Denver Recording Studio

Last week we talked about the process of setting up a good signal chain for achieving the best possible results in the recording studio.  We concluded that your tracks will be only as strong as the weakest link in your signal chain and we discussed the elements necessary starting with the performer and instrument, mics and cables now comes the real meat and potatoes.  So youve got a great performer, chosen the right mic with the appropriate frequency response and youve run it to your recording medium with the best cables you can get your hands on. The next step is in my opinion one of the most critical of all, your analogue to digital converters. How accurately your signal is converted from an analog electrical signal to a digital signal will dramatically affect the quality of your tracks.  Currently the digital resolution of a CD is 16bit 44.1kHz, however many of todays A-D converters can accommodate much higher resolutions than that. I firmly believe that when delegating your funds out you should go all out on your A-D converters, record at the highest resolution that your converter will allow and your computers CPU can handle. Next stop in your signal chain is your DAW or software platform you record to. This is less critical to me and is more a matter of personal choice, Protools is currently the industry standard and makes brings your sessions into work at other studios typically very easy as most studios have a Protools rig but these days many home users are opting to go with Logic, Cubase, Sonar etc… There are more than you might think available today and they all do more or less the same thing. Some may have an emphasis on sequencing vs live tracking and some visa versa. Do some research and find out which software platform best suits your needs. Once youve gotten your tracks into a recording medium of some sort and stored them at the highest possible resolution the next step {once your sessions are mixed and mastered} is getting the signal back outta the computer, converted back into an analog signal and into your monitors or headphones. This last couple steps is again really very critical. Using the highest quality Digital to analog converter is just as important as using the best possible analog to digital converter. Finally we come to your monitors, the quality of your monitors is also of the utmost importance in fact I have heard very well known mastering engineers who think your monitors are the single most important part of the whole signal chain. Thing is if your monitors dont faithfully reproduce all the music youve just tracked and mixed its all for nothing. You will burn your music to disc and take it outta the studio only to find your mixes dont sound the same. Gotta have great monitors and ya gotta familiarize yourself with them in order to get from A to Z and wind up with a great product you or your client will be totally happy with. Here at CCM studios we have paid the utmost attention to detail at every step of way, our signal flow remains as pristine as possible from point A to Z.  The product of many years of trial and error, lots of hard work, imagination and experimentation.  Were always happy to have new artists come thrue and check us out. Dont hesitate to call anytime. Till next time, cheers -Guitar Junkie