Band Recording Evaluation

On Tuesday 1st April me, Shai, Juan and Yinka were going to do a multitrack band recording. Yinka didn't show up so it was only Shai and Juan helping me out. We needed to record bass, electric guitar, drums, synth and 2 female vocals. Firstly we had to set the equipment. We used:

XLR cables
2x Rode NT5s
1x Audix D6
2/3x SM57s
2x SM58s
1x DI box
Mic Stands
Headphones
Headphone mixer

Me, Shai and Juan had to rig all the equipment and plug it into the main box that leads into the main control room in the recording studio. This took a long time because it required a lot of team work and concentration. If we made one mistake then everything will go wrong in the recording. So it was important to us to keep track of what we were doing.

Once everything was rigged up and ready to go, we went back into the main control room in the recording studio to set up the audio channels in logic. I communicated with Juan about what mics were plugged in to which numbered channels. I then had to change the input and output settings, I then had to turn the phantom power on to the condenser mics only. For the dynamic microphones I left the phantom power off because the phantom power will damage the microphone.

Once I set all the audio channels, input settings and phantom power I needed to get some levels on all the channels. The I did this is I communicated with Juan and told him to talk into the mics and play the instruments, secondly I used the gain knobs on the mixing desk to get some levels and finally when I got levels on all the channels I told Juan we are good to go.

The band we were recording came into the rehearsal room, the drummer needed to wear headphones because the drummer is the time keeper, he needed to let the band know that we are ready to record and that he was going to count them in after 1 bar. We told the drummer that we are ready to record, I pressed the record button, the drummer counted after 1 bar and they started playing the song they were meant to be playing. Half way throughout the recording they made a few minor errors and they requested that we record them again. So we stopped the recording, deleted all the audio recordings, put the marker back to it's original position, told the drummer that we are ready to record again and pressed the record button and the drummer counted in after 1 bar and started playing again.

Once the full song was recorded we stopped the recording and thanked the band for their good work. Me, Juan and Shai saved the audio project on our memory sticks ready for mixing down. Once we saved the projects on our memory sticks we saved the project onto the audio drive desktop and labelled it 'Juan Shai Gerald assessment'. Once that was done I closed logic and put the mixing desk back to it's original setting.

The only thing that was left was put all the equipment back to where it belongs. Juan and Shai were the only people putting the equipment away. I had a bit of trouble getting in because the door was locked, eventually Grant opened the door and I went in the rehearsal room to give Shai and Juan a helping hand. They were half way finished, so I didn't need to do a lot. I looped up all the XLR cables and put them back on the pegs, then I put the Rode NT5s back in their box and finally I put the synth keyboard back to where it was before which was near the P.A systems. When everything neat and tidy, Grant told me, Juan and Shai that we are free to go.