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Arecording studio is a specialized facility forrecording andmixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-homeproject studio large enough to record a single singer-guitarist, to a large building with space for a full orchestra of 100 or more musicians. Ideally, both therecording and monitoring (listening and mixing) spaces are specially designed by anacoustician oraudio engineer to achieve optimum acoustic properties (acoustic isolation or diffusion or absorption of reflected soundreverberation that could otherwise interfere with the sound heard by the listener).
Recording studios may be used to record singers, instrumental musicians (e.g., electric guitar, piano, saxophone, or ensembles such as orchestras),voice-over artists for advertisements ordialogue replacement in film, television, or animation,Foley, or to record their accompanying musical soundtracks. The typical recording studio consists of a room called the "studio" or "live room" equipped withmicrophones and mic stands, where instrumentalists and vocalists perform; and the "control room", where audio engineers, sometimes with record producers, as well, operateprofessional audiomixing consoles,effects units, or computers with specialized software suites tomix, manipulate (e.g., by adjusting the equalization and adding effects) and route the sound foranalog ordigital recording. The engineers and producers listen to the live music and the recorded "tracks" on high-qualitymonitor speakers orheadphones.
Often, there will be smaller rooms calledisolation booths to accommodate loud instruments such as drums or electric guitar amplifiers and speakers, to keep these sounds from being audible to the microphones that are capturing the sounds from other instruments or voices, or to provide "drier" rooms for recording vocals or quieter acoustic instruments such as an acoustic guitar or afiddle. Major recording studios typically have a range of large, heavy, and hard-to-transport instruments and music equipment in the studio, such as agrand piano,Hammond organ,electric piano,harp, anddrums.
Recording studios generally consist of three or more rooms:
Even though sound isolation is a key goal, the musicians, singers, audio engineers and record producers still need to be able to see each other, to see cue gestures and conducting by a bandleader. As such, the live room, isolation booths, vocal booths and control room typically have windows.
Amplified instruments, like electric guitars,synthesizers,drum machines and keyboards, may be connected directly to the recording console usingDI units and performance recorded in the control room. This greatly enhances the communication between the producer and engineer with the player, as studio mics, headphones and talkback are unnecessary.
Recording studios are carefully designed around the principles ofroom acoustics to create a set of spaces with the acoustical properties required for recording sound with accuracy.Architectural acoustics includes acoustical treatment andsoundproofing and also the consideration of the physical dimensions of the room itself to make the room respond to sound in the desired way. Acoustical treatment includes and the use ofabsorption anddiffusion materials on the surfaces inside the room. To control the amount ofreverberation, rooms in a recording studio may have a reconfigurable combination of reflective and non-reflective surfaces. Soundproofing provides sonic isolation between rooms and prevents sound from entering or leaving the property. A Recording studio in an urban environment must be soundproofed on its outer shell to prevent noises from the surrounding streets and roads from being picked up by microphones inside.
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A recording studio is typically equipped with a range of professional tools designed to capture, mix, and refine audio. At the heart of the studio is a professional-grademixing console, which serves as the central hub for managing audio signals. To accommodate additional input sources, such as when miking a full drum kit and all channels on the main console are occupied, smaller auxiliary mixing consoles may be used to expand channel capacity.
Microphone preamplifiers are essential for boosting mic-level signals to a usable level, and audio is usually captured using either amultitrack recorder or adigital audio workstation (DAW) running on a computer. A wide selection ofmicrophones is available, each chosen for its suitability with different instruments or vocal styles, anddirect input (DI) boxes are used to connect instruments directly to the console or interface.
Microphone stands allow for precise placement of mics in front of vocalists, instrumentalists, or ensembles, whilestudio monitors and closed-back monitoringheadphones are used for critically listening to recordings without sound leakage. Lighted signs reading "On Air" or "Recording" are often installed to signal when silence is needed in the studio.
To shape the sound further, engineers may employ outboardeffects units such asdynamic range compression,reverbs, andequalizers.Music stands are also commonly found in the studio to hold sheet music for performers during recording sessions.
Not all music studios are equipped with musical instruments. Some smaller studios do not have instruments, and bands and artists are expected to bring their own instruments, amplifiers, and speakers. However, major recording studios often have a selection of instruments in their live room, typically instruments, amplifiers and speaker cabinets that are large, heavy, and difficult to transport (e.g., aHammond organ) or infeasible (as in the case of agrand piano) to hire for a single recording session. Having musical instruments and equipment in the studio creates additional costs for a studio, as pianos have to be tuned and instruments and associated equipment needs to be maintained.
General-purpose computers rapidly assumed a large role in the recording process. With software, a powerful, good quality computer with a fast processor can replace themixing consoles,multitrack recording equipment, synthesizers,samplers andeffects unit (reverb, echo, compression, etc.) that a recording studio required in the 1980s and 1990s. A computer thus outfitted is called adigital audio workstation, or DAW.
WhileApple Macintosh is used for most studio work,[3] there is a breadth of software available forMicrosoft Windows andLinux.
If nomixing console is used and all mixing is done using only a keyboard and mouse, this is referred to asmixing in the box (ITB). OTB describes mixing with other hardware and not just the PC software.
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A small,personal recording studio is sometimes called aproject studio orhome studio. Such studios often cater to the specific needs of an individual artist or are used as a non-commercial hobby. The first modern project studios came into being during the mid-1980s, with the advent of affordablemultitrack recording devices, synthesizers and microphones. The phenomenon has flourished with falling prices ofMIDI equipment and accessories, as well as inexpensivedirect to disk recording products.
Recordingdrums and amplified electric guitar in a home studio is challenging because they are usually the loudest instruments. Acoustic drums require sound isolation in this scenario, unlike electronic orsampled drums. Getting an authentic electric guitar amp sound including power-tube distortion requires apower attenuator or anisolation cabinet, or booth. A convenient compromise isamplifier modeling, whether a modeling amp, preamp/processor, or software-based guitar amp simulator. Sometimes, musicians replace loud, inconvenient instruments such as drums, with keyboards, which today often provide somewhat realisticsampling.
The capability ofdigital recording introduced byADAT and its comparatively low cost, originally introduced at $3995, were largely responsible for the rise of project studios in the 1990s.[4] Today's project studios are built around software-based DAWs running on standard PC hardware.
An isolation booth is either a partially enclosed area in the live room[a][5] or a completely separate small room built adjacent to the live room that is both soundproofed to keep out external sounds and keep in the internal sounds. Like all the other recording rooms in sound industry, isolation booths designed for having a lesser amount of diffused reflections from walls to make a good-sounding room. A drummer, vocalist, or guitar speaker cabinet, along with microphones, is acoustically isolated in the isolation booth. A typical professional recording studio today has acontrol room, a largelive room, and one or more smallisolation booths.
All rooms are soundproofed by varying methods, including but not limited to, double-layer 5/8" sheetrock with the seams offset from layer to layer on both sides of the wall that is filled with foam, batten insulation, a double wall, which is an insulated wall built next to another insulated wall with an air gap in-between, by adding foam to the interior walls and corners, and by using two panes of thick glass with an air gap between them. The surface densities of common building materials determines the transmission loss of various frequencies through materials.[6]
Thomas A. Watson invented, but did not patent, the soundproof booth for use in demonstrating the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell in 1877.[7] There are variations of the same concept, including a portable standalone isolation booth and a guitar speaker isolation cabinet. Agobo panel achieves the same effect to a much more moderate extent; for example, a drum kit that is too loud in the live room or on stage can haveacrylic glass see-through gobo panels placed around it to deflect the sound and keep it frombleeding into the other microphones, allowing better independent control of each instrument channel at themixing console.
In animation, vocal performances are normally recorded in individual sessions, and the actors have to imagine (with the help of the director or a reader) they are involved in dialogue.[8] Animated films often evolve rapidly during both development and production, so keeping vocal tracks from bleeding into each other is essential to preserving the ability to fine-tune lines up to the last minute. Sometimes, if the rapport between the lead actors is strong enough and the animation studio can afford it, the producers may use a recording studio configured with multiple isolation booths in which the actors can see each another and the director. This enables the actors to react to one another in real time as if they were on a regular stage or film set.
In the era of acoustical recordings (prior to the introduction of microphones, electrical recording and amplification), the earliest recording studios were very basic facilities, being essentially soundproof rooms that isolated the performers from outside noise. During this era it was not uncommon for recordings to be made in any available location, such as a local ballroom, using portable acoustic recording equipment. In this period, master recordings were made by cutting a rotating cylinder (later disc) made from wax. Performers were typically grouped around a large acoustic horn (an enlarged version of the familiargramophone horn). The acoustic energy from the voices or instruments was channeled through the horn to a diaphragm to a mechanicalcutting lathe, which inscribed the signal as a modulated groove directly onto the surface of the master.
Electrical recording was common by the early 1930s, andmastering lathes were electrically powered, but master recordings still had to be cut into a disc, by now a lacquer, also known as anAcetate disc. In line with the prevailing musical trends, studios in this period were primarily designed for the live recording of symphony orchestras and other large instrumental ensembles. Engineers soon found that large, reverberant spaces like concert halls created a vibrant acoustic signature as the natural reverb enhanced the sound of the recording. In this period large, acousticallylive halls were favored, rather than the acousticallydead booths and studio rooms that became common after the 1960s. Because of the limits of the recording technology, which did not allow formultitrack recording techniques, studios of the mid-20th century were designed around the concept of grouping musicians (e.g., therhythm section or ahorn section) and singers (e.g., a group ofbackup singers), rather than separating them, and placing the performers and the microphones strategically to capture the complex acoustic and harmonic interplay that emerged during the performance. In the 2000s, modernsound stages still sometimes use this approach for largefilm scoring projects that use large orchestras.
Because of their superb acoustics, many of the larger studios were converted churches. Examples includeGeorge Martin'sAIR Studios in London,Columbia Records 30th Street Studio in New York City,[9] andPythian Temple studio in New York.
Facilities like the Columbia Records 30th Street Studio in New York andAbbey Road Studios in London were renowned for their identifiable sound—which was (and still is) easily identifiable by audio professionals—and for the skill of their staff engineers. As the need to transfer audio material between different studios grew, there was an increasing demand forstandardization in studio design across the recording industry, andWestlake Recording Studios in West Hollywood was highly influential in the 1970s in the development of standardized acoustic design.[10]
In New York City,Columbia Records had some of the most highly respected sound recording studios, including the 30th Street Studio at 207 East 30th Street, theCBS Studio Building at 49 East 52nd Street,Liederkranz Hall at 111 East 58th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues (a building built by and formerly belonging to a German cultural and musical society, The Liederkranz Club and Society),[11][12] and one of their earliest recording studios, Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue.[9]
Electric recording studios in the mid-20th century often lacked isolation booths,sound baffles, and sometimes even speakers. A major reason that isolation was not used was that recordings in this period were typically made as live ensembletakes and all the performers needed to be able to see each other and the ensemble leader while playing. The recording engineers who trained in this period learned to take advantage of the complex acoustic effects that could be created throughleakage between different microphones and groups of instruments, and these technicians became extremely skilled at capturing the unique acoustic properties of their studios and the musicians in performance. It was not until the 1960s, with the introduction of the high-fidelity headphones that it became common practice for performers to use these to monitor their performance during recording and listen to playbacks.
The use of different kinds of microphones and their placement around the studio is a crucial part of the recording process, and particular brands of microphones are used by engineers for their specific audio characteristics. The smooth-toned ribbon microphones developed by theRCA company in the 1930s were crucial to thecrooning style perfected byBing Crosby, and the famousNeumann U 47condenser microphone was one of the most widely used from the 1950s. This model is still widely regarded by audio professionals as one of the best microphones of its type ever made. Learning the correct placement of microphones is a major part of the training of young engineers, and many became extremely skilled in this craft. Well into the 1960s, in the classical field it was not uncommon for engineers to make high-quality orchestral recordings using only one or two microphones suspended above the orchestra. In the 1960s, engineers began experimenting with placing microphones much closer to instruments than had previously been the norm. The distinctive rasping tone of the horn sections on theBeatles recordings "Good Morning Good Morning" and "Lady Madonna" were achieved by having the saxophone players position their instruments so that microphones were virtually inside the mouth of the horn.[13]
The unique sonic characteristics of the major studios imparted a special character to many of the most famous popular recordings of the 1950s and 1960s, and the recording companies jealously guarded these facilities. According to sound historian David Simons, after Columbia took over the 30th Street Studios in the late 1940s andA&R managerMitch Miller had tweaked it to perfection, Miller issued a standing order that the drapes and other fittings were not to be touched, and the cleaners had specific orders never to mop the bare wooden floor for fear it might alter the acoustic properties of the hall. There were several other features of studios in this period that contributed to their unique sonic signatures.
As well as the inherent sound of the large recording rooms, many of the best studios incorporated specially designedecho chambers, purpose-built rooms which were often built beneath the main studio. These were typically long, low rectangular spaces constructed from hard, sound-reflective materials like concrete, fitted with a loudspeaker at one end and one or more microphones at the other. During a recording session, a signal from one or more of the microphones in the studio could be routed to the loudspeaker in the echo chamber; the sound from the speaker reverberated through the chamber and the enhanced signal was picked up by the microphone at the other end. This echo-enhanced signal, which was often used tosweeten the sound of vocals, could then be blended in with the primary signal from the microphone in the studio and mixed into the track as the master recording was being made.
Special equipment was another notable feature of theclassic recording studio. In the US, the biggest studios were owned and operated by large media companies likeRCA andColumbia, who typically had their own electronics research and development divisions that designed and built custom-made recording equipment and mixing consoles for their studios. Likewise, the smaller independent studios were often owned by skilled electronics engineers who designed and built their own desks and other equipment. A good example of this isGold Star Studios in Los Angeles, the site of many famous American pop recordings of the 1960s. Co-owner David S. Gold built the studio's main mixing desk and many additional pieces of equipment and he also designed the studio's unique trapezoidal echo chambers.
In Europe, the biggest studios were mostly operated by the national broadcast companies asZDF and theARD (Germany),RAI (Italy) or theBBC (UK) with few exceptions asEMI,Polydor/Polygram orDGG wich operated own, large recording facilities. Although having own technical departments, most of the equipment was supplied through companies such asTelefunken,Siemens,Neumann and EMT.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the sound of pop recordings was further defined by the introduction of proprietary sound processing devices such as equalizers and compressors, which were manufactured by specialist electronics companies. One of the best known of these was thePultec equalizer which was used by almost all the major commercial studios of the time and the1176 peak limiter, developed byBill Putnam.
With the introduction ofmulti-track recording, it became possible to record instruments and singers separately and at different times on different tracks on tape. In the mid-20th century, recordings wereanalog, made on1⁄4-inch or1⁄2-inchmagnetic tape, or, more rarely, on 35 mmmagnetic film, withmultitrack recording reaching 8 tracks in the 1950s, 16 in 1968, and 32 in the 1970s. The commonest such tape is the 2-inch analog, capable of containing up to 24 individual tracks. Throughout the 1960s many pop classics were still recorded live in a single take. In the 1970s the large recording companies began to adopt multi-track recording and the emphasis shifted to isolation and sound-proofing, with treatments like echo and reverberation added separately during the mixing process, rather than being blended in during the recording. Generally, after an audio mix is set up on a 24-track tape machine, the tracks are played back together, mixed and sent to a different machine, which records the combined signals (calledprinting) to a1⁄2-inch two-track stereo tape, called amaster.
Before digital recording, the total number of available tracks onto which one could record was measured in multiples of 24, based on the number of 24-track tape machines being used. Most recording studios now use digital recording equipment, which limits the number of available tracks only on the basis of themixing console's or computer hardware interface's capacity and the ability of the hardware to cope with processing demands. Analog tape machines are still used in some cases for their unique sonic characteristics.
Radio studios are very similar to recording studios, particularly in the case of production studios which are not normally usedon-air, such as studios where interviews are taped for later broadcast. This type of studio would normally have all of the same equipment that any other audio recording studio would have, particularly if it is at a large station, or at a combined facility that houses a station group, but is also designed for groups of people to work collaboratively in a live-to-air situation.[14]
Broadcast studios also use many of the same principles such as sound isolation, with adaptations suited to the live on-air nature of their use. Such equipment would commonly include atelephone hybrid for puttingtelephone calls on the air, aPOTS codec for receivingremote broadcasts, adead airalarm for detecting unexpectedsilence, and abroadcast delay for dropping anything from coughs toprofanity. In the U.S., stationslicensed by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) also must have anEmergency Alert System decoder (typically in the studio), and in the case of full-power stations, an encoder that can interrupt programming on all channels which a station transmits to broadcast urgent warnings.
Computers are used for playingads,jingles,bumpers,soundbites, phone calls,sound effects,traffic andweather reports, and now are able to perform fullbroadcast automation when no staff are present.Digital mixing consoles can be interconnected viaaudio over Ethernet. Network connections allowremote access, so that DJs can do shows from a home studio via the Internet. Additional outside audio connections are required for thestudio/transmitter link forover-the-air stations,satellite dishes for sending and receiving shows, and forwebcasting orpodcasting.
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