Recording Studio User`s Manual
Contents
1. Recording Studio Users Manual Table of Contents Table of Contents OTOU ODE V Section 1 Equipment and Preparation coccoccnccnccnncnccnncnnnnnnnios 1 Hardware EQuipMe nt ccccceccecceccecsseeseeseeseeseeseeseeseesesees 3 Software EQUIDIM GNC ans 7 Important Precautions ana au 9 Section 2 Setup and Recording ccoccccccccccnccnccncnncnncnanoncnaconicanonons 11 Setting UD the Hara Ware nis 12 Software and RecordiNg occocccccccccnccncnnnnnccncnnannacnaconcnannninos 14 Section 3 Mixing and Production ocoocccccccnccncnncnncnanoninnccncnannnins 19 Mixing and Mastering occoccoccoccnccncnnnnncnncnccncnnnnnnnnconcnanonananos 21 Finalizing and Burning to Media oocccccccnccncnncnncnnnnncnannninnins 24 A A eS Introduction Introduction Welcome Dear reader thank you for choosing Panhandle House Recording for your studio recording and production This manual is designed to teach artists like yourself how to utilize our state of the art studio to record and produce your own professional quality recordings We believe that we can save you money and allow you more freedom during your hours n the studio by letting you use the equipment yourself rather than pay extra for a recording engineer to run 1t for you However the responsibility of utilizing our equipment comes with several serious risks both to our company and to your safety and quality of recording so it 1s imperative2. Section 1 Equipment and Preparation It s your choice which software you decide to record with However f you have no experience with ProTools we recommend ACID as you will have a much easier time quickly learning the interface For this reason we will not cover ProTools in this manual The basic instructions for using ACID Pro can be found in Section 3 of this manual Important Precautions gt bb gt gt PD gt Do not bring food or drink into the studio Do not bend twist or stand on cables Do not enable the monitor speakers or master out unless the mixer channels you are using stay in the green Do not interface your own recording equipment with ours unless it is specifically to produce a certain sound for recording This is mostly to preserve the quality of your recording Do not attempt to reassemble move or alter equipment other than the mics The equipment is already setup and configured for easy professional recording and does not need to be changed Do not install your own software into the computer The only exception to this is if you require a certain VST that we do not carry Do not change to hardware mastering controls unless you absolutely know what you are doing Doing this even slightly incorrectly will completely ruin recording quality and can even potentially damage equipment Do not allow any volume controls to be active unless they are being used If you encounter any problems do not he
3. find the source of the dynamic volume change and either use an envelope or alter the track volume to lower the hot track Ideally you want the master soft mixer to be overall as loud as possible without ever going over the green If you go over the green you risk clipping which is very bad If you have trouble achieving this ask one of our recording engineers to help you with soft mastering While ACID Pro is capable of this 1t 1s too detailed and complicated to outline in this manual Compile and Burn When you are satisfied with your final track be sure to position the start of the track at the beginning of the mixing window To compile save and burn 1 Click File gt Save As and then name your project file This file is the actual project you are working with and s necessary 1f you ever need to reopen the project 2 Click File gt Render As This window allows you to compile compress and render your track to an actual audio file such as mp3 or WAV You may choose from a number of audio file types to render to For general listening and CD recording purposes mp3 1s recommended The higher the kbps the higher quality the file will have 320 kbps s recommended as it will give you the best quality basic mp3 file However if you wish to put a lot of songs on a single CD 256 kbps or even 128 kbps might be better because it is a smaller file size Click OK to render 3 You may now use a CD burning program such as Windows M
4. 0 ACID Pro 7 0 All Programs gt IM ASIO4ALL v2 7 Magiciso 2 When the program starts choose File gt New and enter the information you would like to be saved such as track title artist etc You do not have to setup the audio settings as they are already configured Untitled ACID Pro 7 0 File Edit View Insert Tools Options Help 3 For ease of use begin by disabling the loop feature by moving the loop bar to the start of the project Br Arne El 4 4 If you decide to use a metronome while recording highly recommended make sure you set the BPM in the ACID interface to equal the BPM of the metronome Do this by simply double clicking on the BPM and typing in the new one iu 120 000 U A AA BPM A BPM 4 Project Tempo 5 To the left of the mixing window right click in the open space and select Insert Audio Track You will do this every time you want to record a new track to mix You may have as many tracks as necessary 16 10 Recording Manual Li Lk YU 1 1 E Open Ctr o Insert Audio Track ctr Insert MINI Track Ctrl alta At this time go back to your mixer and set the master volume to unity displayed by a U on the volume control This will enable sound to pass from the mixer to the computer unaltered Now on the control for the Track you just created click Arm for Record the icon with two conce
5. 0 Though ProTools is more widely used we highly recommend using the ACID Pro software The loop based interface is intuitive the engine is professional and the software works with real hardware rather than require special computer controlled hardware ACID Pro offers ReWire support VST chaining and mastering quality tempo and pitch alteration Soft synth and bus management and more Recording Manual oe amp EF hemn Sb SW 4 en 312 olc PR MEA OF gt Collection 6 Dance 2009 Vist pctrecords gt aros A MoengConsole stji Dr pq de A 2 Adam Metropolis Original Hix 1996 vist pctrecords ned del m t ju Preview BB 00 Y 12 2 046MB Record Time 2 channels 192 20 05 Figure 5 Sony ACID Pro interface e Digidesign ProTools The most widely used interface for digital recording ProTools offers roughly the same control and features that ACID does However ProTools is a bit harder to use most professional studios require a certification and requires special computer controlled hardware specifically designed to be used with ProTools Though this guarantees perfect software to hardware control we believe that quality of recording and hardware control is better achieved with real professional hardware which you cannot use with ProTools DA AMA POC a 0 i t t Figure 6 Digidesign ProTools interface
6. ITOR C R SOURCE MAIN MIX ru ROOM SUBMIX MAIN MIX Figure 2 Diagram of mixer volume control and LED monitor Section 1 Equipment and Preparation 5 Mics Omnidirectional Subcardioid Cardioid be APA Figure 3 Dynamic condenser and drum mics left to right and their respective directional receptions We have several types of microphones available for use in our studio For those who are unfamiliar on the subject there are three main types of microphones for use in musical recording and performance Dynamic Condenser and drum mics e Condenser microphones are much more delicate and expensive but provide much clearer and much more sensitive recording capabilities In addition the Condenser mics usually record in a cardioid or sub cardioid shown in Figure 3 direction which means stereo recording 1s an option For recording purposes a condenser mic is generally preferable in almost every situation They are harder to setup but provide much clearer sound e Dynamic microphones are the standard stage mic They are almost always omnidirectional Fig 3 which for our purposes means unable to record in stereo and are sturdier and allow for high gain before feedback The only situations in which a dynamic mic would be preferable for recording are when recording directly from an amp with lots of distortion and effects or if recording the entire band in one take as the dynamic mic is less sensitive it w
7. as well as any preparations and precautions necessary before you begin Hardware Equipment Mixer 2 SAN 3 GAN 4 GAIN ARA Gps SER AN BEN i HH ay Co i Ale Du ml a a F OK N a o O ital a SR Gy ao ale O ae Jie 5 mm I OR B Qi m me er gt 0 cay KO PAN PAN PAN PAN PAI 7 e alan gt RN LARN LARA NV ap nn Figure 1 Mixer Our studio uses several professional digital 16 track recording mixers with mastering racks complete with EQ compressor limiter and gate with a monitoring booth offering high definition sound If you already know how to use the mastering rack options feel free to master your sound as you see fit But since you probably aren t a recording engineer we preset all the mastering rack options to produce the best quality sound The mixer will be preset with 12 channels and mics ready for you to use In order to get a channel ready to record you simply setup the corresponding mic to your instrument amplifier or vocalist and adjust the volume control as shown in figure 2 The ideal recording volume is to make the volume loud enough to get Recording Manual sound but quiet enough to avoid clipping The green LED monitoring bars will display the input volume If the volume is too loud the higher up yellow and f even louder red LEDs will light up As long as you keep the volume in the green you will avoid clipping AUX 1 PRE A POST Y ALIX 1 EFX TO SELECT MON
8. edia Player to burn your rendered file to an audio CD Index i Index B ste lll 23 A A ue emacaai on aaa aut nace ane rancas eae 6 CONDI Eea ee a E 7 14 Disrdestonbro LOO ann ee ee keit 8 Disttal Audio Workstation DAW erse A ies 7 A O 22 adie Edo acid tdi dad 22 Far Wwar es samen een E 3 MELON uo 21 VS O RN 5 13 A A 3 13 O ee a a do 21 NA re ee RE EEE et REES 6 MONOS AO O a ad 22 NAC 21 Pieeatt ons a ado 9 RESTAN AO eS 22 A ee ee RE ee tua unc ne Se ss se 7 14 SOltware Mixer A een ae ans laleieeen 22 SONY ACID A er ee Ne 7 Tab OL CONS SN DES eS 111
9. ered in the next Section Section 3 Mixing and Production Section 3 Mixing and Production 21 Section 3 Mixing and Production This section covers the software mixing and mastering of recorded tracks as well as how to compile the final track and burn it to a CD or DVD Software Mixing and Mastering Sony ACID Pro 7 0 Track Editing This section is meant to outline the tools for basic recorded track editing in ACID Pro in an instructional manner It is not a reference section and as such will only cover the basics NOTE ACID supports many advanced features such as VST chaining Re Wire and more If you are familiar with these features feel free to use them but they are not necessary for basic professional quality recording e Interface Navigation Use the scrollbars to navigate through track time and all of your audio tracks Use the and Zoom buttons to zoom in and out of the track window vertically or horizontally ujala ET Zoom In Time pl Ill e The Metronome Use the metronome while recording to monitor the BPM of the track To enable the metronome click the Metronome button While active it will play a click for every quarter of a measure To turn it off just click the button again 22 Recording Manual ME HM FR Metronome Moving Audio Simply click and drag the track to the position you want to move an audio track Resizing Audio Move the cursor to the edge of
10. ill pick up less background noise e Drum mics are dynamic mics that are specifically made to record different drum sounds They are setup in different areas around the drum set and generally have less sensitivity than regular dynamic mics These mics are also almost always omnidirectional as each is only meant to pick up one sound Monitor Speakers Recording Manual The 2 speakers n the monitoring booth provide crystal clear monitoring of your input The monitor speakers are a booth out channel from the mixer meaning that you may select which channels to monitor though it is usually set to monitor total output These speakers will let you hear the input channels before you record Another set of smaller speakers allow for editing and mixing These 2 speakers simply run from the master out from the computer which allows for the source to be altered in virtual mixers Headphones in the recording room are also run from the master out of the computer for syncing purposes Cables The two types of cables our mixer supports are XLR and quarter inch Fig 4 XLR provide the highest and sturdiest transfer of sound while quarter inch cables are smaller and necessary for instrument hookup All of our mics use XLR output and you will want to use XLR cables in almost every situation unless directly recording from an instrument or interface NOTE Only use BALANCED quarter inch cables If using your own quarter inch make sure that they are
11. ill record the source very sensitively in stereo NOTE Be sure to remember which mic corresponds to which channel on the mixer You may want to write down this information or multitrack recording could become confusing Setting up the Mixer First make sure all volume levels Fig 8 on the mixer especially the master are turned all the way down and then turn on the power At this point start turning up your first channel while making sound in the corresponding mic If the LEDs start lighting up you have a signal Since by default the monitor speakers are set to unity and all channels are enabled for monitoring you should begin hearing the signal from the mic through the speakers Adjust the volume to make sure the 14 Recording Manual s gnal never exceeds the green Congratulations you have just setup your first channel for recording Simply repeat these steps for any additional tracks you want to record Figure 8 Mixer Controls Software and Recording Setting up the Computer Turn on the Computer When Windows boots up you may choose which software you wish to use In this manual we will outline our recommendation Sony ACID Pro The following are step by step instructions to get ready to record with ACID Using the Software Recording 1 Goto Start gt All Programs gt Sony gt ACID Pro 7 gt ACID Pro 7 to start ACID Section 2 Setup and Recording 15 E Adobe Stock Photos CS3 DJ Sony aco pro 7
12. lete if it was a bad take rename if you want to name the file something like Bass Take 1 or Vocals Verse 2 or done if you don t care about the naming and just want to save 1t If you had multiple tracks armed for recording you will be prompted to save a file for each track Recorded Files Ci Documents and Settings Samy Documents ACID Pro 7 0 Pro a Track 1 Sway Delete All Show after every recording session NOTE It s recommended that you name all of your tracks It s very easy to get confused later on when you have many many tracks all over the place You will now see a representation of the audio you just recorded in the track you created Congratulations you now know how to record audio tracks You may continue this process by repeating the steps above creating as many new tracks as you need You may hear what you ve recorded by pressing Play Hotkey Spacebar NOTE If you have previously recorded to a track the track remains Armed for Record and while recording the position bar passes over the existing audio t WILL be overwritten You may use this to overwrite unsatisfactory takes but be careful not to do this accidentally Always remember to unarm any tracks you do not want to record to before hitting record 18 Recording Manual 13 You may now manipulate many aspects of these tracks including position tempo volume pan chopping and more This editing phase will be cov
13. ntric red circles WM 00 t 0 Out You should now see a signal being passed to the computer represented by a digital version of the LED monitors This means the track is ready to record NOTE Since we are using the simple ACID interface and for the purposes of this manual the computer only has one recording input The master out of the hardware mixer This means that when you record to a track in ACID you will be recording every active track in the mixer at the time so be sure that you have all channels turned down except the ones you are using before each recording take Move the flashing position bar to the point where you wish to begin recording your track NOTE When you start getting tracks recorded you may want to position the bar ahead of the actual recording spot to give the performer a measure or two to monitor the existing sounds to get the timing right Now get your sound source or performer ready with metronome or headphone monitors countdown and click Record The position bar will move across the screen at the tempo you set while recording the master out to any audio tracks with Arm for Record enabled Section 2 Setup and Recording 17 11 12 En a ellei pe gt iEn HOFI ctrecords Record Ctrl F Simply click Record again to stop recording At this point you will be prompted to save the audio file you just recorded You may either choose de
14. sitate to contact one of our staff to assist you Section 2 Setup and Recording Section 2 Setup and Recording 13 Section 2 Setup and Recording This section will outline step by step instructions for how to setup the equipment and software and begin recording Setting up the Hardware Getting Ready to Record Before setting up any studio equipment begin by moving any of your equipment such as instruments drum sets amps and effects etc into the studio If using one of our large recording rooms you may move all equipment into the room If using our smaller single size recording rooms only keep the equipment you are using during each take n the room so as not to disturb the acoustics Setting up the Mics First decide which mics you will be using for each instrument or voice Then assemble these using the corresponding micstands provided in the studio If recording a drum set assemble the drum mics around the drum set as shown in the drum mic set manual which will be provided with the mics If recording vocals it is recommended to use a condenser mic with a voice screen Use condenser mics for other instruments as well unless recording directly from a distorted amp or for a band playing simultaneously In these cases use a dynamic When setting up mics position them roughly 6 inches away from the sound source NOTE For condenser mics be certain they are facing towards the sound source The cardioid pickup range w
15. that you read this manual thoroughly before proceeding to record Please take the time to read through the manual before considering using our record yourself feature If you decide for any reason that you would prefer to have one of our recording engineers ass st you we will be more than happy to oblige NOTE In order to use the equipment yourself 1t s almost imperative that you have more than one person present during each session Though it 1s possible to manage and record simultaneously with only one person it can be extremely tedious and unpredictable The Sections of this Manual This manual includes the following e Section 1 Equipment and Preparation This chapter describes all of the available equipment and software we carry at the studio It also contains important safety information regarding the proper use of the equipment and steps to take before you get started e Section 2 Setup and Recording This chapter contains step by step instructions to setup the equipment start the software and begin recording e Section 3 Mixing and Production This chapter explains how to mix and master your tracks to produce the best quality recording as well as how to encode and burn your files onto the media of your choice Section 1 Equipment and Preparation Section 1 Equipment and Preparation 3 Section 1 Equipment and Preparation This section covers the hardware and software you will be using during your sessions
16. the balanced not the unbalanced type Figure 4 1llustrates this Figure 4 The two lines on the tip of the quarter inch cable show that it is balanced If there is only one line then it is unbalanced Section 1 Equipment and Preparation 7 Software Equipment Computer Our studio only uses PC Windows systems Contrary to popular belief Mac computers are neither the best for music and audio nor the necessary platform for the software In fact PC systems are more flexible perform better allow more control of computer functions are generally easier to use and support many more software options including Mac software than Mac systems do And since PCs are eas ly upgradable our computers are comprised of the latest very powerful hardware configurations to offer the best performance and sound quality The master out of the mixer goes to the main audio input of the computer All you have to do is set your channel levels press record on the computer and start playing Digital Audio Workstation DAW A digital audio workstation 1s a kind of software providing a digital interface designed for recording editing and mixing audio Examples of DAWs are Logic ProTools ACID Pro Cubase Reason and many more Our studio is equipped with a variety of options when it comes to software and each offers certain advantages For the purpose of this manual and your recording session only two options are necessary e Sony ACID Pro 7
17. the track until the resize icon appears then click and drag to make the track longer or to crop it shorter Track Audio Software Mixer Use the volume controls on the left of the track window to alter the volume of each track Use the master volume slider at the bottom to change the master out Fading Edges Move the cursor to the top right or top left corner of a track until you see the fade icon Click and drag toward the middle of the track to fade the edges in or out Section 3 Mixing and Production 23 e Volume Pan Envelopes To pan tracks make them move to the left or right speaker in stereo or to use changing volume levels use the envelope tool Right click on a track then click Insert Remove Envelope gt Volume or Pan Pitch Shift Insert Remove Envelope Fa Automation Envelopes Quick Fade Edges Reverse You may now adjust your track s volume pan envelope Double click on the blue line to create envelope points then click and drag these to adjust your volume pan Volume at 2 4 000 is 7 7 dB Recording Manual Finalizing the Project and Burning to Media Final Track When you have finished recording editing and positioning your audio listen to your final track several times through This will help you be sure there are no mistakes or issues before you compile While doing this watch the soft mixer to make sure the monitor never goes above the green If 1t does you may want to
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