Easier To Understand Information
Mixing Desk
The mixing desk is the control centre of the studio. We can connect microphones to it to record vocals, drums and guitars. We can also plug in other instruments such as keyboards so that we can hear them. We can send those individual channels (for different instruments) out of the mixing desk to the studio computer so that we can record them as audio (sound).
Control room and live rooms
The control room is where the mixing desk, studio computer and monitor speakers live. The monitor speakers let us hear sound from microphones or other instruments that are connected to the mixing desk. We also have headphones for musicians that are connected to the mixing desk through a headphone amplifier. This allows us to send sound from the mixer to the musicians, who may be playing at the same time in another room in the building, i.e. the main room or the drum / vocal booth.
Question:
Why are people in the same band playing in different rooms in the studio?
Answer:
This is so that we do not get ‘spill’ between the different instruments that we are recording.
For example, if we had the drummer playing in the same room as the guitarist and bass player with their amplifiers - then we would record (pick up) the guitar and bass through the drum microphones and the live drums through the bass and guitar microphones.
The recording will sound better, and be easier to mix if we only end up with the sound of the drums on the drum recording channels, the sound of the bass on the bass recording channels and so on with the guitars etc.
Question:
How do the people playing hear each other when they are in different rooms?
Answer:
- They wear headphones and listen to a mix of everyone’s instruments that is coming from the mixing desk.
- They can also see each other because we have CCTV (cameras) in each room, linked up to screens.
- The sound engineer can talk to the band and ask them to start or stop playing on a ‘talkback’ microphone that is connected to the mixing desk in the control room.
- To allow us to connect audio (sound) signals between different rooms in the studio, we have multicore cables that run from each room into the control room and plug into the back of the mixing desk.
- On the end of each cable is a metal box called a ‘stage-box’. This has inputs for microphones and other instruments in the form of XLR connectors. It also has stereo jack sockets. These allow headphones to be plugged into it.
Microphones
We use both Dynamic and Condenser microphones in the studio.- Dynamic microphones tend to be used on instruments which are naturally loud; for example; drum kits, guitar and bass amplifiers.
- Dynamic microphones can take a reasonably high sound level and tend to be fairly cheap to buy.
- Common makes of dynamic microphones are the Shure SM58 and SM57 which bands use at live gigs a lot.
- Condenser microphones are much more sensitive than dynamic microphones and need to be powered from the mixing desk or computer soundcard.
- Power runs to the microphone down the microphones XLR cable and is switched on or off on the mixing desk channel by a button labelled ‘48v’ or ‘Phantom Power’, which supplies 48 volts of power to the microphone. Volts measure the amount of electricity.
- There are many different sorts of condenser microphones. Usually they are used to record vocal and acoustic instruments.
DI Boxes
Direct Inject (DI) boxes can be powered through XLR cables from the mixing desk through the 48v switch. DI Boxes change an unbalanced signal, normally from a jack lead which could be connected to a keyboard, or from an acoustic guitar or electric bass into a balanced XLR (microphone) input on the mixing desk.
Cables and Connections
XLR Lead − XLR leads are used widely in recording studios.- They have a round socket at each end with 3 pin connectors.
- There are two different types of XLR socket at each end of the cable, one connector is called the ‘male’ the other is called the ‘female’.
- Normally XLR leads are used to connect microphones to the mixing desk, or multi-core stage box.
- The ‘female’ connector plugs into the microphone, and the ‘male’ connector plugs into the stagebox or mixing desk.
- XLR leads are known as ‘balanced’ cables. A balanced cable has a positive (+ve) connection on pin 2 of its 3 pins, a minus (-ve) connection on pin 3 of its 3 pins, and a ‘screen’ or ‘earth’ on pin 1 of its 3 pins.
- XLR leads can carry audio signals a very long distance without becoming noisy or losing volume.
- They can also carry ‘Phantom Power’ to condenser microphones or DI Boxes.
- Jack leads are widely used to plug instruments such as electric guitars and electric bass guitars into amplifiers.
- They are unbalanced leads and cannot carry audio signals over long distances without picking up noise and hum.
- Balanced Jack leads or ‘TRS’ (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) leads, are the jack plug equivalent of an XLR lead in that they can carry audio signals over long distanced, and do not pick up noise and hum.
- They are most commonly used to link pieces of recording equipment such as computer soundcards to mixing desk ‘line’ inputs or recording outputs.
