MISTAKE #7: Not recording in high resolution
A common newbie mistake is to record at 16bit/44.1Khz. This is not optimal since mixing and mastering needs digital audio sampled at much higher rate such as 24bit/96Khz for best results. It offers a much higher signal to noise ratio and the recording sounds cleaner and with depth.
So how to really make quality recordings? The secret is on your signal chain
When you start creating your own projects in your home recording studio; you always wanted to produce that top-notch recording quality similar to your favourite artist commercial CD. However, you find out that no matter what you do, it is always having lesser quality compared with professionally produced recordings. At this point, you begin to suspect your recording and mixing skills. Assuming you are very confident and knowledgeable with recording and music production, the biggest problem threatening the quality of your recordings lies in your “signal chain”.
What is Signal Chain in the Recording Studio?
Signal chain describes the flow of signal from your musical instruments, audio interface, analog to digital converters, computer digital audio processing unit that will be handled by your recording software or DAW (Digital audio workstation) and finally to your studio monitors.
Putting in simpler words everything in the signal path affects the quality of your recordings. When I studied electronics engineering, I remember the topics on signal circuits that state: “The signal chain is only as strong as its weakest link”.
What does this imply? To better understand the above statement, let’s have an example like recording vocals. Take a look at this highly simplified signal chain starting from the vocalist all the way down to your studio monitors.
Every component in the signal chain affects the quality of your recording.
How Each Component in the Signal Chain affects Recording Quality
So let us discuss how each factor can certainly affect the quality by following the above example:
Vocalist – it make sense that if you are tracking vocalist that does not even know how to sing, then you will have serious vocal recording quality issues even before the recording will start. Although this cause is not technical in nature, you should ensure that you are working with a great and solid vocalist. But this is beyond the recording engineers’ choice however recording producers/recording labels will be responsible for working with a great singer. Even high budget productions failed to appreciate the importance of having great vocalist, so they attempt to correct the vocal problems with technology such as Auto-tune, etc. Sad to say, there is no technological substitute for the art of great singing.
The above example is for vocal recording, but the concept applies to all musical instruments to be recorded like guitars, bass, drums, etc. Say you love the guitar tone of Slash, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai or Eric Clapton primarily because they using high quality guitars and amps that can provide that tone. Do not expect to get the same results from your idols if you are using very low quality musical instrument and equipment.
No matter how great the recording gears are or how skilful you are at recording, if the problem starts with the musical instrument; the entire result will still not sound good. So in this case the musical instrument is the weakest link of the recording. You need to fix that.
Microphone – let’s go back to the vocal recording example. The technical requirements of recording vocals is to “faithfully” reproduce vocal frequencies starting from 20Hz to 20,000Hz or even beyond, uncoloured or un-altered. Well, there is only microphone that can do this job- a quality vocal condenser microphone. So if you are using cheap dynamic microphones in your vocal recordings, do not expect that the vocals will sound complete, airy and amazing. Cheap dynamic microphones have very poor frequency response and sensitivity compared to condenser microphones. In this case, the microphone is the weakest link in your recording.
Audio Interface– this is very critical. A good audio interface accomplishes two functions: pre-amplification and analog to digital conversion. If you are using an audio interface without a pre-amp, the recording will be noisy and weak. No matter how great are your microphones or even the vocalist, the resulting quality will still not sound great because of noise or hiss. Or if the audio interface is poor in converting analog to digital signals then you are working with digital signals that are not a faithful reproduction of your analog sound. In this scenario, the audio interface is your home studio weakest link.
Computer– less engineers are putting emphasis on improving the quality of the computer hardware and software, but yes it is still part of the signal chain and will affect the recording quality. How? If you are running a computer with less powerful hardware (low memory or low CPU speed) or buggy software, it will tend to drop-out or experience instability during the recording session. Drop-outs or digital related issues inside your computer can accidentally add noise, spikes and other weird issues in your session. In this case, the computer is the weakest link.
Studio Monitors – OK, say for example you have now a great vocalist, a great sounding microphone, a high quality audio interface, powerful computer hardware and an industry-standard DAW like Pro Tools. You still have recording quality issue if your studio monitors does not faithfully reproduce what is EXACTLY being recorded. This is why you need to use high quality nearfield monitors that is flat that tells the truth. If it sounds bad, it will sound bad not the other way around. In this case, the studio monitors are the studio weakest link.
Recording Environment – this is the “sixth man” in your recording studio. Very few beginners in home recording are seriously paying attention to the recording environment. Yes, this will have a HUGE impact in your recording quality. For example, if you are recording vocals in a highly reflective environment as opposed to the dry-sound insulated room (which is recommended), the recorded vocals will not sound great because of sound reflections and discoloration due to the room. Or if you are monitoring the recordings in an “untreated” room, it will tend to emphasize a certain sets of frequencies which will result to in-accuracies in monitoring. This will lead you to wrong recording/mixing decisions. In this case, the recording environment is the weakest link in your recording studio.
As a summary, to make quality recordings is to fix ALL weakest links in your recording signal chain.
Does this imply that I should spend more for my studio?
Not exactly. The point of this post is not to let you buy or immediately upgrade your gears; but to educate the importance of having a great signal chain. So I recommend taking a deep look at your existing gears and checking if it’s doing the job well in your recording. Do some research regarding its technical specifications and read some reviews out there to make sure they are the right equipment for the job. If you are still doubtful, asked for expert opinions in the forums. Spend modestly and upgrade one at a time. In my experience, I found out there are gears that are still affordable yet it sounds great. You do not need to have your signal chain to be entirely consisting of highly expensive gears but I do recommend settling for highly rated/recommended gears (which is not always expensive) for every part of your signal chain.
Content last updated on October 14, 2012
6 Responses
Thanks Andrew for adding the clarification, that’s actually what I supposed to mean.
Hi there, You may not have spotted that you’ve put:
“MISTAKE #5: Recording everything in stereo
Some tracks will only be highly necessary to be recorded in stereo (such as a solo instrument).”
You actually mean
“MISTAKE #5: Recording everything in stereo
Most tracks will not need to be recorded in stereo (such as a solo instrument) except for a few instruments that would benefit from stereo microphone techniques (such as a grand piano or an orchestra) which could make sense to record in stereo”
You have also put:
“A common newbie mistake is to record at 16bit/44.1Khz. This is not optimal…
…24bit/96Khz for best results”
This is not a useful generalisation to make, and not a “newbie error”. In fact, if it is ever going to end up CD then recording at 44.1kHz does make perfect sense, as you don’t need to sample rate convert. If you REALLY want to record at a high sample rate then go for 88.2kHz to make the sample rate conversion much simpler. If your audio is going to end up on video – then 48kHz or 96kHz would be the appropriate equivalent.
Recording at 24bit IS a very good idea – because it gives you a bigger dynamic range and gives you a lower noise floor when dithering etc etc.
Don’t forget – to record at 96k/24bit you need more than three times the amount of harddrive space, not to mention the data read/write rate.
Otherwise, an interesting article with some very good info!
thanks!
It’s not actually a bad idea if the recording is clean. If it works for you and you are happy with it, stick with that setup first. I have used unbalanced setup before and it works for me for very small projects such as yours.
I suggest you better stick with your recorder in the early stages of your recording career, investing another recorder can be expensive. And if you are not still earning from your projects, your business won’t be profitable.
Like what I’ve done before, I used my old setup for around 3 years until I made sufficient returns from my investment to buy a better gears with more inputs, better performance and better sound. What is essential is you know the methodology in recording which will stay the same regardless of what gears you will be using. It is what make this blog very different from other recording sites on the Internet, I emphasized on the techniques and skills on the process to get a better sound than simply relying on the quality of gears as a factor of great recordings.
As you may have already experience, you made some improvements by following the simple methodology without switching/changing your gears. And this is important because you acquire some new skills to further improve the sound of your projects. Good luck and thanks for reading my articles. Cheers! 🙂
Hello again:
Thank you for your quick response. I followed your recommendation with REAPER and to my surprise, it showed the raw recording from the piano was already at 24-bits. Here is the copy: Bits/sample: 24 (int) So, this means my digital recorder already has 24-bit DA/AD converter. I’m very happy to see that.
In more detail, this is how I am recording from the piano. I am using a TASCAM DR-1 recorder. I use the AUX OUT from the piano, which has two RCA type connectors. I plug two short (about 4 feet) RCA cables to AUX OUT which then is connected to a 3.5mm mini jack adapter. This is because the recorder LINE-IN is only a 3.5mm connector. Then, this is plugged into the recorder.
I know the RCA cables are unbalanced but I hear no distortion or noise in the recording. To my ear, it sounds very clean. I have also read that using the 3.5mm adapter for the RCA cables is a bad idea. Is that true? These are the only audio-out connections the piano has though, apart from midi in-out-through connectors. Anyway, I thought this would give me the best sound while avoiding a microphone, which I do not own. I will consider your recommendation to buy a mic though but there will be problems with external ambient noises like cars, people, dogs and such.
I then transfer the music file, which was recorded at 24-bit WAV 48K sample, to the computer where I then use audio software to edit and enhance the sound. Then it is sampled to 44.1 and finally dithered to 16-bit. The file is then burned to a CD at 8X.
I have recently learned that the LINE-IN to the recorder is consumer grade specs. Here is what the specs say:
LINE IN input
Jack 3.5-mm phone (stereo)
Input impedance 23 kΩ
Nominal input level -10 dBV
Maximum input level +6 dBV
I am open to suggestions if you can recommend a better recorder. Otherwise, I sincerely thank you for your expert advice. I made changes in my recording methodology based on your articles and I am now hearing a tremendous improvement.
Thank you again.
eddie
Hi Eddie,
Thanks for taking the time to read my articles. I will answer your inquiry one by one:
1st inquiry:
Most professional converters used in music production is now using 24-bits that is a standard. I can imagine this is your recording process flow:
Piano — > Line in — > Digital recorder — > Original/unprocessed digital recording
The question though is that you are not sure whether its recording at 24-bits or not. Some digital recorders do provide this feature very easily but since you are not sure, I assume there is no way in knowing that unless it will be analyzed in other methods.
One of the easiest techniques in knowing this is to confirm the original/unprocessed .WAV or flac recording (depending on the file type being used) with a DAW software such as REAPER. I suppose this should be easy since the file is now in the digital format as .WAV,etc so no extra conversion is needed.
Supposing let’s use Reaper since its free and easily available. Install that software first in your PC, Mac or laptop. If the original recording of the piano is not yet in your PC or Mac, save it to a USB disk “unaltered”. Make sure there is no processing applied to file when saved to your USB disk such as dithering or sample rate conversion. Ensure that it is the original recording format being saved.
Once the file is in your computer with REAPER installed, load it up by following Step1 and Step2 of this tutorial: https://www.audiorecording.me/quick-audio-mastering-with-reaper.html
In Step2 you will know that it’s a 24-bit recording or not by looking the bits/sample field. Most old digital recorders is recording at 16-bits. But 24-bit recording has more headroom and yields better sound quality overall when mixed or mastered, so its important that the recording is using this format.
If the recording is in 24-bits, there is no reason to upgrade your equipment. Please let me know the results of this procedure/test.
2nd inquiry:
Careful with using line in. This is only appropriate if the output of the keyboard is already in line level. This means it is already strong and amplified output (no pre-amplification needed). If you do not know about line level and how it compares with the rest, you can read this tutorial: https://www.audiorecording.me/whats-the-difference-between-line-instrument-and-microphone-levels.html
In addition, it is important to record only using “balanced” connections to minimize noise and yield better sounding recordings. I recommend to record your piano if possible using balanced XLR mono or balanced TRS mono when supported by your recorder. Read this tutorial for details: https://www.audiorecording.me/balanced-and-unbalanced-audio-guide-in-home-recording.html
If your piano keyboard does not support balanced outputs (e.g. not having balanced XLR or TRS) then the best option is to use a high quality microphone with XLR output to record your piano sound and then plug this to your digital recorder preamp inputs. You should get a better sound using this method.
I want to thank you so much for these valuable articles. I learned a great deal. I do have a question though.
I am using a digital recorder to record piano music. I noticed an upgraded model of my recorder which states it has 24-bit DA/AD converters. I assume mine has 1-bit DA/AD converters since the specs make no mention of it. Would the additional 24-bit converters make a difference in sound quality recordings or maybe add more definition in what you hear? I’m tempted to buy it but if the end result is that same as what I already have then I see no reason to buy it.
I don’t know if this matters but I am using a digital piano and am only using LINE IN to the recorder to make the recordings – no microphones.
I thank you immeasurably for these articles and look forward to you response.
eddie