When utilizing the X/Y stereo setup, it is crucial that the 2 microphones chosen have identical pickup patterns. You’ll want to closely examine the pickup pattern of the chosen microphone to determine how far you can ‘push’ the angle – not all mics can ‘open up’ farther than 120 degrees in this case. The Samson C02 pencil condenser microphones can help with this technique as they are sold as a matched pair, and the pickup pattern has enough sensitivity at the edges to be useful at a 120 degree placement.

The X/Y pattern has excellent mono compatibility, and can be used at a variety of distances – including extremely close to the source. As long as the off-axis frequency response of the microphones is decent, the center image will be nice and detailed. The one drawback is that this technique does not create a wide stereo image. 

Since the mics are capturing more difference in time as well as level, the spaced pair may be a bit trickier to dial in when mixing to mono. Some frequencies may ‘jump out’ or disappear due to phasing issues. If mono compatibility is important to you, it’s definitely going to be something you want to verify ‘on site’ as you set up. One of the benefits of the spaced pair is that you can really get a wide stereo image (if it sounds too wide and unnatural, you’ll want to move the mics closer together). You can even increase this perceived difference by baffling between the pair to prevent overlap.

Because the mics are so close together, you don’t have much issue with phasing problems as the sound is likely arriving at each mic close enough to mitigate any problems. This setup also doesn’t often have an issue with mono compatibility, so you can rest easy there. The ORTF placement, like X/Y, should be fairly close. You get a wider image than X/Y and still preserve the center information to a reasonable degree.

This technique is a favorite amongst engineers who record an acoustic piano. You will pick up more room ambiance, have a decent center image, and won’t have to worry much about mono compatibility due to the relatively close placement of the mic capsules. Like X/Y and ORTF, you’ll want to utilize a matched pair of mics and a bracket whenever possible for this setup, and the C02 pencil condensers with DMA2 stand adapter makes it happen quickly and accurately!Nederlandse Omroep Stichting

Common Elements

DI

There are two common styles of pianos: Grand Pianos and Upright Pianos. Grand pianos are more expensive and typically found in studios and performance halls, while upright pianos are typically more affordable and common in smaller venues and in the average home.  When recording, you'll want to try a compare a few placements to see what works best. 

In the following videos, a variety of strategies will be displayed (similar to what you saw for the acoustic guitar demos). Take note of the setups you find sound best. I also recommend that you add notes about what genre or style was performed along with these setups - some genres sound better with a specific setup.

Live recording typically captures all instruments simultaneously in a single performance. This doesn’t just apply to live albums by touring acts, there are also plenty of studio albums recorded this way too

With live recording, you will typically have all performers in the same room, stage, or studio space playing together in time with each take. Ideally, each instrument or instrument group will be separately mic’d up and recorded on a different track in the project (this is multitrack recording, which we’ll look at later).

It doesn’t matter if the current tracks, recording at that time, are intended to be in the final mix. It also doesn’t matter if you intend to edit, overdub, or mix everything later. At that point in time, live recording is being used to capture a performance.

Live recording was the only method of recording up to the development of sel-sync recording by Ampex in the 1950’s. Before this, the best that could be done in terms of “overdubbing” involved at least two separate machines. The playback on one machine was routed to another machine that would be recording both the playback and everything being recorded in that take.

Overdubbing is an approach that builds up a song “piece by piece” as new parts are recorded on top of existing audio. Usually with this approach, one part is recorded at a time, and the song is built up with each successive take.

Even if you’re starting on a new song and are only recording against a click track, if you’re not recording all the instruments at once then you are not doing a proper live recording of your song. If you find yourself recording one (or a few) parts at a time when making your song, then you have taken the overdub recording approach.

Multitrack recording simply means that the recording contains more than just a single track. This can apply to live recordings and overdubbed recordings. It goes without saying that overdubbing would be much harder without multitrack recording, and live recordings would lose the ability to be mixed afterward.

Move
This is another straight forward tool. If you want to move audio, just grab it and move to another location. The image below shows an audio region being moved to the right in Logic Pro X.

Fade
If you ever turned the volume knob up or down on a device, you know the sound of a fade. This is essentially an edit tool that applies automation of the volume control for a selected portion of audio. When applied to an audio region, the playback volume will follow the fade (fade in or fade out). In cases where 2 different pieces of audio overlap, you can apply a crossfade to smooth out the transition (which usually sounds rough). The first region will fade out as the second region fades in to create a seamless transition/connection. The image below shows audio region with fades in Logic Pro X (in order: Fade in, Cross fade, Fade out).

Panning
Panning is the panoramic position of a sound. Think about what a typical band looks like on stage and where they are positioned. The singer is usually in the middle and typically the drums as well. Guitarist, keyboardists, and other instruments are typically off to a side. This  arrangement can be produced using panning. You can move a sound from left to right. The result is a more spaced out and balanced combination of sounds. Another benefit of panning is that by moving some sounds to one side and other to the opposing side, you allow a listener to hear each element with more focus. Think of these two scenarios: (1) 6 audio signals equally coming out of a set of stereo speakers; (2) 6 audio signals split across 2 stereo speakers so 3 signals are on one side and 3 on the other. This is an over-simplification, but the effect would be that the lister can distinguish each element better when they are split up. It's harder to distinguish many signals coming from the same source.

 Organization
Another element of mixing that is important but occasionally overlooked is organization. After recording, you may have a project filled with tracks and it can be a mess to look at. Organizing tracks so they are grouped by instrument type, applying color codes, and labeling each track are just a few ways to organize a project to optimize workflow. Grouping elements together as well as using color can help you to locate elements faster, and labeling helps identify tracks without the need for listening. There are many ways to approach organization, so find a way that works for you and stick with it. 

 

Both WAV and AIFF formats are full quality, uncompressed audio. That is the best option when releasing professionally. Digital audio quality is another detail to configure. There are two aspects to this: Sample Rate and Bit Depth. Common settings are: