Pre-production
Choosing a band for this assignment was an easy decision. Jeanine is a three-piece indie band. Louis (guitar/vocals), Oscar (bass), and Will (drums) I met these guys since they are my next-door neighbours, and after hearing them live, I thought they’d be an excellent fit.
The studio sessions were mainly scheduled over Instagram, as I decided to create a group chat and spoke to them in person about it before and they seemed up for it. We eventually scheduled a session, however this was a longer process than I thought due to certain members being unavailable, or if the studios were already booked. We were in room 422 for both sessions which were 4 hours long.
In terms of rehearsals, because both records were original tracks ‘Crocodile Tears’ and ‘Wonder Kid’, they didn’t need to learn anything new and would have practiced in their own time. I think this band has similarities to artists like English teacher Westside Cowboy a reference track being ‘Ive never met anyone I thought I could really love’.
I got the band to give me a little bit of context behind the song and they said “Crocodile Tears is a song about finding and losing true love in the haze of night. Focusing on the subsequent imagery that comes from dreams and de-realisation the song explores themes of truth in a seemingly plastic world, and touches upon ideas of questioning our understanding of morality”.
Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture
Recording
When setting up the microphones, our primary goal was to place the vocals and guitar in the vocal booth, with the drums set up in the live room, and have the bass plugged into the Gold Mike preamp in the control room. However, the bass player decided he wanted to be in the live room to play along with the drummer. To accommodate this, we routed the bass through a DI box and patched it through the bay.
For the drum setup, we used a drum mic pack. The bass drum was captured with an AKG D112, positioned just inside, behind the skin, in order to give it a punchier, more direct sound. The overheads were recorded with MK12 microphones, aimed towards the centre of the kit to create a balanced stereo image. Since these are condenser microphones, they require phantom power at 48 volts.
The band also requested not to record to a click track, which was fine it just means that it will give the recording a looser, more open feel in terms of timing.
Drum Pack Mics: AKG D112 -Oktava MK-012 -Sennheiser MD 421 -Shure SM57
Vocals: sure SM57- This microphone was ideal especially for live studio recording since the singer was playing guitar at the same time the design of the mic can handle the instrument bleed yet still maintaining the vocal quality and details.
Guitar Amp: AKG 414 can handle the amp volume well and since it is an indie style track it suits that sound naturally by capturing the warmth and high-end details.
Mixing/Editing
In this project, it is very minimal mixing and only adjusting the dynamics of each track and panning them to create some space and balance in the stereo field. The panning was turned left or right based on the drummers perspective so the floor tom will be on the left. It was found that the overall track was on the quieter side so by adding additional gain in the DAW it resulted in a better level. The silence in the introduction and outro was cut and faded in for a smooth listening experience.
Project Management
| Project Management | Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Time management | -We managed our time well once the session started. -We were able to record a lot of takes within the session (at least six) -Having multiple takes gave us more options to choose from. | The session was delayed by around 30 minutes because the desk had not been reset by the previous users. Trying to locate why we had no sound. The problem was due bus routing. |
| Roles/ responsibilities | -Lots of communication and the band were clear -In terms of my role I was mainly setting up new channels ready for new tracks | Too many people in the same room at once causing distraction and made the space crowded |
| Planning & organisation | -The session ran quite smoothly once we got into the flow. -We planned what order things would be recorded in to avoid confusion. | File management was very poor due to not completely knowing how to do it correctly. too many people saving it so things that were labelled were confusing. |
After the session ended, I tried to open the Pro Tools session and send the files to the band, but they were all essentially silent. This was because the audio files were not selected when they were bounced, so I’m assuming that the bass was the only wav file that was selected instead of the entire song. There were multiple people on the computer, so we thought new takes were being made when actually the sessions were just being overwritten. Additionally, I had to return to that computer and hope that all the files would be on the desktop because they weren’t even put in the correct folder. I opened everything back up and re saved it all under new names deleting any duplicates.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
Pre-production
For this method, when we recorded live in session one, there was a take of a second original song called ‘Wonder Kid’. As a group, we decided the best approach was to use this take as a base layer and develop the track further by overdubbing, introducing additional instruments, and adding percussive elements, along with extra vocal and guitar parts. This song has a time signature of 6/8 which gives it a swing feel and the chord structure goes between a E major 7 and an A6 for the entire song.
Recording
At the start of this session, while setting up in the vocal booth, the signal was coming through with the gain at the correct level, but the sound was muffled likely due to a faulty cable. To save time, we switched to a pair of AKG 414s in the main room, which had previously been used for the guitar amp in session one. These microphones were particularly useful because their polar patterns could be adjusted depending on the instrument being recorded.
We began by recording percussion, adding shakers and bongo parts to the song. Later in the session, the group searched for a saxophonist and managed to find one. The saxophonist listened to the song a few times and improvised. Although this recording isn’t included in the final zip because it felt a bit chaotic the idea was definitely there and I believe it could have worked really well with more time.
In a studio session during lesson time we decided to add some keys/piano to sit underneath the track.
Mixing/Editing
Similar to session one, the focus wasn’t on mixing techniques but on how the sounds were captured during recording. Because we weren’t allowed to use processed effects, everything had to be created at the source. A live guitar pedal was used to add distortion while recording, and this was layered by recording multiple parts to build texture and intensity, especially toward the end of the track.
The stereo microphone setup was also an important recording choice. One microphone picked up more of the room, effectively acting as a room mic and capturing natural reverb. When the vocals and electric guitar were doubled, this room sound helped them feel fuller and more spacious straight from the recording, without relying on any mixing effects. Overall, the sound of the track was shaped through performance, mic placement, and live equipment rather than through mixing or post-production.
Before breaking up for Christmas, I went into a mixing room with Josh to edit some of the tracks and just to double check that they are all okay ready for submitting luckily we did because we found that in crocodile tears the electric guitars region has been shifted accidentally during an edit resulting it being out of time. however, after snapping it to what we thought was back to normal playing it back from the beginning but halfway through it slipped out again. since this was the live track I had the take before it was mixed and edited so we had to re mix/ edit it.
