Cabdriver (part 1 of the assignment)

Jazz ensemble

Remix

When doing the Cabdriver song, I was mainly put to work on the computer and on the desk. My job was getting the session ready and getting the desk ready to record while the rest of the group was setting up mics in the live room. This occurred across all the sessions we conducted. We started with the general recording on November 11th, placing the guitar amp in the vocal booth to allow for cleaner recordings. After we completed the skeleton recording, we overdubbed everything else on November 18th and then again on November 25th. We then began mixing. Having spoken with the band about the general direction of the song, I attempted to incorporate that into my mix through the use of reverb and the placement of various guitars in the track. When we recorded some of the guitars, we used some of the distortion and some other effects like reverb on the pedalboard, and in my mix, I layered my own distortion by duplicating the tracks and panning them to different areas of the track, creating a really full sound when the chorus happens. I then added my mastering preset to the track and tweaked it. Overall, I think I could’ve done better on my mix by utilising the space more effectively and using panning more effectively. This could’ve been done by using different effects, some of which I don’t have access to, such as soothe, or the SSL 4k E. I feel as though those 2, in particular, would help me with the general tone of some of the instruments, which I wasn’t able to achieve in this mix.

Below are some pictures of mic placements that we used, and some effects that I chose to add in the mix.

My DAW project:

When it came time to record the jazz group, I couldn’t be there due to prior commitments, so I left the actual recording to my groupmates. I did, however, play a part in planning the session, as I suggested ideas on how to record the jazz group. I talked to my group about potentially using a Blumlein setup, which would record the space between the instruments well, as each mic would pick up 2 instruments really well. We also talked about which mics we would use, as I am currently sorting out recording an orchestra, I had a good idea as to which mics would work best with Saxophones and also other instruments such as the double bass. We ended up using a Blumlein setup in the middle of the musicians and placing the instrumentalists around it in a wide circle to capture the space and each instrument equally. Below is our plan for the session, along with the microphone list that we used.

Wall box B

 kick in – D112 
kick out – DM1B
snare – SM57
Snare Bottom – SM57
Overheads – Brauner Phantom C
Guitar cab – 441
Guitar cab – Sontronics Halo
Double Bass bridge – Electrovoice RE20
Double Bass Frets – Sontronics Orpheus

 Wall box A  

Percussive mic – c414
Saxophone – 441
Organ Bass – Electrovoice RE20
Organ top – AK20
Bottom room mic – Sontronics Orpheus
Top room mic – Sontronics Orpheus
Cojon Front – SM57
Cojon back – Electrovoice RE20

We chose these mics because of their sonic properties, as we wanted to get the recording down so that when it came to mixing on the desk, we didn’t have to do much corrective work, and we could focus on more characterful EQ and compression. As you can see on our mic list, we chose to record the fretboard on some instruments to get some mechanical sound, which really contributed to the overall sound of the track, helping it to feel more real and performed by musicians. When it came to recording instruments like the Cojon, I had to leave that to my group to decide on the day, as we didn’t exactly know what it sounded like in person. When we were doing the mix on the desk, we all took turns mixing different parts of the track until we found something we all liked. We used the Lexicon reverb as a general reverb for the track, which we set up on a channel so that we could print the reverb to the session and then the reverb could be bounced with the mix. I did most of the work on the reverb, setting it to a medium hall with a short decay time, which worked really well for the track. We chose to route most things through this reverb, especially the saxophone and the vocals, as they both are key instruments which hold the melody and tell this tale of the wizard on his journey. Overall, for this piece, as it was a group effort, I think we did pretty well, although there are bound to be some mistakes and things we can improve on.

Below are some pictures of the mixing process that I contributed to, as well as the rest of my group.

The deskwork that we did:

The patch bay, as well as the Lexicon reverb which I built:

For the remix, I was heavily influenced by Flunk’s remix of Blue Monday. Their version of the song is calm, chilled, and uses instruments such as synths, acoustic guitars, and synth bases. I wanted to recreate the calm, chilled atmosphere this track creates, and that was my overall goal for this remix.

I started by using a MIDI acoustic to create a draft of the rhythm I wanted it to play, which I then recorded later using a real acoustic. Once I had the acoustic recorded, I chose to duplicate the track and have one panned slightly to the left, which balanced out the track better as I wanted the acoustic to be more central, sitting just above the bass, and below the vocals, but when I added in the piano, it sounded off balance. Duplicating the acoustic and panning one track slightly to the left fixed this issue, however, without compromising any audio quality.

I then chopped the vocals to fit with the track, creating 2 verses and 2 choruses from the vocal stems. After that, I created my own synth bass using the Logic bass studio instruments, duplicated the track, and applied a high-pass filter to one track and a low-pass filter to the other. This allowed me to have a lot of control over how my bass sounded and sat within the mix. Something else I did was sample a part of the vocals and stack them in a chord, creating a harmony part, which I added a lot of reverb to, to create an ethereal sound, which helped smooth out the harmonies, and also used more of the vocal stems.

I then sampled the kick and snare from a sample pack I have. I chose them because of their non-invasive tone originally, but after tweaking them both and getting rid of some of the top end on the snare, I found that they fit in the mix better, having their own individual spaces, and that helped create that calm atmosphere I was going for. Once I had done that, I chose to add a grand piano for variation, which plays some stab chords in verse 2. This track is duplicated and panned slightly wide, at about 37 each way, which helps the piano fit well in the mix. I chose to use the logic grand piano preset, but I tweaked the EQ to make it slightly brighter than the other instruments in the track, helping it have its own space in the mix.

I also added an electric guitar to bring back a variation of the original theme from the track by Calvin Harris and Disciples. This is repeated throughout the track. I ended up using the UAD Showtime 64 Tube Amp in order to manipulate the sound to how I wanted it, filling out the sound a lot more, and making the overall tone of the guitar fit in better with the rest of the track. I asked the guitarist to finger-pick both the acoustic and the electric parts, as this further softened the tone, helping the guitar to fit in with the track.

Below are some pictures of effects I used, as well as some pictures of the DAW showing which tracks I duplicated and where they were panned.

Picture of the Project

UAD Showtime Tube Amp that I used on the EGtr track for tone:

EQ for the piano that I took from the Logic Grand piano preset and then tweaked:

Vocal sample that I manipulated

Across this assignment, I think the key things for me to focus on now are using the space as much as I can, and effectively as I can. I also need to work on my 3d depth, using different frequency ranges to place instruments in different spaces on a 3d scale.