Home Recording For Dummies

Jeff Strong is a percussionist, composer, recording engineer, researcher, and Director of the Strong Institute—an auditory brain stimulation research organization—and creator of Brain Shift Radio (BSR), an interactive brain stimulation music site.

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 3Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 3Part 1: Getting Started with Home Recording 5Chapter 1: Understanding Home Recording 7Examining the Anatomy of a Home Studio 7Exploring the recording essentials 8Checking out recording system types 10Getting a Glimpse into the Recording Process 11Setting up a song 11Getting a great sound 11Recording 12Overdubbing 12Making Sense of Mixing 12Cleaning up tracks using editing 13Equalizing your tracks 13Processing your signal 13Blending your tracks 13Adding the Final Touches 14Mastering your mixes 14Putting your music out into the world 15Promoting your music 16Chapter 2: Getting the Right Gear 17Determining Your Home Studio Needs 18Detailing Your Digital Options 21Computer-Based Digital Recording Systems 23Finding the right computer setup 23Getting the sound in and out 26Choosing the right software 30Studio-in-a-Box Systems 33Taking a look at the benefits 33Examining some popular SIAB systems 33Mobile-Device Recording 34Android 35Apple iOS 36Exploring Sample Setups 37Live and MIDI studio 38MIDI-intensive studio 38Live studio 41Podcasting studio 42Audio-for-video studio 43Mobile on-location studio 44Chapter 3: Getting Connected: Setting Up Your Studio 45Understanding Analog Connections 46The ¼-inch analog plug 46XLR 49RCA 49Delving into Digital Connections 50MIDI 50AES/EBU 50S/PDIF 51ADAT Lightpipe 51TDIF 51USB 52FireWire 53Thunderbolt 54Working Efficiently 55Taming heat and dust 57Monitoring your monitors 57Optimizing Your Room 58Isolating sound 58Controlling sound 60Chapter 4: Meet the Mixer 69Meeting the Many Mixers 69Analog mixer 70Digital mixer 71Software mixer 72Computer control surface 73Understanding Mixer Basics 74Examining inputs 75Checking out the channel strip 76Recognizing mixer routing 82Opting for outputs 83Chapter 5: Multitrack Recording 85Understanding Multitracking 85Getting Ready to Record 86Setting up a song 87Creating and organizing your tracks 87Selecting a sound source 90Setting levels 92Getting the sound you want 92Choosing a monitoring source 95Setting a Tempo Map 95Saving Your Work 95Sharing Files with Others 96Part 2: Working with Microphones 97Chapter 6: Understanding Microphones 99Meeting the Many Microphone Types 100Construction types 100Polarity patterns 106Assessing Your Microphone Needs 110Deciding How Many Microphones and What Kind 111Getting started 111Movin’ on 113Going all out 115Finding the Right Mic for the Situation 117Partnering Mics with Preamps 120Solid-state 120Vacuum tube 121Hybrid 121Considering Compressors 122Analyzing Some Microphone Accessories 123Microphone cords 123Microphone stands 123Pop filters 123Caring for Your Microphones 124Daily care 125Storage 125Chapter 7: Taking a Look at Microphone Techniques 127Singling Out Close Miking 128Detailing Distant Miking 130Assessing Ambient Miking 131Selecting Stereo Miking 133X-Y pairs 133Blumlein technique 134Spaced pairs 135Stereo microphones 136Overcoming problems with stereo miking 137Creating Miking Combinations 139Chapter 8: Miking Your Instruments 141Getting a Great Lead Vocal Sound 142Making the most of the room 142Choosing the best mic 142Getting Good Backup Vocals 145Examining Electric Guitar Miking 146Using the room 147Getting the most out of the mics 147Exploring Electric Bass Miking 149Managing the room 149Getting the most from the mic 149Miking Acoustic Guitars and Similar Instruments 150Making the most of the room 150Using your mics 150Maneuvering Horn Mics 152Understanding the role of the room 152Making the most of the mics 152Placing Mics for a Piano 153Harnessing the sound of the room 153Managing the mics 153Setting Up Mics for Strings 154Making the most of the room 154Making sense of the mics 154Digging into Drum Set Miking 155First things first: Tuning your drums 155Using the room to your benefit 156Picking up the kick (bass) drum 156Setting up the snare drum 159Tackling the tom-toms 160Handling the hi-hats 161Creating the best cymbal sound 161Miking the whole kit 162Getting Your Hands on Hand Drums 163Perfecting Percussion Miking 163Exploring the impact of the room 163Choosing and using the mics 164Part 3: Recording Live Audio 165Chapter 9: Getting a Great Source Sound 167Making Sense of the Signal Chain 167Setting Optimal Signal Levels 169Understanding Pre and Post Levels 171Interpreting the various levels 171Looking at examples 173Getting Great Guitar, Bass, and Electronic String Instrument Sounds 174Connect directly 174Process beforehand 175Leverage your amp 176Creating Killer Keyboard Tracks 176Recording E-Drums, Drum Machines, and Electronic Percussion 177Making the Most of Microphones 178Placing mics properly 179Compressing carefully 179Chapter 10: Recording Audio 183Performing Your First Take 183Punching In and Out 185Manual punching 185Punching with a foot switch 185Automatic punching 185Repeated punching (looping) 186Exploring Overdubbing 187Submixing 188Bouncing 189Keeping Track of Your Tracks 190Chapter 11: Understanding Electronic Instruments and MIDI 191Meeting MIDI 192Perusing MIDI ports 192Understanding MIDI channels 194Appreciating MIDI messages 195Managing modes 196Taking orders from General MIDI 197Gearing Up for MIDI 198Sound generators 199Sound card 202MIDI controller 203Sequencer 204MIDI interface 204Chapter 12: Recording Electronic Instruments Using MIDI 207Synchronizing Your Devices 207Synchronizing two (or more) synthesizers 208Synchronizing a computer sequencer and a synthesizer 209Synchronizing a sequencer and an audio recorder 210Using the transport function from one device to control another 212Sequencing 214Recording MIDI data 215Overdubbing 217Saving Your Data 218Transferring Data Using MIDI 219Chapter 13: Working with Loops 221Understanding Loops and Loop Types 222Choosing Loop Formats 222Setting Up Your Session 223Setting tempo and time and key signatures 223Creating song maps 224Enabling a metronome 225Adding Loops to Your Sessions 226Browsing loop libraries 226Previewing loops 227Adding loops to your session 227Editing Loops 229Creating Loops 229Part 4: Editing and Enhancing Your Tracks 233Chapter 14: Getting into Editing 235Understanding Digital Editing 236Copy 237Cut/Delete/Erase 237Insert 238Paste 239Move 240Export/Import 240Undo 241Finding the Section You Want to Edit 241Editing aurally 241Editing visually 242Editing to Improve the Sound of a Performance 244Replacing a bad note 245Evening out a performance 246Getting rid of distortion 247Getting rid of noise 248Correcting pitch problems 248Creating a Performance That Never Happened 249Creating loops 249Assembling a song 250Making compilations of your tracks 250Discovering Other Ways to Use Editing 251Adjusting the length of a performance 251Reversing a phrase 251Chapter 15: Editing MIDI Data 253Understanding MIDI Windows 253Selecting track material 255Setting MIDI patches on tracks 255Adding MIDI events 256Deleting MIDI notes 257Editing MIDI Data 257Changing a note’s pitch 258Changing a note’s duration 258Changing a note’s velocity 259Changing time locations 259Moving notes freely 260Editing Program Data 260Changing program patches 260Moving program change markers 260Changing Continuous Controller Data 261Editing lines with the Pencil tool 261Editing breakpoints 262Scaling breakpoints 262Quantizing Your Performance 263Transposing Your Performance 266Saving Your Data 267Transferring Data Using MIDI 267Part 5: Mixing and Mastering Your Music 269Chapter 16: Mixing Basics 271Understanding Mixing 272Managing Levels as You Work 272Getting Started Mixing Your Song 273Mixing in DAWs 274Using a control surface 274Using a digital mixer 274Using an analog mixer 275Using the Stereo Field 276Left or right 276Front or back 278Adjusting Levels: Enhancing the Emotion of the Song 279Dynamics 280The arrangement 281Tuning Your Ears 281Listening critically 281Choosing reference music 283Dealing with ear fatigue 284Making several versions 284Chapter 17: Using Equalization 285Exploring Equalization 285Graphic 285Parametric 286Low-shelf/high-shelf 286Low-pass/high-pass 287Dialing-In EQ 287Inserting an EQ plug-in in a track 287Exploring EQ options 289Equalizing Your Tracks 291General EQ guidelines 293Equalizing vocals 296Equalizing guitar 296Equalizing bass 297Equalizing drums 297Equalizing percussion 299Equalizing piano 299Equalizing horns 300Chapter 18: Digging into Dynamics Processors 301Connecting Dynamics Processors 301Introducing Compressors 302Getting to know compressor parameters 303Getting started using compression 305Using compression 306Looking into Limiters 311Understanding limiter settings 312Setting limits with the peak limiter 313Introducing Gates and Expanders 314Getting to know gate parameters 314Getting started using gates 316Getting started using an expander 317Detailing the De-Esser 317Setting Up Side Chains 319Setting up a side chain 319Using a side chain 321Chapter 19: Singling Out Signal Processors 323Routing Your Effects 324Inserting effects 324Sending signals to effects 325Rolling Out the Reverb 326Seeing reverb settings 327Getting started using reverb 328Detailing Delay 329Digging into delay settings 329Getting started using delay 330Creating Chorus Effects 331Making Sense of Microphone Modeling 333Applying an Amp Simulator 334Detailing Distortion Effects 335Selecting Tape Saturation Effects 336Chapter 20: Automating Your Mix 339Understanding Automation 340Audio tracks 340Auxiliary input tracks 340Instrument tracks 341Master fader tracks 341MIDI tracks 341Accessing Automation Modes 341Writing Automation 343Writing automation on a track 343Writing plug-in automation 344Writing send automation 345Viewing Automation 346Editing Automation Data 347Using editing commands 347Editing with the edit tools 348Chapter 21: Making Your Mix 351Submixing Tracks 351Mixing in-the-Box 353Examining bounce options 353Performing the bounce 356Using an External Master Deck 357Chapter 22: Mastering Your Music 359Demystifying Mastering 360Processing 360Sequencing 361Leveling 361Getting Ready to Master 361Paying a Pro or Doing It Yourself 362Hiring a Professional Mastering Engineer 363Mastering Your Music Yourself 365Optimizing dynamics 366Perfecting tonal balance 368Sequencing your songs 370Balancing levels 371Preparing for Distribution 372Chapter 23: Creating Your Finished Product 373Understanding File Formats 374Lossy audio file formats 374Lossless audio file formats 374Putting Your Music on CD 375CDs on demand 376Short-run CD duplication 378Large-quantity CD replication 379Delivering Digital Files 380Download card 381USB sticks (flash drives) 381Online music distribution 382Streaming music sites 382Creating MP3 Files 383Bit rate 383Mode 385Pressing Vinyl 386Part 6: The Part of Tens 389Chapter 24: Ten Invaluable Recording Tips 391Using an Analog Tape Deck 391Layering Your Drum Beats 392Decorating Your Room 393Setting a Tempo Map 393Listening to Your Mix in Mono 394Doubling and Tripling Your Tracks 394Recording Dirty Room Ambience 394Overdubbing Live Drums 395Pressing Record, Even during a Rehearsal 396Leaving the Humanity in Your Tracks 396Chapter 25: Ten (or So) Ways to Distribute and Promote Music 397Marketing Yourself 398Setting Up Your Own Music Website 399Checking out musician-friendly hosting services 400Designing your site 400Putting Your Music on a Music Host Site 402Engaging in Social Media Networking 403Offering Free Downloads 404Selling Your Music Digitally 404Licensing Your Music 406Podcasting 406Selling Your CDs 407Promoting Your Music 408Connecting with an Email Newsletter 409Index 411