Unit 25: Music Production Techniques - Unmixed Multi-track

Unit 25: Music Production Techniques - Finished & Mixed Multi-track

How I mixed the track:

The first thing I did to the track was editing the audio regions and adjusting their position to ensure that timing was correct. I first tried to time everything to the kick drum, as that plays constantly through the track and would be good to allign the rest of the drums and instruments to. I made slight timing alterations to some parts of the guitar track, but didn't make any extreme changes like beat mapping. I used strip silence on each of my tracks to eliminate background noise, but didn't on my left and right overheads as these picked up sounds from the whole drum kit, and strip silencing them may cause balancing issues, and loose certain sounds, changing the characteristics of the drums. So the strip silence worked effectively I changed the threshold and seconds of silence before action settings so that it worked effectively. I also shortened regions with silence at the start and end so the track wasn't swamped with unneccessary background noise.
The next step was to EQ channels to create a sound that worked individually when the channel was solo'd and with the rest of the instruments in the entire track. The first thing I EQ'd was my kick drum, And I used the EQ bands to scoop out unneccessary frequency bands, which would create space for other instruments to occupy and hopefully give my completed mix extra clarity and definition to the instruments. I applied EQ to all the instruments but not to the left and right overheads as they contain lots of drums at different frequencies so removing certain frequencies may have a detrimental affect on the sound of the kit. Also when EQ'ing I tried to compensate for some sounds, for example the bass recording sounded quite dull so I made a little EQ band to excentuate frequencies around 250Hz which made it sound nicer. After all the EQ was done I then added compression to some instruments. The compression creates a threshold to how loud a sound can go and gives a ratio setting which dictates how a sound above the threshold is acted upon. Ultimately the compressor brings all the sounds down, and then gain is added to bring them up to the level they were at before, but with less dramatic changes in pressure levels and volume, meaning it sounds more settled in the mix with other instruments. I added compression to my lead and rhythm guitar, bass and  kick and snare drum to make sure these weren't ever too loud or quite throughout the tracks duration.
I didn't have any massive timing issues in my track so I didn't need to use time flex or map kick drums to a timeline, but I did make small ammendments to the guitars where occasional strums were out. To do this I either cut out an incorrect strum and replaced it or dragged it into time with a fine movement selected. Also whenever I cut an audio region I added a cross fade over the cut so there isn't an obvious click if the waveform isn't at zero as it moves from one region to the other.
After all this I started to change the characteristics of the sounds and making the mixer sound nicer with effects like reverb to add depth to sounds, and also using amp designer to create a nice distorted guitar tone for the lead guitar. I first put the amp designer plug in on the lead guitar track and created a nice tone by moving the parameters like middle, treble and bass and then experimented with some pre-set sounds before deciding on a final sound. The reverb could be used as an effect itself or to give the end product a unified sound that sounded like a group recording and not different elements brought together. I used a plate reverb setting on my snare drum to give it character and then later applied reverb in groups to the drums as a whole.
The final step was adding plug ins and effects to the master fader. These were not to alter the instruments but to bring the entire mix up to a professional standard of 44,100 KHz and 16Bit. It's worth noting also that by this stage I'd bounced all my tracks to audio files and put them in a fresh project so not to be distracted by effects plug-ins as that stage was finished. I created a "smile curve" to give the illusion of extra volume, and also brought levels up to a maximum of 0.3 on the master fader so nothing was clipping, but ensured the dynamic range was still intact so the track wasn't boring with very little dynamic interest. Once all this was done the track was finished.

Unit 25: Production Techniques - ASFC Studio Equipment Specification

ASFC Studio Equipment Specification

Microphones:

AKG D112: This is a microphone used to record a kick drum and other instruments with primarily bass frequecies, and it is recognised as one of the best microphones for this job. It’s appropriate for this job as it’s a dynamic microphone, so its diaphragm is less sensitive to loud sounds and high SPL’s and operates between 20 Hz and 17,000 Hz, which means it will pick up the bass frequencies to give an accurate bass drum sound. The specification for this microphone says it can withstand up to 160 dB of sound pressure, which is crucial when recording a kick drum, as the force on the skin from the foot pedal can result in air being forced toward that microphone at a high velocity with a loud volume, so this microphone is able to withstand this. As well as recording the kick drum, this microphone would be good for recording bass instruments as it is good a picking up sounds with very low frequencies. It has a a cardioid polar pattern which means it picks up sounds directly in front of the microphone and slightly off to the sides. Knowing this, you can only record an instrument directly in front of it to get a full recreation of the instruments sound.

SE 1A: This microphone is a condenser microphone which can be used to record any acoustic or electric instrument, and can is used as left and right drum overheads to pick up the toms and symbols of a drum kit. As condenser mic's they're more sensitive than dynamic microphones, and require an electrical charge to charge the diaphragm plates, so as a result of this they cannot be put close to a very loud instrument like a kick drum, and cannot withstand a high SPL caused by some loud instruments. However the sensitivity of condensers can be beneficial as if you position the microphone away from the drums in room it picks up ambience or reverb created by the room which can have a nice effect on drums or other acoustic instruments. As symbols and toms are mid or high range frequencies, the condenser microphone will pick them up and create an accurate recording of them as this microphone ranges between 30Hz and 20,000Hz, whereas the other dynamic couldn't pick up a frequency that high. Using two drum overheads equidistant either side of the snear drum is an alternative to mic'ing up every individual drum and symbol in the kit, which still produces an accurate representation of the drum kits sound. This diagram shows the frequency response and cardiod pattern of the SE 1A microphone. It shows how the microphone boosts its frequency response in the high frequencies to pick up those sounds, which could be slightly misleading as it can sometimes give the impression of too much or too little high end in the mix. Also it shows the cardiod polar pattern, which varies slightly at different frequencies, but generally picks up signals in the cardiod pattern in front of the microphone.

SM57: This microphone is a dynamic like the D112 used to record the kick drum or bass instruments, but works well recording instruments of a higher pitch as its frequency response shows it's very consistent between 100Hz and 6KHz. The frequency response on this microphone isn't as high as the SE 1A, but the manufacturers say "The contoured frequency response with its precise rise, helps the instrument cut better through the main mix". As its a dynamic microphone it doesn't need a power supply like the SE 1A does, but in terms of its roll it can be used along side the SE 1A when recording things like an electric guitar, for example the SM57 could be close the amplifier picking up the tone of that spot and the more sensitive SE 1A could be behind it picking up the sound of the amplifier and the room, giving a rounded sound.

Mixing Desk:

The Mixing Desk is a 24 channel 8 bus mixing desk, which means it has 24 individual channels that can correspond to microphones or an instrument like a Moog synthesizer through the line input of the channel or flipped for another sound input giving it more flexibility, and 8 busses in the master section, which channels can be sent to to group them into sections and mix them that way, for example channels 1 to 4 maybe recording parts of the drum kit, and when the channels are balanced they're grouped onto buss 1 where they can be balanced as one kit with the rest of the instruments. Each channel has features to clean up or improve your recordings, for example a low cut filter which removes sound below 75Hz frequency, but obviously this can't be used on a recording of a bass guitar or a kick drum. As well as this there are EQ settings on each channel strip, and these are used to change the properties of the sound like its timbre or tone. The most flexible of the channel EQ's is the parametric EQ which can be used to make subtle tonal changes or can be narrowed to correct mistakes or unpleasant noises. If you're removing an unpleasant noise for example it first lets you identify the frequency of the noise by moving the frequency pot from 500Hz to 18Khz, then when you've singled it out you can alter the width band so you're not removing other parts of the sound which are important to the character of the sound and you can alter the high mid setting which allows you to remove the soun completely by pulling below the 0dB or excentuating the sound by lifting it way above the 0dB line. Each channel strip has a line input, meaning that any instrument with a line output like a synthesiser can be plugged into that channel to be recorded. Once on that channel it can be recorded into logic to be compressed for example, or the channels built in EQ can be used to manipulate the sound.

Recording Devices:

To record the music being created, the studio uses Logic 9 software on a Mac computer. Logic is only available on Mac's, and these handle lots of things happening in the sequencer better than a PC, so that's why they're used. Logic is where signals are sent from the mixing desk, but they're sent via a MOTU 24 input/output audio interface, which converts the signal from an audio signal to a digital data signal that a computer can understand. The 24 inputs correspond to the 24 channels of the mixing desk. Once the sounds are recorded in Logic, they can be manipulated using in built EQ software in the mixer. Each recording channel can have EQ, compression and effect plug ins applied to the sound to first clear it up and have it sounding its best, and then to add interest to it. Also, when all the components of a recording are done, they can be sent to an auxillary track which splits have the signal to that and adds effects like reverb to those sounds and is then blended back in. This gives the track a unity as the same reverb on all sounds makes it sound like it was recorded in the same space. As well as manipulating recorded sounds, Logic can be used to create MIDI data, and allows you to create sounds you couldn't create without very expensive instruments or hardware equipment. This is very beneficial to the college studio as they cannot afford to buy all this equipment, so having plug ins which allow you to mimic certain sounds is very useful.

Monitoring:

It's crucial that studio monitors give an accurate frequency response, meaning they don't excentuate any particular frequencies and causing the engineer to add or take away too much low or high frequencies. They also need to play sounds of all frequencies, so no aspects of a full track at either end of the frequency spectrum are lost in the mix of instruments. A final requirement is that they can play the recordings back very loudly, as it's important when mixing sounds and adding effects that you can hear the subtle effects on sounds, and that you can create a sound with depth and 3 dimensions, which you can't create listen to the sound on headphones or quietly. The KRK VXT6 monitors used in the Ashton studio have a frequency range from 49Hz to 22Khz which cover frequencies right through from low bass up to very high treble sounds which means you can hear every possible frequency of sound in your mix. They have a seperate tweeter above the cone specifically for high frequency sounds as they travel more directly to the ear than mid and low frequency sounds. This means that high frequencies are still audible when you listen to a track with lots of frequencies, and the high end isn't lost. An additional feature that isn't important for the ashton college but maybe for people with smaller studio spaces is the HF and LF controls. These allow you to boost a certain end of the frequency range to compensate for features of your room. For example, if you have no choice but to put your speakers right in the corner, the reflections off the two walls would excentuate the bass, so the LF control allows you to drop this meaning that you hear the correct balance you would hear in an acoustically treated large room with the speakers away from the corners. At the bottom of the page is a graph displaying the frequency response of the KRK monitors. What it shows is that the perfomance of the monitors is consitant between 60 Hz and 19 KHz as it stays very close to the 0 dB line, but above 19 KHz there's a slight excentuation of the sound and below 60 Hz there's a roll off which dramatically reduces the bass. However, this isn't a problem as those two extremes of frequency aren't very audible anyway, so having them lost isn't a massive problem, the important thing is that it is consistent between 60 Hz and 19 Khz.

Unit 25: Production Techniques - Recording Session Diaries

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.