18/03/2019
Today we met our band and had a chat about what we where going to record and we just genuinely got the know the band as a whole, they told us the bands they aspire to be and who they like, for example Blink 182 was a favourite band of thiers. We have been given around 7.5 hours allocated time however we can book the session out of our own time. Whilst we got to know the band we said that when we record we want to get down all the drum tracks so we have something to build up on. The Tracks We are recording are 2 originals and 1 cover, the two originals are called “Meatloaf” and “We have no legal budget” and the cover called “God Save The Queen” by Sex pistols.
25/03/2019
Today we began recording “God Save The Queen” our band and we got into the studio however we had an issue with talkback volume with the drummer which we never actually managed to fix. Our drum kit had an audix D6 for the kick, 2 SM57’s for the snare (one on the top and one on the bottom) and two pencil mic’s also known as PG81’s for the overheads, we had the overhead position in space pair, this means they are both different sides of the drum kit. The plan we had was to lay down the 2 drum tracks however it took a couple takes for him to actually get the track done as he couldn’t keep up with the tempo of his own song. When we finally managed to get the drum track we ran out of time to get anything else done, today didn’t go to plan and it just delayed the plan we had so we decided to improvise and next session get the guitars completed for that track.
01/04/2019
We continued on “God Save The Queen” with the drums as a guide and final drums all we decided to get this track done so as soon as the track its done I’m able to mix and master it, so for the session today we recorded bass and guitar, we used a Di on the bass going straight onto the desk then for the guitar we used an SM57 onto a Marshall amp, however we also used a Di for the guitar so when it came to recording the guitar we could put an amp effect in the Di signal to make it sound As if there was another guitarist. Also within that session we decided to get the vocals done for that track, we recorded the vocals with a AKG C1000. the overall vocals sounded really nice and there wasn’t many issues with the vocals.
02/04/2019
Today we just had live lounge and honestly it went really well. It was a lot smoother of a process than I thought it would be, we set up 4 mics, one SM57 hanging over a guitar amp, another SM57 hanging over the bass amp, one PG81 overlooking the entire drum kit and other PG81 on a stand looking at the underside of the keyboard because the speaker is on that side. The band we recorded was a Jazzy/Funk type of band so their style was unique. We didn’t encounter any Major problems however the only minor problem was one of the mic stands was loose and didn’t tighten up properly.
08/04/2019
During half-term time I booked out the studio from 9:30am Till 2:00pm, this game me and my band plenty of time to get good recordings out of them for the track “Meatloaf” and because the drummer didn’t turn up to the session we had to use a logic drummer with a similar beat. We decided get the guitar and the bass completed and yet again we used the same set up as last time this a Guitar and bass and a Di on the bass going straight onto the desk then for the guitar we used an SM57 onto a Marshall amp, however we also used a Di so in the future we can put a guitar amp on it. As a whole the total session was a success because we had two good recordings of a guitar and bass for the track. However at the beginning of the session we did have one issue, the issue was the desk wasn’t responding with the compute however in the end we had to reboot the desk so we were able to use it.
22/04/2019
Today we wanted to get “God save the queen” compleated and out of the way so I’m able to finally mix and master the track, so therefore we began to get the final parts of the track done, which is the vocals. To record the vocals we had a choice of two mics, a Rhode NT1 or an AKG C414 we decided to use a AKG because we felt like it gave a better sound for the style of vocals that where being used. whilst setting up the desk and the mic we didn’t encounter any problems equipment wise, however it was a frustrating day because it took a long time to get the vocals right however we eventually got the vocals set and the track completed.
29/04/2019
Next we decided to get the meatloaf track completed by doing the drums and vocals so we could get on with the mixing and mastering of the track the equipment we used on the drum kit was an audix D6 for the kick, 2 SM57’s for the snare one on the top and one on the bottom and two PG81’s for the overheads. And for the vocals we decided to use a AKG C1000 with a pop filter and a pop shield. We started with the drums as we figured they would take the most amount of time to do and we essentially needed the drums for the basic instruments. However we got the drums done first try and it was a solid recording, then we moved onto vocals and we took a couple takes to get it but it was an overall success today.
06/05/2019
Today in live lounge we recorded the same band as we did last time and we had the same setup, the setup was 4 mics, one SM57 hanging over a guitar amp, another SM57 hanging over the bass amp, one PG81 overlooking the entire drum kit and other PG81 on a stand looking at the bottom of the keyboard, we had another smooth good recording so we then got a pianist In to record and for that we placed SM57 at the high end of the piano and also a SM57 at the low end of the piano. This recording wasn’t as good as the full band however it was still a clean recording.
13/05/2019
Today we started on “We Have No Legal Budget” and felt Asia we should get the vocals and the guitar and bass on the track, for the vocals we used an AKG C414 and for the bass we used a DI that went staring into the desk and with the guitar amp we put an SM57 in-front of the Marshall and also used a DI so we could use effects on the other guitar. We began with the guitar recording and cracked on with that, throughout the recording we had no problems that we encountered even with the vocals, this was good as this meant we had more time to complete the drums next session.
20/05/2019
This should be our last session in the studio, today we were planning to get the drums completed as we only had a session left, we began by setting up the drum kit, we used a Audix D6, 2 SM57’s one on the top and 1 on the bottom, and two PG81’s for overheads, we encountered a problem of us only having availability to two inputs however this was fixed by pushing in a loose wire, then it took 4 tries for our drummer to get in time with the guitars and the click, however when we completed the track it sounded great and it was a huge weight off our shoulders.
Mixing and Mastering
Meatloaf: the mixing and mastering process was fairly enjoyable to do as this track is rather boring without any plugins, firstly I began with the drum kit by putting some effects on the drums I didn’t use many effects I only used a medium sized room reverb to make it sound like it was actually being preformed in a room and give it that realistic sounding vibe. Next I moved onto the bass, for the bass itself I used a red headed rock Amp that gave it a grungy sound and for the DI, I used a stacked amp that made the DI sound more alive. From there I moved to the Guitar and I put a Razor Rock amp on the Guitar to have that slightly distorted sound and make it feel As if it was straight out of an amp, the next effect I used was compressor because it was peaking and it wasn’t very loud so I wanted to boost the volume without it actually peaking. I Also took out some un needed nigh end by using the EQ, this made all the low end disappear, Reverb was also used to make the guitar sound lively and not completely dull. Finally I moved onto the lead vocals and the Chorus Vocals, for the lead I used reverb and I also put his vocals through an amp because I thought it suited the style he was going for it made it sound fuzzy and slightly muffled. I also put delay on the vocals because I wanted an echo sort of effect so it sounded like someone was singing the same words but a second later. For the chorus effect I just put the chorus plug in on the channel and I also used bit-crusher on one of the parts of the song at request by the singer, although I didn’t use heavy amounts of reverb because it didn’t sound very good in the overall mix.
God Save The Queen: When mixing and mastering I again started with the drums as I found it was the best thing to start with, as I usually do I started with the kick snare top and snare bottom and two overheads, I applied reverb onto a bus then put the bus on each channel and adjusted it accordingly. Then I moved on to the bass and I decided to put it onto An amp the amp had preset EQ and Preset compression, however I did tweak the compression to make it slightly louder. From there I moved towards the guitar and I also put an amp on, and again the amp had presets such as reverb compression and EQ, I was happy how the preset sounded and left it as that. Vocals were next in like to be done, with this I used EQ to take away unwanted low end and unwanted high end, this makes the mids stand out more in the mix, next I used the bus with reverb to give it a realistic effect, then I used another bus that had tape delay on and this made a small repetition of everything being said in the channel. With the overheads I panned them slightly felt too right and I also duplicated a guitar track and panned that as well.
We Have No Legal Budget: For this song I felt like I needed to once again start with the drums, for this I once again applied a bus to the channels and on the bus was a small villa reverb to make it sound as if it was recorded in a medium sized room. Next was the bass and for this I used an amp preset that was equip with EQ and compression however I did slightly boost the low end on the EQ, I then applied a pedalboard, this was because I mainly wanted a nice pedalboard with a good tremolo. For The Guitar I applied an amp witch had a standard reverb and compression then on top of that I Bused reverb onto the channel itself, I also added compression to the channel to keep the volume levels down but make the guitar sound louder other effects were added to the guitar such as EQ to roll of unwanted low and high end. However for the guitars I duplicated the track and added a different and more distorted amp to compliment the clearer one then from there I slightly pandered them so one guitar was slightly more louder in one ear and one slightly louder in the other. Lastly for the vocals I added slight reverb as I did to all of the channels then I compressed his voice to make it seem louder then I rolled off high end to suit his style of singing.
My Final Track: I began my track with creating the drums, I found a nice kit called “K9Z UK DRILL KIT” from there I chose My Kick, Snare, HiHat’s and my clicks. I laid down my hi-hats first to set the rhythm of the beat and on my high hats I put some reverb onto a bus then slightly turned up the reverb then I compressed them slightly so there weren’t too overpowering and loud. Next I moved onto the kick, for this I used a plugin called Phat FX with basically gives me control over different types of plugins such as distortion and reverb etc, I also added a 808 in the same pattern as the kick so it was bassy. However I still used a bused reverb as I felt it made it sound more alive. Next was the snare and I had the same plugins as the kick as I felt like the snare needed to be quieter as it was overpowering. for the click I just added reverb nothing else really needed to be added. For my 808 I took it from the same sample kit and I only had to adjust the volume levels as it wasn’t too loud but wasn’t a good level. For the main instruments I used a Piano on logic, I added effects such as EQ to take off high end to get a dark sound, I added compression to keep the levels down, reverb was also used to make it sound realistic and I also added delay so there was a slight delay. Then I added bells in the same pattern as the piano because I thought it sounded cool and I got the bell sound while searching through alchemy, I used all the same effects as I did on the piano in a similar way. From there I was browsing through alchemy and came across a dark sci-fi sound and decided to ad that in as a melody but also not a melody at the same time.
Live Lounge Recording: For the live lounge recording we had a total of 4 tracks as since it was live lounge there was some Minor bleed but I could just get rid of that by EQing the low and high and and just focus on that specific sound, I also added some small reverb to all the tracks so it would sound like a live lounge rather than just being recorded in a studio.
Jack Day 