Week 9 Blog - Posted on 2015-04-04 by Andrew Jordan

This week I learned more about Pro Tools, recording equipment, and storage management. I also did some more recording. I learned that if you are producing, you want a good microphone, computer, interface (though a Pro Tools interface is not recommended), preamplifier (a PreSonus preamp is recommended), hard drive, and pair of headphones. You can run sessions directly off of a normal hard drive, but not every hard drive is that powerful; it raises the risk of the drive crashing, as it is only built for storage. However, there are hard drives that are built for running sessions and the like, as well as storing files. You should back up your data to your computer when using a hard drive, as you do not want to put all of your session files on the hard drive and then have it crash. Once a month, you should perform a complete backup of session files to your computer and then wipe your drive clean of session files. This is so you can increase the storage space, prolong the life of the drive, and improve its performance by keeping it clean and not overworking it. For the microphone that the vocalist will be using, you want a pop filter. A pop filter is a sheet of material that is placed right in front of the microphone, and it effectively filters out unwanted noise from the vocals. You can also get a shock mount, which is a mechanism placed around the microphone that gets rid of the sound resulting from the mic being bumped. You do not always need a shock mount, however; it depends on the type of microphone you are using. In Pro Tools, you should make sure that the compressor EQs for the active channels are at the right levels. You can also create a version of a session that is compatible with an earlier edition of Pro Tools.