ACX: The Basics of Recording

welcome back to the audio book creation exchanges course in home narration I'm John McElroy before you even sit down at the mic you have two worries what to wear what to eat meet a recording engineers nightmare a starched shirt corduroys dangling jewelry a ticking watch this guy's built for noise and you don't want him anywhere near your studio you want a silent wardrobe where a soft cotton shirt preferably short sleeve jeans no jewelry have a sweater on hand if you get chilly and what about food long form at voiceover is physically demanding and you need to stay energized but you also need to keep stomach rumbles and groans to a minimum that microphone amplifies weird belly sounds and once those babies get going you're gonna have to stop and wait for them to die down there's a lot of lore on what to eat and what to avoid high protein meals keep your stomach quiet starches make rumbling bubbles in your tummy green apples minimize mouth noise dairy products here at ate your throat yadda yadda yadda there's truth to much of this but everyone's different you'll have to experiment and find out what works for you Oh always have water on hand what it keeps your mouth from sounding sticky and staying hydrated keeps your mind sharp the takeaway on clothing in food you can't record over rustling and stomach sounds wear the right stuff eat the right stuff and record clean now let's talk about position on mic the script is propped up so I project out not down it's not so close that my head drops when I read the bottom of the page and how do you sit you're upright you're comfortable your hands are in your lap don't move them if you want to just stick you late make sure it's away from the mic so nothing is picked up that's it notice that the mic is set above the recording space 10 or 12 inches from my mouth the diaphragm that's the business end of the mic is angled slightly away this helps with those piece ounds I mentioned in the first lesson and you always want to be on axis that means you don't want to be on this side of the mic or this side of the mic you want to be here dead on it that's how you sit that's how you place the mic before we start to record some general tips close the windows before you begin turn off ringers and alarms do anything you can to get ahead of interruptions constant starts and stops will kill your momentum everything's in place let's get up and running double-click the Pro Tools icon and let the application load choose new session from the file menu make sure that the audio file type reads bwf WAV sample rate 44 point one kilohertz and bit depth 16 I'll name it first time hit enter and you'll see this blank edit window I go up to the track menu and click new the default is 1 mono audio track click create and there's your first recordable audio track now let's make it work here's our first time session again the track is armed to record see the flashing red button I know that the mics live because this jumpy green light is doing its thing first mission accomplished suppose that you've done everything I've said and you're still not getting the signal - Pro Tools there's probably something wrong with the routing here's how to troubleshoot it go to view edit window and make sure there's a check next to i/o which means inputs and outputs in the i/o box left of the recording track click the top button then click interface you'll get a list of possibilities but there should be one for mic line 1 and 2 select the input that isn't selected and there's the light in the volume meter that cured the problem if you don't see that light don't panic make sure that everything's connected and that you've pushed the 48v button on the back of the mbox still no sign of life and the volume meter try turning up the input on the inbox still nothing turn off the computer and relaunch Pro Tools a fresh boot will probably do the trick setting the recording level is the most important technical adjustment that you'll make it's the Goldilocks moment you want to get it just right not too soft not too loud you don't want to over project or whisper look at that volume meter use this gain control on the mbox to keep the green light consistently bouncing in the upper middle range of the meter but make sure you're adjusting the control connected to the proper channel if you start to see a red light at the top of the meter you're too hot you're over projecting back down the input level too close to the bottom give it more gain the goal is consistency big fluctuations will make things difficult later this looks pretty good actually a nice strong consistent signal keep in mind that different genres require different settings if you're doing a straight nonfiction read your levels will be less dynamic and you can afford to make them louder without worry but if you're narrating a novel stick with more conservative levels not a lot more just a little drama and characterization naturally demand more ups and downs you don't want to risk clipping that's the distortion you get when you set off the red light at the top of the volume meter up to this point I've avoided any mention of Pro Tools shortcut keys I've had you pull down choices from the menus but as you familiarize yourself with the software you'll want to begin using quick keystrokes for every function Google Pro Tools shortcuts to find a complete listing before I show you the first shortcut we have to quickly disable a Mac preset go up to the Apple menu and click on system preferences then select keyboard from there choose keyboard shortcuts now choose spotlight and over here on the right uncheck the top box for spotlight search field close out the box here's your first shortcut command spacebar start recording we're rolling that pink scroll indicates that Pro Tools is recording this waveform following the scroll is the electronic representation of the voice I can tell from the look of it that the performance is stable consistent nothing too soft too loud now hit spacebar to stop and the red scroll goes away command-spacebar to start red scroll starts spacebar to stop red scroll stops just get the feel of those strokes and every few minutes hit command s to save your work the cardinal rule save early save often all right now you know how to start recording in the next lesson we'll learn about editing and the recording technique called roll and punch the killer app for home narrators

Channel: AudibleACX

Views: 37,128

Keywords: ACX, VIDEO2, FINAL

Id: 4pX2RINMgm0

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 18 2011