Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture
Crocodile Tears (Live Band)
Rehearsals:
This band performed their own tracks, which had been professionally recorded and produced previously, so there was no rehearsal necessary as they regularly perform this track and the track we recorded for the overdub recording. We did have the band warm-up once we had set-up, partly to adjust microphones, gain levels and overall set-up choices, but also to let them feel comfortable in the space and get a chance to speak to us all about the sound they want.
Track Development:
This band regularly performs many songs that they have written. Some have deep meaning, like crocodile tears, which is described below. Both of the tracks we recorded have been recorded and released previously, but the band came in as a favour and to see where we could take their music, particularly in the overdub half of the project.
Demo recording:
We did 3 full demo takes before deciding that we were happy with how everything sounds, so our fourth and fifth takes were to the quality that we liked. Lots of our video proof shows us balancing while recording the band, which is due to us familiarising ourselves with the studio and changing gain levels on some individual tracks, like how one of the rarely played toms was significantly louder than what it should have been, or the vocals weren’t quite loud enough and the guitar a little bit too bass heavy and dull through the amp. Lots of small changes took place throughout these three takes to ensure we had the best quality final recording that we could possibly have.
Session Planning:
We all played a part in finding a time that worked for all of us as well as the band. The first session was booked by me under the guidance of Mia, who were the bands’ contact, though when the day of the recording came, I was very sick. The group managed to change the booking to be under Josh’s name instead, to ensure they had the room no matter what. I was able to attend regardless but communication was honest and clear through all of this. I had no real interaction with the second session as I was unable to attend, but we booked a room for a time convenient for everyone. The first session was on Wednesday the 5th of November, and the second was Tuesday the 2nd of December, leaving plentiful time for creating a balance and checking through each track and file.
Room Set-up:
For both recording sessions, we used 422 and set up as shown below, following the band’s only request of the vocalist / guitarist and bassist being able to see the drummer.
Microphone choices:
We used the AKG D112 to capture the impact of the kick and the Audix D6 to capture the depth of bass. We used a pair of Oktava MK-012s evenly spaced from both each other and the snare to prevent phase issues, measured using the length of an XLR cable. Each tom was allocated a clip-on Sennheiser e604, though the clips meant the microphones were slightly too close to the toms, and the snare was paired with a SM57 because of its versalility and ability to capture the true impact of a snare hit.
Within the vocal booth, we used a SM57 for the vocals, again due to its versatile nature, and a c414 for the guitar amp on cardioid because it was a safe play for capturing a wide range of frequencies.
The vocal mic had some issues with bleed from the guitar amp, though there isn’t much we could have done besides creating a physical barrier between the amp and vocal mic, which was not an option at the time.
Below is a summary video compiled from every video that I took, with subtitles explaining what we were doing in chronological order. This highlights the issues that we came across, such as the bus routing being set incorrectly via the ‘shift’ button, which the group before us enabled and we hadn’t realised, meaning we weren’t getting the correct signal through to Pro Tools. Some other issues we had were that the bass was coming into the desk very hot despite the channel gain being set to almost the minimum, which was resolved by the bassist putting a limiter on through his pedalboard and cranking down the gain during the section that required lots of gain. One non-technical problem we had was trying to capture bass, as the bassist initially wanted to run through an amp, and we had previously planned and knew how to DI within the studio, so we had to compromise and have the bassist record through DI from the live room and run bass among everything else through each person’s headphone mix to emulate the live band feeling.
Editing:
When it came to doing a basic balance, there wasn’t much we had to do since the raw recording was decently balanced, however it was on the quiet side, for both the overdub and live recording sessions.
The only thing I personally dislike about this recording is that Kick 1 is so quiet, as that was the microphone we had inside the kick to really capture that punchy low-end, but this balance provides a good compromise and accentuates the ‘punch’ alongside the outer kick microphone.
At no point do the vocals sound overpowered by anything, the bass and guitar compliment each other really well throughout the whole song but particularly during the outro where they bounce off of each other.
The drums are panned as though they would sound from the drummer’s perspective to add a bit of depth. The overheads have since been panned to equal amounts instead of 56 and 59.
Roles and responsibilities:
Our roles weren’t pre-planned at all, though we appear to have done a good job with allowing everyone to contribute something. Personally, I took the lead on setting up the drum mics, plugging the XLRs into the wall box, documenting which slots are which mic so that we can name each channel correctly, setting up the bassist’s DI through his pedalboard, adjusting gain levels during sound check and trial recordings, and problem solving when we were having various issues with bus routing and the bass coming in too hot. Mia was responsible for coordinating session times, communicating with the band, organising equipment layout for the band and recording and managing takes on Pro Tools. Anton set up the stand and mics for the vocal booth, including the vocal microphone, pop filter and guitar microphone, and was also responsible for adjusting gain levels, helping problem solve when problems arose and communicating with the band to ensure that we were capturing the sound that they wanted and to see what they think. Josh lead sound check and helped Mia set up tracks and navigate which tracks were what, and provided feedback on the live mix. Lastly, Michelle assisted setting up microphones in the live room for drums, gave valuable feedback on the live mix and monitored the band in case they needed anything adjusting. Darragh was not present for this session.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
Wonder Kid (Overdub Production)
General information:
We only had one session for the overdub recording. In our first session, we recorded two songs and decided to use the second song as the base for our overdub project, meaning all of the base microphones from the first session are exactly what we used for those same instruments in the second session. As a result, we achieved a really full and interesting sound because we had the time to layer percussive instruments in on top of the drums, vocal harmonies and vocal doubling to add depth and movement to the vocals, improvisation on keys to elevate the high-end frequency balance, another repetitive keyboard part during the chorus to add the same effect, and piano parts that rhythmically opposed the guitar and other keyboard parts that added low-end punch and regularity to the rhythmic balance of the song.
It sounds like we ran the guitar through an amp and recorded the audio from across the room with a pair of microphones positioned like this:
This was something we experimented with during a class, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the effect that it created. It adds space to an otherwise seemingly small guitar part, elevating its importance in the track. These are two c414 microphones, which we used because of how versatile they are. As I was unable to come to this second session, my assumption that this was what the group did may be incorrect but I’m fairly confident this is worth mentioning for experimentation purposes and in the event that I am correct.
The keys were also recorded during a lesson, and were recorded using DI. Josh did three or four takes between two different keys sections using different synth sounds and experimenting with effects.
We used a stereo spaced pair on the piano in 113 to record
those low, impactful chords and pan them to create a large
spaced out sound, which was highly effective and was the
safe technique to use.
The basic balance and pan was more challenging than the standard live recording balance and pan, as each instrument was set up at different times and in different rooms compared to the one room that we have been working with for the live recording. For example, the percussion left and right were shakers recorded in 422, while the piano (not pictured) was recorded in 113, a much broader and more reverberant room overall.
