White Noise vs. Pink Noise vs. Brown Noise
What noise annoys an oyster? A noisy noise annoys an oyster! Now we’ve established that, let’s turn our attention to another important question: what’s the difference between white, pink and brown noise? These different flavours of noise are separate and distinct concepts; yes, they’re all noisy and annoying, but they’re differently noisy and annoying […]
FAQs
Allow your eyeballs to graze upon a selection of real answers to real questions from real people. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve just asked me something similar. I’ll add to this post as more interesting talking points emerge… 1. How long will it take to record x songs? You will find detailed answers […]
Why I Love Recording
Yesterday, after some time feeling decidedly down in the dumps over the horrific year that has been 2020, I dusted myself down, pulled on my engineer’s boilersuit and donned the requisite veil of professionalism to undertake a drum recording session that had been booked, cancelled due to Covid, faffed over and subsequently rebooked. This year […]
To Click Or Not To Click? That Is The Question
In the modern era of music recording it is generally accepted practice to use a click track as the basis upon which to construct your impending masterpiece. Ah, the humble click track; that annoying blippy-bloop that has become so much a staple of the music production process. Fun Fact: the first time I ever used […]
Comb Filtering In Drum Overhead Microphones
Recording drums in a small room is a problem that any engineer not blessed with an infinite budget must deal with at some point. Among the difficulties inherent in this scenario is the problem of comb filtering in the audio signal due to the microphone’s proximity to a boundary, i.e. the ceiling or a nearby […]
Impulse Responses & Convolution Reverb
How To Sample An Acoustic Space Those familiar with audio production probably know that there are two types of digitally synthesised reverb effect. The first, and generally most popular given its byte-sized (heh) use of computer resources is known as “algorithmic” reverb, where the incoming signal is, sample by sample, multiplied by a factor dictated […]
Binaural Recording
Have you ever wondered how it is possible for the human brain to so accurately detect the location of a perceived sound? We only have two ears, yet somehow we are able to discern the differences between sounds originating from any direction within our 3-dimensional environment – in front, behind, above, below, left or right. […]
Eliminating High-Hat Spill
When recording a drum kit one of the most perennial problems encountered is high-hat spill on the snare microphone. Some engineers claim to have made peace with this issue by utilising the signal as simply “part of the drum sound”. This doesn’t do it for me since, among other problems, it ruins my stereo image […]
Thread Adaptors And The Pain Of Existence
My sound engineering brethren, I feel your pain. I do. And for years I have been struggling just as you have, coerced into climbing that familiar mountain, bravely embarking ‘cross the bridge of despair, a spirit yearning for freedom, thoughts mired in the darkness of a wilderness within which only fools and heroes tread, all […]
Drum Miking Techniques
While working as a freelance engineer in a prominent Brighton studio I saw that here lay an excellent opportunity to properly exploit a decent live room and a large selection of microphones (a combination of ribbon mics with my own extensive set of small diaphragm condensers) in order to once and for all produce the […]
