Month: November 2014

We had a lot to record for the overdub week. We started by recording the guitar solo as without it there would be a large, boring instrumental break. I was playing guitar and after setting up the amp (high gain, high mids and lows, slightly less treble to avoid string noise) I ran through the part on loop as it was particularly difficult. We used two close microphones on the amplifier at the same distance (SM57 and an Electro-Voice RE20) and an AKG 414 as a room mic placed opposite the amp (set to omni-directional for room sound).I had to use a punch in for the last part as it overlapped and we recorded two takes in order to pick between the best executions of each lick.

We also re-recorded the lead guitar part as we were not happy with the one from week 3. For this I used the same amp settings as the solo.

Next we recorded keyboard; here I was able to get behind the desk and work Pro tools with Panashe. First we found the right sound on the electric piano and then ran it through the DI into the patch bay and then into the desk. I set the gain levels, pressed the “line” button and turned up the short faders into pro tools at the right level and then listened back with the long fader. We recorded in stereo using two jack leads, one for each output. We encountered a problem with a buzz coming into pro tools; we realised that the sound was coming from the keyboard itself and found that adjusting the volume made no difference to the buzz so to remedy this we simply set the keyboards volume to max and then reduced the gain on the desk. Increasing the signal to noise ratio like this got rid of the buzz.

Lastly we recorded backing vocals; for this me, George and Panashe all went into the dead room to record around one microphone. We encountered a problem where our headphones did not reach well enough but we simply moved closer to the headphone output. We used an AKG 414 with a pop shield set to omni-directional to capture all of our voices equally. After looping the chorus and practising a few runs we recorded together.

This was the first week were I was not performing so I was working the desk. Before the session began I printed off the lyrics just in case. We recorded vocals in the dead room to avoid unwanted room noise. We tested three microphones (Shure SM57, Electro-Voice RE20 and an AKG C414) to see which best suited our singer (Panashe). The SM57 gave a surprising amount of low end for its polar pattern while the 414 seemed the most clear and intelligible. After the initial test we did another one but over this time over the track; now the RE20 and the 414 stood out the most in the mix. After a final vote we decided on the 414 as we felt it had the most detail and got the most out of Panashe’s voice. We set the polar pattern to cardioid as we were after a direct sound but we avoided hyper cardioid as we also wanted to get the subtle resonances from his body. Then we enabled the bass cut off filter to 160Hz and under to avoid unnecessary low end noise which could cause EQ problems at mixing. Lastly we made sure that Panashe did not stand or sing to too close to the microphone as he might overload it.

The first thing I had to do on the desk was zero the faders from the previous session. From here I set the gain levels for each microphone (enabling phantom power ((48v)) on the 414’s channel. Before we tested the vocals over the track I only had to press the “mix” button and set the input level with the short faders and output with the long faders (once we were recording into Pro tools I turned the “mix” button off). When setting the short faders into Pro tools I tried to make sure that the loudest parts that he would sing were peaking between 20 and 5db. We recording more than one take to allow for variation and multing during mix down. It was also important to keep regular communication with Panashe to make sure he was comfortable and delivering the best performance.

After the session I also made sure that the desk was zeroed.

We were tracking electric guitar this week. Our track “Beat It” is guitar heavy so we had a lot to record. First we recorded the basic rhythm part which we double tracked (recorded twice) for a heavier sound. For this we used two Shure SM57’s at the same distance from the amplifier. To get both a bright and dark recording we pointed one of the microphones in the middle of the amp (for treble) and the other to the side of the speaker (for bass). When we tested the sound there was too much low end so on the desk we cut the frequencies below 50Hz using EQ this gave us a less bass like sound (we also panned these to hard left and right). We played the guitar through a Vox modelling amp so we were able to dial our desired tone in. We avoided adding affects like reverb as these can be added easily during mixing. I was playing the guitar this week so I made sure that the tone fitted the song. We set the amp to “High Gain” and turned the gain nob all the way up for a heavy metal tone.

Before recording we made sure that the mix has alright in my headphones. While recording the rhythm part I missed a note at the end which we remedied in Pro Tools by copying the note from the same part that I had played earlier and pasting it were the note should be.

We also recorded the lead guitar part which is more aggressive. We put less distortion and gain on the amplifier for this part as it was too overpowering. We also added a room microphone to get the more reverberant room tone that suited the lead part. For this we placed an sE 2200 on the other side of the live room from where I was playing and set the polar pattern to Omni-directional in order pick up all of the reflections of the room.

I was playing bass for our group so before the session I made sure that I had learned and practice the piece. We recorded the bass through a DI box and an amplifier in the dead room for a clean sound. The DI signal went straight into the desk while we tried two different microphones on the amp. We positioned an AKG D112 and an AKG 414 towards the amp at an equal distance from each other. We placed them at around 3/9 o’ clock so as not to get a too bass or treble heavy sound and also had them very close to the speaker for a dry sound. We tested the two microphones by soloing them on the desk and decided that the 414 had the clearer sound that fitted the song more so we went with that.

One problem on the amplifier was that it had a bad hiss when the treble nob was up caused by a faulty tweeter. So we got around this simply by putting it to zero which was fine as we wanted a low/mid sound. I set the EQ on the amp at around 1 o’ clock on the low and 12 o’ clock on the mid nob. I did not want any part of the sound to be overpowering as the bass in our chosen track Beat It is mimicking the guitar part throughout.

Before the recording I used a guitar tuner to ensure I was in tune and played through the piece by myself a few times. As well as playing along to the drums from last week Panashe also provided guide vocals during the recording (using an sEX1 microphone). Even though I was performing in the mixing room I wore headphones so that I could hear the track better. At the end of the best take I made a mistake so to remedy this we set a pre-role before the mistake so that I could play along and correct it without having to punch in or crossfade.

Once our drummer George had set up the drum kit how he wanted in the drum room we began to mic it up. For the overheads we used two AKG C414B’s, opposite each other to get the stereo.  We put them both in cardioid mode so that they were directional and positioned them at an equal distance with the snare in the middle. We chose AKG C414B’s as they are good at picking up detail (the whole kit) and they also have a bright sound which is good for the cymbals. We encountered a problem where we had to move the stands around till we got a precise stereo field.

We used an Audix ADX51 as a room microphone. We placed this behind the drummers head and pointed it towards the centre of the kit. This was for picking up room sound and reverberations.

We used two microphones on the snare; one on the top for bottom end and one underneath for the high end. On the top we used a Shure SM57 as it is robust, cardioid (so it only picks up the snare) and it can take a lot of SPL. On the bottom we used an Audix I5 which is a similar microphone to the SM57 and will serve the same purpose. We reversed the phase on the bottom microphone using the desk to avoid phase cancellation issues.

We used an AKG D112 on the bass drum as it is good at picking up low frequencies and has a good SPL. We placed it around the middle of the drum to get a balance between the click and the boom.

The drum kit had two toms so we put an Audix D2 on each. These are designed for use on toms as they are small, can take high SPL and are clip-on for practicality. They are also hypercardioid so the sound is very direct (so as not to pick up the cymbals).

We had two guide musicians (vox + guitar). For the vox we used an sEX1 with a pop shield and for the guitar an SM57 pointed at the amp. I was playing guide guitar for the session so I tried to make my tone similar to how to would be in the final mix (high gain, distortion, etc). Me and the vocalist performed in the live room. My job was to play along during the run-throughs and takes so that George new where we were in the song.

Each musician had headphones and we were all hearing the same mix as in the mixing room and using foldback A on the desk to control the headphone level.

All of the condenser microphones (C414B’s, Audix 51, sEX1) required phantom power to be enabled on their specific channels.

To set the input gain for each mic, the channel would be soloed to get the right level.