APPLICATIONS: CHAPTER 2
will prevent feedback in the monitor speakers, it will also kill the cue mix to the musicians in the studio. If the live mic is in another room (like the studio), or quite far away from the speakers, you’re safe.
Set the recorder to Input Monitor mode (or Auto Input Monitor with all of its Record Ready buttons pressed) and you should see the recorder’s meters move as you play.
If you’re using a computer as your recorder, you’ll have to locate those virtual buttons yourself. Check the manual – there may be an “input monitor” button on the track portion of the screen, or it may be in
a separate control panel. Some newer DAW programs come closer to emulating the behavior of a multitrack recorder and actually have a “multitrack recorder monitor” mode, which accurately mimics the monitor switching of a multitrack recorder.
If the record levels on all channels look about right when you’re wailin’, you’re good to go. But what if they aren’t?
Used to be that all recorders had input level controls, but today many (and this includes most sound cards) don’t. If your recorder has input level controls, use them to adjust the record level according to the recorder’s instructions. If not, you’ll need to make adjustments from the mixer.
If the recording level is much too high, this is because the recorder is expecting a
If you need to raise the record level, as you may with a less sensitive sound card, listen carefully for distortion. When you push the faders up past unity gain, you’ll be running closer to the clipping point of the mixer channel. Remember, particularly with digital recorders, it’s better to set the record level conservatively than to risk distortion. See the metering discussion in the Tips section for some hints on setting levels and why you need not worry if you can’t turn on all the meter lights all the time.
There’s one more set of TRIMS to adjust, and those are on Channels
–set one TRIM using the SOLO button, then set all the rest of the Recorder Return TRIMs to the same position as the one you set using the official method. You can get away with this if you set the record level
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properly, because all the recorder returns will be coming in at the same level relative to their inputs. Once all your tracks are recorded, you’ll want to recheck the TRIMs individually before doing the final mixdown.
This sounds complicated, but in reality, once you get the hang of it, the procedure it takes less time to do it than to read about it.
Go......!
Now for the easy part. Start the recorder and play like you’ve never played before. Then rewind, press Play, and be amazed at your musical talent.
If you’re a
Keep your wits about you. Once you’ve recorded a track, don’t forget to switch the recorder out of Record Ready, so you don’t erase the track on the next pass. And if you’re recording successive passes with the same mic, remember to assign it to the next track using the mixer’s PAN and ASSIGN.
When recording the second pass, if you did everything correctly, you should hear your first pass playing back. This gives you something to play along to.
Pretty soon you’ll be overdubbing just like a pro. Use Channels
Don’t forget the warning about mics getting too close to speakers. You can record keyboards, drum machines, and electric instruments while listening to the control room monitor speakers, but when it comes time to record the vocals or acoustic guitar tracks, kill the control room speakers and plug in the headphones.
Mixdown
A really cool thing about this setup is that you’re ready to mix at any time. No cables to patch, no buttons to press. In fact, you were probably doing some panning, level adjustments, and maybe some EQing of the recorder return channels as you were tracking. These are all elements of mixing and the more you do it, the better you get. For now, the most important thing is to learn how to use the tools.
If it sounds great just the way it is, mixdown is as simple as checking the record level and pressing the Record button on the