Audio Files
Project 1 – Ensemble Recording
Synopsis
For my first project in the brief, I have recorded a local band, BODYEXITMIND, consisting of a vocalist, guitarist, bassist and drummer. This band perform their own material, with their best work being what I used for the assignment. They fit within the rock genre, so finding a location which would not only compliment their music within a location context, but also having some intent and meaning behind the choice was a task which included consulting the band and I holistically.
Ultimately it was settled that we would record the performance in the Holy Trinity Church in Washington, which is local to us all and held meaning to the majority of the band, myself included. I have family buried in the church’s graveyard, and so do members of the band. Two of the members also used to be members of the church along with their families. The setting felt meaningful to the group and myself included, which was reflected in the performance.
In regards to the locations impact sonically, the church has a spacious quality to it. It had the ability to allow the music to fill the space, with some beautiful tonal qualities revealing themselves when recording. The church gives roughly a 3-4 second reverb time, allowing for a myriad of different mic techniques and placements to be utilised.
The project was critically informed by my own practical research recording outside of a studio setting, as well as more traditional educational research.
Research
For this section of the project, I wanted to spend time experimenting with what could potentially work best. The main focus was trying to get as much positive outcomes when doing my own practical research, in order for the conclusions of each recording to influence and control where the next recording would ultimately go from a recording standpoint.
At the beginning of the first semester, I gave myself ‘research targets’. These included points such as:
-Figuring out practical stereo mic techniques through trial and error
-best ways to manage bleed and reflections (controlling the space)
-balancing stereo images with isolated instruments
Through multiple recording sessions, each one being critically informed by the last, I feel I was able to achieve my targets and reflect my gained knowledge in my final recording. The goal was to build a foundation and skillset to be implemented at the final recording that had been tested already in order for the session to give me a solid capture.
My first practical research task was to gain an understanding of the field equipment I wanted to use. I Invited two of my close friends over who play as a duo, typically covering 90s Britpop anthems. They consisted of 2 acoustic guitarists, one of which provided vocals also. I decided to try two different stereo mic techniques – ORTF and Mid Side. The idea was to gain a practical understanding of ITD’s and IID’s and how they could possibly play a part in my final recording in the church. Our brains use these two sound localisation cues to determine where a source is coming from within a space (Eff, 2024). Knowing this, I wanted this to play a role in the final recording in order for the churches natural acoustics to shine through in the mix. This session was designed to make a decision on if I wanted part of the final recording to have a tighter stereo image, and if so how would this be done. A benefit of a coincident or near coincident pair is that it provides a balanced stereo recording that has the capability to capture the sound as naturally as it would be heard by a listener. (McAllister, 2023) I set one guitarist up with pair of Neumann KM184’s in an ORTF position, and the other guitarist with a pair of AKG 414’s in a mid side position. Although I also captured vocals, this was not my main focus. Using this recording, I decided that I preferred the stereo image of the ORTF pair more than the mid-side, as I felt it had more scope for a bigger setup and an ambient mic placement rather than close.
As well as experimenting with stereo pairings, I took this opportunity to navigate my way around the Allen and Heath QU-24 desk, which I had decided was what I would be using for the final recording.
Another research focused recording was a job I took for a mutual friend who is currently studying a film making course. He needed a recording of a pipe organ for a short movie he was creating, so I took this as an opportunity to experiment further with stereo imaging, but this time within the context of a church environment. The Location was St Oswald’s Church in Durham, which is a similar size to the Holy Trinity I did the final recording in. Using the knowledge I had gained from my previous recording, I decided to capture the pipe organ with a pair of KM184’s in an ORTF configuration in order to capture the most natural sound of the instrument. A more complex mic set up could have been used, for example close mics on different prominent parts of the organ, however, for the sake of gaining an informed recording that would act as a basis for my later recordings, I decided against. Since there was only one instrument present, I couldn’t gain any practical research on how the acoustics of the church would cause unwanted spill between instruments, however, the session gave me some useful information on the placement of the stereo pair would go. I experimented with placing the 184s in various parts of the room, higher up and lower down, until I found a spot which complimented the instrument and space. This gave me an idea of where about roughly I would be wanting to place my stereo pair in the final recording. As well as using this time to solidify what was learned in the previous session, is that also took the time to experiment with room mics and their positioning. I set up a pair of Sontronic Orpheus’s at far ends of the room in an A-B configuration with omni polar patterns. I placed them as wide as possible since the further apart the two mics are the greater the stereo image (Barlett, 2005). This allowed for me to gain an understanding of IDT’s in practice, and also to test how the blend of room mics and stereo image closer to the source would work in this location. Ultimately, the outcome was positive and the capture helped with decision making for the final recording.
As well as using knowledge and preferences I already held, I spend some time with BODYEXITMIND testing different microphones for isolating each instrument in the hopes of blending that with the stereo image from the room mics and stereo pair in front. Through trial and error we settled on mics that we all agreed sounded the best for their style.
Another notable practical research session was within the conservatoire, recording for the Leeds International Concert Season. We decided as a group to use KM184s in ORTF and a spaced pair of Orpheus’s to record the room and a stereo image, so this helped solidify how I felt about the set up whilst also giving me some feedback on how they would come together when introducing close mic techniques.
Separate research into different techniques and decisions helped shape the end product also. When visiting Holy Trinity for a risk assessment, I also took an impulse response of the room in case it was needed in the mixing stage. An impulse must be a short sound that contains all frequencies in the hearing range (Sherbourne, 2015), so a balloon pop was done with the help of the church’s treasurer, recorded on a Zoom H5.
Project Management
The management of this project consisted of:
–Organising the band
With members of the band being friends mine, we were able to organise a time and date they were able to come along. A group chat was set up between us and also included a videographer who we hired to take photos for them, and also provided me with quality evidence of the session.
–Obtaining the venue
I have a good friend who recently lost his little sister. Since then, our group has had regular contact with the church and their staff, so I got in contact with the treasurer who was able to offer the venue free of charge. A date and time was organised that suited everyone
–Conducting a risk assessment and providing needed documents
a date was arranged to conduct a risk assessment of the church, which I have attached. I also provided them with my personal liability insurance forms from the conservatoire and explained that all equipment had been PAT tested. I also notified the videographer that he needed to ensure his equipment was PAT tested before the day.
–Deciding on microphones, setup, placements etc
after a combination of my own practice based research, along with other forms of research and previous knowledge, I settled on the following
-KM184 pair in a ORTF config infront of the band
-Sontronic Orpheus pair in a spaced pair config on the balcony overlooking the main room of the church
-Audix D6 for Kick, SM57 for snare, AKG 414s for overheads
-Sennheiser 441 for bass amp
-Sennheiser 421 for guitar amp
-Shure SM58 for vocals
Other notable actions taken were adding an isolation shield on the vocal mic stand to minimise bleed for other instruments and also facing the mic away from the rest of the band with the 58 being in a cardioid polar pattern, and taping all cables down to avoid any accidents between takes.
–Liaising between the band and venue staff
organising a date and time that suited everyone and also making both parties aware of who would be there, providing both with risk assessment form and later providing both with finished masters of the session
–Post production
Once it came to the mixing stage, I wanted to allow for the stereo mics to do their job, and used the close mics to add needed presence in the mix. Apart from some corrective EQ and some processing on the vocals, I opted for a more natural mix that better represents where it was recorded rather than what the bands initial intentions with the song were, which we all agreed upon.
Evaluation
Overall, the finished product was well informed and the outcome was as I expected. I believe I made my best effort to control the space, whilst also letting the character of the church have a voice. The result was a recording that the band was very happy with and has been placed on streaming platforms.
Some points of improvement for any similar endeavours in the future would be to perhaps find a solution for the drum overheads that sounds better. I wasn’t happy with the quality of their capture and relied on the stereo pair to provide most of their presence. A way to possibly improve on this would be to add some form of acoustic treatment to parts of the walls near the drums to minimise any unwanted reflections.
However, I understand that recording in a church is not going to be as easy to control as in a studio, and with that comes a certain character to a recording that isn’t possible in any other environment.
I would have liked to possibly done some extra practical research sessions in the Holy Trinity with the band prior to a final recording session to see exactly how my choices would end up playing out, however with the church doing me a favour by lending their venue free of charge this was not possible. If I was to have had a session previous, I would have been able to spend less time trying different placements and mic choices, and would have had a plan of exactly where everything would be.
To conclude, I feel like I conducted this project with good preparation, backed by research, and gave the band an experience that they thoroughly enjoyed, as did I. I have took note of areas of improvement and will use the experience to inform future projects.
For evidence of practice research, final session, aswell as evidence of documents being passed along and a risk assessment form filled out by me, see appendices titled “ENSEMBLE”
Project 2- Audio Documentary
Synopsis
Within the first week of teaching, I had decided that my audio documentary would be revolved around golf in some manner. There’s not much I am as passionate about in my life than this sport, and I knew that I could orchestrate a documentary that reflects my feelings toward golf more than I could with any other topic. Golf has been a major part of my young adult life, teaching me persistence, accountability and respect. That being said, I found it difficult to organise my thoughts on the game into a short space of time. I grappled with focusing the documentary on a favourite tournament of mine, the Ryder Cup and its history, however after discussing it in my 1-to-1, I settled on shaping it around my views on the sport and the views of people around me.
The documentary gives some insight on to my feelings on the game, as well as ones from 2 very separate parties who both play golf; two of my friends from home in Sunderland, and two of my friends from further down London and Huddersfield. Both sets are young golfers, however there is a gap in skill and economic background. Without overtly stating, I wanted to make a comparison and a contrast between their views, as we all fit into the same overall category of young golfers.
The documentary contains my own recorded ‘golf sounds’, as well as commentary of seminal golf moments. My underlying goal of the documentary was to try and showcase how I see the sport, as most people view it as ‘boring’. As a matter of fact, golf can arguably be one of the most enthralling games to play, and digging into its professional and recreational history only furthers that feeling.
There are purposeful moments for reflection scattered throughout, with backround music that has a semantic link to the game.
I attempted to have a contrast between a more casual and conversational style, and a more direct explanation when discussing my views. The documentary also features my dad, who acted as a mentor for the sport to me. I owe a lot to golf for my relationship with him, and hopefully that comes across when listening to my project.
Research
The research for this project was initially informed by my own personal relationship with golf and what I thought before beginning. This was an excellent starting point as it allowed for me to look into what I already knew in more detail and gain a better understanding for myself. From personal experience, I already understood the culture around golf, the elitism and accessibility issue the game has traversed through. There is the pre notion for non golfers that it favours the more wealthy of society, and this is a result of factors such as prices of memberships and green fees, course dress codes and rules of conduct that suit an older generations values (Clements, 2024). This idea was something I wanted to shed light on in my documentary, since coming from a more common background I have had first hand discrimination in regards to playing golf. There is an agism issue around the sport also, not to discredit the benefits that it provides people later on in life. However entitlement is a common pattern with most clubs since seniors make up a large proportion of members world wide (Cummins, 2024). By speaking to young golfers on the issue casually, I intended to demonstrate how we as a collective might navigate this issue and how some things have bearing whilst others don’t.
Racism is a term most people in golf would rather avoid. The tradition of using local black caddies at the Masters at Augusta National was only abolished in 1983 (Sens, 2022). Arguably the most recognisable and legendary course that embodies the meaning of golf still having a racist tradition in the 80’s doesn’t send a good message to people skeptical of the sports accessibility. Tiger Woods was a turning factor in the game. He won his first major in 1997 by 12 strokes (Murray, 2017) silencing any doubt people had around him. I wanted to make this known in my documentary, and how he indirectly impacted everyone effected by any marginalisation in the sport.
On the other hand, Research into audio documentaries did not have an initial starting point to build off of. Although it was not an unknown concept to me, I had never previously listened to one. I felt it best to begin with listening to a few that would help me understand what they have in common. Notable ones included:
- Padraig Harrington | Chronicles of a Champion Golfer (R&A, 2026)
- St Andrews and the Legend of Tom Morris (Skratch, 2015)
- Links to the Past: Pioneers of Ulster Golf (BBC, 2019)
Similar themes emerged throughout, most notably the use of space in-between dialogue. This break in conversation after something meaningful is discussed practically forces you into reflection and allows the listener to breathe (Katwalla, 2023). There is also an obvious contrast between casual conversation (opinions, views and general discussions) and formal storytelling (facts and outlines). This was typically done by a mix of narrating and interviews, usually linking to one another.
Music and sound effects are to play a supporting role for the dialogue (Buchynski, 2022), however there are moments where it felt best to allow these aspects to lead the story.
Paddy Hirsch (2025) explains that it’s better to work for authenticity over polish, that the end goal isn’t perfection, rather human connection and meaning within the documentary. Although I made efforts to capture clean recordings, I wanted to include the interviews that had some imperfections; chat in the background, chairs moving etc.
Project Management
Managing this project was the easiest and most enjoyable part of this submission, since it was ultimately speaking with friends about something we love. We tend to book our rounds a week in advance, so that gave me time to loan field microphones. Before recording, I asked all participants for permission and explained what it would be used for, and gained verbal agreements between them.
Organising the documentary was done firstly by reviewing all recorded interviews and sectioning them out. Each snippet was placed into a corresponding folder dictated by the nature of conversation. The same was done with television commentary and golfer interviews. This allowed me to easily build a narrative using their topics, and structure it in a way that felt compelling.
Next, I chose my recorded sound effects that were to be included. The golf course is typically a quiet environment, apart from a few key sounds such as striking a ball or a putt dropping in the hole. I attended a golf tournament in late 2025 where I took some recordings of the crowds that were placed in also.
Deciding on background music was the next task. I opted for music that had a semantic link to the game:
- Knocking on Heavens Door (Bob Dylan), linking to the golfer John Daly
- Tuesdays Gone (Lynyrd Skynyrd), used in the movie Happy Gilmore
- Augusta (Dave Loggins), a song about Augusta Golf Club in Georgia, home of the Masters
These serve as constants in the documentary that dip in and out of focus when needed, and allow for everything to be built on top.
Evaluation
Overall, this project was a clear view into my feelings toward golf, and for others around me. Narratively, I struggled to fully organise my thoughts fully, but each section was backed by research and each decision made was informed. From a production standpoint, I am happy with how it has manifested. Use of effects and processing was done with the intent to immerse the listener and enhance the experience, and I felt that each focus was clear with the use of automation
A point of improvement would be my interview style. Although they came across the right amount of casual, I think my questions could have been slightly more specific. The open-ended nature of the line of questioning offered a great deal of useless information, and what was ultimately used for the finished product was a small portion of everything recorded.
For evidence examples of swings which were recorded for the documentary, see appendices titled “GOLF DOC”
Project 3 – Composition
Synopsis
The Idea for this project was to focus a track around sounds recorded in my own home. This section has some meaningful rationale behind it. I have lived with my Mam and Dad in the same house my entire life, and I’ve grown through every part of my childhood and young adult life in the same bedroom, kitchen, back garden. I know the sound of every light switch, ever door handle, every surface. Me and my partner will be moving into our first home next year, so it will be the first time (apart from living in Leeds) I will be away from home. This composition is an ode to our house in a way, and to my parents and animals. Sounds recorded also include the pets I live with. percussive and harmonic elements were created either by their own bodily acoustics, or sounds created when I have had an effect on them.
The composition could be labeled as an IDM track, however the genre has no relevance toward the meaning. It was more of a way to include as much percussive found sounds within the track as I could.
Overall, the rationale for this track was to encompass all my memories and experiences living in my home into a musically digestible project, where without an explanation could be passed off as any other composition.
Research
Practice based research for this project began similar to the audio documentary, with what I already knew. Growing up in the same house for 21 years allows for an entire library of sounds to be formed. The part that needed to be researched was how to make those sounds fit musically with one another. For example, I found that layering different sounds together to create my desired kick drum was a useful technique. By Combining the sound of my palm against my dog’s stomach and my fist against the hollow section of my bedroom wall, I was able to create the ground work for this element. Adding a hi-cut and a boost between 50-200hz (Audient, 2024) gave the desired sound, layered with the isolated sub frequencies from my dogs howl.
A lot of my own practical research was recording everything I could think of and then experimenting within logic with different avenues I could take each sound. I spent time in Logics Alchemy sampler with some of these sounds to create synth parts.
Using found sound is a way to create original music (Young, 2025), so by using as may of these sound effects, I was able to make a piece of music that is unable to be replicated by any means other than visiting my home with a field recorder.
I initially began work on another track with these sounds as a rough draft, trying to come up with ways I could organise these sounds. I later took inspiration from Aphex Twin, an IDM artist who works with samples and found sound to create his pieces. His pieces are often dissonant and have an off kilter feel to them, so i researched his work. He tends to juxtapose loud and soft sounds, and his pieces lack a structure or harmony (Paradinas, 2014).
Project Management
As far as project management goes, it was mainly a case of organising every sound that had been recorded. They were all recorded on a Zoom H5, all within a 2 days. They were placed into a file and I took each recording one by one and tried to come up with something musical within Logic.
I let myself be more creative than methodical with this project, since the rationale behind it was a meaningful one. I allowed for time to be spend experimenting before settling on anything concrete.
Evaluation
In conclusion, this project had the most significant rationale behind it, and the finished product serves as a nice nod to my childhood only understood by me and my parents.
Areas of improvement would be to consider using the sounds to create more harmonic elements rather than percussive. I feel had the genre not been IDM, there could be room for more creativity melody wise. That being said, choosing this genre helped implement the natural percussive elements of my home more easily.
For examples of raw sounds recorded for this section, see appendices titled “FOUND SOUNDS”
Appendices and Bibliography
Bibliography
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Clements, D. (2024). Is Golf Still an Elitist Sport. [online] Golfshake.com. Available at: https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/20711/Is_Golf_Still_an_Elitist_Sport.html.
Cummins, C. (2024). Why Golf Clubs Need To Wise Up To Ageism. [online] Golf Monthly. Available at: https://www.golfmonthly.com/reviews/ladies-golf-clubs/why-golf-clubs-need-to-wise-up-to-ageism.
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Sens, J. (2022). Remember when: Why Augusta National stopped using club caddies at the Masters. [online] Golf. Available at: https://golf.com/news/augusta-national-club-caddies-masters/?srsltid=AfmBOorwEnD0Mliquw60FtRz37_AXAiy3BZJshU2ABIF4cqBowPKEQ4V [Accessed 23 Apr. 2026].
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