7/29/2019 Recording Course Outline

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RECORDING TECHNIQUES WEEKEND COURSE

This course aims are to help students make informed choices regarding the rightmics for their recording situations and get the best from their equipment and liverooms. Students will receive many hints and tips from a practical perspective from

industry professionals who specialise in live band and acoustic recordings. There willalso be a demonstration of a full drum kit multi miced recording.

Structure & Content: Day 1

Session 1: 10:00 - 11:45

Introduction, interconnections, basic requirements for recording (cables, pre-amps, phantom power, audio interfaces, some simple setups e.g. vocals,drums, acoustic guitar, 4 piece band in one room etc.

Session 2: 12:00 - 13:45

Theory of sound as relevant to digital recording (especially A-D converters,sample rate, bit depth, clock source), live room design and making the best ofthe acoustic space you have.

Session 3: 14:30 16:15

Microphone design: Dynamic moving coil, ribbon. Condenser/capacitor,valve, electret. Basic electronics as applied in microphone design.

Microphone directional characteristics: Omni, figure of 8, cardioid,

hypercardioid, pressure zone/gun Choosing the right mic: Design types compared, understanding mic specs

e.g. frequency responses graphs/sensitivity

Session 4: 16:30 - 18:00

Approaches to recording: Session preparation, click tracks, count off, pre andpost roll, punching in and out, destructive and non-destructive recording,creating a tempo map prior to recording. Laying one performance at a timeand overdubbing (takes and playlists, and comping). Input only monitoringand auto-input monitoring. Recording whole performances or in sections andloops. Dealing with performers, recording the perfect take or knowing what tofix in the mix.

7/29/2019 Recording Course Outline

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Structure & Content: Day 2

Session 5: 10.00 - 11.45

Microphone techniques: close, stereo (AB, XY, ORTF, MS, Blumlein,Binaural/Dummy head), ambient/room micing, multi-micing.

Microphone manufacturers, their current ranges, classic mics and theirapplications

Session 6: 12.00 - 13.45

Mic techniques for specific instruments: vocals, acoustic guitars, drums,amped guitars, pianos, bass, percussion, strings, brass.

Headphone monitoring, setting up separate cue mixes for differentperformers, solo modes when recording.

I/O setups, latency, CPU, DSP and buffer sizes. Monitoring with plug-insactive (e.g. Elec guitar to DI input with amp plug-in, and effects on)

Session 7: 14:30 16:15

Practical demo: acoustic guitar and vocal, multi-miced drums

Session 8 : 16:30 18:00

Practical demo: multi-miced drums (cont.)

Prerequisites

A basic understanding of music technology is desirable. If in doubt you may wish tothink about taking our 1-day Music Technology Crash Course.

Pricing

This course costs 400We require a 100 registration fee upon application and the balance of the fee twoweeks before the course start date.

How do I enrol?

To enrol on this course you will need to complete and return a short courseapplication form with the course registration fee (see pricing). The balance of the feeis required two weeks before the course start date.

For general assistance and course availability, please contact Alchemeas RegistrarTony Garston on +44 (0) 20 7359 3986 or email info@alchemea.com