Studio Recording vs Live Recording

- No background noise
- Timing is perfect
- No mistakes are made as they can just re-record
- No breathing from the singer
- Time taken to record
- Instruments are included which are not in the live version- strings
- Studio version fades towards the end where as the live version does not.
- Voice sounds better as there has probably been stuff done to it or added to it such as inserts.
- They have been levelled so no voice or instrument overpowers the other.
- Main singer provides own harmonies because its not live.


For "Everybody Hurts" studio version there is no background noise as it has been recorded in a sound proof room meant for recording sound and noise which means that it is the best environment for this and that there will be no background noise, where as in the live performance there is some background noise which sounds like fan or something similar. Because it has been recorded it means that the timing of the song is more or less perfect this is due to the fact that the song can be repeated a number of times until it is perfect also the performers can also all perform to a metronome to ensure that the timing is correct. There are also no mistakes due this as they can just re-record if any problems do occur, where as in live performances you can not. The breathing sound made by the singers is not heard as this has either been edited out or the artist is just not as nervous compared to when performing live. There is a lot more time taken to record the song in the studio due to the fact they have more time and are not performing straight to an audience. There is also instruments in the studio version which are not in the live performance because it takes a lot longer to get these parts perfect as well as the levelling that has been done in the studio recorded track helps to keep everything at the correct volume where as at a live recording it is harder to do this as everything is happening then and there and time is something you don't have. Obviously the vocals sound much better in the studio recording due to to whats been done to it such as inserts and other things such as little bit of auto tune where as at a live performance these things cant be done or can only be done to a certain extent. Also within a studio recording the main singer is able to provide their own harmonies where as at a live performance they are not able to do this so they need back ups singers to do this. Lastly on the studio recorded version it fades out at the end compared to the live version where they have to play it out till the end of the song.

Ray Charles- Mess Around

The main tune of the song starts at the beginning of the song at 6 seconds in. The bass and drum kit then kick in are used to keep the other instruments in time as well as making the song have more of a base feel to it. There is then a piano solo at 1:16 in which is full of trills. The saxophone solo at 1:36 is basic just keeping in time of the beats of the bar with some improvisation playing, the saxophone fits within the era of the song and the genre of blues and jazz as this was the type of instrument used for that genre of song. They offer a bluesy sound which fits with all the instruments being used. 
The song is melody and accompaniment the whole way through and does not really change.
I feel the instruments have been recorded separately to the vocals and feel this works well and the panning have been used perfectly to make some instruments feel further away than others, this also done using the gain to adjust the volume of each track.

Katy Perry - Fireworks Live on the The X Factor

In this song she sings in a low pitch, and in the wrong key throughout the first part of the song whilst barely being in tune so from 17 seconds to 39, she also shouts the chorus and the most part of the song which is why she sounds out of breath in certain parts such as 48 seconds in where she has to cut the word july short to catch up with the rest of the song as her also realising she couldn't hold that note to, and just after 1 minute in. Also because she starts the song to early in the performance she then becomes off time throughout the rest of the song. This is entirely different compared to the recorded version which was released. So that her live performance would improve I would make her warm up and drink some water before going out to perform live, if her voice was not her best then the person like the technician for the show could of used an auto tuner on her to make it sound more professional and like the recording. Lastly i would also limit the amount she moves and performs dance moves as she is clearly struggling for breath throughout the performance.

GagaRaga -- Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" on sitar

In the GagaRaga Sitar cover the recording has been done very unprofessional and just doesn't sound very good.   There is a big problem because the person recording the track recorded it all in separate parts so it just doesn't flow as well when they have put them all together they do  not match up which means they are out of time and the tempo does not match and causes some real problems throughout the track on a number of occasions. A simple to fix this way would be to use a click track or a metronome as this would mean all the track would be in better time and sound much more professional. If I were to record this song myself I would use metronome to keep the recordings in time. 

I feel the whole song becomes to repetitive and similar due to their being only one instrument being used and how the instrument sounds the same no matter how you play it, there is no real change in tune throughout the song which becomes boring so maybe and added instrument would help the track sound better.

Sonic Faults

Drum Micing-
The drum in this recording is very distorted due to the mic placement being way to close to the drum and also there is lots of background noise. It does not sound anything like a normal drum and sounds like something breaking into bits. The better version of this sounds much more like a drum this is because the mic has been placed a certain distance away from the drum which means there is not distortion also its not to quite but at the right volume for a recording.

Fan noise- 
Fan noise can be a large impact on recordings. It can be heard underneath the song and show unprofessionalism and become annoying. In our example of this you can hear the fan quite loudly with the guitar and makes it sound very unprofessional where as with the correction there is no fan noise which means there is a much cleaner recording which sounds better. 

Headphone Bleed-
This is where the audio is coming out of the headphones to loudly and affecting the recording as the microphones pick this up and records it. A way to stop and prevent this would be to turn the volume down on the headphones or the gain down on the microphone.

Mic and DI-
For this we used an electric guitar to show the importance that some instruments require certain ways of recording. When we close miced the electric guitar it was mainly strings and was not very loud or interesting. When we DI’ed the instrument not only could we edit the recording and change the sound on logic using an insert but it also sounded louder and interesting with much more atmosphere to the recording. In other examples such as if close micing a guitar amp you would get the plucking of the guitar where as if using a di box you would not hear the plucking. Close micing a guitar amp would mean the recording would be more realistic than using a di box and the close miced guitar amp possibly sounds better. This is because the recording would already have settings changed, making it sound like the finished product.

Microphone Choice-
Microphone choice is an important factor when recording music this is because you want to have the best quality recording you can possibly get. In the first recording there was crackling because the wrong microphone was used then in the second recording it it was fine as the recording was clear and not muffled.

Mic Positioning-
Having the microphone too close could easily cause pops and clicks as well as a bit of distortion. In this recording I have the loud notes are distorted which ruins the recording and makes it sound quite unprofessional. To fix this problem it would be an idea to place the microphone further away or even lower the gain on the microphone so it does not distort.

Pops and Clicks-
This is where the microphones pick up any words beginning with "P" which then makes a pop noise within the recording which sounds very unprofessional. This can be solved by simply using a pop shield which stop some of these noises going through to the microphone.

Room Sound-
This is a very important factor as this can ruin a recording by making it sound very unprofessional. Depending on the surrounding area the recording could sound completly diffrent as well. For example in the first recording the bottom of the drum is aimed at the corner of the room with the microphone and performer facing each other.

Tuning-

This is also very important as a out of tune instrument can result in a whole recording sounding bad and feeling very unprofessional. The best way to combat this would just to be sure that all instruments are tuned before use so that they sound good when recording it.

Negative musical components within songs

He’s a Pirate

As soon as the track starts it’s to loud and then gets to about 7 seconds in and just goes up another whole level hurting the ears of anyone listening. The volume of the guitar overwhelms the whole track and needs the gain to be brought down on it as it’s clipping and distorting in lots of places. Throughout the song we struggle to hear the drums except from one in particular which is very loud but is trying to compete too much with the very loud electric guitar. I feel the whole track needs to be levelled out so that the guitar is only slightly louder than the rest of the instruments. This whole problem could be due to the fact that the drums have been done using a Midi keyboard. 

I feel the recording of the guitar is done through close micing the amp, which is creating feedback in certain places; a better idea might have been to DI the recording that would give us a much clearer and more professional recording for the guitar.

Apologize

The first error within this recording is the top and tail the track does not start until 2 seconds in. The second error I can hear straight away is the piano for this song has not been close Mic’d it sounds as if the person recording it has used a overhead mic further away from the piano which means that they are allowing room sound to get into the recording and make it sound unprofessional. The next error is the person used to do the “ayy, ayy” bits he sounds uninterested and although he’s not singing, out of tune.  Then the when the girl starts singing she sounds ok but has clearly not been mixed to make her sound any better, plus when recording this song they obviously did not use a pop shield as everyone pop and click can be heard throughout the song. The volume of the girl singing is significantly lower than the man doing the vocals on his bits which means that either the gain needs to be turned down for the man doing his bit or the gain needs to be turned up for when she is singing. Also when the piano goes into the solo the mic positioning does not sound great.

Beneath Your Beautiful 

Bass is out of time at 45 seconds in you can hear this as the piano with the drums does not sound correct. This was probably because the drums were not recorded first which means a lot of the project could be out of time. I feel the drums are not recorded by close micing and maybe only been recorded using one or two microphones this means that the drum kit loses individual quality and they get a lot of crossover, it also makes it harder to hear parts of the drum kit such as the snare and hi hat. Using more microphones and setting them up correctly means it is possible to use EQ on the separate parts of the drum kit which would make the overall sound of the drum kit sound better. 

Piano hit the wrong notes in a couple places which made the song sound a little off in certain places. I would record this again until it was perfect, or if necessary use a new performer who is able to perform the song perfectly. Just after 2 minutes there is an example of this when the performer makes a mistake on the piano. The piano microphone set up is maybe a little to far away from the piano and I would move them a little closer to get a better quality. Some vocals within the song are either to loud or quite this could be due to either mic placement or the distance the performer was from the microphone if they were moving around. As well the end of the song is not cut so there is still a tail this makes the song sound less professional compared to if they just cut it. 

Environments Experiment

Recording Studio-
In the recording studio the walls have sponged things attached to the walls which absorb the sound and make the recording studio a good place to record sound needed for music projects. Because the walls absorb all this sound it gives us a much clean cut sound with so much less reverb then there would be without the sponge sound absorbers on the walls. Also because there was 6 people within the room at the time they would of also absorbed some of the sound leaving even less reverb. We recorded 4 different tracks on the same song the differences being a Condenser and Dynamic microphone and the distance the sound is to the microphones. Because they have been recorded in recording studio the tracks do not sound much different to each over except from the tracks recorded further away sounding more quite than the close mic'd tracks.

Hall way-
The hall way outside music has a little bit of reverb this is due to the room shape being long and not wide so the sound bounces straight off the walls next to the guitar and the other bits of sound travel down the corridor hitting different doors and these sound waves don't bounce back as they spend to long traveling in the air. Because there is hardly any reverb or materials which are good at absorbing the sound well, it means that the sound is little muffled and not as clean as the recording in the studio. There is not a major difference between the dynamic and condenser recordings as they both sound pretty similar however the condenser is picking up a wider range of sounds so is picking up more frequencies compared to the dynamic microphone. However there is a difference between the close recording and the ones further away and i believe this down to the reverb as the mic is further away from the guitar its giving the sound time to bounce off the wall and then getting recorded.

Outside-
Outside is a little different because we did the recording in a open space but near a wall where the sound waves were bouncing off of, the sound waves should bounce off into the open space causing more reverb however there wasn't that much which was a surprise. What we did find was that there was lots of background noise such as the wind and other natural ambience, but also from people around the school causing noise was picked up.
The close mic'd recordings picked up less of the background noise as there focus was the instrument however the condenser mic picked up more background noise because it picks up more frequencies then the dynamic mic. When the mic's are moved away from the instrument a lot more background noise is picked up even from the dynamic mic, which not normally the case which probably meant that the background noise was very loud and there was lots of it. There was relatively less reverb as i felt that it faded before the mic's could pick it up.
 















Dance Changing Room-
In this room there was quite a bit of reverb because the walls were quite close together which meant that the sound waves were bouncing straight off the walls and then coming back then off the walls again which led to quite a bit of reverb. Some of the sound would of been absorbed by the people in the room because there was 5 of us in there and the room was not that big, also because of the room we could hear the strings being scratched as Tom played the guitar. Both the condenser and dynamic were pretty similar in this recording other than the condenser obviously picking up more frequencies than the dynamic mic. When we then again moved the mice away from the instrument the reverb was much more noticeable and there, I believe this is because its not next to the instrument which means it has more space to take in the reverb sound.