Chapter 7, 8 & 9 Notes - Posted on 2017-05-10 by Elena Safavi

CHAPTER 7 - Tracking

 

PLANNING – list of names of band members & instruments they play, names of songs you will be recording, specific instrumentation, tempos, keys, meters, song lengths, listen to previous recordings of the band to get an idea of their sound, ask for examples to get mood/aesthetic they want

• What compressors and EQs will you use and where?
• What preamps will you pair with which mics?
• Input lists/plot charts
• What elements will you track live/what will be overdubbed?

 

MIC SELECTION –

• May even consider recording each instrument separately in a series of overdubs, using only your best mics?
• If more elaborate mic options, match the source to the mic that creates the desired color and texture
• Think about big picture/feeling you want to create
• Texture of music
• Sense of space
• Frequency response, pick-up pattern, sensitivity, transient response of a mic
• Experiment, use your ears, use what sounds good

 

DYNAMICSs –

• Sound a bit tighter, a bit less open
• More dead than a condenser mic
• Can help give more separation of tracks & allow for more control in post
• Small diaphragm condensers have tighter pickup pattern and look at a smaller area than large condenser mics – can be helpful when recording instruments close to each other
• Large diaphragm captures everything in a room, bring out detail of voice, have more bass response than small diaphragm
• (figure 8 and omnidirectional are going to pick up more bleed & feel much farther away than a cardioid)

 

• if you come across an instrument you haven’t worked with before, don’t be afraid to ask the musician about what they usually do or what has worked well in the past

 

Things to keep in mind when making a PLOT MAP-

• Line of Sight: can the musicians see each other?
• Angle: angle instrument so it is neither parallel/perpendicular to the walls. Place instrument in corner for bass enhancing effect.  Help minimize bleed by angling instruments, so they are facing away from the mics on other instruments
• Room Features: carpeted with soft, absorptive surfaces? Or brick wall, hardwood floor?
• Volume: don’t place upright bass (quieter instrument) next to a screaming guitar cab or heavy drums. usually only place instruments close together if they have similar volumes
• Comfort: comfort for instrument placement and artist. Temperature, lighting, cleanliness, overall vibe of room

Setting up drum kit-

• Check for phase issues: mute everything except kick drum and listen as you unmute all other mics. The sum of all mics should get greater with each additional mic introduced
• You can also have drummer hit each drum individually while you are recording & zoom in and see which direction a mic needs to move to be aligned
• Sometimes it makes more sense to move a mic to where it is perfectly out of phase then flip the polarity 180

 

 

TROUBLESHOOTING-

• If you lose signal: start at beginning of your chain and follow the signal through its path, identify where the signal disappears, examine the patch, the input & output gain, and input source. If you can’t get the signal to pass through, try subbing something else/sending signal from elsewhere to the device

 

 

Chapter 8 – Intro to Pro Tools

 

• When transferring a Pro Tools session to another location, the entire session folder, containing all the session information, must be transferred.

 

BASIC KEY COMMANDS-

• Create new session: Command + N
• Create new track: Shift + Command + N

 

Chapter 9 – Pro Tools Basics

 

SETUP MENU-

• Playback Engine: device through which the audio from Pro Tools is being played back on
• H/W Buffer Size: number of audio samples that the CPU passes to and from the I/O hardware in one go
• Host Processors: determines how many processors in your system will be allocated for native plugin processing (AAX and RTAS) – setting this too high will take away resources for other functions in Pro Tools. Higher host processor settings may be preferred in mixing sessions where multiple plugins are being used, whereas lower host processor settings may increase performance for tracking sessions where plugins are used sparingly
• CPU Usage Limit: allocated resources from your CPU to host based tasks in Pro Tools. Keep this setting between 85% and 90% to free up space for dedicated system functions
• Host Engine: option to allow host engine to ignore errors that impede recording or playback – leave this unchecked unless absolutely necessary in order to preserve maximum audio quality
• Delay Compensation Engine: compensates for delay introduced into Pro Tools system. Measured by sample rate of the session (none, short, long, maximum). Plugins can cause a great deal of latency in your digital signal.
• Plug-in streaming Buffer Size: determines how much memory is allocated by the DAE for streaming the files associated with the samples being used in structure

 

Pro Tools Preferences-

• Display
• Operation
• Mixing
• Processing
• MIDI
• Synchronization

 

Edit Window – Toolbar-

• Shuffle: Shuffle mode allows you to edit, copy, cut, and paste clips, however the movement of clips is dependent on other clips in your session.
• Slip: Slip mode allows you the freedom to place clips anywhere on your timeline.
• Spot: When moving a clip in spot mode a dialogue box appears asking for the specific place on the timeline you want your clip placed.
• Grid (absolute grid & relative grid): Grid mode allows the user to place clips on your timeline according to a pre-determined grid value.
          - Absolute Grid: Means moving a region will snap to the nearest grid mode value.
          - Relative Grid: Means moving clips will always move the clip by the pre-determined grid value, relative to whatever the starting position of the clip is.

-        Section Review Questions:
- "Grid mode" is an edit mode that conforms clips to predetermined time values in your edit window.
- Within the edit tools, the "Trimmer" tool is a quick way to lengthen or shorten a clip
- "Relative Grid Mode" moves the clip by the user defined grid value based on the clips starting position.
- The "Grabber tool" has three variations in its drop down menu. Time, Separation, and, object.
- Inserts process "100%" of the signal and are inserted directly into your signal flow.
Section 3 Review Questions:
- The mix window in pro tools is laid out in "Channel strips" which resemble an analog console.
- The key command for switching between mix and edit window is: "Command/CTRL + +/= Key"
- The mix window in pro tools contains a powerful tracks edit area where visual representations of waveforms can be edited and manipulated: FALSE.