Finished tracking the final song!

This week in labs we wrapped up the tracking for out third and final song of the semester. Vocals and guitars were the goal this week. Amber came back down to Monterey to record to the second section of our song, which is the only place we decided to have vocals partly because the music is more technical throughout, and is more of an instrumental tune to begin with. The previous night was spent doing some preproduction work in chunking out melodies and lyrics for the song. We used an AKG 414 that we had set up in room 185, and sent the signal through the Neve preamp. Some ideas for vocal harmonies were brought, and we came up with some decent on the spot harmonies that some of us seemed to be hearing in our heads. We tracked some acoustic guitar next, for the third section of the song. This whole section is 5/4, and some people aren’t as comfortable playing in this time signature, so practice and preparation was necessary. The strings on the guitar probably needed changing, because we had some problems staying in tune, and had to re-tune every other take. After trying to get a decent take down, we decided to call it a day and shoot for it again on Thursday. Thursday morning went a lot better and we got some good takes down fairly quickly. We used the rest of out lab time to try some mixing out of the box, which is what we have been doing for the past week or so now.
For mixing out of the box, we bypass 2track and come right out of the board. We assigned specific channel outputs in protols corresponding to the patchbay. Using the patch bay, go out of PT into line 1 inputs on the channels closest to the center of the console (23, 24, 25). Make sure the mix bus and Line 1 buttons on the channel strip are on, and the aux master mix bus buttons and 2trk are off. Fader at unity gain. To send an outboard reverb to a channel, patch out auxsends into the effects processor, and out the effect into echo returns. Echo faders 1 2 at unity gain, panned hard left and right. Push in the prefader button in the aux section of the board. Be sure that you’ve turned up the aux1 knob on the instrument channel strip. The channel being mixed on is set to prefader and unity gain. For more editing tips in protocols, trim all the tails and empty space in all regions, for a quick mix, make sure automation is off and you have a basic stereo of the song.

Mixing out of the Box

With a new headphones matrix set up in the studio, we can now have individual mixes for the recording artists. We can customize these mixes for each player as they track. This is very beneficial to the recording process, and creates a comfortable aural enviroment. Mixing out of the box is a really awesome concept and I am finally glad to say that I am gaining an understanding of signal flow in complex ways that I didn’t know before. Instead of using the mouse to move faders and dial in digital effects, we are using our hands on the faders and physically turning knobs for sound quality purposes, mixing out of the box. Mixing “in the box” with all digital effects and mouse clicking really takes away from the aural experience. There is much visual stimulation happening, and can alter the way a person decides where to begin with a mix. Down to the meat… Go into your protools session and assign specific channel outputs. Using the patch bay, go out of PT into line 1 inputs on the channels closest to you on the board (34, 35, 36). Make sure you are on the mix bus on the channels strip now, and off the aux master mix bus. Line 1 inputs on the channel strip activated, and fader at unity gain. To send an outboard reverb to a channel, patch out auxsends into the effects processor, and out the effect into echo returns. Echo faders 1 2 at unity gain, panned hard left and right. Push in the prefader button in the aux section of the board. Be sure that you’ve turned up the aux1 knob on the instrument channel strip. The channel being mixed on is set to prefader and unity gain. In labs this week we recorded the French horn and both trumpet parts. The recording went smoothly but the player forgot the music so I had to sit there with him and teach it to him using the piano. It took up some time but luckily the takes went well. We used a royer 121 in room 185 in the vocal booth, to get a dry sound. This has synthesizers in it, so I wanted to have some really cool effects on dry tracks. On Thursday we got recordings of the guitar layers done for the first section of the songs. We used the 121 once again since we like it so much. Practicing during the week really helped the recording go a lot smoother. Charting out the song is always a good idea and has only benefited the groups tracking sessions. I am pleased with the way things are going in the group.

Compression! and more.... RECORDING!

This week, there was no class Monday, so on Wednesday we covered a lot about compression. Compressors are used to smooth out the dynamic range of a performance, typically on instruments with a wide dynamic range like vocals, drums, and bass. These dynamic range processors can boost/attenuate volume indifferences within an audio signal. The benefits of using compression can include a smoother sounding and more consistent performance, which is much easier to listen to that something with too much dynamic range. It can make soft parts louder and loud parts softer. It changes the roominess of a sound, and changes the tone of the source. A compressor has a few parameters: The threshold is a user-defined setting measured in dB of how much audio is being affected. If there is a threshold of -15dB, any audio that is sounding above that threshold will be compressed, and the audio underneath it will remain unaffected by the compressor. Ratio is another aspect of a compressor. It defines the comparison of unaffected audio to compressed audio. A 3:1 ratio means that for every 3dB of audio over the set threshold, it will be heard at a volume of 1dB over the threshold. Any ratio over 10:1 is considered the use of a limiter. Attack time (in milliseconds) is the time it takes a compressor to react to the audio signal above the threshold. This setting can make the difference between a crack or thuck sound in a snare drum. A fast attack time creates a soft, pillowy drum sound. The release time is the time it takes a compressor to return the signal back to normal, or unaffected. Setting a longer release can bring up the quieter parts in the tail of an audio signal. The output of the compressor controls the audio level after compression.
This week in labs we did some more recording for the third song that I have composed for the group! Tuesday morning was recording drums for the first section of the song. We set up the usual, D112 on the kick, e22’s on snare top and bottom, MD 421’s for toms, and the 414’s as overheads. Tracking these drums was fun for me, because I wrote this song in mostly odd time signatures and the grooves turned out, well, pretty groovy! This took the whole lab because I wanted to make sure we had one of the best takes possible for that day, and we accomplished that. On Thursday morning, I brought in my MIDI controller again to track some more parts for the sections of the song. We hooked the keyboard up to a laptop that has Logic as the DAW, because I had found this really cool patch that I wanted to use for this song. The only thing is this patch has a delay, phaser, and I EQ’d it a little bit. This just means that I had to play tight, and with no punching in really! With fixed effects, there is no going in and removing them after it has been recorded, so it needed to be tight. With what little time I had before we were supposed to track, I stayed up late the previous night practicing the parts, and in turn the tracking went a lot smoother than I know it would have had I not sat down and worked on it. We got the first section done last week so we had to record the transition into the second section, the transition into the third section, and the entire third section. We set everything up the same way as last time, running out of the laptop into an interface, and then out of the interface into a guitar amp, and also into a R and L direct in. We used the 414 and the Royer 121 again, even though we knew we liked the way the Royer sounded by itself. After getting all that tracking done, we got the other room set up to record a real piano for the middle section of the song. We miked it with two 414’s, and it took one or two takes for me to nail the piano part. Onto the viola with what little time we had left! We quickly moved a 414 from the piano and set up a new audio track for viola. Taylor checked out sheet music I had created for him a few minutes before, and nailed the part in a couple of takes. That concluded the day.

EQ and more recording!!

This week EQ was the focus. Equalization of frequencies is very important in the aesthetics of sound, and it is a tool that has a very fine line of too much or too little. Equalizers modify the amplitude of a selected part of the frequency spectrum of an audio signal. It is used to correct audio deficiencies, and is also used in creative ways for effects. Flat frequency response refers to when a microphone receives a signal with the same sensitivity for all frequencies. EQ’s have different filter types. They isolate and boost or cut certain frequencies and harmonics in various ways. A low pass filter os one that filters out all the high frequencies, and lets the lows pass through. You can set the cut off point at a specific point, and it rolls off the frequencies at a certain amount of decibels per octave, depending on the setting. A high pass filter does the opposite of a low pass filter. It filters out all the low end and lets the highs pass through. Low pass filters are good to use on bass guitars or low end instruments, because high frequencies aren’t typically present, or aren’t needed. A band pass filter is one that grabs a specific band of frequencies, and cuts or boosts them. Widening the Q or bandwidth will allow more frequencies through the filter, while narrowing it hones in on a specific frequency. The degree of boost or cut is call the resonance of the filter and is expressed in dB. Band pass filters are fully sweepable. George Massenburg was the inventor of the fully parametric EQ. This is a notch filter. It is great to use when there is a hum in a track, or a certain frequency or overtone keeps popping out in a mix. Proper EQ starts with the person or artist tracking. Hopefully they know something about EQ and tone, otherwise its up to the engineer to work the magic. The artist, their attitude that day, the instruments used, proper working cables, mic choice and placement, and the mic pre are all variables when it comes to getting a fitting EQ before tracking. EQ’s have 3 parameters: Frequency, gain, and Q or bandwidth. The frequency parameter enables the selection of a specific frequency to boost or cut. Gain is a measurement in dB of the overall EQ. The bandwidth adjusts which frequencies are allowed through the filter or not. When using EQ, it is usually better to use subtractive EQ rather than additive EQ. Adding EQ causes a digital plug-in to create extra sounds that weren’t actually in the original recording. To get a beefier low end, pull down the highs rather than boosting the lows! Complementary EQ is another type. This is were cutting frequency holes in certain instruments is crucial to allow the audibility of other fundamentals, harmonics, and overtones. If two guitars are dominating the mix, and the lo mids are too high, slap an EQ on one of the guitars and bring down the lo mids. If you have several guitars going, you don’t need the fullness of all of them, just one or two of them. Cut the interfering frequencies out of the others. In order to find where holes need to be drawn, set a notch EQ and exaggerate the gain. Sweep the frequency spectrum to find the stand out frequency that you don’t want. Pull the gain into negative dB and the obnoxious ringing should minimize significantly, or hopefully disappear. Before adding EQ, listen to the instrument in context with all the other instruments. Soloing the track won’t give you a good reference to what you are EQ’ing. You may spend quite some time doing EQ on a track solo’ed and make it sound really good, only to find out that when you bring the rest of the mix back in, it doesn’t fit and ends up masking other frequencies. EQ really should be a last resort thing, as it is always good to be aware of all of the variables of recording and to get a good recording the first time.
This week in labs we finished up the first tune that we needed to re-track. We tracked vocals on Tuesday morning in room 185 this time, using the wonderful AKG 414. Things went pretty smoothly and the song is coming around! It didn’t take very long to get the vocals down, so we spent the rest of the lab time mixing the song. We cleaned up the start and end of the tracks, and set a basic pan to get a temporary stereo mix. We adjusted levels so everything was relative in volume. On Wednesday evening we recorded drums for the new song. We did the standard micing that we know and love. The D112 on the kick, e22’s on the top and bottom snare, MD421’s on the toms, and the 414’s for the overheads. The first section of this song is in 7/4, and was interesting to record. The next morning we recorded keyboards, and we ran my midi controller through a cool synth patch in logic on a laptop. We went out of the laptop, through an interface, and out the interface into the millennia for a direct in signal. We also went out the interface into a guitar amp that was miked with a 414 and a Royer 121. The 121 ended up sounding better and warmer than the 414. This was my first experience recording midi as audio, and I was super stoked about the whole process, and I cant wait to record more!

The week after Spring break!

This week was an interesting one. It was an eye-opener for a lot of people, and an overall learning experience for everyone in the group. Monday was the day we got our midterms back. I had a feeling that I did well on it, I went in feeling comfortable with the information I knew. My grade turned out to be 96%. This was really nice to see! After reviewing the test and discussing the answers, we went into the control room to listen to each of the group’s mixes for the third recording assignment. The tracking process went well, and we hadn’t done much mixing because time was up and we had a more than decent sounding tracking session as it was. Apparently I was unaware that at the end of our final lab before the song was due, one of the group members spent the rest of the lab time doing some mixing while the others were cleaning up the studio and equipment. During the class listening, this new mix was pretty crappy. A guitar with a SansAmp digital plug-in was used for distortion, and a bad tone was chosen. Somehow, there was a fade on the bass track drawn in from start to finish, and by the time the end of the song came, the bass was out. A “too wet” reverb was put on the vocals, and the viola was mixed way too high. Had we all been in the studio when this was happening, I’m sure it would have gone differently, and slightly better.
Since the majority of the class didn’t do well on the test, our next lab we were required to physically review signal flow and routing a pre fade reverb to a vocalist’s headphones mix, so as to send the vocalist reverb and not hear the effect in the control room monitors. I was confident in knowing how to do it, and that I could do it, but I didn’t know that could do it rather quickly. I realized that I was having an easier time on the board, so I only practiced one time and allowed the others in the group to get more time that day. The process involved hooking up a headphones monitoring system in the MIDI lab, setting up an SM58 into channel 1. Different people went and tested the mic as a vocalist as we were routing everything, making sure they were getting signal, reverb and talkback.
Wednesday night was an extra night that we had booked to re-track the second recording assignment. We were starting from the ground up with tracking the instruments in the song, but it was a very productive night. We started out with drums, using a D112 on the kick inside, top and bottom snare drum with two e22’s. We used two 414’s with a cardioid setting for the overheads, and two MD421’s on the toms. Chris got the drums tracked in a couple takes. The next instrument was bass which we had done three takes of. We had hired Nick Reves this time, and he did an excellent job, especially for just reading off of the chart we had handed him 15 minutes before. We decided to go direct into the Millenia as we had done before. Next up was the acoustic guitar, which we used a 414 as well. We recorded that in the big room, and it came out sounding nice. We were then on to tracking piano, all in the same night. The vibe had been great the whole time, and we were really cranking stuff out. We used the 414’s on the piano, and only a few takes were needed to nail the piano parts.
The next morning we recorded electric guitar with a royer 121 back in the MIDI lab, with sonnex surrounding the guitar cab. We tracked and decided to make a few quick arrangement decisions for the better of the song, and everyone turned out liking it. Next we moved onto viola, the last instrument that needed to be tracked, besides vocals. Taylor managed to nail it in a couple takes, and we were finished tracking the music! In two days! I was super stoked because previously it had taken 3 weeks to get done what we did so quickly. Lately there has been some turmoil in our group, and clashing personalities and issues. Being late, and taking control of a situation were two main issues that needed to be addressed among the group. We got together with the group, while Drew facilitated a meeting to talk about our interpersonal issues that had come up, and other issues regarding progress in the group. Everyone had seemed to come to an understanding of what had been going on, and that it had to stop for the sake of the group. These next few weeks will hopefully show some group dynamic changes for us.

Crosstalk, bleed, out of the box!

Today’s lesson was on crosstalk, and how to prevent it. My group has been tracking drums, bass, piano, guitars, and vocals all over again, for the 4th time because we had click track bleed that was recorded onto more than half of the drum tracks. Just for a simple demonstration, we put 1 overhead AKG 414 cardioid over the kit. We set up a headphones monitoring pathway. We set up a click track and recorded a little bit of drums. Listening back, there was no bleed. When monitoring in the control room, the click track should be very low in volume, almost inaudible. My group had apparently been tracking with the click at a volume loud enough that two signals running next to each other had crosstalk.
Today we also learned how to route outboard processors through the board, and record a master mix running the audio through the board. The initial audio from a track or audio file runs out of the computer through its core and excel cards. It then travels into the interface (192’s) with AD/DA conversions happening. The interface is directly routed to the patch bay. Group all the drums together and send them to a stereo aux track labeled drums (input bus 3-4). Send signal out A 1-2 into line inputs 39 and 40. Route 2 more cables from channel insert sends 38-40 to Distressor 1-2, and then route out of the Distressor into the channel insert returns 39 and 40 Route the kick drum from interface’s output (A-1) into line inputs 1 on any channel, in this case, we are using channel 39 and 40. On channel strips 39 and 40 on the board, make sure faders are at unity gain, center pan, and the line 1 and mix bus buttons are pushed in. Create a stereo audio Master track. Input is B 1-2, Output is A 7-8 because A 1-2 is being used to monitor. Adjust the amount of distressor using the aux knobs on the master output and channels 39 and 40, and on the Distressor itself.

The amazing Tom Dowd

In class on wednesday, we watched a documentary "Tom Dowd and the Language of Music". I have not heard of this man before today, but I know of and own many things that he has contributed to or helped create. Tom was growing up and going to school in New York. His mother was a singer, and his father staged big shows and theatres like the Roxy and the Capitol. Among being the member of the school band, he was highly interested in the study of Physics. After high school, Tom was drafted into the military, and he later on began to work for what was known as the Manhattan Project, the driving force behind the A-bomb that was dropped on Japan. In hopes to get his work for the nuclear industry credited towards school, the denied him and he thought about going back to get his degree. The school was going to make him take a bunch on classes based on the principles of 30's physics, but he was well beyond that, contributing to the discovery and development of 1950's physics. He decided not to continue on with school, and got a summer job at a recording studio, were he found his true passion. Shortly after, Tom started to engineer mixes and work with artists like Aretha Franklin, The Drifters, The Allman brothers, just to name a few. Tom was noticing that studios had many limitations of capturing a good recording. Back then, while recording you had to mix on the fly, or while recording was happening. From the lack of equipment, to the unprofessionalism of the musicianship Tom saw many things that needed changing. Later on in the DVD I would find Tom in the studio with an artist, and he could just listen and know what chord the song needed to go to to sound right. Many artists commented on what an amazing ear he had, not to mention his ability to get a great sound. He would walk around in the studio, having people playing, listening, then he walk back into the control room and tweek something he thought needed it. He later began working with Jerry Wexler of Atlantic studios, and convinced Jerry that they should be recording with 8 track! Dowd was one of the first people ever to mix 4 track down to 2 track, and to begin recording with 8 track. Tom was working with Cream for a while, and continued on his musical and production journey with Eric Clapton. Some of the most important things to Tom for making a good record, was great players and a good vibe. Wether in the studio or backstage at a show, Tom was always pumping up artists to play their best, like a sports coach. If you do not have a good vibe, a good performance will not be captured. Tom was pretty much the most significant person in the music production industry as we know it today. With out him many of the options available to us today would be non-existent.