MPR5C001R~003 Studio Portfolio 2 & Log Book
Commercial Pop Track – “Can’t Believe We Kissed”
We decided from the start to find someone with a song rather than write one all together – meaning we could focus our energies on the production. We put a post out on Life asking for a commercial pop track and got a response from a first-year singer/songwriter. Ryan got a demo through from her and got her into our Specialist Study Wednesday session on the 4th of February to record a scratch track to build the production around. We spoke about influences and analysed popular music, settling on influences from Taylor Swift’s “Fate of Ophelia”, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” and Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True”. We wanted a very synth-heavy and programmed production.
Production of the track was challenging – we worked on it together on Wednesdays but struggled to find synth sounds that weren’t too cheesy. I played some parts into Logic on a midi keyboard and Ryan and Louis flicked through presets on synths. Louis and I worked on drums together, using Logic’s 909 sounds and a drum kit he had. Eventually we found the best solution for a good drum sound was to blend various kicks and snares, some sampled and some synthesised. We couldn’t co-ordinate getting in the studio together (using the synths in 109 would’ve been ideal) to work on it so we each brought some separate ideas on arrangement and sounds and decided which ones we liked as a group. Lots of the arrangement work was done by Ryan, and we worked on keeping it melodic and minimising the repetitive arpeggios. Most of our work was done together in our Wednesday sessions, although Ryan and I worked on refining the sound design with some proprietary synths (UAD polyMax and Vital, see photos) in a session in 116c on March 26th. Ryan wasn’t happy with the acoustic guitar tone we’d recorded so he and I rerecorded it in his bedroom on April 21st with a couple of large diaphragm condenser mics (Audio Technica AT2020 and Sonntronics STC-2).
We put some finishing touches to the track the next day, rerecording the vocals with an AKG C414 and JZ Vintage 67. I also played the Rhodes part in the pre chorus from a Nord, which we also used as a midi controller for the RetroSynth lead line in the last 2 choruses.
I mixed the track largely on headphones before checking on monitors in the 116 rooms. To get the punch and clarity without squashing the drums too much I used parallel compression through an 1176 compressor, as recommended on Samples from Mars’ blog (n.d). I referenced our original inspiration tracks, particularly the guitar tone on “That’s So True” and the way the drums sat in the mix in “Fate of Ophelia”.
Acoustic Track – “Your Ring”
For this track Ryan suggested a track he’d been working on with a third-year songwriter. He went through some demos with her and found a track that would work entirely acoustic – a folky-pop track with some Lizzy McAlpine influences. From the start we had Stephen Fretwell’s “Run” in mind as a key influence for the open, clear drum and guitar sound. The demo had some detailed parts that she and Ryan had written for MIDI instruments so it was just a case of transcribing and rerecording parts. They recorded the vocals together with an SM7B in one of the 116 rooms.
Ryan and I transcribed the drum and bass parts respectively to give to the session musicians who came in on the 16th February (see appendix):
We had planned the mics we would use in the session before and what roles we would be taking in the session – Ryan ran the session as he was most familiar with the track, operating the DAW and desk. Louis, Danny and I set up the drum microphones, getting in early because of limited time. The kick mics we planned on using were not available so we had to make some last minute substations and we had a slight issue with the kick drum moving so we wedged it with a guitar amp. The drummer tuned and damped the drums really well, and used beads on the ride for extra “sizzle”. This is so important for a good sound when recording drums, as Matt Seymour notes in Sound on Sound (2010). The final mic list was as follows:
| MICROPHONE | Source | INPUT | PHANTOM POWER? |
| D6 | Kick In | 1 | N/A |
| ATM250 | Kick out | 2 | N/A |
| SM57 | Snare Top | 3 | N/A |
| Octava | Snare Bottom | 4 | ON |
| C414 | Low tom | 5 | ON |
| C414 | High Tom | 6 | ON |
| KM184 | OH L | 7 | ON |
| KM184 | OH R | 8 | ON |
| Delta 2 | Centre OH | 9 | ON |
| MICROPHONE | Source | INPUT | PHANTOM POWER? |
| AKG414 | Bass bridge | 1 | ON |
| Delta 2 | Bass bridge | 2 | N/A |
| KM184 | Bass neck | 3 | ON |
The recording process went and the players worked easily from the music we gave them – the bass player improvised a bit around the part we’d written and suggested both Arco and pizzicato techniques which added an interesting layer. We had time left over and recorded some one-shots at 3 different velocity levels from the drummer in case we needed to replace some of the parts but didn’t use them in the end.
A notable part of the drum recording was the use of the Delta-2 in a Central overhead configuration – this prevented the “hole in the middle” you sometimes get with the classic A-B configuration (McGlynn, 2011) and added a depth to the snare drum because of the dark sound of the Delta-2. We also used it on the bridge of the bass along with a KM184 for the fingerboard and a C414 for a more neutral bridge tone that would capture even the lowest frequencies (White, 2001).
For the piano, I transcribed the part over the Easter break (see appendix), then recorded myself playing it with Ryan in our weekly studio sessions. We used Calrec CM1051cs in an X-Y position not far above the hammers and the Sonntronics Orpheus a few meters away from the lid for the room sound. We had some time left in the session so recorded some percussion and tambourine parts as well with a Calrec and the Orpheus. Ryan later recorded the acoustic guitar layers by himself with his Sonntronics STC-2 and DI.
Mix
A key consideration of the mix was keeping the acoustic, “open” live feel, which I achieved by mixing the drum overheads high, with a boost around 400-500Hz to accentuate the snare. I also left the tom mics open even when the toms weren’t being hit for a more natural sound as the spill added ambience (Senior, 2016).
Location Recording – “Locharber Badger / The Butterfly”
I knew a few folk players, so asked a friend what would be the best way to record them. He suggested attending the Tuesday evening session at the Chemic tavern, and I went along to see whether it would be good to record. There was lots of talent on display and they were able to play for long enough, so on 24th of March we went down with some microphones. The Chemic and the players were happy to be recorded. We tried to capture the 6 or so players with an Orpheus in the centre of the circle and 2 C414s on the edges, with KM184s in an X-Y position for a good stereo image and bright sound (Senior, 2008) Listening back the next day with Jamie we weren’t happy with the sound, which was much too roomy and unbalanced.
After listening to references like Music at Matt Molloy’s, an album of folk sessions recorded in a pub, we realised we’d need much more close miking with small-diaphragm condensers. Because we had to coordinate it with another production group we could only get back in on April 28th, but we arrived nice and early and got mics on stands before the players came. I coordinated the musicians because I knew them already and setup microphones with Louis while Ryan operated the DAW and handled gain staging. We were able to direct the player’s positioning (although we didn’t want to disrupt the session because the live dynamic and interaction is so key to the sound of the session (Napier, 2021). We miked closer this time particularly because they were in the centre of the room and not the corner. This meant we could get every instrument in isolation:
| Room | Sonntronics Orpheus (omni) |
| Guitar | Neumannn KM184 |
| Banjo | AKG C451 |
| Fiddle | AKG C414 |
| Bodhran | Neumann KM184 |
| Melodeon/Whistle | AKG C451 |
We miked the instruments fairly distantly so as not to be intrusive but, the cardiod pattern and small diaphragms of the mics used meant spill was minimal. They played for much longer the second time we tried to record, which was ideal. The next day in our specialist study we sorted through the hour or so of music we’d recorded and found their rendition of the tunes “Locharber Badger / The Butterfly” was long enough.
Mix
A challenge of the mix was the switching of instruments and their roles – I had to split the track containing the melodeon and whistle because of their different sound, with much more high-end emphasis on the EQ of the whistle. I wanted to keep a fairly naturalistic sound so used some gentle panning to create the impression of the circle and gentle compression to control levels.
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Bibliography
Mars, S.F. (no date) Use Parallel Compression to Achieve Punch & Fatness Samples From Mars. https://samplesfrommars.com/blogs/tips-tricks/17081303-use-parallel-compression-to-achieve-punch-fatness [Accessed 7 May 2026].
McGlynn, M. (2011) Five Techniques for Stereo Miking Drums. https://www.shure.com/en-gb/insights/five-techniques-for-stereo-miking-drums [Accessed 7 May 2026].
Napier, H. (2021) What is a ‘Session’ – A Guide to Folk Sessions | Badenoch The Storylands. https://badenochstorylands.com/what-is-a-session-a-guide-to-folk-sessions/ [Accessed 7 May 2026].
Senior, M. (2008) The SOS Guide To Capturing A Great Acoustic Piano Sound Sound On Sound. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/sos-guide-capturing-great-acoustic-piano-sound?page=3 [Accessed 7 May 2026].
Senior, M. (2016) Q. Should drum close mics be gated? Sound On Sound. https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-should-drum-close-mics-be-gated [Accessed 7 May 2026].
Seymour, M. (2010) Engineer’s Guide To Tuning and Damping Drums Sound On Sound. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/engineers-guide-tuning-and-damping-drums [Accessed 7 May 2026].
White, P. (2001) Recording Bass Instruments. https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-bass-instruments [Accessed 7 May 2026].
Discography
Abrams, G. (2024) That’s So True
Carpenter, S. (2025) Manchild
Fretwell, S. (2002) Run
Swift, T. (2025) The Fate of Ophelia
Various Artists (1992) Music at Matt Molloy’s
