RECORDING
|
|
|
|
RECORDING
WHAT IS RECORDING ?
The common answer is : putting music, instruments, ambiences, speech, anything on tape, or on a hard drive, anything that can play back what was recorded.
And this, presumably, without any parasites (distortion etc.)
This is not true.
OK, IT'S NOT TRUE, BUT THEN WHAT IS RECORDING ?
Let's start with several examples.
1. recording a lead vocal part in anything but classical music
Very often, engineers use tube preamps to record lead vocals. Those tube preamps distort a lot, and they are used for the very fact that they do distort a lot.
So the goal here is to record the vocal part with distortion.In fact, those preamps often cost a lot money, the kind of distortion they provide being - presumably - very nice.
2. recording an ambience for a stereo use
An ambience is a 360º sound scene.
Stereo is not 360º at all.
So the ambience will not be recorded as it is.Then what is recorded ?
A reduction of the ambience. A nice recording is a good reduction of reality.
3. recording a saxophone
What is the sound of a saxophone ?
The guy playing the saxophone will get a given timbre. The guy standing in front of the player will get another timbre.
A saxophone, played in a little room, it will produce a very different sound than when played in a large concert hall.So, recording a saxophone means defining standards.
They will be like an "acceptable" saxophone sound which will be recognized as such.
4. recording a piano
Even more a standard issue.
A piano, when used for classical music, is usually recorded using two small diaphragm microphones like 2 to 5 meters from the instrument, depending on the room.
The very same instrument, used for jazz or "pop" music, will more likely be recorded with potentially large diaphragm mikes inside the instrument.Naturally, that doesnt give the same result at all.
5. recording a symphony orchestra
As explained on the "false truths" page, nobody wants a symphonic orchestra in one's living room, and anyway that's not possible.
In this example, you just don't want to record a symphonic orchestra, you have to record a living-room optimized version, a pocket version, of a symphonic orchestra.And then, it's once more a question of standards.
SECOND ISSUE : PLAYBACK
Anything recorded is played on speakers. What are speakers : pieces of metal and cardboard that translate electric signals to acoustic waves.
Do speakers look like a violin ? Indeed they dont. Neither do they look like a drumkit, or a person, or a forest for that matter.They're more or less good, rather less : speakers are always the weak point of any audio chain.
And what about iPod headphones for instance ? Those are pretty bad. Or car stereos ?
The real issue with any recording is not : "will it sound like the original thing I'm recording" ? but "will it have a chance to sound good on shitty speakers" ?
It's a translation issue.
CONCLUSION
Recording is not really recording : it's translating, optimizing, sometimes creating, a sound scene which, according to certain pre defined standards, has a chance to be an interesting and satisfying rendering of the original "recorded object" on most speakers and headphones.
A funny question people often ask is "what is a good microphone".
According to the last statement, it's almost impossible to answer : it all depends on the project.