RECORDING TECHNIQUES WEEKEND COURSE

This course aims are to help students make informed choices regarding the right mics for their recording situations and get the best from their equipment and live rooms. Students will receive many hints and tips from a practical perspective from industry professionals who specialise in live band and acoustic recordings. There will also be a demonstration of a full drum kit multi miced recording.

Structure & Content: Day 1 Session 1: 10:00 - 11:45

Introduction, interconnections, basic requirements for recording (cables, preamps, phantom power, audio interfaces, some simple setups e.g. vocals, drums, acoustic guitar, 4 piece band in one room etc.

Session 2: 12:00 - 13:45

Theory of sound as relevant to digital recording (especially A-D converters, sample rate, bit depth, clock source), live room design and making the best of the acoustic space you have.

Session 3: 14:30 16:15

Microphone design: Dynamic moving coil, ribbon. Condenser/capacitor, valve, electret. Basic electronics as applied in microphone design. Microphone directional characteristics: Omni, figure of 8, cardioid, hypercardioid, pressure zone/gun Choosing the right mic: Design types compared, understanding mic specs e.g. frequency responses graphs/sensitivity

Session 4: 16:30 - 18:00

Approaches to recording: Session preparation, click tracks, count off, pre and post roll, punching in and out, destructive and non-destructive recording, creating a tempo map prior to recording. Laying one performance at a time and overdubbing (takes and playlists, and comping). Input only monitoring and auto-input monitoring. Recording whole performances or in sections and loops. Dealing with performers, recording the perfect take or knowing what to fix in the mix.

Structure & Content: Day 2 Session 5: 10.00 - 11.45

Microphone techniques: close, stereo (AB, XY, ORTF, MS, Blumlein, Binaural/Dummy head), ambient/room micing, multi-micing. Microphone manufacturers, their current ranges, classic mics and their applications

Session 6: 12.00 - 13.45

Mic techniques for specific instruments: vocals, acoustic guitars, drums, amped guitars, pianos, bass, percussion, strings, brass. Headphone monitoring, setting up separate cue mixes for different performers, solo modes when recording. I/O setups, latency, CPU, DSP and buffer sizes. Monitoring with plug-ins active (e.g. Elec guitar to DI input with amp plug-in, and effects on)

Session 7: 14:30 16:15

Practical demo: acoustic guitar and vocal, multi-miced drums

Session 8 : 16:30 18:00

Practical demo: multi-miced drums (cont.)

Prerequisites A basic understanding of music technology is desirable. If in doubt you may wish to think about taking our 1-day Music Technology Crash Course. Pricing This course costs 400 We require a 100 registration fee upon application and the balance of the fee two weeks before the course start date. How do I enrol? To enrol on this course you will need to complete and return a short course application form with the course registration fee (see pricing). The balance of the fee is required two weeks before the course start date. For general assistance and course availability, please contact Alchemeas Registrar Tony Garston on +44 (0) 20 7359 3986 or email info@alchemea.com