Miking Techniques and the DAW - Posted on 2013-07-01 by Miguel Davila

Date of Session:  6-26-2013

Time In:  11:30am

Time Out:  1:00pm

Lesson #8

This lesson covered getting audio into your digital audio workstation. I learned four fundamental mike placements which are: distant, close, accent, and ambient miking. I learned that the distance between mikes should be 3 times the distance they are from their sound source; this is the 3 to 1 rule. I learned that the 3:1 rule is important for reducing leakage and maintaining phase integrity.  I learned that when recording guitar or bass, you place the mike in the center of the speaker cone for the brightest sound.  I learned that a practice rundown is important so that microphone choices can be changed and EQ setting adjustments can be changed to obtain the sound the producer wants on each instrument.  I learned accent miking is placing a mike reasonably close to emphasize a certain instrument or section of an ensemble without causing it to sound unnatural.  Ambient miking requires placing a mike at a distance where reverb or room sound is equal to or more prominent than direct sound.  After going through the lesson, Joe let me plug in the patch cables to complete the channel and monitor path so that sound can be recorded in ProTools.  I was introduced to the ProTools software and practiced recording, punch recording, trimming, translating audio clips, and using shortcut keys for these functions.

The program is going well so far; I’ve really learned a lot. I’m finding the textbook reading and note taking to be a challenge, there is a lot of information and I hope I am learning the things I really need to know and will be seeing very often as an engineer.  I’m glad I had a chance to do an exercise with ProTools and hope I will get to do more opportunities like this very soon.  I’m looking forward to getting my own ProTools and Mbox soon and becoming more familiar with this software.