In this assignment we where tasked to record either an original or cover song.
We decided to record Cynthia’s own song “Start”. The song is a Indie Love song and therefore needed the right sounding mix to enhance the music and it’s concept.

“Start”: https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/secrets

Mic Placement:

Kick
Mic: Sennheiser E602 | Dynamic | Cardioid
The Kick had to be strong and punchy so the Sennhieser E602 was a great choice as it exaggerates around the fundamental frequency and punch.

Overheads:

 Royer R-121 | dynamic ribbon |(bi-directional)

When it came to the drums we wanted to do something easy and effective, so we decided to do the Glyn John’s Technique with two Royer R-121. We made sure one mic was almost directly under and pointing towards the snare and one behind the drummer and facing the snare and rack tom, we measured that the mics where around 2 drum sticks away from the snare. We felt this technique would work as well as we did not have long on the track so we did not know it that well. So to get a good take from the drums it was vital that he was relaxed so he could perform at his best, I feel like too many mics in his way may of intimidated him. The Royer R-121 ribbon mics are beautiful sounding, clean, ribbon mics which have a fig of 8 polar pattern. I felt this would be a great choice as the two mics would capture the drums extremely well and that the polar pattern would also mean we would get some of the room’s characteristic making the drums have more interesting properties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyy55ALu18Y -Glyn Johns Technique

Guitar:

DI Via Kempler

The Kempler is a profiling guitar amplifier. It is a major improvement of emulation amplification and can achieve some really amazing sounds. We had a choice between the Kempler or an Orange Crush series amp. The Orange amps are solid state which, personally, I don’t think would suit the song as it’s quite a dark sound and I wanted a brighter sound so it would be more present in the mix. With a Kempler you get a huge amount of choice in amps, cabinets and effects to achieve basically any guitar sound you desire.

Bass:

DI Via Kempler
The bass was also DI’ed into the DAW via a Kempler. For many of the same reasons as for guitar, the Kempler was a great choice with Bass. This is because of the massive library of sounds you can make, with a huge amount of detail. Also, with the bass, we wanted it to be strong during the mix, so when we DI’ed the bass we captured it’s full frequency range. As appose to micing up a Bass guitar Amp and using a wide range frequency response condenser microphone which, I believe to be not as good as the Kempler as it has much more options so I can achieve the sound I want.

Vocals:

Neumann TLM 103 | condenser | cardioid
The vocals are the most important element of this track and as our vocalist has a powerful voice we needed something that would capture it cleanly and without too much colour. The Neumann was the best choice I feel as you can see from the frequency response chart it is a very neutral so her voiced would not be alternated. The exaggeration in the highs will also give an added presence which will help cut through the mix. 

Piano:

 DPA 4090 | condenser | omnidirectional

We wanted an organic, clear and open sound for our piano. In able to capture the full depth of the piano and all it’s keys you need a strong condenser with a wide frequency response; therefore the DPA 4090 was a good choice as it has a similar frequency range to you or I at 20Hz – 20kHz. Also, as it is omnidirection it has a large polar pattern, meaning that we will get a    . As you can see from the FR diagram below the DPA’s have an extremely neutral response. This will achieve a very detailed, rich and full sound.

Mixing

Cleaning: It is very important before even starting to mix that you have a clean workstation. If you have too many tracks that you are never going to use or you have not decided what take you prefer, you may be slightly overwhelmed by the amount colours and tracks. I took sometime in deciding which tracks to use, but once this is done I can focus fully.

Fades:

Adding fades makes the end of the song smooth and is vital, unless used creatively, to add so the end of your track is not just the end of the take.

Vocal Compression, EQ and Reverb
The vocals are the most prominent part of the mix for this song, as it is a pop song fundamentally. I used the compressor so that the dynamics did not vary to much in volume, making for a smoother more “together” sound. For the EQ I attenuating any unnecessary frequencies that might be muddying up the mix, I did this by using a high and low end shelf. Also, I tried to exaggerate the upper mids for more presence and the lower mids for a “fuller” timbre.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/backing-vocal-embed-1

Backing Vocals
For the backing vocals I wanted to have a sound that would compliment the the lead vocals. I feel I achieved this by having a slightly less compressed sound, this was to introduce an apposing dynamic to the vocal. Also the EQ is mixed pacifically to emphasize the lead vocals, I tried to get this sound by attenuating the lower mids and the low end, to avoid any mess, and exaggerated the upper mids to add some colour.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/backing-vocal

Bass EQ and Compression
As mentioned before I wanted the bass to be strong and punchy. To get this sound I put a relative amount compression on and increased the threshold for a tighter compression. EQ wise I put a low and high shelf on to remove any unwanted frequencies. I exaggerated quite a lot of frequencies in the low mids, mids, upper mids and low highs. This was done to create a powerful and warm texture to the bass.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/bass

Kick: Gate, Compression and EQ
Unfortunately the screenshot for this image did not load on the blog, so I will describe what I did.
For the kick I wanted it to be a punchy, solid kick drum. For this I put a low and high very slight shelf on to remove frequencies that are not needed. Then I exaggerated 250Hz to enhance the fundamental frequency of the bass, attenuate muddy middle frequencies and add some “click” at around 1000Hz.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/kick

Overheads and Drum Grouping
I grouped all three of the drum tracks together so that they can share the same characteristics making them sound more like a kit than individual sections of a kit. Also it becomes a lot easier adjust the volume as it is all adjusting all together. The compression is quite slight just to bring the kit together and as there is not many microphone’s on the drums I needed to get the snare and tom’s to be present in the mix. The eq’ing was done in the same way, to try and get the most out of the kit with only 3 mics, so the high mids are being pushed so the snare and toms can be more exaggerated in the mix.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/overheads

Guitar
The guitar needed to warm and strong with this song, as there is little instrumentation the guitar has to help carry the song. I added some compression which tightened the guitar so it sat better in the mix. Whem I EQ’ed the track I added a low and high shelf to remove any unwanted frequencies and pushed the lower and higher mids for a more “punchy” and warm tone.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/guitar

Piano
I was happy with the piano sound we achieved at the recording process and wanted to keep the majority of the sounds characteristics. The compression I added is enough so it feel tight and together and EQ wise I’ve just exaggerated the mid, upper mid and highs to give a little bit more presence in the mix.
https://soundcloud.com/blackwavelive/piano

Reference Tracks
Money – Pink Floyd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kcet4aPpQ
I used this to track to try and emulate the balanced and energetic mix. I tried to to this by mixing a “Rock” styled drum cut, thick guitar, smooth  vocals, leading bass and lush piano. Also, the panning technique is similar with my one being:
Left-PIANO-BVOX-OHL-GTR-(VOX- KICK- BASS) -OHR- PIANO-Right
                                    (           Center         )  

When Will I Return – Swans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0a5WYTB9g

Evaluation

Overall I’m happy with the quality of work for the short amount of time given, although there are some areas I would of wanted to improve. The main thing I would wanted to change is at the recording stage. I feel that sometimes our group would of been guilty of “we can fix it in the mix” mentality. This is something I am completely opposed to and we should have spent more time experimenting with mics, distances, stereo mic techniques and most importantly worked harder on a take being 100% in time and accurate to the piece.