Method 1 – Live Band/Ensemble Capture
For our live band/ensemble capture, we recorded the three-man band Jeanine, a drummer, bassist, and a guitarist/vocalist, with their original song, Nails. In preparation, we discussed everyone’s main roles and responsibilities for the session, so everyone could contribute, creating a quicker, smoother session. My roles were to mic up the drums with my groupmate, Seb, organise and request the equipment, create an input list, and make sure the live room and vocal booth were organised properly for the session. In addition to my role, I did some work on the desk, using the pre-amps (gain) on the drums and assisted with the recording from the control room. Everyone in the group gave their opinions and assistance with the sound and structure of the recording, pointing out when something needed to be changed or re-done. Amy, my groupmate, had arranged for the band to record and communicated with the band so we were confident they had rehearsed and planned the song ready for the session, sending us demo recordings of their songs to choose from. We decided on Nails as we liked the progression of the song and transitions including the arrangement and tone they wanted from the instruments, specifically the guitar pedals and tones which we wanted to record. I liked the dynamics through the song, especially at the end where the guitar solo crescendos, and could see how they wanted that translating into the recording. Prior to the session, we made our aims for the session clear and planned how we were going to set up the live room and vocal booth in line with these aims. Our main aim was to capture their authentic band sound while reducing sound bleed and keeping a clear tone to aid the mixing process. We aimed to capture the best natural sound we could so that came through in the mix. This impactedour microphone and musician positioning and microphone choices. We decided to have the drummer and bassist in the live room, with the bassist going through a DI to reduce sound bleed. We placed the vocalist/guitarist in the vocal booth and ran a long jack to jack cable into the live room where we placed the guitar amp, using a baffle to separate the amp from the drums to reduce microphone bleed. We were in studio 422 and had a five-hour session, planning for an hour to set up without the musicians present and an hour to set up with them and get them comfortable in the space and create a good headphone mix. To mic up the drums, we used an AKG D112 dynamic mic for the kick, as it can withstand the volume from the drum, placed halfway inside the port hole to capture a clear kick, while capturing the natural resonance from outside the drum. We used 3 dynamic Sennheiser MD 421’s for the low tom, mid tom and snare top, not including a high tom as a request of the drummer during set up, with Seb and I angling them more towards the centre of the drum, to get a clear capture of the natural resonance. This aligned with our aim for an authentic band sound, with the 421’s being able to withstand the drum volume while capturing a detailed sound. To stop the drums from ringing, we placed some objects on the drums to dampen the sound. We used a pair of small diaphragm condenser Oktava MK-012 microphones for the overheads, capturing the ride, crash, and hi-hats, measuring the distance between them, relative to the snare, to avoid phasing issues. When setting up the guitar amp, we tried two ways of using the baffles, the first using two to corner in the amp and another just using one baffle separating it from the drums. We decided to use one baffle because we would get a cleaner recording without too much sound reflection from the baffles. We decided to use two microphones on the guitar amp to create a stereo image and fuller sound using a cardioid dynamic SM57 and large diaphragm condenser AKG C414 microphone. The SM57 handled the volume of the amp without distortion and the 414 captured the pedal and amps tone for an authentic sound. In the vocal booth, we set up another 414 for clear vocals, and mid-way through the session, after we had a pop in a vocal take, we added a pop shield to prevent that pops in further takes. We did a total 13 takes in our session and decided to use take 11 to start our basic mix. We got the levels right, starting with the drums, levelling, and panning them from the perspective of the drummer. We mixed the two guitar channels together and panned the different microphones left and right according to which side of the amp they were capturing. We all contributed, making changes and multiple mixes to the vocals, doing a few mixes to make them loud enough for when the band changed dynamics throughout the song.
Method 2 – Overdub Production
For our overdubbed capture, we worked with artist Angelina X to record her song ‘Songbirds and Snakes.’ Our main aims for the overdubbed project were to stay organised; communicating session plans and any changes to everyone and collaborating ideas on planning, equipment, and structure to have an original plan to work from. Our second aim was to try to get an effected sound without using effects as the song relied on using reverb to have an experimental sound in an alternative genre. Our final aim was to collaborate with Angelina to deliver what she wanted and run the sessions to make her comfortable and happy with the outcome. We discussed our roles and responsibilities prior to recording to avoid confusion, and my role included organising and planning the sessions, communicating with Angelina, and planning some of the musicians to play within the sessions. I was put in charge of pro tools and recording for the drum session as well as being heavily involved in the arrangement and mixing on pro tools. I helped set up the piano mics and we all decided on microphones and their positioning for each session to get the correct sound. We chose ‘Songbirds and Snakes’ from her demo recordings as we liked how it was different to our live capture through its instrumentation and style. I could hear the inspiration from Kate Bush which I liked, and thought could allow us tomake interesting mic positioning choices to try to capture that sound. After speaking with Angelina, we agreed on the recording order of drums, bass, piano and finally vocals. Starting with the drum recording, we used a demo recording to record to, along with a click track and found a mutual friend to play for us. We used a dynamic AKG D112 again for the kick as we liked the natural sound from the live recording so decided to keep to a similar drum set up. For the snare top, we used a Shure SM57 dynamic microphone and included a small diaphragm Oktava MK-012 snare bottom microphone in this setup to capture the resonance and body of the snare and a brighter sound to cut through in the mix. We made sure they were not facing directly at each other for phasing issues and had them angled towards the centre of the drum. For the low and high tom (we did not use a mid tom) we used the dynamic Sennheiser MD 421’s and angled them towards the centre of the drum to capture a resonant and an airy sound. For the overheads, we again used two Oktava MK-012’s measuring the distance between them to avoid phasing issues. We recorded the ornamental drum parts for the song ready to record the bass next. We had some trouble with recording the bass and had multiple cancellations with bassists. We eventually found a brilliant bassist to record but meant we were off the original schedule and meant rescheduling sessions. We recorded the bass through a DI to have an easier and quicker session yet still achieve full sound. After recording the drums and bass, we moved onto a piano and vocal session with Angelinaand came across timing issues with each recording. For next time, I would make sure we record in an order that works best for the song, not working to how you conventionally order recordings. We recorded the piano and vocals to just the click track and spent time making the drums in time with that recording. To record the piano, we used two small diaphragm condenser Calrec CM1051c’s and had them angling inside the upright piano with the front still on. We did this to capture the sound reflections inside the piano to create an echoed piano sound to work with the song and our aims. We then moved onto vocals in the vocal booth, using a large diaphragm condenser JZ Vintage V67 as Angelina has a warm alto vocal that we wanted to enhance. We decided to have another session re-recording the bass in time to save editing time. When we were re-recording bass, we decided to add in some guitar towards the end as the song needed some more development and a different timbre towards the end. Due to this being a quick decision, we recorded it in through a DI, however, this added to the style and added a plucked effect we would not have achieved micing an amp. Through the mixing process, we all had time editing and had an input towards the mix. I made the piano and vocals more in time and did the first basic mix of the song, panning the drums and backing vocals. We all found this section harder than the live recording, now understanding how I would make changes to the session planning and other ways we could utilise microphones for the piano and vocal capture.
