Acoustic Environments In Relation To Audio Recording.

Live Rooms: 

A live room in relation to recording environments is two things. The first way to describe it, is the room where the musician, band, or talent goes in to record, as opposed to the control room. The other term for it is slightly more interesting, Its a room thats acoustics are very interesting.  A live room is a room thats ‘alive’. This means that the sound after the sound has come from the source, it bounces off surfaces in the room, an effect most commonly known as ‘reverb’ or reverberation. To get a good sounding recording, you don’t want a completely dead dry sound, as it’ll sound like its been recorded in a vacuum. You want a mix between a dead and a live room. You don’t want something layed down in an extremely live room, as then you have a lot of reverb to play with. 

  

(http://www.keplar.net/articles/build-a-project-studio-you-can-be-proud-of/dead-rooms-and-live-rooms/)  

  

  

Dead Rooms:  

A dead room is a room with very little slapback/reverb. The most dead rooms are known as 'Anechoic Chambers'. They aren't often used in audio recording purposes, except for scientific measurements as they sound very unnatural. Its fairly easy to make your own dead room, for instance a tent with duvets, or blankets thrown over it to absorb the sound. Most studios don't use Anechoic Chambers. They aren't used very often in recording due to the unnatural sound, and the fact that you don't get the same musicality you do, in a slightly live room you'll be able to hear more definition between the notes, in a dead room it would sound very muted. However, if you're recording something spoken word, such as an audio book, a dead room is the perfect location to record, as the mutes between the sounds means you can hear the words, and the spaces between each word very clearly. 

  

(http://www.keplar.net/articles/build-a-project-studio-you-can-be-proud-of/dead-rooms-and-live-rooms/) 

  

Outdoor Recordings: 

Outdoor recording has its fair share of fun and games. There are many things that can get in the way, or ruin a recording, Wind Noise, Background Noise, too much reverb. The main way used to combat these problems is a wind filter. these range from acoustically clear foam, to large dead cats. The dead cats are often used for broadcast recordings in outdoor environments due to their ability to filter out most background and wind noise, and filter the speech through. 

  

Simulated Acoustics: 

Due to the rise in use of digital mixing desks, simulated acoustics and effects have risen a lot in popularity. There's a wide range of simulated acoustics, these include things like compressors and gates. Other effects include things such as Pitch shifting, Delay, Modulation, and flangers. These aren't all just built into desks, when analogue desks were more popular, you would have to carry around a rack of 'outboard'. This was all of your effects processors, Graphic EQs, and other associated things. Most recording studios still use large racks of outboards, as its tough to completely replicate the classic sounds of things like Avalon valve compressors into a plugin for Logic or Pro Tools. Plugins are another way of simulated acoustics, reproductions of sounds, such as equalizers, coded into software plugins so you can use them on your recording. Simulated acoustics aren't all about effects, other examples of simulated acoustics include things such as surround sound, where the sound is translated into 5 or 7 signals, and creates the effect of the sound being all around you.  

The Perfect Recording Environment: 

The perfect recording environment for music would be a room that’s not entirely dead, with some slight reverb to create musicality, and so you can pick up the different tonal range within the voice, with a pop shield over the microphone to help prevent sibilance and popping, so the recording sounds smooth, also with an acoustic filter behind the microphone to prevent too much reverb, so you would gain the musicality, but also get the definition between each word. A perfect recording environment for spoken word would be a dead room, as the flatness of the sound gives you the definition across each word spoken. 

  

 

Types Of Contracts, and Job Roles.

·      Contracts:

Full time;

A full time contract would be where somebody works for a minimum number of hours, they get benefits that part time workers wouldn’t get, such as Annual leave and sick leave.

Part time;

Part time workers work fewer hours than full time workers, usually less than 35 hours a week.

Freelance;

Freelance work is where you’re not tied in a contract to a specific company, you’re called in under your own name to work for them, this is common in the media industry as you can get more money, and better work.

Shift work;

Shift work is often used to provide employees 24 hours around the clock, a shift is a set period of time, and they will rotate so you don’t always work days or nights.

Permanent;

Permanent work would be a fixed time employment contract, that’s renewed every 2-3 years.

Temporary;

A temporary contract wouldn’t be fixed term, it would most likely be on a monthly contract, often when the permanent employee is off on Maternity leave or long time sick leave.

Multi skilled;

Multi skilled workers have good skills in more than one area, meaning that they have more employment opportunities open to them.

Voluntary;

Voluntary work is work that isn’t always paid, often working for a charity. But its not always working in a charity shop, it could be something like manning lifeboats.

Casual;

Casual work is where work is given to you just casually, often through people you know, and you’re paid cash in hand at the end of the day.

Hourly paid;

Hourly paid would be a job that you gained an hourly rate for, so if you worked 3 hours, and £5 an hour, you’d get £15.

Piecework;

Piece work is where you’re paid per piece of work you do, for instance each unit of a product you manufacture, and you’re on a set price for each piece of work carried out.

·      Job Roles:

Creative,

A creative job role, would be something such as a graphic designer, where the work you create isn’t just paperwork, there’s a large design, or creation element to it too; it could even be something like an artistic director, or working in the costume department.

Technical,

A technical job role could be anything from working in the IT department to being a sound or lighting tech. Its working with technology, but understanding every piece of the technology you work on, not just using a computer for word processing or internet browsing.

Editorial,

An editorial position is often quite high up, or at the top of a company, as it’s a large amount of responsibility, as it is working with other peoples work, and editing it to fit to either a brief, or to make it appropriate for its target audience.

Marketing,

A job role in marketing would involve good people skills, as you are the people who market the company, get the name out there, and deal with public relations. You’re responsible for how the company comes across in the public eye.

Managerial,

A managerial position is one where you manage the people around you, making sure they all hit their deadlines, and targets.

Administrative,

Administrative job roles are things like receptionists, setting up appointments, processing various documents, and being things like personal assistants.

Legal,

Legal job roles are things like lawyers, making sure the everything the company does is legal, and dealing with any legal or ethical issues the company may run into.

Financial,

Financial Job roles include making sure the companies finances are all in order, making sure all the numbers add up for an auditor, and making sure the company doesn’t go bankrupt, or run into any funding issues.

Well, its been a while!

Today, i've been out filming a south-west metal band called Griever, for a music video of their new song 'My Captain, My King' It was my first ever experience of working on a professional film set, and i loved every minute of it. It was a very small crew, so i filled a number of roles, including runner, photographer, and even a tiny bit of camera work! It was a relatively early start being on location at 10am, but filming was over by half 5. The location was in the basement of an old house, which fitted the style of music very well. We did 4 takes on two full band scenes, then 3 takes, and a take at 50fps on all band members.