Before you can record or mix good sound, you need to be able to hear what you are getting. In audio terms, monitors allow you to listen to the audio while it is being recorded or edited. If you’re trying to sing or play along with a recorded music track, you need to monitor through headphones, earphones or speakers.
With speakers the monitoring signal can also be picked up by the microphone which degrades the sound quality. For that reason they are normally not used for monitoring during recording. Headphones with a closed back design are most common for this application as the music is not audible and cannot bleed into the microphone. An alternative are earphones that are inserted directly into the ear and offer the best sound isolation.
If you are trying to sing or play along in sync with previously recorded tracks, you mustbe able to monitor in real time, with almost no latency. A few milliseconds of latency is not critical, although it can slightly alter your perception of pitch or tone. More than 10 milliseconds of latency can have a noticeable effect on your rhythm and timing. To monitor in real time, you need to tap into the audio signal before it gets converted from analogue to digital and fed into the computer.
A solution for the latency issue is the Shure X2u XLR-to-USB adapter that provides a headphone output, allowing you to monitor without latency. It also offers Monitor Mix Control for blending the microphone signal with the playback audio. The Shure PG27USB and the PG42USB microphones offer the same functionality already integrated into the microphone.
Recording Devices
Various recording devices for home recording and podcasting are available. A computer with recording software is the most flexible and common solution for home recording. For mobile recording, battery powered devices are available from analogue one track devices up to multi-track digital products. Recording analogue and a digital post production means transferring the signal into a computer, which can be time consuming.
Mobile digital recording devices allow simple editing, fast transferring and sharing of the files through USB or Firewire ports. The gain adjustment is critical with a digital device. With an analogue signal the distortion is blending slowly in the higher the gain is set and this can lead to a richer sound if used to a low degree. A distorted digital signal immediately creates a disturbing “cracking” sound. As this “cracking” sound cannot be removed in post production, enough headroom should be considered using digital recording devices.
Some digital devices allow users to create both MP3 as well as WAV files. Compressed MP3 files mean less storage space, but also less sound quality. WAV files provide the best possible audio quality, but they require much more storage space and take much longer to upload/download. More information on file formats can be found in the next chapter.
