Track 1 (Guitar-based band production)
Cab Driver – “Never Enough” Overdub Project – Individual Mix and Master Project
Pre-Production and Project Management
Solomon made contact with the band Cab Driver to perform the parts necessary for this track. To plan the sessions and arrangement, the band provided us with a demo, which we stripped apart using Logic’s Stem Splitter to create guides for the performances later. Any rehearsals were left to the performers, as the track is an original of theirs, meaning they have already practiced it.
Recording
The microphones used for the overdub recording are as follows:
Drums
Percussion
The additional percussion elements were recorded using the Calrec 1050c pair we used for the room mics, as they were sensitive enough to pick up the more delicate elements of the instruments, while also not requiring us to set up additional microphones.
Bass
The bass amp was set up in the vocal booth, and we used a DI and a re-amp to funnel the signal to it.
Guitar
The guitar Take was a simple, single RE20 set up directly by the cab.
Vocals
Post-Production, Mixing and Mastering
While mixing, the recorded elements were separated into pack folders. Those folders were then used to create buses for each overall element, allowing me to set levels against themselves, then–once happy–set the bus levels against each other.
Vocals
Vocal harmonies were controlled through compression, then the lead vocals were simply levelled, and the controlled through bus processing.
- I applied a gate to remove headphone bleed.
- An LA-2A compressor to control dynamics (and add appropriate warmth, as the LA-2A is often used for).
- A de-esser, as the singer was ill the only time they could be recorded, and it allowed me to fix some of the tone.
- Eq to remove unneeded frequencies, and emphasise the useful ones.
Guitar
The guitar faired a little more simply.
The intro felt a little empty, so I recorded the reverb bus of a guitar section, reversed it, applied reverb to it, and used it to fill that gap at the start. Though I feel it does work, it could also be seen as tonally incongruous with the rest of the track.
Bass
The Bass may have ended up louder than intended, but the guitar parts ended up being quite simple, while the bass ones help more interesting elements, so I applied to focus to them instead.
Percussion
Drums
Master
The mastering follows a simple path of:
- EW
- Multiband Compression
- Stereo Widening
- Saturation
- Peak Clipping
- True-Peak Limiting
Track 2 Live in the studio (jazz/folk ensemble)
“Lotus Blossom” Live Jazz Ensemble Recording and Outboard Mix Project
Pre-Production and Project Management
Pre-production began with me contacting the Peter Nathan Quartet (a second year jazz ensemble) after floating the idea with the production group on the day that the assignment brief was discussed in seminar. As no one else had any better–more immediate options–we settled on them.
I contacted the quartet lead (the aforementioned Peter Nathan) after the seminar, and within the week had confirmation that they were happy to perform for us. With that locked in, they were given instruction to adapt something they were familiar with (in this case, the jazz standard “Lotus Blossom”) to last around four minutes. The aim being to have each of the three tracks of the assignment be around four minutes in length so that the uniformity would reduce the need for one of them to be overly long or overly short to fit within the time constraints. And a familiar standard was chosen as to reduce the need for extraneous rehearsals, allowing us to get the recording done sooner rather than later, giving us time for the rest of the group work.
Additionally, there was discussion of adding a singer to the quartet (that being the lead’s partner, Amelie Payne-Heneghan). However, as a group, we decided to keep things as simple as we could to help ensure the recording sessions went as smoothly as it could.
Studio 113 was picked due to the size of it’s live room, and access to a grand piano.
In the seminar before recording, a preliminary mic list was made by the group:
Recording
The microphone setup and instrument setup used is as follows:
Drums
A standard array of drum microphones were used, with the addition of a sub mic for the kick (similar to the setup for Track One). As can be seen in the last image, a microphone was placed for the ride. However, the drummer had two rides, and was not consulted on which one they were going to play. As such, they ended up playing the one which was not mic’d. This was not noticed until mixing.
Bass
The upright was set up with a C414, and a bridge mic suspended in a DIY cradle with elastic bands. The was also a pickup microphone attached to the bass, which was captured using a DI.
Piano
Two WA87 microphones were placed within the body of the piano, sheltered from bleed by the lid and cover.
Trumpet
A single M160 was placed near-central to the room, angled in a way that its polar pattern would lead to less sound bleed.
Dynamics and Bleed Control
The performers were evenly dispersed around the room, and screens were set up to help isolate the instruments in the live room, with care to use windowed ones which allowed the performers to still see each other, as that aids in maintaining performance cohesion (especially with the rhythm section).
To that effect, the grand piano was set up so that the lid was open, angled to block some of the room noise, and the cover placed back to compliment that.
Post-Production, Mixing and Mastering
The outboard mastering process was a simple one:
Levels were set on the desk, reverb (via the Lexicon multi-effects unit) was introduced to elements like the trumpet to help it sit better in the overall piece, and the in-line EQs were used to shape the sounds to fit the track. Afterwards, the master saturation was activated, along with the low bump and high lift options for the final mixdown.
Track 3 Remix track
“How Deep is Your Love” Remix Project – Individual Mix and Master
Pre-Production and Project Management
The core idea behind the remix was to create a synthwave-inspired, film trailer music piece which paid small homage to the disco origins of the track through the synth design, and leaning into the smooth jazz influences of the time.
As the remix required a minimum of two recorded elements, I contacted a pianist and a trumpet player. Once on board, I provided them with scores for their parts a week before the session (time constraints prevented it from being done sooner).
Recording
Post-Production, Mixing and Mastering
While adapting the provided vocals, Melodyne and Audio Bend were used to shape the vocals. I manually adjusted the pitch of the vocals to transpose them into the key of D Minor, and used the Elastique Pro Monophonic Formant to move the vocal transients to hit on time (to limited effect, as latter parts do lose the rhythm of the piece) while not degrading the audible quality.
An LA-2A was used to control the dynamics of the vocals, while Coldfire (a dual engine distortion plugin) was used to blend the sound with the distorted electronic elements of the remix. (Certain parts were also cut up and moved to add to the distorted glitchy soundscape).
A pad sits behind most of the track, using macros tied to the drive on its distortion, which (along with it’s volume) were automated to create dynamics, and transition effects. (See “Synth Design Example” at the top of this section.)
The percussion is an Impact preset, with minor adjustments to the kick’s transposition, and gain.
The mastering chain:
