By Jake Coburn 

Task 2: Production Log Book 

Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture 

Before we even started, we created a group chat with all of us within the group so we could organize and message everyone at once. Within this group chat, we discussed what we wanted to record and who can we find that will be available. We had found the band from one of us in the group chat recommending them. From checking their Instagram page to see what music they made, we ended up agreeing to record them for our ensemble capture. Once we managed to confirm if the band were interested in being recorded, we started planning the date for when we, as well as the band, were available.  

With the ensemble recording, we first started with a jazz group which covered Flo Rida. The band consisted of a singer, drummer, bassist, and pianist of which the bassist and the pianist were doing vocal harmonies in certain areas of the song. What we decided to do was mic up all the instruments separately and put the main vocalist into the vocal booth. With the pianist and bassist, we decided to DI the bass as well as use two DIs on the keyboard so it could be made stereo. Using DI’s where possible helps reduce bleed from other instruments which in the loudest instrument would be the kit. Since it all needed to be recorded as a session, we had no choice but to record the bassist and pianist’s vocals in the same room as the kit, however, setting up gobos helps block the noise from the kit going towards the direction of the backing vocals mics. We started simply with each of us doing our separate roles to save time and be efficient, in my case, my role was setting up mics for the kit, which was two overhead mics (2x Schoeps small diaphragm condensers), 2 kick mics(1x Shure beta 52a and 1x Audio-Technica U891Rb boundary microphone), a high and low tom mic(2x Sennheiser MD421) and a snare mic (Shure sm57). After setting up the mics dealt with plugging in the kit mics, making sure the xlr cables were managed neatly, to make sure I can easily tell which cable belongs to which mic and input, but also to reduce trip hazards. The other mics that were used were 2 shure sm7bs condenser mics (for backing vocals), and mic for the main vocalist in the vocal booth is a condenser mic. 

By the time I finished mic’ing up the kit, one of my accomplices had set up the pro tools session with the required tracks needed for each mic. What I did next was note down which mic led to which input so I could relay back to him which mics were in each input. Once that was done and the inputs were organized and named into an instrumental order to keep things from getting complicated. After that the band came in as they set themselves up. When they had set themselves up, I helped set the gain levels with success whilst some others in the studio group dealt with any signal problems that arise, for example, the main vocalist couldn’t hear the rest of the band first which we managed to deal with by moving the patch cables into the right ones. Overall, the recording went well, however, we realised the recording was shorter than expected, so we had to plan another recording, which we didn’t have time for within this studio session. 

Since the Flo Rida song ended up being shorter than we thought, we needed to do another recording. We decided to do another ensemble recording because if planned accordingly, they can be done within one studio session at ease. The previous jazz band didn’t have any other songs which they were confident enough to play so we had to find a new band with the tight schedule we had left. Luckily, we managed to find another band which we planned to record all of the instruments in one room, with the electric guitars and bass in amps instead of using Di’s. The song is called WSM. With planning the room setup before in advance to the recording session, I came up with the idea to put a room mic in the middle of the room to help fill space within the mix, and to also give the song more of a natural ambience to match its style, which would make the listener feel like they are in the room, as if they were jamming with the band. The amps we used were the Ashdown bass amp, fender hot rod, and the Roland jazz chorus. We planned and wrote down our layout and mic types/ placements so we could all work together efficiently, and check what we wrote down to see what needed to be done. 

When we were setting up the studio for the band, I worked on mic placements for the guitar amp for the lead guitar (the fender hot rod amp), which consisted of using two mics, one as the front mic which picked up the center of the speaker cone, and one as the side mic which picks up the edge of the speaker cone. The front mic was a condenser halo mic, and the side mic was a sm57. Using the condenser mic to pick up the center of the cone helps pick up the guitar as clearly as possible, whilst the edge of the cone has a warmer sound, which the sm57 can help balance out.  For the ashdown bass amp, we used a D6 sub mic and aimed it at the gap at the bottom of the bass amp. Doing this will pick up the sub frequencies which cannot be easily boosted post recording. We also Di’d the bass, which will record the bass cleanly, which we did by we patched into the desk so we could record both the amp and the Di with one ensemble take. 

For the drum kit we mic’d consisted of 3 condenser overheads, 2 tom mics, a snare mic on the top and side, and a kick mix inside and outside of the kick. Two of the overhead mics were cardioids, and the middle overhead was set in figure-8 so it could pick up more of the room to give it a vintage style sound. The tom mics were both AKG C414s which were used so the toms could be individually eq’d instead of everything being recorded with just the overheads, which would also be recording cymbals and the snare.  The snare mics were both sm57s which are the classic go to for snare with their mid high frequency boost, and finally the in-kick mic is an audixd6 which picks up the sub frequencies of the kick, especially whilst being inside the kick, and the outer kick is a condenser which picks up the click sound of the kick. Since the kit was mostly set up by the time I finished with the amp, I helped organise the xlrs for the kit. 

Method 2 – Overdub Production 

For the overdub, we recorded an instrumental cover of I Say a Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin. This cover consisted of a drum kit, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and keys. The first instrument that was recorded was the drum kit.  For the kit we did the famous Glyn johns’ technique since the kit was most likely recorded that way in the original recording. Using the Glyn John’s technique helps save time mic’ing up the kit (since drum kits take the longest mic’ing up out of all instruments) whilst also picking up each area of the kit with its overhead mics. The only change to the technique we did was use a snare mic, so the snare could be mixed and edited post recording separately. For this recording, I set the gains of the mics once the kit had been fully mic’d up whilst Christian played parts of the song. Once the gains had been set, I made sure he could hear the backing track we had made which was the original songs stems we separated in logic, which were then moved onto pro tools. Doing this made it so when recording the first instruments separately, the drummer would have a backing track they could play along to. Within a week later, we recorded the bass by doing it the same way we did for the previous song, with a d6 mic and the ashdown bass amp. For the keyboard and guitar, we originally had plans to record the keys with a grand piano, however, we ran into issues where the pianists who offered to play it didn’t turn up to the studio sessions. This also happened with the guitarist and since we were running out of time, we ended up using a Di for the keyboard which one of us played, whilst recording the acoustic guitar outside of the uni.