Technology has really come of age in recent years and
one of the best formats for capturing live material is the Roland R9 Edirol which has
stereo microphones, a range of record formats and captures straight to solid state memory cards.
The advantage with the edirol is that it is a digital format and as such
doesn't have the inherent problems of tape hiss associated with tape
recording analogue mechanisms. For many years whenever I bought a new set
of NLP or hypnosis tapes, the first thing I had to do was to take them
into the studio and start "the clean up operation!" This meant removing
all the annoying background noise and hiss, so I could actually hear what
was on the recording!
Recording on a PC
My studio recording is done on computers. One of the absolute joys of using this medium is that you can see you work in visual waveforms, as well as hearing it. This means that you have two ways to check the quality of your work. If you are going to use a PC, I recommend using an audio biased sound card, suitable for these specific needs. Is I mentioned in my previous article, I recommend Midiman sound cards (midiman.co.uk) , which have served me well over many years with my own work and when recording other people.
If you want a really straight ahead easy programme for recording NLP or hypnosis work, look no further than Adobe Audition (adobe.com) This used to be called Cool Edit Pro, until Adobe bought out Syntrillium, the previous manufacturer. Audition is very easy to use and you can multi- track up to 120 tracks if you want to go seriously crazy! As I mention later in this article, subscribe to Sound on Sound magazine and save yourself time and money by following their excellent advice!
Microphones
I am constantly amazed by people who fail to realise
that an investment in a quality microphone, will make a massive
difference to the final recording. Sony produce a range of mics and my
advice is to grab one for about £100 as this will make a huge difference
to the final recording. The are a variety of clip mics and stand alone
mics, but I favour the stand alone type as in some instances the clip
mic if not properly setup, will overload and ruin the vocal recording.
God bless the Chinese!
In studio settings for voice work, I suggest using valve microphones. Historically these would be pretty costly, with a basic mic costing around £1000. Today with manufacturing overseas, the Chinese have started to produce some excellent units which are in my opinion as good as the older mics, but for a fraction of the price! I use SE mics (tbkmics.com) for all current work and these work out at about £300+ for each unit. Of course if you are recording onto a PC, its also best to have a pre-amplifier, which site between the mic and your PC, allowing you to adjust input levels. There are a number of quality units that will do a good job and I recommend TL Audio (tlaudio.co.uk) and Focusrite (focusrite.com)
Monitors
If you are working in a PC recording environment, I
strongly suggest using TFT monitors. These have great viewing
definition, don't fry you with radiation and most importantly look very
cool! I use a number of 19 inch monitors which allow me to work easily
with more complicated recordings where I can be using up to 25 tracks at
any one time! If you want to use more than one monitor for your PC,
check that your graphics card will handle duel options. However be
warned, once you use multiple monitors, you will never return to a
single monitor setup!
Stereo and multi-channel recording
With the advent of DVDs, many people are getting used to multi-sound recording. In recent years I have begun to produce work in DTS multi-sound format. This becomes particularly exciting with the option to have many more separate channels of sound than just the normal two stereo options. I am convinced that this will become more of the format for the future as people use their multi-sound systems to hear music as well as movie soundtracks. I use Steinberg's Nuendo (steinberg.net/) as a software package which will do pretty much anything you could possibly want, but is more complex to use than Audition! If you are going to go this route, you will need a monitoring setup that allows you to listen back with a 6 speaker setup. If like me space is a consideration, I recommend using KEF KHT series of speakers which are excellent! (kef.com) You will also need a software package that allows you to record in surround sound and a DTS decoder as suggested in the previous article. My guess however is that many reading this will be happy to settle for a decent voice recording and well produced music, which fortunately is pretty easy to achieve these days!
Behind the Scenes Documentary
For more information watch the Human Alchemy Studios: Behind the Scenes Documentary
SOS magazine
Sound on Sound magazine (soundonsound.com) is a must buy for anyone seriously thinking about producing their own material. This magazine appears monthly and is easy to read with essential practical tips on recording and equipment.
Published 2002 - Nick Kemp
