Back to (Recording) School
/It’s that time of year again. As the academic year begins, many of us have the opportunity to take classes on recording, whether that’s from a private recording school, a college or university music program, an introductory class in high school, or a continuing education course.
If you got accepted into a music/recording program and are taking the leap towards making your passion your career, I offer my sincere congratulations. The world needs more people doing what they love for a living. As a Fanshawe College Music Industry Arts graduate, I know how tough these programs can be to get into and you should take a moment to congratulate yourself. To make the most of your opportunity, it’s important to be prepared and have the tools you need to do quality work. Thankfully the academic institutions take care of providing most of the expensive equipment (like the studios), but there are a few essentials you should seek out before your course begins.
Hard Drives
It only takes one hard drive failure to understand why you need a good hard drive. The last thing you want is for your drive to crash the night before a deadline and for you to lose a professor’s (or client’s) project. In the real world, this sort of thing costs people jobs. Durability is the first and foremost concern here and you can expect to spend extra for that compared to your average hard drive. Your second concern should be the drive read/write speed, which should be 7200prm or greater. For these reasons, I recommend either the 500GB or 1TB LaCie Rugged drives. Out of every drive I’ve used I’ve seen these fail the least and they seem to be the best protected against drops and knocks. They also have fast enough read/write speeds to keep up with audio and video work.
As a word of caution, it’s also important to back up your hard drive and computer regularly. In the event of a hard drive failure, there is often no way to recover lost data.
Headphones
Almost every recording program will require you to own headphones, since most programs have computer labs where you can edit and process your recordings. While I never advise mixing on headphones, with a good pair of headphones you can do all your editing and some basic processing outside the studio. They also allow you to do work from home or other locations where you may have to work around noise restrictions. There are three different types of headphones: closed back, open back, and semi-open back. Each type has pros and cons in regards to their design so it’s important to understand the difference.
Closed back headphones are the most isolated type of headphones and are built to prevent leakage (sound that escapes through the back or sides of the headphones) and minimize outside noise. These are ideal if you are going to be doing a lot of tracking or are working in a busy or loud environment with lots of ambient noise. However, this design of headphones generally provides the least sonic detail and as a result isn’t optimal in applications that require critical listening. My recommendations for closed back headphones are the Shure SRH440 and Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones, as both have good isolation and are durable enough to be thrown in a guitar case on your way to a session.
Open back headphones, in many respects, are the exact opposite of closed back designs. They create plenty of leakage and offer little if any isolation from the world around you. This means that in a loud room it can be difficult to hear what you are working on and whatever you are listening to on your headphones is likely to bleed into any microphones present. However, open back designs often provide greater sonic detail than closed back designs and therefore perform better in critical listening applications. If you need to use your headphones to make tonal decisions when processing your audio, you should consider purchasing open back headphones. Many people find that these designs also tend to cause the least amount of ear fatigue when listening at moderate levels. My recommendation for these is the Sennheiser HD 598 SR.
Semi-open back headphones are a compromise in design between closed and open back headphones. They are designed to be a middle ground in terms of sonic detail and isolation from the outside environment. These designs are good if you need to be able to make tonal decisions on your headphones, but may also be in tracking situations where you don’t want too much leakage escaping. Loud environments will still make it difficult to hear what you’re working on, but the headphones will block out conversation and other low-level ambient noise significantly more than open back headphones. Many vocalists prefer this headphone design because it allows them to still hear their voice naturally when singing and therefore helps them stay on pitch. The area of compromise here is that semi-open back headphones are versatile but don’t perform a single, dedicated task as well as either open or closed back headphones. My recommendation for semi-open back headphones is the AKG K240 MkII because of the versatility that they provide. These are my headphones of choice both for editing/mix prep work and for tracking vocals/guitar (my main instruments).
It’s important to remember that one of your first and foremost considerations when it comes to headphones should be comfort. After all, you will likely be using these every day, sometimes for hours at a time, and no set of headphones (regardless of design) will be as accurate as a properly built studio.
Books and Resources
Even though I like to take a hands-on approach to recording, I still believe it’s important to know your engineering theory and the specifications of the equipment you’re working with. For this reason, I recommend acquiring all of the manuals for the equipment used in your program and picking up a copy of Tim Crich’s Recording Tips for Engineers. I used this guide extensively when I was first learning to engineer and occasionally still reference it to see how Tim Crich would approach a situation. The advice in it is based on experience as opposed to theory, which makes it a valuable resource for those new to recording. A quick search of the internet should yield any manuals or specification sheets that you require. I like to download these in PDF format and keep them on my cell phone for easy reference.
Conclusion
Taking courses can be a great way to learn more about the art of recording, but it’s important to be properly prepared in order to make the most of your program. In this field, there’s no substitute for having the right tools for the job and a good hard drive and proper headphones will serve you well throughout your education. Congratulations again on taking the first step towards turning your passion into a career!
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Buy It Now
B&H Photo Video
LaCie Rugged 500GB USB
LaCie Rugged 1TB USB/Thunderbolt
LaCie Rugged 1TB USB/Firewire
Shure SRH440 Headphones
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Headphones
Sennheiser HD 598 SR Headphones
AKG K240 MkII Headphones
Recording Tips for Engineers by Tim Crich
Amazon
LaCie Rugged 500GB (click here for Canadian Price)
LaCie Rugged 1TB USB/Thunderbolt (click here for Canadian Price)
LaCie Rugged 1TB USB/Firewire (click here for Canadian Price)
Shure SRH440 Headphones (click here for Canadian Price)
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x Headphones (click here for Canadian Price)
Sennheiser HD 598 SR Headphones (click here for Canadian Price)
AKG K240 MkII Headphones (click here for Canadian Price)
Recording Tips for Engineers by Tim Crich (click here for Canadian Price)
