Track 1 (Guitar-based band production)
Pre-production
From the start, we knew we would use this band because Ryan was in it and could easily get them in the studio. We met up on the Wednesday before to discuss preproduction and plan the session, and Louis wrote down the mic list (see appendix). We also decided that since our focus was tracking drums and bass together, we’d put them both in the live room in 113 and record some guide vocals and guitar DI in the control room.
Recording:
We recorded from 12-6 on the 7th of November in 113. Facilities didn’t have enough C414s, so we substituted the kick out mic with the Sontronnics DM1-B, which is also a large diaphragm condenser and is designed for capturing kick drums. The drum setup had three mics on the kick the Kick In (Audix D6) provided the “click”, the Kick Out the low-end punch and the sub kick mic the sub frequencies and low-end weight.
We also substituted a C451B on the snare bottom, which gave us lots of detail and crisp top-end.
The soup can mic gave us lots of high-end “sizzle” which adds to the cymbal and snare sounds.
Daniel and I did the engineering, while Ryan focused on setting up the project and desk and acted as the overall producer – this was handy because he knew the song well.
As we had so much time in the studio, we were also able to track some guitar overdubs.
Additional guitar and vocal overdubs were also done by Ryan and the musicians on their own – the vocalist was much more comfortable just working with him. The guitars were recorded with 2 AKG 414s and an SM57 as well as taking a DI signal. There were also layers recorded with a ribbon mic, probably the Sonntronics Delta, for a warmer sound. The fuzz guitar was recorded through Boss DS-2 distortion pedal and the amp was miked with an SM57 and a Warm Audio WA-251 as well as a separate DI signal.
Guitars 3 and 4 were DIed straight into an interface with some amp modelling and delay on the signal for the delay.
The piano was bounced out from a MIDI piano instrument plugin, which is good enough for the mainly guitar-based track and as it’s quite low in the mix it’s not too obvious.
Mixing:
I mixed this track in 108 and 116 rooms as well as checking on headphones. I had in mind Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” as a reference for its layered arpeggios and incredible snare sound. I tried to keep the guitars all distinct, not overpowering but not too “blurry” in texture either. Given the amount of files I had for each guitar track, I mixed mainly from their buses. I gave each its own distinct frequencies using multiband compression and EQ, and added some distortion with various tape/saturation plugins.
I also processed the DI signal of the fuzz guitar with some tape fuzz and added a chorus pedal on the bus so it didn’t sound so thin.
I processed the backing vocals similarly to the guitars because there were so many files – mainly from buses. They also have lots of saturation and tape processing (particularly the verse backing vocals) as well
as plate reverb sends to push them back in the mix. However, some of the chorus backing vocals are processed quite dry and heavily compressed to create an increase in intensity in the chorus.
Evaluation: I think this went fairly well, though I would’ve liked to know more about the overdub process and be more involved next time. The mix could definitely be improved, particularly the drum sound and depth, and I would’ve liked to get some feedback on it from others before submitting.
Track 2 Live in the studio (jazz/folk ensemble)
Pre-production:
We had decided that a jazz band would be ideal but struggled to get one into the studio until Louis put an advert on Life (see appendix). A 2 jazz groups got in touch and offered to play for us, which was ideal as the timings we’d booked 113 for only worked for the second one. We discussed their ensemble with them and planned on our Wednesday studio session the mic list and musician placement in the room, which was crucial to prevent spill. We recorded on the 24th of November in 113. We listened to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s Ella and Louis for references, as well as doing some research into jazz recording techniques.
Recording
We based some of our mic choices on our previous session and experience (same kick mics, snare and toms) and others were more informed by the genre. The use of the Orpheus room mic reflects the minimal room-based miking of early jazz recordings which the song dates to and we had in mind as reference (Crooks, 2012). The drummer also brought some Calrec CM652C microphones from the 1960s he owned, which gave us a really authentic sound. The use of vintage-style mics like the Rode K2 tube and JZ Vintage 67 condenser really helped too, as tube mics would’ve been common in the golden age of jazz (Crooks, 2012).
Like the previous session, Daniel and I engineered and Ryan set up the project and control room.
We put the bass amp in the vocal booth to prevent too much low-end bleed on other tracks, and used the polar patterns of microphones to create good isolation without too much acoustic shielding – although we did put one between the saxophonist and the kit. Given that classic jazz recordings would’ve been made with all the musicians in the same room (Crooks, 2012), we didn’t want too much separation.
We had 5 hours and they were well rehearsed, so getting a take they were happy with wasn’t hard. We asked for some slight structural changes to get the length we needed, which they were happy to work out in the studio.
Mixing
We mixed on the following Wednesday in 104, while we were all together, then Ryan and I made some slight adjustment the following week based on some critical listening in different environments. It required fairly subtle processing, compressing the vocal and saxophone through the Drawmer 1968, and the grouped kick mics through the Drawer DL241. The kicks especially were very dynamic. We also added a subtle reverb on the PCM92 for the vocals, overheads & room, sax and guitar tracks to make them sit in space, although we found recreating it for the second mix challenging as the preset seemed to have changed. Our big difference in the second mix was riding the faders during the print process, to tame some more sudden and resonant kicks, and to bring down the sax in the ending phrase where it masks the vocals slightly.
Evaluation: overall, I’m very happy with this project. I think we got a really good sound out of pretty minimal processing, but I think it would’ve been great if we’d been more research-informed when recording and mixing.
Track 3 Remix track
Pre-production:
I found the key of the vocal (D minor) and the tempo (108bpm). I briefly toyed with a hyperpop-type sound but found the structure of the vocal didn’t lend itself well to that. I eventually settled on a trip-hop influenced direction inspired by Lana Del Rey and Addison Rae’s first albums as well as Madonna’s Ray Of Light.
Recording/production:
I built the song from the drums upwards. The drums are largely based on two samples: the opening drums from Son’s of Kemet’s “My Queen is Angela Davis” and Odetta’s “Hit or Miss”.
The first sample took a lot of processing because of the reverb on the original track, including a phaser for a washy sound. The second sample was just dirtied up by lowering the bit depth and sample rate slightly for a more lo-fi feel.
The rest of the track is built mainly on strings, a “pulsing” synth playing chords and an electric piano. I tried to keep the track interesting harmonically as it isn’t very interesting vocally or lyrically, particularly in the chorus.
I noticed in my references (particularly the Addison Rae tracks like “Diet Pepsi”) there were lots of vocal layers, so I recorded my own backing vocals for the chorus and second verse to keep it interesting. There are also various vocal chops and breaths with heavy delays on to create ear candy and emphasise the word “love”.
I used an Audio-Technica AT2020 microphone and recorded in my bedroom, holding it off-axis from my mouth to prevent plosives. I also DIed a bass guitar, writing a funky part that keeps the song moving in the choruses.
The strings play back with lots of automation on “expression” to create a realistic sounding sustained notes:
Mixing:
I mixed this track primarily on headphones, checking on different speakers. I kept the strings out of the way of the vocal with EQ cuts in the 2kHz-4kHz region and added some tape processing to warm up the signal and remove any high-end harshness.
I achieved a good bass tone that was audible over the low-end content of the drum loops with amp modelling and multi band compression that “tightens up” the higher frequencies.
The backing vocals are heavily compressed through an 1176 plugin for vintage punch.
Evaluation: I’m really happy with this sound but would’ve loved to spend a bit more time with it and get some feedback on the mix, particularly checking on proper speakers. My vocal and bass performances serve the track well but could definitely be better.
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Bibliography:
Crooks, J. (2012) Journal on the Art of Record Production » Recreating an Unreal Reality: Performance Practice, Recording, and the Jazz Rhythm Section. https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/recreating-an-unreal-reality-performance-practice-recording-and-the-jazz-rhythm-section/ [Accessed 7 Jan 2026].
Fitzgerald, E. & Armstrong, L. (1956) Ella and Louis [Album].
Lana Del Rey (2012) Born to Die [Album].
Madonna (1998) Ray Of Light [Album].
Radiohead (2007) Weird Fishes/Arpeggi [Song].
Rae, A. (2025) Addison [Album].
Appendix:
(^Guitar-based recording mic list)
*Snare top reads MD441
