| Every budding musician, at some point or another, has | | | | recorded at one go. Quite often, the vocals and drums |
| resorted to a home recording. Whether for a demo to | | | | are recorded separately from the rest of the track. |
| present for a local competition, or simply for future | | | | The performers enter the live room, which is usually |
| reference, the early part of a musician's career usually | | | | positioned in such a way that performers can see the |
| sees a series of extremely low-quality recordings. | | | | control room and the people inside it. The control room |
| It doesn't take a great musical ear to understand why | | | | typically houses the music producer and sound |
| home recordings... well... just don't cut it. The technology | | | | engineers, who monitor the sound, record it, and insert |
| and enhancements available in a studio are only half | | | | special effects as desired or required. Sound editing |
| the contribution it makes toward the recording. | | | | such as pitch correction, insertion of effects, balancing |
| Greatest of all, is the sound isolation and the prevention | | | | and gain adjustment is usually done after the live |
| of leakage from one component of the track to | | | | recording is over. |
| another. | | | | Large studios such as Advent Media have facilities for |
| A recording studio is typically split into three rooms - | | | | drum recording and orchestra recordings, but small |
| 1. The studio room or "live room", where the | | | | studios with low budgets will usually fill in the drums |
| performers are present | | | | using a sequencer rather than live drumming. The |
| 2. The "control room", where the sound producer and | | | | microphone setup for drums is highly elaborate - the |
| engineers work with equipment that records and | | | | microphones have to be chosen and positioned so that |
| manipulates the live sound | | | | the sound of each drum is captured individually, which |
| 3. The "machine room", where any noisy machines the | | | | allows better equalizing. |
| studio may use (air conditioner, backup power source, | | | | The main advantage a studio recording has over |
| etc) are placed. | | | | home recording is that the studio is built to match |
| Other than this basic setup, there are often separate | | | | certain acoustic standards. Ideally, a studio should |
| isolation booths, also called "vocals booths" as they are | | | | absorb all sound and reflect none at all. This would |
| used to record vocals and acoustic instruments. Some | | | | have been possible only if the studio had infinite mass |
| studios will also have a separate room for drums, so | | | | and absolute rigidity - but sadly, this is not the case. |
| that the sound of the drum does not leak into the | | | | The good news is that acoustic imperfections can be |
| sound of the remaining instruments. | | | | kept down to levels that are not discernible by the |
| The procedure of recording is fairly simple from the | | | | human ear. |
| performer's end. There are two choices the | | | | A good recording studio can enhance an audio |
| performers have - either each part of the | | | | recording so that it sounds much, much better than the |
| performance can be played and recorded separately, | | | | original. It can also manipulate sound to generate |
| or the entire composition can be played together and | | | | effects whose realization seems nearly inconceivable. |