Task 2: Production Log Book
Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture
Pre-Production:
For our live recording, we found a 5-piece jazz band consisting of drums, bass, keys, saxophone and vocals. They recorded a cover of “The Hissing Of Summer Lawns”, by Joni Mitchell. Before we started recording, Ryan and I sat in a rehearsal with the band and listened to the song. During this time, we also took notes of the preferences of the musicians, and then came up with a basic plan for the layout of the live room, and what microphones we were going to use. This plan is attached below:
We discussed with the band how they wanted to be setup around the room. We were going to be using studio 113 which has the largest live room of the studios in the conservatoire. This allowed us to explore many different layouts for the band. The layout we ended up finalising on placed the drums at the back of the live room, near wall box B for ease. We would place the bass cabinet in the vocal booth to isolate it from the rest of the band. Keys and the bass player would be placed near the drums as they wouldn’t have any microphones for their instruments that would affect the recording. We placed the vocals and saxophone next to each other, separated by an isolation panel, at the front of the live room close to the control room. We planned on using directional microphones to limit bleed from the drums. We then curated a basic input list for the session, so we had a rough idea of what we needed to prepare for the session. We also added talkbacks to input list to ease communication between the band and the control room.
Recording:The most important part of our recording process was selecting appropriate microphones for the session. We deviated slightly from our initial plan for microphones due to suggestions from other members of the group, and availability during the session. On the kick drum we used two different microphones, an Audix D6 on the inside, placed near the beater, and a Sontronics DM-1B placed near the sound hole. We also placed many jackets and jumpers inside the drum to dampen the sound. On the snare we used two mics, a Shure SM-57 on the snare top, and a Sennheiser MD-441 on the bottom, pointed at the snare wires. For toms we used a Sennheiser E604 clip on for the high tom, and a Sennheiser MD-421 on the floor tom. We then used a pair of Neumann KM-184s as overheads, placed equidistant from the snare drum to avoid phase issues. We also used a pair of Sontronics Orpheus as room microphones to add some more colour to the recording. On the bass, we used a DI box to record a signal, then we sent an output to the amp we had isolated in the vocal booth. We then used an EV RE-20 placed in the top-left of the cone. We used two DI boxes connected to a Nord Stage 4 for the keys, giving us stereo inputs. For the saxophone, we used two microphones; an EV RE-20, and a Sennheiser MD-441 that were placed near the bell of the instrument. We also placed an AKG C-414 above set to omni to capture the room around the player. For vocals we used an AKG C-414 for the main vocal microphone, but we also had a Shure SM-7B set up a bit further back.
Project Management:
We recorded this track on the 13th November 2024, between 4pm & 8pm. The first hour was set for us to roughly set up the live room with microphones and start to lay cables. The musicians arrived at 5pm, we finished setting up and started to setup the console, getting all the inputs through the desk. Luckly, we didn’t run into many issues whilst recording, we had only one faulty cable. Once we were setup, we recorded 3 practice runs, then had 3 actual takes, with the final take being the one we have submitted. During the session, Ryan & Rax were engineering the session by running the console, whilst myself and George were on hand to adjust microphones and fix any issues. On the final take, we also setup a camera in the room for social media purposes. I then edited that video with the audio from the session. We completed the final mix on the 4th December 2024. We used automation, and mix faders to create a final mix.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
Pre-Production:
For our overdub recording, we recorded George’s band consisting of drums, bass, guitar and vocals. They recorded a version of “Little Monster”, by Royal Blood. George had been rehearsing the song with his band in the weeks leading up to the recording day. We created a plan on how we were going to record everything. We would start by recording the drums with the guitar and bass just temporarily DI’d into the desk for reference. We would then use our studio time to re-record the guitar, bass and vocals.
Recording:
We wanted to broaden our use of microphones and recording methods during this session. When we recorded the drums, we used the Sontronics drum pack. This consisted of a Sontronics DM-1B on the kick placed by the sound hole, 2 Sontronics DM-1T that we used for the toms a pair of Sontronics STC-10s’ as overheads, and a Sontronics DM-1S that we used as a hi-hat microphone. In addition to this, we used a Beyerdynamic M201 for the snare top, a Shure SM-57 for the snare bottom, and a Shure Beta 91a placed by the beater inside the kick drum. To isolate the kick drum even more, we placed a jacket over the front of the drum to dampen for the outer microphone.
For this session, we DI’d the bass, and took a mono output from Ryan’s effects processor for the guitar. We also had a Shure SM-58 set up in the control room so I could sing along to keep track of the structure of the song. We recorded 5 takes of the song to a metronome. We then re-recorded the drum solo at the end to get the recording as rhythmically correct as possible. We had another session a week later when we re-recorded the guitar. Ryan setup and played all the guitar lines through his Boss ME-90. We took two DI’s from the board to capture a stereo recording. Ryan and I then took all his takes and comped all the takes together to get one very good take. We used the crossfades to ensure there would be no clicks as the track switches between takes. I then recorded the bass through a Sansamp DI. I created a tone through the Sansamp, then recorded through a DI box. I recorded 3 different takes, then comped them together again. For vocals, I invited the vocalist from my old band to come and sing on the track for us. We setup an AKG C414 in a vocal booth in studio 116. We then recorded all the vocals in chunks, getting 3 takes of each part. It was during this process that we had realised we had recorded the wrong guitar line after the breakdown. This meant the vocals did not fit with the guitar line that was recorded. Due to timing, we didn’t have enough time to re-record the guitar line, and record the vocal line, so Dan just improvised a vocal line before going into an instrumental to end the song.
Project Management:
We recorded the majority of the track in studio 113, with the drums session being on the 20thNovember 2024, the guitar session being on the 27th November 2024, and the vocals on the 29th November 2024. We used the first half hour to an hour of each session setting up microphones and instruments ready for the session. During the drum session, Rax and Ryan engineered the session whilst I troubleshooted, and performed the reference vocals. During the guitar sessions however, George and I engineered the session whilst Ryan recorded the guitar, and Rax operated Pro Tools. We completed the final mix in two sessions between the 4th and 6th December 2024. During these mix sessions, we re-recorded some of the guitar ad-libs. We also used this time to comp all the vocal takes together, then automate them to bring them out in the mix.
