Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture
Pre-production: Originally, the ensemble we as a group intended to capture was a friend of Isaac’s and their supporting folk band, but unfortunately a studio session could not be arranged and this fell through. Instead, a four piece jazz ensemble agreed to perform their rendition of “Beautiful Love”, originally performed by the Bill Evans trio. In regards to session planning, as a group we decided to aim for a more minimalist and traditional sounding capture, making use of warm and vintage (or vintage emulating) microphones to honour traditional jazz sounds. The quartet consisted of a pianist, upright bassist, electric guitarist and drummer and were already well rehearsed before entering the studio.
Project management: Only one session was required to capture the ensemble, and in this session (beginning at 6:30PM) we took the first hour to an hour and a half to prepare all microphone placements we could, and configure their inputs into the desk’s short faders from the wall boxes, outputs to Pro tools and then inputs back into the desk’s long faders. Myself and Lai took on the responsibility of miking up the drum kit, while Elliott, Kian and Isaac miked up the guitar amplifier, set up the stereo pair on the grand piano (coincident pair capturing time difference for stereo width but minimising the risk of phase issues) and prepared initial setup for the miking of the upright bass. Myself and Isaac used my tape measure to ensure the overhead mics on the drum kit were equidistant from the centre of the kit to avoid any potential phase or level issues. Myself and Isaac also began to set up some acoustic walls to avoid excessive bleed from the guitar amplifier and drums into the upright bass microphones. I was responsible for a couple patched mic inputs on the patch bay due to running out of normalised inputs, and Isaac and Kian set up the Pro Tools project, as well as line checked.
Recording: In regards to microphone choices, starting off with the drum kit we took more of a simplistic approach compared to the polished sound we were aiming to achieve in the overdub capture. The only real outlier in this selection would be the Solomon low frequency sub kick mic, as we decided as a group that one kick out would not provide enough presence for the bass drum. For this kick out microphone, we chose the ATM 250, a mic with a low frequency response and capability to handle high sound pressure levels (positioned to capture a bit more beater sound or “click”). An SM57 pointing towards the centre of the snare, just peaking over the rim was a safe choice for the snare top mic, with it’s contoured frequency response capturing an accurate and full snare sound. For the hi-hat, an AKG C451 B was chosen for its high and detailed frequency response, angled slightly away from the hat itself to avoid too harsh of a capture, making use of it’s cardioid polar pattern. e 604s were used on both the rack and floor tom, due to ease of use with their mounts, ability to handle high sound pressure levels and low distortion. For our two overhead microphones, Aston Starlights were chosen for their detailed high frequency response and option for vintage voicing, a sound we were aiming for in this capture. The Sontronics Orpheus (changed from original plan of using the Phantom C) was our choice of room mic, renowned for its ambient capture ability, making use of it’s omnidirectional polar pattern and heightened high end clarity, as well as it’s extremely low signal to noise ratio. For electric guitar capture, a combination of an SM57 and a JZ Vintage 67, a microphone intended to emulate the Neumann U 67, especially it’s warmth while having modern benefits such as low self noise. On the upright bass we had an Oktava MK-319 on the F hole to capture the warmth and lower end of the instrument, and an AKG C414 on the fretboard to capture any pluck or string noise (direct injection was also added later for enhanced presence). Two C414s also made up the stereo pair on the piano, due to their ability to capture high end detail, as well as warmth.
Mixing: Myself, Kian, Isaac and Lai a week later booked back into studio 113 for mixing, took shifts working on the Pro Tools session and discussed any decisions regarding the mix. We agreed to maintain most of the dynamic variation of the performance, due to the piece’s expressiveness, Jazz’s nature and the instrumentalists’ dynamic control. We began by colour coding and creating groups, and then began by mixing the drum kit first, notably reducing the level of the hi-hat and toms so they were not too abrasive. Level of the upright bass was then brought up, with a combination of all different sources being used. Some moderate panning done on the overheads as well as the piano stereo pair to create width, as well as a slight pan both ways on the guitar microphones. Room mic level increased for natural reverb.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
Pre-production: Friend’s of Isaac’s in the indie rock band “Jeanine” were eager to be captured as part of our overdub production, so they could use the mix as a demo. They performed an original titled “Wonderkid”, and we aimed to capture a more modern and refined recording to suit both the band’s genre conventions, as well as their wishes, making use of more complex drum and guitar miking and techniques such as double tracking.
Project management: For the first session, aiming to capture a guide track consisting of vocal and guitar as well as using this to capture drums, myself and Harvey were responsible for configuring the patch list I had written, mainly requiring wallbox B inputs to be rerouted as if they were the normalised wallbox A inputs. The rest of the group begins to set up microphone placements, and me and Harvey join them to finish as well as set up headphones for foldback. Isaac then opened up a Pro Tools session, as I sent the short fader signals to the DAW. The band entered roughly an hour into the session, and we used them warming up as an opportunity to line check, with me having to solve an issue of a hot kick out mic, and altering it’s position, as well as replacing a faulty XLR lead on the snare bottom mic. Myself, Isaac and Kian set up a click track and foldback mix for the guide track capture. This was then used to capture drums, as well as the first real guitar take. In the second session the following week, myself, Isaac and Kian set up the control room as well as foldback mix for bass and vocal capture, then joining the rest of the group in the live room to finish setting up vocal mic and bass mics+ direct injection. We all then miked up the guitar amplifier again with our remaining time to capture a double tracking of guitar.
Recording: Forming the more extensive and modern drum kit miking was the Solomon Low Frequency*, as well as the ATM 250* outside of the bass drum, and a DM-1B inside the drum, a mic specialised for kick drum capture handling high sound pressure levels as well as capturing defined attack and resonance. For both snare top and bottom, S455Ds were used to capture the suitable frequency range and crack of the snare, as well as detail of the springs. Once again for hi hat, an AKG C451 B* was used angled away, and ATM 250s* were used to capture the low to mid range of both toms. Two AKG C414s* formed the overheads for their detail and versatility. Both the BETA 91A and KM 183 were trialed as room microphones, using their polar patterns to cover multiple directions of room as well as different frequency bands (only KM 183 made use of). For vocal capture the Orpheus* along with a pop shield for reduced plosive abrasion was used, and on guitar a mix of an SM57*, a Delta 2 ribbon mic for high detail and a subtlety of tone capture, as well as a DM-1B* behind the speaker cone for capture of lower end. Capturing bass, a combination of the DM-1B*, an Audix D6 and direct injection were used for both low end heavy tone capture as well as a more rounded and clean capture through the DI box.
*Any microphone choice which has already been discussed.
Mixing: In the same session used mixing the live recording, we started similarly by grouping and colour-coding the tracks for ease of use, then leveling the dynamics of all of the drum tracks for a modern punch with the kick and snare, and other elements such as overheads being overly or too present. More intricate than for the live band mix, we used level automation on the guitar tracks to create dynamic variation throughout as well as bringing down points high level, and similar was done to the vocal due to the high dynamic range, while retaining a focus on this track, as is convention in indie. Bass level automation was more simple but still present, enhancing focus in it’s solo section, and some panning moderately hard both directions was used on the overhead mics, as well as guitar tracks to create stereo width.
