Learn about the music production process—including recording, editing, and mixing—and the tools available to you to create contemporary music on your computer. With the recent introduction of high-quality-low-cost software and hardware, the tools of music production are now available to the masses. Albums are made in bedrooms as well as studios. On the surface this is liberating. Anyone can make an album for the low cost of a couple pieces of gear and a software package. But, if you dig deeper, you will find that it is not so easy. Producing music requires knowledge, dedication, and creativity. Knowledge is where this course comes in. No matter what kind of music you are making, there is a large set of tools that you will need to use. Each lesson of this course will demonstrate a different set of music production tools, loosely following along the music production process of recording, editing, and mixing. We will start with some background on the nature of sound and how we perceive it. We will then examine the components necessary to record audio into a computer, so that you understand the devices that sound must travel through in a music production process. Once recorded, sound must be organized along a timeline, a process known as editing. It allows us to give the impression of perfect performances and create many of the sounds we hear in contemporary music. The contemporary editing tool is the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), a piece of software that stores and organizes all the assets of a musical project. We will focus on the editing tools that are essential in contemporary music production and that all DAWs provide. After editing, sounds must be combined or mixed together, so we look to the mixing board—a very creative place if you know how to use it. We will explore the basic functionality of both hardware and software mixing boards, including volume, pan, mute, solo, busses, inserts, sends, and submixes. The mixing process, however, includes more tools than the mixing board provides on its own. Sound must also be processed, modified from its recorded state to fit the context of the music. We will look at compression, equalization, and delay, and examine the many audio effects that are offshoots of these devices and how they are used in a musical context. In the end, the music production process relies on your creativity. Creativity is a product of the mind and will stay there, unexpressed, until the right tools are used in the right way to share it with the world. If you have an idea in your head, it will take numerous steps, each with an important tool, to reach your audience. You bring the dedication and creativity, and this course will bring you the knowledge to make that happen.
Microphone Connection and Gain
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From the course by Berklee College of Music
The Technology of Music Production
329 ratings
From the lesson
Sound and Signal Flow
We will start with some background on the nature of sound and how we perceive it. We will then examine the components necessary to record audio into a computer, so that you understand the devices that sound must travel through in a music production process.
Meet the Instructors
Loudon StearnsAssistant Professor
Contemporary Writing & Production
In this video, we're going to look at connecting a microphone to your audio
interface and setting the levels appropriately.
And, while it seems like a simple thing, there are some standard procedures that
you should follow every time you're connecting a microphone.
You want to be careful when connecting a microphone, because these are those
points were you really could possibly damage your equipment.
but more likely, you could just cause horrible feedback, and you really want to
watch out every time you connect things. You want to avoid the sound of actually
making the connection from going through your equipment.
If I have the speakers on and the levels set before connecting up my microphone,
there's a very good chance, I'll get a loud pop or click that runs through my
computer, through my speakers. Again, possibly damage the speakers, and
just possibly hurting your own ears. Also, if your microphone's on and your
speakers are on, you could get very loud, kind of ear shattering feedback, which we
also want to avoid. So, we're going to talk about just the
procedure for connecting a microphone. And the first thing you want to do, you
know, after you get your interface working with your computer is going to
re, to reduce the input gain all the way down.
Now, the input gain is going to be the most important knob you're going to
adjust while recording. Because this is going to set the level
that gets to the A to D converter, the analog-digital converter.
And it will almost always be a knob on the outside of the device that you have
to manually control. And we're going to set that all the way
to zero. So, I'm turning that input gain all the
way down. And that way, as I connect things, I know
that signal's not going to go through my entire system.
One thing to aware of though, even if you turn your input gain all the way down,
signal can still be going through your system.
It's not a mute. Sometimes some interfaces will have a
mute button, and use it if you can. But having the input gain all the way
down does not guarantee that no signal will go through your system.
The next thing I'll do is turn phantom power off.
Because this is a condenser microphone, if phantom power is off, the signal will
do anything. The microphone cannot work.
It functions almost like an on off switch for the microphone.
Another really nice thing about condenser microphones in the studio.
So, by turning the phantom power off, I can make sure that as I connect this,
there will be no loud pops. It's best to have phantom power off
before you connect the microphone. Now, I want to connect my mic up to my
interface. we'll be using an XLR cable for that, and
one thing to be aware of is that the XLR cable does have a male and a female end.
The mic itself is male, so, I just like to think mic is male.
So, the microphone is male, I'll also take the female end and connect it up to
my microphone first. Then I'll take the male end and connect
it to my interface. And I know, since the input gain is all
the way down and the phantom power is off, that I'm not sending that clicking
sound through all of my system. The next thing I want to do is turn on
phantom power, which really is like turning on the microphone.
And right away, I'm actually seeing level running through my system.
Our next procedure is to set the level where we want it to be in our final
recording. And this is going to be the most
important step of your kind of recording, of your kind of prerecording process.
You have to get this step perfectly, and it's going to be a knob on the outside of
your device to set it. Now, the goal here is to get a nice solid
level. We want a good signal, but we never want
to go over. so, if anything err on the lower side.
It's okay to bring the level up in the computer.
What we really don't want is distortion, and distortion happens when you go all
the way above kind of of the maximum that we can have here.
Now, when I turn this trim knob, what we're manipulating is the microphone
preamp. And we've talked about that a couple of
times in the course already, but what we're looking at is getting the really
low level from the microphone up to that standard operating level, that standard
line level. So, the general procedure is to have your
artist or if it's yourself, your going to be singing, talking, playing, whatever at
the kind of loudest place you'll be in the piece of music.
And then your going to be adjusting the input level until you get a nice solid
recording. So, as your setting your levels, you
want to make sure that if, if it does have colors, you want it to be in the
yellow at maximum. Never be anywhere near the red.
If it's like this interface and doesn't give you colors, but has a kind of bar,
keep it around the three quarter range, but never have it get toward the very
top. One important consideration is really to
look at the meters on your device on the outside of your device.
There are many place within the computer that the signal can be monitored.
there are output levels and bus levels, which won't always be true.
But the level on the device itself will be the true input level, and is what
you're going to need to use when you're setting your levels.
So, what we have here looks pretty good. And I'd be ready to record.
Now, something to be wary of is meters aren't always perfectly true.
And again, you really don't want to ever come near that red.
Error on the side of a little bit lower. the other side of that too, musicians
always get a little bit louder when the recording actually starts.
So, you're usually better off just keeping a little lower.
Getting a good, clean, undistorted recording and then bringing up the level
a bit later within the computer. When you're done with recording, you
want to be concious with how you disconnect your microphone as well.
And we're going to go basically in reverse order.
The one thing I'd like to mention is that when you do shut off phantom power, it
can cause a click to go through your system.
So, I'd suggest when you start disconnecting devices to turn off your
monitors, or turn down your output volume before you start disconnecting anything.
Once you've turned down your speakers or turned off your speakers, turn the mic
gain all the way down. Then turn off vent and power, and then
disconnect your microphone.
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