July

Great, Inexpensive Starters for Computer Recording

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

I keep getting a lot of questions about inexpensive starter options for computer recording, from students and emailers alike. I wanted to share two really cool pieces that should be in your toolbox.

I ran across this baby, and fell in love with it! It’s an XLR to USB cable made by SoundTech for less than $40. Essentially, it’s a sound card in a cable! I highly recommend this one for mobile recording or as a quick and easy way to get started in computer recording. Click the pic for more info.

I also recommend the Samson G Track USB studio microphone. I’ve recommended this one before, but this is an all-in-one USB studio microphone with a built-in audio interface and headphone jack. You can also plug a line instrument, such as a guitar, into this puppy. Click the pic for more info

These items are really great in combination with the free recording software that I talked about in my post “Creative Ways to Make a Living with Music (Part 1)”.

Until next time…

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June

29

Job Ideas in the Field of Audio and Music

Posted In: Career Building, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

As a first-day exercise with my Introduction to Audio class, we have a brainstorming session to determine possible careers and jobs in the field of audio and music. Although the list is rather short on the first day, we continue the exercise throughout the quarter. By the end, we have a fairly exhaustive list of career and job opportunities, some that were completely foreign to the students at the start of the class. Below are the results of that activity. Hopefully it will help any of you that may be entertaining the idea of a career in audio or music but don’t know where to start.

Music/Recording

Music Producer
Mixing Engineer
Tracking Engineer
Mastering Engineer
Session Talent (instrumentalist/vocalist)
Instrument Tech.

Film/TV/Video Games

Production Music
Foley (sound effects)
Sound Designer
Sound Editor
Music Supervisor
Voice Over Artist
Production Recordist
Boom Operator

Live

Sound Reinforcement
Live Audio Engineer
Sound Reinforcement
Monitor Technician/Engineer
Multi-Track Concert Recording
Live DJ
Instrument Tech.
Performer/Entertainer

Radio

On-air Personality
Engineer (”board operator”)
Editing and Commercial Production

Other

Acoustician/Acoustical Engineer
Acoustic Treatment
Audiologist
Bioacoustics
Music Therapist
Field Recording/Archival

Leave a comment with your ideas and input. See our next post for Where to Find Jobs in the Music Industry.

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June

27

What is Sound, Really?

Posted In: Recording, Uncategorized by claybutlermusic

I’m sure if you’re a musician reading this post, you have some idea of what sound is. Sound is stuff you hear, right? Well, yes. But there’s a lot more to sound. Knowing what sound is and how sound works is the key to getting a good recording.

WHAT IS SOUND?

Simply put, sound is Acoustical Energy, or vibration. More specifically, sound is vibration propagated through a medium, which is then received by our ears and interpreted by our brain as sound. The reason I say the vibrations are interpreted by our brain as sound is because acoustical energy still exists that we cannot perceive as sound (more on this later). For example, while a dog might go nuts from hearing a dog whistle, we as humans cannot interpret those vibrations as sound. Radio, cell phones, microwave ovens, and RADAR all use sound waves that we as humans just can’t hear. So, in essence, sound is really our perception of vibrations.

Sound vibrations that are propagated through the air (or any other medium for that matter) are in the form of transverse waves. Thus, you could also say that sound is really rapid fluctuations in air pressure. The vibrations from a vibrating body, such as a guitar string, push and pull on the surrounding air, creating positive and negative pressures. These waves occur as the molecules of air are slammed closely together as they are pushed by the vibrating body. The part of the wave consisting of positive pressure, where the air molecules are slammed together, is called a compression. Negatively pressured parts of the wave, where the air molecules are pulled apart from each other, are called rarefactions.

THE PROPERTIES OF SOUND

How loudly a sound is perceived is determined by how hard the air gets pushed by the vibrating body. The harder the air gets pushed, the louder the sound. Although this is typically referred to as volume, in reference to acoustical energy, it is called Sound Pressure Level (SPL). The scale used to measure Sound Pressure Level is the Decibel scale, or dB SPL (more on the other Decibel scales in a later article).

The pitch of a sound is a function of frequency. How frequently a vibrating body pushes the air determines how high or low the tone of the sound is perceived. The more frequently the air gets pushed, the higher the tone of the sound. As the air gets pushed less frequently, the tone sounds lower. Therefore frequency is expressed as the number of sound waves occurring over time. The scale used is known as Hertz (Hz), which signifies the number sound waves per second. For example, The note “A” below “Middle C” on a piano is 440Hz. The frequency spectrum is broken up into three parts. The Audible Range for humans is roughly 20Hz to 20,000Hz (or 20 Kilohertz, abbreviated as KHz). The frequencies below 20Hz are categorized as Infrasonic. All frequencies above 20KHz are referred to as Ultrasonic.

ACOUSTICS

Let’s look again at sound being all about our perception. Generally, we don’t hear the sound emanating directly from its source. The majority of the time, we hear sound after it bounces off the surrounding walls, along with any other nearby surfaces, and interacts with the room. We call this acoustics. Understanding how acoustics influence sound, especially those sounds you’re trying to record, better enables you to get the sound you want without any surprises. Each time a sound wave is reflected back into an acoustic space, our perception of that wave changes, especially when you hear sound coming directly from a sound source in addition to the reflected waves. (See Christina’s Post on Acoustic Treatment in the Classroom.)

Two really great references that I’ve found that deal with acoustics are Audio Engineer’s Reference Book, which deals more with recording and sound reinforcement, and Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics, which is considerably more in-depth and deals with acoustics for multiple applications.

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