Recording clinets

His unit of work was all about recording bands, we used two
different studios to record the musitians. One of these rooms was
used for a multi track recording the other being a live recording
room with the exception of vocals which were overdubbed.
For recording in studio one we used the following setup:
Kick- Audix
Top snare 0 sm57
Bottom snare sm58
Rack tom audic f6
Floor tom- audix f6
Overheads- audix penisl condercers
Hi hat- penisl condercer
Guitar sm57 vox night train
Bass berinhger di box- focrousrite isa1 preamp
Recording setup in studio a:
Sub rewired speaker
Kick- akg kick drum
Top snare sm57
Bottom snare- sm57
Overheards- nauman pansil condercers
Guitar- mesa di box
Bass- la-610
Vocals sm7b/ condercer

Boots are made for walking:

This track was recorded in studio 1. This is the studio we used for
the mutli tracking. 1st we got the mustians to set up. Originally we
had the drummer , bass and guitars all playing at once. We recorded
the guitar by micing up the amp in a different room and sending the
singal through the mix control software back out to headphones.
The reason why we chose this because it allowed us the best signal
to noise ratio while doing a live recording of these instruments. We
had the bass running through a di box into a focusorite isa 1
preamp. We chose to run it into the preamp to add warmth and
character to the bass. All mustians ran on headphones so that they
all could keep in time while using the click track. This also worked in
our favous because it lowered our singal to noise rastion even more

because we did not have any bleed from the guitars on the drum
mics. This is something which has chaged from last time because
when we last done a live recording we had a lot of bleed and I feel
that running the mutians on headphones has in the bigger picture
has made my mixes better cause I dont not have to contend with
any bleed from other mics and a lot I have a great singal to noise
ratio.
Once recorded the 1st thing we chose to do is to get basic levels of
the drum kit. After this we decided to drum replace the kick, snare
and toms.we kep the original audio files for this track and used the
midi drums to thicken up the sound of the drums. We used logics
own drummer software to choose what type of drum we wanted. We
also changed the pitch of the drum and used there drum dampner
to gain a lounder more pronounced kit in the mix.

Here you can see how we doubled up the drums

to double up the drums we had to follow a different process as we
recorded and mixed this on logic pro x.
How to make midi representations of audio:
Firstly you select the audio file you are trying to make midi
Then you click on track
After track you go down to replace or double drum track
After this you will see

you set the relative threshold according to the drum track you are
trying to double up.
After doing this for the drums we started to add eq and compression
to the drums.
Kick- on the eq of the kick drum we scooped in the region of 300 hz
to add more of a scooped sound to the kick. We also added
compression to the kick drum. To dreduce the dynamics of the kick
drum. We ony took about 3 db worth of reduction off the kcik but as
you can see we have boosted it on the gain on the way accordingly,
so that there is no loss of singal. This blended with the midi kick
blneds perfectiky together to thicken up the kick and making the
kick stand out in the mix.

Snare we boosted 160hz to add some extra weight to the snare we

also boosted 3 kHz this added Addedpunch to the snare bring it
more toward the forfront of the mix.
However we had a problem with the top snare as we was getting a
buzz where the mic dropped half way through recording and after
resting on the snare stand. This because aperent more and more
toward the end of the song . so in this instance we made the whole
snare drum in the mix the midi signal. This is why we chose drum
replacement because It was the logical way to solve the problem.

We had also treated the toms in the same way adding eq and
compression to them with also doubleing the drums up with midi.
Vocals- for vocals we used an exsteral plugin called meloydine. This
plugin is a pitch corrections oftware. However the reason why this
software is so popular if because they way it tunes vocals it does it
in a way where you cant hear that the vocal or the guitar has been
tuned. This is a big advantage and has a great benefit which other
software does not and that is that the software does not make it
sound like it has been auto tuned.
We were 1st introduced to melodine on the track no where id rather
be by jess Glin. We used melodine on the lead vocals and the
harmoes which come and go through out the song. We carefully wnt
through every bit of the vocal track trying to find the notes the
singer was meant to hit. Although this process is slow and
matuculus it makes it better in the long run when you have smooth

and in tune vocals. On the software there is a autio tune function

where melodine itself will just put every note in pitch. But
sometimes this does not work because the conpuert will only ajust it
to the nerest cent and sometimes if the singer is that far out it will
drag the note to the wrong note. This is why its always best to go
through the vocal line but by bit so you can analise th audio and see
where the singer was meant to hit.
This software is very easy to get the hang of and after afew hours of
using the software you qwuickly become aware of its functions and
how easy it is to pick up. What I found helpd is seeing a visual
replersention of the notes on a piano roll so after a while you will
start to notice parrterns of where the notes are meant to be.

here you can see the piano roll thses are the notes which are being
picked up my melodine.

Is the note is in key it will be at the

centre of the grid another way of
telling how far out you are is if you
look at the tiop left hand corner and
it will tell you to the nerest cent

This is where it displays how

far you are out to the nearest
cent

young hearts

this song was recorded in studio a so we took a slightly different

approach. Because this was the multi track room we had more time
to focus on the individual instrument. When recording the drums for
this track we did not use a click because it kept on throwing the
drummer off and we as a group chose to let him play along with the
original song. Alothough commonly this wou;ld not be used a lot we
though we would get the best performance from the drummer if he
was playing a;ong witht the orignaial track. After a few takes on the
drums we chose the best take which was take 3. We felt that take
three was the best because it was not only in time but I feel that in
that take we captured a good performance from the drummer.
When mixing the drums we used the same method as previous
tracks and created midi representations of the drums to give size to
the kit. However on this track we used the midi in a slightly different
way. Because of the style of the track we used the midi to push the
track in more of the edm/ rap gernre by adding big sounding kicks
and snares what cut through the mix. Personally I would preferred it
to keep a classic sounding drum kit but having being asked to
chaned upp the song abit we added these sunds in to make the
track sound more like the original.
After this we added eq and compression to all the kit.

Kick -

Here you can see that I have done the

same 300hz cut to give the kick that
boxy sound

Here you can see the setting of the

compressor you can see that I have a
fast attack so that it gives the kick
drum some punch and lowers the
dynamic range of the kick to make the
kick cut though.

Here you can see how we doubled up the kit in toatal we had a
combination of
4 kicks.
We had a sub mic to pick up the low frequencys of the kick drum.
Then also we had a kick drum mic placed inside the kit, this was
pointed towards the beater so we would get the slap of the kit.
Also you can see we have a midi representation of the kick which we
have loaded logics pro drummer and damped the sound. Also we
used a minimalistic pad to add more low frequencys to add to the
sub mic.

AS you can see we have lower the kicks we recorded in the mix so
that the midi would come through more than the original kick. We
did not way to completely get rid of the kick because we felt that it
added charter to the mix but we lowered it in the mix so it wasnt
the main kick you could hear. All four of these kicks happen at the
same time.
We used side chain compression on the kick drum aswell along side
the synch which playes through the track. To really come through in
the mix.
SnareAlso on this track we dohled up the snare in the same way. 1st of all
we had made a midi versionon the snare after that we then used eq
and compression to bring the snare to life. When recording the snare
on the way in we flipped ther faze of the bottom snare so that the
drums are in faze. Recording with the faze flipped in the 1stplace
was easyer to do because on a last terms project we forgot to flip
the faze of the snare until later on.

I chose to pan the snare slightly off centre. The reason

why we done this is when the drummer plays his fills
we wanted the audience to actually hear the drums
from the drummers perspective, so the audio
represents how the drummer plays around the kit.