Track 1
Track 2
Track 3
The chosen DAW for all projects was Logic Pro
Guitar Track Production
Pre Production
Band Lineup (Cab Driver):
- Ben (Lead Vocalist and Rhythm Guitarist)
- Ollie (Lead Guitarist)
- Myself (Bassist and Backing Vocalist)
- Matt (Drummer)
Rehearsals
The band ‘Cab Driver’ who wrote the song we produced had been playing the song in the last handful of rehearsals before coming in to record with our group. This meant less time was needed to record each member.
Demo recording
This demo recording was made by the band a few months prior to working with the production group.
Track Development
Initial group production ideas:
- We focused on enhancing the snare using ‘Dancing In The Dark‘ by Bruce Springsteen as a reference, adding a lead guitar part to support songwriting, and layering sounds to create more texture and a fuller production.
Reference tracks for production:
(Springsteen, 2009 )
(Top, 2024)
We used this track as a reference for getting a powerful and heavy tom sound to the drums.
Arrangement decisions (Section by Section)
Intro into Verse:
The track begins softly with acoustic guitar, allowing the other instruments to be introduced gradually through a drum fill.
Verses:
The verses were kept short so the choruses could arrive quickly, helping maintain listener engagement and making the song more radio-friendly.
Choruses and Outro:
These sections feature the most instruments to create a powerful and impactful sound.
Session planning
Planning each session was done through our instagram group chat. The group chat involved discussion such as:
- Booking studio time
- Confirming who could attend the studio a few days prior
- Microphone Choices
We did 5 recording sessions as a group in total:
- Drum Session- Studio 104 on 28th October
- Acoustic Guitar Session- Studio 113 on 30th October
- Synth Recording Session- Studio 109 on 3rd December
- Vocal Recording Session- Studio 116a on 13th December
- Lead Guitar Recording Session- Studio 116b on 16th December
Rhythm and Bass Guitar were recorded in Charlie’s bedroom.
Recording
Microphone choices
Drum Session in Studio 104:
| Channel on Desk | Capture | Microphone | Pattern/Use |
| 1 | Kick In | AKG D112 | |
| 2 | Kick Out | Electrovoice RE20 | |
| 3 | |||
| 4 | Snare Top | Shure SM545SD | |
| 5 | Snare Bottom | Shure SM57 | |
| 6 | Hi Hat | AKG 451 | |
| 7 | Rack Tom | Sennheiser MD421 | |
| 8 | |||
| 9 | Floor Tom | AKG 414 XLS | Hyper Cardioid |
| 10 | Overhead Left | AKG 414 XLS | Omnidirectional |
| 11 | Overhead Right | AKG 414 XLS | Omnidirectional |
| 12 | Room X | KM184 | |
| 13 | Room Y | KM184 | |
| 14 | Mono Overhead | Warm Audio 251 | |
| 15 | Lexicon Reverb L | Used on Overheads and some Snare | |
| 16 | Lexicon Reverb R | ||
| 17 | Distressor | Used for parallel compression |
Lead and Backing Vocals:
- We used a Warm Audio 87 into a 1073 preamp to achieve a bright, rich vocal tone.
Bass Guitar:
- Recorded into a Scarlett 2i2
Acoustic and 12 String Guitars:
Recorded with:
- 2x AKG 414 XLS
- Warm Audio 251
- Active DI Box
Lead Electric Guitar:
- Used a Gibson ES333 Guitar
- Active DI Box into 1073 Pre amp
Electric Rhythm Guitar:
- Used a Fender Stratocaster
- Recorded into Scarlett 2i2
Room setup
Acoustic and 12 String Guitar:
We used mid side technique to capture the guitars:
- Mid Mic- Wide Cardioid
- Side Mic- Figure 8
- Mono mic- Cardioid (gave us a central image)
- DI Signal- Subtly blended in to provide some clean signal
Drum Session:
Parallel compression setting
Lead Electric Guitar: Studio 116a
Synths: Studio 109
- The Roland Juno in 109
Bell sound
Lead and Backing Vocal Setup:
We recorded in studio 116a with the vocalist being in the vocal booth. The vocalist was stood a step away from the mic to reduce proximity effect.
During all setup’s we tried to capture the rooms ambience which complimented our plan in making the production sound wide and full.
Musician management
Me being in the band made made managing the other bandmates easier because I knew their schedules and when they were free to record.
Mixing
Mix plan/concept
Most of the mixing was done during production, reducing the need for much post-mixing and resulting in similar before and afters.
Before and after Mixing:
Drums: Before
After
Bass: Before
After
Rhythm Guitar: Before
After
Acoustic Guitar: Before
After
Lead Guitar: Before
After
12 String: Before
After
All Vocals: Before
After
Synths: Before
After
Mix decisions:
Lead Guitar
Rhythm Guitar
Juno Synth
Drums
Bass Guitar
Acoustic and 12 String Guitar
We also used delay in tracking to help the guitars cut through the mix.
Lead Vocal Mix Bus
Lead and backing vocals were tuned with melodyne to intonate the vocals with the other tracks.
Backing Vocal Bus
Stereo Out Mix Bus
This enhanced the quality of the mix providing glue and cohesion between the frequency spectrum.
Balance
(Fender, 2019 )
This track was used for getting punch and volume balancing.
Stereo Out Master Automation
Automating a high-pass filter around 48 Hz in the verses and bridge made the choruses feel more powerful when the low end was restored.
Pan
Acoustic Guitar and 12 strings were also panned wide to create width in the mix.
Tone
After recording the drums, we added samples to reinforce transients. Mixing them early improved overall quality and made adding guitars and synths easier to record.
FX
We used gated reverb on the snare to create a shotgun snare sound.
Jazz Track Production
Pre Production
Musician Lineup:
- Sophie (Trumpet)
- Freddie (Bass)
- Harry (Electric Guitar)
- Tom (Drums)
Rehearsals
- The band rehearsed the track before coming into the studio to reduce mistakes
Track development/Demo
(Benson, 2008 )
Inspiration for our recorded track
Arrangement decisions
Arrangement according trumpet player (Sophie)
Session planning
Due to the track not being allowed overdubbing, this meant only one studio session needed to be booked which was on:
- 7th November in Studio 422
Recording
Microphone choices
Our aim was to achieve a well-balanced close up and partially roomy sound.
Channel List for Recording Session:
| Channel on Desk | Capture | Microphone | Pattern/Use |
| 1 | Kick In | RE20 | |
| 2 | Kick Out | Rode K2 | |
| 3 | Snare Top | Shure SM545SD | |
| 4 | Snare Bottom | Shure SM545SD | |
| 5 | Hi Hat | Beyerdynamic M160 | Vintage Sound |
| 6 | Ride Mic | Beyerdynamic M160 | |
| 7 | Hi Tom | AKG 414 | Hypercardioid to reduce bleed |
| 8 | Floor Tom | AKG 414 | Hypercardioid |
| 9 | Overhead Left | Neumann KM184 | |
| 10 | Overhead Right | Neumann KM184 | |
| 11 | Blumlein | Sontronics Orpheus | Figure 8 |
| 12 | Blumlein | Sontronics Orpheus | Figure 8 |
| 13 | Bass | Active DI Box | |
| 14 | Trumpet | SM57 | |
| 15 | Trumpet | RE20 |
This specific drum setup effectively captured a balanced drum sound.
Room setup
Our aim was to achieve a well-balanced close up and partially roomy sound.
Trumpet compression settings from tracking
Log reflecting on recording session.
Musician management
As a group we could have frequently followed up with musicians confirming their attendance.
Mixing
Plan/concept
We focused on fitting the trumpet into the mix and controlling transient spikes in the bass and drums.
Key mix decisions included:
- Automating trumpet reverb for space
- Adding Lexicon reverb for cohesion
- Using mild Drawmer 1968 compression on drums
- Applying VCA bus compression for glue
- Keeping the mix centred with wide drums.
Remix Production
Pre Production
Track development
The track started off as a cinematic piece but then changed to a more funky style
Arrangement decisions
Reference tracks helped to create a funky/chic style arrangement
(Rodgers & Edwards, 2006 )
(Crommelin, et al., 2017 )
Session planning
Most the recording was done during free time at home.
Recording
Room setup
- The electric was recorded with a Fender Jazzmaster
- The bass guitar was recorded with a Yamaha TRBX174
- All running into a Scarlett Interface into logic
This is a video from the live drum session
Microphone choices
Drum Mic List:
- Kick In- Audix D6
- Sub Kick- Solomon Lo Freq
- Snare Top- Shure SM57
- All Toms- Sennheiser e604
- Two Overheads- AKG 414 (set as cardioid for a tighter sound)
- Room Mic- Sontronics Orpheus
Recorded Tracks:
Arp Synth
Bright strings
All orchestra sounds
Cowbell
Drum sampler for kit layers
Adding samples to the drums provided more body to the whole drum sound.
Shaker
Bass Guitar
Lead ‘Chic’ Guitar
LoFi Rhythm Guitar
Outro Swooshing Guitar
Reverse Sound
Spaced Guitar
Used for texture
Musician Management
The drum session ended up being a last minute decision which was short notice for the drummer.
Mixing
Mix plan/concept
- A lot of the mixing was done through the recording stage outlined on the images above
- All instruments have been quantised to sound tight
Soloed version of sounds heard in the mix:
Drums
LoFi Guitar
Lead ‘Chic’ Guitar
Synths and Orchestra (with drums)
Vocals
Mix Images:
Drums
Bass Guitar
Lead ‘Chic’ Guitar
Orchestra
Spaced guitar
Vocals
Balance
- Balanced volume levels during mixing by turning each fader up individually
- I split the bass into two tracks when mixing to provide more balance of low end di and high end cab sim.
Stereo Out Bus
Pan
FX
A lot of the tracks already had reverb presets to create space in the mix.
Vocal FX
Overall Project Management
Time management
Timeline of when each instrument was recorded and mix window.
Planning
Miscommunication with jazz recording lineup which meant pre mic sheet was inaccurate which wasted time in session.
Roles and responsibilities
Throughout the whole process, all engineering and production was equally collaborative for each member of the group in contributing to microphone and production mixing decisions.
| Charlie | – Wrote and played the parts for the guitars, bass, synths, backing vocals on guitar based track. – Assisted in production/engineering and pre production mic lists plans |
| Sophie | – Played trumpet on Jazz recording – Assisted in production/engineering – Managing other jazz musicians |
| Alican | – Assisted in production/engineering – Mixing decisons for guitar and jazz track |
| Ben | – Assisted in production/engineering – Mixing decisons for guitar and jazz track |
Structure and organisation
- Studios were mostly planned and booked well in advance
- Each member were effective in communicating through our instagram group chat
Bibliography
Benson, G. (2008 ). George Benson – The Gentle Rain. (G. Benson, Performer)
Crommelin, J., Hetherington, P., Hill, N., Serret, A., Swain, L., Bangalter, T., & Christo, G.-M. d. (2017 ). Parcels ~ Overnight (Official Audio). (Parcels, Performer)
Fender, S. (2019 ). GB Skip navigation sam fender borders Create 9+ Avatar image Sam Fender – The Borders (Official Audio). (S. Fender, Performer)
Rodgers, N., & Edwards, B. (2006 ). Le Freak (2006 Remaster). (N. R. CHIC, Performer)
Springsteen, B. (2009 ). Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In the Dark (Official Video). (B. Springsteen, Performer)
Top, Z. (2024). Gimme All Your Lovin’ (2019 Remaster). (B. Gibbons, D. Hill, & F. Beard, Performers)
