![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.forumbee.com/avatar/accd0ae87f28f35ab3f514934e65003a-1605042331257/h/40.jpg)
Week 1: Improve your Recording Skills
![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.forumbee.com/i/e9fcc80e-71f4-40f5-803e-572aa9686f9d/h/547.png)
Join me for an exciting two-week intensive designed to enhance your recording skills, regardless of your starting point or the equipment you have at hand. Whether you're using a smartphone or a professional studio setup, this series will empower you with practical techniques and insider knowledge to achieve the best possible recordings.
What to Expect:
- Hands-On Experiments: Each assignment includes interactive experiments that focus on different aspects of recording— from mic placement to lighting. Learn by doing, and discover how slight adjustments can make a big difference in your final result.
- Expert Guidance: Led by Martin Zimny, the nerd behind all European tonebase productions, seasoned musician and audio-video professional, these sessions offer personalized tips and tricks tailored to the varied equipment setups of our participants.
- Community Interaction: Share your experiences, receive feedback from peers and your instructor, and engage in a supportive community of fellow music enthusiasts and aspiring producers.
No special equipment is needed to get started; just bring your enthusiasm and whatever recording tools you have—your journey to better recording begins here!
Timeline:
- Sign-Up : April 26th
- Course Period: April 29th - May 10th
- Optional check-In via Zoom: May 7th
Assignment Week 1
Understanding your room, understanding your Instrument, understanding the ambiance and reverberance!
Conduct these three experiment with your recording system:
- The Position of the Instrument within the Room
Record yourself in three different positions in the room, move the recording device with you and keep it stable relative to yourself - The relative position of the Microphone
Stay in one position in the room, but change the position relativ to your instrument. Keep the distance between the instrument and the microphone/smartphone the same. Choose three different mic positions. - The Distance of the Microphone to the instrument
Stay in one position in the room, keep the relative recording angle, but change the distance of the microphone three times.
-
Hi Martin, really grateful for this course. I have a few questions beforehand. Besides, mic placement, distance and room, are we also going to talk about the technical aspects like editing and how to control and adjust inputs on an audio interface? I'd be really delighted if you cover these topics as well.
Btw, after watching the previous recorded livestreams on recording and editing on TB, I bought an AT2020 MIC and an audio interface. I'm a bit confused about the controls on the audio interface ( mine is a knock-off of Scarlett called Audio Array). I have attached a pic. What is a hi-z knob? I'd experimented with it and the volume is louder than on the other input. Also, I want to know how to control the gain knobs.
-
Hi everyone,
At the moment, I use my smartphone for recording, but I am cautiously thinking about the next steps. Any advices for a first improvement? I am thinking that this first gear I will purchase can be further integrated into a better setup in the future, so I will not lose it. Thank you all!
-
Thanks for offering this short course. I am looking forward to learning more about this set of skills and, hopefully, developing my own. My guitar is a 640mm Joseph Redman spruce/pau ferro. At present, I have a Zoom H4N audio recorder, a Sony HDRCX405 camcorder, and my trusty Galaxy S24 phone. I have some experience using Audacity for mixing, and I've done a little work in adding separately-recorded audio tracks into a video, using Adobe Encore CS6 and more recently, iMovie.
Despite the fact that I have worked in tech for three decades, my abilities with home recording have always been poor, and the results frustratingly bad. My office, where I have made a small handful of recordings, is small and not well suited to different placement of equipment or of me, so I'll try the first experiments from other rooms in our house. -
Martin
I actually record during practice session several times per week for my own learning. But I am looking forward to improving the quality of the few videos I want to share.
I do most of my recording on my Lenovo laptop (windows 11) and a SHURE MV88+ microphone with an extended cable. I can put the microphone on photography tripod to change the position but I usually have it on the table with the laptop. I prefer this setup to using my smartphone because I don't have to move to start the recording.
I am looking forward to learning from these experiments.
Martha Kreipke
-
So, let's try to kick off with some experiments, shall we?
I am recording the first part of Lagrima with an iphone 14 plus, in a small room, using a Yamaha CG192S with old D'Addario strings. I think this piece is interesting because we can change to ponticello for the repeat of the crescendo, then hit the high notes, and finish with the low E. Some squeaks can be heard from sliding the LH fingers, as well as nail clicking.
1) giving my back to the phone, about 70 cm from the phone
2) still close to the phone, but now facing it
3) far from the phone (about 3 meters). I think this was the best position
Then, I kept myself in the corner and started changing the position of the phone:
4) targeting the arm from the front
5) closer to the bridge
6) turning my back to the phone
7) closer to the bridge at a lower position (I did not find a good position for this one)
8) closer to the bridge at a higher position (... or for this one...)
I could not change the distance from the mic, because the room is small
-
Hello Martin,
Thanks for doing this course. I have stereo pair mics with a focusrite scarlet 4i4. I was hoping to get a few answers during this course regarding mic placement and distance between stereo mics in an A‐B setting.
And also, how to minimize recording one's breathing while playing.
Thanks for all the help and valuable information.
Kind regards, Ravi