Audio Engineering: Setting Up for a Recording

The recording process can be an important process in making a song. Engineering can make or break a song depending on how good it is. It is fact that the mixing process can truly turn a good song great or destroy it. Correct mixing is done by experienced engineers who understand the full frequency range and acoustics. The recording engineer's job is to make sure that everything is recorded properly for the mixing to be done.

The recording process is by far the most important. Without a proper recording, the mixing engineer has little to work with. You can't make a good omelet with rotten eggs. To get the best performance in a recording it also takes an experienced recoding engineer for this. Recently most of the recording and is done by the mixing engineer because it doesn't take as much effort in recording a song because of analog equipment being replaced with digital. This is the best scenario because the engineer knows every detail of the recording.

Basic setup checklist:

Channels labeled correctly to keep organization and to follow pre-assessed plans

Acoustics are respected. You want to make sure the room or recording booth is good for your recording. Not all recording booths are good to be used. Even with it adjusted or sound, it still has a certain sound to it.

There is signal going to the headphones

Make sure that all wires are working. You can check if there is buzzing in the headphones. This is important because you don't want the buzz to be recorded if it is going to tape. Even if it is going to the headphones and not being recorded it could still throw off the artist.

Make sure there is level from the microphone of input source. This is the cause of many problems in the studio as well. Sometimes the problem is that the mic needs phantom power to record. Wires are also a major cause for problems.

Set recording levels. The ideal level is right around 3 quarters of the bar filled in a DAW, or on the input meters it would be the second yellow bar.

Have knowledge of the artist's performance. Some artists are too dynamic and you would have to record them through a compressor just to control the audio.

All artists need a good mix of the song or with other instruments so they can have a good take. How good their mix in their headphone is directly associates with the performance in all genres.

Some artists need reverb in their headphones to record. This gives them confidence in the because of the voice sounds good with surrounding acoustics. This is why people sing in the shower, because the bathroom has heavy natural reverberation in it and it makes people think that they actually sound good in their heads.

These are just basic steps to setting up a recording. Some of the creative of technical steps are for experienced engineers. Most of witch spent years trying to master. Recording is the most underrated set in making a song. It can affect the total outcome of any audio presentation.