Recording Sound E-Book

Mark Brocklesby

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 308

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

This book is for beginners, hobbyists and semi-professionals wanting to enhance and improve their knowledge of recording sound. Focusing on using microphones to capture a few instruments, both the theory and the practical considerations are explained in a concise and digestible manner. Many artists can craft standout productions by working solely 'in the box' with their DAW of choice, or with hardware such as synths and processing tools that do not require a microphone. However, musicians and artists may want to start working towards capturing a variety of sounds, instruments and environments, as this can enhance the listening soundstage and feel of a production. This book succinctly presents aspects of the recording process. It explores different ways to get started on your journey as a recording engineer or artist, be it hiring a studio, setting up a recording space or recording on location. 'This book is an essential read for any budding producer, engineer or artist who is serious about a life in music.' – Brendan Lynch

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1AN INTRODUCTION TO MICROPHONES

2RECORDING PRACTICE AND ASSOCIATED CONSIDERATIONS

3MICROPHONE TECHNIQUES FOR RECORDING

4THE BASICS OF RECORDING VOCALS

5RECORDING DRUMS

6GUITARS, PIANO AND ENSEMBLE RECORDING

7RE-AMPING AND RECORDING AS SOUND DESIGN

8WORKING WITH MULTIPLE MICROPHONES, EDITING AND PREPARING FOR A MIX

9FOOD FOR THOUGHT

GLOSSARY

INDEX

PREFACE

It has been suggested that a great mix is more than just balancing, blending and placing sounds within the listening soundstage. The process of mixing and the act of being creative with a given mix are perhaps two different schools of thought. In my view, and many practitioners would agree, in many respects the latter is more akin to telling a story.

If we consider a mix as being similar to telling a story, then ‘once upon a time’ can often be the recording process for many artists and practitioners. However, it is also fair to state that in some circumstances recording may be the only process involved from inception to the final listener, so in this instance it also has to be akin to the ’happy ever after’ scenario.

To say I have always loved recording and my role as a recording engineer is a huge understatement. I have memories of using tape cassettes and different hi-fi systems to superimpose sounds from one system on the other, and the idea of layering sounds to create something similar to painting a picture that the listener could imagine or re-imagine when it was reproduced had me hooked from the outset.

I would gently suggest that at times there is also a responsibility that comes with recording. It can, for example, act as a historical record and memory. I was recently involved in remastering an album I had helped to produce on its initial release some years ago, since when one of the players, a well-respected musician in the community and a recognisable voice on the radio, has sadly passed away. Hearing his voice again at the start of one of the tracks was a nice, albeit sad experience. It made me feel that the work carried additional value, at least from an emotive perspective.

The recording of the musician in question playing harp alongside another friend, still thankfully very much with us today, playing nylon string acoustic guitar in my old living room in Liverpool was not my best work on many levels. However, it captured a mood, an energy, a spirit, a moment in time and what I believe to be a special performance between two very good musicians.

It was an honour to be there and many memories of that time in my life flooded back after listening again to the recording. I truly love recording for a plethora of reasons, but I find bearing witness to the birth of a performance and how a room’s acoustics becomes part of the sound picture being created is something truly special.

I genuinely hope that my enthusiasm and passion for capturing sound has rubbed off on my clients and students over the years and this constitutes one of the main reasons I agreed to write this book.

My love of working with different microphones, preamps and outboard equipment, and what is often termed a ‘signal chain’ when these are combined in an attempt to create something akin to a picture of sound, albeit imagined, has not diminished, nor has my enjoyment of experimenting with various spaces with interesting acoustics to help craft a production aesthetic, add colour, character and depth (dimension and value) to a recorded sound or sounds, as the case may be.

For over 25 years I have been lucky enough to work on both sides of the glass (in the live room and the control room), recording and performing in various studios. Whether on location, in a project studio or working at a larger studio facility, I can honestly say that being a recordist, a recording engineer tasked with capturing sound, is my favourite part of the record production process.

I am not embarrassed to admit there have been moments when the idea of ‘getting goosebumps’ is genuinely less of a cliché and more of a testament to really loving what I do. If this book serves to inspire even one person to go out and record an interesting sound, a space, a unique performance, or to document a moment in time, then I will see this book as a success.

INTRODUCTION

Recording is in part an art, and I have long held the belief, rightly or wrongly, that expressing yourself is not a competition and therefore I do not measure its results, or rather think in terms of something being better or worse. Through this lens, at least, it is more a case of what moves and inspires you when it comes to the artistic aspect of capturing sound. I like to believe that we all express ourselves differently. Indeed, when it comes to choosing what to record there are no rules.

For example, I often enjoy routing different sounds, acoustic or otherwise, through various types of speakers and then experiment by placing objects on these speakers. Whether the sounds are pre-recorded or being generated live there and then, the speakers can be used to make various acoustic instruments and objects resonate. This acoustic excitation can take a fairly average sound and help to sculpt something that sounds interesting.

When such sounds are recorded, it can open up a plethora of creative possibilities. This signal flow and process, which utilises in part the technique of re-amping, is one of many techniques that will be addressed as the book progresses, but in essence this is arguably recording applied in a very creative manner and the results in some instances could be considered as suitable and a complementary form of sound design for a given brief.

Though the art of recording and taking the time to experiment can be extremely enjoyable and often rewarding, there are standards, formats and theoretical principles that underpin good practice, and this is something we will look at over the coming chapters: the science behind the art.

Having stated this, perhaps it would be good to begin by saying what this book is and what it is not. It is aimed at beginners and hobbyists, but ideally I hope it will also be a useful reference guide for those practitioners who may consider themselves as semi-professional. My intention is to introduce the reader to the theory and practice associated with recording in a manner that is not overwhelming, cold or discouraging.

I will use anecdotes from industry colleagues, friends and my own personal experiences to discuss the art and practice, hoping, perhaps more pertinently, to humanise the process and dispel some of the common misnomers associated with capturing sound.

It wilI be necessary to throw in some relevant and appropriate terminology throughout (although I hope the glossary will provide some explanation). This is not intended to sound clever. As I often tell my students, it is in part through learning the language of the practitioner that we can better understand one another. Even if it is just the basics, such knowledge and language can go a long way towards breaking down barriers and working towards shared values and standards associated with what is considered good practice.

Whenever I go on holiday and visit a non-English speaking country I will always try to learn the basics of the language native to where I am staying. I have always felt that not only do I feel better about myself (although perhaps that is just me), but that people appreciate and respect you for trying. My experience working with students and clients is no different. Whether in the studio or on location the recordings have always benefited in many ways from shared knowledge, not least in a creative manner.

I also want to redress that recording is in its own right a very specific art and discipline. This is not a criticism of modern production or how various stakeholders and practitioners identify a specific role within the process of making a record. It is simply to suggest that recording, mixing and mastering are all very different processes and, from recent experience at least, these separate disciplines tend to get mixed up and bundled into one process from time to time.

There are crossover points in terms of techniques, methodology and processing. Editing, for example, whether applied in a corrective or creative manner, can be utilised in all three of these distinct and arguably specialised stages.

Many thought processes, workflows and styles of practice can provoke debate. Some practitioners, for example, now apply techniques and processing to a stage of making a record that was previously associated with other specific stages, such as when processing associated with the arguably modern concept of mastering is applied at the mixing stage: I say modern because mastering was at one time primarily more focused on formatting the final product.

What works for one practitioner may be frowned upon by another and, depending on the genre and style of project, there are multiple factors to consider and ways of working to achieve a specified outcome.

Indeed, one of the many things I intend to do is not to get bogged down with semantics in relation to the job requirements or methods of other practitioners. This book is going to focus purely on recording.

This book is not a substitute for informed research or further study. It is an overview and hopefully a catalyst, a springboard if you please, towards starting a journey of discovery. My hope is that it will inspire its readers to get out and record various sounds. With the improvement of digital signal processing (DSP) and access to more affordable equipment, there has arguably never been a time less restrictive when it comes to capturing sound.

When it comes to capturing a good recording, my advice would be that you should concentrate on building up a store of knowledge that can be applied as needed:

1.Take time to learn the basic theory and practice (including the personnel, various practitioners and stakeholders) associated with recording. Be consistent in the standard of relevant knowledge you need to acquire to help underpin decision making, rather than relying on the occasional happy accident that might occur. A common suggestion is that ‘if it sounds good, it is good’. I don’t disagree with this sentiment but, whether a hobbyist or professional, it is good to know how to recreate your greatest sounding recordings for continuity at the very least. In order to achieve this I would suggest that you undertake additional research and reading, and when starting out on your journey try to focus your attention on the following:

•The basic principles of ‘acoustics’ (the science of sound or how a particular environment impacts upon a given sound within a particular space) and ‘psychoacoustics’ (how we perceive and respond to audio, or more specifically auditory stimuli, focusing on what happens between sound arriving at the ear and it being transmitted to and processed via the brain);

•Microphone types (operating principles and design);

•Microphone techniques (mono, stereo and multichannel arrays);

•Microphone placement and the listening soundstage;

•The signal chain or, as it is sometimes known, signal flow;

•Gain staging. This is in part the process by which the sound or sounds being captured are amplified to a usable level. Here a practitioner, for example, considers the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the headroom of a signal. However, this can also be considered a very creative stage since, depending on the equipment being utilised in the signal chain, colour, tone, harmonic resonance and overtones can be added to the sound being captured.

2.Have a vision. Listen to reference tracks and storyboard what you are trying to achieve in terms of the overall production aesthetic. Above all else, try to enjoy the process and, where possible, take your time. Practise, experiment and work with a wide variety of sound sources, styles and musical genres in a variety of spaces.

3.Build upon the basic foundations laid out in this book. This should be achieved by investing time to undertake further study, research and practice.

There is something special about the process and art of recording that is more than just about capturing a sound or a given moment in time, a quality that may be described as organic.

Examining a human performance in detail, for example, taking time to analyse and celebrate all the imperfections and inconsistencies associated with playing an instrument and using the human voice to create a musical experience, will reveal something that is arguably unique. As I often tell my students, some of my favourite records are far from perfect.

I guess we can always debate the limitations and potential pitfalls, and ultimately run the risk of pigeonholing or backing ourselves into a proverbial corner, when attempting to state what constitutes perfection in anything, let alone record production.

Once again, however, rightly or wrongly I find the word is occasionally associated with some modern production tools and techniques when discussing the subject with my students – especially modern tools that can be used for tuning and timing.

My point is that recording in its purest application captures a performance in its natural state, including all the mistakes, and there is something human about this in terms of dynamics and feel. There is also something to said about the way sound is affected in terms of the acoustics within a given space. Again, when one contemplates the randomness of diffuse (uncorrelated) sound there is an aspect of chaos added to a recorded performance in terms of sound waves propagating (transmitting or moving) through a space.

Recording is in some ways an honest process when you look at it from this perspective. Unlike other stages in record production, you do not have to be fixated with staring at a screen and obsessing with the tiniest of edits in order to correct a given sound.

Of course I do recognise, and hope it goes without saying, that when working with musicians and artists playing live it is better to capture the best performance possible and this alone involves many contributing factors. I am not saying, though, that practices such as recording don’t come without their own set of concerns and aspects to become fixated on.

In regards to how room acoustics colour and alter a given sound source, factors such as room reflections, standing waves, and the reverberation characteristic of a given space, can add character to a recording and ultimately a production as a whole (not always favorably).

Whether something sounds good or bad is a matter of taste when it comes to experimenting with recording in various environments.

This book is solely focused on the role of the recording engineer and recording as an art and discipline in its own right. There is no doubt that the various different roles involved within the record production process share some similarities, both in terms of applied theory and practice. Nevertheless, for the sake of clarity I feel it would be prudent to discuss briefly the basic roles and responsibilities of the other stakeholders and practitioners associated with record production. Skilled engineers working with audio also undertake other tasks, of course, such as those who specialise in electronics, developing many of the tools to which we have become accustomed, but that is beyond the range of this book.

You have most likely heard of recording engineers, mix engineers, mastering engineers and assistant engineers. Each of these engineers or specialists, bar the assistant, is normally but not exclusively focused on a very specific discipline, which in turn is associated with specific roles and practices, some of which identify with extremely specialist techniques and delivery systems.

Mastering engineers can, for example, be tasked with cutting to vinyl, half speed or otherwise, and this process has its own set of considerations, including EQ curves, that need to be addressed in order to do the best job possible when translating a finished mix from, most commonly today, a digital format to an analogue, mechanical format.

Some mastering engineers are responsible for restoring old recordings, transferring older sessions for storage and archiving purposes and for remastering. This often includes using old tape machines and other formats and therefore requires specialist knowledge.

Recording engineers working on location have to take into account a different set of factors to those working in a recording studio, such as further understanding of certain principles associated with acoustics. Whereas a recording studio often has treatment to control and sometimes manipulate the sound (acoustics) of a live room (a space for recording housed in the facility), location recordists do not always have the assurance that where they are recording has the same amount of control. In turn certain spaces may present a whole set of problems in relation to how a given sound source will be affected by the acoustic characteristics of the environment in which the practitioners find themselves working.

Recording engineers may be expected to record using techniques and arrays of microphones to capture sound in a manner that is intended to be utilised in a spatial audio or surround sound playback format. This requires the engineer to apply very specialist knowledge in order to work towards a specific brief. The same could be said of mix engineers, whether they are mixing for stereo, surround or other spatial audio delivery systems and formats.

The role of the assistant fluctuates depending on the type of session – recording, mixing or mastering – and the needs of the head engineer.

As briefly touched upon earlier, there are roles and practices that cross over between the different engineering disciplines, such as editing. Whether applied in a corrective (fixing things) or creative manner (normally adding or taking away in order to enhance production), editing can arguably be applied at any point during the chain of events that constitutes the record production process.

We will look at how editing is relevant to the recording process, or more specifically the role of a recording engineer, in the final chapter. All I will say for now is that traditionally, unless otherwise agreed, the recording engineer would be expected to apply any corrective editing in order to get a project ready for the mix engineer. This, though, is only relevant if a mix engineer is required.

Many recording engineers would suggest that a great recording, genre specific, mixes itself and that after suitable microphones have been placed appropriately it is a simple case of balancing and placing the recorded sounds within the listening soundstage.

This is one of the many perks of having access to a great-sounding studio with a decent microphone collection. Studios with well-considered acoustic treatment assist a practitioner in two main ways. Firstly, in a well-designed control room (the room that houses the engineer and recording equipment such as a mixing console, computer and outboard) the engineer can trust what they hear coming from the speakers, and not be worried that the listening environment is being unfavourably coloured by the sound of the room itself via various standing waves (see Glossary) and room reflections.

Similarly, if a live room is treated to control the reverberation characteristic (see Glossary), setting up and placing microphones does not present as many challenges as may arise when working with potentially problematic or unwanted room resonances, although that is arguably one of the more rewarding challenges of working on location or in an environment that has an interesting sound.

THE LISTENING SOUNDSTAGE

When discussing the soundstage in this book, I am not referring to the creation of a specific facility designed for film sound and post-production. In this instance the listening soundstage is concerned with how the listener hears a recorded sound when reproduced over either speakers or headphones. There is some excellent work by Michael Williams in his two-volume Microphone Arrays for Stereo and Multichannel Sound Recording (2004), in which he discusses recording techniques in relation to the creation of virtual sound images, something we will touch upon in Chapter 3.

William Moylan has also published some very interesting and insightful literature, such as his conference paper ‘Considering Space in Music’, published in the Journal on the Art of Record Production (2009), in which he discusses the overall soundstage in relation to dimension and the ‘Perceived Performance Environment’. The individual sound sources within that environment are then considered in terms of location, size and the character of the sound based on the environment. This is something that you should consider in more detail as the book progresses, taking acoustics and psychoacoustics into account.

Acoustics can be considered as the science of sound and the effect a physical space has on a sound generated within that given space. Psychoacoustics is concerned with how we perceive sound when reacting to an auditory stimulus. The latter ties in nicely with the more general interpretation of the listening soundstage, one where it is concerned with the listener conjuring up a three-dimensional space in which all the sound sources can be placed. This can be confusing for many starting out as recording engineers.

From a literal perspective stereo playback, over two speakers for example, only deals with the horizontal plane. It is essentially two-dimensional, so why are we discussing a listening soundstage that has three dimensions?

This is where perception and psychoacoustics play a part. To be fair engineers will often manipulate the listening soundstage during the mixing stage by applying a mixture of spectral (such as EQ, distortion or other tonal processing), spatial (reverberation, echo and delays) and dynamic processing (compression and expansion) to exaggerate, manipulate and control the localisation of a reproduced sound.

The listening soundstage can generally be seen as the perceived placement of sound sources and their size within a given environment from left to right, front to back and top to bottom. Note that the last of these is related to perception unless specific recording and microphone techniques and playback requirements, including speaker configurations, for example, are taken into consideration.

Next time you listen back to any recording try to picture each sound you can hear as a shape. Where does that shape live within the artificial cube we have just described? Where is it placed in terms of the left and right speaker? Is it in the forefront or background, and does it sound as if it is lifting out of the recording or does it sit right in the centre?

Though this book is focused on recording, it is worth taking a look at David Gibson’s book The Art of Mixing: A Visual Guide to Recording, Engineering and Production (Routledge, 2018). This offers a great visual representation of where various sounds may sit within the artificial cube we have just touched upon and which we will refer to as the ‘listening soundstage’.

In relation to the listening soundstage, when listening to recordings over two or more speakers we are often able to close our eyes and picture a sound or sounds between or around the speakers. In such circumstances it is akin to having another speaker. This is referred to as a ‘phantom image’, not in the sense of a ghost haunting your recordings, but rather of an illusion.

With a little know-how, good recording technique and tasteful, measured processing during editing and mixing can enhance these phantom images and add a sense of realism to the listening soundstage. At this point we could also consider manipulating the listening soundstage in order to move away from a sense of realism, but that is a whole other book.

It is also worth mentioning that the listening soundstage in terms of a finished mixed and mastered product is not static. Sounds are dynamic, and there is movement. Dynamics can be considered as more than just the difference between quiet and loud phrases or moments in an arrangement. There is also a concept of spatial dynamics.

As was suggested earlier, mixes are often akin to telling a story in which movement and dynamic changes in tone, level and space convey a sense of drama and emotion. When considering recording and how sound is reproduced we are not always dealing with stereophonic sound, and so discussing it in terms of a listening soundstage can be a more open-ended way to picture the size and placement of a given sound beyond the stereo image to which many of us are accustomed. Arguably, however, a well-considered speaker set-up for stereophonic playback in a treated space or room with favourable acoustics can generate all sorts of perceived images that can appear to transcend a sense of depth and width.

1

AN INTRODUCTION TO MICROPHONES

Sound is both a sensation associated with the scientific school of psychoacoustics and a stimulus (acoustics and physics). The former is associated with how we perceive sound when it reaches our ears, the latter is arguably more of an obvious concern when it comes to the literal side of capturing sound as it pertains to sound as a wave motion within different mediums, such as how sound waves propagate within air.

Specialist microphones such as hydrophones are used to capture sound travelling through other elastic mediums, such as water. Here, however, we will be focusing on how microphones are used in several ways to capture and take a reading of the change in air pressure caused by an acoustic instrument, the human voice or any other device used to create and amplify what we ultimately hear as a sound worth recording.

The air pressure in the immediate vicinity is disturbed every time we open our mouths to speak, hit a drum or pluck the string on a guitar. Though technically the air is never at rest, an action such as hitting a drum will disturb the air molecules in a manner similar to the motion of a spring. The air does not move, rather the molecules will oscillate, or in more simple terms vibrate backwards and forwards, like a spring, disturbing the air molecules around them.

This basic disturbance between a point of rest or equilibrium and the subsequent inertia of air molecules moving backwards and forwards is considered as a simple harmonic motion and often visualised as a sine wave.

This motion of the air molecules oscillating is periodic and sound waves are generally measured in how many cycles a second these periodic displacements of the air molecules take place per second. These cycles are measured in Hertz (Hz) and the resulting figure is often referred to as the frequency. At this stage it is worth noting that frequency, an objective measurement of a periodic signal, and pitch, a subjective expression based on the perception of a tone, are very different.

There are many other comparable or analogous factors that are in reality very different when it comes to understanding sound, such as loudness and intensity. The former is considered a sensation and is again very subjective. In reality, understanding sound is a complex subject and there are many aspects to consider.

Sound propagation pertains in part to the compression and rarefaction (high and low pressure) of the oscillating air molecules as they vibrate backwards and forwards. However, it is also related to how sound waves travel and are altered by a given space. This subject is something we will be considering in terms of how the acoustics of a given space can impact upon the choices a recording engineer makes when approaching capturing a sound or performance.

If you are interested in undertaking further reading and learning more about the science of sound and how we perceive sound, I would highly recommend reading F. Alton Everest and Ken C. Pohlmann‘s Master Handbook of Acoustics (McGraw Hill, 7th edn 2021).

WHAT IS A MICROPHONE?

Whether recording an orchestra, wheelie bins as percussion instruments or capturing the sound of seagulls for a song while sitting on the roof of a studio at the request of an artist – yes, this happened – capturing sound in the acoustic domain, the natural world or, more specifically in relation to lots of modern production approaches, ‘outside of the box’ generally requires the use of some sort of microphone.

A common factor that links all microphones, even though they come in many shapes and sizes, boasting varied specifications and characteristics that can help inform our decision making when approaching capturing a given acoustic sound source, is that they work by converting one source of energy into another. A change in air pressure or more simply, a variation in sound pressure taking place in the vicinity of a microphone’s diaphragm, creates a measurable, though minute, alternating voltage. A microphone is in essence a transducer.

How this change in air pressure is converted into a measurable change in voltage, effectively attempting to mirror the original pressure changes taking place within the vicinity of a given sound source, varies depending on the operating principle of the given microphone. There are three main types of microphones that you are most likely come across when recording:

•Condenser (capacitor) microphones, sometimes referred to as ‘true’ or ‘electret’ condenser microphones

•Dynamic (moving coil) microphones

•Ribbon microphones.

All of these types come in different shapes, sizes and styles of encasing, for example, offering a wide variety of options in terms of specifications, and how these may influence a practitioner’s decision-making is something we will look at in later chapters.

I often hear people refer to microphones as resembling the human ear, especially when discussing how various microphones hear different tones. Microphones indeed have very individual ‘frequency responses’, which is simply how a microphone responds to a given frequency or, more accurately, frequencies within the agreed human hearing range of 20Hz to 20kHz. These frequency responses alternate depending on various factors and this can work in a practitioner’s favour depending on the application, something that will again become more apparent as we progress.

I would suggest, however, that it is misleading to compare microphones to the human ear. Unless specialist considerations are taken into account when setting up for recording and playback, microphones alone do not generally provide the listener with a sense of realism in terms of capturing a natural soundstage.

Many of the colleagues I have been fortunate to work with have always preferred the idea that microphones are more like different drawing tools or paintbrushes, especially when we associate tone with colour and the recording medium becomes the canvas on which we are painting. Does that mean a recordist or recording engineer should ask themselves what is it they are trying to paint?

Placing just any microphone in front of a given sound source will not capture the audio in a manner that allows the listener to hear the same sound as one would hear it in the natural world or attain a true sense of realism.

Stereo microphone techniques can provide decent localisation in terms of where a given sound source is placed within the listening soundstage. Such recordings can provide a sense of width and depth, but for a more realistic, natural-sounding recording the recordist must take periphony, sound with height, into consideration.

If we understand this from the outset, then how a practitioner utilises a microphone is more down to personal taste. Do we like the sound we have captured or not? Does it sound good on the record and is the sound you have captured suitable for the production aesthetic you are trying to attain as a whole?

The production aesthetic in this sense is simply the overall mood or style of sound you are trying to emulate or create. One example of a production aesthetic is that some recordings sound very intimate and close, whereas others are very open, expansive or possibly even distant. There are, of course, increments in between and recordings that mix various techniques and create hybrid soundstages by blending many different recorded environments. In regard to the latter, a recording engineer working in different environments should also consider how sound will be altered and coloured based on the acoustics of the space they are working in, taking into account its ‘reverberation characteristic’ (see Glossary).

A good place to start with any microphone is to experiment with its placement. Again, this is something we will look at in more detail in later chapters, but for now let us simplify how a microphone can be positioned in relation to the sound source you wish to capture. The microphone will either be placed close to a given sound source (sometimes referred to as direct positioning) or placed at a distance (sometimes called ambient). Of course, that is fairly vague and I would suggest that you start by wearing a pair of headphones and experiment by placing the microphone either close to the sound source or at a distance. Move the microphone until you like what you hear and try to identify what is it you particularly like about the sound you are recording.

I must admit, however, that many professional practitioners struggle to articulate verbally what it is they like about a specific sound, at least in what can be considered a universal language. You will often hear engineers and producers refer to a sound being dark or having lift, air, sparkle and so on. Delving into the language associated with describing sound, though, could be a whole other book.

One microphone alone can capture a sense of depth. Indeed, a single microphone from a distance will allow the listener to gauge the size of the space you are recording in to a certain degree. Localising where a sound source is placed within that given space is a different matter entirely and requires stereographic information within the recorded signal.

Although stereo recording, localisation and stereophonic/stereographic images will be covered in the next chapter, for now I would recommend listening to the recordings posted on YouTube in the excellent ‘OneMic – the minimalist recording series’ in which, as the title infers, a stereo microphone is set up in a room with controlled or interesting, usable acoustics. The musicians are all provided with the exact same headphone mix (foldback) and either the musicians themselves or the recording engineers position the performers in a manner that acts as a fader and a panner. The former depends on how upfront and loud the performers are within the listening soundstage, while the latter relates to where they are positioned in terms of where the sources can be heard from left to right.

More of this will make sense when we discuss various techniques and examine the basic theoretical concepts that underpin such practice.

Most people arguably still listen in mono or mainly stereo when it comes to ingesting music alone, so I will focus on methodology, techniques and thinking based on that premise.

We will look in more detail at how we hear, measure and process sound in Chapter 4 as such considerations can be helpful in understanding how and why various techniques are used by a given practitioner when approaching a particular type of recording.

For now, let’s take a look at how sound works and how microphones operate and function in the process of capturing sound.

Modern recording can be broken up into three principal stages: the physical, the electrical and the digital. When recording the human voice or an acoustic instrument, for example, the first stage involves the given sound source or sources being able to disturb the pressure of the medium in which it is being situated. For the most part this is air (as opposed to water, for example) and therefore we are dealing with a change in air pressure, kinetic energy more specifically, and to convert this type of energy into an energy that we can control and harness in a more practical way the microphone, a mechanical device, acts as a transducer converting a change in pressure to a variable electrical current. Once we have the reading of a sound source as an electrical signal, we can amplify the signal and re-route it via cables to various electrical devices for a plethora of reasons, one of which is to digitise the electrical signals via converters.

Converters have two primary functions: to convert an analogue signal (namely the electrical) to digital (AD stage) ‘1s’ and zeros’, and then the digital back to analogue (DA stage).

To return to the initial change in air pressure, when you hit a drum, pluck a guitar string or indeed use your voice box and mouth to create sound you are disturbing the pressure of the air in that vicinity. The form of energy you are creating a disturbance within is technically referred to as ‘confined kinetic energy’.

Depending on how loud the sound is, or rather how much sound pressure is generated by a given source, will have impact on how loud we hear and in turn perceive a sound source to be.

Room acoustics, or how a room sounds and impacts upon a said sound in simpler terms, will also change in part due to these sound pressure levels (SPLs).