Recording Techniques In The Studio

Here is a photo of the mixing desk we use in the college studio for recording. It is a Soundcraft Ghost desk. 

 The first stage will usually be to record some guide guitar, so we plug the guitar into the line in on the desk (it's only rough you see). We then select the L/R Switch, and pan the track dead left, then select the group out 1+2 switch, by panning the channel dead left we are just sending it to group out 1, we then turn the group out 1 up, and the output from this channel should be sending to the matching input on the soundcard, this should then show up in logic.

 Here is a photo of Bruce MacDonald recording some guide guitar for a demo track.

 When it comes to Drum recording, the images are fairly self explanitory of the positions of the mics. Remember, the mic should always be pointing directly at the source of the sound as the mic is always picking up from the front, so this will gain the clearest sound.

 Here is the setup we use for micing up the hi-hats, we often tend to use the AKG C1000s for this. I like to try placing the mic in different places and see which position sounds the best, so it's always worth spending the extra time to get the sound you like best.

 I always like to use Shure SM57's on the tom's and the snare, as they are very diirectional mic's, so they do not pick up much spill, i also find that they just sound very nice even dry, so they are easier to get to sound how you want when it comes to the mixing side of things. I always have the mics pointing towards the middle of the drum, especially on the snare drum as i find this is the spot where the main punch of the snare comes, although it is always reccomended to try different places to see which suits you best, but that is my personal favourite.

 When micing up the kick drum, i usually liek to use two mics, one inside the bass drum, and one outside the skin, i find that this works really well as they both pick up different tones, the one on the outside picks up a lot of the clicky high end tones which are important to help the kick cut through in a mix, and the one inside can be used to pick up more of the punch and the sub, though these can be eq'd seperately when mixing to uild up the perfect kick drum sound.

In this photo, as bruce is demonstrating, when recording the overheads, i find the best way to get an accurate stereo imaging is to point both mics towards the centre of the snare, and measure the distance from the centre of the snare to the mics, and make sure it is exactly the same in both mics, this can be done either using a tape measure, or just with a cable or piece of string, then when mixing, pan them dead left and right and you should find you have an accurate stereo imaging.

A lot more of these micing techniques apply when recording other instruments, like when micing up a guitar for example, even a slight mic adjustment in position over the speaker can drastically alter the sound, as will the choice of mic, so it is always worth trying different ones out to see which suits you best, my personal favourite is a Shure SM57 placed slightly off centre of the speaker, though i like to mix it up a little and try out other various mics and positions to.