Multi Track

The first thing I did was insert a master fader in pro tools. This allowed me to keep an eye on levels on the mix and also it showed me if more tracks were panned to a certain side so I would be able to get a balanced mix. After that I trimmed down sections that weren’t needed such as the ten second introduction of silence and also the clicking of the drum sticks to introduce the song. After I cut out the sections it started on the instruments.

For the drums I sorted out the level of each each individual track and then grouped them and boosted them so they would be heard clearly in the mix. I then started on the Kick Drum. For this I wanted a really deep and beefy sound so I inserted a 7 band EQ plug in and boosted the frequency at 50Hz and dropped a little bit of the mid and high frequencies to make the bass of the kick drum stand out. I then added a compressor to the kick which boosted the bass signal and got cut out the higher frequency. I then started on the snare and used the 7 band EQ set up on both bottom and top snare microphones, this boosted the frequencies at around 200Hz which was real sweet spot for it. I then used a gate plug in which only allowed the signal where the snare was hit just to come through. I sent both Over Heads to an auxiliary channel which had a 7 band EQ plug in dropping the mid-mid high frequencies adding more depth to the symbols and overall drum kit.

I then started on the bass guitar and boosted the level high to sit well in the mix. I added the same EQ set up to both the microphone and DI signal which boosted the low frequencies and dropped the mid high- high frequencies adding more warmth.

After the Bass came the acoustic guitars. These were hard panned left and right. The guitar that was playing the harmony need the level boosting. I also boosted its low end frequencies at around 200Hz giving it more character and clarity. The DI’d acoustic guitar had frequencies boosted from 200Hz to 800Hz making the overall sound more fuller and richer.

I then started on the vocals. I used a 7 band EQ to get rid of sharp pronunciations of T’s and S’s which were at around 500Hz. And then sent it to an auxiliary channel and added re-verb to get a wet signal and not to compromise the dry signal. This added more ambience to the vocals and to the overall mix.

I then started on the solos of the guitar, harp and piano. For the guitar I added re-verb and more distortion to really boost that 70’s rock feel we were going for in the recording. I added an auto pan plug in on the harp which panned the harp left and right to the beat of the track. For reduced a certain part of the piano signal as it was hit to loud during the recording, to do this I simply isolated the part that needed reducing and cut it and then reduced the waveform.

All that was left to do was to listen to the track through box standard earphones. I was happy with the overall mix but had to go back and increase the volume of the bass and vocals. I believe my mix is much more cleaner than the unmixed version and by added dynamics such as re-verb adds more ambience and warmth to the overall mix.

In a professional studio when  finishing a recording, it is important to organise your session before handing it over to your mix engineer. This allows the mix engineer to have a clear start to understand your recording.

In this session I was in charge of pro tools. We started off grouping all the tracks, we grouped the drum tracks together, the guitar tracks and the bass tracks. With each recording there was a limited amount of time so labelling tracks wasn’t a priority so we labelled each track in more detail so when it came to mixing we new what microphone was used and the position of it. We sorted some of the levels out on the tracks, only obvious ones that were clearly to loud or to quiet. After that we panned the tracks to get a stable mix. After that we played the song through mono on the speakers which allowed us to identify which tracks were loud or too quiet. After we finished that we listened back to the track without pro tools showing on the screen, this gave as a clear image from we were hearing so we weren’t tempted to change anything.

This session is incredibly useful as it tidies the whole mix up and gives you a great starting point to mix the track. Without this we would have to waste time labelling tracks and grouping them which could be spent on mixing.

 

So it was overdub week. This is where we recorded Callum Smith on the electric guitar, Sean Doyle on the piano and Abigail Blake on an electronic harp. I was in charge of Callum’s microphone placement and the guitar amplifier. I placed a Sure SM57 slightly off the cone of the amplifier and about an inch from the grill of the amp. I believe this produces a smooth recording and reduces any chances for the microphone to clip or distort. I also placed a AKG 414 a couple of metres from the amplifier in a omnidirectional polar pattern, this pics up an ambient recording of the guitar and also a natural re verb. We used a DI box for Sean’s piano which sends a clean smooth signal to the mixer. We placed the harp in the dead room and used a DI signal and a AKG 414 set to cardioid directly at the range of notes Abigail was playing. There were some patching issues with the DI box which lead to a weak signal but was sorted in quick succession.

We only needed to record the harp in one place of the song so we recorded that first. As it is a fast piece for the harp, it took a few attempts for Abigail to record it but the final recording sounded great.

Then we decided to record Callums guitar solos. For about ten minutes before the recording we had to experiment with the sound of the guitar alongside the track to make sure the sound fitted. In the end we decided to go for a retro 70’s pop guitar, with a little bit of distortion. Of few takes of that and the solo sounded pretty decent.

The piano was to be played throughout the song and it only took one take for Sean which showed that he had been practising. A few chords were played a bit too loud but it was nothing that we couldn’t reduce in our mixes. We also decided to record a string setting on the piano to accompany the harp and actually proved very well.

This overdub session proved vital to our track as I believe it polished it off. The quality of the recording sounds great pre mix and I think it is a great product to mix and master.

This session we recorded our vocals for our track. Abigail is the singer. In any professional recording studio it is important that you make your singer comfortable. This ensures that they are relaxed therefore allowing their voice to be more fluent and precise, which leads to a good vocal recording. We recorded in the dead room creating the driest possible recording. When it comes to mixing the track this will allows us to edit the vocals to how we want. Whether it having loads of re verb or EQ. I was chosen to set the microphones up, using B5 to B7 inputs in pro tools. We decided that we would test out three microphones so that we could choose the right one for Abigail’s voice. The microphones were; Sure SM57, AKG 4112 and the Electro-Voice RE20. Each microphone was set to a cardioid polar pattern so it records directly at the singer. On the Electro-Voice (EV) it allows you to select a Low shelf EQ switch which rolls off the low end, so we did that. We recorded a section of vocals with all three microphones and selected which sounded better. The 57 had a lot of sibilance therefore we would of had to use a lot of EQ to get rid of that, so we decided not to use that. The 4112 was very clear but had a lot of low end and didn’t amplify the high female frequencies. So we decided not to use that one. So we were left with the EV which was the better microphone as it sounded much more fuller and richer and it had less sibilance. Abigail proved to be a very good and professional singer as we only had to run through it once which shows that she had been practising. I believe we produced a good level quality vocal recording as we selected the right microphone for the right vocal. The session went very smoothly as Abigail practised before hand.

This week we recorded our acoustic guitars. For this we didn’t need the backing track we had recorded in the first session as we did for recording the bass guitar. It was Me and Paris playing the guitars. We decided to record one in the live room and one in the dead room. This was so the two guitars weren’t picked up in the same mix as one another. Also it gave is two different guitar recordings; the live room giving reverberation and an ambient sound,  the dead room giving more of a clean recording. We used an Sm57 on the 12th fret on my guitar which was is in live room and also a room microphone which was the SE22OOA. This allowed us to pick a close and clean signal from the guitar and also the reverberation from the room. Paris was located in the dead room and was using an electro-acoustic guitar so we used a DI box for him. After the levels were sorted out on the desk we hard panned left for my guitar and hard panned right for Paris’s. This sounded perfect in the mix as my guitar played the harmony to Paris’s.

An improvement that could of been made in this session was the organisation of what was going to be played. We had only rehearsed once prior to this session an was noticeable when it came to recording. Other than that the recording went smoothly once the structure had been discussed. We had to record over a mistake at the end but was easily sorted out by using the pre-roll feature in pro tools

I believe we recorded the guitars really well and produce a diverse and interesting sound as we panned the guitars helping boost the harmonising effect.