Recording Systems - Dream Home Cinema

The stereo system or surround system is really only one half of a complete music reproduction system; the other half is the recording system. Understanding how recordings are made will deepen your understanding of how they are played back on your audio system. To that end we suggest that you make some recordings yourself. To get started, simply record a single musician playing an acoustic instrument in a very quiet room with good acoustics.

Microphones come in a variety of types such as dynamic, condenser, and ribbon. There are also a number of possible polar patterns including omni, cardioids, hyper cardioids, and figure-of-eight. In addition they can be arrayed in various ways including spaced (often used with omnis), X-Y, and ORTF. Without going into a lengthy discussion here of microphones and array selection, you could start with a pair of cardioid condensers microphones arrayed in an X-Y configuration. Place the microphones where you think they will pick up the best balance of direct vs. indirect sound, relative to the musician playing the acoustic instrument. Choose a room or hall with good acoustics; otherwise you will probably not be fully satisfied with the results that you hear. Set your recording levels so that the loudest sound does not overload any part of the recording system.

To accurately assess your progress, setup your playback system in another room so that you can monitor the live microphone feed. If you have really neutral acoustics in the monitoring room with low background noise and a well set up and warmed up monitoring system, you'll be best prepared to make decisions about how to adjust the microphone placement.

So you're now set up and properly adjusted; hit the record button and capture the musical event. When the event is complete, take the recording back to your reference system and play it. How well did you do? What could you have done better? Now go back and repeat the experience again and again and again, learning a bit more each time.

You will ultimately learn that the very best recordings of acoustic music need the following:

A very quiet, acoustically adjustable room or hall which is designed specifically for recording with microphones, including very clean electrical feeds, grounds, and shielding from RFI and EMI.
The best microphones for the particular type of music, instruments, and acoustic space.
The best possible microphone preamplifiers.
The best possible recording storage device.
A very quiet, acoustically neutral listening room for monitoring.
The best possible playback monitoring system properly set up and warmed up, one which is very tonally neutral, very phase accurate, and with excellent transient response.
Musicians who have learned how to play for a recording.
An experienced recording engineer who can think and discriminate like a mastering engineer.
A conducive environment that allows the musician to relax and play up to his or her highest potential.
And finally no distractions for the recording personnel so that they can focus on doing the best possible job without time constraints or any interruptions.

Phone: Carlsbad:(760) 415-8742 Encinitas:(760) 415-5996 Fax: (760) 635-3854		Dream Home Cinema
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Recording Systems Service	Recording Systems The stereo system or surround system is really only one half of a complete music reproduction system; the other half is the recording system. Understanding how recordings are made will deepen your understanding of how they are played back on your audio system. To that end we suggest that you make some recordings yourself. To get started, simply record a single musician playing an acoustic instrument in a very quiet room with good acoustics. For simple acoustical recording, you'll need: two microphones, a two channel microphone preamp, a recording device, and a monitoring system. Microphones come in a variety of types such as dynamic, condenser, and ribbon. There are also a number of possible polar patterns including omni, cardioids, hyper cardioids, and figure-of-eight. In addition they can be arrayed in various ways including spaced (often used with omnis), X-Y, and ORTF. Without going into a lengthy discussion here of microphones and array selection, you could start with a pair of cardioid condensers microphones arrayed in an X-Y configuration. Place the microphones where you think they will pick up the best balance of direct vs. indirect sound, relative to the musician playing the acoustic instrument. Choose a room or hall with good acoustics; otherwise you will probably not be fully satisfied with the results that you hear. Set your recording levels so that the loudest sound does not overload any part of the recording system. To accurately assess your progress, setup your playback system in another room so that you can monitor the live microphone feed. If you have really neutral acoustics in the monitoring room with low background noise and a well set up and warmed up monitoring system, you'll be best prepared to make decisions about how to adjust the microphone placement. So you're now set up and properly adjusted; hit the record button and capture the musical event. When the event is complete, take the recording back to your reference system and play it. How well did you do? What could you have done better? Now go back and repeat the experience again and again and again, learning a bit more each time. You will ultimately learn that the very best recordings of acoustic music need the following: A very quiet, acoustically adjustable room or hall which is designed specifically for recording with microphones, including very clean electrical feeds, grounds, and shielding from RFI and EMI. The best microphones for the particular type of music, instruments, and acoustic space. The best possible microphone preamplifiers. The best possible recording storage device. A very quiet, acoustically neutral listening room for monitoring. The best possible playback monitoring system properly set up and warmed up, one which is very tonally neutral, very phase accurate, and with excellent transient response. Musicians who have learned how to play for a recording. An experienced recording engineer who can think and discriminate like a mastering engineer. A conducive environment that allows the musician to relax and play up to his or her highest potential. And finally no distractions for the recording personnel so that they can focus on doing the best possible job without time constraints or any interruptions.

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