Generally, there are a lot of differences between hearing music in a studio compared to in a live performance venue. Some of them are minor changes, but some can impact the overall sound because of how the space manipulates it.
- Health and safety can be more of an issue in a live venue as you don’t have time to tuck away wires, and there are a lot of general hazards like a risen stage, pyrotechnics and damaged equipment, for example. In a studio, as the setup rarely gets changed, the wires will be very neat, and the only thing that could pose a major issue would be broken equipment. You can damage your hearing a lot easier in a live venue as the sound has to be loud to carry through the whole venue, and when setting levels during soundchecks, the sound levels have to be set perfectly. This means making the instruments louder to mix them correctly and experiment with how loud they need to be compared to the rest of the instruments. However, studio sound can be controlled a lot easier and does not need to be overly loud as the sound doesn’t have to carry.
- The acoustics change depending on the live music venue and they are generally loud because they are large areas, but it stays the same when you are in a studio as they have padding and techniques to absorb the sound. Most studios have a similar layout of sound padding and materials used to make the space as effective as possible, so the acoustics indifferent studios will not differ much. The acoustics are vital to how recordings sound. If the room is reflective it will sound reverberant and you can’t remove this during mixing. If the room is dry the instrument will be dull sounding and even when you add reverb in the mix, it won’t sound as good. Most studios have both reflective and absorbent materials and are designed to suit different genres of recordings, for example, an orchestra needing a large hall with minimal padding for the natural reverb. The acoustics in a live performance will be different to that of a studio. It might sound more echoey and airy as the venue is bigger, and there is less padding for the sound waves to absorb. Natural reverb is good for performances as it will carry through the room and give the music more space, but it cannot be removed during live mixing so you cant remove the acoustics.
- Equipment can differ in live venues and studios. For example, passive speakers will be used in a live setting. They are generally bigger, more powerful to kick out more sound, and are powered by the mixing desk. But, in studios, you generally use active speakers that are smaller and easier to control and move around if ever needed. Some microphones can be different in live and studio settings as different microphones are better for different uses. Microphones like the Shure sm58 is popular in live sound as it has a pop filter and mesh grille installed and has a cardioid polar pattern.
- In studios, you need a lot of time to get the perfect take as the song you are working on has to be flawlessly in time and well played before it’s mixed. However, in live venues, you are playing only once so minor mistakes are bound to be made, but most of the time the audience will not notice. A concert usually lasts for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, but when you take into account all of the work the artists and crew do beforehand, you are looking at many more hours. The crew has to re-set everything up in a new place before the gig on the night, soundcheck, perform and tear everything down at the end to take to the next venue. In the studio, equipment is usually set up and there is extra equipment available if you needed it.
Dynamic And Condenser Mics
- Condenser Microphones:
- needs 48 volts (phantom power) to power the mic
- used for overhead drum mics because it pics up cymbals better as they have a great higher frequency response
- great for capturing more fragile and quiet sounds well
- fragile
- more expensive
- Dynamic Microphones:
- used a lot for live sound
- less frequency response
- not sensitive to quiet or delicate sounds
- mostly used for vocals
- very strong and durable, can withstand a tour
- less expensive
Polar Patterns
A polar pattern determines how a microphone picks up sound, and from which angles. The main four polar patterns are omnidirectional, cardioid, super-cardioid, and figure of eight. Also, there are hyper-cardioid, subcardioid, boundary and lobar polar patterns but these are not very commonly seen.
| Omnidirectional | Figure of eight | Cardioid | Supercardioid | |
| Polar pattern |  (mynewmicrophone.com, n.d.) |  (mynewmicrophone.com, n.d.) |  (mynewmicrophone.com, n.d.) |  (mynewmicrophone.com, n.d.) |
| Converge angle | Picks up everything around it equally (360°) | Picks up the front and back equally (90°) | Picks up the front only (131°) | Picks up most of the front and some of the back (115°) |
| Ambient sound sensitivity | Picks up all room ambience (100%) | Picks up a third of room ambience (33%) | Picks up a third of room ambience (33%) | Picks up just over a quarter of room ambience (27%) |
| Good for? | Acoustic instruments, isolation booths | Vocal duets, podcasts | Live vocals, interviews | Film sets, drum mics |
DI
A DI box stands for ‘Direct Injection’. This means that instead of micing up the guitar or bass amplifier, the jack lead is plugged into a DI box, and the output goes into the mixing desk (using an XLR), and out through the speakers. This eliminates the need for any microphones and makes the stage easier to set up. DI boxes are used in both live settings and in studios for similar reasons. They boost certain frequencies as it is giving more power to your audio signals, there is no sound coming from the amp (meaning there is no spill into other microphones in the studio or on stage), and gives a generally clearer sounding quality with minimal noise. We also tend o use DI boxes for keyboards as it reduces ground loop and hum problems. It is generally safer to DI a keyboard to give it protection from phantom power, which can destroy the outputs of keyboards and other equipment. Here is an example of a DI box, with a jack input at the front and an XLR output at the back (not shown).
BSS AR-133 Active DI Box-(Gear4music, n.d.)
Phase
Sound travels in waves, which is eventually picked up from the microphone, depending on how far away it is. However, when using multiple microphones, you have to be aware of something called ‘phase’, as if one mic is further away from the amp, the soundwave will take longer to travel to it.
A phase happens when you use multiple microphones on one instrument. There are different types of phases depending on microphone placement; In-phase, out-of-phase, and slight-phase. If one microphone picks up the waveform slightly later than the other microphone, a slight-phase occurs. This causes a very small delay and making it lose quality, fatness and giving it an almost chorus effect. If something is completely out-of-phase, the waveforms are at exact opposite positions so it loses the signal altogether, and you won’t hear anything. When something is in-phase, the waveforms will be fully aligned, making it sound clean and louder. This is the type of phase you generally want as having something in-phase is the best way to produce the most precise sound when in the studio.
Working with phase is important when having to mic up an amp several times, or having a vocalist sing different takes. When working with amps that have been miked up multiple times, you have to make sure they are in the exact same space away from the speaker cone or use the 3-1 rule (if a microphone is 1cm away from the amp, have the other 3cm away so it’s in-phase). When working with a vocalist, they have to try and stay in the same position when singing the different takes.
Signal Chain
A signal chain is how sound is converted into something we can manipulate and hear from speakers. Knowing the signal chain helps sound engineers find and fix any issues in the chain and ensure everything is chronologically linked together.
- Acoustic energy is formed by playing an instrument and creating soundwaves.
- Soundwaves are picked up by a microphone, turning the acoustic energy into an electrical signal.
- The electrical signal follows the path to the mixing desk which amplifies the signal.
- The amplified signal is outputted into an audio interface, which converts the electrical signal into binary code.
- The binary code is outputted into a computer (as computers can only read binary code), is manipulated (eg effects), and inputted back into the audio interface.
- The audio interface turns the manipulated binary code back into an electrical signal and outputs it through the speakers.
- The speakers turn the electrical signal back into acoustic energy by playing the sound through the speaker cone.