MPR4C001R-003 Portfolio: Production & Log 2 Template

Task 1 – WAV Mixes

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Task 2 – Production Log Book

Track 1 (Genre Specific Emulation)

For the Emulation track, one of the people in our group is in a Britpop Band, which was one of the genres of tracks which falls within one of the assignment choices, so we could rely on the quality of the performers from our member of the group ensuring that the performers would have great synergy with each other. While choosing a date for when both parties would be free to record, we discussed the genre that we wanted to do which was the ‘1990s Britpop’ as it was one of the options that was given to us to record making it appropriate for this assignment. We then decided on a song which they had been practising a lot which ensured that the players will perform to a high quality.

Rehearsals, development, arrangement and session planning:

We ended up recording the song in 4 sessions; having one for the pianist, who was one of the members of our assignment group, one for the drummer, one for the singer, and the last one for the bassist and guitarist. The performers rehearsed prior to our recording, so there weren’t any issues with any of the individual performances. There were no major issues individually, but there were minor problems with the singer who didn’t sound too confident at the beginning. But once getting comfortable with the environment, his voice was satisfactory. We tried recording lots of takes so we could have a lot to work with providing us with many different versions of the song. Choosing a date was quite easy to do as our group started early, meaning we had lots of time to record it before the deadline. We used studio 113 to record the drummer, bassist and guitarist, as that room gives us lots of space which was helpful setting up. Also, we used studio 422 to record the piano as we were all familiar with the design and sounds this room would provide us during the day.

We recorded the drums in a 3 hour slot, the singer in a 3 hour slot, the bassist and guitarist in a 3 hour slot, and the pianist in a 2 hour slot. For each of the 3 hour slots, we spent the first 45 minutes setting up, deciding to just set up without the performers, as we could focus on getting everything set up the way we wanted to and to not waste the performers’ time. In the next hour we ended up testing the instruments to see if that was the sound we wanted and after that we ended up recording them multiple times.

Mics, room setup, musician management:

For the pianist, we used DI;

We decided to just use a Stereo DI box for the keyboard as we wanted to have a clean sound. We plugged it into a Nord Piano.

For the drum kit, we used a total of 7 mics;

We were going to use 8 mics as we had put a mic on each of the toms, but when talking to the drummer, he didn’t need to use the mid tom so we took it off the drum with the mic, giving him more space to play. We used two Sennheiser MD 421’s as it is a versatile microphone which is best suited for recording drums. Using it on the high tom and the low tom made it so we could capture their tone more clearly, also it had the right properties such as a large diaphragm, which helps it capture the rich sound that we wanted. For the 2 overhead mics, we ended up using a pair of 414s so we could capture the sound from the whole drum kit. For the snare drum, we used two mics for recording it, we used a pair of SM57’s for the top and bottom. Finally, for the kick drum we ended up using the AKG D112 MKII. This is best used for capturing the powerful low end which was what we wanted to record in the kick drum. This is the same setup Supergrass used to record this song.

For the bass and electric guitar, we used a total of 5 mics and DI;

We used an SM57’s for capturing the sound from the guitar amp. We chose to put it very close to the amp for the best quality sound, and we chose to put it away from the center of the amp to get more of a treble sound. For the bass, we also used an SM57 and did the same thing, but we also used an Audix D6, so we could capture the really low frequencies. We also used the Orpheus to capture the sound of the room to get more tracks to work with.

For the vocals, we used a total of 2 mics;

We used two mics for the vocals. We ended up using an SM58 and the Warm Audio 87 for the vocals. We used the Warm Audio 87 to imitate the Neumann 87 that they originally used.

Track 2 (Live In the Studio Stereo Recording)

For the stereo recording, we ended up recording a song that Polly and her friend had been practising. This was a good choice to record as it featured a guitar and a vocalist which both work well together. Also, as they had both practiced beforehand, it was quite easy to record.

Rehearsals, development, arrangement and session planning:

We ended up getting it all recorded in a 2 hour session in studio 422. We ended up using studio 422 for the recording as we were used to the room and as it had the desired shape to record. The performers both had learnt their parts prior to the day, so it was quite straightforward without any major problems. We ended up recording them in a couple takes, and we had to adjust where the guitarist and the singer were placed as the guitar was slightly louder than the singer. So, to make sure we had a balance we adjusted accordingly.

Mics, room setup, musician management:

For the guitarist and singer, we used 6 mics;

While deciding how to record both musicians, we came up with lots of ways but decided to record them with 6 mics using 3 different techniques to provide uniqueness within each recording, and also to have a lot of different tracks to have a wider variety for the mix. We ended up putting them both in the middle of the room, with the mics in front of them. Using a pair of KM184’s in an XY pairing, this. This technique ensured that the sound hit both mics simultaneously, providing good quality mono compatibility and a tight, focused stereo image with minimal phase issues. Just above that, we used a pair of 424’s in a spaced pair. This is because this could capture the low frequencies well. Even though phasing could be a problem, we had the pair of KM184’s in the XY so that wasn’t a problem. Lastly, we used two Beeb mics as an overhead pairing. This is because we wanted to capture the overall sound from above.

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Track 3 Remix track

When creating the remix track of our recording of ‘Alright’ by Supergrass, I had ideas on what genre to make the remix, but I eventually settled on an 8-bit spinoff from the main track. I chose this because I had some experience in making 8-bit kinds of music in the past. Before even making the song, I decided to try and record the found sounds for the drum track. I ended up going to the kitchen to experiment with what kind of sounds would benefit my drum track. For the kick, I shut one of the cupboards quite hard to create that ‘boom’ sound that kicks have. For the snare, I shut the draw with all the cutlery to create the initial hit, with the metal rattle for the ‘snare’ effect. For the toms, I used plastic bowls varying in size. For the hi hat, I used a spray bottle, and later edited the eq to give it the short burst and ring effect. The last thing I recorded for the drums was a metal pan and hit it for a cowbell effect.

While making the song, I first decided to decide which parts of the vocals I was going to use and edit. I ended up changing the BPM to 170 and editing all the lyrics to put them exactly in time as otherwise the vocals would be really difficult to work with. I edited the EQ and increased the mid frequencies very slightly, I also used a compressor to further edit the vocals, and I put a bitcrusher on it to fully give it that 8-bit vibe.

For the drums, I put all the records I captured into a drum machine designer on logic so I could then use MIDI software to freely edit where they would go in the track. I ended up routing most of the tracks in the drums to a bus which I put compression on and used the ‘classic drums’ preset and increased the threshold of it.

I used a total of two synths on the track, using the ESP and the ES1 with a slightly variated preset of Moog Pulse, I used them as background instruments giving the ES1 long notes and the ESP arpeggios to play. I added delay on the ESP and reverb on the ES1 to provide more emotion.

The instruments I recorded live were the piano and bass. This was because I could play the piano and I borrowed my roommate’s bass to record. The bass plays the root notes in octaves throughout the song and the piano plays some scales and has a solo towards the end of the song. I compressed the piano and used a logic amp on the bass to give it the best sound.

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