What Exactly Is A DAW? An Introduction For The Befuddled.

Hello and welcome back for the third instalment of my Blog ‘Jane Wing - Backstage Pass’.

I’d like to talk DAW with you. For those who are getting over excited at that thought – let me explain. A DAW is a Digital Audio Workstation and they are essential for anyone who is serious about producing high quality audio recordings. As I have mentioned before, my previous experience was very ‘oldskool’ – I had learnt to edit using tape and a razor blade (here’s a picture for those of you too young and gorgeous to know what that entails).

Yep – it was laborious, and scary. Once you’ve made that cut – it’s done, and not so easy to reverse. And editing out breaths took a long time. Of course, I was never an expert. I was trained ‘on the job’ when I worked for BBC local radio, mainly by other presenters who were also not full-time audio engineers. However – I can say for definite that this was not my favourite part of the job!

It did make you very aware of how you recorded though. If you know you have to physically cut out any over loud or long breaths, you learn how to avoid making them. And plosives (that popping sound that’s made when you say letters like ‘p’ and your mic can’t cope) were not easily ‘removed in post’ so again, you learnt microphone technique, and how to prevent them.

Nowadays things have moved on massively. When I decided to set up my home studio, I knew I’d have to learn how to edit using digital software and the thought was definitely daunting. However, the blessing (and curse) that is the internet meant that there are literally thousands of hours of tutorials and millions of pages of advice available to the newbie to get you started.

I decided to go straight for Adobe Audition as my software of choice because I’ve heard so many professionals say they use it and it’s all singing and dancing. Plus, my son is used to using Photoshop which means that he has some insight into the world of Adobe and their programs do have similar interfaces. He is my tech guru – he’s 18 and studying A Level Computer Science so his understanding of all things computer is practically godlike as far as I’m concerned!

I downloaded it all, and I was ready to go. You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m not the world’s best at tech stuff, so I was slightly nervous about getting to grips with this sophisticated looking programme. But Adobe have a set of tutorials that guide you through the first stages and with a bit of practice it was fine. Time consuming, yes, but not as difficult as I had at first feared. 

At this stage I must mention that there are loads of different DAWs available and many people choose one of the free programs to start with, and you can find just as many tutorials online relating to those (Audacity and Garageband are two I have heard mentioned a lot – and I think Reaper is a good low cost option).

I’m trying to remember what the first thing I recorded was – but I can’t – probably just me spouting rubbish so that I could try it out. I had to get used to the hardware too – microphone and audio interface, cables everywhere – it had been a long time since I was in a studio.

I can honestly say I have never watched so many hours of online tutorials for anything before, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them. I watched all the native Adobe ones first, then searched for specific things I needed more information on. I’m not going to try to reproduce that training here – there’s no point, but I will briefly mention a couple of things I learnt on the way:

(Disclaimer – I’m still very much a beginner and the following are notes about my own journey using a DAW. I’m sure there are many many highly qualified audio engineers out there who could run rings around my way of doing things – but I think there are probably quite a few people who are in a similar situation to mine and who would like an introduction for the befuddled – so that’s what you’ll get here folks!)

1. Waveform VS Multi-track

In Audition you can record in a waveform, which, for voice only, is great. When you open a new file to start recording you choose the settings for quality you’d like and whether you want to record in Mono or Stereo. Mono is what you need to record your voice. Hit the ‘record’ button and watch the lovely wave patterns grow across your screen as you speak. You can also see the audio in ‘spectral view’ which I find really useful for editing afterwards as you can actually view the sounds as light patterns onscreen allowing you to easily pick out the frequency you need to work on.

Once you’ve finished recording the voice, you can then transfer the file into the Multi-track view – where you can add music and sound effects and easily see all the different tracks. I love that the splicing tool in multi-track is actually an image of a razor blade. No mistaking what you are doing there! I found multi-track a bit harder to get used to – probably because I have never done lots of music recording / editing so I haven’t learnt how to use lots of tracks together the old fashioned way through a desk, and it was unfamiliar. But with a bit of practise I’m getting better at it. I’ve now learnt about music ‘ducking’ which Audition has an automated tool for, which makes it easy to add backing music to your voice over.

2. Room noise – this is the bugbear of many home studio owners’ lives! I try to get mine below -60 db, which entails putting my laptop into a cupboard with a long USB wire back to my desk and my second screen, and switching off the fridge which is in the next room and surprisingly noisy! Anyway – no matter how low you can get it – record some of it before you start speaking! This will help as you edit because Audition has a noise reduction tool which analyses the room noise and then reduces it throughout the recording. But beware – it’s important to use this tool with a light touch because it can make the vocal sound strange if it’s applied too heavily. There are other software packages that have this feature and which you can use as a ‘plug in’ to Audition. I like iZotope RX7 (RX8 has just been released but I’m still using 7) because the spectral noise tool is great – I think it’s better than the native Adobe one, so I prefer to use this.

I still have a LOT to learn – and I’m enjoying the journey. There are some things which I think become easier as you spend more time doing them – like judging how long a pause to leave when you’ve removed a breath sound, or learning what a mouth click looks like in spectral view – but isn’t that the case with everything in life?

My one piece of advice would be – LISTEN! Listen to everything, because it’s amazing how much you pick up from hearing how others do things. I’ve listened to so many artist’s voice reels now – I really enjoy hearing how things are put together and it’s given me the confidence to make my own reels too. I listen to all the voiceover on TV and radio commercials, and I’ve started playing video games so that I can hear the voice actor’s work. And then after you’ve listened – go and have a go yourself. Turn on the mic and just have a play around with things. You’ll soon figure out what you don’t know – and that’s when you can go and look up a tutorial – there will be one somewhere that gives you the info you need.

And if I can help in any way – drop me a comment or note and I promise I’ll do my best – the teacher in me is dying to pass on what she’s learnt if it can be even the slightest help to someone else!

Have a great week everyone – see you on the other side!

Jane