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DON’T ignore the room acoustics. You probably won’t have the luxury of a recording studio’s perfect
acoustics. Be aware of how reverberant the room is. Reverberation is neither good nor bad, but
frequently inappropriate! Some instruments will benefit from being recorded in a reverberant space,
others won’t. A “dead” acoustic is generally better than a “live” one, because reverberation can
be added electronically in the recording process, but room reverberation on the recording can’t be
removed.
DON’T blow into a microphone to test it! Lightly rub or scratch the grille instead.
DO experiment with microphone placement. Remember you will not only be recording the vocal or
instrument, but the effect of the microphone position relative to the voice or instrument as well, and
this will be affected by the room acoustics. Moving the mic around, and trying recordings at different
distances and angles to the source will produce different sounding results, some of which will be
better than others.
DO use the CM25 to mic up a guitar amplifier if you want to include the contribution to the sound
that the amplifier makes. But be aware that very high sound levels can be produced very close to
the loudspeaker, and if you need high volume, you may get a better result by moving the mic away
from the amplifier. Also, be aware that you will get a subtly different sound if you point the mic at the
centre of the loudspeaker cone compared to the edge.
DON’T forget that a microphone is utterly unforgiving – it will not only pick up what you are trying to
record, but any other sound source in the room, like a clock, the aircon, heating, or a chair creaking.
You know how you take those holiday photos of a great bit of scenery and it’s only when you look at
the pictures later that you see the power cables right across the view? It’s the same with recording.
You might not notice extraneous sounds at the time, but the mic will and you’ll hear them on the
recording. To remove any unwanted low frequency rumble, it is advisable that the High Pass Filter
(HPF) on your DAW channel is enabled.
Using Direct Monitoring
You will frequently hear the term “latency” used in connection with digital audio systems. In the
case of the simple DAW recording application described above, latency is the time it takes for your
input signals to pass through your computer and audio software. Latency can be a problem for a
performer who wishes to record while monitoring their input signals.
The Scarlett 2i2 is fitted with a “Direct Monitoring” option, which overcomes this problem.
Setting the front panel “Direct Monitor” switch to ON will route your input signals directly to the
Scarlett 2i2’s headphone and main monitor outputs. This enables you to hear yourself with zero
latency – i.e., in “real time” – along with the computer playback. The input signals to your computer
are not affected in any way by this setting.
When “Direct Monitoring” is set to ON, ensure that Cubase LE (or other DAW) is not set to route its
input (what you are currently recording) to its output. If it is, you will hear yourself twice, with one
signal audibly delayed as an echo.
