Unit 31: Planning & Delivering a Music Product - Foxey Lady Session

Session 1:

In our three hour session we wanted to record the drums, bass and electric guitar, before deciding if any more sessions were required and if we wanted to add any more instruments. We began by setting up the drummer and bassist in the live room, in opposite corners, with an acoustic panel to prevent spill from getting into the drum recording as much as possible, which was reasonably effective. 

This is a session plan I drew up before our session, to ensure we knew what we were doing during setup, and to help the session run smoothly.

The first change made to the session plan was that we used the Ribbon R1 directly in front of our drums rather than the NT2000, as we felt on past sessions it had given us better results, and decided to go with this proven choice instead. Also we put the D112 on the kick and the D550 on the bass amp, which is opposite to the plan but really made no odds as they were the two dynamics good at picking up bass frequencies so either was adequate for each job.We began setting up according to this adjusted plan, and the pictures below show us doing so.

Picture 1: Putting the D550 on the bass amp, over the left cone visible in the cabinet. Also showing the position of the acoustic panel to prevent spill.

Picture 2: This shows the ribbon angled down over the drum kit to get a detailed sound of all the toms and the lowered ride cymbal which was the players preference to be there. It also shows how we positioned the bass player away from the panel to allow visual communication between the drummer and bassist while playing, and also through the window with the control room, so we knew the sections of the track, and could take cue's from each others body language and playing.

Picture 3: This shows our drum setup, with the D112 on kick, SM57 on snare, KM184 overheads, and ribbon centrally. Also the setup of the headphone mixer to the drummers left, to send a 100BPM click track to the drummers headphones to maintain a steady tempo, and also to get verbal communication between the control room and players between takes.

Picture 4: This shows us using channels on the desk, and an empty Logic Project which we began to name channels on as we setup mics. We hadn't yet set levels for bass on this picture, as only 5 faders are at unity, but bass was the 6th and we checked it's level alongside the drums.

Picture 5: This shows some dampening tape added to the drums for a shorter sound and less ringing tones, and shows the padding in the kick drum doing the same thing. It also shows the angle of the snare mic, angled down over the edge of the skin, to pick up a full sound but not restrict the player too much.

















We did a few takes of the bass and drums together, having set our levels using the standard procedure of every session. We had a few slip ups, but solved the problem by having an engineer giving us visual clues through the window of the section we were approaching, so the drummer and bassist got a full take done without mistakes. Here's a channel list for drums and bass.

We were then ready to record all guitar parts, which we decided to do in the control room, DI'ing the electric guitar straight into the desk, and using amp designer to give us the desired guitar sounds. We went jack to jack from the guitar to the input of the box, and then XLR to XLR out the box to the channel insert of channel one on the mixing desk. We then sent 48v phantom power to the DI box as it's active, and requires this power to work. We set up an audio channel in logic for the guitar, routing it out of channel 23-24 to be heard out of the monitors like the rest of the multitrack, and loaded an amp designer, and allowed our guitarist to select the best sounding amplifier as he knew what he wanted and what would best replicate the original track. Having done this we were ready to record, and as it was a case of pressing record, and allowing the guitarist to do a take, we decided to keep our distance, and give him space to feel comfortable and take care of the recordings himself, which he did efficiently and played well. Having recorded all these parts we had a full sounding multitrack to mix, and we had recorded everything we wanted in the three hour time frame, which we were proud to have done as it meant we'd stuck to our plan and worked efficiently.




Session Costs:
1 x 3 hour session = £60
KM184 pair = £25
SE R1 Ribbon = £20
Fender Bass = £15
Fender Stratocaster = £15        Session Total: £135
Mixing & Mastering Costs:
2 hours mix session = £40
Mastering = £50                      Mix & Master Total: £90

Net Total: £225