An Introduction to the Recording Studio
Download as PPTX, PDF10 likes9,551 views
This document provides an introduction to recording studios, including a brief history. It discusses influential early studios like Columbia 30th Street Studios in NYC and Motown Studio A, known for their distinctive sounds due to room characteristics. It also describes the facilities at ATRiUM Studios, including 8 control rooms and live rooms offering different acoustic properties. The standard studio layout is explained, including the signal flow from recording to monitoring. Finally, common audio engineering terminology is defined, such as microphones, DI boxes, mixing desks, and monitors.
![References
References
• Engineering the Performance: Recording Engineers, Tacit Knowledge and the Art of Controlling Sound.
Susan Schmidt Horning, 2004.
• http://realworldstudios.com
• Abbey Road and the Day Studio Music Died.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703444804575071351719588986.html
• Studio Stories - How the Great New York Records Were Made, David Simons, 2004, Backbeat Books
• http://www.stuartjones.org
Audio
• Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1964) Nowhere To Run [CD], U: Motown
• Dave Brubeck (2007) Time Out [CD], US: Columbia Records.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/anintroductiontothestudio-140624045937-phpapp01/85/An-Introduction-to-the-Recording-Studio-45-320.jpg)
An Introduction to the Recording Studio
- 1. An Introduction to the Recording Studio stuart.jones@southwales.ac.uk www.stuartjones.org
- 2. Agenda 1. Brief History of Studios and Audio Engineering 2. ATRiuM Studios and Design •Control Rooms •Live Rooms 3. Studio Layout 4. Terminology
- 3. 1. Brief History of Studios and Audio Engineering
- 4. Columbia 30th Street Studios, NYC This is the live room at Columbia 30th Street Studios in New York. The four grand pianos give some idea of the space. Miles Davis's masterpiece, "Kind of Blue," was recorded at 30th Street, and so too, just a couple of months later, was Dave Brubeck's album "Time Out."
- 5. Studio Stories by David Simons In his book Studio Stories, David Simons suggests that ‘the success of those two records owed something to how they sounded, something that wasn't just a function of the quality of the recording equipment. There was the sympathetic resonance of the studio's unvarnished wood floor and the distant reverberations reflected by its towering architecture’.
- 6. Audio: Take Five - Dave Brubeck Quartet "To hear 30th Street is to hear drummer Joe Morello's snare and kick-drum shots echoing off the 100-foot ceiling during the percussion break in Dave Brubeck's great 'Take Five’.” Studio Stories, David Simons
- 7. A number of other great albums and artists recorded at 30th Street........
- 8. Motown Studio A Similarly, it takes only a few seconds to recognise a classic Motown recording. Much of that is due to the inventive, custom electronics that Berry Gordy Jr. had made for his studio. But it is also thanks to the funky fidelity unique to "the pit," a concrete- block room where most of the label's hits were recorded.
- 9. Studio Stories by David Simons "The secret of the so-called 'Motown Sound' was room identity," Hank Cosby once told an interviewer. A producer, songwriter and saxophonist for the label in its heyday, Cosby said: "The drums sat in the same place for years; nothing was ever disturbed. If you moved any of the instruments a couple of feet in either direction it would have changed the sound completely."
- 10. Audio: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - Nowhere To Run. Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); October 21, 1964 Microphone positioning was also fixed. Note the hanging mics!
- 12. Real World Studios, Wiltshire Then, of course, there is the technology.
- 13. ‘regardless of the music we listen to, the media we use or the location we choose, what we hear has been tempered first and foremost by the technology used to record it and the technical and aesthetic decisions made in the studio’. Engineering the Performance: Recording Engineers, Tacit Knowledge and the Art of Controlling Sound. Susan Schmidt Horning, 2004
- 14. 2. ATRiuM Studios and Design
- 15. How would we best describe the studio facilities at the ATRiuM? ATRiuM Studio Design
- 16. An In house Production facility capable of handling an array of recording projects. these include: • Commercial music recording (pop/rock/classical) • Film music recording • Film/tv post production sound • Surround sound • Radio broadcast and recording • Audio mastering ATRiuM Studio Design
- 17. Control Rooms
- 18. Here at the ATRiuM we have 8 control rooms. Room Application CB201b Soundcraft Studio Mixing/Mastering/Surround sound mixing CB202 Audient Studio 1 Recording/Mixing CB204 Audient Studio 2 Recording/Mixing CB301b Control 24 Recording/Mixing /Surround Sound CB302 SSL Duality Recording/Mixing CB303 Gus Dudgeon Suite (MCI Console) - Classic Studio CB401 Digidesign Pro Control Post Production/ADR/Mixing/Surround Sound CB402 Digidesign Control 24 Recording/ADR/Post Production/Surround Sound Control Rooms
- 19. Pre amps Outboard Two track Audient ASP Console Patchbay Apple Mac Outboard Audient power supply Pro Tools Mid field Monitors Audient CB202 Near field Monitors
- 20. Audient CB204 Mid Field Monitors Mackie Control Outboard Near Field Monitors Patchbay Audient Desk Pro Tools
- 21. Live Rooms
- 22. CB201 is generally described as being ‘bright’ Live Rooms Spaces of different sizes offering different acoustic properties.
- 23. CB401b is generally described as being ‘dry’ and ‘warm’ Spaces of different sizes offering different acoustic properties. Live Rooms
- 24. Studio Layout
- 25. Regardless of equipment, studio configuration is basically the same in all studios. Studio Layout
- 26. Studio Layout
- 27. Studio Layout
- 28. Studio Layout
- 29. Studio Layout
- 30. Studio Layout This is known as the recording path or channel path
- 31. Studio Layout This is known as the monitor path or tape return path
- 32. Studio Layout
- 33. Studio Layout
- 34. Studio Layout
- 35. Studio Layout
- 36. Terminology
- 37. Terminology Microphones Of which there are many different brands (Shure, AKG, Neumann) and designs (dynamic, condenser and ribbon). D.I. Boxes Direct injection boxes for line level sources i.e. bass, keyboards, mixers.
- 38. The cables we use to connect microphones are called XLR. These are balanced connections which reduce interference. Terminology
- 39. Tie Lines 24 balanced lines in the Audient studios 6 returns for foldback/headphones Terminology
- 40. Mixing Desk Audient ASP8024 for 1st year Audio Engineering Soundcraft Ghost Terminology
- 41. Recording Stand Alone Hard Disk System (IZ Radar) Computer Based Hard Disk System (Pro Tools) Terminology
- 42. Monitors or Speakers In both Audient Studio we have Avantone Mixcubes. The main monitors in Audient CB202 are Adam S3. The main monitors in Audient CB204 are Genelec 1040. Terminology
- 44. Two Track CD Recordable Digital Audio Tape (Dat) Computer Based System (Pro Tools) Terminology
- 45. References References • Engineering the Performance: Recording Engineers, Tacit Knowledge and the Art of Controlling Sound. Susan Schmidt Horning, 2004. • http://realworldstudios.com • Abbey Road and the Day Studio Music Died. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703444804575071351719588986.html • Studio Stories - How the Great New York Records Were Made, David Simons, 2004, Backbeat Books • http://www.stuartjones.org Audio • Martha Reeves & The Vandellas (1964) Nowhere To Run [CD], U: Motown • Dave Brubeck (2007) Time Out [CD], US: Columbia Records.
- 46. An Introduction to the Recording Studio stuart.jones@southwales.ac.uk www.stuartjones.org
Editor's Notes
- #11: Recorded Hitsville U.S.A. (Studio A); October 21, 1964 Note in this picture how the microphones hang from the ceiling - no microphone placement needed.
- #12: During the 1970’s, studios were generally small. Because of the advent of artificial effects devices, these rooms tended to be acoustically absorptive. The basic concept was to eliminate as much of the original acoustic environment as possible and replace it afterwards with artificial reverb. During the 1980’s, many commercial studios began to move back to the original design concepts of the 1930’s and 1940’s when studios were much larger. This increase in size (along with the addition of one or more smaller iso booths) re-popularized the art of capturing the room’s original acoustic ambience along with the actual sound pick up. However, Increased land and rent premiums and the advent of home and project studio recording has seen a move back to the smaller studio design of the 1970’s.
- #13: Then, of course, there is the technology.
- #14: In her 2004 paper Engineering the Performance: Recording Engineers, Tacit Knowledge and the Art of Controlling Sound, Susan Schmidt Horning suggests that, ‘regardless of the music we listen to, the media we use or the location we choose, what we hear has been tempered first and foremost by the technology used to record it and the technical and aesthetic decisions made in the studio.’
- #19: Automated dialogue replacement (ADR)
- #42: Analogue Tape