Hardware & Recording

The physical side of making music

In a digital production world, there are only a handful of things you can actually touch, hear, and interact with. Microphones, speakers, interfaces, cables — these are the objects that connect your ideas to the air. This class is about understanding them.

20 chapters of ground covered

• Sound and transduction — how sound becomes electricity, becomes digital, becomes sound again. The signal chain from source to speaker
• Microphones — types, polar patterns, selection for different sources, and how to get the right mic on the right thing
• Cables, connectors, and balanced audio — the wiring that holds a studio together (and why some of it fails)
• Audio interfaces and digital audio — sample rate, bit depth, AD/DA conversion, and what the numbers actually mean for your recordings
• Recording technique — mono, stereo, mid/side, working with vocalists, recording instruments. Several chapters because each situation has different problems
• Monitoring — speakers, headphones, room acoustics, and treatment. What your listening environment is doing to your perception and how to account for it
• Routing and hardware integration — patchbays, MIDI, sync, controllers, and connecting external gear to a DAW-based workflow
• Practical knowledge — cable repair and soldering, session planning, and a gear buying guide that skips the marketing and tells you what to actually spend money on