Studio Manual

Equipment
Mixer
Channel Path
First of all a very simple concept that will help you
understand any mixer is that even though they are
generally big and have many different controls
most of the controls do exactly the same thing they
are just duplicated for multichannel recordings.
The Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer has a lot of
different buttons so we will start from the top of
one channel strip. At the top of each channel there
is a Gain control this lets you increase the volume
of a channel is the signal is too low. This is generally
on all mixers and is a very useful tool however it should not need to be used to an extreme as then
you may have a high signal to noise ratio. Microphone Placement can usually eliminate the use of the
gain control but its always nice to have it there to get your levels to their desired places. Be careful
when you use the gain control however as it can lead to channels clipping. Below the gain control in
the same section is the Phantom Power (48 Volts) this is used for mainly condenser microphones
which need the extra power to be able to function.
Also there is a line input button so if you are recording a guitar straight into the mixer then you will
need to press this button. Just below the line button is the phase button which you can identify by
the O with a cross through it. This function is more complex but is highly useful in some
circumstances. The phase button allows you to reverse the phase of an input. You may be thinking
why would you need to do that? Well the answer is pretty simple. For example if you were recording
drums but your overhead microphones were different distances away from the drum kit the sound
you would be getting from one would be out of time
with the other. This is due to the sound taking longer to
be picked up in the closer microphone than in the
microphone that is placed further away. This is a more
amateur mistake but one that could easily go unnoticed.
This button reverses the phase and makes it easier for
you to record microphones from different distances.
Next is the 100Hz control this control is very helpful as it
allows you to cut out some of the lower unwanted
frequencies that maybe conflicting in your mix. This is a
good function in the mixer as a lot of people who mix
generally cut out frequencies lower than 100Hz. They do
this as a lot of instruments are spread over different

frequencies over the spectrum and to make all the

various elements of a song sound defined.
Generally apart from Basses, Kick drums and sub
Basses a lot of the frequencies under this range are
unwanted. The final button in this section is called
the sub grouper, this is allows you to group
channels. Its pretty simple; say if you wanted to
control 2 guitars you could select them both using
the sub grouper.
Noise Gate, Channel Fader and EQ
This section of the mixer is a somewhat noise gate. If you dont know what a noise gate is then
basically it allows you to control the volume of a signal. Its like a compressor but instead of
compressing audio it reduces sounds below a given threshold. So with that definition out of the way
lets get onto the controls. So to activate the Noise gate you have to press the gate button. The
Range control changes the range of the gate from 15db to 60db. The Threshold button allows the
gate to be varied from -40db to +10db. Below that there are bandpass filters with a frequency which
allows an alternation between 70Hz to 4kHz by the Fill control. After that there is the release control
which you can increase the hold of your recordings. The Channel fader controls the level of your
channel it can change the overall gain of a channel by 10Db.
For any extra control there is always the cut button located to
the side of the channel fader. The Bounce function allows you
to isolate your channel from the overall mix and bounce it
separately. In every mixer there will be a range of in depth EQ
controls which you can use to boost certain frequencies in
the Soundcraft Sapphyre mixer the controls are easy to use
and are separated into different boost and cut buttons.
HF For a 15Db cut or boost of around 12Khz
LF - For a 15Db cut or boost of around 60Hz
HMF and LMF - For a 15Db cut or boost between 600Hz12Khz and 100Hz-2kHz

Outboard Gear
The term Outboard gear refers to external
effects units. These units are used to change
how a musical instrument sounds. They can be
used for live recordings or in a recording studio
like the Outboard equipment in Studio A. In
Studio A they are connected to the mixer via
Bantam leads. These leads allow the outboard
gear to be used for mixes via the mixer or
interface. This can be very useful as sometimes
having hardware beats software plug-ins as
most of these plug-ins are actually simulations
of real life equipment so having this gear like
this gives you a much more clean an accurate
sound in some peoples opinion. Outboard gear
comes in many types such as:
-EQ
-Compressors
-Time Effects units (such as Reverb, Echoes and
delays)
-Pre-amps
-Noise Gates
-Limiters and much more

Studio Monitors
In the studio there are two sets of studio monitors used for different reasons. The larger KRK E8s
are the most used monitors and rightly so they are extremely powerful and give a clean crisp and
accurate sound. Studio monitors like these are especially good for producing as they do not add any
unwanted frequencies that may make tracks harder to mix like some headphone brands do. They
are placed upon monitor stands as large
monitors like the E8s weight alot. The Second
lot are a pair of Fostex speakers used for
playing back mixes to see how they sound on a
wider range of speaker systems. They are
connected to the mixing desk via an XLR cable
into the output channels. Both Monitors are
active which means they do not need an
external power amplifier to be used. They are
pointed inward to get a better stereo field
which makes it easier to mix and pan tracks. It
is important that before you master your tracks
you mix them on multiple speakers to make
sure they sound good from not just the
powerful KRK E8s.

Audio Interface
An audio interface is a piece of equipment that
provides inputs and outputs to a computer.
They allow you to record with microphones,
electric guitars, Bass guitars, keyboards, DJ
decks and any other instruments that have a
digital output. They also have other features
such as phantom power and built in effects but
they are largely used with mixers like in studio
A where they provide a means to record into a
computer via a Firewire cable for editing on
Logic.

The Mesa and recording amplifiers

The Mesa is a guitar amplifier which plugs into the patch bay which you can use to record basses and
guitars you plug in a jack lead in and put the other end into your chosen instrument and are able to
simulate real amps via this piece of outboard equipment. You also have a range of other knobs and
controls which are self explanatory such as the ON switch but the Mesa is a very useful piece of
equipment as you eliminate the need to record via an amplifier which you require a microphone for.
There are two main ways of recording basses or guitars. The first way is to record your chosen
instrument through an amplifier with a microphone. With this method you are limited to the
amplifiers that you have whereas the second method which is recording it straight into your interface
or pre amp using a jack cable. This method is sometimes better as if you have plug-ins such as amp
designer you can use it to manipulate it to sound like a real live amp and this way you have plenty of
variety to choose from and are not just limited to the amps you have.
To Record Basses or guitars using the first method you will need to make sure you have an amp
plugged in and ready to record. You would use a dynamic microphone to record off of amplifiers and
Then you will need to place a microphone on a stand and put the microphone so that is it pointing to
the edge of the speaker cone. Once that is done check the levels so there is no clipping. We did the
second method by plugging a bass into a pre amp and recording it straight into Logic. Before trying
any of these methods you need to make sure that the instrument chosen is appropriately tuned as
this may affect the overall sound of the recording. Guitars can go out of tune quickly due to
abnormal room temperatures.

It has a number of controls some are simpler than others such as:
-Bass (Which allows you to increase the lower
frequencies of your instrument)
-Treble (Which allows you to increase the higher
frequencies of your instrument)
-Mid (Which allows you to increase the mid range
frequencies of your instrument)
-Presence (Which adds more reverb)
-Master (Which increases the overall volume.
Basically a Gain control)

XLR
XLR cables are generally used for all high
quality microphones and are balanced. Using
a balanced cable is better as you can use
longer length cables with no worry of external
disturbances interfering with your recordings.
The usually have 3 pins and have two different
end connectors, one being the male side and
another being the female side. Some
microphones which use the XLR connection
need an extra 48 Volts. This is called Phantom
Power and is needed to power condenser
microphones as they have more.
Inch Jack
Unlike the XLR cable this cable is unbalanced meaning that it is
more susceptible to outside noise. The Inch jack is used in many
things such as Guitars, Keyboards, Synthesizers and headphones.
This connection is used in studio A between a guitar and an amp
or the Mesa.

Bantam
In studio A Bantam leads are used to route signals between
outboard gear and the mixer. This is done via a patch bay in
the mixer.

Firewire
Firewire cables are used to connect audio interfaces to
computers. They are used instead of USB as they are
generally much faster. In the studio, this is how the
apple Mac computer is hooked up to the audio interfaces

Signal Levels
Signal level is the level wanted noise to the level of unwanted
noise.
Direct Injection
Direct injection is a method of connecting instruments to a
mixing console. There are many forms of Direct Injections
such as a DI Box. The most common method of Direct
Injection is however simply plugging in the guitar straight into
a digital interface. DI Boxes are much more frequent in
professional studios as they tend to get a cleaner sounding
recording due to features such as Level matching and
Impedance bridging. Also this helps limit distortion and noise
hindering your recordings.
Patch Bay
A Patch bay is a piece of equipment which is used to connect
outboard gear together and also to mixers so that these
effects can be used in a recording. They come in all different
shapes and sizes and are compatible with bantam leads.

VU meter
A VU meter is a device which displays the signal level of audio
equipment. Older VU meters used a moving arrow to show
you the current volume level whereas more modern day VU
meters display the volume by LED lights

Noise Gate
A Noise Gate is a piece of hardware, can also be software however, that is used to eliminate
unwanted background noise from recordings. This is done by using the control called threshold to
adjust how high or low the volume you want the gate to be so that only certain signals above a
certain level will pass through. Some Noise Gates have Frequency controls so you can target only
low, high or mid frequencies easier.

Parametric & Shelf EQ

Parametric EQ is different to a regular shelf EQ as it has more control over each frequency. A shelf
EQ is locked at 20HZ whereas a parametric Equaliser can be changed to control a centre frequency of
various amounts.

Outboard Compressor
An Outboard Compressor is like a compressor
you would find in a D.A.W. such as Logic but its
the real article. Plug-ins on Logic are just
simulations of what outboard compressors can
do. In some peoples opinion they are better than
plug-ins as they can sound clearer and some have
more functionality depending on which outboard
compressor you have. These compressors can
increase and decrease the overall volume of a
recording and make the overall track the same
level.

Health and Safety

Being in a studio filled with all different types of equipment, cables and furniture can cause many
safety issues. So when operating the studio you have to be very careful of a few things. Trip Hazards
are one of the most important things to be aware of as with so many cables on the floor and having
to move between studios and live rooms could cause problems. One way around this would be to
tidy cables, stands and equipment and make sure it is out of the way. Ensure that there is nothing
left on the floor at all times and be generally aware as there is lots of expensive equipment.
Fire Hazards is also another thing to be wary about as all this electrical equipment is dangerous on
its own as if a its left on for too long it could start to overheat and cause a fire hazard. They way to
ensure that this doesnt happen is to turn off all equipment when done using it so that you do not
damage it as well as cause a fire hazard. However if there is a fire hazard you should grab your things
and leave through one of the fire exists. If you are unaware of a fire the fire alarm will warn you of
any incoming danger. In addition no food or drink is allowed into the studios as this prevents any
case of spillages and damaging equipment.
Microphones
Microphones are needed in the studio to record instruments for the bands. There are several
instruments that need to be recorded with each band and multiple types of microphones need to be
used for every different one. Some instruments need a more powerful microphone to get the most
accurate recording such as an acoustic guitar needs a condenser microphone as it is more powerful
and sensitive meaning that it will pick up a bigger range of frequencies.
One of the microphones we use is the Shure SM57 which is
used for many things such as recording snare drums and
amplifiers. Its a very versatile microphone and thats why it is
the industry standard when it comes to dynamic microphones.
One of the microphones we use is the Shure SM58 which is
used for many vocals. Its used in lots of live environments and
is very hard to break however because of this quality it is used
in studios much more frequently. In fact its very similar to the
SM57 if you take the protective cover of off the top.

Recording Drums
When recording drums there is a lot of mistakes that can be made which limit the overall sound.
There are multiple areas in this process which you need to focus on, these areas area: Microphone
types, Microphone placement, Cabling and Maintaining levels. There are two main types of
microphones that we used There are different variations of each type but they all do a similar job.
Recording drums you mainly use dynamic microphones all with different diameters. For instance for
the Bass Drum we used a larger dynamic microphone to pick up the lower frequencies whereas for
the snare we used a Shure Sm57 which is much smaller and picks up less. The second type of
microphone we used was a small diaphragm condenser microphone for the overhead microphones.
We used condenser microphones in this instance to get a much wider and atmospheric sound to the
drums as condensers are more sensitive and require an extra 48 volts of electricity (referred to as
Phantom Power).This means that they pick up a wider range of frequencies which adds depth to the
recording. Cabling is important when recording drums as although it is a smaller aspect of recording
drums it can be easy to make mistakes. When using stands for instance you need to carefully wrap
the XLR cables around the leaning arm.
Microphone placement is one of the most crucial components in getting a good recording and for
each microphone there is a unique spot which gets the best sound. For the bass drum the best place
is inside the hole of the kick. It needs to be placed around about in the centre but not so far that the
attack of the drum is too fast. The first and second snare microphone needs to be facing the centre
of the snare to get a sharper sound but it needs to still be close to the rim as otherwise it could get in
the drummer's way. You need to be careful of as although having the microphone close to the
individual drums themselves generally gets a clearer sound you have to think about how a drummer
would play so this often needs to be taken into account.
The Toms are similar to the snare drum placement but they have a wider diaphragm so they can be
placed slightly further away. Some studios may have clip on microphone stands for the tom drums
this is often easier but you can still get a good sound by just using regular stands. The Hi Hat
microphone needs to placed almost directly above the Hi hat a few inches away from the bell of the
hat. The overhead microphones can be placed in two ways. It is debatable which way sounds better
as the first method gives you a more enclosed sound whereas the second feels much more open.
Lastly The Room microphone can be placed anywhere in the room which your drums are located in
and just adds more atmospheric depth to the overall sound of the drums. Cabling even though is a
more minor detail in recording drums it is still important to wrap cables around stands so that they
do not interfere with any recordings. Wrapping up cables when finished is also important as not
doing so may leave cables damaged or cause a trip hazard. Once all this is completed its always good
to check all your levels and make any necessary alterations so that no channels are clipping and they
are all more or less even in the mix. Some Drum recordings use sub kick microphones which are
made from old monitors, the one we used was made up of an old Yamaha monitor to record the sub
bass frequencies to almost record samples that sound 808 like. Before you record your drums make
sure that if you are using a under snare microphone that the invert phase button is selected as the
snare microphone may be at a different distance to your under snare microphone.

This is the drum kit after we had setup all of the

microphones and stands. This is the overall view
and you can see from the overheads that all of
the microphones have been positioned as they
have been positioned and directed to the same
point on the drum kit, which in this case was the
Snare drum. The Overheads are the exact
distance away from each other so that there are
no phase issues. You can also see that the cables
have been carefully wrapped around the stands
so they are out of the way of the drummer and
dont interfere with any of the microphones.

This is a picture of the Bass drum ready to be

recorded. As you can see the microphone used
has a larger diagram to pick up the lower
frequencies of the kick drum. Also it has been
directed straight into the hole of the drum
which means it will get a much more punchy
sound than when recording with the
microphone outside the drum. The stand is
lowered to make it easier to get a better angle
and also the cables are again out of the way of
the drum.

Here you can see the Floor Tom and the top
Snare Drum microphones before the recordings.
The floor tom microphone still has a bigger
diaphragm than the snare drum microphone
but it is smaller than the bass drum as the floor
tom. Both use stands directed to the centre of
the drum with both microphones pointing
downwards for a clearer sound. You need to do
this as otherwise you may get to much bleed
from your other drums.

Here you can see the Hi Hat and Rack Tom microphones.
The Hi Hat as it emits higher frequencies a microphone
with a smaller diaphragm is needed whereas the rack tom
has a noticeably larger diaphragm. The Hi Hat microphone
is the most unique to place as it needs to be 3 or 4 inches
away from the bell at located above the top cymbal
pointing directly down. On the other hand the Rack Tom
microphone is around the edge of the drum so it doesnt
hinder the drummer and is pointing towards the centre.