You’ve heard the tell-tale signs – too much echo in the recording when a powerful vocalist sang a verse in full voice; loud-instrument bleed through to the vocalists’ mics; uneven mixing of the different parts, which means you can’t hear the vocals over the instruments. If you are recording a demo CD that you intend to use to get signed to a major recording contract, substandard recording equipment won’t cut it. Here is a list of the equipment a good recording studio should have, along with a description. As you look for a good Toronto recording studio, keep this list in mind.Mixing Console
Also called a sound board, this is an electronic device that allows the recording technician to mix the different recordings into a well-tuned and balanced audio arrangement. The mixing console mixes, routes and changes the timbre of the audio signals coming from the mics used by musicians – both instrumentalists and vocalists.
Reference Monitors
These are also called studio monitors. They are loudspeakers designed especially for audio production applications. This piece of equipment is intended to give out flat phase and frequency responses so it doesn’t influence the sound. This equipment is made to withstand high volume and loud bursts of sound coming from music that has not yet been mastered.
Multitrack Recording
This is actually a process rather than a piece of studio equipment. It allows a technician to record multiple sound sources separately – for instance, recording the string instruments separately from percussion or wind instruments. The technician records on separate tracks on the same tape, but playback is synchronized. Recording multiple tracks allows the sound engineer to boost the sound of one set of instruments while damping the sound of another set of instruments or the vocalist’s singing.
Digital Audio Worskstation
The DAW is simply a computer equipped with audio-recording software – Logic Pro, Pro Tools, MOTU Digital Performer or Cubase. The DAW takes over the roles of the mixing consoles, synthesizers, recorders, sound effects devices and samplers. This piece of equipment has become so versatile and powerful that a mixing technician can use a computer keyboard and mouse, which is called “mixing in the box.”
Isolation Booth
Think back to the bleed over of the loud instruments in that badly recorded demo CD. If the recording studio had been equipped with an isolation booth, a powerful vocalist, drums or a guitar speaker can be literally isolated in this booth. Because a mic is placed into the booth, the musician or vocalist can still be recorded – but the sound coming from the musician or vocalist will not overpower the other mics being aimed at the other instruments. All professional recording studios should have an isolation room, along with these other rooms: live room and control room. Larger studios can have several isolation booths, which larger bands can use. If the studio doesn’t have an isolation booth, a gobo panel fills the same role. The gobo panel is a series of acrylic glass see-through panels placed around the louder instruments – or vocalist to deflect the sound.
Finding a good sound recording studio is not a tough task as when you will search for it, you will come-up with a huge listing. The key is to choose the finest one amongst all these recording studios which can fulfill your requirement in best possible way.
