Recording
Recording is the moment vibrating air becomes something you can keep. Everything afterwards works with what you captured in that step, which makes it the most important and the least reversible part of the process.
- 5 levels
- placement first
- proximity effect
Where you run into this
- Recording
- Podcasting
- Live sound
- Production
In short
There is a hierarchy that makes most decisions for you: the musician and the instrument, the room they sound in, where you put the microphone, which microphone it is, and only then what you do in the mix. Anything you fix at level one is free; anything you fix at level five costs you quality.
Hearing how much a room contributes is the fastest way to improve recordings without buying anything.
How it works
Placement is the most powerful tool you have, and it is free. Distance decides the ratio of direct sound to room. Angle decides how much of the instrument you capture and which part. Both change the recording more than any choice of microphone within the same price class.
Where you run into this
- Two recordings of the same instrument that sound like different instruments
- A vocal that got warmer because the singer moved closer
- A guitar amp that changes completely half a metre to the left
In practice
Know the proximity effect: with a directional microphone, moving closer raises the low frequencies noticeably. That is a tool for warmth and a trap for consistency, because a singer who moves changes their own tone as they go.