Instrument placement recommendation

To fully benefit from using ZYLIA Portable Recording Studio you are recommended to adjust the placement of instruments during a rehearsal. Below we present a few examples of good practice when recording with ZYLIA.

Location
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Sound sources (acoustic instruments, vocalists) must be located around the microphone keeping an approximately equal angle from each other and usually equal distance from the microphone. It is also advisable to locate sound sources in the optimal range of elevation. Sometimes it is good to check two or three different placements and choose the best one.

Distance

To avoid signal distortion from the microphone, it is recommended to place the ZYLIA microphone at a larger distance from a full drum set or loud instruments, 2-4 meters (6-13 ft). The appropriate distance can be tested by the user during test recordings. Signal distortion from the microphone can be monitored on the level meter in ZYLIA Studio. Sound sources with lower signal levels than other should be located closer to the microphone.

Do not place the ZYLIA microphone directly on the ground, it is recommended to put it 1 m (3 ft) above the ground on a microphone stand. However, you can experiment with the setup to achieve the best results.

Recording with amplifier
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Do not use the same amplifier/loudspeaker for two sound sources. You will not be able to separate tracks of those sound sources.

Recording of a single performer

If you want to record a single performer which is both playing on the instrument and singing at the same time, you should take it into account during calibration stage. In such a case you should calibrate two sources: an instrument and the voice. Make sure that your sources differ in elevation. We recommend to place a single performer closer to the microphone (<0.5 m), thanks to that the elevation difference between sound sources will be higher.