This document discusses the key components and layout of a recording studio. It explains that proper planning of speaker placement, monitor positioning facing the producer, and inclusion of a mixing desk and MIDI keyboard are important for the studio layout. The control room layout centers around a computer connected to instruments for multi-track recording and editing. Professional studios also include soundproof recording rooms and a window between rooms for communication.

1. By Jack Tanner, Elliot Jones
And Charlie Macarthur

2. In the 60’s a 4 track tape recorder was often used to
record albums, this 4 track Studer J37 to the left was
used at abbey road for recording The Beatles world
famous album ‘Abbey Road’
These days however
digital recording
techniques are
used, microphones
which convert
sound into digital
files and back into
sound again such as
this Shure SM7B in
the picture below.

10. Studio Layout
The layout of a studio is very important. Proper planning and work you’re unlikely to get
the end product you were hoping for. One of the most important things to bear in mind
when your planning out your studio is speaker placement, speakers should be at ear level
and should preferably be high quality active monitors for example. . .
KRK RP10 3 280 WATTS
Another important thing to bear in mind when laying out your studio is where your head
is going to be facing most of the time during production. Usually it’s going to be facing a
computer screen with a large multi-track mixer in front of it which means having a
monitor either side of your computer screen is Ideal. The basic idea is to have your
monitors pointed towards your ears and at the same height as your ears as well.
The main desk in the control room will nearly always have a MIDI keyboard and a multi-
channel mixing desk on , the more mixer channels you have the more expensive your
studio looks.

12. The control room
The control room is the part of the studio where all the post production is done, from the
control room you can adjust and tweak all the different pieces of hardware e.g.
compressors, equalisers etc. The main centre focus of a control room is nearly always the
computer, which will be linked to all of the instruments so everything can be recorded
directly to the computer which makes things easier for editing and mastering.

13. Window
Professional studios will nearly always have a window between the control room and
some will have an intercom from control room to recording room so the producers and
engineers can tell the artists exactly what they need to do or change to get the perfect
sound.

14. Recording Rooms
Recording in different rooms changes the type of sound that’s
recorded; this is because of reverberation and the varying
absorbency co-efficiency ratings of different rooms.
Because some producers like to have the option of changing the
effect their recording room has on recording they will sometimes
have different rooms these are called live rooms and dead rooms.
Live room – Live rooms are larger than dead rooms and because
of this any sounds created give off a lot more reverberation than
a dead room. The walls of a live room normally aren’t padded so a
lot less sound is absorbed than in a dead room.
Dead room – Dead rooms are small rooms that give off a lot less
reverberation than live rooms.

16. Different recording systems
Non-Linear recording systems such as Cubase, reason and logic pro enable a producer
to fully edit and a record multiple audio tracks, their able to move sections of the song,
loop different parts and add computer generated sounds.
Non-linear is newer than Linear recording systems and has totally replaced it , this is
because linear recording systems allow you to do so much more than non-linear.
Linear recording systems are very limited to the number of tracks you can record , the
first ever linear recording system was a one track tape recorder.

17. Sequencers
Sequencers allow you to create patterns and loops using various different audio
tracks. For example you can have a kick drum, a hi-hat and a snare drum on separate
audio tracks and draw in your own pattern to create a drum pattern.