How to Use Microphones in a Recording Studio

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Gregg Tauriello. I'm from Sweet 16 Studio, and I'm here to talk to you about soundproofing for a recording studio. Okay, I'd like to talk to you about the microphone and the pop filter. This is another part of sound management, because when I have a person that is singing into the microphone and they have explosions from their mouth, we call them that because when you hear it in the microphone that's what it sounds like, it's a boom and a huge one. You all probably know about these, but I'm going to show you anyways. You put this on the microphone and it prevents those pops from going into the mic. Also, for you people doing outdoor audio, you're going to have to have, these are a must for outdoor audio because any sort of wind whatsoever will get into your microphone and just destroy your recording. It will just sound like a storm. Another part of sound management is your monitoring system during the recording. We most always use headphones. And they're not only good for hearing sound, but for blocking sound. Many times I'll use the headphones to block out sounds I don't want to hear, especially if I'm in a small studio where there is no separation and I've got a rock band going on. I'm going to destroy my ears if I'm in there with them. So I'll put the headphones on, it will look like I'm jamming to the music, but my headphones aren't turned on. I can still hear everybody just fine coming right through the headphones. So I use them for protection as well. That's another good point. When you're setting up your studio, it's absolutely important for you to have a headphone mixer, and that allows you to feed about five or six different headphones at different volume levels. That way you can have your own level set, and everybody else that you have over can have their headphones as loud or as soft as possible. But just remember the decibel meter will come in handy. If you see that the drummer or somebody keeps telling you to turn them up, turn up the headphones, turn them up, and you're like "Wow, that looks like it's pretty loud", turn your own headphones up for a moment that loud. Get your decibel meter and measure it right at the headphone. If it's 100 db or 105, warn the drummer. Go into the drum room, just stop for a moment. It's important to protect people's hearing. That's what our love is, the love of hearing, that's why we do music. Just for a moment, take your sound level meter and show the drummer what he's listening to and just make a reminder to him that his music and his hearing is a really important asset in life when you're a musician."