In today's lesson, we recorded 16 tracks in 4 different locations. We recorded a close mic and distant mic using dynamic and condenser microphones.
Here is the link to my SoundCloud page where you can find all 16 recordings:
www.soundcloud.com/christian_obrien
Locations...
Recording Studio – Close
The first location that we went to record, was in fact the recording studio. We knew what we were going to get with the studio recording. A clean and sharp sound, due to the sound treatment foam sheets placed on the walls and ceiling of the studio. This cuts out any reverbs or echo due to the sound waves hitting the walls and being unable to bounce off creating external noise as the waves are absorbed by the foam sheets.
For all recordings in each environment we used two microphones, a condenser and a dynamic. We also recorded the guitar from two different distances. This meant we would have four recordings for each environment.
The dynamic recording for both distances sounds very bassy compared to the condenser. This must have been because the dynamic picks up lower frequencies better than a condenser and a condenser is better at picking up high frequencies.
At the end of the track you can hear the metronome that was accidentally left on, but we had removed the snare drums to avoid them making noises whilst the guitar played. The snare drum moves because of the certain frequency the guitar make which causes it to rattle. To remove the snare drum would mean there will be no background noise.
– Far
The far recordings were similar to the close recordings, just slightly quieter. Again the dynamic pick up more of the low-end frequencies, the low notes of the guitar were more prominent in the recording. The condenser picks up the high ones where the high notes of the guitar are more prominent in the recording.
The corridor is long and narrow with nothing attached to the walls. There are 5 people in the corridor not counting the performer, which means they absorb some sound waves reducing the amount of reverb.
In this recording you can hear some reverb but it is very short and quick due to the thin corridor.
The dynamic microphone is very similar but less reverb is picked up and more low frequencies like the low notes from the guitar are picked up from the microphone. This gives the guitar a very bassy feel on the recording.
- Far
The far condenser microphone placement made the reverb more noticeable as the microphone is not close to the guitar so it picks up more audio especially the reverb as it has a chance to bounce off the wall and be picked up by the microphone.
The outside environment was a very open space with a brick corner. This meant any sound waves would bounce off the brick wall or just go into the open space. This means there should be loads of reverb. There is also quiet a lot of background noise which is inevitable because of natural ambience and other people near by.
The condenser microphone picked up some wind during the recording but surprisingly there was not a lot of reverb, this was because the microphone is close to the instrument it is only picking up the audio coming from the guitar the most due it being the loudest audio instead of any reverb.
The dynamic microphone did not pick up much of the background noise such as wind due to its limited ability to pick up certain frequencies such as the very high frequencies.
– Far
Placing the microphones further away made the wind more noticeable and actually ruined the recording. At the end of the recording you can hear the background noise easily. There is not much of a difference in reverb as the sound waves seem to be just fading into the large space instead of bouncing back. Due to them not bouncing back at all it creates a really loose feel to the recording.
The dynamic microphone did pick up the wind noises as well and even the back ground noise. This meant the background noise and wind was very loud that the dynamic microphone could easily hear it.
Changing room – Close
The changing room is very similar space to the recording studio however has no sponge on the walls to absorb any reverb. There were also 5 people in the room, which would absorb some sound waves reducing the amount of reverb being recorded.
The changing room had a lot of reverb, it was quick but the small room meant the sound waves could bounce multiple times especially because the guitar was very loud which produced strong sound waves. The reverb had a slight delay and the reverb could have been worse if there were less people in the room. The dynamic recording was very similar to the condenser recording but as usual the low frequencies were mainly picked up giving the acoustic guitar more bass to it.
– Far
Moving the microphone further away from the performer made the reverb even more noticeable, this was because the reverb can bounce back into the microphone instead of the microphone just picking up mainly guitar. Moving the microphones further away makes the recording more open to the surroundings, which may or may not be a good thing. If there is no surroundings and there is just pure audio then you can edit the recording by placing inserts to give the recording it’s own custom environment. However sometimes this will not be as authentic as recording it live in the environment with it’s own reverb.
