2

!
13

3
4
11

12
7

1) Mac Pro!
2) Main computer monitor !
3) Universal Audio Apollo Quad audio interface!
4) SPL monitor and talkback controller !
5) Adams A77X Studio monitor speakers!
6) Yamaha HS5 active reference speakers !
7) Samson S-phone headphone amp !
8) Focusrite Safire pro 40 audio interface !
9) Focusrite ISA ONE ff direct input box!
10) Secondary computer monitor !
11) Apple keyboard !
12) Apple Mouse!

10

Studio 1 is run by an audio interface called the Universal Audio Apollo Quad. !

This is a quad core audio interface with 12 inputs and multiple outputs.using optical audio
other audio interfaces can be added onto it to expand it, these are known as slaves. In studio
1 we have a slave called the Focusrite 8 track interface. !

This interface simply act as extension of the Apollo, this is very useful for when you need to
some kind of recording where you need to use more microphones than is physically possible
with the Apollo, This was useful in my multitrack recording because I was recording 8 mics on
the drum kit. The Apollo comes with a piece of software that is essentially an of screen mixer,
in this mixer you will see the separate inputs from the Apollo itself, the Focusrite interface and
a device that I will be talking about next. This device is the Focusrite ISA ONE ff which is a
direct input box, this is used for plugging instruments such as guitars, bass and electric violins
straight into the compute, then in Logic you can add amps, effects and pedals to create the
sound you want to achieve. !

Another use for the ISA is that it can be used as a microphone preamp by plugging a
microphone directly into the the back via the XLR input. Within the Apollo mixer software that
is displayed on the secondary display you can also add in a whole library of plugins in here
such as high end reverb and compressors. On the mixer you can also control the level of the
track, the phantom power and the pad.

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
The computer that we use I studio 1 is a Mac Pro. The reason why we use a Mac is
because we need to run programs such as Logic Pro X and Logic Pro 9, both of
these softwares can only be run in Mac OSX. The reason why we chose to use the
pro model of the Mac is because in a recording studio you need to do a lot of tasks
that take a lot of computer power such as multitrack recording and the Mac Pro is
the only one with these kind of power capabilities. The larger speakers that we use
are the Adams A77X and we use these because they have a very good reputation
to being high quality speakers and are used by a lot of the top producers and
studios. !

!
Some of the features of the Adams are:!
- 2X 7" Carbon 100Wmsub/midwoofer !
- 1X 50w tweeter !
- Active three way studiomonitor !
- 30Hz-50KHz!
Another set of speakers that we run are the Yamaha HS5 active reference
speakers. !

!
!
!
!
!
!
!

The reason why we use two sets of speakers is because it is important to hear a
mix from multiple pairs of speakers and headphones because all kinds of people
may end up listening to to the final song and their setups may differ widely. Some of
the key features of the Yamaha HS5 speakers are:!

54Hz to 30 KHz!
2 way bass reflex !
Bi amplified !
XLR and TRS inputs for balanced and unbalanced connection!

The way that we easily switch between using the Yamaha and the Adams speakers
is by using the SPL monitor and talkback controller, as you can see, by pressing in
the output selection buttons you can decide whether to play the sound through one
set, the other, or both at the same time. !

!
The SPL also has a built in microphone, this is for something known as talkback.
With talkback, the person in the control room can talk to whoever is recording in the
live room. To do this you simply press in the talkback button and talk through the
microphone, it is important to not that while the button is pressed in the sound of
whoever is recording will not come through the speakers but this will not interfere
with the recording itself. !

The way that the recording artist will be able to hear the talkback and the mix will be
through headphones. The way that these connect to the computer is first of all they
plug into the patch bay on the wall in the live room, from here it will plug into our
headphone amp and then back into the SPL. The headphone amp that we use is
the Samson S-Phone headphone amp. !

!
Some of the key features of this headphone amp are:!
- takes up a single rack space!
- Is a four channel headline amp!
- Each output has and individual control knob along with indicating LEDs !

!
!

For my composition project I included a multitrack recording, in this recording I

recorded a drum kit as I felt that this was the best option and it went well with the
song, I will now talk about the different mics that I used, why I used them, and why I
positioned them where I did.!

Kick drum microphone: the Microphone that I used for the kick drum was the audix
F6 dynamic microphone. The reason why I chose to use a dynamic microphone for
the kick drum instead of a condenser is because it will respond better to the low
frequencies of the drum, if I used a condenser instead in its place the diaphragm
would brake. I placed the microphone inside of the the hole on the kick drum skin
because I wanted to pick up a lot of the attack of the drum. I used an XLR to plug
the microphone into the patch bay in input 2 of the Apollo. The frequency response
of this microphone is 40Hz to 16KHz.!

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

On the Kick drum I also used a microphone called a sub kick much like the one
shown in this picture. This sub kick had been custom made by the college so it has
no brand or model number. The purpose of this microphone is the pick up the really
low frequencies known as the sub bass, this is the kind of bass that you feel instead
of hear.!

On the Snare I used two different microphones, these were the shure SM57 and
sm58. These are both dynamic microphones and I chose them for the job because
the are strong dynamic microphones that can handle the loudness of the snare and
there frequency response is in the correct range. The frequency response of the 57
is 40Hz to 15KHz and with every the 58 it is 50Hz to 15KHz. The sm57 was pointed
towards the to centre of the drum and the the sm58 was pointing just next the snare
wires. !
!

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

On the rack Tom and the floor Tom I use the same model of microphone which is
the audix f2. This is a dynamic microphone that is great for mid to high frequencies
as the frequency response is 52Hz to 15KHz. I have these mics in mic stands
pointing directly to the centre of the drums because this is the point of the drum
where the greatest range of frequencies can be picked up. !

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

The last two microphones that I use are the Audix F9 pencil overhead condenser
microphones. These microphones are condenser which mean that they are better
suited to picking up higher frequencies, they also require phantom power to work
which can be found on both the Apollo and focusrite audio interfaces. Phantom
power sends 48V of power to the microphone to help it to work. I placed these
microphones in a XY pattern above the drum kit to pick up the sound of the room,
particularly the higher frequencies such as the cymbals. The frequency response of
these microphones is 40Hz to 20KHz. !

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!

The audix f6 and the sun kick were both plugged into inputs 2'and 3 in the studio, the reason why
we didn't use input 1 is because this input isn't routed anywhere because input 1 in the audio
interface goes into the vocal booth. The two kick drum Microphones go from the studio to the
patch bay room and then into studio one's control room. In this room the microphones are fed into
inputs 1 and 2 on the Apollo interface. !

The two Shure mics that I used on the snare drum were plugged into the XLR inputs at the side of
the studio near the vocal booth, from hear they signal goes into the colleges patch bay room. From
there the signal goes to studio one's control room. In here the signal goes into the Apollo, the
reason why I chose to have these two microtones going into the Apollo is because these inputs
come up as the first 4 inputs in Logic and it is recommended when recording to have the kick drum
and snare as the top two channels to keep things organised. !

The rest of the microphones that I used were plunged into the stage box at the other side of the
room near the projector screen, this is because all of the inputs on the other had been filled up.
The signal goes from this stage box to the patch bay room and then go the studio control room. In
here the the signal goes into the focusrite interface, then from here the signal goes into the Apollo
as the focusrite is a slave to the Apollo. It is important to remember to turn on phantom power for
the two inputs that require it. !

When we were working on Cali's project we recorded som acoustic guitar. To do this we used two
microphones, a Shure sm57 on the neck of the guitar and a Rode lager diaphragm microphone
near the hole. We used two microphone in different places to pick up two different sounds so that
the track can be mixed appropriately. !

When we were working on Scott Hayman's project,we recorded some bass guitar, to do this we
used a jack lead to plug the bass guitar into the DI box, from here the signal leads into the Apollo
interface.!

!
!

After making the appropriate recordings the song needs to be mixed. We mixed two different
tracks, our personal ones, and a cover of Africa by Toto. !
The first step of mixing would be to open up the EQ on the separate tracks and cut out the
unnecessary frequencies. Examples of this would be cutting out the lowest frequencies on the
overhead channel and cutting out the highest frequencies on the kick drum microphone . !
On the bottom of the snare we added a low cut of 96 Hz and a high cut of 9500Hz!
On the High hats we added a low cut of 150 Hz!
It is important to make these cuts because if not all of these unused frequencies build up
unnecessary noise in the background of the track. !

The next step that we did was to put elements of the track through a compressor. What the
compressor does is it will boost the quieter sounds and bring down the levels of the higher noises,
this allows the whole track to sound louder without actually boosting the master level. !
After the track Has been compressed you can set the levels of the different components of the
track as appropriate. The low, mid or high end of the track may be lacking, the way to tell if this is
occurring is through using a metering device. !

As you can see here in the multi mixer it is quite easy to see which areas of the track are lacking
so it is important to alter them accordingly. !

Another part of mixing would be the effects that can be used to add body to the recording. One of
the effects that we used was reverb, this can be easily found by clicking on the insert section on
the mixer of the track that you want to add the effect to, then adjust the reverb level accordingly. !
When recording the acoustic guitar we used the built in pedal board in Logic Pro X, the pedal that
we used was the Chorus pedal along with a small amount of the phase pedal.!

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
.!
!