CHAPTER 3 Studio Setup

CHAPTER 3 Studio Setup The best recordings come from propery designed spaces. Before anything is oaded into the room, before any equipment setup begins, you must determine the best ways to take advantage of the recording space. Some studios have dead areas and ive areas, each with their individua functions. Some studios have adjustabe wa panes that can iven or deaden areas of the room. You may decide to, for exampe, record horns in a ive area of the room and record an intimate acoustic guitar in a ess ive area. Again, understanding the physica imitations and characteristics of the room heps you decide where each setup wi sound best. Room Preparation Cean the pace. A cean studio, as with a cean contro room, keeps everyone from getting anxious. It makes you ook ike a professiona, Recording Tips for Engineers ISBN: 978-0-240-52176-3 Copyright Ó 2010 Tim Crich. Pubished by Esevier Ltd

24 Recording Tips for Engineers not some hack that doesn t care enough to cean out the dirty food containers. Use it or ose it. Remove everything that isn t invoved in your session, such as another cient s equipment. Every item in the room rattes, so, if it isn t there, that s one ess ratte to worry about. In addition, when the cient books the studio, he wants the whoe studio. It isn t fair to him when you store someone ese s equipment in the corner of the room. Go ahead and ask. In an unfamiiar studio, ask a staff member about any standard instrument pacements. Then use that information, aong with your experience, when pacing each instrument. Sketch the ayout of the studio and use it to decide where each instrument wi go. Dea with noisy foors and chairs. Oi squeaky chairs and throw down a carpet over squeaky foors. Everyday noises that are unconsciousy bocked out by our ears are not bocked out by the microphones. Diffuse the situation. Use diffusion devices, such as sections of acoustic foam, stand-aone baffes, and perhaps sections of pywood paced on the foor to fit your specific session needs. Figure 3.1 shows how propery paced baffes wi bock and absorb most initia refections. In this instance, refections coming back off the wa are not an issue. Baffes might be used as absorption devices or refective devices, depending on the situation. Note that absorption devices do not affect some frequencies, such as ow ows. Any size recording studio can make hit records. Good equipment means nothing uness the payers are up to the task. Thinking you wi get a great recording because you use the best gear is ike thinking you can do a great painting because you have the best paintbrushes. Even a broken penci can draw a masterpiece.

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 25 FIGURE 3.1 Baffes used for absorption Pacement Draw a setup sheet with the ayout of the room. Before considering where the instruments and payers are paced, draw an instrument setup sheet, aong with an input ist, to refer to. This is usefu when other peope are heping to set up the room. How many payers are recording basic tracks? Most recordings are broken down into three sections: basics, aso caed bed tracks, then overdubs and mixing. In today s studio, these overap consideraby. Determine how many payers wi be in the studio during the basics to propery choose which, and how many, microphones to use on each setup. Different situations wi require different approaches.

26 Recording Tips for Engineers What is the stye of music? Determine payer pacement by considering the stye of music, how prominent each instrument wi be, and how many payers there are. Is it: A jinge? Jinges are advertisements heard on radio and teevision often 30 or 60 seconds ong. Recording wi often be competed in a singe day so there wi not be a ot of time for experimentation. The most important factor here is usuay the time restraints. Because the musicians that pay on jinges are professionas, they wi most ikey pay the part propery every time. The emphasis here is not on setup or performance. It is assumed that the setup is good and that the performance wi be fine. The important factors here are time and money. Set up and press the record button. Proper documentation is key for a smooth-running jinge session. Many different versions of a commercia, or spot, are recorded, and each spot needs proper documentation during recording, editing, and mixing. A movie soundtrack? As movies get cheaper and more accessibe, more engineers are getting into recording movie soundtracks. Whie most modern records are recorded to feature vocas or a certain instrument, movie soundtracks are ess focused on the individua payer and more on creating a fee that compements the movie. There is no strict standard, and you woud record what each scene requires: a arge group of payers or an individua musician. A power rock band? They might sound better in a arger ive space. Start the session by concentrating on bass and drums, but aso record reference vocas and guitars. A jazz session? You may prefer a meower, dryer fee from a ess reverberant space. With jazz, often payers wi want to watch each other without headphones. Everything is recorded ive with no

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 27 overdubs. Confirm that your session has enough hard drive space, because, eft to their own devices, jazz payers wi never stop paying. Seep? Food? Time itsef? A secondary to the groove. A demo? Recording demos is not the time to spend four hours getting that perfect guitar sound. Take ess time on setup and more time recording. A teevision show? Many teevisions have smaer speakers that cannot recreate a wide range of frequencies. Therefore, a piano, for exampe, recorded for a teevision soundtrack might not have the same equaizer setting as a piano recorded for a rock record: on a teevision soundtrack, boosting ow ow frequencies might not have much of an effect. They wi equaize and compress it at the TV station. A rap or hip-hop session? Commony, eectronic drum machines and modern keyboards combine with ive vocaists. Vocas might be recorded after a the music is recorded. To pay off of each other, sometimes two or more singers record into separate microphones at the same time. An independent punk band? They might sound best in a smaer, tighter garage stye room. Not a ot of setup time, and often raw sounds with ive vocas. A soo acoustic payer/singer? Setup may sound best in a smaer, more intimate space, and the voice and the musica instrument might have separate microphones. The microphones coud be paced in a stereo array in front of the artist, as ong as they are comfortabe. No matter what the situation, a aspects of the recording, production, and paying must be of the highest quaity. The word (hopefuy) is

28 Recording Tips for Engineers going to hear the resuts, so take the time to set up propery and record everything correcty. Paces pease. Most musicians, if they have been paying together for a ong time, get used to certain pacement among the rest of the payers. Maybe the rhythm guitar payer prefers to stand on the eft side, whie the bassist may ike the right. Ask the payers if they are used to paying in specific ocations in reference to each other, and set them up that way. Don t isoate the payers. Just because an ampifier is isoated doesn t mean that the payer must be isoated as we. Commony, payers being recorded together shoud be abe to see each other, and at east one shoud be abe to see the engineer. The person who can see the engineer normay gets a takback microphone. Carpets and chairs. Before setting up the microphone stands and running the cabes, ay out any carpets that wi be needed. Tape them to the foor to keep them in pace and so no one trips and fas. Once the carpets are down, pace chairs for each payer. They might not use them when they are actuay paying, but they may want to sit down during payback or during a u in the session. Set up and sit down. Bring in and set up the instruments as described in the next few chapters. With the instruments paced according to your setup sheet, begin pacing the microphone stands and cabes. Microphone Stands Don t use a arge boomstand. Sometimes a smaer boomstand wi be ess obtrusive. Microphone stands can range from a sma stand to hod a tiny microphone, a the way up to a arge boom with a big microphone hanging off the end of it. Match the stand size with the situation.

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 29 Microphone stands touch nothing but the foor. A microphone stand won t tip over uness it was teetering in the first pace. Use a arge boomstand. Larger boomstands tend to be more stabe, with ess resonances and rattes, and they hep eiminate rumbe from the foor. Stand sti, addie. Today s microphone stands tend to be fimsy, so don t force any of the casps. Take the time to unscrew the fastener, and set the stand and the arm to the proper pacement. Then tighten the casp. Not Superman tight, but tight enough that the microphone stays at the right spot unti the end of the session. Duct tape rues. Leave a coupe of ros of duct tape around, but ony use it to stop resonance and rattes, not to hod a microphone stand. Duct tape won t hod a microphone stand in pace for ong, and it ooks unprofessiona. But sometimes there is no choice. If you must use duct tape to hod anything, don t wrap a whoe ro around the microphone stand. A few times around wi do. Stand up. Pace a stands and run a cabes before attaching the microphone to the stand. Wheeing a arge boomstand around a cuttered room with a microphone connected to it is just asking for damage. Make a habit of setting up microphones ast and breaking them down first. Secure the boomstand. If you must use a smaer tripod boomstand, pace the stand so one eg is directy under the boom, then sandbag the other two egs to keep them secure. Pace a sandbag on the base of the stand to ensure stabiity. If someone bumps into it and it toppes over, it s your faut. Pair of matching shocks. When setting up to record something in stereo, use matching shockmounts, stands, and microphones. This not

30 Recording Tips for Engineers ony ooks professiona but aso makes both microphones sound aike. If one microphone has a shockmount and the other doesn t, a sight rumbe may creep into the one without the shockmount. Then you might need to add a ow-end ro-off to one side, thus changing the intended matched sound. Weight for the boom. Set the counterweight of arger boomstands high enough so no one hits their head. If someone gets smacked in the nose, it gives the studio a back eye. Cabes What are baanced cabes? A standard recording studio XLR baanced cabe uses three wires two to carry the signa and one for the shied. The three wires are termed hot, cod, and common. Both XLR and ¼ 00 stereo cabes are baanced. On a baanced ¼ 00 cabe, the three wires connected are tip, ring, and seeve (TRS), with the seeve being the shied termina. Figure 3.2 shows the two ends that carry the signa, and one has the poarity (phase) switched. Why? Any interference wi affect both wires equay. At the baanced input connector, these equa and opposite interference signas wi cance out. This process is caed baancing or common mode rejection. This eiminates interference so you can use onger cabes with minima hum pickup. What are unbaanced cabes? A standard guitar cord is an exampe of an unbaanced cabe. It contains two wires one wire is the hot and the other is the shied. The shied is wrapped around the hot wire and used for the return signa. Unbaanced cabes are normay used for getting mono signa from the instrument to the ampifier or direct box. Most outboard equipment uses ¼ 00 inputs and a consoes have the option of baanced and unbaanced ¼ 00 (ine eve) inputs.

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 31 Source Device Wire 1 Wire 2 Destination Device 180 180 Wire 3 Grounding shied Baanced cabe Source Device Wire 1 Destination Device Wire 2 Grounding shied Unbaanced cabe FIGURE 3.2 Baanced and unbaanced Another unbaanced ine is a ¼ 00 non-shieded speaker cabe, which is two heavy-gauge parae wires. Cabes from ampifier to speaker must be heavy gauge for as itte power oss as possibe. Don t use speaker cabe in pace of shieded cabe. Running cabes Got cabes? Confirm that there are enough cabes, incuding ¼ 00, XLR, power cabes, and AC (aternating current) power boxes. Bring them into the room and set them in their appropriate paces. Use the proper cabe and connectors. Adapters wi aways degrade the signa so use them as a ast resort. For the best resuts, use the proper cabes so no adapters are necessary. Using one ong cabe is better than joining two short ones together. Respect the studio cabes. Wrap and unwrap studio cabes correcty and don t throw them around. Avoid any sort of sticky tape to hod cabes

32 Recording Tips for Engineers together. Use a specific pastic cip, a Vecro strip, or even a piece of rope with a oop on the end. Labe the cabe. Labe both ends of XLR cabes for easier tracing. For exampe, if cabe 28 is connected to a microphone that is not working, rather than having to trace it through the abyrinth of a the other cabes, simpy read the number on the cabe then check where the corresponding number is pugged in at the input pane. Keep it short. Use the shortest possibe unbaanced, high-impedance cabes. Longer cabes can pick up hum and, as ength increases, can diminish high frequencies. Keep it ong. Aow enough ength so cabes are never taut. Don t wrap them up in a coi; just eave the excess cabe on the foor by the base of the microphone stand. Leave a channe or two open when pugging in the drums. You want a the drum microphones to enter the consoe in the same area. Later in the session, if you need to add another drum microphone for any reason, you won t need to return it somewhere ese on the consoe. Use the best cabe. Don t use a suspect cabe on a microphone. If you re short on cabes, use it on headphones. If the cabe fais during the session, the recording wi not be compromised. No one wants to find out haf the piano sound is gone when it comes time to mix. Remove fauty cabes from the room so no one mistakes them for usabe cabes. For best resuts. Use the shortest, thickest, highest quaity cabes on the voca microphone. Check your shorts. Keep an ohm meter cose by to determine where a probem ies. Is the microphone not working? Is there a short in the

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 33 cabe? Maybe it can be as simpe as a wrong button pressed at the consoe. A meter tes you instanty if signa is correcty fowing through a piece of gear. Three-cord rock and ro. Pace extra everything cose by. The session shoud never stop due to a ack of workabe cabes. Power arrangers. Don t run (high-eve) AC power cabes parae with (ow-eve) audio signa cabes. Cross power cabes at right anges from signa cabes to minimize AC buzz eaking into the microphone cabes. The wa of sound. To avoid interference, run cabes a few inches away from the studio wa. Right behind this wa ies a pethora of power cabes and other audio ines. Don t pug everything into one AC outet. You wi have a hot, smoking studio with scorching eads and bazing tracks that smoder! Get it? Wrap the cabe around the stand. If you are sure the microphone stand is propery paced and the signa fow is correct, maybe wrap the cabe around the stand to keep it out of the way. Don t wrap the cabe around the stand. Unwrapping and removing a cabe because the pacement is wrong is a waste of vauabe setup time. Sometimes, just eave it to hang. Microphones What is a microphone? A microphone is a transducer that changes acoustic energy to eectrica energy. Sound causes the diaphragm within the microphone to vibrate, creating a sma votage. Louder signas cause the microphone s diaphragm to vibrate more, creating more votage.

34 Recording Tips for Engineers The diaphragm is the interna membrane (or the ribbon depending on the microphone) within the capsue that vibrates. Different microphones wi dispay different frequency response charts. There is more on this ater in this chapter. A sma diaphragm microphone wi commony, but not aways, accentuate mid to high frequencies. Due to the smaer mass of the smaer diaphragm, the ow frequencies may not be as accurate as in a arge diaphragm microphone. Large diaphragm microphones might offer the widest range of frequency response to capture warmth, as for ow strings or vocas. These microphones tend to naturay recreate better ow frequencies simpy due to the mass of the diaphragm. The arger the mass, the ess accurate the transient response. Do a istening test. When you understand the characteristics of each microphone, you are better equipped to choose the best microphone for each situation. A istening test wi hep train your ears to determine which microphone does what. Once trained, you use your ears and your experience to choose the best microphone. Set up the best few microphones avaiabe, perhaps four or five at a time, with the individua capsues adjacent to one another. Use no pads or rooffs, and match the poar patterns. Set the faders so a the microphones have the same perceived voume. Have someone stand at an equa distance from a microphones and speak or sing. Switch one microphone on at a time and isten to which ones: Produce a nice, crisp high end. Produce a warmer midrange.

Studio Setup CHAPTER 3 35 Retain warmth and smoothness no matter what frequencies are atered. Lower-quaity microphones may start to sound britte as you boost the higher frequencies. Have a thick bottom. Produce hums or buzzes. Microphones with inherent ower eves may be noisier simpy because the eve must be raised to match the rest of the microphones being tested. Oder tube microphones can have this probem, but their great sound makes up for it. Change eve uniformy as the person moves about the microphone. Some cardioid microphones are more omnidirectiona than others, and some may not be omnidirectiona at a frequencies. What is the proximity effect? The proximity effect is the increase in a microphone s ow-frequency response when it is paced very cose to a sound source. Microphones with omnidirectiona patterns are not affected by the proximity effect. What is phantom power? Condenser microphone capsues are very high impedance, so they need an impedance converter circuit that requires power to operate. The power is caed phantom power and it comes from each mixer microphone input. Dynamic microphones have no active eectronics, so phantom power is not needed. What is a pre-ampifier? Whether inside or outside the consoe, the microphone pre-amp raises the microphone signa eve to a usabe ine eve. What does frequency response mean? A device s frequency response is its output eve versus frequency. Different microphones wi dispay different frequency response charts. A new microphones come with

36 Recording Tips for Engineers +10 Bump around 100 Hz Bumps around 3 khz and 10 khz Leve 0-10 Drops off above 10 khz 100 200 1 k 2 k 4 k 10 k FIGURE 3.3 Microphone frequency response charts a response chart. Figure 3.3 gives a readout page that shows that some microphones wi have a smooth high end whie others may have an upper midrange bump. Whie these charts may not be readiy avaiabe for you to refer to, simpy istening to different microphones on a simiar sound source wi resut in a genera idea of how a microphone s chart woud ook. What does transient response mean? Transients are the initia sudden peaks of a sound, and are very short in duration. Transient response is the measurement of how quicky a device responds to these transients. A percussion instrument contains very high transients, as can voca sibiance. Which microphone is best? The best microphone is the one that sounds best in a particuar situation. Uness you are totay famiiar with a the microphones at your disposa, the ony way to te is to set up a the avaiabe microphones and isten. With experience, you wi earn the characteristics of each microphone, and choosing which ones are best for different situations wi come naturay. Microphones are the toos of your trade earn them.