Week 2: Improve your Recording Skills
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.
Assignment Week 2:
Before giving you some insight into light and video, I am giving an overview of the Equalizer, the Compressor, the Limiter, and the Reverb. If you are using something like Reaper, Logic, Cubase, etc., they usually come with these effects.
About Video & Light
Assignments:
Understand the light situation in your room and find different angles, so you can play around with light and shadows during your recording!
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Here are two new videos about Video & Light (the shorter one is also part of the bigger one, I just figured it's interesting and easier to navigate to if I upload it as a separate video as well=.
And here is the Recording of the Zoom Check-in:
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martin thanks Martin for the enlightening information ha ha
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martin Thank you Martin for sharing your tools... I wonder if you would like to share a bit about your way of ordering and organizing your effects on tracks, buses and sends?
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Great stuff Martin, although I can't perform your experiments directly, I will do them at a later date and analyze the results at a later date . Thanks
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I just used the track in position 3 of my previous experiments and made some changes using the ''Bandlab'' online software.
Well this is kind of fun and will lead to many experiments. I will also need to find a software to put that track back with the video. That will be step no. 2
Comments are welcome
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ae8HH5ob20in7fpJZY6jdSEz4LKoSH9D/view?usp=drive_link
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Andre Bernier Haha, yes, playing around with effects can be great fun!! Is this a chorus and a reverb that you've applied?
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martin yes. I am not sure it sound natural but it was fun to experiment. Over time, I will find the right balance of effects
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Well, I found today a free online video editor ''Canva''.
I was able to download the video position 3, mute the sound track and add the sound track that was modified with Bandlab.
This is not the best but I am happy that I have been able to go through all the process and make an almost final product. I still need to add an intro and closing page. Next step I guess
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Andre Bernier Canva is a great resource!
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Hello,
Here are my try regarding usage of EQ and compressor...
- Recording-E_V1_In front 60 cm NoMix : original
- Recording-E_V1_In front 60 cm Mix1-Normalized : original with option normalized checked
- Recording-E_V1_In front 60 cm Mix1 : original with an EQ and a compressor
- Recording-E_V1_In front 60 cm Mix1-Normalized : original with an EQ and a compressor and option normalized checked
- Recording-E_V1_In front 60 cm Mix1-AutoMastering(tran) : original with an EQ and a compressor and a mastering
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Here is the outcome from my lighting assignment. 3 positions.
Position 1: 1 1ight front left 45 degree, 1 light on the right 90 degrees (directly side on the player)
Position 2: 1 light only, front left 45%
Position 3: 1 light front left 45 degrees, 1 light on the right 45 degrees behind the player
I have had trouble creating a separation between the player and the background, as my camera in movie mode uses auto focus. I have zoomed in to the player and reduced lighting on the back wall to try and create a separation. Interested to know if people think I have succeeded.
Any feedback on camera height welcome.
I would normally crop a bit tighter (again feedback on cropping welcome).
I hope to start a youtube channel and release my first video soon so any feedback will be really valuable. martin
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martin Hi Martin. Wondered if I was too late in posting to get feedback on my lighting assignment. The dates got away from me and I didn't see the second week assignment until very late.
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I am late in the assignment of week to and the 2 weeks intensive is probably already ended but I will post my work of tonight.
The first 2 pictures are showing my preferred recording place with all lights open to max.
There are separate ceiling lights in the Kitchen, dining room, living room and condo entrance.
Using some of the recommendations made by Martin in it's video; I made the following set-up.
I kept the lights in the kitchen ( which are on my right) at full intensity.
I closed the lights in the dining room (which are on top of my head).
I closed the lights in the living room (which are on top in my back)
I kept the lights in the entrance open at about 50% intensity.
I turned on the TV and put a fire place video
I did light up the set of 6 candelas under the TV set.
The result are depicted in the 3rd picture.
I think that I can lower by 25 to 50% the lights in the kitchen and move my sitting position so we can see the candelas.
I will keep doing some experiments and get back later this week with more pictures.
