Recording A Mic Into Peak In The Mixing Benches

Transcript

3/02/10 Recording a Mic into Peak in the Mixing Benches You need to get a microphone, mic cable and a desk stand from Media Loan. Get a SM-58, Re-15 or another type of directional mic with an XLR connector. 1) Find the Volume Switch Box, it's the metal box with the red knob below the computer monitors and turn the volume down. 2) Turn on the Main Power Switch. It’s on the right side of the table. 3) Locate the patchbay, make sure that there are no patchchords in the patchbay when you start. 4) Connect the mic into the mic cable and then plug the cable into the XLR mic input for mixer channel 1. The XLR input is near the top of the mixer. 5) While talking into the mic, turn up the gain control up until you see the red peak light flash. Then turn the the gain control down a little bit. Anytime the peak light flashes turn the gain control down. The gain control is the black knob near the top of the mixer. The peak light is the red light near the top of the channel fader. 6) Locate the faders and slide the channel 1 and Main Mix faders up to the 0 mark on each fader. 7) Set the Equalizer (labeled EQ) controls to the center (off) position . Set the Pan control to the center. 8) To avoid feedback while recording it is best to use headphones instead of the speakers. Plug the headphones into the headphone output of the mixer. Make sure that the Volume Switch Box knob is turned down. Use the Control Room output knob on the mixer to set levels for the headphones. Make sure that the Main Mix button is pressed in the Source section. The output of the mixer is normalized to the Mac Audio input . No patching is necessary. 9) Turn on the computer by pressing the button on the tower located below the desk. Select Peak in the dock and click on the icon to open it. 10) Click the Record Enable button (circle button) from the Tool Bar at the top. The Record window will open. 11) Peak will be ready to record a 16 bit, 44.1khz stereo file (standard CD quality audio). 12) While talking set the record levels (using faders) on the mixer while looking at the meters on the computer screen (Hint: the computer levels, which are digital, distort at exactly 0db, so you should be good when most of the levels peak at about -5db to-7db). 13) Remember to watch for the peak light on the mixer. If the peak light flashes turn down the gain control. 14) When you are ready, click the Record button (circle button) in the Record window. 15) Talk into the mic. You should see that your mic is being recorded by looking at the levels on the meters at the bottom of the screen. In the record window you can see the waveforms. 16) Click Stop (box button) when you are finished and the Save dialogue box will appear. 17) Click the top pull down menu in the dialogue box and select User Drive. 18) Click the New folder button on the left. 19) Name your folder after your last name so it will not be deleted randomly. 20) Click Create. Your folder should appear in the top pull down menu. If it isn’t in the pull down menu find your folder from the list of other files and select it. 21) Name your file in the box that says Audio Recording (Hint: Name your project in context with the audio piece you are working on it will help you organize your work more effectively). 22) If you haven't recorded any audio and need to close the record window click the stop button and it will close. 23) To listen to your recording first turn the Control Room output knob on the mixer to the 12:00 position. The switch the Volume Switch Box to Mac and turn up the volume knob. 24) If you continue to record other files remember to turn down the volume knob on the Volume Switch Box and to listen with the headphones.