TASK 1: WAV Mixes
TASK 2: Production Log Book
For this project, we began by speaking about which genres we would like to focus on recording for the live recording and for the overdub recording. We began with the overdub recording by asking my friends’ band to perform for us. We booked studio 422 and focused on the room layout, prioritising the comfort of the performers and the quality of the sound coming out of the amplifiers and into the microphones.
We set up the drum kit using a D112 for the kick in, SM57s snare bottom and snare top microphones, Sennheiser md421 for the floor tom, a AKG C451 on the high hat and two Oktava MK-012’s placed in a parallel position for the overheads. We decided to use a microphone and a DI box for the bass, we placed a DM1B on the speaker cab of a bass amplifier. We used the DI box in order to get 2 clean and clear signals coming into Pro Tools as we wanted the bass to have more body and definition in the final project. We used a SM57 on the speaker cab and a MD441 at a 45 degree angle facing the amplifier. We used the MD441 to focus capturing on the top end of the guitar, as it uses a super cardioid polar pattern and coil catapult. We used the SM57 to capture more of the midrange frequencies of the amplifier. I suggested we use these microphones after being inspired by Leckie’s use of the SM57 and a large diaphragm dynamic, as well as the fact that it’s got a durable dynamic capsule, which can handle high sound pressure levels. This makes it an ideal microphone for recording heavier, rock music, such as Misting.
Daisy and Emre set up the studio session in the control room as me, Alex and Reuben got on with miking up the equipment and speaking to the band about what layout would be best for them. Initially, we wanted to set up the bassist in the vocal booth so that we could get a clearer sound of the bass, however, we had to scratch that idea as he felt he couldn’t play well when he wasn’t able to look at his bandmates. It would have been easier to be able to do the bass recording live, as we wouldn’t have had to overdub it afterwards, which would have saved us a lot of time. We took multiple takes of 2 different originals that the band composed and then eventually decided to go with the song ‘Terrified’ as we liked the contrast it offered to our live recording set. After we had done the instrumental recording, me and Daisy had set a different day to get together with the singer, who was previously poorly and couldn’t sing, in order to record her in one of the more private vocal booths. We used a RE20 and an SM7b on the vocals, we chose these microphones specifically as this genre of music is very loud, and India (the singer) often screams in her original songs. Therefore, we needed durable and reliable microphones for this project.
After the recording process, we got together to mix the overdub recording. We used a lot of automation and fading in and out, as we couldn’t use plugins. We decided to automate the vocals in such a way that the levels would spike during India’s screams, this is to accentuate the artistry in her lyrics but also to emphasise the Emo genre that the band is a part of. We also decided to lower the volume of the high-hat and the overhead microphones as we felt the cymbals were too punchy in the final project, taking away from the rest of the instrumental.
After the overdub recording, we set a date with one of my friends’ second year SGS Jazz bands, as they wanted demos for their SGS assignment. We chose to do Jazz because firstly, we all enjoy it and it is pivotal in learning how to record acoustically. We also chose Jazz as it was easier to record a longer project, rather than having to work on multiple 3-4 minute songs. Me, Emre, Daisy and Alex helped set up in the live room, and then Daisy went to the control room in order to set up the session on Pro Tools.
During the live recording we used an Audix D6 for the kick in, an SM57 for the snare, an AKG C451 for the hi-hat and 2 Oktava MK-012 for the overheads, facing each other in a parallel position. We measured the microphones to make sure that they were an equal distance apart from each other, this is so we could ensure that we got the best quality of sound out of the microphones and minimised the bleed as much as possible. For the double bass, we used a Brauner Phantom on the fretboard, placing it closer to the neck so that we could capture the organic sound of the bass, we also used an AKG D112 facing the tailpiece of the double bass, as we wanted to emphasise the low ends coming out of the bass, we felt the D112 could best compliment them. The bassist came up with the idea of using a pencil microphone and placing it in the bridge of the double bass, we decided to take an AKG C451 and tied two hair bands to it, then tied the hair bands on the bridge, making it so the headbands held the microphone in place for us. One of the main reasons we decided to try this technique is because the bassist would move a lot during the performance, which made it so sometimes the microphones would pick up more sound during certain parts and the bass would be needlessly quieter in other parts where he would slightly move. The microphone in the middle of the bridge made it so we could get a clear sound that wouldn’t get quieter nor louder simply from the bassist moving.
For the guitar, we used an SM57 and a Sontronics Halo, both facing the speaker cab. We went for the Halo as we found out through experimenting that it’s very good at picking up warm tones from the guitar, which complimented the genre very well. For the piano we went for the classic AKG C414 in a parallel position, facing the hammers. We had the option of using a ribbon microphone in the middle of the piano as well, however, we felt as though two condensers made the recording more dynamic, as we then decided to pan the microphones left and right.
We recorded two covers, our reference tracks were Dear Old Stockholm by Miles Davis and Visitation by Paul Chambers. We decided to go with Dear Old Stockholm as we realised that Visitation was too long, and would put us over the 10 minute time limit that we had for the submission. During the recording, one of the main things we struggled with was the time of the tracks. We already had a track that was 3-4 minutes long, and we only needed a 6 minute track from the SGS Jazz band, therefore, we had to request that they improvise and cut out a chorus and a verse from the original song so that we could fit this recording in the time limit, as we preferred Dear Old Stockholm over Visitation.
After the recording was done, we got together to mix the live recording, we panned the drums in order to give them more body. We also panned the piano microphones left and right for the same reason. We used a lot of fade in and fade out so that we could avoid as much bleed as possible. This is because we found that the players would talk a lot before and after which take, therefore, we had to cut out the count ins, as well as them talking after the set/recording was done. For the bass, we chose to automate the pencil microphone to a lower volume as we felt it had too strong of a presence in the recording. We struggled with mixing the guitar as we found that it was louder in some parts and quieter in other parts. We found that this was because during the recording we turned the amplifier quite low in order to avoid bleed. Therefore, when it came to mixing the guitar, we had to decide which parts to automate higher and which parts should be muted so that we could still hear the guitar without any of the background noises. There were also parts in which the guitar player was only finger picking, which made the mixing process more difficult as we had to highlight those certain areas without disturbing the balance of the overall mix.
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