Recording Masterclass

Recording external instruments or an entire band into your computer can seem a daunting prospect if you’ve never done it before, but with today’s tools – and advice from the following pages – it’s surprisingly easy to get great results. Welcome to the Recording Masterclass!

If you have any experience with DAW-based music production, you will no doubt marvel at what you can achieve ‘in-the-box’ with virtual instruments, audio manipulation and MIDI control. These are wonderful aspects of today’s technology-based production systems, but what about the outside world and the domains of the acoustic instrument or band performance? How do you reach out and record those to blend in with your digital masterpieces? Well, to capture live instruments you need to park the mind-blowing tech stuff for a second and step beyond the cosy luxury of your software environment into the equally impressive but sometimes scary world of hardware, acoustics and performance.

But where to start? Before you can hit record there are a number of things you need to get set up and working, and in this special issue we’ll guide you through this process.

First stop is our eight-point key kit guide that includes everything from interfaces, mics and headphones right through to the less obvious items such as leads, stands and pop shields. Then we’ll look at what this gear does and how it works, and discuss the idea of recording and monitoring at the same time, signal levels, headphone cues and various other aspects to do with signal flow to and from your DAW.

Arranging your recording space is next on the list, from acoustics and isolation to creating suitable, efficient working zones in your room. We’ll then look at prepping the audio interface, before moving on to the specifics of mic cables, phantom power, headphone feeds and DIs.