Recording Sound

There are many different ways to record sound, using a variety of equipment, and different set-ups.

This tutorial is to help educate those interested in learning how to record sound. Sound can be recorded for many different uses. effects, movie dialogue, music, toys, presentations, video games, recording vocals like talk tapes, and more. To have the ability to control audio is important when trying to achieve a perfect sound.

Audio Recording Microphones

There are three main types of audio recording microphones, each one has its pro's and cons depending on the type of sound that you are recording.

Dynamic Microphones - are realitivley cheaper microphones, they can be great for recording sounds like drums and percussion instruments, guitar, and recording vocals.

Condenser Microphones - work well for recording instruments needing a wider high frequency range to record.

Ribbon Microphones - add a warmth, and a better low end recording on your sound.

Analogue/Digital Converters

Analogue to digital converters do exactly what there named. They convert an analogue signal cleanly as possible to a digital format. Many producers will record vocals in an analogue format and EQ them on an analogue mixer before converting them to a digital format, this retains certain characteristics of the vocals that would otherwise be lost or misinterpreted from a straight digital recording setup.

Recording Sound In Different Environments

If you are recording outside, you will face many obstacles in recording an isolated sound without getting any background noises, unidirectional mics are the best because the pick up the sound coming from what your pointing the mic at, making it easier to isolate the targeted sound that you are trying to record. Recording inside has many advantages because you have total control over the environment, and you can eliminate almost all background noise.

Using Different Rooms For Recording Vocals

Different rooms in a house can be used to your advantage for recording sound. Back in the 1970's, it was discovered that recording a guitar in a bathroom with the shower on created an interesting acoustics this is the same with recording vocals. A closet is another way to achive great recordings, the clothes in the closet act to stop reflections of sound from being recorded. Giving you a straight sound to without any natural reverberations from being recorded, then digital reverbs and effects can be added after.

Digital Audio Tape (DAT) Recorders

Analogue tape reels 4 and 8 track - You may wonder what anyone would still want to use analogue tape reels to record sound when we have all of this high tech digital equipment at our disposal. Well the answer would be that many people favor the characteristics of analogue sound over digital recorded sound especially when dealing with vocals. By converting sound from an analogue to digital format many frequency characteristics are lost in the conversion. Giving a less pure sound.

Different Types Of Sound Formats

.wav - files are one of the highest quality formats that you can format sound as. The only drawback to using .wav files is that they have large file sizes. which brings us to the format below.

.mp3 - this is compressed audio meaning they range in file size and quality, using this file format is the most accepted sound format on the Internet today. encoding your music into a 192-320 kbhs will give you a great sound quality with little loss of frequency that using a .wav file.

.rm - audio format is mainly used for streaming purposes

Recording MIDI Data

Recording MIDI data is a quick way to write musical scores. MIDI records the length, pitch, and timing of the notes but doesn't record the actual sound itself. This data can then be used to run through a patch on a synthesizer or software program to sound like almost any instrument. There are software programs out on the market that can supposedly do this in "real time" enabling you to play a guitar, and instead of hearing each note sound like a guitar it can be altered to sound like a piano or any other virtual instrument that you can think of.

Make Money from Recording your own Sounds

There are many different ways to profit from recording your own sound. You can produce your own album, create sound effects for movies, presentations, sell sample CD's, sell rights to lease your sounds, co-write songs or (have a remix done) and collect royalties, or create and sell rights to written music.

Post Sound Production

With todays audio software technology, miracles can be performed on a poorly recorded audio track. pitch can adjusted, unwanted noise can be filtered, clicks and pops can be eliminated, and the audio track can be equalized and compressed to sound absolutely amazing. You may not notice so much on older recordings that have been restored. The reason for this is that professionally sound restoration is to bring the audio piece back to what it sounded like when it was first released played or heard. not what music or movies would sound like today.

Copyrighting Your Sounds

For copyrighting your written and audio work check out the Copyright Board of Canada (http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/) or the United States Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov/). For international copyright laws check your countries official site on copyright. Many people wish to submit their work to the public domain to allow anyone to use there work. this will gain great exposure for you and help the free arts community collaborate and produce more music.

I hope this article cleared up many issues and questions, you may have had about recording vocals, sounds, instruments, and dealing with audio files. I have barely even scratched the surface with this article on how in depth you can get with recording techniques and new technologies that are emerging in the sound industry. Keep researching and good luck recording your next audio project.