Differences in recording for surround

The recording stage is the first stage after composition and is when an artist’s song is first introduced to the studio. At this point the artist should have a clear idea of what each piece of instrumentation will be doing in the music. This is the chance to experiment with these ideas now that it is possible to listen back to their artwork. This production stage should result in all of the instrumentation being recorded and structured to the artist and sound engineer’s satisfaction; no new instrumentation is normally added after this stage.

So what does the recording stage involve? The recording stage involves the capturing of the artists music via microphone or direct input to the mixing desk. Different sound engineers will utilise different methods while recording and it is important to note that there are no set rules to the production of music, it is completely subjective. Although the creation of music is a subjective thing, recording techniques and methods have been devised specifically for the capturing of sound in stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound and these methods differ between the two reproduction systems.

The invention of the stereo system of course saw to the invention of stereo recording techniques. Stereo recording techniques normally involve two microphones spaced or angled in a specific way towards the sound source. The signal from these microphones is then sent to the mixing desk where they are panned to the corresponding left or right speaker e.g. left microphone panned to left speaker, right microphone panned to right speaker. Stereo microphone techniques create the impression of space and the directionality of sound sources; this is due to inter-aural time differences and inter-aural intensity differences, the same way that human hearing localises sound. It is important to note that during stereo recording not all techniques use two microphones such as, close micing, which is where one microphone is place close to the sound source and then recorded and panned appropriately.

All Stereo techniques can be applied in the recording stage of 5.1 Surround sound music production, however panning methods can differ as there are extra centre and rear channels. Similarly to the stereo reproduction system, 5.1 surround sound has it’s own microphone techniques, some of which were adapted from stereo techniques. Surround microphone techniques can utilise anything from two to six microphones again with specific spacing’s or angles.

Although some surround techniques were adapted from stereo the principles upon which they are based are slightly different. The stereo system is based upon the principle that the listener is facing the music source, with one speaker on the front left and the other on the right. Surround Sound, however is based upon the principle that the listener is sitting in the middle of a listening space being “surrounded” by music, this means sound sources are not only localised at the front like stereo but all round the listener immersing them in the music. As a result of this, in the recording stage of surround music more consideration is taken in terms of the structure and panning of instrumentation between six channels rather than stereo’s two channels