Studio Session Manual

Studios come in a range of all different shapes and sizes some are much more high tech
and professional than others, whereas some are more basic but still provide quality
recordings. In Studio A In the venue there is a serious amount of gear to use to get the
precise sound you want to get when recording. The basis of the setup helps this, there
main piece of equipment is a Soundcraft analogue mixer. Analogue mixers some would say
are better than recording digitally as they add certain warmth to sounds, this is called
analogue distortion. The Mixer may seem complicated at first sight but as I explain its
functions and layout you will soon realize that its not as challenging as once thought.

The SoundCraft Sapphyre Mixer

First of all a very simple concept that will help you understand any mixer is that even
though they are generally big and have many different controls most of the controls do
exactly the same thing they are just duplicated for multichannel recordings. The
Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer has a lot of different buttons so we will start from the top of
one channel strip.
Channel Path
At the top of each channel there is a Gain control this lets you increase the volume of a
channel is the signal is too low. This is generally on all mixers and is a very useful tool
however it should not need to be used to an extreme as then you may have a high signal
to noise ratio. Microphone Placement can usually eliminate the use of the gain control but
its always nice to have it there to get your levels to their desired places. Be careful when
you use the gain control however as it can lead to channels clipping. Below the gain
control in the same section is the Phantom Power (48 Volts) this is used for mainly
condenser microphones which need the extra power to be able to function. Also there is a
line input button so if you are recording a guitar straight into the mixer then you will need
to press this button. Just below the line button is the phase button which you can identify
by the O with a cross through it. This function is more complex but is highly useful in
some circumstances. The phase button allows you to reverse the phase of an input. You
may be thinking why would you need to do that? Well the answer is pretty simple. For
example if you were recording drums but your overhead microphones were different
distances away from the drum kit the sound you would be getting from one would be out
of time with the other. This is due to the sound taking longer to be picked up in the closer
microphone than in the microphone that is placed further away. This is a more amateur
mistake but one that could easily go unnoticed. This button reverses the phase and makes
it easier for you to record microphones from different distances. Next is the 100Hz
control this control is very helpful as it allows you to cut out some of the lower unwanted
frequencies that maybe conflicting in your mix. This is a good function in the mixer as a
lot of people who mix generally cut out frequencies lower than 100Hz. They do this as a
lot of instruments are spread over different frequencies over the spectrum and to make all
the various elements of a song sound defined. Generally apart from Basses, Kick drums
and sub Basses a lot of the frequencies under this range are unwanted. The final button in
this section is called the sub grouper, this is allows you to group channels. Its pretty
simple; say if you wanted to control 2 guitars you could select them both using the sub
grouper.

Noise Gate, Channel Fader and EQ

This section of the mixer is a somewhat noise gate. If you dont know what a noise gate is
then basically it allows you to control the volume of a signal. Its like a compressor but
instead of compressing audio it reduces sounds below a given threshold. So with that
definition out of the way lets get onto the controls. So to activate the Noise gate you
have to press the gate button. The Range control changes the range of the gate from 15db
to 60db. The Threshold button allows the gate to be varied from -40db to +10db. Below
that there are bandpass filters with a frequency which allows an alternation between 70Hz
to 4kHz by the Fil control. After that there is the release control which you can increase
the hold of your recordings. The Channel fader controls the level of your channel it can
change the overall gain of a channel by 10Db. For any extra control there is always the cut
button located to the side of the channel fader. The Bounce function allows you to isolate
your channel from the overall mix and bounce it separately. In every mixer there will be a
range of in depth EQ controls which you can use to boost certain frequencies in the
Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer the controls are easy to use and are separated into different
boost and cut buttons.
HF For a 15Db cut or boost of around 12Khz
LF - For a 15Db cut or boost of around 60Hz
HMF and LMF - For a 15Db cut or boost between 600Hz-12Khz and 100Hz-2kHz

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Recording Drums (Studio 1)

When recording drums there is a lot of mistakes that can be made which limit the overall
sound. There are multiple areas in this process which you need to focus on, these areas
area: Microphone types, Microphone placement, Cabling and Maintaining levels.
When recording drums there are two main types of microphones that we use. There are
different variations of each type but they all do a similar job. Recording drums you mainly
use dynamic microphones all with different diameters. For instance for the Bass Drum we
used a larger dynamic microphone to pick up the lower frequencies whereas for the snare
we used a Shure Sm57 which is much smaller and picks up less.The second type of
microphone we used was a small diaphragm condenser microphone for the overhead
microphones. We used condenser microphones in this instance to get a much wider and
atmospheric sound to the drums as condensers are more sensitive and require an extra 48
volts of electricity (referred to as Phantom Power).This means that they pick up a wider
range of frequencies which adds depth to the recording.
Microphone placement is one of the most crucial components in getting a good recording
and for each microphone there is a unique spot which gets the best sound. For the bass
drum the best place is inside the hole of the kick. It needs to be placed around about in
the centre but not so far that the attack of the drum is too fast. The first and second
snare microphone needs to be facing the centre of the snare to get a sharper sound but it
needs to still be close to the rim as otherwise it could get in the drummer's way. You need
to be careful of as although having the microphone close to the individual drums
themselves generally gets a clearer sound you have to think about how a drummer would
play so this often needs to be taken into account. The Toms are similar to the snare drum
placement but they have a wider diaphragm so they can be placed slightly further away.
Some studios may have clip on microphone stands for the tom drums this is often easier
but you can still get a good sound by just using regular stands. The Hi Hat microphone
needs to placed almost directly above the hi hat a few inches away from the bell of the
hat. The overhead microphones can be placed in two ways. It is debatable which way
sounds better as the first method gives you a more inclosed sound whereas the second
feels much more open. Lastly The Room microphone can be placed anywhere in the room
which your drums are located in and just adds more atmospheric depth to the overall
sound of the drums. Cabling even though is a more minor detail in recording drums it is
still important to wrap cables around stands so that they do not interfere with any
recordings. Wrapping up cables when finished is also important as not doing so may leave
cables damaged or cause a trip hazard. Once all this is completed its always good to check
all your levels and make any necessary alterations so that no channels are clipping and
they are all more or less even in the mix.

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Recording Basses and Guitars (Studio 1)
There are two main ways of recording basses or guitars. The first way is to record your
chosen instrument through an amplifier with a microphone. With this method you are
limited to the amplifiers that you have whereas the second method which is recording it
straight into your interface or pre amp using a jack cable. This method is sometimes
better as if you have plug-ins such as amp designer you can use it to manipulate it to
sound like a real live amp and this way you have plenty of variety to choose from and are
not just limited to the amps you have.
To Record Basses or guitars using the first method you will need to make sure you have an
amp plugged in and ready to record. Then you will need to place a microphone on a stand
and put the microphone so that is it pointing to the edge of the speaker cone. Once that
is done check the levels so there is no clipping. We did the second method by plugging a
bass into a pre amp and recording it straight into Logic.