Portfolio: Production and Log (MPR4C001R~001)

Task 2: Production Log Book

1500 Words

Please use the sections below to evidence your personal contribution to the production for the portfolio. Please include details for all the tracks produced as a part of this portfolio.

Provide rationale for any of the production decisions that you made as a group. Include any multimedia (pictures, videos, audio recordings etc) evidence to the relevant sections.

Consider the following:

Pre Production

Rehearsals
Track development
Demo recording
Arrangement decisions
Session planning

Recording

Microphone choices
Room setup
Musician management

Project Management

Time management
Planning
Roles and responsibilities
Structure and organisation

Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture

For the band recording, we contacted a band that Jamie had previously performed with and they agreed to help us out. We agreed on a date (28^th November), room/studio (422) and time (5pm-11pm) that we were all available. This band consisted of five members, all playing different instruments, bass guitar, electric guitar, upright piano, drums and the vocalist who also played the acoustic guitar whilst singing.

The session began by our group arriving early at 5pm to familiarise ourselves with the space and plan where the mics and the musicians were going to play. We would have to choose carefully where the most feedback from the room would be and what the loudest instrument would be. As the vocal would be the most important part of the recording we choose to separate them from the rest of the instruments that can be more boomy and bassier than the vocal so that it doesn’t drown the vocal out from the rest of the mix.

The vocalist was placed in the closed vocal booth at the very back of the room with their acoustic guitar so that the higher more treble parts of the song could be mixed together and the spill wouldn’t make a difference to the dynamics. We used the SM7B for the vocals with a cloud lifter preamp because it has an exceptional ability to reject background noise due to its cardioid polar pattern, delivering a clear and natural vocal recording with minimal distortion. For the acoustic guitar we used an AKG C414 aimed at the 12^th fret to give us maximum dynamics from hearing the fingers slide along the frets mixed with strumming pattern coming from the sound hole, then after positioning the Oktava MK012 aimed at the sound hole so that the strumming pattern could be heard in the mix.

The drums were placed at the back left corner of the room where there was an indent in the room which left more space and resulted in less resonance spilling from the drums in to the other microphones. Also, around the drum kit was soundproofed and the front was blocked by sound proofing pallets that we could move to get the desired sound we wanted. The drums were mic’ed with a drum pack and 2 extra mics that included;

Audix D6

AKG D112 (D.P.)

SM57 (D.P.)

SM57

Sennheiser MD421 (D.P.)

Oktava- 012 (D.P.)

This worked because the bassist was on the other side of the pallets next to the vocal booth so we created a three way sound proofed room for less bleed in to the mics. The bass was plugged into a DI box and into an amp, the amped was mic’ed with an SM57 which is a good allrounder dynamic mic. We tested this sound proofing by getting two of our group to go in as the musicians played and to be in their position to see if there was anything wrong with the sound proofing, the other two were in the mixing room soloing the instruments to try and hear any spill from the other mics that can’t be edited out.

Jamie was in the band playing the electric guitar that was placed in the middle of the room facing the window to the studio so we could prompt him when to start as well as using the talkback mic. The electric guitar amp was double mic’ed with a close mic on the speaker cone which was the SM57 which is a robust dynamic mic that can take a lot of pressure, we also used a mic that was aimed at the amp further back from the centre speaker cone to give use more ambience in the mix as we could add the effect ourself, this mic was the SE X1R. After the recording finished, we took Jamie out of the room into the studio and make sure he’s ok with the decisions that we had made.

We had the piano next to the door that was double mic’ed with the Sennheiser’s which gave use a crisp high frequency output as all of the songs were played higher on the piano to give more spatial freedom (as it would not get drowned out by the bass and the electric guitar) with the limitations of not being able to use effects to improve the sounds.

We chose to use 18 mics because it was the optimal amount for what we would be using and we wouldn’t be confused what microphone is recording what instrument. I wouldn’t change this because it was easy to work with and easy to memorised what XLR was plugged in to which wall box. We used a total of 20 XLRs, 5 pairs of headphones and 4 headphone extenders. We used 18 XLRs on the mics and the other two connecting the DI box to the wall input. The three mics and one set of headphones that were in the vocal booth were connected to Wall Box A that we patched into the desk, the rest of the mics and headphones were connected into Wall Box B then we patched them into the desk on channels from 1 through to 15, then the vocal booth 16-18.

We put a metronome on channel 24 that was sent to the headphone mix so that the musicians could stay in time. Next, we asked the musicians what instruments they wanted to hear in their foldback mix and the vocalist said she only wanted the drums the electric and acoustic guitar and her own voice coming through the headphone mix, this was because she started the song with just the acoustic guitar and vocals. Compared to the rest of the band that wanted to hear everything in their foldback mix. We recorded two songs both of them varying in length. We picked the best sounding one sonically.

After the session we packed up the mics and saved it to each other’s account so that we can use it as a backup. A week later we decided a date and time to mix the audio file, during this we balanced all of the signals so that everything can be heard in the mix clearly and that nothing was being drowned out. This step was easier because we had thought about placement when recording so it sounded sonically better regardless of being able to use effects. What I would have done to make recording the band easier would have been to record them a couple weeks earlier if we had known that they would have been the band, this would have given us free time to really think about what need to come through the most and not just do a basic balance of the volume levels.

Overall, I think that we were very efficient in the way we planned it making it easier on the day to just go in to the studio and set up.

Method 2 – Overdub Production

For the overdubbed recording we chose to do ‘Let It Be’ by the Beatles as this would give us the freedom to play on the recording so that we can choose how it sounds perfectly because we have the idea in our head. It was also a great tune.

We arranged a time and place to do this recording and it was in our weekly two-hour sessions in the studio on a Wednesday. The reason why this recording came along is that we were originally going to get a band to do the overdubbing but because it was so close to the due date and all of the other bands were taken, we had an old recording of the piano from ‘Let It Be’ that Jimmy played in one off our lessons. This sounded perfect because in that lesson we were learning how to mic up a piano, we used a matched pair of AKG C414 that where equally distanced from each other aimed at the highest and lowest strings on the piano as well as a pair of Sennheiser’s that were placed in the centre of the other two mics aimed at the middle strings so a lot of the background work had been done. Then the plan evolved for us to play on the overdub and record it.

After the piano, we had planned for Jimmy to sing it, but Jimmy and the group agreed his vocal tone didn’t fit with the piano so then Sarah tried it and it worked. To record the vocals, we had them in a separate vocal booth using the microphone SM7B connected with a XLR plugged into a wall box to be patched into the recording desk. Next, we recorded the backing vocals which Jimmy sang which sounded perfect.

We then needed four instruments and because we already had piano and vocals Jamie wanted to record the chords on and electric guitar (which was the Sterling by Music Man JP100D). Some parts Jamie just freestyled on the guitar which worked as it made the song length longer to fit the brief. Then he recorded the bass that was the same set up as the guitar which was an amp that was mic’ed up with the AKG C414 on the back, SE X1 and the SM57 aimed at the front speaker cone.

Finally, we recorded percussion consisting of shakers which were simply recorded using a AKG C414 giving them a crisp sound with a high frequency response.

On reflection, I would have tried to record the overdubbed one earlier because we were all free and knew and had our own vision of what we wanted.

(MPR4C001R~001) 24102537 Production Log Book