For this live band recording we decided to get a 4 piece jazz ensemble (piano, drums, guitar, bass guitar) and record them live through a song they had been rehearsing.
First of all we set up the drums. For the overheads we used 2 Schoeps CMC5U small diaphragm condenser microphones. We chose these as the have a very flat frequency response as well as a cardioid polar pattern making them perfect to capture the overall drum sound. We also think these sound very good for the cymbals specifically as the bring out the natural brightness from jazz cymbals. We used an A B micing pattern as we had all the single elements (except for the crash cymbal) mic’d seperately and we felt this got the best overall sound.For the toms, we used the Sennheiser MD-421 dynamic microphones. This was simply because we felt they sounded great in our practice recording sessions, proceeding to place these pointed directly at the centre of the tom. We used an Oktava MK-012 for the Hi-Hat and Ride cymbals. This small diaphragm condenser microphone has a relatively flat frequency response with a small boost around 5-10 kHz which allows the cymbals brightness to come out a bit more. This on top of the overheads gave the cymbal a really nice sound, even with the soft playing that jazz has. This is an AKG D112 for the kick microphone. This microphone always gave us good results in this circumstance so we thought it would be best. It gives a nice low punch while keeping the 3-5 kHz small boost for the clickiness of the kick.Finally, for the drums, we used 2 Shure SM57s for the snare top and bottom. The SM57 is a reliable microphone and is the best sounding for a snare after using some different ones while practicing in different seminars. We pointed these straight at the centre of the snare and mirrored that on the bottom (to reduce the out of phase risk), capturing the snare wires very wellOn the piano we simply used two AKG 414 large diaphragm condenser microphones, After the piano recording session within our seminar we had all decided that these gave a really nice sound to the piano, capturing the bright high end and deep low end.We used a Sennheiser MD 441 on the guitar amp. This was simply because there were no more MD 421’s left, but we were very happy with the sound that it gave, really capturing the wide frequency range of a guitar. We had this pointed at the centre of the cone to give us the most natural amp sound. We originally had another SM57 on the other cone, but we couldn’t get any signal from it so decided to take it away as we were more than happy with the sound that was given.Lastly, on the bass we used the Sans Amp bass driver DI box. We had been recommended this by the resources employee and we’re very happy with the sound we got from it. It is definitely the best DI box I’ve used for bass guitar and has made me very interested into trying different options in the future.The only problem I felt we had is the cable management by the wall box. This could’ve cause trip hazards but was also just in general messy and doesn’t show the greatest professionalism. In the future I will definitely make sure to have the cable management improved.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
For this overdub production we decided to record the Guns ‘n’ Roses track “It’s So Easy” as we were running behind schedule and had realised that myself (guitar) and another person in the group (drummer and bassist) already knew how to play it. On top of this, I had a friend who used to sing the song in her band so we were able to get her in to sing for us.
First of all we recorded the guitars. Before then we had split the original track into stems so we had a backing track for me to play along to. We had this mic’d up with an SM57, and MD421 to capture the full essence of the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp. Around the back of the amp we had an AKG D112 to capture the slight low end to give the guitar a more stacked and full sound. In the control room we had an Epiphone Les Paul running through a tube screamer into the amp. Although this recording was okay, by the time we had recorded all other parts we still had time and decided to re-record the guitars as I felt I could get a better performance as well as changing some of the amp settings as it felt very boxed in. For this second recording we used all the same equipment, except for the different settings.For the drums we used almost the exact same setup as we did for the jazz recording. It was the exact same except for the fact we had a kick out mic to capture some more of the low end as it was a rock track and we wanted some punch in the low end. As far as mixing went, we panned the overheads left and right as well as the hi-hat and ride left and right. This was our setup for the vocal recording. We used a Neumann U87 as well as a Shure SM-7B, this was to get a good range on the vocals. We made sure to have the diaphragms lined up properly so we didn’t have any phase issues, and also used a pop shield to reduce the risk of plosives cutting through. These were both cardioid polar patterns and are also two very popular options when recording vocals, which we hadn’t had a chance to try before, so we decided to go with the popular choices and it worked out well as we were very happy with the sound we got.Lastly we have the bass recording. This was DI’d straight into the Neve preamp to try boost the gain and have a more crunchy sound out of it. There was also a compression pedal which helped boost the raw level of the bass helping us get this slightly crunchy tone we were hoping for. Overall this gave us a really good bass sound and it only took around 4 takes before we could start cutting between each and get the perfect final take. This is a picture of our pro tools session after cutting up the vocals to make it more clean. We didn’t get a picture after every time we did this for each instrument as they all looked similar and I felt it was unneeded.
Overall I think that both recordings went very well. For the jazz live recording we didn’t suffer huge issues from bleed which was good as we tried our best to use the sound dividers to reduce this risk. I felt very proud of that recording as I think it sounded very professional and if we had the chance to properly mix it we could make it sound like a properly professional record. On the other hand, I personally didn’t feel as happy about the “It’s So Easy” recording. I felt the guitars still didn’t sound right for me but we didn’t have any more time to record them again. I also think that the vocals weren’t the best but that may have been because the singer was partially ill at the time which then affected her vocals.
