Pre-production/planning:
For the live ensemble recording, we agreed to record a jazz quartet since they were available and rehearsed. As a group we discussed which microphones we would like to use and one of us made the patch list ahead of the recording day. During the planning process, we also agreed that this track would be best suited for the outboard mix.
Similarly for the guitar-based track, the band we recorded was prepared beforehand. It was confirmed that they had a demo ready for us to use as a guide track during the recording and the Logic session was made ahead of the session as well as the patch list. For this track, we put emphasis on having a solid foundation for the drums, therefore we planned that the first session would be heavily centred around that.
Before each session, we would assign roles to each person in the group so we managed our time as efficiently as possible, as shown below in the jazz recording track sheet.
For my remix, before going into the studio to record the live instrument parts, I first had to come up with a suitable chord progression for the genre and map out the structure for the guitarist. this meant getting the vocals in time, splitting up the original stem and moving parts around until the session file was ready to be recorded on.
Track 1 (Guitar-based band production)
| KICK IN | KICK CONDENSER | KICK SUB | SNARE TOP | SNARE BTM | RACK | FLOOR | HATS | OH-L | OH-R | ROOM L | ROOM R |
| AUDIX D6 | RODE K2 | SUBKICK | SM57 | BEYERDRYNAMIC M201 | AKG C414 XLS | AKG C414 XLS | NEUMANN KM184 | WA87 | WA87 | CALREC 1050C | CALREC 1050C |
BASS CAB: SONTRONICS HALO (+ DI)
GUITAR: RE20
VOCALS: WA87
Our first session in the studio was heavily focused on drum recording. As you can see from our mic list above, we wanted the drums to sound as energetic as possible, during the mixing process we added MIDI triggering to the drums to give the mix more energy. During the recording session we also recorded percussion using the room mics and blended that in the mix. Since there was a demo track provided, each performer was recorded individually and overdubbed as we wanted to get clean takes since it was an individual mix. \the guitar and bass was recorded in the same session as the drums and two follow up sessions were had to get extra takes and to do the vocals.
For my mix I wanted to capture the energy of the demo whilst also enhancing it. I went with a more simple approach, not wanting to over-process anything. When recording the guitar parts we made sure that what we were recording as close to the demo as it already had a distinct sound. In my mix, I added some saturation and bit of drive to a dirt bus and sent it to all four parts to give it a bit more grit, but overall, I did not change the tone too much, I boosted some top end to add some shine and cut a bit of the low mids where it sounded a bit boxy. For the bass I wanted it to be rich and warm giving the track a solid foundation alongside the drums. The drums needed a light clean up, gating the snare microphones and tom mics and sending the kick mics to their own compressor. I made an overall drum bus for a drum for a light compressor and reverb to give the drums space to breathe within the mix. I wanted the percussion to be further back in the mix since it was getting a bit crowded, but I increased the send level on the reverb bus and used a stereo image plugin to utilise the space since there were a lot of percussion parts. The vocals were mixed based of the demo, reverb and delay heavy, I also added saturation to it to give it some more grit and to compliment the guitar parts. For the backing vocals, I wanted them to have presence in the mix and stand out almost as much as the lead. To make them shine I added a transformer to the sub-group, but I found that the lead vocals became too harsh so I used a high frequency compressor to soften the harsher frequencies.
Track 2 Live in the studio (jazz ensemble)
Our aims were to record a jazz quartet and capture the authenticity of a live recording, whilst also using outboard processing to enhance that. We also wanted to get the recording done in one session and have a solid live take to then use for an outboard mix.
Below is a diagram of how the room was laid out, the black lines are diffusion screens and the arrow next to the piano shows that the lid is open facing the control room. Each instrument is mic’d with an XY pair of condenser mics in the middle of the room.
Above is the mic list for the recording. We chose to do quite a maximalist set-up in order to capture the timbre of each instrument, leaving plenty of options for mixing. When listening back we chose to take out the ride mic in the mix since the drummer had two ride cymbals and used primarily one. Using a ribbon mic for trumpet captures more warmth and lessens the harshness of the sound. We used Kenny Dorham’s (1959) arrangement of Lotus Blossom as the reference track when deciding what microphones would be suitable.
For this track we did an outboard mix, utilising compression and EQ whilst recording. We made sub-groups as it was more efficient to mix that way whilst maintaining a the live recording feel. Once we were happy with the groups, we created auxiliary send for the room group as we thought it was more suitable to add any processing onto that group, mixing the track holistically more than individually was better suited for the genre. The bass was parallel compressed through the Distressor, we had a 10:1 ratio and had a high input level to really maximise the sound and push it through the mix, we then blended it accordingly. The reverb used was a small plate which was sent to the drum, piano and trumpet groups. We revisited the EQ after adding the reverb, rolling of the top end since there was a washy sound in the mix, some low-end in the bass was also taken out to make the bass blend more nicely with the rest of the track.
Track 3 Remix track
I wanted to use the vocal stem as much as possible so I built a Bossa nova/samba track around it. I worked with a guitarist to come up with the structure and harmony for the track and we found it best to keep the key the vocals were in and BPM as many songs in this genre are a similar tempo. We listened to Stan Getz and João Gilberto (1964) as our main references, but also listened to Bossa nova/samba inspired 21st century music from artists such as Dumb Feeling by Mei Semones (2024) and I Took The L by John Rosberto (2023) to determine the specific style of guitar played.
I used a pair of Neumann KM184’s to record a nylon stringed guitar for a rhythm and lead part, placing one by the 12th fret and one toward the end of the body as I wanted a very warm and rich sound. I found it difficult to not capture the guitarists breathing due to the position of the microphones and himself. During the recording process tried having him reposition however he was unable to perform comfortably, I also tried EQ’ing the breathing sounds out but then the recoding sounded too dull. During the mix I was able to resolve this issue by using a noise gate, setting the high cutoff to the specific frequency and turning the band reject on. I also used the gate to minimise any noise in the recording booth as some were picked up. I sent the guitar tracks through a small reverb, cutting the top end so the sound made when changing chord was not emphasised.
Circling back to vocals, I primarily changed the structure, breaking it into sections to form a desired length. I mainly used Flex Pitch to create backing vocals and harmonies based off the chord progression I made and mixed it appropriately as over processing does not suit the genre. I clip gained a lot of the sections as the gain fluctuated too much for my liking and I added a soft compression as I did not want to squash the signal too much since I have already clip gained. To negate the harsh sibilance, I used a high frequency compressor as well as a de-esser to try and tone it down, I wanted a warm yet shiny vocal, so I had to be careful when using the compressor. The reverb is short and small, as the instrumentation of the track would deem it suitable for the opposite.
The rest of the tracks were MIDI, using VST’s to emulate live instruments, therefore not much processing was added during the mix process.
Bibliography
Dorham, K., 1959. Lotus Blossom. On Quiet Kenny [album]. New Jazz Records, track 1. Recorded Nov. 13, 1959; released Feb. 1960.
Getz, S. and Gilberto, J. (1964) Getz/Gilberto. Sound recording. New York: Verve Records.
Roseboro, J. (2023) I Took The L. Track on Johnny. Sound recording, Public Confession Art House, released 5 April 2023.
Semones, M. (2025) Dumb Feeling. Track on Animaru. Sound recording. Released 2 May 2025, Bayonet Records.
