Budget Recording Concepts
For most of our lives the price of quality audio recording was prohibitive.
While it was certainly possible for the enthusiast to create decent
recordings, it did cost a significant portion of that person’s disposable
income. Quality tape machines were ridiculously expensive and geared
primarily for studio use - and studios cost prohibitive amounts to rent by
the hour.
The computer has changed that, or more appropriately, the inexpensive
digital audio interface has changed that. Today you can buy an audio
interface that records better quality signal than a cd can reproduce, and
for less than $300. Most of these interfaces also come with software that’s
designed to record multitrack audio. Most of these software packages are
“crippleware” ( software with some of its features turned off, that one can
get only by upgrading the software for a cost ) but still have more
capabilities than most of the professional tape consoles of days gone by.
The most common type of audio interface is the USB interface, which plugs
into the computer’s USB port, just as might be expected. Most require
drivers to be installed, and recording software to allow the user to record,
although the Macintosh comes with Garage Band, a very good beginner’s tool
for recording music or other audio (like podcasts and the like).
If your goal is to record music, you’ll want an audio interface that will
record “24/96”, meaning 24 bit audio at a 96 kilohertz sampling rate. This
is 256 times the dynamic range of a CD, and twice the resolution. The reason
this is important is that you will need to “mix down” to CD quality (if your
goal is CD!), and the extra quality gives you what’s known in the industry
as “headroom”. In the analog industry, “headroom” was the difference between
the signal level and the highest signal level the system could record. In
digital audio it means something similar, although not exactly the same.
You’ll need a decent microphone or a direct-in box, or other interface
between what you’re recording and your audio interface. For vocal recording,
there are many new microphones available for less than $300 that do an
excellent job of capturing voice. If you’re recording guitar, you can insert
a pre-amp and
amp emulator (a device that takes unprocessed guitar signal
and massages it to sound similar to the same signal output through any
number of well-known guitar amplifiers) or effects system between your
guitar and the audio interface. You will be amazed at the range and quality
of the sounds you can achieve with this configuration. Keyboard Synthesizers
can be plugged directly into the ‘line in’, or put through other effects
systems as well. Bass recordings work very well through
DI, or “Direct In”
boxes, which are elements that match the impedance of an amplifier and allow
you to record the direct signal of the Bass.
Software systems will have effects, ranging from reverb to flanging and
phasing to equalization and noise cancellation. Some have an overwhelming
array of effects and settings - it takes quite a bit of time to become
familiar with them all, so to begin with try and stick with a single
software package for your recording, so you can learn the keyboard shortcuts
and where to find the settings for all of the effects.
Another feature of most current software packages of this type is what is
known as a “Soft Synth”. These are plug-in software that creates sounds in
response to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface, the standard for
electronic music) events. These soft synths can be based on new algorithms
and procedures, designed to produce unique sounds, or they can be software
emulators of classic hardware synthesizers. The term is often used to
describe “Soft Samplers”, although they aren’t strictly synthesizers. A
sampler takes a recording - known as a sample - of a note and plays it back
according to MIDI events (or keyboard events). The complexity can range from
one note, sped up or slowed down to make each note in the scale, or many
recordings of each note at different ‘velocities’. “Velocity” describes how
hard the key on the keyboard was struck, and is used to control the volume
and dynamics of the note created.
Current high-end software offerings include everything from trivial plugins,
like metronomes, to complex computational monster plug-ins that allow timing
and pitch correction, so when a singer is off the beat or off key, say, the
software can correct it automatically. This technology used to be strictly
the domain of high end production studios, but now is commonplace. Many
recording contracts require their use whether the singer actually needs it
or not - to save on retakes, and thus, studio time. Of course, the same
tools can be used to correct other musical sounds, like guitars or
saxophones. Many musicians use this as a creative tool, as do some software
companies, to bring realism to samples and synthesizers.
The new systems also allow “NLE”, or non-linear editing. This is the ability
to cut out a bit of audio at one time and drop it into another space, or to
stack up events that happened at different times, or even repeat slices of
audio at appropriate times. An important part of NLE is “looping”, where one
takes a selected slice of audio and plays it over and over for selected time
spans. An example might be a drum riff that creates a rhythm when looped,
allowing the musician to record, say, a bass track over it. A “track” is a
channel in the audio software - almost all current software uses the tape
analogy in some aspect, however well hidden it might be, and that track
corresponds to a channel on tape. When we use the term ‘multitrack
recorder’, we’re referring to the ability of the hardware or software to
record multiple discrete audio signals and maintain their individual
identity, usually side by side on the screen.
Whether you’re looking to record a gospel album, a tech podcast, or a heavy
metal rock album, high quality digital audio tools are within your reach. A
few hundred dollars here and there, a decent computer, and a place with
decent acoustics, and you could be cutting the next big hit, doing your own
recording, engineering, and production. You’ll be absolutely amazed at the
tools you have access to, and when you’re done, you’ll be amazed at the
quality you can produce on a budget.