Jazz Recording/Live Recording
For our live recording, we found a 4 piece jazz band consisting of piano, guitar, bass and drums. The song they performed was “Nardis”
(https://youtu.be/qAeMI8w_9xc?si=5ryf_SMpvdaMLe30), originally this was a jazz standard but this band decided to create a fusioned latin version of the piece. The double bassists that was meant to play couldn’t make it to the live recording so I found an electric bassist to play the part instead. This change didn’t affect the finished product much and the song still came out clear and sounded professional and unique.
My studio group and I decided to create a plan for all the inputs and which mixer tracks to connect all of the microphones/DI boxes to. This recording was quite drum oriented as shown on the photo above. We used 9 microphones all together for the drums to create a clean and seamless recording.
Drums
- We set up an akg d112 and positioned the mic so that it wasn’t touching any surfaces or the port hole of the kick drum. This was to capture the frequencies inside the kick drum along with outside.
- We then added an sm57 microphone as the top snare mic, tilting it at a 45 degree angle in order to pick up a range of frequencies
- Next we added an sm57 as a bottom snare microphone to pick up the crackle and sizzle sounds along with the brighter frequencies of the snare drum.
- The overhead microphones that we used were pencil condenser microphones (neuman km 184s), The main focus of these mics were to record the cymbals but also the drum kit in general to create a fuller sound.
- The drummer only wanted a high tom and a low tom so we set up two Sennheiser MD421s, we had to change the mic stand because the stand wasn’t staying in place and kept falling onto the low tom which would disrupt the sound.
- For the hi-hat mics we used a neuman km 184 to pick up treble frequencies, we positioned the mic below the high-hat to achieve a different tonal quality.
- Finally we used a pencil condenser microphone to pick up the ride cymbal along with both toms
These microphones together create a seamless and full recording on the drums that carried the performance with rhythm and groove.
Sound
We set out the sound barriers behind the bass amp in this recording as it was quite boomy and could interfere with recordings of other instruments.
Guitar
For the guitar we decided to put two microphones on the amp, we picked the Sennheiser MD441 as it is known for having an incredibly detailed and accurate sound, making it one of the most versatile dynamic microphones available. We positioned this microphone right in the centre of the speaker cone of the amplifier in order to gain the most clarity from the amp. The next mic that we used for the guitar was an akg 414, at the back of the amp to fill out any space that needed to be filled, we ended up turning this mic down for the majority of the recording.
Piano
My studio group and I decided to set up a two stereo AKG C414 XLS to record the piano. Instead of using a grand piano we used an upright piano. In the end it ended up sounding better and gave the piece a classic jazz feeling that we wanted to achieve. We set up both AKG C414 XLS next to the hammers in the piano to achieve that raw sound that we wanted to obtain. We also changed the polar pattern on these microphones in order to pick up only the piano and try to eliminate any background noise. We were going to add an sm57 next to the keys in order to pick up finger movements to get a more natural sound but ended up crapping that idea due to the fact that the piano already sounded exceptionally good and we didn’t need to make any changes.
Bass
The bass was simple, we used a DI Box and connected it to input 14. We did this in order to gain a clear sound of the bass also meaning we could tweak any problems or peaking issues on the DI box or a pedal that the bassist brought in for the recording.
Cable management
One thing that my studio group and I could work on for our next production assignment would be cable management. We went into the studio with the idea that the cables would be easy to manage. I didn’t realise how many inputs we had and the cables quickly became quite crowded and hard to distinguish each input. Next time I would like to focus on keeping the coils neat and making sure that there are no tangles in the wire. This would make it much easier for us to pack away at the end of a session.
Time management
The song that we recorded was too long for our project, to fix this we told the band to play it at a quicker tempo. Since we weren’t using any metronome this was relatively easy for the performers. We did a few takes before the timing was perfect for our project. We also shortened the drum solo for the song just to make sure there was enough time for the performers to finish the song.
Overdub Recording Project
For our overdub project, my studio group and I couldn’t find a suitable song. We ended up picking “It’s So Easy” by Guns & Roses. https://youtu.be/BZjP3NaLoCQ?si=aPTUNBwskQBFU5v2
We started the overdubb project by splitting the stems of the song using the built in Logic Pro X stem splitter, this split the stems into bass, guitar, vocals, drums and piano. There is no piano track in this song so in order to clear up some space we deleted this track. We constantly recorded to these stems while muting the original track of what we were recording.
We were aiming to create the most professional sounding track without using any effects or mastering techniques. In order to do this we used a wide range of different microphones to create a great recording without the need for any mixing.
Guitar
The first thing that we recorded into Pro Tools was Guitar, we decided to connect an amp in the live room to two microphones, then have the guitarist in the mixing room playing along to the track with speakers. We used an sm57 on the left hand side of the amp and an akg d112 on the back side of the amp in order to pick up the bass frequencies. We also connected a Sennheiser MD421 to the cone head of the speaker to gain clarity in the mix. We ended up not liking how the guitar sounded so we re-recorded it at a later date. When we re-recorded the guitar we opted for a less distorted mix on the pedal and also flipped the phase on the sm57 microphone to avoid clashing frequencies and to create a cleaner sound. After the final guitar takes were recorded, one of my studio group classmates comped the takes together to create one good take which sounded professional.
Drums
For the kick drum we used an audix D6 and an AKG D112 (embedded inside the kick drum along with a hoody to create a punchy tone) in order to have a clean, full kick drum recording. We then added two Sennheiser MD421s for the high tom and floor tom. Just like in the Jazz recording we wanted to add two SM57s as a snare top and snare bottom, This is to pick up any crunchy crispier tones that may be missed otherwise. My studio group and I added two pencil condenser mics as the overhead mics. We picked the Neumann KM 184 as it has a crisp sound and is known for being used as drum overheads. Overall the drums were pretty streamline to record and we achieved what we wanted by the end of the session.
Vocals
One of my classmates saw an instagram video about using two microphones for vocals. We thought that this was interesting and wanted to see if two microphones would improve our project. For this we used a Shure SM7b as the backup microphone to make a fuller sound with more dynamic and frequency range. This dynamic microphone is famous for its warm, smooth sound that flatters voices, making it perfect for everything. For the main microphone we used the “WA-87jr condenser”, (I had to conduct research to find this as I only had photos of the microphone and couldn’t work out what it was just by looking.) The vocalist that we chose was a female singer meaning the vocals are inevitably going to sound different from the original song. We recorded the song in 4 long takes, then went on to fine tune and record parts that may not have been up to standard. Outside of our studio hours, my classmates and I comped all of the vocals into one take. There were still faults to the vocal recording due to the pitch and/timing of the vocals. Because of this we spent a long time trying to get the best sound out of what we had as the singer wasn’t available for another recording.
Bass
The bass recording was rather simple, we booked out studio 116c for a 3 hour session. We DI’d the bass and ran it through our pro tools session. All it took was a couple of takes for us to get a perfect recording, we then spent the rest of the session putting together the vocal takes and guitar takes.
Project Management
Before all studio sessions we set out a 30 minute window to set up mixing desks, cables, mics and amps in order to be prepared for the recording. We planned recordings weeks in advance in order to have a clear understanding of what and when we were recording. Usually it would be 2 of my classmates in the mixing room while the other troubleshoots or makes sure everything is perfect in the live room. This strategy helped us methodically work as a group and make sure everything is perfect through the whole session.
