To understand how to obtain a good recording one must understand the recording chain. The signal starts at a sound source (an instrument). The sound source will be picked up by a microphone, which will send the signal to a mic pre-amp. The signal is then sent to a tape recorder which records the signal onto tape.

The start of the recording chain is the sound source itself. This is the most important part of achieving a good recording. Example: Good sounding drums recorded well will sound great. Bad sounding drums recorded well will sound like a good recording of a bad sound. Signal processing in mix-down can help, but will never replace a good source to start with.

The signal source is picked up by a microphone (unless the signal is already line level - like a keyboard). Choosing a microphone depends completely on the sound source. There are many "industry standard" microphone selections for specific instruments. Microphone selection and technique is absolutely critical.

There are 5 main types of microphones: Dynamic, Condenser, Tube, Ribbon, and PZM. There are various pick up patterns for microphones. (The direction the microphone picks up a signal is called a pick up pattern.) The patterns for microphones are cardioid, hyper-cardioid, super-cardioid, figure-8, omni, and shotgun.

Cardioid is the most common pattern and it picks up its signal only in the front of the microphone in a heart shape.

Super-Cardioid also picks up its signal from in front of the microphone, but does not have as wide a pattern at which it picks up the source. This pattern can be quite useful in a live situation to help eliminate bleed from other instruments and to prevent feedback.

Hyper-Cardioid picks up its signal in front and has great side rejection. however, it also picks up some sounds from the rear.

Figure 8 (also referred to as bi-directional) picks up its sound source in front and back, but not the sides. Almost all ribbon microphones have a figure 8 pickup pattern.

Omni picks up a signal from every direction.

PZM (boundary) microphones are attached to a surface and that whole surface becomes part of the microphone's pick-up pattern. These microphones are very useful for conferences and some stage work in musicals, but usually not considered a first choice microphone for professional recording.

Shotgun microphones have a pick-up pattern VERY directional. These microphones are useful in live television, but for professional music recording they are very rarely used - except in live concerts to mic the audience.

On many microphones it is not obvious which side is the front. Look for a logo; it will be on the front of the mic (the side one should sing or play into). If the microphone has one side black and the other side a different color (silver, gold etc), the black side will be the rear of the microphone.

Quality mic cable is essential. Our studio uses mainly Canare star quad cable. This cable is usually not available at your local music store, but can be mail-ordered from companies like Markertek. We make our own microphone cables by purchasing bare cable and soldering on Neutrick connectors. Canare has excellent conductivity and a French Braid shield. We have recorded on location literally next to radio towers with no problem using this cable.

The signal goes from the microphone to a microphone pre-amp. The function of the mic pre-amp is to boost the microphone signal up to a level other electronics can process (-10 db for consumer or +4 db for professional). On many consoles the mic pre-amp is the top pot labeled "gain". There are usually three other switches along side the mic pre-amp pot. These are phantom power, 20 db pad, and phase reverse.

Phantom power is 48 Vdc of power that is sent along the microphone cord to the microphone. Condenser microphones need power to operate; this is how they get that power. NOTE: Phantom power can destroy the element of a ribbon microphone. Make sure the phantom power is off if you are using a ribbon microphone.

The 20 db pad lowers the signal's level by 20 db. This can be useful on loud signal sources such as a snare drum or trumpet.

The phase reverse switch is needed in certain circumstances where there are phasing problems. One example where this would be used is if a snare drum has a mic on both the top and bottom. The bottom mic will be out of phase, thus by reversing the phase the mics will be in phase again.

The mic pre-amp is often the most overlooked piece of equipment in the recording chain. Unless you have a several hundred thousand dollar console, such as an SSL, you should use an outboard mic pre-amp because the mic pre-amp in your console is fairly low quality in comparison. At Recording Lair we use out-board mic pre-amps on everything we record with a microphone. We have 8 channels of mic pre-amps on our Grace 801 (in the opinion of many, and many others, this is the highest quality mic pre-amp on the market), six channels of tube mic pre-amps via our 3 Aphex 107s, 8 channels of Presonus M 80 mic pre-amps and two on our Apogee A/D 1000. This allows us to record up to 24 tracks simultaneously without having to use any of our console mic pre-amps (we have 24 channels of mic pre-amps on our consoles).

If you are using a keyboard or other line level device make sure you plug the device into the line input of your console and not the mic inputs. Even if the signal is not being boosted by the mic pre-amp, the signal will still be going through it. The result will be a degraded signal.

Direct boxes are used to change the impedance of a signal. They are often used on basses, or when desiring a clean guitar sound. The instrument plugs directly into the DI Box and a microphone cord goes from the box to a mic pre-amp. If the characteristic of the Guitar or Bass amp is desired, most DI Boxes (such as our Countryman DI Boxes) can accept the amp signal with the flip of a switch. Usually there is also an amp outlet so the performer can plug from the DI Box into their amp. There are both passive and active DI Boxes. Active DI Boxes need power to operate; an internal battery or phantom power from the mic pre-amp are the usual sources for power.

Sometimes a signal has an extreme dynamic range (large changes in volume). To ensure a good level to tape, without any distortion, soft limiting may be used. Limiting will ensure the signal does not distort when it gets really hot, thus allowing the average level to be greater. The signal will not be allowed to get louder than a set point. If the signal is approaching that point, the soft limit will activate, which prevents the signal from distorting. This is the only type of compression (limiting is high-ratio compression) that we put on a signal during tracking.

There are many arguments for whether analog or digital is a better recording medium. Both have their own advantages and drawbacks. Digital overcomes most of its drawbacks with quality converters and higher resolutions (more bits). Analog has the infamous tape-hiss. This can be minimal if the engineer is very knowledgeable and has quality gear and tape to work with.

Digital: Digital is an excellent recording medium and our choice at Recording Lair. Recordings are very clean and defined. Some analog purists complain that it is too sterile. However, with the higher bit resolution of today's recorders, all the advantages of digital can be obtained without losing any life from the music.

Analog to Digital Conversion: When recording in digital, a the signal must be converted from analog to digital. Our 02R console converters and adat XT converters are quite good. When we track several channels at once we use mostly these converters. However, we try to use our Apogee A/D 1000 converter as much as possible. This is an extremely high-end analog to digital converter.

When the recorder receives the signal it records it to tape. The levels of every channel on tape should be as high as possible without any overs.

Analog: Analog can be wonderful if your engineer knows what he is doing and has the right gear. If not the results are very unprofessional. Most projects that we master from studios recording in analog have an unacceptable amount of tape hiss and no sparkle in the high end. Often we have to apply sonic restoration to the recordings. If you wish to record in analog follow these pointers to ensure you are obtaining the benefits of analog without its problems.

1. Use new tape - Do not try to save a money on a used reel. Run the tape at 30 ips (inches per second). This uses twice as much tape, but will result in a much cleaner recording. For the most common 2" analog tape expect to pay between $150 - $250 for a quality new reel. At 30 ips this will give you 16 or 24 tracks and approximately 15 minutes of record time. (calibration tones must be put on the reel as well for aligning purposes)
2. Have the tape machine aligned before every recording session.
3. The levels to which you can peak your signal out before distortion depend on different factors, one of which being the tape itself. Higher quality tape can record higher levels. The engineer must know the tape and recorder well in order to achieve the most from analog recording. The classic analog sound is from the engineer pushing the levels and thus having some compression from the tape itself.
4. The industry standard analog recorder is Studer. Look for it.

At Recording Lair we record straight to tape with no signal processing for several reasons:

1. The shortest path a signal has to travel will yield the cleanest recording.
2. Some processing, like compression, cannot be undone. If one commits signal processing to a track on the original recording there may be nothing that can be done to un-process the signal if desired. A signal may sound great by itself when tracking, but how it will fit in the mix is a completely different story. By not processing before tape there are no burned bridges.
3. Digital recording technology has improved to the extent that we can boost the high end of a signal (after it has been recorded to tape) without excessive white noise.
4. We have enough gear so we do not have to use the technique of applying signal processing during tracking in order to re-use that piece of gear on another track for mix-down. If we do wish to use one of our pieces of gear on more than a couple tracks we can process the signal and bounce the new signal to a new track.

© 2000 Recording Lair. _All rights reserved. Questions, comments? Contact the Webmaster.