Recording formats:
The recording equipments and the reproducing equipments are associated with each other; the former records the programmes while the second reproduces them for listening etc. These equipments are very sophisticated and robust for professional use and are costly whereas the ordinary ones being not so much sophisticated are cheap and are accessible for common man use.
The recording and re-production of sound or two different processes which work against each other i.e;, one records the sound whereas the other reproduces it. The reproduction of sound is a replica of the recorded sound. Now a day’s most of the recorders and reproducers work on the principle of magnetic recording.
The magnetic recordings can be made on either a plastic or iron oxide tape or on a wire of small diameter. The wire recorder is now outdated. The tape is used practically in all modern magnetic recording equipments.
As there is no wear on the tape in the recording on play-hack operations they car. be used almost indefinitely. If the tape should break, the two ends can be joined by the use of a plastic splicing tape. The use of magnetic tape has added great flexibility to recording operations. If a mistake is made, a correction can be repeated. The section of the tape containing the error is removed, and the corrected version is applied in its place.
Many unique effects can be accomplished before the recording is complete:
1. Two or more recordings can be superimposed on the same tape,
2. the range of certain audio sections can be increased or decreased with the help of filters and
3. echo and other effects can be added.
If the recording is no longer needed the sounds can be removed by erasing and the tape can be re-used.
Some of the other advantages of the magnetic recorder are (1) excellent fidelity can be obtained, (2) longer recording time (3) the practically compact record simplifies storage and handling, (4) it provides instantaneous playback without processing, (5) it has a minimum of background noise, (6) it is effected very little by external vibrations, and (7) it is completely portable.
A disadvantage of the magnetic recorder is that regular preventive maintenance must be performed. In order to prevent deterioration of the recording on the tape, all parts of the equipment touching the oxide-side of the tape – such as tape guides, capstan and roller, and head surfaces – should be cleaned regularly with grain alcohol. Also, during recording and/ or playback the head may become slightly magnetized. This small amount of magnetization may (1) add noise to the recording, (2) cause part of the signal to be erased, and (3) lower the signal-to-noise ratio. It is therefore of prime importance that the heads be demagnetized regularly, using a device designed for this purpose.
Control Room :
This is a room within a Broadcasting House. It is the technical central room in which such equipments are installed which can handle incoming sound signals, amplify those signals to a suitable value being sufficient to feed into a transmitter (studio to transmitter link – STL) for being transmitted to the main transmitter of that Broadcasting House.
It is also used to handle sound programmes coming from various studios viz; talks, dramas, features, documentaries, music etc.., amplify them to a suitable level to drive the tape recorders in the recording room for the purpose of recording these programmes on tapes.
The control room also process the sound signals, for feeding the general programme monitoring within the various important points in the broadcasting house. The equipments installed in the control room are generally, audio mixers, power amplifiers, monitoring amplifiers, emergency power supply systems and switching equipment for incoming and out-going programmes-. Audio consoles receive the incoming sound programmes and process output, for distribution network.
Dubbing:
It is a technical term used for producing copy of a prerecorded item. It is infact a recording. Sometimes it is desired that a copy of a recorded item is required to be sent to other stations, in that case dubbing is carried out, the copy is sent to other stations and the master copy is retained.
Editing:
Editing means deleting something which is unwanted, objectionable, repetitions or any other flaw that has been recorded during the original recording. Editing can be. carried-out in two ways. Electronically through the recording machines or through cut & splice method. Of these two methods electronic editing through recording machines is preferable. The editted recorded tape is the final flaw-less tape which is put on the air as and when required. An editted recording is infact a finished product, ready for broadcast.