Soldering an XLR connector to an Audio Mic Cable

Everyone should know how to solder their own cables. I do know because of this video.

Quote from the video developer. "I've found that trying to demonstrate sondering to a group of students a problem. Too many people need to see the details. So, I made this video to show, close-up, the steps to soldering an XLR connector onto an Audio cable. This is not the end-all, be-all of soldering by any means. It does help my teaching a large group the skills."
For more how-to type stuff for technical theater, please visit www.hstech.org

Myspace - Why should you use it

During February 15th - 18th I attended the East Coast Music Awards (ECMA's) This is a music award in trade show for artist in Eastern Canada. I was able to attended many seminars about the music industry, and the number one phrase I heard was "MySpace." There is an ever growing number of producers, talent scouts, and touring agents now turning to MySpace to find new musicians and recording artist.

Why should you use myspace?
- It's Free
- It's easy to use
- Everyone is the music business uses it
- You can host your music there
- You can keep track of how many people viewed your space, listen to your music, etc
- People can play your music from their space
- It's a great networking tool that will help you find artist to collaborate with

Recording Schools

Hello

My name is Erick Muise. I've been producing/mixing for about the last 5 years and have become more serious in the last year or so. I'm 20 years old and am producing my own album, but not for commercial purposes. (least I haven't thought about it) I guess what I\'m trying to say is, could you recommend any schools that you consider to be good for learning recording arts. I have left my current program to pursue producing and am also wondering what kind of job opportunities, if any are available in the recording industry. I'm extremely well versed in programs such as Soundforge, Reason, and Fruityloops and I guess I'm just looking for schooling that will give me some serious education. Anything you can help me with would be great!

Thanks a lot!

Hello Erick
Thanks for the question
There are 2 approaches to get into the music industry, both involve who you know and luck. There are many recording schools out there, that's a good and bad thing. Good in a sense that the education you seek after, might not be too far away. Bad because the music recording school business is getting as big as the music business. Within a couple of blocks from my recording school, there was another 3 recording schools. If you choose to go to a recording school, I recommend first for you to take a tour, find out what the daily class sizes will be, tuition fee, and job placement. If you know someone that owns or works at a recoding studio, try to arrange with them an internship before and after you go to school. Before will help you understand the basics, after will help get your foot in the door for a job. These recording schools cost thousands of dollars, but allot of studios will never be interested in you unless you have an education.

So if you aren't ready to go back to school, you can always make a small studio of your own. With this studio record some freebies. This will help you build up your training, help you network, and find people that are willing to pay. Hopefully down the road you will record someone that will make a hit, that will help further your profile as a producer. 

I can't really recommend any one school, in the end they all teach you the basics that you need for recording. There are programs offered that will get you an internship at a local studio. You pay them. They pay the studio for taking you as someone to train. Hopefully they will teach you more about audio, then how they like their coffee. 

I know I didn't give you a direct answer to your question. I did go to a recording school, and because of that I have a job at a recording studio. If there is a recording school in your area, take a tour and ask lots of questions about what they can do for you. Let me know what you end up doing.
Adam Smith 
www.recordbetteraudio.com

Loudness Wars

Big-name CD manufacturers are distorting sounds to make them seem louder. Sound quality suffers. Here is a great video showing you want compression does to the sound waves and how it makes the audio sound. When I was at school we had a guest speak come and tell us about mixing and mastering music. He played us a song and asked us how we liked it. He then played around on his computer and played us the same song again. He then asked which one we liked better. We all answered the second take and why. He kind of laughs at us and then told us that he only raised the volume a few dB and that was the only change he made. It is true that audio does sound better louder, but could something be too loud? Watch this video to learn more.

How does the site look now.

I know I was a day late in publishing the new website. This is because Youtube went off line. I wanted to wait for that to be up and working again before I completed the everything. I hope that everyone find the website easier to navigate and finds the information that you want easier. As you can see I published all my recording sections as blogs. Now, you don't have to subscribe to each blog separately. I have them all combined into one feed. When every I blog a post, it will be in the master feed. Let me know what you think of the site.

Questions about getting started

I recieved this question from Lor Chang, "Hi i'm a musician that is ready to record my music but i have no clue how to get started or what I'll need, please help me."

Lor, the email you gave me to reply is not working so I'll answer you here.

There is allot of things you need to consider when you want to start recording.
1. Budget: These days we are very lucky to be able to record audio under any budget
2. How many tracks do you want to record at once? 1-2 just for you or 8 - 12 for a band.
3 Do you want to record with microphones or direct?
4. Do you want to record on a computer or a stand alone device?
5 Do you want your recording equipment to be moble?

So there are some questions to ask your self before you start buying. If you know the direction you want to take please email if you need any help with what equiptment you should buy.

adam@recordbetteraudio.com

Room Treatment and Baffels

I received a question from Hubert Fummouille. He says "I am trying to make a good home studio. Here is pictures (made with The Sims!!) of it. I would like to put baffles in this room. Can you tell me where are the best positions. I record the drums with 8 mics, guitar with 3, and bass with 2, so the directions where the mics goes are everywhere.

Thank you for your reponse and for recordbetteraudio
Bye, HUBERT.

There are 2 things to keep in mind while preparing your room for recording.
1. The sound of the room. Here are places where I would position baffles. They are marked with the green squares


2. Then you need to isolate each instrument from each other


I hope this helped you out, and thanks for the question
www.RecordBetterAudio.com

Waveform

Audio File Formats

Bit Depth

Hertz and Frequency Response

Sample Rates

Vocal Booth - How to make one

This Video takes you through the development of a vocal booth. Instead of making your whole studio soundproof, it's a lot easier to make a small room and isolate that. The only thing I would have done different is put a window in my vocal booth.

Compressors and Limiters

This video shows various the use of makeup gain control using compressors and limiters.

RingTone - How to make one

Here's a video of my own. It's step by step instructions to help you make your songs into your ring tones.

A/D Convertion

The A/D Convertion and Samlpe Rates all explained in this video.

Phase - What is it and how do you control it?

Phase: What is it? How to control it

Click the pictures for a free correlation meters

I know I have a video about Phase, but here is another one that is very well done. I hope you understand phase better after this video.

Where I Work

The picture above is fergusonmusicproductions.com. This is where I have been working since September '05. We are looking to get some new pictures of the studio, this one is over 6 years old. There has been a lot of changes to the studio since.