Track 1 (jazz/folk ensemble)
In this production log for our assigned task, the recording of two songs in the studio and a third remix track to be made using a provided vocal. I will be detailing the processes we went through, and each roll the different members played in order to record and mix our songs. I have also included pictures of the physical hardware set ups and desk/routing in photos throughout, and at the end my own observations about how I feel we could’ve improved.
Starting at the very beginning we decided that Jamie would organise the jazz performance players and I would take care of the guitar-based rock performance. I wanted to record “pharmacie” a group of friends I knows band, however due to scheduling issues we could not get a time where everyone was free. So, we ended up using Jamie’s band.
Once we had the performers organised, we began planning for the sessions themselves. This started with Jamie gathering a list of mics that we wanted to use and then asking our group what we thought at this time I found reference tracks for the jazz performance. We decided to tackle this track first due to the fact none of us were performing and because we needed to get into a studio again in order to tackle the mix.
For the reference tracks Jamie found out the song the artists would be performing allowing us to find reference tracks. Knowing the desired vocal sound, I decided to use jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Holliday as vocal inspirations. This would come in handy more so during the mixing period and general guide of how we want to capture the band and singers performance.
Now getting into the recording session we had myself Tom and Jamie in the studio. we all had assigned rolls for the session which we decided before to streamline the early workflow. This worked as me setting up mics in the live room, Jamie setting the session files on the computer and patching through the desk while Tom set up the patch bay effects routing that we wanted to use. At this point the performers arrived, and we let them set up before I once again organised the mic placement to achieve the best sound, once I had done this Jamie and tom began to gain stage then soundcheck the mics. We went back and forth on this process making mini tweaks to mic placement until we had achieved the desired sound. We could then eq the different tracks and get everything in place for the takes. Now we were ready we let the group run through the performance three times recording each before inviting them into the control room to listen back and give us their feedback. Happy with the sound they went back and completed a further 3 takes giving us all the material we needed. We then booked into 422 a couple days later to start the mix. For this session it was me, Sam B and Jamie and we met up for an hour before to discuss our plan for how we intended to mix it. We decided the best way to mix the song would be to eq and pan the individual tracks then bus instruments together as groups and compress to make all the parts fit cohesive before finally creating a separate reverb and printing everything back into logic as one stereo file. Below are the pictures from this session.
Track 2 Live in the studio (Guitar-based band production)
The next track I will talk about is the live band recording, as I previously mentioned we had originally planned to record my friends for this however when they dropped out we went ahead with Jamie’s band. Working with a band that one of us was a member of gave us good insight into the desired sound and super clear communications within sessions however it did mean quite a disruptive workflow.
Our approach to this was very similar to that of the jazz/folk song for track one. Jamie found a list of microphones he wanted to use and then cross referenced them with myself. After making a couple changes we were ready to go and got into the studio to set up. This time Jamie took more of a lead with mic set up and placement while Tom set up the logic files and patch bay. I was an hour late to the session due to work and missed the start of the set up. However, when I did arrive I set about pfl’ing the separate channels and once the band were set up and comfy we fine-tuned mic placements.
Once this was finalised and we were happy with the placements of the microphones we eq’d the various channels and were ready to record. We approached this similarly to the first session, letting the band run through a couple takes before coming into the control room to analyse before we went again. It took around five takes in total to get the capture we needed before we could then move onto guitar overdubs. These were simply electric guitar lines run over certain sections of the song including a chord progression used to enhance certain parts in the song and finally a guitar solo over the top.
During this session we had Jamie performing so I was on the desk and Tom was alongside me communicating with the artists, then every few takes Jamie would come join us and have a listen and make any changes he felt necessary and then for the overdubs we all worked together in the control room. Our biggest problem during this session was headphone mixes with everything being very dulled when coming back to the artists headphones despite our auxiliary channels having good monitoring in the control room. Again I have included photos of the hardware set up and desk settings.
Once we had the recordings we have then each going about mix and mastering. For this I wanted to really develop the low end of the track creating a strong connection between the bass and kick drum. I did this by creating space in the kick for the bass’ fundamental frequency using eq and using compression to curb the high peaks of the kick. I then doubled the kick with a sample and using a similar eq to keep the space for the bass while enhancing the kick. I feel this worked really well and led to a good clear low end. The next problem was all around blead between mics, I tried to eq as much unwanted noise away without making things boxy before grouping instruments together into bus’s and adding more processing like compression and reverb to create strong cohesion between instruments.
Track 3 Remix track
The final track for this project was the remix; we had been given a vocal and asked to make our own track using that as the centre piece. Despite the issues I was having with finding the key of the piece I decided to do a jungle song. Hoping that by using mostly percussive instruments I could work around this. I did however include a Reese style bass that I made on serum and a guitar at the start to make the swirling synth sound. This was done using a preset I downloaded for guitar rig 7, resampling and dramatically changing the sound. The other instrument I recorded onto the track was a shaker I sampled into my tr8s that runs throughout the track. There is also a high pass filter on this shaker that I bring in and out throughout the track well as on other instruments to create movement throughout the piece.
Now I have outlined all of the music we produced for this project I would like to talk about how we worked as a group. I feel Jamie and myself really took a lead on this project because nobody else was consistently participating throughout. We were the only ones to show up to all booked sessions and contributed to the whole process. Jamie especially did a great job with organising the bands and all the equipment for the sessions. I think this could have been improved with more consistent application during the term from myself and the other members of our group and is something we need to improve on moving forward.
