MPR4C001R-001 24101674 (Josiah Graham) Production Log Book

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Josiah Graham 24101674

Task 2: Production Log Book

Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture

Pre Production

For this track we recorded a three-piece Kai had been working with who said they’d be happy to do a live recording. It’s a slow ballad featuring piano, vocal and drums, so it was clearly going to be a challenge getting separation on piano and drum parts. However, the already raw feel of the track suited well to live recording.

Recording

We miked the piano fairly simply to get a distant and realistic sound. We used a spaced pair in the lid of 2 AKG 414s about 20cm above the strings. This meant we got a fuller and more realistic sounding piano, and the large-capsule condensers meant we got a lot of high-end detail that dynamic microphones would miss. Both 414s were set to cardioid and angled away from the kit at the other end of the room.

We also used a 414 as a room mic, still on cardioid but positioned maybe 2-3 feet from the curve of the lid. This adds some ambience to the piano.

For the drum kit, we used a fairly basic setup:

  • 2x Oktavia M-012-01 overheads. Pointing toward the snare drum about a metre and a half from the kit. We used these mainly because they came in the drum pack, but found they gave a wide and detailed drum sound.
  • AKG D112 for the Kick In. Dedicated kick microphone, handles the kick levels within the drum well.
  • Audix D6 for the Kick Out. Another kick microphone, this time to capture more of the click and snap of the skin.
  • Shure SM57 on the snare – emphasises the crunch of the snare nicely

An issue we knew we’d face was piano and drum spill – both instruments are big and require a lot of microphones at various distances. We minimised this issue by recording in 113. This meant we could make use of the auditory baffles and the huge distance there is between the piano and the drums in the room naturally anyway. The vocalist performed in the vocal booth, with a Shure SM7B.

Kai helped make sure the musicians were settled and happy because he knew them, Louis had got in early and collected the microphones and set up the whole drum kit by himself. CJ and I set up the desk and Pro Tools sessions respectively. In 113 it can be a challenge to route microphones correctly because you’re dealing with 3 different input boxes but we used the patch bay.

Kai and I set up the piano microphones, constantly adjusting and getting feedback from CJ until we were happy with the sound we got – we didn’t want it to sound too bright and poppy as that wouldn’t suit the mood of the track.

Project Management

We’d worked things out meticulously before recording because we had only 2 hours for this session. Louis getting in early really helped us and minimised the hassle. We had a slight issue with one of the headphones in the vocal booth not getting any signal but that was a routing issue we quickly resolved in the patch bay.

We hadn’t hear the song before so it took a few attempts for us to find a metronome tempo that the band were happy with playing to.

Planning for spares in our setup really helped us in this session – if we found a pair of headphones or an XLR cable wasn’t working, we swapped it out for spares that we’d brought.

An issue we hadn’t thought of was how we and the musicians would communicate – we hadn’t planned on using any talkback channels, and the vocalist (the only one who could talk to us) was in a separate room to the drummer and piano. Not being able to see her or the drummer also limited our communication with the band, and we had to rely on a thumbs up from the pianist.

Method 2 – Overdub Production

Pre Production

We decided to record a first year pop SGS, who conveniently were looking for tracks to use for their assignment, which worked out well. They had been rehearsing an interpretive cover of the Beatle’s “Don’t Let Me Down”, in 6/8, and had got the point where they were ready to record. Their bassist and one of their guitarists were missing, which wasn’t ideal, but thankfully the other guitarist was able to step in and record for them.

We planned the session by thinking through the instruments we would be recording: guitar, vocals, drums and bass. Obviously drums would be the big challenge, and the main starting point we wanted was a tight drum track. We decided to record the band together but with aim of a good drum track. We consulted our SGS tutor on what he’d recommend setting up with for drums, and took his advice.

We also needed to think about how many XLR leads we’d need – in the end we took out at least 14, along with 4 pairs of headphones and a DI box for the guide guitar track

Recording

We ended up using a conservatoire provided drum pack with some supplementary microphones

  • 2x Shure SM57 ơn the snare, top and bottom. These are classic snare mics and give it a really snappy sound. Using 2 mics means we can mix a perfect balance between the punchy sound on the head and the snap of the snare wire underneath. I wasn’t fully happy with the snare sound and asked the drummer to put something one the snare to deaden the sound. He use his wallet which stopped an unpleasant ring in the drum. Initially we’d intended to use a Sennheiser MD 441 on the top of the snare but struggled to get any signal and swapped to another SM57.
  • 2x AKG C414 for the overheads. These are very detailed condensers for a the big picture of the kit with a real sheen on the cymbals. We set them to cardioid pattern, positioned them as a spaced pair around a metre above the kit with a slight angle to get a really wide sound. We were careful to measure the distance from the snare with a cable to prevent phase issues.
  • AKG D112 for the Kick In.
  • Audix D6 for the Kick Out.
  • Octavia M-012-01 for the Hi-hat. A small capsule condenser that came with the drum pack, miked quite close for a tight sound
  • 2x Sennhieser MD421 on the toms. Ultimately, very little toms actually featured on the track so these weren’t that useful, but nice to have for a stereo tom roll.

This gave us a really full and detailed sound, although took a while to set up and down.

For the vocal we decided to use a Shure SM7B because of its excellent noise rejection, and used a pop filter because we were having issues with sibilance despite the mic’s inbuilt windscreen. We used the preamp attachment that came with it because we’d had issues in the past with low levels from this microphone. We recorded both the lead vocal and the backing vocals like this, but overdubbed the backing vocals because they were sung by the guitarist.

We DIed the bass guitar because it was easiest and the tone we got from it raw was fine anyway.

For the guitars, which was overdubbed by the same guitarist, we recorded a cab with some of the SM57s from the snare. This also gave us a classic sound, and meant the guitarist could dial in a crunchier distorted tone.

We recorded each member of the band in a separate space. We were in room 104 so could track drums in the main live room, vocals in the vocal booth and have a guide DI guitar part in the live room. Once we were happy with the drums we recorded a proper vocal take and the guitars through an amp. We DIed the bass in the control room though, which meant we could take the drum microphones down while one of us recorded the bass part. We had to

Project Management

It’s so important to keep track of time in a recording session, and particularly to allow for anything that might go wrong. We were set back by the lack of guitarist and bassist in our band, but managed to work around it. Thankfully we had booked the studio for 3 hours and had plenty of time to record in.

To save time, I arrived at the facilities desk early and picked up the stuff, which took some time to collect. CJ and Louis arrived and helped me unpack it and set microphones up while Kai set up the Pro Tools session and desk, getting good levels. CJ in particular was helpful, as a drummer, in setting up the kit. We had worked out a tracksheet beforehand to save time in the studio and prevent any confusion with where each microphone was routed. I set up the vocalist’s microphone, making sure that it was at a good height for him.

We only used one headphone mix in the end although we had planned to do more, partly because of the missing band members. It saved time and the vocalist and drummer were the only ones who actually needed them in the end.

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