The Recording Guide
A great recording is mostly decided before a plugin is ever opened — in the choice of microphone, where you point it, and how you route the signal. This guide draws those invisible things: what a polar pattern actually looks like, why moving a mic two inches changes everything, how a compressor bends the signal, and how to reamp, punch in, and comp a take. Workflow notes are for Logic Pro X, but the physics is universal.
Microphone Types
Every mic converts air pressure into voltage, but how it does that shapes its sound and what it's good for. Three families cover almost everything you'll record.
Dynamic
A diaphragm moves a coil through a magnet — rugged, needs no power, handles brutal volume. Forgiving and fat. Slower transient response tames harshness.
Reach for: loud guitar cabs (SM57), snare, toms, live vocals, kick (large-diaphragm dynamics). Bulletproof and cheap.
Condenser
A charged capsule whose capacitance changes with sound — fast, detailed, sensitive. Needs +48V phantom. Large-diaphragm = warm & flattering; small-diaphragm ("pencil") = accurate & precise.
Reach for: studio vocals, acoustic guitar, overheads, room, anything where detail matters.
Ribbon
A thin metal ribbon suspended in a magnetic field — smooth, dark, natural. Naturally figure-8. Vintage ribbons are fragile; never send phantom power unless it's a modern active model.
Reach for: taming bright amps & brass, room mics, anything digital-harsh you want to soften.
| Type | Sound | Phantom? | SPL / durability | Classic examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dynamic | Punchy, fat, forgiving | No | Very high | SM57, SM7B, RE20, MD421 |
| Large-diaphragm condenser | Warm, present, flattering | Yes (+48V) | Moderate | U87, TLM103, NT1, C414 |
| Small-diaphragm condenser | Accurate, fast, airy | Yes (+48V) | Moderate–high | KM184, C451, SM81, Pencil pairs |
| Ribbon | Dark, smooth, vintage | Usually no* | Low (fragile) | R-121, M160, RCA 44 |
*Modern active ribbons require phantom; classic passive ribbons can be destroyed by it, especially through a mis-wired cable. When in doubt, phantom off.
Polar Patterns
A polar pattern is a map of where a mic is sensitive. The shape shows how loudly the mic picks up sound arriving from each direction — front is up (0°), rear is down. Where the shape pinches inward, the mic rejects sound. Choosing a pattern is choosing what to keep out as much as what to let in.
Multi-pattern condensers (like a C414 or U87) switch between these with a capsule selector — one mic, many jobs. The side nulls of figure-8 are the sharpest rejection in audio: aim a null at the thing you don't want and it nearly vanishes.
Placement & the Proximity Effect
Mic position is the most powerful tone control you own — and it's free. Two ideas govern it: distance (close = detail + bass + isolation; far = air + room + balance) and angle (on-axis = bright & direct; off-axis = softer, darker).
Proximity effect is the bass boost that directional mics (cardioid & friends) get as you move in close — inches from a cardioid can add several dB of low end. It's why radio voices sound huge, and why a thin acoustic guitar gets boomy up close. Use it as a tool: back off to thin out, lean in to fatten. Omni mics have no proximity effect, so they stay even at any distance.
The 3:1 Rule
Using two mics on one source (or nearby sources)? Keep them at least 3× as far apart as each is from its source. It keeps their bleed out of phase-cancellation range, so the blend stays full instead of hollow.
Check Phase
Two mics on one source (top+bottom snare, DI+amp) can fight and cancel bass. Flip polarity on one (the Ø button) and keep whichever sounds fuller. Mic a source from front and back? The back mic almost always needs the flip.
High-Pass Early
Roll off rumble below the source's real range at the mic pre or first plugin — ~80 Hz on vocals, ~100 Hz on guitars. Removes handling thumps, footfalls, and AC hum before they eat headroom.
| Source | Mic & pattern | Where to put it |
|---|---|---|
| Lead vocal | LDC, cardioid | 6–10" away, slightly above mouth angled down; pop filter a fist away. Back off on loud phrases. |
| Acoustic guitar | SDC, cardioid | Aim at the 12th–14th fret, ~8" back — not the soundhole (boomy). Add a second at the bridge for body (mind 3:1). |
| Electric guitar amp | Dynamic (SM57) | 1–2" off the grille. On the dust-cap edge = bright; toward the cone center = brighter; toward the speaker edge = darker & warmer. |
| Drum overheads | SDC pair | Spaced or XY above the kit; measure equal distance to the snare from each so the center stays solid. |
| Bass guitar | DI + optional amp mic | DI for clean low end; a dynamic on the cab for grit. Blend, checking phase. |
Stereo Miking
Two mics, arranged deliberately, capture a space: the width of a piano, a kit, a room, a guitar. Each technique trades width against mono-compatibility — whether it still sounds right collapsed to a single speaker (phones, laptops, clubs). Here's the geometry, from above.
DI & Reamping
A DI (direct input) captures an instrument's clean, unamplified signal straight to the interface. Reamping is the trick that pays it off later: send that clean DI back out through a real amp (or pedals), re-mic it, and record the result — so you can perfect the tone after tracking, play intact, without the performer in the room again.
The little box matters: an interface output is line level, but an amp wants a high-impedance instrument level signal. A reamp box does that conversion (and lifts ground hum). Feed an amp a raw line output and it'll sound thin and wrong.
How Compression Actually Works
A compressor is an automatic, lightning-fast volume fader: when the signal gets louder than a line you set, it turns it down. That's it. The result is a smaller gap between loud and quiet — so the whole thing can sit louder and steadier in a mix. The two pictures below are the entire concept.
| Control | What it does | Turn it… |
|---|---|---|
| Threshold | The level where compression starts | Down to catch more of the signal (more compression). |
| Ratio | How hard it clamps above threshold | 2:1 gentle · 4:1 firm · 8:1+ heavy · ∞:1 = limiting. |
| Attack | How fast it reacts to a loud hit | Slow to let transients punch through · fast to tame peaks & clicks. |
| Release | How fast it recovers after | Fast = lively/pumping · slow = smooth/glued. Try to breathe with the tempo. |
| Knee | How abruptly it kicks in at threshold | Soft = gentle & transparent · hard = aggressive & obvious. |
| Make-Up / Gain | Adds back the level you compressed away | Up until compressed & bypassed feel equally loud (fair A/B). |
| Mix / Dry-Wet | Blends compressed with untouched signal | The heart of parallel compression — see below. |
Set It in 4 Moves
1. Ratio to 3–4:1. 2. Lower threshold until you see 3–6 dB of gain reduction on the loudest parts. 3. Set attack/release by feel — punch vs. smooth. 4. Make-up gain, then bypass-compare at matched loudness.
Parallel Compression
Crush a copy hard and blend it under the untouched signal (the Mix knob, or a parallel bus). You get density and sustain without losing the transients & life of the original. Magic on drums, bass, vocals.
Gain-Match, Always
Louder sounds "better" for ~10 seconds, then fools you. Every compression judgment must be made at equal loudness — or you'll keep choosing "more" for the wrong reason.
Punch-In & Overdub
Overdubbing is adding a new part alongside what's already recorded (a harmony, a solo, a tambourine). Punching in is surgical: drop into record for just the flubbed word or bar, replace it, and drop back out — the rest of the take is untouched. The player performs into it live, so it stays musical.
Pre-roll = Musical Punches
Always start playback a bar or two before the punch so the player can catch the groove and land in time. Punching cold never feels right.
Comp vs. Punch
Punch replaces audio destructively-ish in the moment. If you're unsure, record a new take over the section instead and comp the best of both — safer, more options.
Loop While You're There
For a stubborn phrase, cycle the section and let the player throw down several passes back-to-back into a take folder, then keep the best.
Comping the Perfect Take
Nobody nails it in one pass — so record several, then comp: assemble one flawless performance from the best moments of each. Great verse in take 2, killer chorus in take 4, one perfect word in take 1 — stitch them into a "composite" that never actually happened live.
Capture it right at the mic and the mix is half-done before you start. Everything after — EQ, effects, the blend — is easier when the raw recording already sounds like the thing you heard in the room.