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Stephanie Gilbertson
This week was my first week in the studio with my mentor Len Milne at Bedside Studio. My first day I learned quite a bit, I arrived at 2pm on Wednesday when I was told we would be recording someone’s vocals for a track that day. That’s when we went and I was told about different inputs and outputs for the microphone we would be using along with where they go for the different types of equalizers and compressors in the studio.
This week I also finished my first chapter in the course, this one being Sound and Hearing. The chapter included the definition of sound, sound pressure and atmospheric pressure. All of this only included in the first unit of the chapter as the introduction to sound.
After being introduced to some of the different equipment used in the studio that day, I was introduced to some of the basics of Pro Tools before we got started with recording, something I learned was how to start a new track, along with recording over something that has already been recorded in an existing track if need be. Also I learned how to start recording and start playing tracks from the song that have already been recorded.
The second unit in Chapter 1 of sound and hearing was about waveforms and different characteristics of a waveform. Measuring sound, how sound travels and why different instruments sound different although they may be playing in the same frequency (Timbre/Harmonic Content). Other things include envelope; which is the different sections in a note (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release). Something very interesting I found in this particular unit was how fast sound travels, which is 761 Mph.
After learning some basics about Pro Tools, I was introduced to whose vocals we would be recording that day. There was already a session set up for the song we were working on that day so we went into the session and I was shown how to begin recording a new track. The client was ready to go so we spent the next while recording not only the main vocals for the song, but also the harmonies were recorded that day for the song.
The next unit in the chapter was how humans hear, this included different parts of the ear and what they do to help us hear sound. Different levels of sound were listed and how they affect hearing and damage based on how long we have been exposed to the sound without protection. Hearing loss is also related to 2 main factors; which are the decibel level and the duration of exposure, which was explained above.
Different parts of the unit also included Psychoacoustics, which is the study of sound perception, and the Fletcher-Munson Curve, which was a study of sound in the early 1930’s that said humans perceive certain frequencies as louder than they actually are. Also that hearing is the most sensitive in the 2-7KHz range. The last bit of the unit defines auditory masking, acoustic beats and explains stereo imaging, which in short is the perception of depth and space, the ability to locate different elements of a mix within a recording.
The first day in the studio, the last bit of information I learned was about editing, how the engineer and the artist must sit down and decide which pieces of which recording sounds best in the song. This part of recording takes a great length of time, and is crucial to the sound of the final product and the happiness of the client.
I also worked with Len on my own this Friday, which was spent editing two different mixes. The majority of the things that were done were items that were already learned the previous day in the studio, but I was shown about different items in the mixing process such as buses, inserts, master and click tracks also how to mute a piece of track that may not be needed in the song. I was also shown how to tell when certain levels are too high, and when they must be turned down.
Thanks for reading,
Stephanie Gilbertson
