Track 1 (Guitar-based band production) – Miles Apart
Pre-Production:
Rehearsals:
Song is played live (well rehearsed).
Demo Recording:
- Sent a video from a rehearsal, providing a general idea.
- Recorded scratch guitars to record drums to.
Arrangement Decisions:
Initially, all guitars were electric. After recording scratch guitars, we realised the song sounds better with a blend of acoustics and electrics.
Session Planning:
Recording:
Microphone Choices:
Prepared detailed microphone lists.
Mics I’ve used before, confident they’d provide a good sound.
Room Setup:
Drums. Decided it would be best to face the kit away from the window, which provides a low thump.
Recorded bass DI and guide guitar in the control room. Guide vocal in the booth.
Electric guitar, Will wanted to be in the room. Placed the amp in the centre with 2 close mics and another 2 feet away to capture the room’s sound.
Acoustic, Placed in centre of the room with a spaced pair and a close mic at the sound hole.
Whilst in 109, tried the Juno and found it had a place.
Vocals, used the 251 as we liked its texture, but also used a V67 in case we preffered it’s sound.
Needed a tight vocal, used 422’s booth.
Musician Management:
Because each part was recorded individually, there weren’t any complex demands.
Band arrived on time.
Mixing:
Mix Plan/Concept:
- The reference provided is ‘The Rope – Wunderhorse‘. This was important when it came to the drums and bass, they needed to sound tight but still have room to breathe.
- To align with the reference, my mix needed to be punchy, with lots of emphasis on the percussive and rhythmic elements. To achieve this, I made use of parallel compression and saturation.
- Blended in kick and snare samples. Then, noise-gated the kick, snare, and toms. Helping tighten up the kit.
- Imported files into a Pro Tools session. Organised them into folders, groups, VCA’s.
- Gain staged the files, providing headroom to start mixing
Balance:
Each element required its own space without impacting others.
- Started with drums and bass, ensuring that the kick didn’t overpower the bass.
- Brought in the rest of the kit with a focus on the snare.
- Acoustic sits in the same frequency range as parts of the vocal, needed to be tamer.
- Electrics needed to be clear as they’re a key component.
- Used subtle automation to highlight certain elements.
Pan:
- Started with ‘common sense panning’, kick, snare, bass, vocals central.
- Drummer’s perspective.
- Placed toms wider to create more movement.
- Panned acoustics by 20 degrees LR. Keeping them central but giving space for the vocals.
- Gave the melodic acoustic/electric guitars their own space, sitting across from each other, removing clashes and providing harmonic content to each side.
- Placed the Juno at the back (mainly textural).
Tone:
- To get a similar tone to ‘The Rope’, I ensured the mix had clarity in the mids.
- Wunderhorse tracks have lots of dynamic layering.
- Made sure that each instrument had differing sounds for each section.
- Reverbs/delays on the guitars, drums, and vocals added depth to the song.
FX:
Drums:
- Compression, EQ, reverbs.
Bus
Parallel Reverb
Snare Reverb
Parallel
Vocals:
- Delay, reverb, compression, EQ, saturation.
- Important that the reverb sounded natural.
Vox Bus
Parallel
Acoustics:
- Subtle compression, EQ, and saturation to give them presence.
Acoustic Bus
Electrics:
- Difficult to sit in the mix.
- Used two different amp simulators to shape the tone into what I was looking for.
- Woodrow. Verse/solo.
- Showtime. Chorus with Lexicon PCM.
Bass:
- Amp simulator, channel strip, EQ, compression.
Parallel
Mix Bus Processing:
- EQ, Compression, Tape Machine.
- Used processing on the mix bus as it glues the whole mix and makes it more inspiring.
Project Management:
Time Management:
We managed our time for this project well. Sessions were efficient, with time to spare. And we managed to record the song in full over a few days in November, with the deadline being Janurary this provided plenty of time to mix the song.
Planning:
Did this through a large group chat, with members of Char’s band. When organising a session, we messaged to see who was available and when.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Structure and Organisation:
I provided the mic/input sheets for sessions, and then set up the control room. Whilst the others setup the equipment.
Track 2 Live in the studio (Jazz Ensemble)
Pre-Production:
Rehearsals:
Because we were recording a Jazz Standard, musicians knew the piece well.
Arrangement Decisions:
Needed their performance to be 6 minutes.
Session Planning:
Session was booked for 05.11.2025 in 113.
Needed 113’s larger live room, meaning we could have the musicians play together with good sightlines, with good isolation.
Recording:
Microphone Choices:
Prepared a detailed microphone list.
Used front-end processing.
Directional mics.
Double Bass – Pickup, bridge, close.
Keyboard – DI
Drums
Rooms
Room Setup:
- Room divided into 2 sections.
- Crucial to maintain sightlines, musicians used visual cues.
Musician Management:
- The musicians were self-sufficient, they had played as a trio before; understood how to work together.
- Headphone mixes. Took 40 minutes to get right.
- Did the mixes through the console’s Aux outputs, 3 unique mixes.
Mixing:
Mix Plan/Concept:
- To stay true to how jazz is typically recorded, processing was minimal.
- Subtle compression, equalisation, and reverb.
- Large focus on keeping the ‘room’ sound.
- Noise-gated kick, snare, and toms, they were causing the mix to sound muddy. However, gating was light to not take away from the drums’ timbre.
Balance:
- 3 instruments meant the balance was fairly easy. With the keyboard providing melody, this needed to be clearest.
- As soon as the kick and bass sat nicely together the rest fell into place.
Pan:
- Bass, Kick, Snare central.
- Keys halfway LR making space for drums.
- Overheads hard LR.
Tone:
- Aimed for a clean, bright, room-focused sound.
FX:
Used the Lexicon PCM, adding room-style reverb to the keyboard, making it sound more natural. Also used it in parallel in final mix.
Distressor used for parallel compression of the mix.
Neve 8803 and Audient’s Bus Compressor used on Final Mix.
Project Management:
Time Management:
We managed our time well. We had extra time left at the end of the session to go through the takes choose their favourite.
Session was on 05.11.2025, providing us with time to complete the analogue mix.
Planning:
Harry was in charge of organising the session and the musicians. Asked them to provide dates that they were available and then booked the session.
Roles & Responsibilities:
Each member contributed equally to this session.
Structure & Organisation:
I set up the control room whilst the others were micing. I then swapped with Raff to set up the Bass.
Track 3 Remix track
Pre-Production:
Track Development:
- Started by finding a reference.
- Imported and listened to the vocals and found a chord progression.
- Decided to work backwards, recording saturated 60s-style drums. Had Caleb play for roughly 3 minutes, letting him decide structure.
- Once I had a take we liked the structure of, I moved on to chopping up the vocal.
Played around with the chords, finding different ways to use them.
- Wanted the song to have a more pronounced intro, used arpeggiating synths.
Slowly built up the track, adding more synths, bassline, layers of guitars and some percussion.
Arrangement Decisions:
- ‘Normal arrangement’ Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge.
- Then goes into a building section before closing with an outro.
- Song now built with the drums.
Finished Logic session.
Session Planning:
Only had to plan 1 session. Messaged Caleb for his availability.
Recording:
Microphone/Instrument Choices:
Drums needed mics that handle higher SPL and sound good driven.
No photo taken. Identical to below.
Acoustic/percussion recorded on Shure SM57.
Electrics recorded DI.
Riser
Arpegiating synths
Keyboard
Bass – paired with guitar.
Electric Guitar 1
Electric Guitar 2
Room Setup:
Drums recorded in 104, rotated from the wall.
Mixing:
Mix Plan/Concept:
- Wanted my mix to focus on drums and vocals.
- Punchy and driven to align with reference track.
Balance:
- Lots done during recording.
- Needed drums and vocals to cut through, built the rest around them.
- Started by finding level for the bass.
- Played around with the level for the other instruments. Choosing to keep acoustics and synths quieter but have the electrics jump out.
- Used automation for additional dynamics.
Pan:
- ‘Common sense panning’, kick, snare, bass, vocals placed central.
- Drummer’s perspective.
- Acoustic and electric panned across from each other to avoid clashes. With parts panned in various ways, providing elements that jump out.
- Arpeggiating synth panned hard right.
Tone:
- Aiming for a saturated, 60s/70s sound.
- Used a driven tape machine on drums bus, and use of EQ.
FX:
Vocals:
- EQ, Delay, Reverb, Saturation, Compression.
Parallel
Acoustics:
- EQ, Compression.
Electrics:
- Delay, Chorus.
Drums:
- EQ, Compression, Tape Machine.
Bus
Mix Bus:
- EQ, Compression, Saturation.
Project Management:
Time Management:
Overall, my time management for this part of the assignment could have been better. Focusing on Miles Apart and the Jazz recording, and non-assignment projects. This left me with less time than I needed, meaning that certain parts of the project were rushed, and so the quality of the track wasn’t the best.
Planning:
My planning was minimal, working on the track whenever I wasn’t working on something else.
Structure and Organisation:
I should have planned this part of the project much better, setting clear goals and dates to have them done by.
