Group Recording (Demo Mixes)

Daniel James 

(Recording) - Me, Reggie and Boris volunteered to record a song for Daniel and the reason why he wanted a song recorded is because he is going to use it as a demo and present it to record labels. The logic file containing the instrumental and guide vocals was ready to go. There was no production required for recording Daniel.

Before me, Reggie and Boris could record Daniel we needed microphones. We asked Shai, who provides the equipment for the Wednesday sessions, to bring a AKG 414, SE Titan and headphones. The pop shield, XLR cables and Jack - XLR cables were in the recording studio so we didn't need to ask him for those.

First thing me, Reggie and Boris was grab the blue panels to make a small booth. The blue panels help with flattening unwanted background noise and they help with recordings not having too much bleed or non at all. We set the panels into a square shape in front of the control room, where Daniel can see us and we can see him. We set the panels up in this position because it was the best place where unwanted background noise can't be recorded and it that was the case the blue panels will flatten that unwanted noise and it will make the recordings clean.

Next I rigged up the SE Titan microphone using a XLR cable connecting it from the microphone into channel 3 of the I/O box. I plugged it into this channel because channels 1 & 2 is the stereo output and me and my group wasted to the vocals on a free channel. It would be impossible to record the vocals on the stereo output channels unless the stereo output was changed. Plus, the vocals would have been recorded over the backing track and that's not what I wanted to do. So this is why I plugged the SE Titan into channel 3, to ensure the mic has it's own channel and to set an adjustable level for the mic. I then screwed on a pop shield and positioned it accurately with the mic. The pop shield will help the recordings because if Daniel is sings words that have bursts of air the pop shield will prevent the bursts of air being recorded and it won't mess up the clarity of the recordings.

I grabbed an extra mic stand and I positioned it close the SE Titan. I did this because I wanted the microphones to pick up Daniel's voice and if one mic is further away from Daniel that mic would've been unable to pick up Daniel's voice. So it was crucial to ensure that both mics were able to pick up Daniel's voice. Me and my group used two mics because we wanted listen to each mic and know which mic suited Daniel's voice the best.

After the mic stand was positioned next to the SE Titan I grabbed the 414 mic and I screwed it onto the mic until it was screwed on tight. I did this to ensure the mic doesn't fall off the stand and fall to the ground because if that was to happen the mic wouldn't be useful to record with anymore. I then grabbed another XLR cable and I connected it from the mic into channel 4 of the I/O box. I plugged into this channel for the same reasons use to rig the SE Titan mic.

The next thing to do was to set up the headphone mixer. I did this by grabbing an extension, plugging it into the mixer and placing it on the hook of the SE Titan mic stand. I did this because it would be easier for Daniel to adjust the volume on the headphones and he wouldn't have to move at all. Plus, it saves a lot time and gives me and my group more time to record more than one section of the song. From there I plugged a Jack to XLR from the headphone mixer into channel A of the I/O box. I did this because the headphone mixer needs to register what is being played in the control room. So instead the input going to the output it's the other going the other way round and this will help Daniel listen to what is being played in the control room. Finally, the last thing to do was to power the headphone mixer up and then me and my group can apply power to the mics and adjust levels.

Once everything was good to go in the live room, I went in the control room with Reggie and Boris. The first thing to do was to load the Logic file, pull faders 1 and 2 up on the mixing desk, ensure the daw buttons on the mixing desk are turned on, ensure the master fader is up on the mixing desk, create two new mono audio channels on Logic, ensure the inputs of the mics are correct on Logic, name the audio channels appropriately, ensure the faders are down on channels 3 and 4 before applying phantom power, apply phantom power, turn the faders up again, use the gain knobs to adjust levels for the mics, adjust the headphone bus knobs on channels 1 & 2 and communicating with Daniel to ensure the levels on the mics are appropriate.

All of this had to be done because it was important for and my group to ensure the levels were accurate before recording or it will mess up the recordings, either due to the recordings clipping or being too quite. It was also important to check the mics and there inputs or it would've been difficult to know which mic is which and the wrong inputs would have been selected on Logic and the audio channels would've been named incorrectly. So it was important for me to make a note of where the mics were plugged into because it would help speed things up and waste less time.

It was important to create two mono audio channels. The reason for this is me and my group were using two mics and vocals are normally recorded in mono. The reason why vocals are recorded in mono is so you can make them stereo in the mixing phase and mastering phase. In the mixing phase you, mostly backing vocals and harmonies, will be panned left and right and this will help the vocals become wider. In the mastering phase you'll be able to stereo spread the mixed track and this will also help the track sound louder and wider.

If there weren't any audio channels set up for the microphones we wouldn't be able to record the vocals required for the track. So this was another crucial feature in the recording process.

It was also crucial that channels 1 & 2 and the master faders and the daw buttons were set up. Without theses functions I wouldn't be able to listen to what was playing on logic. The daw button on the mixing desk allows me to hear what is being played on Logic or from another program or website. With the daw switches off I wouldn't be able to hear anything. So I made sure that the daw switches were turned on.

I then had to make sure that the faders on channels 1 & 2 were up and the master fader was up as well. Channels 1 & 2 are playing everything that is coming from the wherever on the screen and with the faders down I'll only hear silence. So I pulled those two faders up to zero and the next thing I had to do was to ensure the master fader was up as well because that fader controls every channel on the mixing desk and with that fader at zero I wouldn't hear anything even if the faders on the other channels were up.

It was important to find the correct Logic file that we were going to use for Daniel. If we didn't find the correct Logic file it would've taken a bit of time to find the file and it waste time to record. Me and my group had to find the Logic file containing Daniel's name. This would take less time to find and I will instantly know that this Logic file is the right file for the recording phase.

Before applying phantom power on the mics the faders on channels 3 & 4 needed to be down. If the phantom power was turned on with the faders up a pop sound would've been heard and it's not a very good sign. The pop sound could damage the monitors in the control and the monitors are important for listening to what is going on in recording, mixing or mastering. Also the mics are condenser mics and they don't carry their own power supply. Condenser mics need phantom power to work and without phantom power the mics wouldn't have been able to pick up any sound.

After the phantom power was applied I used the gain knobs on the channels 3 & 4 to ensure that the levels were appropriate. I didn't want too apply too much or too little because if there was too much the recordings will clip and distort and if there was too little the recordings will be too quite to listen to and I won't be able to hear them clearly. We communicated with Daniel so that we could get well balanced levels and this made the recording process easier to work with.

Finally, I used the headphone bus knobs on channels 1 & 2. I did this because I wanted Daniel to hear what was being played and by using the headphones bus knobs he was able to hear what we could hear. I then communicated with him to be sure that he could hear the backing track. I also asked him if the backing track was distorting and if that was the case I would adjust the trim on the headphone mixer because that is usually why the headphones sound distorted. Daniel confirmed the backing track wasn't distorting and the volume was just right for him.

After everything was set up in the control room me and my group were ready to record Daniel. We recorded him in comping mode. Comping in another words means composite recording and this method of audio recording is a great way of finding the best take that fits in well with the track. We communicated with Daniel and explained to him how we were going to record him. The sections we recorded in the first session were the verses. The first we needed to do was create a cycle on the first verse to ensure that the verse repeats itself. The second thing to do was to prime the two audio channels so that they were ready to go. Finally we let Daniel know that we were ready to record him and from there we started recording all the vocals required for the verses.

The vocals that were recorded were lead, backing, ad libs, talking tone, doubles and whispers. We recorded 4 - 5 takes for each vocal because it would be easier for me and my group and Daniel to listen back to each recording and choose which one Daniel liked the best. The way we did this was by soloing the recorded vocals only. We soloed the SE Titan because that mic suited his voice better. The SE Titan has catches mostly ambient sounds and sound has breathy voice. This is why the SE Titan was better to listen to rather than the 414.

We played each take to him and he would then tell us which take he liked the most and we would select that take, bounce it to a new audio track, copy two new audio channels to record the next vocal, prime the new audio channels and hide the comp tracks. This helped with making the logic file less confusing to figure out and it helped us with what we did and didn't need anymore. However, it was important for me and my group to stay focused because if we weren't focused we could've made a huge mistake and this would've created a lot of problems and waste valuable recording time.

We then repeated the same method to record the other vocals that Daniel wanted to record. We used the same method it was easier for me and my group to know which recordings to keep and bounce and we managed to record, choose the vocal take Daniel liked the most, bounce the recordings to a new audio track, create two new audio track channels for recording the next set of vocals and hide the comp tracks we didn't need anymore. Thanks to this method we managed to record all the vocals for both verses in one session. So we didn't need to worry about recording the verses in the next session.

Once the session had finished I had to ensure the project was saved. If the project wasn't saved all the recordings would've disappeared and this means that all the vocals would need to be recorded again. I pressed cmd + shift + s and I overwrite the same logic file because I know it will be the same file when I open it again but with the recorded vocals and everything will be in one file rather than saving multiple files. Before I could overwrite the files I needed to ensure that the 'copy audio files to project' was ticked because if this wasn't ticked all the audio files would've have disappeared and would mean all the vocals have to be recorded again. Once I ticked this option I clicked save and clicked yes to overwriting the project and the saving process copied each and every vocal take. It did take some time for all the vocals to be copied because there were so many recorded vocals that needed copying.

The project was saved to the audio drive before this track was recorded and this is a reason why we didn't have any problems with recording Daniel's vocals because when Logic files are saved into the audio drive Logic knows that all the audio recordings will be saved to it's designated area, which is the audio drive. The audio drive is the only drive that will allow Logic to record and save audio whereas if you were to record audio in a different location such as the desktop Logic will prevent audio recording from taking place and you will be unable to copy the audio files. This is why Logic files that contain audio recordings must be saved into the audio drive and named appropriately to ensure that you remember what the Logic file is called.

The next thing to do was to flatten the mixing desk, turn the phantom power off before unrigging the mics and putting all the equipment away. This had to be done because the equipment wasn't needed anymore and we had to ensure the recording was neat and tidy as it was before. I helped un-ring the mics and put them back into their cases. I then helped wrap the XLR and Jack - XLR cables and I put them back on the pegs. Next, I helped with un-rigging the headphone mixer by unplugging the extension, wrapping it up and putting it back on the back. The next thing to do was to turn the power off on the headphone mixer, unplug the headphones, put the headphone mixer to one side and wrap the headphones up. Finally the last two things to do were to put the blue panels back where they were taken from and align them neatly and put the mic stand in front of them. By doing all of this me and my group were able to pack everything away and double check nothing was out of it's place and that everything is back in it's original place.

It took us three sessions to record the entire song. In session one we managed to record the verses, in session two we managed to record the chorus section and in the final session we managed to record the bridge. In the last two sessions we replicated the same steps and used the same equipment to record Daniel and it was important to replicate these steps because it was the only way to keep the vocal recordings the same and it was easier to remember what equipment was used, how it was rigged up and know where the mics were going to be plugged in and know which phantom power switch to turn on.

These images below shows the equipment used in these recording sessions and the all the vocals that have been recorded on logic.

Ella-Simone

Equipment List:

DI BOX

SENNHEISER E606

SM58

4X HEADPHONES

AUDIX D6

4X SM57

414 ROOM MIC

2X NT5s

BLUE PANELS

In this recording session I was working with Shai and Jay and all three of us needed to rig the equipment up before recording Ella's band. For the drums we set up three SM57s and an Audix D6. The Audix D6 was placed inside the kick drum because we wanted to hear the punch of the kick drum and get a clear recording of it. Two of the SM57s went on the top and bottom of the snare. The two SM57s were positioned this way because we wanted to hear the hit and crunch of the snare and the SM57s obtain a really good tone for this drum instrument. The SM57s also managed to capture the sound of the hats, toms and crash cymbal because there is more than one mic capturing most of the drum instruments. One more SM57 was placed near the ride cymbal. The SM57 was placed there because the SM57 is really good for capturing the brightness and crispiness of the ride cymbal. The SM57 is a dynamic microphone and a dynamic microphone means the dynamics of a instrument or synth can be captured as well as the sound itself. We also had to make sure the mics were screwed tight to the mic stands and ensure the mic stands are not tilting because if the mic stands are loose this could make the recording of the drums sound different. An example of this can be a kick drum recording being loud at the start and slowly getting quieter due to a loose mic stand moving downwards. So this was important factor while rigging up the mics and mic stands for the drums. The mics had to be screwed on tight to the mic stands because if the mic wasn't screwed on tight this could lead to a mic being damaged due to hitting the ground and could make the mic stop working. The last mic we rigged up was the 414. We rigged up the 414 because this was going to be used as room mic. The room mic will pick up the sound of not only the drums but the other instruments that are being used in the band recording and room mics are really good for capturing the ambience and shape of the room. 

The next thing to do was to connect XLR cables from the mics into the I/O box. We needed to plug in XLR cables from the mics into the I/O box because logic wouldn't be able to register the mics if they weren't plugged in and the mics wouldn't have power to work and record the instruments required in the band recording. The mics rigged up on the drums didn't need phantom power because they are dynamic mics. This means they carry their own power supply. The 414 room mic needed phantom power because the 414 is a condenser mic and condenser mics don't carry their own power supply. Condenser mics need power from an external source. The images below show how the drums were rigged up. 

The next instrument that needed rigging up was the piano. We used two NT5s and we placed them inside the piano. We used NT5s because NT5s are condenser mics and condenser mics pick up a high frequency range and the NT5s were able to capture the brightness and harmonics of the piano. We placed one mic on the left hand side of the piano and placed the last mic on the right hand side of the piano. The mics were positioned this way because we wanted to capture all the pitches and frequencies of the piano and we wanted the piano to be recorded in stereo. Phil communicated with me in the control room about adjusting the NT5 on the left hand side of the piano until it sounded perfect in the control room. The NT5 on the left is capturing all the lo end of the piano and the NT5 on the right is capturing all the hi end of the piano. 

We then used two XLR cables and connected them from the NT5s into the I/O box so that the mics can be powered up and registered into logic. After connecting the NT5s they both needed phantom power. These mics needed phantom power because they are condenser mics and they don't carry their own power supply like dynamic mics do. The images below show how the NT5s were placed and rigged up.

The next thing that needed rigging up was the bass guitar. We didn't use a DI box for the bass because the bass amp that was used in the recording session has a built in DI box and an XLR cable can connected from the bass amp straight into the I/O box. This is the first thing we did. We connected an XLR cable from the bass amp into the I/O box so that we can record the bass directly from the amp into logic. We then rigged an SM57 near the amp because the SM57 is really good at capturing the tone of any instrument. This is because the SM57 is a dynamic mic and this means all the dynamics from an instrument or synth will be captured and recorded. We then connected an XLR cable from the SM57 into the I/O box. The last thing to do was connect a Jack - Jack cable from the bass amp into the bass guitar. We did this because we weren't going to be able to hear anything coming out of the bass amp if the bass wasn't connected to the amp and the SM57 wouldn't have picked up the sound coming from the bass amp. The image below is evidence that shows how the SM57 was rigged up.

The final instrument to rig up was the electric guitar. We wanted to get a direct sound and live sound from the electric guitar. So the first the we did was rig up the Sennheiser E606 mic and place it near the guitar amp and we did this so that the tone from the electric guitar is captured by the mic. The E606 is a dynamic mic and this mic is mostly used for guitar recording because the E606 has a frequency response from 40Hz - 15kHz and this mic can handle very high SPL levels. The electric guitar is a really loud instrument and the E606 was an ideal mic to use in this band recording because no matter how loud the electric guitar was the mic still managed to handle it's SPL levels and with a good frequency response the mic managed to capture the dynamics, harmonics, frequencies and tone of the guitar. Then an XLR cable was rigged from the mic into the I/O box.

The next thing to do was rig up the DI box. The first thing I did was rig a Jack - Jack cable from the guitar into the input of the DI box so that logic can record the sound of the guitar directly. I then rigged another Jack - Jack cable from the guitar amp into the DI box's link and I did this because me and my group decided that we wanted the sound from the guitar amp to be recorded directly into logic as well capturing the tone using the E606 and this was a good way of combining the guitar recordings together. After rigging the two cables I rigged an XLR cable from the output of the DI box and into the I/O box. The DI box is a condenser piece of equipment and this means it needs phantom power for it to work. The images below show how the guitar amp and DI box were set up. The DI box is located on the bottom left of the second picture.

After all the mics for the instruments were rigged up and connected we needed to rig up an SM58 mic for Ella to provide guide vocals for the song she was recording. She needed to provide guide vocals because the band were confused of the song's structure and when they need to drop in and out and with the help of Ella's guide vocals it helped them with knowing the structure and helped them with when to come in and out during recording process. The SM58 is a dynamic mic and this means no phantom power is required and the SM58 will capture all the dynamics in Ella's voice. The pictures of how the piano was rigged also show how the SM58 was rigged up and positioned.

The next thing we rigged up was the blue panels. We used the blue panels because we wanted to isolate the piano from the rest of the instruments. The blue panels helped with reducing bleed in the recording process. Without the blue panels there the room would've not been isolated and there would have been quiet a lot of bleed in the recordings and the recordings would've not come out the way they should've. This is why we used the blue panels to isolate the room before recording. Ella was on the right hand side and Anthonia, Maria and Jordan were on the left hand side and with them on the left hand side they were able to communicate together easily and this helped them with when to come in and when to drop out.

The last thing to rig up before setting everything up in the control room was the headphones. We used four headphones. Three for Ella, Maria and Jordan and one for me. We used two extension for Jordan and Ella because they were the furthest away from the headphone mixer and we connected a pair of headphones directly into a free socket in the headphone mixer for Maria because she wasn't the furthest away from the headphone mixer. I then plugged a Jack - XLR cable from the I/O box into the headphone mixer. The headphones were important to rig up because we needed to communicate with the people in the live room from the control room. We needed to communicate to them about when we'll start recording them, doing practise run throughs and checking if they can hear us and we can hear them. I was using the fourth pair of headphones because Phil wanted in the live room just in case the positioning of the mics needed changing. In this case he asked me to change the angle of the NT5 on the left hand side of the piano. The images below is the evidence to show how the blue panels and headphone mixer were rigged up.

After everything was rigged up and ready to go we went into the control room and opened a new logic file and saved it into the audio drive with the 'Copy all audio files to project' ticked off. If this box wasn't ticked off all the audio recordings will have been lost. So this option was important to tick off before recording. After ticking this option we named the logic file appropriately so we know that the logic file belongs to Ella. The next thing to do was to create audio channels for the mics but during this process there was a problem with which mics were connected to which channels. The picture for rigging the electric guitar on the right hand side shows how many cables are connected to the I/O box and this made it very difficult for us to figure out which mic is going into which channel. So this was valuable lesson learnt, to note down which mic is going into which channel in the I/O box and note it down.

The only way we could figure out which mic is which was by creating the audio channels required for the band recording and listening to each channel individually so that we can label each channel appropriately and apply phantom power to the channels that needed it. This took some time because there were a few channels to listen to before we could begin the actual recording process. After a while we managed to label each audio channel and apply phantom power to the channels that needed it. The next thing to do was communicate with the band so that they could hear us and we could hear them and this didn't take long because the band responded as soon as they heard us speak in the control room. The only thing that was left to do was adjust levels to all of the instruments. We did this because we didn't want the instruments sounding too quiet or overpowered. We wanted all the instruments to be at a reasonable level so that we can hear all of them accurately.

Once all of this was done we recorded 6 takes of the band. The first few takes were practise runs and the last three were the real takes of the band with the guide vocal. After each recording we had to make sure the band were quiet at the start and end of each recording. This is because we didn't want any background noise from the band as this will interfere with the recording and we needed them to be quiet at the end of the recording because at the very end of the recording we wanted the ring of the crash cymbal to fade before we could stop recording. We wanted that audio tail of the crash cymbal there or otherwise we wouldn't have gotten clean recordings. In these recordings we didn't use the metronome because Jordan was going to keep the band in time while he was playing the drums and the drums is an important instrument that keeps the timing of the band precise. The picture below shows all the recordings of the band.

After recording 6 takes we saved the project and packed everything away. Before packing up we flattened the mixing desk and turned the phantom power off on the condenser mics so that they can be unplugged without making a pop sound in the control room. Then we went into the live room and wrapped up all the XLR cables, Jack - Jack cables and Jack - XLR cable and placed them on the pegs because that's where we took them from. We then unplugged the headphones and wrapped the cable around them and we wrapped the headphone extensions and placed them on the pegs where the XLR cables, Jack - Jack cables and Jack - XLR cables live and then we cut the power off from the headphone mixer. The next thing to do was put the guitar and bass guitar into the guitar stand. After this we unscrewed the mics from the mic stand and put them to one side so that there not in our way and that they don't get damaged. The next thing to do was to put all the mic stands back into the top left corner of the live room because that's where we took them from and the final thing to do was place the blue panels at the back near the mic stands and align them neatly because that's where they were before and that's how the were aligned. By doing all of this we made the live room look neat and tidy.