FEATURE
Speakers
The next most important thing to have is a
good pair of speakers. This is the biggest factor in how your recordings will sound when
played on other people’s speakers, and in
your car. If you already have speakers you’re
very familiar with, start with those. Listen to a
variety of commercial releases through them
to get a good sense of how they sound. Then
you can judge more accurately whether your
own recordings have a similar balance of bass
and treble, depth, width, and clarity.
If you choose to buy new speakers, take the
time to learn how they color the sound. A
bass-heavy speaker will make you mix “bass
shy” and a bright speaker will make you mix
“dull” until you get used to them. Powered
speakers can be more expensive, but with
factory-matched components and easy
tone. we can help AcmeGuitarWorks
Prewired pickup and control assemblies, on templates or pickguards, for many popular
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connectivity to recording interfaces, they do
make setup simpler.
If you’re going to be multitracking or overdubbing, you’re going to need headphones. Make
sure they cover the ear completely to prevent
sound from leaking into “open” microphones.
You’ll need a pair for every musician being
recorded simultaneously. Common choices
include AKG, Sennheiser, and Sony.
Headphones are great for checking left and
right panning when mixing, but don’t expect
to get the best result if you try to mix your
entire project on them. Save them for checking details when mixing, but trust your speakers more. Both speakers and headphones
will typically plug into the audio interface you
choose if you don’t use a mixer. If you’re using
a standalone recorder, you don’t need an
interface, and there will usually be at least one
headphone out, sometimes two. If you need
more headphone outputs, there are inexpensive headphone amps that make multiple
outputs available.
Microphones
Picking the right microphone means picking
one that colors the sound the way you want.
To keep things simple, start with some time-tested favorites. If you only have one microphone in your toolbox, make it a Shure SM57.
