Audio Recording

This is a detailed tutorial for singer/songwriters planning to record their own demo at home. This is an “inexpensive” solution particularly aimed at producing an “unplugged” acoustic version of your song using your own personal computer. You might be planning to use this recording as a demo or even a professional recording of your own original song.

What do you need? (This is used by the tutorial, you can use you own recording gears if you already have)

1.) At least Pentium 4 Windows PC with Soundcard (this tutorial is using Creative SoundBlaster Audigy soundcard), 2GB RAM, 500GB hard drive.
2.) Adobe Audition recording software (this tutorial is using version 1.5) with Waves IDR plugin, read this tutorial on how to install Waves IDR Direct x plug-in.
3.) Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer
4.) Voxengo R8brain sample rate converter
5.) Acoustic guitar with pickup
6.) Guitar tuner (Matrix SR-1060 Digital Chromatic Guitar and Bass Tuner)
7.) Computer speakers (this tutorial is using Altec Lansing ATP4)
8.) Shure microphone C606 dynamic microphone with microphone stand.
9.) Microphone cable
10.) Guitar cable
11. Mixer output to Sound card stereo cable.

Part 1.) Prepare microphones

a.) Mount the microphone in stand. Avoid feedback. Do not let the computer speaker sound to go into the microphones. You can do this by facing the microphone towards you and not to the computer/speakers. Put some isolation to prevent this problem. And make the recording environment as quiet as possible.

b.) Connect the dynamic microphone to MIC line input in Behringer mixer. (Screenshot below)
c.) Connect the mixer main output to sound card line input. The mixer output should be stereo (left and right channels are used and then connected to your sound card stereo line inputs).
d.) Turn on the Behringer mixer. (Tip: Turn off the computer speakers before turning on the mixer to prevent possible loud noise).

Part2.) Prepare the acoustic guitar

1.) Tune the guitar to desired pitch (e.g. standard tuning E-A-D-G-B-E). Use a guitar tuner. Show screenshot.

2.) Connect the guitar cable to Line 2/3 Input-Right channel of Behringer mixer.(see screenshot below)

Part 3.) Optimize the recording volume, balance the guitar and vocal levels before actual take

1.) Adjust the Behringer mixer, below are the final settings implemented:

Main mix: 30% (maximum setting is 100% and minimum is 0%)
Line 1 level: 100% (for microphone)
Trim: 45%
EQ: All flat (unadjusted)
Pan: Center
Line 2/3 level: 45% (for guitars)

Screenshot of the above settings and wirings in the mixer:

2.) Adjust the sound card mixer input. This is bundled with the sound card software. Below are the final settings implemented:

Important: Set the recording to “microphone”, un-mute the microphone source and then set the volume levels according to the screenshot above.

3.) Open Adobe Audition; go to Options – Device Properties. Make sure the “Wave Out” is set to the correct soundcard, and then “Use this device in Edit view” is checked. Screenshot:

Also ensure “Wave In” is set to the correct soundcard and “Use this device in Edit View” has been checked. Screenshot:

4.) Try playing the guitar and sing to the microphone. Have an assistant to check the volumes that are coming out from your computer speaker. The vocal and guitar volume should balance. This means that your vocal is not drowned with the guitar or the other way around. Tweak the mixer or the soundcard software mixer if necessary. The above settings shown in the previous screenshot are the one used to balance my testing.

Part 4.) The actual vocal/guitar recording

Since this is a live recording and not a multi-track type of recording, the vocal and guitars are recorded simultaneously.

1.) Go to Edit view of Adobe Audition. Go to File – New; then under “New Waveform”. Select “96000” for Sample rate, “Stereo” for Channels and “32-bit (float) for Resolution.

2.) If you are ready, let your assistant hit the recording button. Commence the recording. Give a “3 seconds dead air” before start playing. This is used for noise sampling purposes. If you commit a mistake, do not afraid to re-take. It’s normal. Of course it’s best to practice/master your song performance before doing any recording session, it saves a lot of time.

3.) Hit the stop button after all recording has been made.

Part 5.) Editing

Editing is important to remove some noise and optimize the recording volume. Below are the steps I implemented:

1.) Load up the wave in Editor view.
2.) Go to Edit – Select Entire wave.
3.) Go to Effects – Amplify/Fade
4.) Click “Calculate Now” then hit OK. This will normalize the wave for optimal volume.
5.) Zoom to the starting section of the wave (to the 3 seconds dead air section). You will see the noise before the music starts. Only highlight a very small portion of it. Length of around 0.160 is OK. Right click and then click “Capture noise reduction profile”. See screenshot:

3.) Go to Effects – Noise Reduction. Configure your noise reduction settings as shown in the screenshot below (e.g. set 50 for noise reduction, etc.)

3.) Click OK to implement the settings.
4.) Put a small reverb to add some ambience. Go to Effects – Delay Effects – Studio Reverb. Select “Room Ambience 2”. And then reduce “high frequency cut” to “3000”. Click OK. Screenshot below:

5.) Since reverb will reduce the volume of the wave, go to Effects – Amplitude – Amplify/Fade – Click “Calculate Now” again then hit OK. This will “normalize” the volume back to its previous level.

Part 6.) Dithering

Since you are recording at 32-bit float, 96 KHz you will dither it to 16-bit/44.1 Khz for distribution (e.g. CD audio).

1.) Save your work.
2.) Use Voxengo R8brain sample rate converter to do this job.
3.) Launch Voxengo and do the following settings shown below:

Note: Input WAV file is the raw unconverted/original 32bit-float/96 KHz recording you have saved in step 1. Just let R8brain decide the output file location/name.

4.) Click “Perform r8brain” to start.
5.) Launch Adobe Audition 1.5. In edit view, go to File – Open and the select the converted file (now the audio format should be 32-bit float/44.1 Khz after conversion). The converted file will have _r8b.wav as the part of the file name after R8brain conversion.
6.) Click Open.
7.) Lets use Waves IDR to dither it to 16 bit. Go to effects – Direct x – waves – waves IDR. Under “Quantize” select 16bit. Screenshot:

8.) Save it as a different file name and do not overwrite the previous unconverted versions. The final conversion should be CD-audio wav format 16-bit/44.1Khz. You can now convert it to MP3, etc. Listen to the completed sample track implemented using the above steps (from start to finish):

Song Credits:
Jeanine Maningo – vocal/guitar performance
Song title: “Feel so Close”
Writer: Jeanine Maningo/Emerson Maningo