Commercial Pop Track

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Part 1 – Recording.

• Myself and Lily had take on the challenge of recording our pop track with Freddie Rose
• We started by recording the drums in 104 to a backing track Bella had provided for us
• Bass and guitar was recorded through DIs for ease and virtual amplifiers used to create their tones
• Bella wanted an upright piano on the recording, but when we went to record the piano we realised that the pedal on the piano had broken so no sustain would be used in the part, so we reverted to using a Nord through DIs
• Recorded Bella’s vocals using an AKG C-414 XLII
• Added a horn arrangement to thicken out the texture of the song

Part 2 – Mixing.

• I used the top-down mixing method to mix this track, and then used busses to mix all the parts together
• Heavy use of compression throughout
• Virtual amplifiers on guitars
• Use of hall reverbs on vocals and horns, with plate reverbs on the drums
• Heavily quantised as many of the parts were out of time

Acoustic Track

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Part 1 – Recording.

• Finn had written this track, and bought a demo version for us to use
• We re-recorded the main acoustic guitar in the song ready to have some session players play on the track
• We also double tracked the main guitar to add more texture to the song
• We recorded the drum and bass session musicians for this track
• We used all the microphones that were provided in 113 for the drums, we positioned all the relevant microphones, but it took us a very long time to cable everything in as we didn’t have any cables previously left for us to use.
• This meant that the drummer only had enough time at the end of the session to do one full take of the drums.
• Finn ran the drummer through the structure of the song whilst Lily & Brooke set up microphones. I stayed in the control room and set up the console and line checked all the inputs as they were being patched in
• We also decided to record the bass player that was provided
• He used a double bass where we mounted a Neumann KM-183 on the bridge of the bass, and positioned some large diaphragm microphones around him
• We ended up not using the bass that we had recorded in favour for using an acoustic bass part that I had later recorded
• We also recorded some nylon string acoustic guitar for some lead bits, and Finn also added some piano to thicken out the texture.

Part 2 – Mixing.

• I used top-down mixing to mix this track
• Mainly mixed all the instrument using busses as the recordings were generally very consistent throughout
• Used reverbs and snapback delays on the vocals

Location Recording

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Part 1 – Planning.

• In December I had visited the Howard Assembly Rooms as part of another module. Whilst I was there I spoke to the general manager about hosting an event in their new bar they were opening in a few months time.
• Spoke to the group, and decided to use the event for our location recording.
• There were 3 different bands organised to play the event, all of different genres and styles. 
• Bands were FROGG (indie-soul), Lauren Emily (singer-songwriter) and Cab Driver (indie-rock).
• I coordinated the event with the general manager, and organised that it would happen on the 23rd April 2026

• Drafted a basic mic list with Lily that would work with all of the tech specs that I had received from all the bands
• Researched some different miking techniques used by NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. They extensively use close miking for drums and amps, then use very sensitive stereo boom mics from Sennheiser to capture vocals, and the audience surrounding them.
• Tiny Desks are unamplified and more acoustic – I wanted the event to line up with the acoustic theme
• Spoke to the venue about noise restrictions, they wanted more stripped back sets due to bleed from the small bar where we were to the big venue upstairs where another show would be taking place.
• Decided to adapt from the Tiny Desk concept, and create a more conventional recording setup to capture a higher quality recording.
• Used an 8 mic setup on the drum kit, using an X-Y configuration for overheads
• Shure Beta 95a on kick in positioned underneath the beater for more attack and Sontronics DM-1B on kick out to capture more sub frequencies
• Shure 545 Unidyne ơn snare top, Beyerdynamic M-160 on snare bottom
• Sennheiser E-604s on the toms to save space with stands
• Hung Shure SM-57s to capture all the guitar amps, but we later had a problem with this method when mixing as the guitars sounded very thin due to the microphones pointing straight towards the ground and not at the speaker cone.
• Used a Sennheiser MD-441 as the main vocal microphone throughout due to its directional capability so with the drum kit being positioned at the side of the stage, it helped to reduce bleed. This did however cause an issue with Cab Driver’s set as their lead singer moved about the microphone lots so the vocals needed lots of compression to keep the volume consistent.
• Bass and Keys were captured using DIs only
• Acoustic guitars were used throughout all the sets, so we set up a DI for the PA, then also a Neumann KM-184 positioned roughly where the sound hole for the acoustic would be to capture the natural audio of the guitar for the recording.
• Planned a stage plot tailored for each band and their setup, and to help with setup on the day

Part 2 – Practice Session.

• We hosted a practice session for the event so we could all practice the full setup for the night, then also to hear all the different band’s sets
• During this time we also all became familiar with how to work the mixing console we would use on the night to capture the audio
• This session also gave us the chance to listen to all the sets and have a rough idea of what songs we had to choose from to submit for this project.

Part 3 – The Show.

• On the day, we had pre-booked all our equipment out to use and transported everything down to the venue ready to be set up.
• We had an expanded team to help setup including Jamie Wray, and Dan Hall
• When setting up we realised that the conservatoire hadn’t given us all the equipment that we had booked out, most notably the absence of Shure SM-57s entirely. This meant Brooke ended up going back and forth between the conservatoire and the venue to grab those items
• Whilst sound checking, we found that the DI output on the back of the bass amplifier wasn’t working, so we had to setup a normal DI that we had spare, and take a line from the tuner output on the box to go back into the amp’s input to be amplified to the audience in the room
• Once we had all finished sound checking, I routed the console so all the channel inputs were correct in Logic ready to record whilst everyone else tidied up the stage area, and put all the cases and any instruments that weren’t being used into the green room Howard Assembly had provided for us.
• During the show, Lily and Brooke stayed on the console throughout the night as Fin and myself were playing on stage at different points in the evening.
• When I wasn’t on stage I was overseeing everything, making sure everything was working well.

Part 4 – Mixing.

• As previously mentioned, we took as many precautions as possible to eliminate as much bleed as possible, whilst this was successful on the vocals, it didn’t work as well with the guitar microphones. Due to the way we had mounted them they picked up any reflections from the floor.
• I used top-down mixing to mix this track as it was the quickest, and most effective way to mix
• Used lots of compression to control the volume of all instruments
• Also used lots of automation to bring out certain parts in sections
• Used a tape echo on the snare to add more texture.