Recording Sound - Experimentation!

The very best thing about recording sound is that you're not bound by what you can achieve. I've talked about quite a lot over the past few posts, regarding recording techniques and best practices. However, at no point was I trying so much at telling you what to do. This is more of a loose guide for recording techniques. I say loose, because you can pretty much do what you like, as long as it sounds good. The key is, it doesn't matter how you record it; if it sounds good, it IS good!

So to that end, always use your ears as well as your equipment. A good example of this is when it comes to the mixing stage and you're removing problematic frequencies: you can find the frequency graphically on your screen, but it's always best to fine tune which frequency by looking away from the screen and listening. Let your ears guide you! Mixing will come at a later stage though, this post is very much about recording - the first step in your sound journey.

The main consideration for experimentation is having the time. You won't have much time to experiment if you're on the set of something being filmed, or with the band in the studio, so make sure you take plenty of time to do it. Thankfully (aside from equipment and software cost/rental), it's free to record sounds. You can do it over and over to your hearts content. And if you don't have posh equipment, that's fine too! You can use whatever microphones you have to experiment, such as phones,  mp3 players, or even poundland PC microphones; my number one go-to when I started experimenting 5 or 6 years ago. Why not take advantage of that time and be a bit whacky? After all, the most famous of Sound Designers only found some very classic sounds by experimenting (a lot found by accident!).

Hitting Things

When I say hitting anything with
anything, I mean it.

The easiest way to experiment with recording is to hit things... with other things. You'll be surprised what hidden gems of sounds will come out of some household items when you hit them in the right way with the right item! And you can literally do it with anything; just point a microphone towards it and record.

For one of my final year modules at university, I actually do just that for a composition. The basis was, create a percussive or musical piece out of one or several ordinary objects. It was only when I came home one weekend that I had the idea of recording my brothers VW golf mkII! I was literally smacking things, winding windows up and down, slamming doors and the glove box, revving the engine. But the part that really sticks out for me was a spare exhaust part he had in the garage. It had a very bell like quality which was a lot more concise and 'singular' than I thought it would be. That is, there weren't any clashing frequencies that made it dissonant. So I suspended it from a guitar stand and whacked it with some drum sticks. Below is the entire piece I created for the module, and you'll hear the exhaust near the end, which is used as a bell/glockenspiel type instrument:


For all the sounds, including this particular one, I imported them into Kontakt 4 and used the built effects and loops to design the sound for the piece. The exhaust was the easiest really, just because I only had to detune it slightly to match middle-C, and the rest did itself. Love it when that happens!

Microphone Manoeuvring

Sometimes you can get a completely
different sound depending on the angle

This is where your possibilities for record become endless. I think the mistake a lot of people make when approaching the recording of a source is trying to get it in one position which sounds 'the best', and keeping it there for the entirety of the recording. Especially for sound design, I would always recommend trying at least a few different angles, more so for a source that is being recorded as a 'sound'; i.e. not a source being recorded to represent itself in music or film.

The item in the picture to the left is an electric can opener. Items like this are great for all sorts of clunks, machinery and a wide range of engine-type sounds. One may choose to record from a distance, which will exclude a lot of the lower frequency content and get that clunky small-machine type sound. However, if you put the microphone very close, you get a much deeper intimate sound, good for slowing down and using as ambience for a factory setting.

The below track contains several different clips of the can opener, recorded from different angles. As you'll hear, the sound changes can be quite dramatic, and would compliment many different applications of the sound. Below is a list (and illustration) of how each short clip was recorded:

1: From above, front.

2. From above, back.

3. From above, side. (Number 4
Was the mic in the same position
with the can opener pushed against
the mic stands leg)

5. Mic pushing activator down.

6. Mic pushed against back opening.

7. Mic pushed against side.

What really gets the experimenting going is when you combine this item with others to enhance the sound.

For example, placing the can opener on a wooden bench and then using a contact microphone to record the bench as the can opener is working, you get an aggressive bassy sound, because of the direct transfer of energy. Similarly, you can place it on a hollow structure made of wood or plastic, and record with a normal condenser inside; this should give a resonance to the sound.

This tool of sound was from
the Eden Project. Big boomy
sound!

Tubes are also a widely used item for changing the properties of an otherwise normal sound. Depending on it's size and shape, the sound will bounce around inside, which will exaggerate a certain frequency range. The smaller the tube, the higher the frequency. This is usually recorded from an open end.

You can also put a membrane on the end of a tube and attach items to this, which will create a unique resonant sound. The image to the right shows one such item, which has a long spring attached to a membrane on this tube (made of wood). The resultant sound, when the spring moves, is much like a rumbling thunder.

Sound tools like these are very useful if you're stuck on resources or time; they allow you to create sounds that would otherwise need to be taken from an SFX library, or need a lot of planning to record properly.

Below are 3 clips I recorded with the tube sound tool. The first clip uses the same microphone above: at the start, the mic is half way into the tube, and for the end of the clip, moved out but still facing the opening. The second clip is me pulling the spring tight against the edge of the tube, which is recorded from outside the opening and then inside. For the final clip, I found that shouting into the tube caused a spring reverb effect. However, due to the tubes resonance, you get some very interesting sounds at different pitches.

However, I digressed slightly from the original topic, but I thought it was worth noting.

Be Random!
Well, what else can I say? Just use your imagination! Seriously, the amount of times I came across a sound I needed by changing the angle an object was at, or rolling it on the ground, putting it inside something, submerging it in water, putting water inside it, putting my phone in developer mode to stick the vibrate on constantly and holding it against said item... You can literally do anything to get the sound you want!

Be Forth-Thinking
If you plan on using any of the sound you're experimenting with in a production, always always always think ahead about what the sound will be used for. If you're doing a film project that involves a lot of out-of-the-ordinary sounds, you'll more the likely have to slow down or speed up a lot of them, so record these sounds at a high sample rate (96kHz). This means the detail is retained when slowed down.

Also think about composite sounds. When creating a machine say, you won't usually have a single recording for it. You'll have layers, each creating different elements of the frequency content or components of the machine. For example, a bassy engine sound might come from the can opener. Then for movement, you may have a car starter motor ticking over and pitch shifted. Then for a robot-like voice, you can record your voice and play it back through a speaker, with the cone attached to a membrane on a metal tube, which will give it a metallic sound. See what I did there?

Conclusion: If you have a recording device, or microphone and interface, you have the tools to create endless sounds. Even with free software such as Audacity, you can pitch shift, speed up, slow down, apply EQ and multitrack to create and shape any sound you can possibly imagine. As long you let your ears guide you, the possibilities are endless. Go out there and capture some noise!

Next time, we'll get stuck into some simple post production bits - audio editing and optimising, simple EQ and making sure you get the most out of your raw sounds.

Alex.

Recording Sound - The Room, Mic Placement & Gain

So there's your sound source. What's the most effective way of going about recording it? Todays post will go into the details of how important it is to consider the room you're recording in, where to best place your microphone and what levels are appropriate for what you need to get out of the sound. As we've covered the different types of microphones (Mic Choice Part 1) as well as their respective polar patterns (Mic Choice Part 2), we can incorporate how these will affect our choices of distance, angle and gain levels.

So why can't I just record everything in my bedroom? Well... you can. There's nothing stopping you getting the most out of the sounds you need with a reasonable representation, which can be enhanced in post production. However, taking some simple steps to prepare your room, or choosing a room dependant on the source can improve your recording immensely. Below, I'll go over what you might use for the appropriate desired effect on your recordings.

Dampened and Clean - If you plan to go the route of a reflection/reverberant-less recording that will allow you to add any and all effects afterwards, you'll want to use a room that is smaller and with as little hard surface as possible. The most typical setup for a studio recording is to have a reasonably sized room (4l x 6b x 3.5h metres) that incorporates lots of foam tiling for sound absorption and texturing that would reflect sound in all directions (to reduce reflections and possible phasing on microphones). There's no reason you can't get this effect at home though. A bed duvet pinned against the length of a wall will provide a sufficient amount of dampening. Some even choose to keep egg cartons and line their walls with them, which also helps. The thing to remember, which even I've forgot to consider in the past, is your floor and ceiling. These reflect sound as much as walls, especially when you have a laminate flooring. The easiest way to resolve this is by having carpeted flooring and the means to pin a duvet or carpet-like material to the ceiling, as well as your walls. And if you're budget can take it, definitely invest in some high-density acoustic foam tiles - you can easily buy a pack of these from ebay for £35/$55 which would be sufficient for even a professional environment.

Reverberant - It may be the case that you want to record your source with some natural reverb, which is perfectly fine if you know that this is the desired effect for your production. As reverb has unlimited potential in sound and effect, it's good to play around with this if you haven't had experience before. I'll go over a few examples and what they might add to your recording.

Music: If you're a guitarist who wants to have a huge reverberant sound for a lead solo part, you might want to have your amp and mics in a large church-like hall. The time at which the sound reverberates is usually between a second or two, creating a large sustained sound. This can also be true if you want a large drum sound, but i'd advise to have at least a little dampening to control this; otherwise, the sound isn't as precise, which won't help in the mixing stage.

Sound for TV/Film: A lot of sound effects and dialogue in this instance are recorded in a dampened/clean studio. However, you may not be able to bring a church bell or a huge crowd into your tiny recording studio. Instead, you can record them in their natural environment, or one which will reflect (pun not intended) the scenario on the screen. As long you perform some test recordings to ensure it sounds fine, you can save some time in post-production (as well as some CPU power from those plugins!).

Let's now consider the source sound. Much like with microphone choice, you have to understand how your source is creating sound physically, in order to find the best placement and gain level. For example, if you're recording an acoustic guitar, there isn't a lot of physical movement in the air apart from the musicians hand moving up and down to strum the strings. On the other hand, when you're trying to record a vocal, there's a considerable amount of air moving around with the singer breathing, shouting, as well as the troublesome popping caused by 'b's and 'p's. If you don't know what I mean, just place your hand about 2" in front of your face and say "Barry and Peter": you should feel the air shoot out more on the 'b' and 'p'.

Another consideration, especially for music, is how it may hinder the musicians ability to play their instrument. The worst thing you could do for any musician is to place a microphone or stand in a position that would mean they aren't comfortable and therefore can't perform in what should be their top form. From personal experience, this means microphones on drums that I would catch with my sticks when moving around the kit, or stands behind me that I would catch with my elbow. In short, always consider the musicians needs before placing microphones to get what may technically be the best sound; if they aren't playing their best, you wouldn't get the best sound from them anyway.

Linking in with musicians, but not exclusively relating to them, the proximity effect is also something you would need to think about. I say linking in with musicians, because the proximity effect can add a sense of intimacy with a vocal or guitar. I won't go into too much detail (as it's quite complicated), but due to the physics involved with the diaphragm and the short distance between the source and the microphone, a bass boost occurs naturally. You can test this yourself: just get someone to say a few words into one of your ears a few feet away, and then have them say it up close to your ear - you should hear it. This is used a lot in music and movies to emphasise a voice, but it's really up to you what you want to use it for: after all, if you use it and don't need it, you can (for the most part) EQ out the effect in post production.

-------------------------------

General Microphone Placement: I think the best (and only) way to describe microphone placement is through several different examples. These examples will work around a single instrument or source, and then detail different scenarios in recording them:

Vocals / Voice Over
As mentioned briefly, the human voice is quite varied in terms of both dynamic range and frequency. The way to work out the best microphone placement and gain is what you'll be using it for.
Music: I would always try and go for a studio-type acoustically treated room and have the microphone set up at mouth level with your singer. Generally you want the mic to be around 6" away. However, you won't have to worry about distance too much as an engineer, because the singer will (or should) move back and forth depending on the volume and effect. As with the proximity effect discussed earlier, they may move in to about 2", or for very loud singing, they may choose to back up to 8-10". Gain wise, you'll want to get them to sing a few lines repeated at as loud a level as necessary for the song or section, making sure the pre-fade level is touching about -3dB. This gives plenty of head room for short loud bursts. You can also consider the polar pattern, which would probably be cardioid to avoid capturing the room tone, but if you do want this, use a figure-of-8 pattern to control it.
ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement): This one has always fascinated me. I must clarify what this is first: all ADR is recorded in the studio after filming (hence dialogue replacement); this is common practice in many films. Basically, a film set is usually very noisy and, even though the sound is usually recorded regardless, you wouldn't get a seamless transition between shots. So instead, they record dialogue afterwards in a studio which gives them more control. So in terms of mic positioning, you want to try and record it as if you we're listening to them in the scene. For example, if they happen to be very close to the screen, you want quite an intimate recording similar to vocals as described above. If they're stood in the middle of a room a few metres away from the camera, you want to record them from a few feet away, usually above them. To get a better idea of this, just check out some DVD extras of films: Lord of The Rings has a dedicated feature on sound, and animated films usually have a section devoted to ADR (although not as direct as recording technique).

Electric Guitar/Bass
If you're either a guitarist of bassist, these tricks are so easy for you to have a mess around with. Both are pretty much the same, but guitars amps tend to have a slightly more direct sound from the speaker.
Live: When you don't have much control over where the amp goes, you tend to have to put up with what you have (especially in smaller venues). If you can, try and have the speaker unit in a reasonably open space with the back exposed; otherwise, you'll get exaggerated peaks and troughs in the bass frequencies. However, the key to remember for live sound is that you will never have as much control as the studio; always concentrate on suiting the sound for the venue. So moving back to the guitar amp; if you have a single cone, place your dynamic mic facing towards the centre of the cone, either directly or at a slight angle. If you have a 4/6 speaker cab, pick a cone and mic it up the same way. After all, you'd expect the amp/cab to be doing most of the work.
Studio: Because you will have more control, you can be much more specific about your mic placement to change the sound to your needs. The best way to find the guitar sound you want is to work out where it will lie in the mix. Are you recording a rhythm part? Is it a scorching solo? Fat power chords? All of these encompass different microphone positioning, because moving the mic around the speaker cone can dramatically alter how the recording turns out. The centre of the cone is where you get a very precise sound because it's where the most movement occurs. On the other hand, the edge of the cone is where the least movement occurs, so you get a bassier rounder sound with less high frequency content. Therefore, if you want to record a rhythm guitar part for example, you'll want to keep the microphone away from the centre of the cone so it doesn't take all the attention in the mix. Similarly with a lead guitar part, you want to place it in the centre to capture as much of an intimate in-your-face sound as possible.

Loud One-Shots
This one isn't very specific, but describes basic technique for anything in the nature of loud sounds that could potentially cause distortion. One particular example is fireworks. They have a whizz and then a very loud short bang. I'd say record the firework from a normal distance (8-10m) and follow the firework with your microphone; swinging it upwards as it lifts off. Gain wise, I would recommend keeping it low for a test recording, check what level came out and then alter accordingly. If it was recorded right, you'll have a very quiet whizz and then the bang heading towards 0dB (ideally -0.5dB). If your recorder has a very low noise profile and there isn't too much back ground noise, you can use a transient designer to bring out the whizz and tail of the bang which will make it sound a lot sweeter. More on that in another post though!

Traffic/Public/Machinery
This all lies on the application you'd use it for. For sound and film (or music if you chose to include something like that), recording in stereo in the best way to go about it. If it's not the focus of the mix (which is usually the case), you can always get away with recording 2 mono tracks and summing them to stereo panned hard left and right. For games which would use point sources, you can either record in stereo and sum to mono/split the tracks, or record in mono. This is especially important for ambience which I'll detail in a later post when I get to game audio implementation in UDK.
Regardless of this, if it's background noise you want, try and record the sound from a distance. With the public, this is vital, as the listener is drawn to the human voice and a particularly apparent one will stick out like a soar thumb. Mic placement is pretty simple: just point it at the crowd; for gain, keep it at about -3dB so you get a healthy signal if possible. If you're pushing your recorder though, back it off a little to avoid a high noise floor, as you'll more than likely pull this sound down in the mix anyway. I'd also recommend a cardioid polar pattern, as hyper-cardioid may be too precise for a 'crowd' sound, where omni-directional wouldn't give you much control over what you were recording.

Conclusion: Microphone placement and gain is a bit of art in itself. You really have to be forward-thinking and reflective, based upon the image you're portraying or the overall mix. As long as you have a good plan, you should be able to make the right decisions. And before I forget, I would go over Drum mic placement and gain, but I think that's big enough for it's own post! So I'll leave it here for now.

Thank you very much if you've read this far, it was a big one today. Next time, we'll go over some experimental things and the endless possibilities of recording your sources! I'm rather excited about this one I must say...

Alex.

Recording Sound - Microphone Choice [Part 2]

Click here for Part 1

Coming straight from part 1, there's a little more to learn about microphones. Obviously, we now know that dynamic microphones are great for high volume sounds, where as condensers are great for their dynamic range and sensitivity. What we're going to touch on next is the variation in sizes and shapes, as well as the 3D pattern at which sound is picked up relative to the diaphragm.

Rode NTG-1 with a smaller
1cm Diaphragm

Microphones are designed to receive sound. However, The way in which this is achieved varies widely depending on the size and polar pattern of a microphone. So what does this mean? Well imagine a set of speakers. The speaker cones come in several different sizes to help represent the broad range of frequencies. Tweeters are usually about 1" in diameter and deal with anything from 7-22kHz, with 4-5" cones handle the mids at 400-6Khz, which leaves large 10" cones that will delivery the very deep 20-300Hz range. This is no different for microphones.

AKG C414 with a larger
1" Diaphragm

The best way to think about this is setting up and recording a drum kit. The first part you may want to mic up is the snare drum. As the frequency range tends to be low to high mids (500Hz-5kHz), you won't need a large diaphragm microphone in order to fully replicate the sound realistically. Similarly, you won't want to use a pencil condenser microphone with a 1cm diaphragm; this would be more useful on the cymbals which create a lot of those higher frequencies. For the kick drum, which has a fundamental frequency ranging from 50-200Hz, the diaphragm on the microphone would need to be much larger: about 1" for most proprietary kick or condenser microphones. Some may even want to convert a medium sized speaker cone into a microphone, which would be able to pick up the sub frequencies of the kick (20-60Hz). However, I digress: can you tell which instrument I play yet?

The point is, before you pick a microphone, consider the frequency range that the source will be creating, or at least the frequency range that you'd like to use.

Now, polar patterns. Have you ever wondered why microphones are the shape and size they are? Why some are long and thin, where others can be cuboid-like or have the diaphragm exposed on 2 sides? These different designs have all been implemented for the purpose of creating a pick up pattern; better known as the Polar Pattern.

The Polar Pattern is a 3D shape (usually depicted in 2D) that highlights the area around a diaphragm that can pick up sound. There are 4 main patterns available for microphones, which are described below:

Omni-Directional Polar Pattern
credit:wikimedia.org

Omni-Directional - This is the simplest pattern available for a microphone and is the most basic to understand: it picks up sound from all directions equally. You can imagine the pick up pattern as being a large sphere around the diaphragm. This pattern can be found on a lot of vocal microphones and as a choice on many higher end condenser microphones.

Uses: As it works to pick up everything, it tends to give the most realistic representation of the sound, with both the source and reflections on the recording.

Cardioid Polar Pattern
credit:wikimedia.org

Cardioid - This pattern, much as the name may depict it to be, is shaped like a heart. Rather than picking up sound from all directions, it's only able to reach sounds on one side, with minimal 'leakage' of sound from the back. As you can see, there is a small amount from the rear, which is only due to the nature of a diaphragm being effected from either side regardless; for the most part though, this is a single direction pattern.

Uses: This pattern is particularly useful in both live and studio settings, where sound leakage may want to be avoided. For live purposes, you'll want to prevent as much leakage from other instruments as possible, so recording in this single direction very much helps. Similarly, if you want to record in a studio with as little reverberation as possible, the cardioid pattern should help with that.

Hyper-Cardioid Polar Pattern
credit:wikimedia.org

Hyper-Cardioid - Coming directly from the previous pattern, Hyper Cardioid is almost an exaggerated version of Cardioid, which is far more directional, leaving even less leaked sound or room tone to affect the source sound. However, what it gains in it's precision it looses in it's mono-directionality. I.e the pattern turns more into a figure-of-8 shape, which means sound is picked up from the rear. This shouldn't be significant enough to burden a recording though, especially with higher end microphones.

Uses: As this provides a more precise directionality, it is usually used for broadcast recording. For example, a lot of shotgun condenser microphones (such as the NTG-1 shown above) use this pattern so that the newscaster, who may be stood outside of a building or built up area, is picked up clearly at a distance without too much of the external noise being picked up.

Figure-of-8 Polar Pattern
credit:wikimedia.org

Figure-of-8 - Most common for condenser microphones which are exposed either side, figure of 8 is a fairly self explanatory recording pattern: sound is picked up equally from either opposite side of the diaphragm. By having this, two sources can be picked up either side of the microphone, without a large amount of spill that would otherwise occur on an omni-directional pattern. Similarly, a single source can be recorded, with a controlled amount of room tone to the desired effect.

Uses: One good example I read about recently was to use this pattern with a guitar amplifier either side of the microphone, with one guitar split and wired into both amps. As the distortion would be slightly different on either amp, this would create an almost doubled-up effect, which is naturally summed from either side of the mic to create a huge guitar sound. Also, for a lot of vocal work, you may want to record 2 singers either side of the mic for again the doubled up effect which is good for a pre-chorus emphasis.

Conclusion: These ideas are relatively simple to understand and are mostly common sense. However, knowing these simple steps and querying what your own microphones have can really change how you think about recording. Making sure the frequency response and directionality is accounted for can improve recordings greatly, especially with a combination of microphones and their respective polar patterns.

Next time, we'll go into the placement of microphones in relation to a source to make the most out of your recordings, as well as how multiple microphones can have adverse effects due to phase, with simple solutions to resolve this.

Thanks again for reading!

Alex.

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.

Quick Update!

Hi Everyone! Hope we're having a fine winters day.

It's been a few weekends since I've said anything, so I'm just updating you. And what better way to do so than with a video!

As in the description, I will be posting stuff soon now I have a new PC, I can get things done a LOT quicker.

Have a great evening!

Alex.