Recording Sound - Microphone Choice [Part 1]

Recording Sound - Microphone Choice [Part 1]

So you want to record something. Where do you start? As you will already know, the process all starts with a sound occurring and one or several microphones picking up that sound. However, it isn't as simple as having any old microphone; there are many different types for lots of different applications. The choice of microphone you make can have a huge effect on how a sound records. In this post, I’ll go over the different microphones that are available and tips to choosing the right one for your sound.

Before I go into specifics, a little education. Most commonly, there are 2 types of microphone: Dynamic and Condenser. Each of these types bring their own uses, depending on what you’re recording:

Dynamic Microphone

Dynamic: Most common in music production and live performance, dynamic microphones use a magnet (c) and a coil (b) to pick up the sound. The way in which this is achieved is by having a diaphragm (a) attached to the coil, which surrounds the magnet. As sound waves hit the diaphragm, the coil moves back and forth over the magnet, creating a small voltage. This current is the sent down the cable (d) and converted to a sound signal used by the recording interface.

As this setup involves a magnet and coil, the movement is restricted and therefore only allows a certain dynamic range, which in turn distorts the frequency response. All be it, this is not so much a bad thing. In fact, these features are more often than not useful, which makes them very popular for recording drums, guitar amps and live vocals (the restriction allows less spill to occur from guitar and drums).

A good example of a Dynamic microphone is the SM57. This microphone is perfect for recording a snare drum, as the capsule can handle the high volumes, as well as the complimentary frequency response (right) which is boosted at around 6-7kHz, giving a nice zing to the sound. However, the response dives at approximately 15kHz, meaning the airy frequencies of a vocal or cymbals on a drum kit are not represented. This is where the condenser microphone is brought into use.

Condenser: What makes this microphone type stand out against the others is it's sensitivity. It's able to pick up and therefore represent higher frequencies much more accurately. The way in which it does this is by removing the magnet all together and instead having 2 plates (a+b) with a voltage between them. One of the plates is used as the diaphragm (a). When this plate moves, the voltage between each plates varies, which in turn gives a variable signal that can be used to convert to a sound signal.

As the voltage created between these plates is minute, an input voltage (c) is needed to boost the signal (regulated with a resistor (d)). Generally, you'll see this extra voltage boost on an interface or mixing desk as Phantom Power, or 48v for short. However, some microphones have the ability to use a small battery inside the microphone to provide this.

AKG C414 Frequency Response [source:recordinghacks.com]

A good example of a Condenser microphone is the AKG C414. This particular microphone is a staple in any professional studio, which provides recording for anything from vocals to drum cymbals, foley for a film sound track, brass instruments, guitar and bass amplifiers, acoustic guitars... the list goes on. As you can see from the frequency response, the higher end isn't dipped at all; in fact, it's provided with a lift to encourage those airy frequencies that a dynamic microphone would otherwise lose out on.

There are many more types of microphone that are used throughout the sound industry, including Ribbon, Electrostatic, Fibreoptic and so on. However, as I won't have access to these other types (purely down to budget), I won't be covering them in these first batch of posts. Hopefully in the future when I do get my hands on them (especially the Ribbon mics), I'll have a good go over with them and the advantages they provide.

Recording Types - Conclusion: The above explains (for the most part) how these types of microphones work and a couple of example of what they can be used for. In the next post, I'll go into more detail of how each microphone type can have a wide variety of shapes and sizes, as well as the varying polar patterns at which sound is recorded relative to the microphone.

Thanks for reading!

Alex.

Sound, Mixing and Implementation - Here's What's Coming Your Way

I think I've started off this blog on a bit of a mysterious foot.

Firstly, I haven't really let into to who I am or where I came from with Sound itself, let alone Sound Design and Game Audio. I mean, I have a great passion for it but I haven't been posting much. What's with that?

Here's where I've got some plans: I want to go through the stuff I've learned over the past 3 or 4 years in terms of Sound and Music itself, rather than jumping in the deep end. I know plenty of people out there who really want to learn the ins and outs of Game Audio, but I think there's a knowledge of Sound that needs to be shown first. So here's how I plan on doing it:

1. Recording Sound: In order to get the best sound for your project (be it a game or film or even a song), the first step is correct recording technique. You'll find you can usually get quite a lot out of not much at all!

• Picking the Correct Microphone: This isn't so much a "You should get AKG rather than Rode". It's more of a "This sound is bassy, use a Large Diaphragm microphone" or "Vocals are very dynamic, you should use a condenser rather than a dynamic mic". Remember: if it sounds good, it doesn't matter how you recorded it!
• Microphone Placement and Gain: I'll go through some basic tips to use when recording a variety of sources. This is truly the most important aspect of recording. If you get the placement and gain level just right, you can get a lot more out of your sound.
• Experiment!: The BEST thing about sound is that you can go wild from start to finish. I'll go through some interesting things that I've experimented with and then do a bit of image association (fun game to play on relatives and friends!).

2. Sound Editing and Mixing: Now you've got your sound, what will you do with it? Here, I'll go over some different aspects of mixing, including a piece of music that our band Spacebats recorded and how I tackled it in the mixing stage.

• Simple Editing: When recording sounds, you tend to have a lot of other sounds you didn't want to capture. Here, I'll go through simple techniques on getting rid of those and optimisng your sounds ready for their use in a production.
• Simple EQ and Compression: The next step with any sound is to make sure it's heard. Not all recorded sounds are perfect, especially with say drums that have a resonance. You may also have a peak that needs to be brought down, or a note that needs to be held longer. All will be demonstrated here.
• Mixing a Sound - The Bigger Picture: One mistake a lot of people make is to take a sound and run with it; on it's own. This is a big problem, especially if you do a lot of destructive editing. I'll discuss the implications of editing and mixing with regards to the overall production and how one sound will inevitably affect another.
• Mixing Sound - Drums/Percussive Sounds: In any production, you'll have percussive sounds, which include such things as punching, gun shots and explosions. Certain techniques are needed to bring out the body of the sound but also keep the peaks from being too sharp. However, it all depends on the production, so I'll go over a few outcomes you may want.
• Mixing Sound - Bringing Out the Invisible: Much like images taken with a camera, there are artifacts in a sound that you can bring out that you didn't even know were there when shown to the naked ear. I'll show how you can capture a sound and enhance it in such a way that you get more out of it (in a good way).
• Mixing Sound - Musical Instruments: When mixing a song, the instruments tend to take up the body of the mix, meaning constant sound rather than short punchy sections such as drums. This is where it's very important to flex your EQ and compression skills to make sure they all sit snugly together, rather than each fighting for volume or frequencies.
• Mixing Sound - Vocals: As the voice is quite a dynamic tool, I thought I'd devote a single post to it. Here, I'll go over the different kinds of techniques to sit vocals on different styles of music, using a hard rock song and a softer acoustic song.
• Mixing Sound - Extras (Delays/Reverb etc): When you're mixing a song, you've also got to think about any extra bits you'll want, such as the environment you're simulating, or delays for effect. Here I'll show some examples and how overdoing it can be a bit of a disaster.
• Mixing Sound - Experiment Again!: With computers coming on so much, it's SOO easy to use plugins and other simple yet effective techniques to create something worlds away from the original sound. Here, I'll only be able to touch the surface of what's possible, but it should give a good idea!

3. Implementation for Games - UDK: You already know I use UDK, so why not show off what I know in there? This won't necessarily be about sound quality (to start off with). Instead, I'll go over getting your sounds from being recorded to being implemented and triggered in different ways.

• UDK Audio - Exporting Your Sounds: As game development is all about optimisation, audio is no different. Using Adobe Audition, I'll show how to make sure sounds are as high a quality for as little a footprint on memory.
• UDK Audio - Importing Sound and Naming: After exporting, the first thing you'll want to do with your newly acquired sound is get it into the engine. I'll go over simple and bulk importing, as well as naming for quick searching and reference.
• UDK Audio - Simple Loops and One Shots: this will go over the simplest form of audio implementation in a 3D environment, that requires no coding in any form. Very easy to do!
• UDK Audio - Triggering Sounds: Kismet will be introduced in this post, and how we can use simple triggers to set off sounds.
• UDK Audio - Volume/Pitch Manipulation [Part 1]: This first part will detail Sound Modes and how enabling these can alter the volume or pitch accordingly. An example of this might be some narration that lowers the volume of everything else while the dialogue plays, or by adding a low pass filter when a bomb goes off nearby.
• UDK Audio - Volume/Pitch Manipulation [Part 2]: Further using Kismet, we'll go through the manipulation of volume and pitch with both triggers and tracking. This will give a good idea as to creating such sounds as motors going up and down in speed, as well as slow or fast footsteps.
• UDK Audio - Reverbs: Using 3D volumes and the built in UDK reverbs, I'll show how you can get a really easy reverb going for a number of environments.
• UDK Audio - Music: Soundtracks can add a lot to the emotion of a game. They can also be the gameplay itself. I'll go over how you can get music in the game, get loops to play seamlessly and how to trigger different states.
• UDK Audio - Advanced Techniques: Here, I'll go into some of the more advanced techniques on triggering and creating an immersive environment with several layers of audio happening. This will including ambience, sound effects and music.

So that's a fairly extensive plan of things to come! I'm setting myself the realistic goal of 2 weeks between each post, which should give me plenty of time to do everything.

Look out for the first post very soon!

Alex.

Saffire Pro 40 + Pro Tools 10 = Drum Recording!

Look who's back! Bit of hiatus, I know. It's tough with the full time job unfortunately, but I am doing things I swear!!

One such thing I'm doing is investing in equipment and doing recordings of drums / music in general (which is what got me into sound and sound design to start off with). Two of these key investments are:

- Focusrite Saffire Pro 40
- Pro Tools 10 (!!)

These have enabled me to FINALLY do proper multi-track drum recordings, so I've done a video of one below, check it out! Details are discussed, but I've basically used the above bits to record it. And yes, the voice over at the start is just the mac microphone, I did it very quickly...

Let me know if you want me to go through any of the mixing aspects, I'll happily put some step-by-step videos together! And speaking of that, I will be revealing a bigger project I've been doing, regarding some properly live recordings we've done (as the band) that I've been mixing...

...More on that in a later post though. I PROMISE it won't be 3 months until that's out!

Thanks again for reading.

Alex.