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It’s intuitive that a proper monitoring environment be essential to evaluate your microphone capture. This relies on a separate room which also serves the later mixing. In rare cases acoustic construction places recording and monitoring facilities on separate foundations but usually one makes do with proper decoupling. With desired eye contact through windows, that’s challenge enough. The speaker systems here tend to be referred to as monitors which is descriptive. Their primary purpose is as evaluation tools for a properly analytical inspection such as some hifi users enjoy as well. Decidedly undesired is prettification or any other form of colouration which would make it harder or impossible to identify problems or recognize specific sonic nuances.


Here one must admit that even in larger studios the monitoring situation can be anything but optimal. An emphasis on convenient work ergonomics (one has to reach a number of components including a computer and/or often gigantic mixing consoles), poor layout, insufficient budgets or sheer lack of interest can nix pursuit of the best solutions. It’s not uncommon that the better-looking solutions get preference. But more than one sterling recording was birthed under catastrophic conditions to remind us that the experience of the sound technician is paramount and worth more than the best monitoring facility.

Working with multiple microphones began early. This relied on an analog mixing console which combined the various feeds and adjusted their levels. Mixing consoles are identified by their number of channels. Basically each channel handles one signal, hence a 24-channel mixing console can mix the feeds of 24 microphones or otherwise derived signals. The resultant mix was first sent to a mono and later to a stereo tape recorder before it ended up as a vinyl pressing via intermediate steps. Fundamentally this very basic process is still possible but 50 years ago an invention arose whose practicality hardly anyone today would do without. That invention was multi-tracking. It enabled 4, 8, 16 or 24 parallel tracks and today has grown to essentially unlimited numbers. Multi-tracking used to occur on magnetic tape machines whose high operational costs and inherent limitations have rendered most of them obsolete whilst many begin to simultaneously miss their signature sonics.

Today it’s nearly always the computer hard drive which becomes the recording storage. The advantages are obvious. Mass production guarantees cost-effective storage capacity, access is simple and  the majority of software/hardware infrastructure needn’t rely on specialized audio suppliers. What’s more, these so-called digital audio workstations or DAW systems enable certain shortcuts and tricks without which many modern productions wouldn’t be possible. So comprehensive and important have those editing tools become that we’ll cover them in detail.


Because manipulation of audio data by computer relies on digital signal, the converter involved becomes very important. Unlike hifi’s D/A converter, this is an A/D converter. Top-quality specimens are costly since they’re not dealing with basic 2-channel data but 16 or more tracks which must be converted simultaneously. Unlike with modern stereo or perhaps surround sound systems, it’s debatable whether high sample rates are always a must. In the mixing process it’s not merely a function of storage but involves strategic signal processing across various junctions to rely on suitable hardware. Already during the multi-track magnetic tape days, it was possible to not merely capture individual tracks simultaneously but in sequence. In the so-called playback or overdub scheme, instruments can play one after the other to prevent a completely new ensemble session should one musician have made a mistake. Should one want an additional cymbal tree, double up on a guitar phrase for a denser more saturated sound or add back-up harmonies to a vocalist’s refrain, all that’s possible and often exploited to excess.
Typical studio setup in Cologne's SAE institute at left: mixing console, monitor speakers, DAW screens | one recording both at SAE at right with three windows in the foreground
Hence it’s not rare that a merely 3-minute long Pop production might sport triple-digit track figures and a few hundred track minutes. That such conditions make for a challenging mixdown goes without saying. Obviously the lack of musical communication in the here and now can have consequences. Most electronic music, Jazz and even Punkrock whose energy relies on spontaneity is nearly unthinkable without real-time ensemble interactions. The playback solution creates specific demands on a studio’s infrastructure. Here the mixing console figures again since the spliced-in player has to hear what’s already been recorded. Even fully digital studios without analog mixing console must use an analog headphone feed for the musicians since digital systems suffer latency, i.e. a time delay. How disturbing that can get we know from voice reflections during mobile telephone calls.


Whilst the cliché would have it different, no drummer enjoys playing to a metronome. For such occasions one often creates a guide track with piano, guitar or song. Depending on the instruments, one often doesn’t need a complete track for the cut. So-called drops can cut into specific sections of a song to remove errors, create time for fingering changes, take a breath or pick a different sound. Very often vocals are recorded in many takes and subsequently the best bars of say the second phrase are selected from 34 options. Such patchwork is common also for recordings where one wouldn’t expect it like classical. There it’s simply the norm to always re-record the entire orchestra. Individual instruments only rarely get spliced in by overdub.

The sound tech and the recording session. You already know that the best canvas, optimum lighting, costliest oil paints, largest variety of brushes and prettiest model don’t guarantee a persuasive panting. The best hifi system in a carefully tuned listening room can sound gawd-awful when the music is bad and the production terribly mixed. So the entire recording hardware chain is merely a means to an end. It can support the musical process and perhaps inspire it here and there but no more. But the sound master’s job goes well beyond his tools even though one does admit to the existence of pure gearheads whose introvert sort stares at their own shoes when talked to whilst the extrovert kind stares at yours. But those are in the minority. The main job of studio personnel isn’t the impersonal manipulation of hardware settings but to assist the musicians to play their very best and capture that optimally. Today it’s become less common that recording sessions are served by sound technicians, producers, various maintenance personnel for instruments, vocal and personal coaches and assistants. Up to a certain size of production, the sound technician has become responsible for many of these aspects.
track splices (composite on top, individual tracks below)
But there also exists the complete personal union of composer, lyricist, musician, singer and tech.  In some cases a killer album is nothing but a bedroom production recorded in a flat or rehearsal room and perhaps even mixed there. The rise of credible recording/mixing kit in the mass market certainly is bearing fruit. In general though top quality productions still happen in mature professional studios.


Any recording session puts unusual demands on the musicians who are more used to rehearsal rooms and performance venues than studios where time is short and expensive. A core requirement for any good performance is a suitable mood.


I deliberately wrote ‘suitable’ and not ‘good’ since one music style’s incense and posters of Far-Eastern temples is another’s spider webs and skulls. Fortunately none of that is visible in the final recording. Good recording personnel is expected to walk a successful balance of praise and criticism based on people skills and experience to transform an ordinary recording into the final product music consumers chase down: something magical, perfect and unique. Obviously the gamut of characters and personalities on the recording end is just as vast as it is amongst the musicians.