Unit 25 – Recording Session Diaries
Creating A Multi-track recording: Session Diaries
Session 1: In our first session our goal was to record the drums and bass to a professional standard by the end of the three hours we had in the the studio. We knew that to do this we would need two SE1A condenser microphones as left and right drum overheads to record cymbals and toms, one AKG D112 dynamic microphone to record the kick drum, one SM57 dynamic microphone to record the snare drum and one DI box to send the bass signal to the mixing desk without it playing aloud, preventing spill onto the drum microphones from the bass amplifier. This is beneficial when mixing the multi-track recording so we can alter the sound of the drums without changing the characteristics of the bass, as if it had spilt onto the drum recording it couldn't be removed without changing the overall sound of the multi-track recording. The microphones we used were chosen for their specific rule according to how well they worked at recording certain instruments, for example the D112 used for the kick drum is a dynamic microphone which is good at recording low frequency sounds which means it would be right for recording a kick drum as it can withstand the air pressure created by a kick drum and achieve a clear recording. As well as these we knew we'd need 4 XLR to XLR cables to connect the microphones to the wall sockets which in turn are connected to the busses of the mixing desk, and 1 jack to jack cable and another XLR to XLR cable for connecting the bass to the DI box and then the DI box to the wall socket. The only other equipment we used in the live room aside from these and the instruments was headphones and the headphone amp, so the drum player could hear the bass clearly in his headphones as it wasn't being played aloud, and the bassist could hear what he was playing as he was playing in time with the drums, so for this we needed two sets of headphones, and we needed to route the bass recording to two outputs on the headphone amp using aux sends on the mixing desk. With all this setup we could record both the drums and bass with the ability to seperate them when mixing, and the musicians could perform in time with each other and were comfortable with what they were playing.
The next step was to set the levels on the mixing desk to ensure the signal we were recieving wasn't clipping, but was loud and picked up all frequencies giving a full sound. To do this we asked the performers to play their instruments so we could test each microphone, and increase or decrease the gain on each channel to obtain the optimum level. This was also the time we turned on phantom power for the channels of the desk using condenser microphones, as the sends them the electricity neccessary to charge the plates in the diaphragm which move to detect sound. Once setting levels was finished we were ready to run through the song, and as they were playing we could test the positioning of the microphones on the drum kit to achieve the best sound, and also ensure the perfomers were comfortablw with the sound of the bass in their headphones. Once these checks were done, we were ready to start recording onto the tracks in logic and getting two or three takes to play around with. Below are the details of channels we used to record the drums, and comments on the position of microphones:
Channel 9 - Kick Drum (AKG D112) - Inside kick drum, right in the centre of the drum, not against the skin.
Channel 10 - Snare Drum (SM57) - Over the skin facing downwards, about 2 or 3 cm off the skin.
Channel 11 - Left Overhead (SE1A) - Left of the kit, over the high hat and crash cymbal and toms, ensuring each was picked up clearly.
Channel 13 - Right Overhead (SE1A) - Right side of the kit, over the ride cymbal and floor tom, ensure they were clearly distinguishable with the other overhead.
Documenting this ment we could create a similar setup if anything needed re-recording later, and meant we could refer to it to troubleshoot any problems later in the recording stages, or indeed the mixing.
Some problems we encountered during the recording is that we couldn't get the drummer and bassist to play to a click track, so due to time constraints we decided to record them playing without one. This created difficulties when recording the guitars as the natural changes in tempo made it difficult for the guitar players to play along, and also due to the dropping out instruments during the bridge of the song, there was no waying of counting bars until the instruments came back, so that was left to guess work and resulted in further complications. These problems make the finished product sound unprofessional, and could've been ammended by making the performers play to a click, and maybe giving them longer to rehearse the song to know their parts.
Session 2:The aim of the second recording session was to record the rhythm guitar part and to re-amp the bass to give it the properties of a nice amplifier sound, again in the space of three hours. We knew therefore that we'd need two microphones to record the guitar through the amplifier, and stands and clips, and also we'd need the radial re-amping box for re-amping the bass. We decided the two microphones would be an SM57 dynamic mic and an SE1A condenser mic as this would give us a variation in sound that we could experiment with blending. As the dynamic mic can withstand loud signals and the condenser mic gives a broad detailed sound, so we decided we'd position the dynamic right up against the cabinet skin to get immediate impact and place the condenser a foot or so back to give room properties to the sound. When we'd plugged the microphones into the wall socket we had to set the levels of the corresponding tracks on the mixing desk, and setup audio tracks in logic to record the signal. Once this was set up we recorded two takes of the rhythm part. Our approach to recording the guitar part was good as it gave us usable material so we'd use the same approach to recording the lead guitar part in the third session with the hope it would be as successfull.
We then moved onto re-amping the bass part, which involves sending the part we had recorded through the DI box into the live room to play through an amplifier and record the sound of the bass part with nice properties attributed to it by the amplifier. To do this we had to use a radial re-amping box, which converts the line level signals back to instrument level, essentially giving the sound more dynamic properties and volume that it would have being played by a bassist through the amplifier, rather than a recorded version playing through an amplifier would have. We first had to send the recorded part via and aux send on the mixing desk to an output on the wallbox in the live room, which is sent from that output to the radial re-amping box and then into the amplifier. Before we recorded this we had to alter the settings of the amplifier until we found a sound we liked and then we recorded it. This gave us two bass recordings, one of the direct input and one of the amplifier, and we found the two could be blended, as the DI gave the overall bass sound more precision, so this gave us things to experiment with during mixing.
This recording session went well, but we again encountered problems with timing, as fluctuating timing in the drum recording made it very hard for the guitar player to keep in time, resulting in little mistakes in the recording, which we could've ammended with more time, but we had to leave due to a shortage of time in the studio. Also we maybe could've achieved a better guitar sound by changing more amplifier settings and using different microphones but again we didn't want to waste too much time experimenting and not leave enough time to get a solid recording.
Session 3: Our final three hour session was devoted entirely to recording the lead guitar part to the song. As this was our only task in the three hours we decided we should take our time and experiment with different microphones and positions to achieve the sound we wanted. We chose an SE1A condenser, SEX1 condenser and SM57 dynamic as our three microphones as we felt we could capture sounds with different properties using these mic's, and if later we were unhappy with what we got from one mic, we could always remove it as we'd still have recordings from another two which is beneficial when mixing our finished multi-track. The only other equipment we used were stands and clips for the microphones, 3 XLR cables to connect them to the wall boxes and a jack lead for the guitar to plug into the amp.
To decide when we thought we had the best position of microphones, we had one person stand in the live room, and asked the guitarist to play. We moved the microphones one at a time and when the people in the control room thought they'd found the best sound they signaled to the person in the live room to stop moving the microphone, and we did this for each of the microphones individually. This worked for the individual tracks but didn't blend perfectly well so we made a few more adjustments until the three sounded good together. Our existing knowledge of the microphones and their properties gave us some indication as to where they'd work best, for example we knew the SM57 could withstand high SPL's and so could be put very close to the cabinet and get a high impact sound, and we knew the SE1A could pick up sounds in greater detail so we could have that further back and get the sound of the guitar with the room and atmospheric properties adding to it. Here are the details of the microphones, their channel on the mixing desk and their positioning:
Channel 9 - SE1A - Right side of the cabinet, angled inwards towards the centre of the cabinet and about 40 cm away from it.
Channel 10 - SEX1 - Positioned centrally, facing straight towards the centre of the cabinet but closer than the SE1A, just 25 cm away.
Channel 11 - SM57 - Left side of the cabinet facing the left side of the cabinet with the receptor of the microphone pressed up against the mesh of the cabinet.
With all these factors we did manage to achieve a good lead guitar sound in the alloted time, and we also had time to record additional rhythmn parts as well which would give us another part to play around with when we mixed the final recording. However, we were once again tripped up by the problem from the first session of not recording to a metronome, as this meant the guitarist really struggled to follow the inconsistant tempo of track in his headphones. Although he often managed to keep it together, we knew it wouldn't sound professional and knew we'd have to do some sort of beat mapping in Logic when mixing. If we were to start this again we'd definately make the players play to a click to avoid this problem. Also, when recording the guitar we faced the cabinet towards the wall mounted panels which we angled inwards to create a booth effect giving the guitar recording a more spacious property. We maybe should've also tried positioning these panels differently, or even disregarding them altogether and seeing what sound we achieved by putting the cabinet right in the centre of the room, however considering we only had three hours, we felt the recordings we achieved were good enough to use in our multi-track recording.
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