So monday i helped out as an assistant for Dan Burrow's session. Dan's plan was to record piano with two overheads to capture ambience of the room. We managed to get everything setup rather quickly but we had a few problems. The first problem was that the studio was still setup from the last time, we had to move the drum kit and also move some mic stands and put away other equipment. and microphones. We also had to change the mics we were using for the over heads. We were originally going to use 2 AKG C1000's but we couldn't find one of the clips for the mic stands. This was such a big of an issue that we had to change what microphone we were going to use in order to actually get the ambience recorded. We ended up using the SE 1A's for the overheads. This was quickly set up but we must of spent around 15 minuets trying to resolve the issue. Another issue we had was the I/O set up. We had confused each other to what was being plugged in where but that only took a minuet or two to clear up.
I think we all worked very well together and we got everything set up and recorded to Dan's quality. It took us a total of about an hour and a half. It took us 45 minuets to set up and then then 30 minuets to record everything because it was only small segments that Dan wanted to record. We then spent around 15 minuets packing everything away because we didn't want to be hypocrites. Overall the session was very fast and we all worked together helping each other where we needed. Alex did a good job of being the engineer for the session, he was very polite to Dan when he was performing and didn't mess anything up. Mat was the other assistant and we worked together to get everything set up fast and when we encountered a problem we would consult Dan who was the producer and performer this session for his advice on the problem. Dan did a very good job when it came to performing and he was also critiquing his own playing ability when it came to being the producer of the session which is always good to see.
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
Thursday, 8 May 2014
Overview of my session.
How Did The Group Work Together?
Everyone worked together really well. Everyone helped each other when asked, no one was playing or being stupid and wasting time. Our day was very efficient and we all worked as team giving input towards the recording. We managed to solve all of the problems quickly and it didn't shave too much time into our session.
How Did The Persons Involved In The Session Fulfill Their Role?
Performer (Alex Ross); Alex performed really well and efficiently. He was told to come up with his own drum beat as he was an experienced drummer and I (the producer) am not. Although Alex was told to do his own drum beat I was there for supervision and would try to tell him how i want the track to sound. He did an excellent job of adding fills and his own artistic flare to the track. I really like how the drums turned out in terms of play style. Since we did three takes Alex did different variations each time meaning i can easily choose the best bits out of the three takes.
Engineer (Dan Allen); Dan fulfilled his role really well as he setup the control room and pro tools session really quickly with no errors at all. He was really understanding with what we wanted and treated Alex like a person and not a robot. I mean that in terms of, he was nice to him and understood if he made a misstake. Dan handled all the recording and exporting perfectly and constantly asked me for my opinion on everything which made my job easier. Dan managed to handle the task of recording the drum session on a professional level.
Assistant (Dan Burrows); Dan was really helpful in the session. He helped setup the drum kit really quickly and when we were looking for the snare of the drum kit Dan searched everywhere for it and ended up finding it. We also had a few problems with mic clips as we didn't have enough for the amount we needed. Dan was very helpful searching through the cupboard looking for some and ended up finding one but it had the wrong size on it for the mic stand, he then found a pair of pliers meaning we could easily change the size making it fit. Dan was also really handy when it came to adjusting the snare drum mic to get a better tone from it.
Producer (Me, Alex Dudley); I think i did a good job of making sure that Alex was performing to my standards and also telling Dan, the engineer how i wanted the tone of the snare drum to sound different. Overall i don't think i was harsh or mean to anyone while we were working and i remember hearing everybody's opinion on the track while we were working and actually taking them into consideration rather then throwing them out of the window and doing it my way.
Engineer (Dan Allen); Dan fulfilled his role really well as he setup the control room and pro tools session really quickly with no errors at all. He was really understanding with what we wanted and treated Alex like a person and not a robot. I mean that in terms of, he was nice to him and understood if he made a misstake. Dan handled all the recording and exporting perfectly and constantly asked me for my opinion on everything which made my job easier. Dan managed to handle the task of recording the drum session on a professional level.
Assistant (Dan Burrows); Dan was really helpful in the session. He helped setup the drum kit really quickly and when we were looking for the snare of the drum kit Dan searched everywhere for it and ended up finding it. We also had a few problems with mic clips as we didn't have enough for the amount we needed. Dan was very helpful searching through the cupboard looking for some and ended up finding one but it had the wrong size on it for the mic stand, he then found a pair of pliers meaning we could easily change the size making it fit. Dan was also really handy when it came to adjusting the snare drum mic to get a better tone from it.
Producer (Me, Alex Dudley); I think i did a good job of making sure that Alex was performing to my standards and also telling Dan, the engineer how i wanted the tone of the snare drum to sound different. Overall i don't think i was harsh or mean to anyone while we were working and i remember hearing everybody's opinion on the track while we were working and actually taking them into consideration rather then throwing them out of the window and doing it my way.
Did you complete what you set out to do? If not, why not?
Yes. My original goal for the session was to have at least one take of the drums recorded to a good standard which we got pretty quickly. We ended up with three takes all with different variations which is a good move because now i can easily chop up the three takes and put the best bits where i want them to go. We had faced a few problems through out the session, for instance, we didn't have a snare drum for a short period. I asked Harriet about this and she couldn't find the actual snare that came with the drum kit either. In the end we ended up using the new snare as a substitute but that snare actually ended up sounding nicer than the one we were going to use.
We actually had a bit of a problem in the beginning of the sessions as i had lost my USB stick in the morning so i had to upload the backing track to google drive and get it from there. I then found my USB stick but the problem was that the studio computer didn't have an internet connection. To get around this we ended up going to the LRC and downloading it there and put the track on the USB stick and ran back down to the studio. While we were doing this Dan Burrows was still setting up the drums so it didn't actually shave into the time limit we had.
I think the mic placement could of been a lot better in my honest opinion. I should of gone back and changed some of the microphone placements to get better sounds but overall there were some really amazing sounds. I think that the snare position was great and I got a nice punchy snare that was also made quite snappy from the over heads. The overheads were placed as I wanted them too and they sounded pretty good too, I got loads of high end from all the drums but I didn't want to pick up the kick as much as I did so if I were to do this again I think I would try and think of a way to remove the kick from the overheads. I did this as much as I could with a high pass filter but you can still hear the high end of the kick in after the processing. The high tom came out really nice sounding which is what I wanted from all of the other toms too but they came out pretty muddy. From a couple of images that I haven't put on the blog I can see that the microphones were not placed as I planned earlier so this is something I should of been on top of. I could of easily informed Dan I wanted the toms so that would be something I would like to take in to consideration with future recordings.
Overall i think the day went really well and we got some really nice useable takes as well as some interesting an unique fills that i really like. I think everyone worked well together and we managed to get the work done pretty quickly. Since we finished so early, we actually managed to finish an hour earlier than schedule which is always a bonus.
We actually had a bit of a problem in the beginning of the sessions as i had lost my USB stick in the morning so i had to upload the backing track to google drive and get it from there. I then found my USB stick but the problem was that the studio computer didn't have an internet connection. To get around this we ended up going to the LRC and downloading it there and put the track on the USB stick and ran back down to the studio. While we were doing this Dan Burrows was still setting up the drums so it didn't actually shave into the time limit we had.
I think the mic placement could of been a lot better in my honest opinion. I should of gone back and changed some of the microphone placements to get better sounds but overall there were some really amazing sounds. I think that the snare position was great and I got a nice punchy snare that was also made quite snappy from the over heads. The overheads were placed as I wanted them too and they sounded pretty good too, I got loads of high end from all the drums but I didn't want to pick up the kick as much as I did so if I were to do this again I think I would try and think of a way to remove the kick from the overheads. I did this as much as I could with a high pass filter but you can still hear the high end of the kick in after the processing. The high tom came out really nice sounding which is what I wanted from all of the other toms too but they came out pretty muddy. From a couple of images that I haven't put on the blog I can see that the microphones were not placed as I planned earlier so this is something I should of been on top of. I could of easily informed Dan I wanted the toms so that would be something I would like to take in to consideration with future recordings.
Overall i think the day went really well and we got some really nice useable takes as well as some interesting an unique fills that i really like. I think everyone worked well together and we managed to get the work done pretty quickly. Since we finished so early, we actually managed to finish an hour earlier than schedule which is always a bonus.
Where health and safety rules met at all times?
Yes, when setting up the drum kit everyone made sure to do it the correct way and didn't mess around. We made sure that all of the cables in the live room were either wrapped around the mic stand or were wrapped up under the mic stand, this will stop tripping hazards as they are probably the most common cause of accidents in this area of work. I also made sure that no one had any food or drink in the live or control room at any give time. I didn't want gear and expensive equipment being ruined by someones drink being spilled. I also made sure that Alex was wearing headphones while drumming as the loudness of the drums could cause long term hearing damage and that's something i want to avoid at all costs.
What were the main strengths of the session?
I think the mains strength of the entire sessions came from Alex's ability to come up with a really well fitting drum beat in little time. We had discussed what sort of a beat would suit the track and Alex did practice before hand but he mentioned to me that most of the fills were actually just made up on the spot. I think if it wasn't for Alex's drumming we wouldn't of had such a quick and successful session. I also think that everyone being able to work together really well helped loads with the sessions and was a huge strength for the entire team.
Tuesday, 6 May 2014
Sessions plan
So i've decided that i want to incorporate live drums into my track as the electronic drums i have used seemed to be boring and they don't sound natural at all. The sessions will be Wednesday 7th of may from 9 - 12. For my sessions i'm going to need an assistant to help out as i wouldn't be able to set up the drum kit and mics myself as i am the producer for this session. I will also need an engineer to handle all of the desk and recording side. I need someone to actually play the drums so my friend Alex Ross will be performing this session. Alex has to leave early to get his car M.O.T'd so he said he will leave around 11:30 which will still give us 2 and a half hours to get everything done. We will probably spend half an hour setting up so we have a two hour time limit to get everything recorded to a good standard. We aim to get done within an hour after set up because in previous sessions it has taken around an hour or so to completely record everything. This will also give us lots of time incase any problems occur.
Mic placement
I have chosen to have a typical drum mic set up. I will be using a mic on every main drum and then a set of overheads.
The snare is something I want to get right as I am very picky when it comes to my drum sounds and the snare is one of the most used drums in the track so I don't want to get a rubbish snare sound. I want a nice thick snare with lots of the fundamental frequency. I would do this by pointing it more towards the centre of the snare rather than edge. I want to place the mic around 2 inches above the skin of the drum and only about 2-3 inches of the mic over the drum. I would then use a 75-80 degree angle to point it towards the centre of the drum. I will use one of the shure mic stands that comes with the microphone I am choosing because they are easy to set up and take up less room then a traditional mic stand.
The kick drum is also something that I want to get right. I didn't want a muddy kick like I have previously experienced when using the Shure Beta52A so I'm going to use the AKG D112 because from previous experience it's better at capturing a less muddy kick. I also want to get some high end slap from the drums skin, to do this I won't have the kick drum in the sound hole as much as we have before. I will probably have about3 inches of the microphone inside the sound hole. Hopefully this will give me more treble when recording.
For the high tom I want a nice thick sounding tom, I don't want much of the horrible skin sound you get with certain toms. I want to point the microphone towards the centre again making sure I get some nice bass in the sound as well as some high end but not too much. I want the mic pointing inwards at a 85degree angle and about 2 inches in the drum. Hopefully then I wont get much treble but more of the bassy frequencies.
For the low tom I want about the same set up as I had for the high time, 85 degrees pointing towards the centre of the drum,about two inches high of the face of the drum and about two inches in depth. This should again get a nice rich bassy sound from the drum and not muddy. The treble becomes a problem with the low tom and the floor tom so I think getting as little as possible with it still sounding like a tom is essential in order to get a nice sounding useable tom.
Again I don't want much high end when it comes to the floor tom because I don't want a muddy sounding tom to ruin the drums. I want a nice sounding thick, bassy sounding tom with not to much treble so it doesn't make it sound wet and nasty. To do this I'm going to point the microphone towards the centre of the drum at a 65 degree angle to make sure I get all the nice rich bass frequencies and little treble. I do want treble but I've noticed that if there is lots the drum begins to sound nasty and muddy so I want to try and reduce that as much as possible.
Since the overheads are stereo they will be plugged into the patch bay in inputs 7-8. The overheads will be hung at around 6ft high and will be at around a 60 degree angle pointing towards the drum kit. This would mean that the mics are around 3 foot high from the drums and would be pointing down towards them. I would hope this would get some great high end from the cymbals and wont cause any phasing to appear. Phasing is bad because it can literally change how well the drums sound and is almost impossible to remove. It's caused by one mic being placed further away than the other so the actual audio waves will be reaching one microphone quicker than the other and when they are placed together the wave will fall in and out of sync, this is exactly how a phaser works. Luckily, with a bit of clever ableton knowledge I should be able to remove any phasing by using two mono tracks and manually matching them up together. Hopefully with the mic placement I have, I wont have any phasing occur.
Microphone Choices.
I have chosen these microphone because I think they are most suitable for the jobs I want to use them for. Their frequency responses match what drums I want to record and the SPL work well with the loud sounds of the drum.
I have chosen the Shure SM57 because the frequency response of the microphone is good for what I am using it for. I want to be able to cover all the spectrum with this microphone and the SM57 does that. The frequency response of the bass for the microphone is perfect for the snare because the bass response is peaking where the fundamental of a snare usually sits, this is where you get the really throaty snare sound from. It's also perfect for the toms too as it covers all the frequencies I need. Yes it has slightly more high end than bass which I talked about not wanting with the toms but the placement I have chosen should fix that problem. The Shure SM57 is a cardioid microphone meaning that all of the sound comes from the front end of the microphone so that I would need to point the microphones towards what I want to record and this is what I have already planned to do.
I have also chosen the Shure Beta57 because they are pretty much identical when it comes to the frequency response. I have reason to believe that the Beta57 is actually just an SM57 with a mesh shield fitted on it. We didn't have 4 SM57's so i will have to use the closest possible match which is actually a Beta57.
I have chosen the AKG D112 over the Shure Beta 52a because as I stated before, the Shure mic was muddy and I didn't want that when recording my kick. I know this from personal experience but when I looked at the frequency response of both microphones I can see why the Beta 52a was making the kick sound muddy. Ignoring the first microphone on the image you can see the huge difference.
The AKG has lots of bass where it is needed and is flat in the mid range witch a spike in the mid highs, this is perfect for recording a nice clean kick where as the Shure has no bass what so ever and lots of treble which would cause the kick to sound really muddy and nasty. I think the Shure would be better at getting at getting more of a metal style kick, lots of high end and little bass which isn't what i want.
I chose the C1000s' for my overheads because they are sensitive and are good at picking up sound at a distance. If i were to use these microphones for something like a snare there is a high chance that it would actually damage or break the microphone because of the SPL from the drums. The C1000s have an almost flat frequency response so i'll be able to pick up a nice layer for my drums that are already mic'd but also be able to pick up all of the high end cymbals. Since the C1000s' are a condenser microphone they are much more sensitive than normal dynamic microphones. If i were to use a dynamic microphone like SM57 then you wouldn't really hear much because dynamic microphones needs to either have lots of gain or be really close to the sound source.
Studio roles
Mic placement
I have chosen to have a typical drum mic set up. I will be using a mic on every main drum and then a set of overheads.
The snare is something I want to get right as I am very picky when it comes to my drum sounds and the snare is one of the most used drums in the track so I don't want to get a rubbish snare sound. I want a nice thick snare with lots of the fundamental frequency. I would do this by pointing it more towards the centre of the snare rather than edge. I want to place the mic around 2 inches above the skin of the drum and only about 2-3 inches of the mic over the drum. I would then use a 75-80 degree angle to point it towards the centre of the drum. I will use one of the shure mic stands that comes with the microphone I am choosing because they are easy to set up and take up less room then a traditional mic stand.
The kick drum is also something that I want to get right. I didn't want a muddy kick like I have previously experienced when using the Shure Beta52A so I'm going to use the AKG D112 because from previous experience it's better at capturing a less muddy kick. I also want to get some high end slap from the drums skin, to do this I won't have the kick drum in the sound hole as much as we have before. I will probably have about3 inches of the microphone inside the sound hole. Hopefully this will give me more treble when recording.
For the high tom I want a nice thick sounding tom, I don't want much of the horrible skin sound you get with certain toms. I want to point the microphone towards the centre again making sure I get some nice bass in the sound as well as some high end but not too much. I want the mic pointing inwards at a 85degree angle and about 2 inches in the drum. Hopefully then I wont get much treble but more of the bassy frequencies.
For the low tom I want about the same set up as I had for the high time, 85 degrees pointing towards the centre of the drum,about two inches high of the face of the drum and about two inches in depth. This should again get a nice rich bassy sound from the drum and not muddy. The treble becomes a problem with the low tom and the floor tom so I think getting as little as possible with it still sounding like a tom is essential in order to get a nice sounding useable tom.
Again I don't want much high end when it comes to the floor tom because I don't want a muddy sounding tom to ruin the drums. I want a nice sounding thick, bassy sounding tom with not to much treble so it doesn't make it sound wet and nasty. To do this I'm going to point the microphone towards the centre of the drum at a 65 degree angle to make sure I get all the nice rich bass frequencies and little treble. I do want treble but I've noticed that if there is lots the drum begins to sound nasty and muddy so I want to try and reduce that as much as possible.
Since the overheads are stereo they will be plugged into the patch bay in inputs 7-8. The overheads will be hung at around 6ft high and will be at around a 60 degree angle pointing towards the drum kit. This would mean that the mics are around 3 foot high from the drums and would be pointing down towards them. I would hope this would get some great high end from the cymbals and wont cause any phasing to appear. Phasing is bad because it can literally change how well the drums sound and is almost impossible to remove. It's caused by one mic being placed further away than the other so the actual audio waves will be reaching one microphone quicker than the other and when they are placed together the wave will fall in and out of sync, this is exactly how a phaser works. Luckily, with a bit of clever ableton knowledge I should be able to remove any phasing by using two mono tracks and manually matching them up together. Hopefully with the mic placement I have, I wont have any phasing occur.
Equipment List
Drum Kit x 1
XLR x 9 (one for spare)
Shure SM57 x3
Shure SM58 x1
AKG D112 x1
AKG C1000 x2
Microphone stands x8
Microphone clips x8
Headphones x1
Microphone Choices.
I have chosen these microphone because I think they are most suitable for the jobs I want to use them for. Their frequency responses match what drums I want to record and the SPL work well with the loud sounds of the drum.
I have chosen the Shure SM57 because the frequency response of the microphone is good for what I am using it for. I want to be able to cover all the spectrum with this microphone and the SM57 does that. The frequency response of the bass for the microphone is perfect for the snare because the bass response is peaking where the fundamental of a snare usually sits, this is where you get the really throaty snare sound from. It's also perfect for the toms too as it covers all the frequencies I need. Yes it has slightly more high end than bass which I talked about not wanting with the toms but the placement I have chosen should fix that problem. The Shure SM57 is a cardioid microphone meaning that all of the sound comes from the front end of the microphone so that I would need to point the microphones towards what I want to record and this is what I have already planned to do.
I have also chosen the Shure Beta57 because they are pretty much identical when it comes to the frequency response. I have reason to believe that the Beta57 is actually just an SM57 with a mesh shield fitted on it. We didn't have 4 SM57's so i will have to use the closest possible match which is actually a Beta57.
I have chosen the AKG D112 over the Shure Beta 52a because as I stated before, the Shure mic was muddy and I didn't want that when recording my kick. I know this from personal experience but when I looked at the frequency response of both microphones I can see why the Beta 52a was making the kick sound muddy. Ignoring the first microphone on the image you can see the huge difference.
The AKG has lots of bass where it is needed and is flat in the mid range witch a spike in the mid highs, this is perfect for recording a nice clean kick where as the Shure has no bass what so ever and lots of treble which would cause the kick to sound really muddy and nasty. I think the Shure would be better at getting at getting more of a metal style kick, lots of high end and little bass which isn't what i want.
I chose the C1000s' for my overheads because they are sensitive and are good at picking up sound at a distance. If i were to use these microphones for something like a snare there is a high chance that it would actually damage or break the microphone because of the SPL from the drums. The C1000s have an almost flat frequency response so i'll be able to pick up a nice layer for my drums that are already mic'd but also be able to pick up all of the high end cymbals. Since the C1000s' are a condenser microphone they are much more sensitive than normal dynamic microphones. If i were to use a dynamic microphone like SM57 then you wouldn't really hear much because dynamic microphones needs to either have lots of gain or be really close to the sound source.
Studio roles
Producer
I will be the producer for the day as it is my track that Alex will be drumming for my track. MY job will be to give Alex directions of what i want to hear from him and i will also advise the engineer on what to do but i will not be actually giving orders per say. I will also be open to ideas and advise from assistants or anyone else helping with the track.
Engineer
The studio engineer for my session will be Dan Allen. His role will be making sure we get a nice sound out of the drum kit. Make sure we get a good take and to level all of the mics to make sure that there is no clipping.
Performer
Alex will be performing. He will be playing the drums and it's his job to play in time. I have told Alex to improvise most of his performance as the drum beat is pretty much the same through out and i want to keep it fresh. I have ran through the track with Alex and we agreed on what we both will sound good.
Assistant
Dan Burrows will be the assistant for this session. His job will be to set up the drum kit for Alex and set up the mics on the drum kit. I will oversee them to make sure health and safety is all ok. It will also be his job to do any tasks like adjust a mic and or run a few errands for the performer e.g. if they need a drink.
Cost
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