How to Conduct a Recording Studio Test - Gravy For …to$Conduct$a$Recording$Studio$Test$!...
Transcript of How to Conduct a Recording Studio Test - Gravy For …to$Conduct$a$Recording$Studio$Test$!...
© 2015, Gravy For The Brain Ltd, Author Hugh Edwards.
How to Conduct a Recording Studio Test This methodology shows you how to conduct a test on your recording studio to prepare an audio clip for analysis.
1. Set up your mic and recording system as normal with pop-‐shield in place. Record with your mouth directly aiming at the mic capsule and 6 inches away from the front of the mic itself.
2. Find some dialogue to read – just a small paragraph will do, and project it (volume) slightly above normal speech, as if you’re talking to someone about 10 feet away.
3. With this level of projection, set your recording input gain so that the highest peaks of your dialogue’s waveform are between -‐4 to -‐6db.
4. With this level set, start the recording (at 48kHz, 24 bit wav) and leave the booth or recording area so that there is no interference from yourself in the recording. Record the room silence for one minute.
5. Whilst still recording, re-‐enter the booth and go back to the mic position as normal, then record the paragraph at the same projection level.
6. Clap your hands once near the mic. This will invariably clip the recording, so do it again quieter until the recording doesn’t clip.
7. Repeat step #6 at various points around the studio to capture the different reflections around the studio, especially near any reflective surfaces you may have, such as glass.
Your clip is then ready for analysis. You will then be able to analyze the noise floor in the 1-‐minute silence, hear the room when talking and measure the reverberance-‐decay-‐tail of the claps at the end of the clip.