Advanced microphone choice and placement, stereo and multitrack capture, gain staging at the input, and managing phase, bleed and room sound when recording acoustic and electronic sources.

What this skill is asking

The SQA wants you to capture professional multitrack recordings using advanced microphone technique: choosing the right microphone and polar pattern for a source, placing it for the tone you want, using stereo and multitrack approaches, and controlling phase, bleed and gain so that the raw audio is clean before any mixing begins. At Advanced Higher the marks come from justified decisions, not just from getting a usable recording.

Microphones and polar patterns

A microphone converts sound pressure into an electrical signal, but different designs colour and respond to that sound differently. A dynamic microphone is robust and handles loud sources without distorting, which is why it suits a snare or a guitar cabinet. A condenser needs phantom power and responds faster to transients, capturing the air and detail of a voice or an acoustic guitar. The polar pattern describes which directions the microphone is sensitive to: cardioid's rear rejection (its null) is the main tool for isolating one source from another, while a figure-of-eight's side nulls are exploited in stereo techniques such as mid-side. Choosing the pattern is therefore a creative and a technical decision at the same time.

Close placement and ambient placement

Where you put the microphone shapes the sound as much as which microphone you use. Moving in close raises detail and isolation but, on a directional microphone, also boosts the bass through the proximity effect, which can flatter a voice or muddy a guitar. Pulling back lets the room into the recording, adding depth but reducing isolation. Advanced productions often combine the two: a close mic for definition and a room mic, blended in later, for ambience. Position relative to the source also matters, so aiming an acoustic guitar mic at the twelfth fret rather than the soundhole avoids a boomy low end.

Stereo and multitrack techniques

Multitracking is the backbone of modern production: by capturing the drums, bass, guitars and vocals as separate tracks, you can edit, process and balance each one without affecting the others, which is exactly the freedom the production project rewards. Stereo recording captures a source or an ensemble across the left-right field. A spaced pair gives a wide, spacious image but can have phase differences between the channels; coincident XY places two cardioids at the same point so there is little phase difference and good mono compatibility; mid-side combines a forward-facing mid mic with a sideways figure-of-eight, and decoding the two lets you adjust the stereo width after recording, a technique often analysed at this level.

Phase, bleed and gain staging

When two or more microphones pick up the same sound at slightly different times, summing them causes comb filtering, a hollow, phasey tone from peaks and dips across the frequency range. The 3 to 1 rule keeps spill low enough that this is minimal, and when two mics deliberately capture one source (such as a top and bottom snare mic) you check and, if needed, flip the polarity so they reinforce rather than cancel. Finally, gain staging at the input sets the preamp so the signal is strong but never clips the converter; getting this right protects the whole production, because clipping is irreversible and a weak signal raises noise when it is brought up later.

Examples in context

A drum kit is a multitrack lesson in itself: close mics on the kick, snare and toms, a stereo overhead pair for the cymbals and the overall image, and a room mic for ambience, with the snare top and bottom checked for polarity. An acoustic singer-songwriter session uses a condenser on the guitar at the twelfth fret and a separate condenser on the voice, spaced by the 3 to 1 rule. A string quartet might be captured with a single mid-side or spaced pair for a natural ensemble blend. In every case the production marks begin with how cleanly the audio was captured.

Try this

Q1. State which polar pattern is best for rejecting sound from directly behind the microphone. [1 mark]

• Cue. A cardioid, whose null points to the rear.

Q2. State the target peak level you should aim for when gain staging a digital recording. [1 mark]

• Cue. Around minus 12 to minus 6 dBFS, leaving headroom below 0 dBFS.

Q3. State what the 3 to 1 rule controls when two microphones are used. [1 mark]

• Cue. Bleed and comb filtering between the microphones when signals are summed.