Sound Theory and Application
- meathods & techniques -
((unfinished section))
This section to most people will read like a list of things that most would put down to common sense, and alot of what a sound engineer or aduio producer does is exactly that ...but the second you forget any of these the quality of sounds you create or capture will suffer for it.
The whole reason I am writting this particular section is because many people overlook the most obvious solutions to the problems that occur or fail to prevent quality related issues from arising in the first place. I have also recently seen alot of misinformation circulating on sites like youtube where people offer advice that is clearly false of uninformed (in other words people talkin' s**t).
So here is what I have to say on the subject:
Rule #1
KNOW YOUR HARDWARE
- meathods & techniques -
((unfinished section))
This section to most people will read like a list of things that most would put down to common sense, and alot of what a sound engineer or aduio producer does is exactly that ...but the second you forget any of these the quality of sounds you create or capture will suffer for it.
The whole reason I am writting this particular section is because many people overlook the most obvious solutions to the problems that occur or fail to prevent quality related issues from arising in the first place. I have also recently seen alot of misinformation circulating on sites like youtube where people offer advice that is clearly false of uninformed (in other words people talkin' s**t).
So here is what I have to say on the subject:
Rule #1
KNOW YOUR HARDWARE
One day spent reading your manuals will improve the quality of your productions exponentially and that knowlege will stay with you and inform how you use that hardware ensuring that all future recording benifit from you understanding of it.
Follow the manufacturer's reccomendations.
Find out what it does and try and understand how it works.
Every piece of hardware you have ever seen/used/touched has an optimum running/recording level... find out what it is.
Are you using a microphone? What was that particular mic designed for and how will that effect the sounds you capture? Does it have a recommended distance? etc etc
Follow the manufacturer's reccomendations.
Find out what it does and try and understand how it works.
Every piece of hardware you have ever seen/used/touched has an optimum running/recording level... find out what it is.
Are you using a microphone? What was that particular mic designed for and how will that effect the sounds you capture? Does it have a recommended distance? etc etc
Rule #2
UNDERSTAND THE LEVELS
UNDERSTAND THE LEVELS
its actually a little more complicated than it sounds, you have to read the manuals and it requires a little legwork but its not as simple as 'green = good, red = too loud'. in some cases it could be 'green = too quiet, red = about right', there might not even be a red/green system.
Each piece of hardware has its operating level, if you want a clean sound free of avoidable hiss or distortion you need to know what level things need to run at... If you want it done right you'll need something like a function generator. ...BUT once its done its done (as in hardware setup).
And now to the meat and veg of the section... ^_^
Sound theory and how you apply that to your production:
It doesn't matter what level of knowlege you have on theory, techniques or even the hardware your using if you dont use it correctly... everyone shares the same goal and that is to get the best out of what we have.
We dont want to record something so hot (loud) that it distorts unless we specifically want that distortion,
We never want to record too low as this will allow noise to creep in to the mix and noise is particularly hard to remove one we've allowed it in.
...However if everything was 'done by the book' modern music would not exist, entire genres have been created from a little bending of the rules here and there.
Sometimes to get the sound you want you have to do the exact opposit of what tradition tells you, but if you dont know the difference your productions will suffer and problems will spring up that would have been avoided with a little knowledge about common practices, and techniques.
The Creative part of sound production comes when we play around with the status quo, its always going to be a hit or miss and thats what makes it so much fun, every situation is different.
A few ideas/suggestions:
Each piece of hardware has its operating level, if you want a clean sound free of avoidable hiss or distortion you need to know what level things need to run at... If you want it done right you'll need something like a function generator. ...BUT once its done its done (as in hardware setup).
Rule #3
LEARN COMMON PRACTICES
LEARN COMMON PRACTICES
No matter what instruments or hardware you use there are a handfull of tried and tested meathods of getting the best sound out of them, with a little leg work (reading) you can learn them and get the best sound out of what you have available to you.
Once you have established what you need to do to get a clear sound you can start experimenting with techniques safe in the knowledge that any problems that arise can be undone by reverting to the common practices.
Once you have established what you need to do to get a clear sound you can start experimenting with techniques safe in the knowledge that any problems that arise can be undone by reverting to the common practices.
And now to the meat and veg of the section... ^_^
Sound theory and how you apply that to your production:
It doesn't matter what level of knowlege you have on theory, techniques or even the hardware your using if you dont use it correctly... everyone shares the same goal and that is to get the best out of what we have.
We dont want to record something so hot (loud) that it distorts unless we specifically want that distortion,
We never want to record too low as this will allow noise to creep in to the mix and noise is particularly hard to remove one we've allowed it in.
...However if everything was 'done by the book' modern music would not exist, entire genres have been created from a little bending of the rules here and there.
Sometimes to get the sound you want you have to do the exact opposit of what tradition tells you, but if you dont know the difference your productions will suffer and problems will spring up that would have been avoided with a little knowledge about common practices, and techniques.
The Creative part of sound production comes when we play around with the status quo, its always going to be a hit or miss and thats what makes it so much fun, every situation is different.
A few ideas/suggestions:
No comments:
Post a Comment