Task 1: Emulation recording
We recorded an emulation of Roberta Flack’s “Killing me softly (with his song)” for this task. We decided not to assign roles for the task, but agreed to reach out to instrumentalists and organise sessions through our group chat.
We had decided to do a soul recording, as our group member Lorna had reached out to a vocalist who decided on the track. We chose to work on a song that would fit the vocalist’s style to get the emulation as close as possible, and booked an available studio for a scratch take to provide a basis for our instrumentalists to record to.
Our pre-production for each session was focused on the warm, soft compressed vintage ambience of the original song. This had to reflect in our microphone choices and how we decided to setup the session.
For the initial takes, I had arrived at 422 early to setup the kit for our drummer. This studio had space for the kit in the microphone booth, with low, insulated walls and reflection walls we could move around if necessary. Per my suggestion, Hannah and I moved the kit into the vocal booth, going through the microphone list I had worked on in preproduction with Oli and Lorna. The setup we decided on was incredibly minimal, using 3 microphones for the kick in, out (to capture both kick and snare), and an overhead. This would help avoid phase issues, and replicate the kits intimacy of the original song.
kick in – electro voice RE20 : dynamic cardioid with some low end roll-off, showcasing the kick without punching through the mix
kick out – sennheiser MD421-II : large diaphragm condenser, picking up a warm, full sound, responsible for the subtle bass of the kit
mono overhead – rode K2 : detailed valve condenser microphone, good for softening plosives and warming up the kits overall sound
Lorna, our pianist, had assisted with the microphones for her Nord electro 5D keyboard, and we had agreed to have 3 keyboard channels – two mics from the amplifier, (we used the fender twin for the tremolo presence it added), and one clean DI signal that would allow us to make adjustments in post.
mic 1 – Xaudia Beeb ribbon : warm (ribbon) sound, delicate microphone that captured detail
mic 2: Neumann KM184 : small diaphragm pencil mic, provided brightness when placed central to the amps cone and added “sparkle” to the sound
The DI was went through a re-amp box which we sent straight into our session.
I then comped the keys and drums for these takes for the vocal session the following day, and sent them over to the shared folder.
We ran a session for our bassist, using the warm valve amplifier in studio 104 and the neve EQ to brighten and texturise the sound. We also used a DI here, as the clean signal balanced the frequency range of our recording.
bass 1: sub kick – large diaphragm condenser, sensitive to very low frequencies, supporting the kicks pulse
bass 2: sm57 : flat dynamic microphone, worked well with sub kick to capture full bass frequencies
We recorded vocals in studio 104, with a session I had run with Hannah and Lorna. We used a vintage 67 with a pop shield as this microphone is well-known for its use in soul and jazz vocal recording, due to its warmth and large diaphragm that have a balanced frequency response, making vocals sound ‘fuller’. I added the outboard tc-electronic reverb to her vocal, but unfortunately after bouncing, Oli and I had decided that the takes were too far from the original, and we had run into some issues with the other takes – namely the varying tempo and some clipping.
I recorded vocals with Oli, swapping the microphone to a warm audio 251 with a ‘halo’ vocal shield, keeping distance from the mic to give the vocal a similar ‘airy’ quality to the Vintage 67 we had used for Beth but with more clarity.
As a result of the issues, we decided to re-record the whole project in a live setting using the same mic setups. We booked studio 113 for its size as well as reverb capabilities, as having our instrumentalists in one place solved the timing issues.
Drums: Kick in – RE20
Kick out – Senheiser MD421-II
Mono OH – Rode K2
Percussion: Neumann KM184, Xaudia Beeb (recording bells, done in 422 – bright sound)
Keys: Xaudia GRX (ribbon, sensitive and warm vintage style) Neumann KM184
Bass: Solomon sub-kick, Sontronics Delta 2 (large diaphragm, bassy ribbon)
Acoustic Guitar: Neumann KM184 (recorded separately to avoid spill, centre of the room )
Vocals: Warm Audio 251
We placed the cab in the vocal both as both mics captured a lot of room spill, and this gave more clarity to the pulse of the song
The kit was shielded to prevent some spill, making the kit sound less bright
Mixing the track, we added the wa-2a compresser to the vocal whilst recording to control the volume during the belt of the track. The reverb on the vocals was paralleled to give us more control
Task 2: Stereo Recording
This task is a cover of “About You” by The 1975. Our SGS members Hannah and Lorna opted to record this cover together. The original is fairly synth-heavy and ambient, but we decided to record an acoustic track using piano and flute over Hannah’s vocals. This pushed us to experiment with the stereo micing techniques we had learnt, reviewing our notes from our seminar.
I spoke to Oli after this seminar to review the notes, and decide on mics that we felt would be suitable. We had used the Mkh30 – 8 mic km184 cardioid and 414 pairs in the session, and used these as the basis to decide how to record the cover.
I suggested this version be recorded live, and the session was booked in 113 for the large space available and the sound of the grand piano available in the room.
We used a “Blumlein pair” for the piano ‘room’, a stereo micing technique with flat capsules at crossways in figure 8 polar patterns to produce a natural sound. Adjustments were made during the recording process, but having these at distance from the piano (below) provided room ambience that could be mixed to create a ‘live-feel’ in the final mix. The 414’s captured an accurate room sound of the l/r reflections of 133.
The vocals and flute were recorded together by Hannah, so our mic choices had to be suitable for both instruments. We settled on the Rode K2 and Aston Spirit, capturing the full-scale clarity with the K2, which was duplicated and polarity reversed* (mixing notes), and the spirit to complete the mid/side pair.
Both mic pairs were placed at similar distances from our instrumentalists, balancing the levels pre-mix and ensuring they captured similar detail.
I stepped forward to mix the track with Oli, using the genelec/focals in 104. As these microphones were all setup similarly, getting the EQ right to match the captures frequencies of each microphone was essential for creating an interesting stereo image. We started by cleaning up the low end from each take, and panning the microphones accordingly. For the K2 vocal mic, the recording was duplicated and hard panned, with the right side polarity inverted, which interacted with the spirit microphone to create a more dimensioned sound when sent through the reverb bus on logic. This was added in post to avoid phase during the recording, and I made sure to check the speakers from the centre of the room to ensure the sound was balanced. The spirit mic was kept relatively flat and compressed like a spot mic, allowing the k2’s to embellish the sound.
The whole thing was parallel compressed on the stereo out to lightly re-comp each element, and blend the piano/flute together.
Task 3: Remix
To source ‘found sound’ drums, I decided to source some percussive layers from some earlier projects. I exported one shots into my loop library to open them in my remix file.
For the studio instruments I used, I decided to record some takes that could be manipulated when added to the track. I recorded a simple bassline in 104, and used the korg minilogue in 109 to add the textural layers.
I then chopped the vocal. I cut this into samples, and retuned the takes with an autotune plugin. I renamed the samples from some of the lyrics.
I chopped the line from the chorus “killing me softly” into parts, and structured these. I used a tap tempo to find a bpm, and added the minilogue samples accordingly. This created a rhythm I could add drums to.
I used the loops I had taken earlier, and dragged these accordingly into the drum machine designer. I re-pitched some of the oneshots and rearranged the chopped vocals to create an alternate melody. I added the bird sounds as an additional textural found sound element.
To create more variation, I warped another section of the vocal (cyan), and chopped this. I used the flex time editor to shorten and repitch this vocal, harmonising with the original take. I added reverb to this channel (to match the delay on the bird track), and panned these left and right to increase the stereo field of the song.
1539 / 9.44
t1:
t2:
t3:
