Task 1 – WAV Mixes
Task 2 – Production Log Book
Track 1 (Genre Specific Emulation)
For our genre emulation, we chose to recreate a 1970s Disco/Funk track called “We bes getting down” by the band Graham Central Station. We chose this track bearing in mind the challenge it would be due to it’s large range of instrumentation. We utilised Logic’s stem splitter function to gain the individual stems of the original track- both to use as foldback in recording sessions and also to figure out and transcribe instrumental parts we were unsure of. The first recording session was used to capture all drums and additional percussion, in which we used a relatively simple mic setup as well as a Phantom V as a room mic to help achieve the sort of distant sound of the drums on the record. A wallet was used on the snare as well as a jacket in the bass drum to achieve similar dampened tones to the original track. We then used the Calrec 1050C that was on the hi-hat (a vintage microphone renowned for it’s warm sound) to record the tambourine and shaker parts from around a 3ft distance to further achieve the subtle, distanced sound. Another unique piece of percussion we recorded this way was the tabla, in order to imitate the similar additional percussion on the original record. Isaac, Kian, Lai and myself all shared responsibility of engineering and running the recording of this session.
Further, another unique and fundamental element of the track is the organ, which is likely to have been a Hammond organ due to it’s popularity and widespread use at the time, paired with a Leslie speaker- a cabinet that features a bass woofer and a rotating horn to create the iconic rotary sound due to the Doppler effect (Brice, R. 2001). Myself, Kian and Lai recorded the pair found in studio 113 with two AKG 414s either side of the top horn compartment and a Electro-Voice RE20 on the bass woofer in order to adequately capture all elements of the speaker that provide it’s iconic sound.
Violin was another element of the track that didn’t strictly conform to traditional rock band instrumentation that we chose to capture in the live room of 422 for some element of room sound, using a Neumann KM184 positioned almost as an overhead and selected for it’s detailed character and relatively low self-noise. This was engineered by myself, with Lai and Kian also being involved in running the recording itself.
An experienced Funk/Soul singer was selected to record the vocals of this track, and this was done using a Warm Audio 251- a microphone selected for it’s vintage-emulating character as well as warmth and tonal balance. A pop shield was also utilised to reduce air emitted by plosive syllables.
Both guitar and bass were recorded over a short period in studios 104 and 113 utlising conventional techniques. For the guitar we miked up an amplifier using a combination of an SM57 and Sontronics Orpheus selected to achieve a combination of a more modern and sharp sound, as well as a slightly warmer and more vintage character. Then for bass, a Sontronics DM1B was used on the speaker cones of the amplifier to capture more of the harmonic character, while a Audix D6 was positioned on the port to capture more of bass frequencies themselves (in combination with direct injection to have a clean signal to balance with the amplifier capture.)
Additionally, I synthesised an emulation of the talkbox heard on the track, using a combination of a rounded saw wave, a syllable-emulating wavetable and a formant filter with it’s cutoff controlled by a subtle LFO movement to imitate the opening of the mouth.
Regarding the mixing of this track, minimal yet effective EQ was used on all tracks to imitate the limits of the kind of equalisers used at the time of this track’s production. Further dynamic processing was used in the form of heavy vintage-style compression on a majority of elements, especially the vocals due to their very dynamic performance. A unique element of this mix is that both the bass and guitar tracks are sent to a Fuzz-Wah bus, to dial in an appropriate amount of the effect as heard on the original record. Parallel compression was also utilised on the bass to create a more full and muddy sound. A general reverb bus was used to give all tracks a shared artificial room sound, with some larger, more creative reverbs used on elements such as guitar and vocals. Heavy tape saturation was also utilised on the master to emulate the amount that would have been created when bouncing tracks from tape during the original recording.
Track 2 (Live In the Studio Stereo Recording)
For the live stereo recording, we captured a vocal duet performing an operatic Baroque piece. This proved to be a challenging and unique recording due to the small number of vocalists and lack of additional instrumentation so as a group we had to thoroughly brainstorm appropriate work-arounds to ensure a clean and full mix. We decided to capture the vocalists stood at one end of Studio 113’s large live room, stood about 4ft apart from each other, with 2 stereo mic pairs. The first of these was a XY-positioned pair of Sontronics STC-3Xs, chosen for their full and clean sonic character as well as low self noise- these were positioned around 5 feet away from the performers, pointing perpendicularly and both using a cardioid polar pattern to ensure a more direct capture of the dry vocal itself while retaining an element of width. The second pair was a spaced pair of Sontronics Orpheus, chosen for it’s capability as a vocal mic and as a room/overhead mic. These were positioned about 7ft behind the XY pair, and about 5ft apart from each other as well as raised significantly high- both set to an omni polar pattern to capture more of the room reflections and provide more depth and body to the recording. As a group myself, Kian, Lai and Elliott all set-up these microphones and trialled different positioning of both them and the vocalists to achieve our desired sound, and then myself and Kian set up separate foldback mixes for the 2 performers and ran the recording session over around 3 hours.
Regarding the mix, the 2 room mic tracks were EQd to subtly reduce the high-mids to highs as well as give a slight boost to the lowest frequencies to both give more space for the XY microphones in the mix as well as boost some of the room warmth captured. All tracks are very lightly compressed to tame the very dynamic performance, and the XY tracks’ levels are slightly higher than the room mics’ due to their more direct vocal capture. A very low threshold gate is used on all tracks to remove small elements of noise in between vocal phrases, and all tracks are panned extremely left and right respectively. All tracks are sent to a large reverb bus, which emulates an orchestral chamber and fills out the mix and silence.
Track 3 Remix track
For my remix, I aimed to create a classic House track using the chorus of the genre emulation’s vocal as a sort of catchy hook. For my found sound percussion, I recorded myself with my sE X1-S condenser mic hitting a cardboard box for the kick drum, clapping for the snare and creating a “tss” sound with my mouth for the hi-hat- these were all imported to a sampler for ease of editing and MIDI notation. The kick recording was appropriately pitched down and EQ’d to create the punchy, bass-heavy and slightly boxy kick heard on the remix. The clap recording was also pitched down, with where the audio clip itself starts moved forward, as well as the attack adjusted to create a retro drum machine-sounding snare. This was also ran through appropriate EQ, compression and a soft clipper to add more harmonic content. The hi-hat recording is also appropriately pitched down and equalised to imitate a drum machine sample. I direct injected both a funk-inspired bassline as well as some minimal guitar chords for my live instrumentation, which nicely complement the track’s groove. These are ran through amp simulators to create a more conventional and textured timbre for the instruments, as well as creative effects such as delay. Synthesisers are used in the context of the high, sustained saw-wave string synth, as well as the smoother, more organ-emulating house chords heard. The chorus lead vocal is heard as a heavily-compressed hook in the chorus sections, and also is heard in the vocal chops throughout which were created using a granular sampler. All of these tracks are sent to a general reverb bus in varying amounts to give the whole track a shared “room” or “glue”, as well as provide larger reverb on tracks such as the lead vocal.
Bibliography
Brice, R. (2001) Music Engineering. George Newnes Ltd.
