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MPR5C001R~001 Studio Portfolio 1 & Log Book TEMPLATE
1500 words
Please use the sections below to evidence your personal contribution to the production for the portfolio. Please include details for all the tracks produced as a part of this portfolio.
Provide rationale for any of the production decisions that you made as a group. Include any multimedia (pictures, videos, audio recordings etc) evidence to the relevant sections.
Consider the following:
Pre-Production
- Rehearsals
- Track development
- Demo recording
- Arrangement decisions
- Session planning
Recording
- Microphone choices
- Room setup
- Musician management
Mixing
- Mix plan/concept
- Balance
- Pan
- Tone
- FX
Project Management
- Time management
- Planning
- Roles and responsibilities
- Structure and organisation
Track 1 (Guitar-based band production)
For the guitar-based band production we decided to write our own song “Jane” rather than record a separate band. For this to happen I played around with a guitar part Corban wrote until we figured out a general structure of the song. After this I started writing the lyrics for the song which would be recorded later. As part of the pre-production for the track, we had to consider the genre and influences behind the song to establish a common direction within the group. We decided to go in the direction of Shoegaze with Deftones being a common reference point throughout the production process. It was Nate who suggested to include a section similar to” Sextape” by Deftones in the bridge section, where we made use of a similar delay sound on the guitar. With this in mind, I spent time playing around in Drop C tuning to match the rest of the song and eventually settled on a riff which was reminiscent of the Deftones influence without being a copy.
The first instrument we thought about was the guitar. We used a Fender Jazzmaster and plugged it through a pedal with Delay, Chorus and Fuzz into a Fender Twin Reverb. We used a DI box to record the clean DI guitar as well as the tone from the amp allowing us to have a lot more versatility when it came to mixing the track later. We used a fairly minimal microphone setup on the guitar, making use of the Sennheiser MD441 placed a few inches away from the centre of the amp cone and slightly angled towards the centre to capture the warm bassy frequencies as well as the treble of the tone which worked well for the genre of the song. From there we focused on the recording of the drums making use of a fairly stacked set up. For the kick we used a Shure Beta 91 for the kick in, a WA-251 for the kick out, placed about 2 inches from the sound hole and a Sub kick microphone, pressed again the skin of the kick drum. This slightly excessive kick setup actually resulted in a huge kick sound which we had lots of control over through the levels alone. We miked the snare up on the top and the side with the top mic being a Shure SM57 placed about 3-4 inches above the skin of the snare drum and the side mic, a Sennheiser MD441 pointed into the sound hole. I would normally have a microphone on the underside of the snare rather than by the sound hole which made this technique an interesting experiment which resulted in a really well recorded snare drum sound. We stayed simple for the toms, using e604’s on each tom. We did, however, take time to tune the drums which was a long but worthwhile process resulting in a much fuller sounding drum recording. For the overheads we used KM184s on the left and right as well as a mono microphone in the centre of the kit. To further add to the ambience of the drum recording we set up some room mics to create a bigger live sound to the kit which became extremely effective when mixed with reverb in the mixing process. We used a DI’d bass guitar and later on overdubbed MOOG synth bass using Nate’s synth to create a really thick and dense bass sound which is very present within the final track. At the same time, we added some ambience and rises etc. using the MOOG which became a subtle but important part of the track. Finally, we got to recording vocals, in which we once again used the Warm Audio WA-251. The microphone is quite hot coming into the desk, which we decided to make use of to keep character within the track. We created a parallel to record the clean audio from the mic as well as a slightly boosted take which clipped in the sections where my singing got louder. Finally, we played the lead vocal track back out through a guitar pedal and into a Fender Twin Reverb, where we used an AKG C414 to capture the resulting sound. This created an interesting FX track for the vocals which gave them so much character when used tastefully within the mix.
The mixing process for this track was simple and whilst we recorded it all on Ableton, I opted to mix on Logic Pro as it is a more familiar DAW to me. After organising the project and placing all the tracks across the stereo field, I started with gain staging, before applying EQ to every track, making sure to cut frequencies from instruments that don’t use them and create as much space as possible across the mix. I then compressed all the kick and snare tracks as well as the bass, MOOG and vocals. Whilst I quite heavily compressed bits of the drums, I tried to be fairly sparing in its use across the rest of the track, mainly just using it on necessary tracks to clean the dynamics of the song. Finally, I set up reverb buses for all my subgroups which was the final touch in bringing the track together before working on a final level of the track and putting it through a mastering chain.
Track 2 Live in the studio (jazz/folk ensemble)
For our jazz recording, we recorded a jazz 5-piece made up of a drummer, pianist, double bassist, saxophonist and singer. The track we recorded totalled to 5 minutes 15 seconds in length and captured well the essence of the song.
We remained somewhat minimal across the microphone set ups, using 16 mics total. We used a Beta 91 for the kick in and an AKG C414 for the kick out, which resulted in a simple but nice subtle kick sound. For the top snare, we placed an SM57 about 2 inches above the skin of the snare and on the underside of the snare we used a Calrec pointed to the centre of the snare wires. C414s were used on the toms on a cardiod polar pattern. Finally, we made use of Beebs for the overheads, placed in an X/Y position to capture a more simple drum and room sound which fit with the jazz context of the recording. I spaced a match pair of omnis on either side of the piano pointed at the strings with a C414 in the centre acting as a mono microphone to capture the piano. I then put the piano cover over the top and edge of the piano to cover the gap from the lid, capturing a much clearer recording. The double bass was captured using a pencil microphone placed under the strings capturing the nasal tones, and a k2 pointed into the F hole. We also ran the DI from the double bass to add to the fullness of the sound. Finally, for both vocals and saxophone we used a Neumann U87 with the saxophonist set up in the vocal booth and vocalist behind a few panels.
The mixing for this track was done entirely with analogue gear as a group in the studio. We started by compressing the drums and bass, trying to create a consistent rhythmic section throughout, before moving on to compressing the saxophone, vocals and piano. We used a range of hardware compressors in the mixing process of the track. Finally, we sent instruments to separate auxiliary channels as well as creating a reverb channel and a separate one for saxophone. This allowed us to ride the faders whilst recording the final mix of the track and introduced more piano or saxophone etc. for each instrument’s respective solos.
Track 3 Remix track
Finally, the remix of “How Deep Is Your Love” by Calvin Harris became an interesting assignment for me as I decided to follow a slightly different route to what I normally do when presented with a remix. I decided early to base my remix around some “Jazz-esc chords” with which I built the song around. I decided to not really speed the tempo of the track up much more than the original as it is already 122bpm. I made a drum pattern which is simple but appealing to listen to. From here I begun padding out a structure to the remix by layering the main synth chords onto 2 other synths and starting to introduce bass to the track with an FM synth. I made use of vocal chops from the sample to keep the remix original, however I tried to follow the structure of the original song generally. I recorded a guitar and bass to help pad out the song and meet the criteria of recording original instruments. Both instruments resulted in a really nice texture within the mix.
In conclusion, I effectively contributed towards this group recorded project through the recording and mixing techniques used. Next time I do something similar I would like to be better at managing time in the studio as well as continuing to experiment with setups and microphones in similar ways to what we did for the first recording.
