Before talking about the digitization of sound it is crucial to understand what a sound wave is exactly. Sound waves are realized when an instigating factor, such as the striking of a drum head or the plucking of a string, causes the molecules of a medium, typically air, to move.
The molecules vibrate in a process that alternates between compression becoming denser and tightly packed and rarefaction becoming less dense. The wave propagates in this way through the medium until its energy is dissipated in the form of heat. It should be noted that the medium could also be a liquid or a solid, and in fact, air is one of the slowest mediums for transmitting sound. The diagram below identifies how the amplitude of a sine wave would correspond to the compression and rarefaction of molecules in a medium.
Anything that vibrates — a string, drum head, wine glass, tuning fork — will produce a corresponding movement of molecules in the medium which we perceive as sound.
For some people, the term analog sound refers to old technology — which is of course true to some extent. But analog technologies remain a crucial part of music production. To understand why, we should define the origin of the term. In terms of audio technology, this idea is clearly present in two fundamental devices for recording and creating music — the speaker and the microphone. Microphones create a change in voltage or capacitance that is analogous to the movement of its diaphragm, which is instigated by a sound wave.
Speakers transform an electrical signal into a sound wave by creating analogous movements of a speaker cone. Both devices are considered transducers, in that they convert one form of energy into another. And both are analog devices that are just as relevant today as the day they were invented. Before the advent of computers, sound was recorded using technologies like magnetic tape, vinyl and — very early on — wax cylinders. Engineers strived for the highest fidelity possible depending on the limitations of the medium.
One of the major potential limitations is that of dynamic range — the range of possible amplitude values from the noise floor to the maximum peak level before the onset of distortion. As audio production technology has advanced, so has dynamic range as evidenced below:. It should be noted that the goal of absolute fidelity is a bit of a misnomer.
The digitization of sound is necessary whenever computers are involved in the recording, production or dissemination of music, which pretty much covers everything except live performance. And even then, on-stage musicians are probably using digital effects somewhere along the line. To convert analog sound to the digital realm means taking an analog signal and creating a representation of that signal in the language of computers, which is binary zeroes and ones.
An analog signal is continuous, meaning constantly changing in amplitude and time. Digital conversion requires that it be sampled or measured periodically to make it understandable and editable in a computer system. There are two conversion-related terms to be aware of:. Analog to digital converter ADC — converts an analog signal to a digital file Digital to analog converter DAC — converts a digital file to an analog signal.
The digitization process has several user-defined variables which will influence things like frequency range, dynamic range, file size and fidelity. For example, if I swap in an RE20 mic I get a different curve. The RE20 is less sensitive to the space because it has better side rejection than my condenser mics and that Hz bump pretty much goes away. However, because of the tone curve of the mic, I get a bunch of build-up around Hz.
The moral of the story is that there really is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to the variables in a vocal recording. The only thing that stays constant is that I try to aim to do exactly what is needed to clean it up — no more and no less. Once the cleanup is done, the rest is a matter of seeing what I can get away with.
For in-your-face vocals, I want something bright with a lot of body. I tend to like gradual shelf boosts starting from the upper-mids, coupled with wide bell boosts in the treble range. Mind you, the low end of a voice can vary a lot, particularly across genders. Low male vocals could be at Hz, high female vocals can be Hz. Multiband compression is a great solution to getting vocals clean and forward.
The issue with going overboard with subtractive EQ is that while we are taking out stuff, we are also removing part of the vocal as well. With multiband we can set it to attenuate tones based on how much is there, allowing us to sort of have our cake and eat it too. If we have a nice little frequency band for our vocal to poke through our mix, we can create a band with a very restricted dynamic range right there so that our vocal is always present.
There are a lot of potential artifacts such as transient smearing or audible phasing that can come from multiband compression, so these techniques are definitely best handled with care.
This technique involves pushing a wide band of treble way up on a Pultec-style EQ. You push the treble until a sizzly texture starts to show up on the top end. From there, you then attenuate with the Pultec set at 20 kHz until that sizzly quality goes away.
In the case of in-your-face, less is more. Or sometimes no reverb at all. Functionally this is a lot like the in-your-face vocal, except … less in-your-face. If you simply let go of the extra compression layer and go for a more dynamic vocal, in general, you basically get there. The biggest difference is in the reverb. If you want the vocal to live a bit more inside the mix, you can be a bit more generous with the amount of reverb applied.
When we have a dominating, sustaining lead like a synth or big distorted guitars we actually want to keep our heavy compression. We balance the vocal behind our big lead, but because of all the extra push it still stays present, and the artifacts we created along the way get masked.
Under some circumstances, you need less compression and midrange push to seat a vocal inside the mix, and under other circumstances, you literally need the exact opposite. To be honest, I have more fun figuring out fun ways of fu…, uh, messing a vocal up, than making something super pure. There are more or less infinite ways to grunge up a vocal. First: Start with a concept.
Trying to add really aggressive distortion into a really smooth and somber sounding tune might not work out so well unless you want really deliberate contrast. Likewise, making a vocal seem really washy and smeary will probably just sound like a mistake in a power punk tune.
So, get a basic concept of what you want first and foremost. Second: You have to get clean before you get dirty. If you have a muddy vocal or edgy vocal, when you dirt-ify that mud or edge becomes really exacerbated.
It can help a lot to clean things up before, or maybe just tame things down a bit after. This work has been associated with several publishers and record labels, including the Philip Glass owned Orange Mountain Music. Matt currently teaches music courses at Salt Lake Community College and has accrued over a decade of experience teaching music in the public schools.
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