Live Sound

Supported By

Berkleemusic.com Offering New Microphone Techniques Course

Berkleemusic.com, the online school of Berklee College of Music, is debuting the new course “Microphone Techniques” for the upcoming spring term, beginning April 2, 2012.

In the course, students will develop a general strategy for a recording session based upon a desired production style, and learn to execute a moderately complex recording session with multiple simultaneous performers.

Effective microphone techniques resulted in some of the most iconic music ever committed to tape. Consider Phil Spector’s signature “Wall of Sound,” which relied heavily on appropriate microphone techniques, or Led Zeppelin’s iconic recording of John Bonham’s drums on “When the Levee Breaks,” recorded with a stereo microphone on the second floor stairway at Headley Grange Studio. Whether your sessions feature a single vocalist or rapper, metal trio, or large big-band jazz ensemble, the ability to get good sounds is essential to producing competitive results.

“The study of microphone techniques is really an incremental process of learning successive levels of techniques that build upon each other,” says says Berklee instructor and course author Andy Edelstein. “The course is primarily focused on microphone techniques in the process of recording. We start by talking about the theory behind how microphones work, and how they are designed. From there we build up the knowledge of core study of microphone techniques, from simple to more complex scenarios. By the end of the course, you’ll see all of the techniques we discuss put into action in a real recording session.”

Throughout the course, you’ll learn about the various elements of the recording chain, detailed technical characteristics of different microphone types, selecting appropriate microphone models based upon an instrument’s sound and the desired outcome, proper handling and setup, close and distant microphone placements for a wide variety of musical instruments, effectively utilizing the recording environment, and managing the demands of complex recording sessions with multiple participants.

Go here to learn more.

Berkleemusic.com

Live Sound Top Stories