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.