can control how much of a certain thing they want/can hear, for example we can make them
hear more of one instrument compared to the others. This is useful as the instrumentalist may want
to hear a specific part of the track, for example the bass so we can then turn that up. The Sphone
mixer has 4 headphone inputs which mean up to 4 different sets of headphones can be plugged into
it. The price of this piece of equipment is 348.63 on amazon.
Emagic AMT8 8-PORT MIDI interface
A midi interface is a device that reads midi signals and converts it to a digital signal, this is so the
computer can read it and understand it as notes which are being played on the instrument being
used. This is a helpful piece of equipment as if you have an old synthesiser for example and you want
to you use it but it doesnt send a digital signal, you can plug it into the midi interface and then you
can use it. This interface has 8 ports which means you can plug up to 8 different things which do not
send digital signal. This is priced at 350 on SoundOnSound.com.

The Microphones
Within recording a multitrack channel recording you will have to use many microphones in order to
make it a multichannel track recording. However there are many different types of microphones that
work differently and pick up sound a certain way, this means that there are different microphones
for different instruments. Each microphone that we used had a certain job and all have different
specs.
Dynamic microphones: a dynamic microphone is more robust then I condenser microphone and it
does not need a power supply, they are more likely used to mic up bands as they have a wider
frequency range to pick up all of the instruments. Also a dynamic microphone can handle higher
sound pressures, and dynamic microphones tend to be cheaper.
Condenser microphones: a condenser microphone needs to have power in order for it to work, this
means putting on the 48v button on the audio interface. A condenser microphone is very direction
this means it will pick up audio which is only in its directional surrounding.
Shure SM58
The Shure SM58 is a dynamic microphone which is best suited for vocals
and speaking. The reason for this is because of its frequency response, the
frequency response of this microphone is 50HZ 15kHz. This microphone
has a wide frequency response which is the reason why it is good for vocals,
as at any time a vocalist can change the frequency of their voice, also
different vocalists have different frequency ranges between them so this
microphone have a wide frequency range means that it can be suited for
any vocalist. The Shure SM58 is also a very robust microphone as it was a
strong metal grille around the actual microphone which protects it from
any harsh damage to the official sound pick up part. It also has a metal

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handle which means this will not break, this is one of the strongest microphones that we use. As of
its wide range of frequency it can also be used to record pretty much any type of instrument which
proves itself to be very useful. This microphone has a cardioid polar pattern, this means that it can
pick up any sound that is pointed directly at it and block out the sound which is around it, this causes
for a clear precise recording which is what is wanted when recording vocals or even an instrument
with this microphone.
The frequency response curve:

Shure SM57
The Shure SM57 is a dynamic microphone which is best suited for instruments,
such as; snare, toms, guitar and percussion. This is because it has an even wider
frequency range then the Shure SM58 as the range of frequency from all
instruments compared to vocals is larger. The frequency response of this
microphone is 40Hz 15kHz, an example of instrument frequency ranges is a
piano can play at 41Hz however a violin can play at 15kHz this means that the
microphone can pick up all both of those instrument which is useful for a
producer as they can use the same microphone. Compared to the SM58 this
microphone is not as robust as it as it doesnt not have a grille surrounding it
interior however it is highly durable under heavy use. As the SM58 this
microphone also has a cardioid polar pattern which is why we used it for top and
bottom snare within our recordings. We would place the microphone in the top snare position and
bottom snare position, the images below are taken off of google images to show how we used the
SM57 to mic up the snare drum.

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The frequency response curve:

Shure SM7B
The Shure SM7B is also a dynamic microphone which is best suited
for speech and vocals but can also be used for things such as guitar,
snare and bass drum. This is also a cardioid polar pattern
microphone with a frequency response of 50Hz 20kHz this means
that compares to the SM58 this can pick up higher frequency vocals
which means if you know you are going to record a range of
vocalists in a studio session it will be best to use this microphone, as
you would not have to change it but also you know you will get a
clear fully concentrated recording throughout the session. This
microphone is protected by a metal casing and can have the grille
changed to metal one or have a foam material around it, each one
changes the quality of the recording. The Shure SM7B stops
electromagnetic hum which is caused by the computer monitors
emitting the sound when a microphone is close and not shielded,
this can ruin your recording and make it harder to record an
instrument or vocalist however this microphone does not pick up
these sounds. We did not use this microphone in our recording.
The frequency response curve:

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Audix F2
The Audix F2 is a dynamic microphone which is best suited for miking instruments such
as drums, this is good for when you are requiring mid-bass and mid-high when
recording. This microphone is at its best on the drum kit, specifically the rack tom and
floor tom as they produce low and mid frequencies which this microphone can pick up
easily. The frequency response of this microphone is 52Hz 15kHz so it can easily pick
up the frequency of a rack and floor tom, the rack tom frequency is 440Hz and floor
tom is 349Hz. The polar pattern of this microphone is hyper cardioid this means that it
isolates any other sound coming from other instruments or sounds from which is close
to it, this means it picks up a clear sound from which it is pointing at. This microphone
is robust as its all made out of metal, with a metal handle and metal grille. The image
below was taken from google images but it shows how we set up the rack tom using
this microphone.

The frequency response curve:

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Audix F6
The Audix F6 is also a dynamic microphone but it is basically a larger version of the F2 as it can be
used for similar instruments such as; kick drum, kettle drum, floor tom, bass and Leslie bottom.
However when we used this in our recordings we used it on the kick drum as the frequency response
of 40Hz 16kHz, this is in the range of a bass drum. As the Audix F2 it has a hyper cardioid polar
pattern and is also made the same way with the metal handle and metal grille. When recording the
kick drum, you can adjust the microphone, by inserting it into the microphone in the hole which is
located at the front of the kick drum. Put the microphone deep in the hole to give the recording a
bigger attack or take it out as far as you want to bring the attack down, the further out the lower the
attack. The image below shows how a kick drum would be miked up, taken from google images.

Audix F9
The Audix F9 is completely different to all of the other microphones
that we have used, this is because this microphone is a condenser one.
This means in order for it to work and pick up audio it will need power,
this is done by switching the 48v button on the interface. A condenser
microphone is more sensitive than a dynamic one which means it
should only be used for instruments it is specified for, these
instruments are cymbals, overheads, hi hat, goodie table and audience
mic. For our recordings we used 2 of these microphones and we used
them as overheads, this means they would be used to pick up the
surrounding sound of the whole kit but it specifically the cymbals that
are on the drum. The frequency response of this microphone is 40Hz
20kHz so even though it is a condenser microphone it still has a similar
frequency response to the dynamic microphones. This is a sensitive
microphone which is not good for speaking as when you speak into it you will get plosives which is
horrible in the end recording. This microphone is made out of metal but if dropped it can get easily
damaged which means you should take care of this microphone when using it and carrying it around.
The image below shows how a drum would be miked up with overheads.

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Neuman TLM 102

This microphone is also a condenser microphone with a large diaphragm, this
means it can pick up surrounding sound in the area. This is best suited for vocals
but it can also be used for drums, percussions and amps. The frequency response
of this microphone is 20Hz 20kHz, this means it can pick up anything, it is the
same range as the human frequency hearing range. The polar pattern of this
microphone is a cardioid like other microphones. This has a metal construction
which means it can take a few knocks but however it cannot take as many as the
Shure SM58 for example.

Miking a Drum kit

For our multi-track recording we used a drum kit as this has many different sections that need to
have a microphone on them so they can be heard, because of the amount of microphones recording
at the same time it will create a multi-track recording. Because different parts of the drums have
different frequency responses we would have to use different microphones so the recordings are
clear. The microphones we used for each drum is listed below:

Kick Drum Audix F6

Top Snare Shure SM57
Bottom Snare Shure SM57
Rack Tom Audix F2
Floor Tom Audix F2
Overhead L/R Audix F9

We recorded the drums in the live room this is because that was where the drum was set up, but
this is a different room so we would need to use the stage box, which there is two of, to connect the
cabled microphones to the soundcards within the control room. To connect the microphones to the
stage box we use XLR cables this is because XLR cables offer a really good sound quality and when
recording sound quality is an important feature.

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How does the stage box connect to the control room?
In order for the right microphone to be picked up by the computer and so you know which
microphone is what within Logic so you know which one is working for example. However in order
for this to work you need to ensure that the right input is selected within logic, below I have created
a table for what instrument links with what input on the stage box and what input within logic. The
inputs on logic are the same inputs that are used on the stage box.
Part Of Drum
Kick Drum
Top Snare
Bottom Snare
Rack Tom
Floor Tom
Left Overhead
Right Overhead

Input On Stage Box/Logic

Input 2
Input 3
Input 4
Input 9
Input 10
Input 11
Input 12

Inputs you also need to know:

Input 1: Vocal booth, this allows you to record vocals from the vocal booth
Input 5: DI Box, this allows you to record instrument such as guitar and bass but without using an
amplifier.
Recording a Bass or Guitar
There are two ways in which you can record a Bass or Guitar, the first way is using a DI Box. In order
for this to work you must select the right input on Logic, this is so you get sound levels coming
through on the mixer so that you know when the instrument is played something will be recorded.
To connect the instrument to the DI Box you use a jack lead which connects from the port on the
instrument to the port on the DI Box. Once this is done and you have levels coming through on Logic
you then have to ensure that the gain is at the right level, this is important as if the gain is at a high
level once the recording is over it way cause clipping and it is hard to edit this. So it is best to have
the gain a little lower so when it comes to mixing you can just adjust the EQ.
The second way of recording a Bass or Guitar is to place a microphone in front of the amp which is
being used. We done this by using a Shure SM58 as this has a good frequency response for both of
these instruments. When miking up an amp you should not face the microphone straight at the
speaker cone this is because it will cause the recording to not be a good sound quality, you should
mic it up by angling the microphone just off of the centre of it and this will allow you to have the
best recording quality.
When recording anything, microphone placement is highly important as this can determine if you
have a good or bad quality recording. Ensure that the microphones are the right distance from the
instrument you are recording. But remember the distance can affect the attack and even decay of
you instrument so it is about experimenting and seeing what is best for you and your project.
Another factor is what microphone you are using, as if you are using the wrong one it can also affect
your sound quality. As if you are recording an instrument at a low frequency, e.g. bass guitar, and
you are using a microphone with a higher frequency response it wouldnt pick up the instrument so
nothing would be registered and recorded. It is important that you know what microphone is good
for what job so that you can create a good clear recording.

Matthew Range