Project Proposal
Production Project Files
Progress and Management Records
Intro
For this project, my role as the producer was the recording and mix engineer. This means you will be listening to mixes, not masters. New Damage came to me in need of a producer ahead of the release of their EP. I agreed, as long as they also let me use the work I do for my final project.
Pre Production
To plan all our recording sessions, I made a group chat with all the band members in. Back in November we recorded guide tracks for the band to play along to when it came to record their own parts. I wanted to record in the order of: Drums and Bass (together), Rhythm guitar, Vocals, Lead guitar and then sax. It didn’t end up being in this exact order because we had to do many more guitar sessions than expected, to get the sound we wanted. This meant we ended up sandwiching vocal and sax sessions with lead guitar sessions.
Drums and bass were tricky to plan as the drummer lives in Sheffield and is very busy with other music projects. We were eventually able to agree on the evening of February 20th and the morning of the 21st. This meant we were able to leave everything set up and come in the next day to start recording the next day. We ended up doing this for most guitar sessions too (See Appendix 1 for planning of session).
I was under the impression guitar would take a lot less time than it did. I had originally intended to do an evening and then a morning for rhythm guitar and then the same for lead. Once we had our first rhythm guitar session, not only did we not get all the way through all 8 tracks, but we also decided we want to record loads of guitars – things like doubles and stabs. This was the same story for lead guitar as we desired a bigger sound.
Vocals were a lot easier and we had both lead and BVs recorded over the course of 2, 4-hour sessions. This was helped massively by the fact Gardiner (the vocalist) didn’t have university commitments.
Saxophone was also relatively easy as it was just a one mic set up. Eoghann is also very proactive when it comes to recording and music work in general, so we were also able to get his parts finished in 2 sessions (See appendix 2 for guitar, vocal and sax planning).
Production/Recording Process
Throughout all the recording sessions the intention was to get the basics for all 8 tracks recorded, we would then get back into the studio to record any extra parts/overdubs.
Drums & Bass:
I wanted to achieve a natural and live sound for the entire project. I felt the best way to do this was through the drums as these are what carry the song. Wanting a clean but fat bass tone, I decided to record the bass through a sans amp di box. The mixture of natural sounding drums and fat bass gave me the perfect foundation for the project. (See Appendix 3 for the track sheet and appendix 4 for mic set-up).
Guitar:
I knew going into this how important the guitars would be in this project. I didn’t want this to sound like any old ‘rock’ recording so that’s why we spent so much time on the guitar. We started by recording single track guitars through a fender twin reverb using an MD441 and a Sontronics Halo. We then captured double tracks, with the intention of creating impact and a sense of dynamics for certain sections.
Once we finished rhythm guitar we moved onto lead guitar. I recorded through stereo amps, which gave a huge sound. It also provided interesting textures as we dialled in the tones of each amp slightly differently. The left amp was a vox AC30, into an Re20 and a Halo. The right was a fender hot-rod deluxe, into an M160 and a Delta2. I used an Aston Spirit as a room mic and took a clean signal with the intention of blending it with the sound of the amp. (See Appendix 5 for rhythm guitar set-up and appendix 6 for lead guitar set-up).
The reason we had to do so many guitar session was down to a mixture of the guitarist not learning his parts before hand and his general attitude when it came to spending a lot of time on something. He was under the impression we would have all of the guitars done in 2/3 sessions, when in actual fact we did at least 10 in total. Despite this, I was able to get great results out of him due to the way in which I handled his attitude.
Vocals:
When recording the vocals, I recorded Gardiner through an MD421 and a Soup Can mic. The unorthodox motivation to use the 421 as a vocal mic was down to its full-bodied sound and ability to handle high SPL, as I knew Gardiner would be shouting at times. The soup gave a more trashy/tinny sound, allowing me to create a nice blend between the two mics. (See appendix 7 for vocal set-up.
We also recoded gang vocals for some of the songs. I set up 2 414’s in a blumlein configuration, in order to capture a wide stereo image (see appendix 10).
Saxophone:
For saxophone, I used an Re20. I also had a shotgun case mic set-up but quickly realised I was getting phase issues so decided against the shotgun mic altogether.
Percussion/Extras:
This was our final recording session. “The fun day”. We recorded over the course of the weekend, finishing off some lead guitar, then onto percussion and stylophone which we decided to run through the guitar pedals into the stereo amps as it was already set-up. The second day was all synths: we recorded the Juno 60 and a Korg Minilogue (See appendix 8 for percussion set up and appendix 9 for stylophone video).
Post Production/Mixing
I was pleased with how everything sounded in the recording stage, so I knew I wanted to take as natural of an approach as possible when it came to mixing. This is especially when it came to my EQ and compression. I decided to be as light as possible on processing, to maintain a natural sound. Aside from this, I utilised a lot of saturation, primarily on the guitars. This was to create a perceived loudness, without turning them up too loud.
I wanted to create a ‘wall of sound’, while fitting everything cleanly within the huge guitars. This was achieved mainly by panning, subtractive EQ and using the same reverb across all my guitars to maintain cohesiveness. Making sure I was giving everything its own space within the mix (See appendix 11 for all these mix decisions).
As good as the drum sound was in the recording, I was aware I needed to make them sound a bit ‘dirtier’ to fit the context of the track. This was achieved by using heavy saturation. (See appendix 12 for my drum bus processing).
The vocal was an important part of these mixes, in the sense that it isn’t always the main focal point, so I had to work out how to take it out of the spotlight. I did this by burying it in the mix, not having it too loud and taking more highs out that you would usually expect. The blend of the soup can mic gave a nice, distorted sound to the vocals, especially when they are more shouty. (see appendix 12 for vocal processing).
To avoid my mix sounding static, I utilised a lot of automation, both with panning things like the guitars and sax but also a lot of delay automation, primarily on the vocal and at times, the guitar (See appendix 13 for vocal delay and saxophone panning automation on ‘Room’).
I made the decision to mix into a compressor after attending a masterclass by Katie Tavini. This made everything sound glued together from the get-go, allowing me to be more flexible with my mix decisions.
Every decision I made in the mix was informed by how it sounded in the recording stage. This is because as well as making this sound like a polished production, I wanted it to feel natural and raw.
The piano ‘Leaves’ was a great addition to the song. It offered a new feeling to the project and a perfect end to it. I leant into the lofi sound, keeping it sounding as raw as possible. (See appendix 14 for piano processing).
The low mids were the main struggle with the mixes in this track. This is down to most of the information being in this frequency range. To tame this area, I made use of EQ cutting up to around 200hz in the guitars (see appendix 15 for guitar EQ). At first, I was worried this would result in the tracks feeling thin but it ended up being fine as there was still a lot of low mids information in the bass and vocal.
Evaluation
Overall, I am happy with how this project went. I feel I have developed both as an engineer and an all-round producer. It has given me the confidence needed to go on to do projects of this size in the future as I have got a good grasp of the order in which a project of this size is carried out. Something I am most happy with is how I dealt with so many different people and personalities throughout the recording stage. I couldn’t be happier with how the recording side of things went from a quality point of view; I would have liked more time for mixing but this is just down to time management.
Appendix and Bibliography
Appendix 1_____________________________________________________Appendix 2
Appendix 3____________________________________________________Appendix 4
Appendix 5_____________________________________________________Appendix 6
Appendix 7_____________________________________________________Appendix 8
Appendix 9
Appendix 10___________________________________________________Appendix 11
Appendix 12____________________________________________________Appendix 13
Appendix 13____________________________________________________Appendix 14
Appendix 15
