Recording Handbook

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R ecording H andbook
w ritten by: Shane Faber

Table Of Contents
1. Sonic Fundamentals a. Loud vs. Soft b. Highs vs. Lows c. Speakers and Amplifiers and Rooms 2. Getting a. b. c. Your Sound On Tape The Analog Recording Process The Digital Recording Process Theory of Multi-track recording * synchronization of tape machines

3. The Sound Source a. Voices, Horns and Acoustic Piano * dynamic vs. condenser microphones * ribbon, PZM and other special types * signal processing b. Guitars, Basses and Things With Strings * amplifiers vs. direct * preamps and FX devices c. Samplers, Synthesizers and Drum Machines d. Real Drums and Real Drummers 4. The Mixing Console a. Inputs and Outputs * in-line vs. split consoles * input trim and fader output * what does -10 and +4 mean? b. Equalization * graphic, parametric, tube EQ's etc. * vintage vs. new technology c. Effects Sends and Returns d. Insert Points and Patchbays 5. Mixer Automation

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a. SMPTE b. VCA vs. Moving Faders c. MIDI automation 6. Effects Devices a. Reverb * Halls , Plates and Rooms * Reverse Reverbs and other Perversions * "Backwards" Reverb b. Echoes and Delays c. Flanging, Chorus and Phasing d. Harmonizers and Exciters

7. The MIDI Revolution a. Sequencers * Hardware and Software Based * MIDI Clock, MIDI Timecode(MTC) and MIDI Machine Control b. Synthesizers c. Samplers d. Computers * digital editing 8. Recording With Your PC a. Software * What do you want to do? * Stereo? Multi-track? * Ins and Outs * CD-r software b. Hardware * The Computer * RAM * Monitors * PCI/ISA slots * Power Supply * Hard Drives: SCSI vs. IDE, USB and FireWire * Removeable Drives * CD-r's * The Soundcard * Wordclock * Drivers * Cost?

1. Sonic Fundamentals

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a. Loud vs. Soft

Sound is moving air . Our ear s ar e designed to be sensitive to these vibr ations and inter pr et them. In music, the ter m, " Dynamics" r efer s to whether a sound is " soft" or " loud" . The ability of a r ecor ding medium to r epr oduce the differ ence between soft and loud is called its " Dynamic Range" . Vinyl r ecor ds and cassette tapes have a limited dynamic r ange of 20 db or so while moder n CD' s and Digital Audio Tape(DAT) ar e capable of full dynamic r ange; that' s 100 db! The limiting factor of how much of that r ange you get to actually hear is deter mined by the speaker s, and amplifier s and the r oom you'r e listening in. Read on...

b. Highs vs. Low s

We' ve all hear d ter ms like " br ight" , " dull" , " deep" and " thin" used to descr ibe music. Two major factor s complicate this affair . The fir st is that we all hear the same thing differ ently; one per son' s " br ight" is another per son's " dull" . The second is the accur acy or lack ther eof, of our sound sour ce, i.e. the speaker s and amplifier s. Technically, the audible fr equency r ange for human hear ing is 20 Her tz(Hz) on the low end and 20 Kiloher tz(Khz) on the high end. Most people's hear ing r ange falls between 40Hz and 16 Khz and in fact, the specified fr equency r ange of FM r adio is 50Hz to 15Khz. A typical car r adio, boom box or home ster eo has two EQ knobs on it. The " Low" and " High" knobs ar e usually center ed at 100 Hz and 10 Khz r espectively with a br oad " fixed Q" . " Q" r efer s to the r ange of fr equencies affected by the boost or cut and is expr essed in octaves. Their effect is not subtle but for consumer applications this is simple, convenient and usually sufficient. The loudness button is simply a low fr equency boost that compensates for the appar ent lack of low fr equencies at low listening levels.

c. Speakers and Amplifiers and Rooms

This is the last step befor e your ear s get to do their thing. Any pr oblems her e affect the sound r epr oduced, and thusly, your ability to inter pr et what you hear . The amp, speaker s, and the r oom they ar e in, all make up the listening envior nment. When your mix sounds gr eat in the studio and ter r ible ever ywher e else, you know something is wr ong. " Flat" is a ter m used to descr ibe a system that r epr oduces all fr equencies, equally, mor e or less. Some people spend thousands tr ying to achieve a " flat" r oom. As for me, it's gr eat on paper , but it' s not always gr eat for music! As long as I know what the speaker s and r oom ar e doing, I can deal with it. I like to mix on near -field systems at moder ate SPL levels. This tends to decr ease the affects the r oom may have. My cur r ent favor ites ar e the Genelec 1031 A' s, a compact 2-way self-power ed monitor . They don't lie to me. Alesis and the Event 20/20 ar e r ecent entr ies into the mor e inexpensive 2-way self-power ed monitor sweepstakes. Listening level is a ver y subjective matter , but the ear does r espond to fr equencies differ ently at differ ent volumes. Constant loud levels tend to dull the high end r esponse of the ear , while at low levels the low fr equencies ar e not as appar ent. As with other things in life, dr ugs and alcohol also affect the ear s, and usually not in a good way. BACK TO INDEX

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2.Getting Your Sound On Tape

Until r ecently, " Analog" was the only kind of r ecor ding available to most musicians. The wide availability of DAT r ecor der s, Alesis ADAT 8-tr acks, Tascam DA-88 8-tr acks and har d disc r ecor der s like the Emu Dar win, Akai and Vestax machines have for ever changed that situation. Still, the pr ocess is the same even though ther e ar e differ ent technical consider ations and for mat specific issues to addr ess.

a. The Analog Recording P rocess

Analog r ecor ding devices use a plastic tape coated with magnetic par ticles moving acr oss a magnetic r ecor ding head at a constant speed to r ecor d and playback. Ther e is always an " er ase head" , fir st in the tape path, to er ase and r e-align the tape par ticles befor e they hit the " r ecor d head" . In the " two-head" machine ther e is one head for both r ecor ding and playback. The " thr ee-head" design featur es one head dedicated to r ecor ding, the " sync head" , and another for playback, " the r epr o head" . Pr ofessional machines have thr ee heads. Ther e is a limit to the intensity of the signal that the tape par ticles can actually absor b and r epr oduce. The two par ameter s that inter act to maximize the tape's ability to cor r ectly r ecor d and playback ar e " tape speed" and " bias" . At a faster speed, ther e is mor e tape ar ea for a given signal, i.e. mor e tape par ticles to r ecor d. Most pr ofessional analog multitr ack r ecor der s r un at 30 ips (inches per second). " Bias" is a pr ocess that was discover ed by accident. It was found that when a high fr equency signal, 100 Khz or so, much higher than human hear ing, was r ecor ded along with the nor mal signal, the magnetic par ticles did a better job of r ecr eating the higher fr equencies. It is a complicated pr ocess and ther e ar e lots of things to go wr ong! The tape machine must be mechanically and electr onically aligned to ver y fine specifications. Fir st, to ensur e that it physically handles the tape gently dur ing shuttling, r ewind and fast for war d. Although tape for mulations have impr oved gr eatly over the year s, mechanical pr oblems can damage the tape by str etching or wr inkling it. Ther e is no er r or cor r ection for this! Tr eat your tapes with car e and r espect. Other pr oblems include loss of par ticles off the tape, called shedding, speed fluctuations which pr oduce " wow and flutter " and impr oper tape to head contact. Fur ther mor e, the electr onics have to r ecor d the input signal and play it back faithfully. This is wher e tones on your master tapes becomes so impor tant. They ar e r equir ed to pr oper ly align the electr onics in the tape machine so when you wor k at differ ent studios, your tape sounds like you r emember ed. When all these par ameter s ar e aligned cor r ectly, you stand a good chance of hear ing back a r easonable facsimile of what you r ecor ded pr eviously.

b. The Digital Recording P rocess

The digital r ecor ding pr ocess is far simpler mechanically, but much mor e involved electr onically. The input signal is sampled 1000's of times per second and each acoustic slice is given it's own digital number , consisting of 0's and 1's. Theor etically, the

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" analog-to-digital conver ter " (ADC) r ecieves the analog input and conver ts it into a str eam of number s and conver sely, the " digital-to-analog conver ter " (DAC) r ever ses the pr ocess. The " sampling r ate" , or how many times per second the sound is sliced is the main factor in how well the sound will sur vive its digitization. CD's ar e sampled at 44.1 K or 44,100 times per second, and that has become an industr y standar d. Some for mats offer 48 K sampling as well. DAC' s and ADC' s ar en't cr eated equally however and ther e ar e differ ences in how these machines sound, despite the theor etical consistency of 0's and 1' s! Digital tape machines use mechanical tr anspor ts and plastic tape as a stor age medium for the digital infor mation. The Alesis ADAT and Tascam DA-88 ar e examples of new inexpensive digital multi-tr acks. Another appr oach gaining acceptance ar e har d disc r ecor der s. Some have computer s with softwar e as fr ont-end contr oller s, like the Digi-Design and Soundscape machines, while other s ar e dedicated boxes you plug har d discs into for stor age, like the EMu Dar win, Vestax and Akai r ecor der s. With these r andom access digital r ecor der s, the size of the har d discs limits the amount of r ecor ding time. Locating is a snap, as is editing. When this appr oach is combined with a computer as the inter face, you have a power ful wor d pr ocessor for music. Anyone who has used a Mac or Windows on an IBM knows how to dr ag and click with a mouse and that' s basically how you manipulate the sound files.

c. Theory of Multi-track Recording

Multi-tr ack r ecor der s ar e simply tape machines that allow you to r ecor d tr acks and then over dub additional tr acks in any or der . For instance, you might r ecor d a dr ummer on four tr acks, then go back and r ecor d a guitar par t, etc. To do this, the tape machine must be able to r ecor d one tr ack while its playing back the other s. In an analog machine, it must do this fr om the same r ecor ding head. This is the job of the " sync head" . Digital machines don' t r ely on sync heads and r epr o heads, they'r e just r eor ganizing 0' s and 1' s. Depending on the device, sometimes the tape based digital machines ar e not as flexible as the r andom access machines. It is possible to " lock up" mor e than one multi-tr ack tape machine to get mor e tr acks. This is usually done with two identical machines and SMPTE. SMPTE is an acr onym for a timecode that was or iginally developed for the motion pictur e industr y. It sounds like a high pitched squeel but to devices that can " r ead" it, it looks like a r unning clock. For lock up, we would " str ipe" two multi-tr ack tapes; for one song we might need five minutes, so we set the SMPTE " wr iter " to wr ite fr om 0:00:00:00 to 5:00:00:00 minutes. SMPTE is displayed as " hour s:minutes:seconds:fr ames:sub fr ames" , although not all devices r ead subfr ames (ther e ar e 80 subfr ames). Ther e ar e four types of SMPTE. They ar e 30 fr ame per second (fps) dr op fr ame, 30 fps non-dr op fr ame, 25 fps, and 24 fps. In the United States, audio pr ofessionals gener ally use 30 fps non-dr op fr ame and in England and Eur ope, they use 25 fps. The 30 fps dr op fr ame, sometimes called " 29.97" , is used for video and film applications in the United States. As has become the industr y pr actice, we r ecor d this SMPTE on the highest edge tr ack on each tape. For example, tr ack 8 on an 8-tr ack, tr ack 24 on a 24-tr ack, etc.. So, now we have http://www.jeepjazz.com/handbk.html 10:32:37 6/11/2001

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identical " str iped" tapes on their r espective multi-tr acks. The next step is to use a synchr onization device designed to r ead the SMPTE off each machine and contr ol the motor s of both to keep them locked together . One machine becomes the " Master " and the other , or " Slave" , chases the master machine. Two of the most popular pr ofessional systems that do this ar e the Lynx and Adam Smith synchr onizer s. This is the basic concept and it is possible, with the r ight inter faces and connections, to lock up differ ent types of multi-tr acks, VCR' s, timecode equiped DAT machines, digital editor s, etc. The concept is simple, the execution can be complicated. The most impor tant thing to r emember is what kind of code you' ve got. Keep good notes! BACK TO INDEX

3. The Sound Source

Ther e ar e only two ways to get your sonic infor mation onto the tape, thr ough a micr ophone or dir ectly fr om an electr onic output. In gener al, the quality of what comes back is affected by the quality of the equipment the signal passes thr ough.

a. Voices, Horns and Acoustic P iano

While the human voice is the most dynamic, all of these instr uments pr esent a similar pr oblem to the engineer . How can we pr eser ve the per for mance, that is the soft and loud of it, and get it accur ately on tape? With these instr uments, we usually have to use a micr ophone. The two main types of micr ophones ar e " dynamic" , which have no active electr onics involved in amplifying the input signal, and " condenser " , which r equir e either batter ies or " phantom power " to power their electr onics. Both types have a thin membr ane, called the diaphr agm, that vibr ates and that physical vibr ation is tr anslated into an electr onic signal. In gener al, condenser mikes ar e br ighter and have a br oader fr equency r esponse, but they ar e mor e fr agile. That' s why you usually see an SM57, a gener al pur pose dynamic mike, in the lead singer ' s hands at a concer t. They can withstand a lot of abuse. Classic condenser micr ophones like the Neumann U-47 and AKG C-12 use vacuum tube electr onics and ar e tr easur ed for their unique sound. They ar e r ather lar ge and have diaphr agms 2 inches in diameter . Ribbon micr ophones ar e another vintage design that incor por ates a thin r ectangular str ip as it's diaphr agm, hence the name. PZM designs ar e a r elatively new invention. They wor k on a completely differ ent pr inciple and don't look anything like tr aditional micr ophones. The signal cr eated by the micr ophone is ver y small and it is the micr ophone pr e-amp that incr eases this level to what is known as " line-level" for inter facing with the mixing boar d. This is yet another link in the chain with it's oppor tunity to affect the sound, and they do. Ever yone has their favor ite micr ophones and pr e-amps for differ ent situations and most do color the sound. The impor tant thing is whether you like that color and if it's appr opr iate for the par ticular situation at hand. Her e again, we r un into the concept of " flat fr equency r esponse" and again it is r elatively meaningless. Most micr ophones ar e not " flat" and some ar e better suited for cer tain jobs than other s. As always, you need a r efer ence and in this r egar d, fr equency r esponse char ts and the like can be useful. Rules ar e made to be br oken.

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Signal pr ocessing is another power ful weapon for your sonic ar senal. The judicious use of compr ession can be a big help in lots of situations. Compr essor s wer e or iginally developed to compensate for the limited dynamic r ange of analog tape. Basically, they make the soft par ts a little louder and the loud par ts a little softer . This per for ms the dual function of keeping the soft passages higher above the " noise floor " and pr eventing the loud par ts fr om getting too loud and peaking into distor tion. Most compr essor s allow you to change the " r ange" (1:1, 2:1, 4:1, etc.) and the " attack time" and " r elease time" of the effect. Expander s and Limiter s ar e r elated to compr essor s. Expander s make the soft par ts softer and the loud par ts louder . Like compr essor s, you can set the r ange, and attack and r elease times of the effect. With limiter s you can set a thr eshold that cannot be exceeded. Noise Gates simply do what their name implies by shutting off the signal path when ther e is no input.

b. Guitars, Basses and Things W ith Strings

Str ing instr uments can be r ecor ded acoustically with micr ophones or dir ectly if they have pickups. Ther e is a differ ent sound to each and in differ ent situations, one may be mor e appr opr iate than the other . Often, both ar e r ecor ded simultaneously and blended together in the mix. Electr ic guitar s and basses ar e r ecor ded thr ough micr ophones on the amplifier s and dir ect to be blended or used seper ately later in the mix. All the just mentioned signal pr ocessing definitely applies her e, too. The Rockman headphone guitar amp, invented by Tom Scholz in the mid 1980's, star ted the r evolution in small, electr onic amp simulator s. Rackmount guitar pr e-amps have gotten ver y sophisticated in the last few year s, offer ing tube pr e-amp stages, multi-effects, MIDI and memor y capabilities. Ther e's still nothing quite like a Gibson Les Paul into a 100 watt Mar shall stack, but that can get dificult for the neighbor s!

c. Samplers, Synthesizers and Drum Machines

All of these devices have dir ect outputs and can be connected str aight to your mixer . A lot of them also include built-in effects and it's up to you whether you want to pr int them " wet" or " dr y" . It will pr obably depend on how many tr acks you've got to play with, but you can pr int sounds and their effects seper ately. This way if you change your mind about that " big r ever b" , you' r e not locked in. Playing one sound at a time to tape has never been a pr oblem but these days, ther e's a lot of sequencing going on and most of these boxes only have 2 or 4 outputs. In 4 or 8-tr ack r ecor ding, this is an asset and you just have to mix the sounds fr om inside the box. In a pr ofessional 24 or 48-tr ack situation, you'll want individual sounds on individual tr acks. Two ways to do this ar e mute the sequencer tr acks and r ecor d each sound in successive passes or tur n down the inter nal volumes of all the sounds and tur n one on at a time as you make passes. Dr um machines ar e a power ful tool and have become a mainstay of moder n music making. They all have unique sounds and many have become associated with specific types of music i.e. the Roland 808 and EMu SP-12 with r ap and the Roland 909 with dance. Some also have sampling capabilities and built-in audio tr igger ing for r eplacing sounds off tape. Ear lier models wer e designed with pads for pr ogr amming, and some people still pr efer

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that. Now most ar e available as sound modules like any other synth and the pr ogr amming is simply done fr om the keyboar d and sequencer . Sampler s ar e basically digital r ecor der s. The ear liest models could only r ecor d and playback one sound at a time. In the ear ly 80's, many a snar e was r eplaced by hand with a steady index finger and the AMS sampler . Two of the ear liest MIDI sampler s wer e the Akai S-612 and Ensoniq Mir age. They wer e 8-bit, which r efer s to their sampling r esolution. Technically, the higher the r esolution, the mor e accur ate the sample. Again, specs ar e one thing and sound is another . These boxes all sound differ ent and they do what they do, differ ently. If you like the sound of your old 12-bit box, then go for it. Polyphonic sampler s began to appear in the mid 80's, among them the Casio FZ-1 and Akai S-900. Resolution evolved to 12-bit and then 16-bit and MIDI made these boxes even mor e power ful. In the studio, sampler s ar e gr eat for quick r epair s, flying vocals ar ound or moving tr acks. A sequencer and a sampler locked to tape in the mix can be r eal handy for those last minute r epair s and ar r angement changes.

d. Real Drums and Real Drummers

Ther e ar e two things that you need to get good live dr um sounds, a pr oper ly tuned, gr eat sounding kit and a pr oper ly tuned, gr eat dr ummer . If you can only get one, go with the human. You can always r eplace the sounds. The basic appr oach to dr um miking involves a seper ate mike for the kick, the snar e, the hat, the toms and one or two over heads to get the cymbals and the r oom sound if ther e is one. Another snar e option is to put one mike under neath and one on top. Some of the gr eat dr um sounds fr om classic r ock r ecor ds wer e r ecor ded with two mikes on the whole kit! The miking techniques should r eflect what kind of dr um sound you'r e going for . Compr ession can be a big help when r ecor ding dr ums because of the tr ansient natur e of the instr uments. Depending on the par ts being played, use it as needed. Sometimes gates can be helpful as well, especially when the r hythm section is being r ecor ded in the same r oom. Noise gates with " sidechain" capability allow you to select what fr equencies will open the gate. Another excellent device for this application is the " Kepex" expander /gate whose oper ation is fr equency dependent. Many engineer s like to slam high levels on to analog tape to get the natur al " tape compr ession" sound. Some even go to the lengths of r ecor ding dr ums on 2" 16-tr ack analog and then tr ansfer r ing that to another for mat to complete the pr oject. Hey, if you've got the budget and the time, go for it. BACK TO INDEX

4. The Mixing Console

The mixer is just that. We use it to or ganize our signals going to the tape machines, to or ganize what we need to hear back fr om the tape machines, to monitor playback fr om our mixdown DAT, 2-tr ack or other ster eo sour ces, and to add effects to whatever is needed. In shor t, it is the hear t of the multi-tr ack studio.

a. I nputs and Outputs

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Recor ding consoles ar e designed to be connected to multi-tr ack tape machines. They pr ovide seper ate mixer inputs for the tape r etur ns (signal playback fr om the multi-tr ack) and multiple outputs fr om the mixer to the tape machines (both as " dir ect outs" fr om individual channels and thr ough the " bussing matr ix" ). In addition, ther e ar e a number of input channels with a choice of line or micr ophone input, equalization, effects sends, pan and a fader for volume on each channel str ip. In-line consoles include the input section and tape r etur n level and pan on the same channel str ip. Split console designs have seper ate channel str ips for inputs and tape r etur ns, usually with less EQ and effect sends on the tape r etur ns (the " monitor section" ). Semi-pr o and home r ecor ding gear oper ates at a -10 level while pr ofessional equipment oper ates at a +4 level. Without getting too technical, this means you have to pay attention to the par ticular input and output levels of your boxes and how you inter connect them. When it' s not r ight, it often hums or sounds a little fucked up. It still might wor k, but it will give you much less than optimum per for mance. To be sur e that the sound at the sour ce gets " thr ough the gear and back to your ear " , you need to check the " gain stages" in the " signal path" . Distor tion can cr op up in sever al places. Step one is your ear ! Make sur e the sound at the sour ce is what you want. Step two is the micr ophone or dir ect output of the guitar , synth or whatever . In the case of a micr ophone, the levels must be set car efully to ensur e faithful r epr oduction of the input. Some mikes have a " pad" switch on them as do most mixer s, to pr event over loading the input level. Step thr ee is the input channel to the boar d. The level her e must be set so that the signal doesn' t over dr ive the channel electr onics. Once that is r ight, the signal can be sent to tape thr ough the " bussing" matr ix (or " gr oup outs" as they ar e sometimes called) or the dir ect out on the channel. Obviously with multiple signals to one tr ack, they must go thr ough the gr oup outs and the level to tape is contr olled by the gr oup output level. Gener ally, in the analog wor ld, ver y br ight sounds get pr inted a little lower , to help pr event cr osstalk bleed to adjacent tr acks. Shar p tr ansient sounds and low fr equency stuff like bass can be pr inted hot to take advantage of tape compr ession. Slamming the tape isn' t against the law, but make sur e that's the sound you want. This is only an analog phenomenon, over dr iving digital r ecor der s r esults in highly unusable audio! Tape r etur n levels ar e optimized for dir ect connection to the machine so if this has been done cor r ectly, ther e is only one place left for distor tion to be cr eated... your monitor system. As long as you ar e awar e of how your speaker s and listening envior nment ar e affecting the sound and you listen within the volume limits of your amp and speaker s, you should have a baseline for clean signal r epr oduction. Now, you can intr oduce distor ton at any of these points in the chain to any effect you pr efer .

b. Equalization
" Equalization" is the ter m used to descr ibe the pr ocess of changing the balance between high and low fr equencies. Equalizer s allow us to selectively boost and/or cut specific fr equencies or bands of fr equencies. " Q" r efer s to the width or r ange ar ound the center ed

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fr equency that we ar e EQing, that is also affected when we boost or cut. A nar r ow " Q" would be .2 of an octave, a wide " Q" would be 3 octaves. Ther e ar e many types of equalizer s and they get used in many differ ent ways by differ ent people. In gener al, " Par ametr ic Equalizer s" allow for ver y specific effect with adjustable Q and fr equency contr ol for each fr equency band. " Gr aphic Equalizer s" featur e as many as 31 individual slider s center ed on fixed fr equencies. Tube equalizer s utilize vacuum tubes in their cir cuits as oppossed to tr ansistor s (" solid state" ) and ar e often pr efer r ed for their war m sound. All mixer s pr ovide some kind of EQ, switchable on or off, in the signal path. These days semi-pr o consoles usually featur e a couple of over lapping bands of semi-par ametr ic EQ on the low-mids(200-2K) and hi-mids(1.5K-7K), and one EQ each for the low(100 hz) and high(10K) bands with shelving switches and low-fr equency r oll-off. Pr ofessional consoles offer fully- par ametr ic designs and mor e over all flexibility, as you might expect. Since we can't all affor d Neve VR consoles at home, another option for small studios is outboar d equalizer s. Get a couple of good ones and inser t them into the signal path and pr int thr ough them to tape. This will definitely take your sounds up a notch without totally blowing your college fund.

c. Effect Sends and Returns

Ther e ar e sever al ways to get signal to your effects and to hear those effects back. The easist is the dedicated sends and r etur ns on the mixing boar d. Sends can usually be switched between pr e and post EQ. Retur ns gener ally have little or no EQ, so if you want to EQ effects, that's one mor e r eason to have mor e channels than tape machine tr acks. If you have mor e effects than sends, r epatch the busses as sends or use the dir ect outs to get into your other effects.

d. I nsert P oints and P atchbays

It' s r eally nice to plug ever ything into the boar d and not have to mess with it. This is wher e patchbays ar e a necessity and incr edible convenience. Ever y in and out on the boar d, all tape machine inputs and r etur ns and all inputs and r etur ns fr om your effects ar e duplicated in the patchbay. Ever y channel also has an inser t point as well for individually accessing the signal path. When it's all plugged in, you can change, r ear r ange and r epatch it all fr om her e. BACK TO INDEX

5. Mixer Automation
Initially available only on pr ofesional consoles, automation systems have evolved over the last 25 year s, becoming less expensive and mor e power ful in the pr ocess. Today ther e ar e moving fader and VCA based systems available. Many only r equir e inser t points on the console and can be up and r unning fair ly quickly. Cheap VCA's and MIDI have br ought automation to the masses.

a. SMP TE

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We discussed SMPTE ear lier in r efer ence to locking up tape machines. It has also become the industr y standar d for r unning automation systems. An obvious advantage is that one tr ack of SMPTE is all you have to give up on your multi-tr ack to give you both synchr onization and automation capabilities.

b. VCA vs. Moving Faders

I' m a big moving fader fan, par ticular ly the " Flying Fader " system used on Neve VR consoles. Moving fader systems utilize sophisticated mechanical, motor ized fader s r unning under the contr ol of a computer and softwar e that keeps tr ack of the physical position of the fader s r elative to the SMPTE timecode on the tape. After r ecor ding a move, you simply r ewind the tape and the fader s r eplay your moves. With this type of automation, the fader is actually in the audio path contr olling the output of the signal. Initially only available in ver y expensive hi-end consoles, motor ized fader s ar e showing up in low pr iced consoles like the Yamaha 01v(about $1800), the O2R r ev2(about $6000) and O3 consoles, Mackie has the d8b (about $9000), the Panasonic DA7(about $5000), the TASCAM TM-d4000(about $4000) and the Roland VM-72 system(about $4000). In 2000, Sony came out with its little " Oxfor d" , the DMX-r 100 for about $25,000. None of these machines existed in 1995! A VCA or " voltage contr olled amplifier " is the hear t of the SSL automation pr ocess. In this type of system the fader contr ols the output of the VCA which is actually passing the signal. As in moving fader systems, a computer and softwar e keep tr ack of the fader movements r elative to SMPTE. Instead of the fader s physically r eplaying your moves, their movement is r epr esented on the computer monitor as a ver tical bar moving up and down. Many people don't like VCA's in the audio path, because they can color the sound. This was mor e of a pr oblem 25 year s ago when VCA technology was young. The fact that SSL is such a major player in big budget mixing says a lot about how little a pr oblem that is. You can decide for your self.

c. MI DI Automation
The wide acceptance of MIDI and low cost, high quality VCA's has fueled the development of inexpensive MIDI based automation systems. The mixing boar d gets a MIDI plug! The TASCAM M-3700 is a good example of this appr oach. It's on-boar d system has a disc dr ive and small LCD scr een and allows you to automate channel volume, channel mute, monitor mute, EQ on/off and effects send on/off. With additional softwar e and an exter nal computer you can have the moving bar s on the scr een and some useful utility options. Add-on outboar d systems like the Mackie system utilize, a VCA package that ties in via the inser t points on your mixer and a smaller fader pack of 16 fader s with mute buttons to r ecor d your moves on. This is all tr anslated into MIDI data which can be displayed on a Mac computer . Other systems come with softwar e or ar e alr eady configur ed to wor k with sever al popular sequencer pr ogr ams like Vision, Cubase and Logic. These add-on VCA systems ar e a power ful and r elatively inexpensive way to add sophisticated automation capabilities to your mixer . BACK TO INDEX

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6. Effects Devices
This is the cool stuff; r ever bs, phase shifter s, delays, chor us', har monizer s... and combinations never hear d befor e. These devices have come a long way in 20 year s. Analog electr onics and spr ing r ever bs have given way to ver y power ful digital multi-effects units with MIDI capabilities, memor y for your favor ite patches and wide dynamic r ange. Five hundr ed dollar s today, will buy some awesome sound power that didn't even exist 20 year s ago, at any pr ice!

a. Reverb
Rever b units attempt to r ecr eate the sound of a par ticular space. The way a " space" sounds is a pr oduct of it's size, whether or not it's inter ior sur faces ar e har d and r eflective or soft and absor bant, and how these inter ior sur faces ar e ar r anged. All these factor s inter act to pr oduce the r ever ber ant sound. Two spaces can have the same inter ior volume, but be shaped ver y differ ently and that makes all the differ ence. The pr imar y types of spaces ar e r ooms, halls and plates but also can include chamber s, chur ches, clubs and any number of wild spaces. Some units give you a few par ameter s to tweak, other s give you pages of possibilities. All star t with at least the " size" of the space. Other tweakable options include the volume and intensity of " ear ly r eflections" , the amount of pr e-delay to the r ever b, which delays the input send into the r ever b and " diffusion" and " depth" settings which have to do with how intensely the r ever b spr eads out in the ster eo field. Special types of " r ever se r ever bs" , wher e the sound envelope is tur ned ar ound and r amps up in volume r ather than tr ailing off, ar e actually inspir ed by the analog tr ick of " backwar ds r ever b" . The impor tant distinction is that " r ever se r ever bs" occur after the sound just like r egular r ever bs. " Backwar ds r ever b" occur s befor e the sound and seems to r amp up to the sound. Backwar ds effects is an old analog r ecor ding technique. The r ecor d head is a fixed alignment of tr acks, i.e. 1 - 8. When you tur n the tape ar ound on the tape machine, tr ack 8 becomes 1, tr ack 7 becomes 2, etc. If you r ecor d your ster eo backing vocals on tr acks 1 and 2, for instance, then, at the end of the song, tur n the tape ar ound and play it back, you will hear those vocals playing backwar ds on tr acks 7 and 8. Send them to a r ever b while you' r e playing it backwar ds and r ecor d the r ever b on 3 and 4. Think about it; the end of the sung phr ase hits the r ever b fir st and it tr ails off after the star t of the phr ase. When you tur n the tape ar ound and play it for war d, the vocals will still be on 1 and 2, playing cor r ectly, but now ther e will be " backwar ds r ever b" r amping up to the star t of the sung phr ases on tr ack 3 and 4. Check out Pink Floyd's " Dar k Side of the Moon" for some tasty examples of backwar ds effects.

b. Echoes and Delays

An echo is an acoustic phenomenon wher e a sound is r epeated. The classic example in mother natur e is an echo canyon. Delay units r ecr eate this capability and give us contr ol of sever al differ ent par ameter s. The two most basic ar e " delay time" , the per iod between the input and the delayed signal's output, and " feedback" or " r egener ation" as it's sometimes called, which is how many times the signal r epeats as it fades away.

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Gener ally, each successive r epeat decr eases in volume. When the feedback contr ol is r aised past a cer tain point, the r epeats get louder and louder . This is called " Runaway Feedback" . Some units have a " Infinite Hold" or " Fr eeze" featur e which captur es the input signal and keeps r epeating it until you stop it. To the untr ained ear , discr ete echoes star t to be distinguished at about 20 milli-seconds. Delays lower than this star t to sound mor e like flanger s and chor us effects. Most delay units also give you this capability. The classic analog delay unit fr om the 1960's was the Maestr o " Echoplex" and in the 1970' s, the Roland " Space Echo" . Both used an endless tape loop and had a fixed r ecor d head and movable playback head. You simply moved the playback head far ther fr om the r ecor d head to achieve a longer delay. Ear ly analog electr onic delays began to show up in the 1970' s. The fidelity was somewhat limited and delay times only went to 600 or 700 milli-seconds at most. Digital delays began to show up in the 1980's and delay times of sever al seconds became mor e common. Moder n units offer super b sonics, patch memor ies and MIDI implementation.

c. Flanging, Chorus and P hasing

Like " r ever se r ever bs" , these effects wer e inspir ed by analog r ecor ding techniques. The famous " slap-back echo" of the 1950's and ear ly 60's was cr eated by sending the vocal to another tape machine in r ecor d and mixing the signal coming off the r epr o-head back in with the or iginal. The distance between the r ecor d head and r epr o-head and the speed of the second machine deter mined the time of the " slap-back" . " Flanging" was a var iation on this technique. The pr ocess star ts similar ly, but by r ubbing the edge of the flange of the tape r eel on the 2nd machine ever so slightly, the char acter istic " Flanging" sound was pr oduced. The time delays involved with flanging, chor us and phase shifting ar e usually well below 15 milli-seconds. Digital delay units simulate these effects by incor por ating an oscillator into their cir cuitr y which allows you to contr ol the speed and depth of the signal being r ecombined with the or iginal. Moder n devices give you mono and ster eo flanging and chor us effects. Phase Shifter s intr oduce slight time delays that also change the phase of the signal being r ecombined. This gives the distinctive deep sweeping effect that they ar e known for .

d. Harmonizers and Exciters

Har monizer s ar e basically like digital delays except they allow us to tune the pitch of the delays. When slightly detuned and added back in with the or iginal signal, they ar e a useful tool for electr onically thickening vocals, guitar s, etc. 'Smar t' har monizer s ar e available now that can add designated pitches accor ding to differ ent musical scales in their inter nal pr ocessor s. The most over -used effect of the 2000-2001 r ecor ding season has to be the Antar es AutoTune. Or iginally developed as a plugin for the Pr oTools r ecor ding for mat, its now available for most major softwar e r ecor ding packages and as a stand alone har dwar e unit, the ATR1. It can indeed r epair pitch pr oblems in a per for mance, but it is now being used as an effect on pop, r ap, dance and even countr y songs. When it is over dr iven, it r esembles a vocor der but with mor e of the human voice intact.

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The famous Aphex " aur al exciter " was the fir st device of it's kind. The effect is often descr ibed as giving " pr esence" to whatever it's used on. These kinds of devices all wor k slightly differ ently by adding and subtr acting har monics, or r eadjusting the balance of phase r elationships. It' s definitely " voodoo" , but ver y useful at times. BACK TO INDEX

7. The MIDI Revolution

This tr uly has been a r evolution of music power and access to it. It began in the ear ly 1980' s, as small computer chips wer e finding their way into synthesizer s. Sever al for war d looking manufactur er s of r eal vision had the br illiant idea to establish a standar d for communication between devices. This became the fir st MIDI pr otocol. The MIDI standar d has been expanding and impr oving since then and just about ever y electr onic musical device made today comes with MIDI plugs and some kind of implementation.

a. Sequencers
The fir st " sequencer s" in the 1970's wer e analog. They wer e initially designed to playback a patter n that you " stepped" in one note at a time and had a contr ol to set the speed of the playback. They had a ver y limited patter n memor y and ther e was no standar d way to lock any other device to them. MIDI sequencer s changed all that. Har dwar e MIDI sequencer s began to appear in the ear ly 1980's. They wer e cheap and easy to use. The Roland MC-500 and Yamaha QX ser ies wer e ver y popular ear ly models. As per sonal computer s became cheaper and mor e widely available, " softwar e" sequencer s began to appear . Dr .T for the Commodor e C-64 was an ear ly pioneer . Soon the Apple MacIntosh and Atar i 1040 ST came on the scene and names like " Per for mer " , " Notator " , " Master Tr acks" , " Vision" and " Cubase" became widely known softwar e titles. Softwar e based sequencer s ar e ver satile, power ful devices which have sever al advantages over their har dwar e cousins. Easy updates thr ough softwar e, a much lar ger monitor scr een to view infor mation on and mor e intensive editing capabilities ar e just a few. The r ange of options and featur es is vast. A r ecent innovation is the incor por ating of digital r ecor ding into the sequencing pr ogr am itself. Confusion about Midi Clock and Midi Time Code (MTC) is ver y common. MTC and Midi Clock ar e r elated but actually intended for differ ent pur poses. Midi clock came fir st and its pr inciple r ole is to tell listening midi devices what the tempo is(pr imar ily sequencer s and dr um machines). Midi Song Pointer came next and it tells other midi devices wher e bar 1 is, wher e bar 2 is, etc. As you can imagine, a high degr ee of accur acy (we'r e talking milliseconds her e) is needed for consistent contr ol and lockup between video decks, audio machines and midi equipment r unning together . Midi Time Code(MTC) was developed to give midi devices an absolute r efer ence point, much finer than bar s or beats. Midi machine contr ol(MMC) allows the sequencer to chase the audio r ecor der OR for the audio r ecor der to chase the sequencer ! Midi Machine Contr ol uses MTC to keep things locked up to a ver y tight degr ee of r esolution. Most newer pr ogr ams and MIDI devices suppor t MTC and MMC. J L Cooper makes sever al differ ent boxes for communicating acr oss for mats. I use their DataMaster to r ead SMPTE off my 1/2" 16-tr ack and conver t that to " ADAT speak" to lock my ADAT to the http://www.jeepjazz.com/handbk.html 10:32:37 6/11/2001

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16-tr ack. The DataMaster also suppor ts MTC and MMC, but my sequencer doesn't. That' s okay, I' ll keep my Notator and Atar i 1040-ST for now!

b. Synthesizers
Synthesizer s have changed dr amatically since computer chips began showing up in their cir cuitr y in the ear ly 1980's. Befor e that, they wer e r ather cumber some machines given to tuning instability, usually two voices at best and had to be r epr ogr ammed manually for each new sound. The famous mini-moog and Ar p synthesizer s wer e popular models in the 1970' s. The fir st tr uly polyphonic moder n synthesizer with patch memor y was the Sequential Cir cuits " Pr ophet 5" which debuted in 1980. It had analog osciltor s and their usual tuning pr oblems but it' s patch memor y and pr ogr amming ver satility r evolutionized the industr y and the use of synthesizer s for live per for mance. For the fir st time, keyboar d player s could change sounds with the touch of a button. Digital oscilator s soon followed and all var iations of synthesis techniques wer e exploited in one for m or another . The " polyphony" , or how many simultaneous voices could be pr oduced by these units, also began to incr ease. The MIDI pr otocol allowed you to have a differ ent sound on each of 16 MIDI channels limited only by the capabilities of your MIDI synthesizer . The Yamaha FB-01 was one of the ear liest synth " modules" to take advantage of this MIDI featur e. The Yamaha DX-7 became the most popular digital keyboar d of the mid-1980's. Roland also pr oduced many popular keyboar ds in it's J upiter and J uno ser ies. Kor g intr oduced onboar d effects with it's DW-6000 and DW-8000 synths. Kor g hit another homer un with the M-1 synthesizer , intr oduced ar ound 1990. One of the fir st " wor kstation" designs, it combined sampling technology and synthesis to pr oduce br eakthr ough sonics along with an onboar d sequencer and digital effects, to once again up the ante in the synthesizer r ace. MIDI synthesizer s keep getting mor e power ful all the time for less money, and that tr end continues.

c. Samplers
" Sampler s" ar e like synthesizer s in a lot of ways. In a synthesizer , oscilator s pr oduce the r aw sound that is then modified by filter s and LFO's and sent thr ough envelopes and amplifier s, etc. In a sampler , on the other hand, the r aw sound sour ce can be anything that they sample. Then you can apply all the filter s, LFO's, envelopes and amplifier s to that. The fir st keyboar d sampler s available in the ear ly 1980's wer e the EMu Emulator ser ies. With an integr ated 5 1/4" discdr ive, they wer e big, heavy and expensive and awesome sounding. The Akai S-612 and Ensoniq Mir age wer e two of the fir st inexpensive r ack mounted MIDI sampler s. The pr ize for the fir st inexpensive MIDI polyphonic keyboar d sampler goes to the Casio FZ-1. It appear ed in 1985 and had 8 outputs and a standar d 3 1/2" discdr ive for saving. Akai made the ver y popular S-900 r ack mount sampler s which evolved into the S-950. Then ster eo sampler s came along and like ever ything else, they just keep getting mor e power ful and less expensive. Recent options available include built-in CD Rom, SCSI har d disc and optical digital inter faces.

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d. Computers
Computer s have become essentiel in moder n music making. They ar e found in synthesizer s, r ecor ding devices, effects, automation and synchr onization systems. They made the MIDI r evolution possible. The most popular music softwar e in the 1980's was wr itten for the Apple MacIntosh and Atar i 1040-ST computer s. In Eur ope, the Atar i was the dominant machine and C-Lab " Notator " and Steinber g " Cubase" wer e two popular pr ogr ams. In the US the Atar i computer s wer e much less expensive than the Macs but in the ear ly 90's, having business dificulties, they eventually disappear ed fr om the mar ket her e. Atar i still enjoys a lar ge pr esence in Eur ope and intr oduced the Falcon ser ies ther e which includes 8-tr ack digital r ecor ding capabilities str aight out of the box! The Mac has always had a r abid following despite it's mor e expensive har dwar e cost. " Per for mer " , " Vision" and " Master Tr acks Pr o" wer e all str ong sequencer packages wr itten for it' s unique oper ating system. The har dwar e pr ices have moder ated somewhat and it still enjoys a loyal user base and lar ge shar e of the music mar ket. The IBM was not that popular for music at fir st. Voyetr a Systems had an ear ly sequencing package for it but it wasn' t until " Windows" came along in the late 1980's that mor e softwar e was wr itten for it. " Cakewalk" became a popular pr ogr am for this platfor m in the ear ly 1990' s and soon other s followed. E-Magic's Logic Audio is a power ful digital r ecor ding and sequencing package that was or iginally wr itten for the Mac, but actually per for ms better on the Windows platfor m. The r eal br eakthr ough for IBM has been it's r apidly expanding mar ket shar e due to the popular ity of " Windows" , the ever incr easing power of the chips that dr ive the PC and the pr ice differ ential between PC's and Macs. The 386 gave way to the 486 which gave way to the Pentiums and their speed and efficiency keeps gr owing. Apple had the edge on digital r ecor ding systems at one time but the " Windows/IBM" platfor m has now become the dominant platfor m. Har d disc r ecor ding systems ar e r apidly evolving and computer s ar e either doing the r ecor ding and acting as the " fr ont-end" inter face between the oper ator and r ecor der . The " SoundScape" har d disc r ecor ding system fr om the UK uses a dedicated har dwar e r ecor der and a windows fr ont-end. Pr oTools, which pr eviously only developed softwar e for Macs, r eleased the " Session 8" , an 8-tr ack har d disc r ecor der , for the windows platfor m in 1993 and now Pr oTools is fully suppor ted on the PC platfor m as well. The computer s have gotten power ful enough to handle it; so now you can sequence your synthesizer s and pr ogr am your dr ums, then r ecor d your guitar amp and vocals into the computer and ar r ange the digitally r ecor ded tr acks against the sequenced tr acks all fr om within the same pr ogr am. " Vision" for the Mac, " Cakewalk Pr o" and C-Lab " Logic" for the PC and " Cubase" for the Atar i Falcon all have this capability. Digital r ecor ding and editing ar e logical jobs for the computer and ther e ar e many systems taking advantage of this power . Basically, the computer acts like a wor d pr ocessor for music. The mater ial is r ecor ded into the computer and then you cut it up and r ear r ange it, EQ it, adjust it and put it back together however you like. Ther e ar e the usual complement

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of now standar d AES/EBU digital ins and outs. Newer designs ar e incor por ating digital inter faces for the popular Alesis ADAT and Tascam DA-88 digital r ecor der s. Another gr eat use for a digital editing system is r ecor ding your mixes in pieces. If you don' t have console automation and the mix is too complicated, simply r ecor d your song in segments and edit it together . Sever al power ful digital editing pr ogr ams ar e available now including " SAW Plus" and " Sound For ge" . BACK TO INDEX

8. Recording With Your PC

The explosion of r ecor ding har dwar e and softwar e has finally collided with low pr ices and now ever ybody wants to use their computer to make music. Mor e than 1/2 the questions I get at ' Ask the Doctor ' ar e now computer r ecor ding r elated. The amount of sound power being offer ed fr om inside a PC today is incr edible. The main pr oblem is that it' s too often a complicated pr ocess to get the har dwar e and softwar e installed pr oper ly and wor king cor r ectly. However , once these " configur ation" issues ar e solved, the PC r ecor ding envior nment can be a lot of fun to use and can pr oduce ver y high quality r ecor dings.
to M ac u sers: I

have no par ticular bone to pick with the Mac vs. the PC. I used Macs when I fir st star ted wor king at Calliope Studios in NYC in 1986. Back then, for my own pr ojects, the Atar i was a lot cheaper and did what I needed, so I used it. PC's and Mac' s both cr ash fr om time to time and both have their devotees. Use what you'r e comfor table with. The sound that comes out is only as good as the oper ator who puts it in. " Pr oTools this and plugin-X" no mor e guar antees a hit song than using a " Str at thr ough a Mar shall stack" means you' ll sound just like J imi Hendr ix. Remember , gr asshopper , the computer is a tool that can help you or hur t you as you sear ch for meaning in the musical univer se...

THE SOFTW ARE:

For star ter s, figur e out what it is you want to do. Do you alr eady have a demo setup, but need to edit and compile your ster eo mixes fr om DAT? or don't have a DAT and want to r ecor d your mixes dir ectly into the computer ? or want to do multi-tr ack r ecor ding into the computer , i.e. r ecor d a dr ummer , bass player and guitar ist all at the same time and mix on the computer ? or you want to lock the computer to your ADAT and use them both to r ecor d on? or you don' t have any other equipment and want to do it all on the computer ? Okay, you see that ther e ar e a lot of questions to answer befor e you buy the " box" ! All of these softwar e companies have websites. Look at the softwar e you might want to use and find out what the differ ent packages do. IMPORTANT!!! Ever y one of these softwar e manufactur er s lists the capabilities of each piece of softwar e as well as minimum PC capabilities r equir ed to r un that softwar e. I can guar antee you that in the long r un, you won' t be happy with the way any music softwar e r uns on the " minimum machine" listed in the softwar e specs. Talk to a r ep and make them tell you what it r eally needs to r un on. Recor ding Softwar e comes in sever al flavor s. Ther e ar e 2-tr ack ster eo pr ogr ams like Sonic Foundr y' s Sound For ge. It's a ver y power ful 2-tr ack editing package but mainly designed http://www.jeepjazz.com/handbk.html 10:32:37 6/11/2001

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to wor k on one ster eo song at a time. With a Multi-tr ack Recor ding pr ogr am you could wor k on sever al songs at once, do cr oss fades and over lap endings and beginnings, etc. or actually r ecor d and over dub par ts as you would with any multi-tr ack r ecor der . Ther e ar e lots of multi-tr ack pr ogr ams out ther e like Syntr illium's Cool Edit Pr o, IQS Saw Plus and SEK' d Samplitude, to name a few. Ther e ar e also power ful MIDI Sequencing pr ogr ams with Digital Audio capabilities available like MOTU Digital Per for mer , E-Magic Logic Audio and Opcode Vision DSP. With these you can build MIDI sequences and r ecor d your audio and place the digital audio r ight onto the sequences. The audio becomes another sound that is tr igger ed along with the r est of the MIDI sequence. Her e is wher e the capabilities of your soundcar d come in. If you'r e only doing guitar and vocal r ecor ding, then you'll pr obably be fine with a simple ANALOG L/R in/out soundcar d. For over dubbing, it must be " full duplex" which means the soundcar d can input and output at the same time. A DIGITAL connection on the soundcar d means you can send your mix fr om inside the computer , out to a DAT machine's DIGITAL input. To take advantage of the multi-tr ack r ecor ding pr ogr ams, you'll want multiple ANALOG ins and outs and that' s why they cost mor e. Look for the number of simultaneous r ecor d and playback channels capabilities as well as the types of ANALOG and DIGITAL connections. To bur n cd' s on your computer , you need cd-r softwar e. A lot of softwar e companies now have seper ate add-on cd-r softwar e to go with their r ecor ding packages. In gener al, these ar e fair ly sophisticated and allow you to move id mar ker s, change subcode info, etc. The cheapest stand alone cd-r softwar e I've seen is Adaptec's Easy CD-Pr o. It came bundled with my cd-r . It simply allows you to ar r ange the or der of your audio files and bur n the CD. Each seper ate audio file gets an id on the CD. You can't place id's or access subcode info. Easy CD-Pr o is also file backup softwar e and this is r eally helpful when you've filled up that big har d dr ive with audio files. Believe me, it will fill up faster than you can imagine! When I' m done with a pr oject on the computer , I save all the r elated files onto a cd-r and er ase the old files on my har d dr ive. When I need to wor k on it again, I r eload the backed up files fr om cd-r and continue my slicing and dicing. So, you' ve checked out the softwar e, hopefully even had a chance to speak with someone who is using it or even better , actually seen it r unning. Now you need the har dwar e to r un it on.

THE HARDW ARE:

Get the fastest Intel pr ocessor you can affor d. The AMD and Cyr ix chips ar e cheaper but you might want to go with Intel. Specs I've seen fr om sever al companies won' t guar antee softwar e per for mance on non-Intel chips, so r ead the fine pr int. Also check the mother boar d for system bus speed (66mhz on older models, 100mhz and 133 mhz on newer ones), amount and type of onboar d RAM it can hold(mor e is better ) and number of open slots for PCI/ISA car ds(mor e is better ). If you have older ISA car ds you want to use, double check because many new mother boar ds only offer PCI.
Th e Com pu ter:

Stuff at least 128 meg of RAM in ther e, 256 meg or mor e would be even better . It used to be 30 and 72-pin 60ns memor y chips. Newer mother boar ds can take 168-pin
Th e R A M :

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SDRAM memor y chips that r un at 7ns on the 100mhz bus machines. Check the mother boar d manuals for the type, speed and physical par ameter s of the memor y you should use. Some machines take (2) pair s, some can handle differ ent sizes (a 64 and 128), some can' t. All of these softwar e r ecor ding packages suffer fr om the same pr oblem. They fill the scr een with too much infor mation constantly. 17" monitor s ar e getting down below $300, so go for a 19" or 21" if you can. You'll thank me later . As of 2001, 15" flat scr een monitor s offer almost the same scr een r eal estate as a 17" monitor , and ar e in the $600 r ange. They take up a lot less space and give off lots less heat.
Th e M on itor:

Most music softwar e is now taking advantage of the PCI slots. You'll want at least (4) of them. Some PCI car ds ar e long and some ar e shor t, so the inter ior physical dimensions of your computer enclosur e could come into play. Get a tower enclosur e if possible, it'll give you r oom to add har d dr ives and mor e stuff later on.
P CI / I SA slots:

You' ll want the biggest you can get because you'll have lots of per ipher als stuffed in ther e. Definitely opt for the quietest one you can get as well. Those fan(s) can be a pr oblem.
P ow er Su pply: H ard Drives: Get

a seper ate Har d Dr ive(s) that will only be used for digital audio. Audio files ar e huge and you don't want to be r ecor ding on the same har d dr ive that your oper ating system is on. IDE dr ives will wor k and the new Ultr a-ATA (UDMA)IDE dr ives ar e fast(a 66MB/sec and even newer 100MB/sec ver sion) and ver y cheap. A PC mother boar d has sockets for 4 IDE dr ives (Pr imar y master and slave AND Secondar y master and slave) although some may only allow 2 of the faster UDMA dr ive types. To connect additional har d dr ives takes a little wor k. You'll have to make sur e your system BIOS can r ecognize the dr ive. Ther e's usually some kind of message when you boot up about enter ing " setup" , pr ess F1 or something like that. The instr uctions with the dr ive and your mother boar d will help you with these settings. You'll also need to set some pins on the dr ive itself to set it as the master or slave. I' m using 3 har d dr ives on my cur r ent system. One is dedicated to the oper ating system and pr ogr ams. The other 2 ar e for digital audio. One is an EIDE 1.6 gig and the other is a UDMA 6.4 gig. The EIDE dr ive wor ks fine, its just slower . CHECK THE MOTHERBOARD SPECS! A lot of softwar e pr oblems ar e actually due to har dwar e issues. It used to be that for mor e than 4 connection capabilities, your only choice was a SCSI car d which allows at least (7) SCSI devices to be connected at once. SCSI comes in sever al flavor s and is a little faster , but SCSI per ipher als gener ally cost 2 or 3 times as much as their IDE cousins. The char t below shows the r espective tr ansfer speeds.

IDE/ATA EIDE

IDE/Ultr aDMA

2.1 - 8.3 MB/sec 33.3 MB/sec

Ultr a ATA(UDMA)

11.1 - 16.6 MB/sec

SCSI

SCSI

Fast SCSI Fast Wide SCSI

5 MB/sec

10 MB/sec 20 MB/sec

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New Ultr a-DMA

New Ultr a-DMA 100 MB/sec II

66 MB/sec

Ultr a SCSI Ultr a 2 SCSI

20 MB/sec 40 MB/sec

USB is now an option to SCSI. Theor etically, you can daisy chain 127 devices with USB. Ther e' s no special car d needed because it's a built-in for mat on most newer computer s (post 1999) and its plenty fast to handle digital audio. It's convenient because the USB per ipher als ar e " hot-swappable" (meaning you can plug and unplug them with the computer on) and the cabling r equir ements ar e simpler than with SCSI devices. USB har d dr ives, cd-r 's, cd-r w' s and r emoveable dr ives ar e all available. Tascam and Event both have come out with small digital audio mixer s that use the USB inter face. They'r e both about $600 and pr ovide 8 fader s, EQ, digital input and output, etc. When you get tir ed of r ecor ding with the mouse, you can check out one of these as an inter face between you and your favor ite r ecor ding softwar e. The newest audio inter face on the block is Fir eWir e and this one will fuel the next big audio har dwar e r evolution. No PCI car ds, just plug in and star t r ecor ding. Its r ight on the mother boar d like USB and r eady to r ock and r oll. Devices that take advantage of Fir eWir e ar e just star ting to show up in 2001.
R em ovable Drives: A standar d

Zip dr ive car tr idge will hold about 10 minutes of 44.1 ster eo digital audio. A 1 meg J azz or Syquest Spar q dr ive car tr idge holds about 100 minutes of 44.1 ster eo digital audio. If you'r e doing a lot of differ ent pr ojects, a r emoveable stor age medium can be ver y helpful. The zip car tr idges ar e about $10 apiece, J azz car ts ar e $90-100 each and Spar q car ts ar e $33 apiece. Unfor tunately, Syquest is out of business as of summer '99 , so Iomega doesn't r eally have any competition and can char ge what they want. Ther e is a new r emoveable dr ive out ther e called the Or bit that looks a lot like the Syquest Spar q. It holds 2.2gig per car tr idge and they' r e also about $35 apiece.
CD-r's an d CD-rw 's: 12x

speed cd-r 's ar e now in the $300 r ange! They can be SCSI or IDE as well. Bulk cd-r ' s on a spindle ar e down to $.20 each. Get a decent inkjet, do your own labels and make your own cd's one at a time; voila, instant r ecor d label. I picked up an 8x SCSI cd-r for $200 in Nov.99. I actually have a 2x SCSI cd-r and the 8x SCSI cd-r both installed on my system. I have some old backup softwar e that wor ks with the 2x cd-r and I use the 8x for bur ning cd's. I love bur ning a 50 minute cd in 8 minutes! CD-r w is gr eat for backing up your files. It looks like another har d dr ive to the computer and you can r euse the medium. The physical cd's ar e mor e expensive, but it's a no-br ainer . This is the device that gets the sound into and out of the computer . Ther e ar e lots of soundcar ds out ther e and you need to pick the r ight one for doing what you want to do. Again, go to the maufactur er s' websites. Make sur e the softwar e that you have picked will wor k with the soundcar d you'r e looking at. The softwar e should list soundcar ds that have been tested and wor k cor r ectly with it.
Th e Sou n dcard:

Don' t get a car d that only has digital in/outs unless you have a DAT machine or other box that r eads a digital signal. Ther e ar e two flavor s of digital in/out. One is S/PDIF which uses an RCA style connector (like your cassette deck) and the other is AES/EBU which uses a http://www.jeepjazz.com/handbk.html 10:32:37 6/11/2001

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cannon connector (like a micr ophone cable). Some car ds have one, some have both. You can' t plug them into your home ster eo and hear them! Whether its simply for ster eo editing or full blown multi-tr ack r ecor ding, get a soundcar d with at least a ster eo analog monitor output so when all the digital bells and whistles quit on you, you can plug this into your ster eo and hear what the hell is going on OR not going on! If you' r e only using the computer to r ecor d and mix on, this doesn' t apply to you. If on the other hand, you'r e planning on using the computer with other digital divices such as ADAT' s or DA-88's, or a digital mixer like the Panasonic DA7 or Yamaha 02R, then this is ver y impor tant to you.
A W ord A bou t W ordclock:

All digital devices have computer s inside them r unning their own inter nal digital clocks. To wor k pr oper ly together , ther e has to be a MASTER WORDCLOCK device with all the other s being connected to it. When you star t to inter connect them and move the digital audio between devices, and don' t pr oper ly connect the wor dclock ins and outs, these differ ent digital clocks begin to cause pr oblems which can include pops and clicks, r andom noise, timing discr epancies, audio dr ift or no audio at all. Fur ther mor e, differ ent combinations of digital equipment will r equir e some exper imentation as to which par ticular device should be the wor dclock master .
Th e Drivers: These ar e little softwar e pr ogr ams

that communicate with the oper ating system, be it Win95, Win98, NT or Win3.11 and facilitate the smooth inter action between your H/W and S/W. Win95 had a ver . 1 and a ver sion 2 as did Windows 98 and now we have Windows 2000 to contend with. You need to make sur e that your softwar e and har dwar e BOTH ar e suppor ted by whatever ver sion of Windows is on your computer . NT is par ticular ly unfor giving in this ar ea because it does not suppor t plug and play. NT is ver y r obust but the har dwar e has to be appr oved specifically for the NT platfor m. Updated dr iver s ar e always pr omised but if they ar en't available, you'r e out of luck. Most softwar e manufactur er s will list systems and har dwar e that they have tested to wor k with their pr oducts. Find this infor mation and use it. It could save you a lot of headaches. Par ticular ly because the PC is a " r oll your own" box, the money you save building a system your self, is wor thless if the softwar e won't per for m pr oper ly on it.
COM P A TI BI LI TY I SSU ES:

So let' s r eview. To get into the computer r ecor ding game, you'll need:

COMPUTER HARDWARE the computer the monitor

$1000-2000 $ 200-800 $ 200-600 $ 200-600 $ 100-800 (?) $ 100-800 $ 350-1000

the soundcard cd-r/cd-rw

dedicated hard drive(s) recording software MIDI sequencing software

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cd-r/cd-rw software SCSI card UltraDMA-66/100 card Removeable drive AUDIO HARDWARE microphones/preamps external signal processors external mixer speakers

(?) (?) (?) (?) (?) (?) (?) (?) (?)

(?)

$ 120-300 $ 100 $ 300

$ 100-500

external recorders external digital synchronization

This is a substantial investment and as you can see, mor e involved than just buying a computer . If you'r e not a gear slut/techie, then save your self a lot of aggr avation and have the computer and all it's har d dr ives, r emoveable dr ives, cd-r oms and cd-r 's put together and configur ed by the same outfit. Remember to do your homewor k and r ead the fine pr int befor e you buy anything. Good luck and if you have any questions, just ask the doctor ! BACK TO INDEX
H OM EP A GE BI O DI SCOGR A P H Y SOU N D DR . STU DI O A SK TH E DR . COM P A N Y STOR E alt.FLA V OR COOL LI N K S

E-Mail: thedoctor@jeepjazz.com SnailMail: JeepJazz Music 8 Graham Terrace Montclair, NJ 07042 Phone: 973-233-1476/1477(fax)
1996 JeepJazz Music Revised -- May 31, 2001

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