Tag Archives: Tutorial

Audio Booth Operating Procedure

RECORDING PROCEDURE

1) Wake up Mac – Apogee Quartet (microphone input interface) should turn on

2) Turn on Presonus Monitor Station with switch at back right

– You can use the “Talk” button (lower left hand side of the “Monitor Station” to communicate with people in the other room; however, DON’T LEAVE THE TALK BUTTON ON WHILE SOMEONE IS RECORDING – it is very annoying in their ears to hear you shuffling about

3) Set microphone levels

– Click the (1) or (2) buttons on the Apogee Quartet to select the respective microphone (1 is on the left and 2 is on the right, looking into the live room from this room)

– Turn the big knob (right above the “Quartet” label) to adjust microphone level

– Have your subject speak into the microphone (their mouth should be about 1” away front the mic) in a clear, strong tone

– Adjust microphone levels until the meters are at the top of the green range or, ideally, into the yellow

– IF THE LEVELS GO INTO THE RED, THE MIC IS DISTORTING. Turn down the microphone levels, and click the “A” button on the Apogee Quartet to clear the “Clipping Indicator” (red mark at the top of the level meter)

– A good setting will probably between 40 and 50, if you have to turn it up much more than this, have your subject move closer to the mic and/or speak louder

4) Open Reaper recording software from the dock at the bottom of the screen (the green, blue, and grey icon with the white “sickle” in between the “rocketship” Launchpad icon and the purple “A” Apogee control panel icon)

5) Select “Open” when the prompt ask you if you’re sure you want to open Reaper

6) When Reaper finishes loading, it will prompt you to save a new project (if you’re working on a previous project you can select “Cancel” and load your old project from the File menu)

7) Make sure that the “REAPER Media” folder is selected (click it in the “Finder” to make sure)

8) Name your project in the “Save As” box and click “Save” – this will create a project directory in the “REAPER Media” folder (accessible from a shortcut on the desktop)

9) The two tracks in the upper left hand corner of Reaper correspond to the two microphones in the Live Room

10) Click the red button on each track, respectively, to “Record Arm” it. Any track that is “Record Armed” will record audio from the corresponding microphone when you click the “Record” button (in the lower left hand side of Reaper) or press the “Command” + “R” keys

11) You will now see a waveform being drawn as your subject speaks into the mic. This should reach ~2/3 to 3/4 of the way from the top to the bottom of the track to ensure a good, loud recording level. If the waveform touches the bounds of the track or is very small, follow the instructions above for microphone levels again

12) When you are finished recording, hit the “Stop” button in the lower left side of Reaper (or press the Spacebar) to stop the recording

13) If you were happy with the recording, click “Save All” if you want to discard it and start over, click “Delete All”

14) To record another take, zoom out on the timeline by pressing the “+” and “-“ keys on the keyboard until

you can see the whole waveform. Then, click further along in the timeline to move your cursor. Now

you can hit record again to start a new waveform file without overwriting the old one.

15) When you are finished recording, go to “File” -> “Render” (or press the “Command” + “Option” + “R” keys). This will open the export dialog box.

– Select either “Entire Project” or “Time Selection” under “Render Bounds” (you can make a time selection by clicking and dragging the mouse on the timeline)

– The directory should be set to “/Users/mc_audio_booth/Desktop/Reaper/Reaper Exports” (this folder is accessible from the desktop)

– Name your file in the “File name:” box

– Choose either “WAV” or “MP3” in the “Output Format:” drop-down menu

– Click “Render 1 file…”

16) When the export process finishes you can click “Show in Finder” to find your file, or access the “Reaper Exports” folder from the desktop

17) If you want to edit your project at home or later on the Media Commons Editing Workstations upstairs, copy your entire project folder from the “REAPER Media” shortcut on the desktop” to a flash drive or online storage

18) When you are finishes please do the following:

– Turn of the Presonus “Monitor Station” with the switch at the back right

– From the small “Apple Icon” in the upper-left corner of the screen select “Sleep”

(this will also turn off the Apogee Quartet)

– Turn off all the lights

– Lock the doors behind you

– Return the Audio Booth checkout bag with the key and sign

If you have any issues, you can ask the Circulation desk upstairs if anyone is available to help with the Audio Booth or email mediacommons@illinois.edu

Thank You!

NOTE: Reaper is available for free to use on your personal machines! Download from www.reaper.fm

TROUBLESHOOTING:

– Make sure that there are little red dots above the microphone icons on the left hand screen of the Apogee Quartet interface

If there are not, hold down the “1” or “2” buttons, respectively, and use the big wheel to select the “Mic 48V” option, then click the wheel and repeat for the other (if it also does not have a red dot)

– Make sure that the headphone levels on the “Monitor Station” are set to about 12 o’clock (halfway)

– Make sure that nothing is muted (“M”) or soloed (“S”) from the “Mixer” tab of the Apogee Control Panel (accessed from the purple “A” icon in the dock at the bottom of this screen

– In the “Output Routing” tab of the Apogee Control Panel, make sure that the Software Outputs “Mixer 1” and “Mixer 2” correspond to the Hardware Outputs, “Line 1/2” and “Line 3/4”, respectively

– In the “Output” tab of the Apogee Control Panel, make sure all the meters are set to “0.0” and neither of the “M” or “D” buttons on the right-side are selected