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The equipment you use plays an important role in ensuring you obtain the kind of quality sounding music you desire:
• Pop-Screen: These are very useful when recording vocals. They prevent the thumping sounds from the vocalist when pronunciations of B’s, P’s and S’s hit the microphone; this eliminates unnecessary spikes in sound while recording. It also prevents moisture from the vocalist entering the mike, essential for protecting condenser microphones.
• Compressors: These are used to control the dynamics and volume changes that may occur. They lower the volume of the louder parts of a track. As this element is actually controlled automatically, it frees you to focus on the music itself.
• Headphones: I am not talking about the headphones that you get with your iPod. There are two types of headphones that are necessary for analysing multi-track recordings clearly: closed-cell and open-cell. Open-cell headphones have better quality sound but they also leak sound too, which may affect the recording process. This is prevented by using closed-cell headphones. Brands like Sennheiser reproduce the best sound and therefore help you to perform the most effective recording and mixing possible.
• Microphone Stands: absolutely important to the recording process, three types of microphone stands can come in handy depending on the role required. The “boom” stand can be used for just about anything, the “Shorty” stand is useful for the recording of the kick drum and for vocals and the basic stand is satisfactory enough to do a good job of most tasks. It is all about distance and having the right microphone in the right position to do the best job – usually a matter of trial-and-error.
These are only few of the necessary pieces of equipment to ensure you produce quality recorded sounds, there is a lot investment needed to get the right sound, but at the end of the day, when you get your sound right and have experience in this factor, it becomes easy and routine. As your music improves, so will your recording skills, along with your sound.
