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Art of Digital Audio Recording The Art of Digital Audio Recording The Art of Digital Audio Recording A Practical Guide for Home and Studio Steve Savage With photos by Robert Johnson and diagrams by Iain Fergusson 3 3 Oxford University Press, Inc , publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Tai.
The Art of Digital Audio Recording The Art of Digital Audio Recording A Practical Guide for Home and Studio Steve Savage With photos by Robert Johnson and diagrams by Iain Fergusson 3 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Steve Savage Published by Oxford University Press, Inc 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Savage, Steve The art of digital audio recording: a practical guide for home and studio / Steve Savage; with photos by Robert Johnson and diagrams by Iain Fergusson p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-19-539409-2; 978-0-19-539410-8 (pbk.) Sound studios Sound—Recording and reproducing—Digital techniques I Title TK7881.4.S38 2010 621.389'3—dc22 2010032535 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my daughters Sophia and Thalia Thanks for all the hours of training! This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments vii This book was written because Norm Hirschy at Oxford University Press read something else that I had written He asked me if I was interested in writing a practical guide to recording, and I was very interested I had been a professional recording engineer for twenty years, and I had been teaching recording for ten years, so I felt ready to tackle a book of this nature Norm initiated the project and has nurtured it through each stage—thank you! My first mentor was Brian Risner, who mixed a record I had produced with the artist Bonnie Hayes Brian had worked extensively with the band Weather Report, and over the course of several projects with him I began to learn how creative the art of recording could be Brian’s ability to create a very productive and positive environment in the studio—while effortlessly handling all the technical requirements—has been a model for all of my work My good fortune to be teaching in the outstanding Recording Arts program at Los Medanos College has provided the proving ground for much of what is contained here, and it was the site used for much of the photography I was delighted to discover Iain Fergusson’s diagrams on Wikipedia, and I was able to track him down in New Zealand and engage him to the diagrams for this book His work exceeded my expectations and is a model of clarity The diagrams add enormously to the sometimes laborious descriptions of many recording functions My only regret is that we have yet to meet in person (the joys and vagaries of the Internet)! Robert Johnson is one of the most outstanding students to have come through my recording classes, and just happened to be a very accomplished photographer as well His photographs capture details of the recording process that can only be suggested in words I was fortunate to have a long-term working relationship with Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, and was able to access their spectacular studios and mic closet for additional photos included here I was aided in creating many of the screenshots by long-time musical collaborators Curtis Ohlson and Paul Robinson Curtis runs Digital Performer in his home studio, as well as being a gifted bass player and producer Paul Robinson is a Logic user, as well as a wonderfully versatile and talented guitar player I am indebted to a long list of artists and producers whom I have worked with over the years for all of the wonderful hours we have spent together in the studio I have attempted to condense something of the breadth of those experiences and the joy of making records into these pages This page intentionally left blank Contents ix Introduction • xi The Starting Point: Sound Meets the Computer • 1.1 Why Computers • 1.2 What Does It Sound Like? • 1.3 Signal Path • The Essentials: Where and How Recordings Are Made • 10 2.1 Recording Rooms and Control Rooms • 10 2.2 Studio Monitors • 14 2.3 Microphones and Mic Placement • 18 2.4 Mixing Boards and Control Surfaces • 29 2.5 EQ: General Information • 44 2.6 Dynamics (Compressors and Noise Gates) • 55 2.7 FX: Delays • 67 2.8 FX: Reverb • 69 2.9 Beyond Traditional DSP • 71 Recording Sessions: A Practical Guide • 76 3.1 Setup • 76 3.2 Headphone Mixes • 89 3.3 Survey of Recording Techniques for Instruments and Voice • 93 3.4 Beyond • 117 Editing: The New Frontier • 119 4.1 Editing Features • 119 4.2 Screen “Real Estate” • 130 4.3 Virtual Tracks (Playlists) • 132 4.4 Advanced Editing • 138 Three Fundamentals: Techniques Every Recordist Needs to Know • 154 5.1 Inserts/Plug-ins • 154 5.2 Send and Return • 159 5.3 Auto-switching (Auto-input) • 165 Mixing: The Most Creative and the Most Challenging Stage • 170 6.1 Mixing Requirements • 171 6.2 Building a Mix • 176 ... diagrams by Iain Fergusson p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 97 8-0 -1 9-5 3940 9-2 ; 97 8-0 -1 9-5 3941 0-8 (pbk.) Sound studios Sound—Recording and reproducing—Digital techniques I Title... and even frequency response These are right-angle corners and parallel surfaces Right angles, such as at most wall-to-wall, floor-to-wall and ceiling-to-wall intersections, will reflect sound back... built up around recording I had a 12-track studio in my garage (equipped with the short-lived Akai recording format) and recorded demos for rock bands for dirt-cheap One of those bands put its