Home Recording
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Home Recording Ben Milstead ii Home Recording Power Copyright ©2001 Muska & Lipman Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without written permission from the publisher, except for brief passages for review purposes. Address all permission requests to the publisher. All copyrights and trademarks used as examples or references in this book are retained by their individual owners. Credits: Cover and interior design, Stephanie Japs, Michelle Frey, Cathie Tibbetts, and John Windhorst, DOV Graphics; technical editors, Denis LaBrecque, Duane Ford, and Pat Pickslay; index, Kevin Broccoli, Broccoli Information Management. Technology and the Internet are constantly changing, and by necessity of the lapse of time between the writing and distribution of this book, some aspects might be out of date. Accordingly, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for actions taken by readers based upon the contents of this book. Library of Congress Catalog Number 00-106698 ISBN 1-929685-08-4 5 4 3 2 1 Educational facilities, companies, and organizations interested in multiple copies or licensing of this book should contact the publisher for quantity discount information. Training manuals, CD-ROMs, and portions of this book are also available individually or can be tailored for specific needs. Muska & Lipman Publishing 2645 Erie Avenue, Suite 41 Cincinnati, Ohio 45208 www.muskalipman.com [email protected] This book is composed in Melior, Columbia, Helvetica, and Courier typefaces using QuarkXpress 4.0.4, Adobe PhotoShop 5.0.2, and Adobe Illustrator 8.0. Created in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States of America http://www.muskalipman.com iii About the Author Ben Milstead [email protected] Ben Milstead has been tooling with home recording, rock music, and computers for almost two decades. He has been identified as an “auditory person” in relationships, is orthogonal but not dangerous, and is fed up with all the books on the market by professional engineers pertaining to “home recording.” He has been developing, writing, editing, and publishing technical and computer books, articles, and Web sites for almost ten years and currently manages Web services for the SoundMAX division of Analog Devices, Inc.—in addition to prototyping audio software applications for the PC and audio tools for gaming. He has founded and played in several rock bands, produced two full-length CDs, composed game music, and scored music for video and the Web. He is currently on a crusade to legitimize Gibson and Moog as deities by the human race. Dedication To Diane for putting up with all the long nights and latte trips, the workaholism, and the Valley. And to Alex and Summer for giving me the mindfulness to ever want to teach anybody anything. Acknowledgments You’ve read this before, but it’s really true: A book like this could never make it to print without the hard work and talents of a whole slew of people. Thanks to Hope Stephan, Allen Wyatt, and Andy Shafran at Muska &Lipman—they’re a first-rate team of professionals who are publishing with passion. In addition, some of the details in this book were researched or verified with the help of a number of excellent resources online, including Harmony Central, ProRec.com, MP3.com, and the countless personal home pages and newsgroups created and maintained by home recording artists and musicians. My hat is off to all of you trying to make and keep your experiences and ideas accessible to Internet users and the music community at large. A special thanks goes to Denis LaBrecque and Duane Ford for nailing every technical detail to the wall and for stepping up at the last minute to provide additional notes and tips for readers. Thanks also to Laddie Ervin and Nick Pryor for giving me real-world feedback and keeping me mindful of the spirit of home recording (a subject we all hold near and dear), and for being such good friends. Thanks to Pat Pickslay for providing early additional source material to use. While their assistance was invaluable, any errors remain mine. Finally, a heartfelt thanks to you for reading this book, and for wanting to do your art, spread your jam, and bring your music to the rest of us. http://www.muskalipman.com iv Contents Introduction . .1 1—So You Wanna Be a Star? Giving the Audience What You Have . 5 Who Is Your Audience? . 5 What’s the Point? . 6 Got Milk? Go Professional! . 6 Analog vs. Digital Audio . 7 Why is Digital So Hot? . 8 Yeah, But Analog Is Cool. 10 More Power Means More Responsibility . 11 Getting Ready for Your Home Studio . 11 2—Choosing Your Space Choosing Your Space . 15 Common-Sense Considerations . 16 The Complexities of Room Acoustics . 16 Absorption and Diffusion . 17 On the Surface . 17 Speaker Placement . 19 Size Matters . 19 Soundproofing . 21 Cabling Basics . 22 In the Garage: A Dream Setup . 23 In the Garage: A Practical Example . 24 3—Assembling Your Digital Studio Computing Audio . 25 Real-World Costs . 27 The Software, Uh, Really Works Now! . 28 Go Direct With DirectX . 29 But Shouldn’t I Be Using a Mac? . 31 Windows and the Wide World of Computer Geekdom . 32 Briefly, The Computer . 32 The Sound Card . 33 If the Computer’s the Heart, the Mixer’s the Brain . 34 You’ve Got to Have Connections . 35 Cables . 35 Electric Studioland . 38 4—Listen to You Your Voice . 41 Posture . 41 Breathing . 42 Support . 42 Registers . 42 http://www.muskalipman.com v Resonance . 42 Expressing Yourself . 42 Selecting a Microphone . 43 Microphone Types . 44 Response Patterns, AKA “Pickup Patterns” . 48 Vocal Microphone Placement . 51 Singing Style . 52 Getting the Right Kind of Feedback . 54 A Multiple Vocal Primer . 55 Stacking Vocals . 55 Toward a More Perfect Harmony . 57 Vocal Mixing . 58 Troubleshooting Vocal Mixes . 58 The Problem Could Be Noise . 58 The Problem Could Be Space . 59 The Problem Could Be the Level . 61 The Problem Could Be the Frequency . 61 The Zen of Microphones: Guidelines for Vocal.