EMMANUEL MCCARTHY

To demonstrate some of my studio experience I have provided a journal for project: 'The Call'.

 

The journal documents the strategies employed for instrumental usage, mic placement, mixing, use of effects and also explains some of the troubleshooting. The instruments included a semi-acoustic Guitar, an electric bass and a drum kit.

The musicians included myself on guitar and bass with Brian Pugh on the drums. All recording was carried out at James Cook University’s School of Creative Arts recording studio. The recording, mixing and mastering was done through Pro tools HD software, D command, x mon and various AVID consoles and interfaces.

 

Tuesday 12th April

On the first studio meeting I used a Rode M3 microphone which was placed approximately 20 cm from the sound hole of the guitar. I recorded the Guitar melody to a click track of 120 BPM (beats per minute). Being a little unfamiliar with some aspects of studio set up and pro tools operation, there were some implications that needed to be overcome. This minor concern was overcome through the aid of technical advice. I also found the necessary mixing board controls for enabling the click track. I created the click track on the channels insert. I was also able to assign talk back through headphones in the sound studio from the D-command in the control room. I was able to ensure appropriate volume levels below the --12 decibel range by adjusting the levels on the Avid pre amp. Here phantom power was selected for the Rode M3 mic.

Wednesday 13th April

On the second studio meeting the audio recording for the Drum Kit was carried out. The drum kit was arranged to suit the left handed drummer Brian Pugh.

 

Mics for the drum kit were arranged for each instrument as follows:

• Kick- Dynamic Condenser microphone

• High hat and ride cymbal- Rode NT55 small diaphragm condenser mics were used for overheads.

• Floor tom- Shure SM-57 No phantom power.

• Mid toms- single SM 57 Mic.

• Snare- SM 57

• Voice mic for talk back-SM57

 

 

I created six tracks for each instrument and an extra track for Brian’s talk back. Each of the drum tracks were named according to the instruments used e.g. snare. 

On the pre amp we set each channel to zero. This made setting the volume levels easier. The capturing of some parts such as the snare drum required some trial and error. In this instance the SM57 needed to be re-positioned for volume and sound quality purposes.

By the end of the session Brian had played the overall drum sequence to the click track and my guitar track.

 

Wednesday20th April

On the third studio meeting I recorded the Bass guitar. This instrument was recorded directly from instrument to pre-amp via guitar cable. I sought some technical advice regarding the cable connection and the choice of insert on the channel mixing window. At this stage of the audio recording there were many channels and it was important to label channels for clearer identification of instruments and easier monitoring.

 

Saturday 23rd April

Mixing and Mastering

In order to get a better audio quality for mixing, this task was carried out in the control room of James Cook University’s School of Creative Arts. This was the better option because the facility D command helps with managing channels on Pro tools. The control room speakers are of a high quality and provide a better overall impression than the speakers in the practice rooms. When considering the inserts for each instrument, aspects of dynamics, and effects were taken into account. As part of managing the dynamics of the instruments I watched a you tube video which outlined the basic structural; component for pro tools compression. This helped me how to properly adjust the thresh, attack, release and ratio. This was a big help when correcting some of the problem dynamics I encountered in the bass capture. 

 

 

When soloing each track for improving each instruments capture quality, was able to identify specific flaws. On occasions I listened to the overall mix which gave me a good impression of where the capture sat with the rest of the mix. Here I found where I needed to make choices regarding timing and sound levels. The larger part of the original audio recording was deleted due to poor synchronisation of instruments. At one stage during the mixing I needed to remove the Dyn3 Expander as it was creating an unpleasant static effect with the bass. For pro tools reverb I chose D-verb as my control panel.

When applying the reverb to the bass it gave the instrumental more fullness and also seemed to resolve a dynamic problem which was not resolved during compression. I used some reverb with the guitar and chose the Hall effect at about 40% wet. Too much reverb on the guitar made the instrument sound too abstract compared to the other instruments. The volume of the guitar needed to be increased on the D-command after the dverb was applied.  I felt that a convolution reverb wasn’t necessary in this project, however I would like to see where I can utilize this option in future works. The following image shows the hall selection on Dverb.

EQ.

In order to adjust the EQ of the song I created a master fader with the volume set higher than the other channels. In the insert for the master fader I added the EQIII Digi rack. Here I was able to adjust bass notes and other sounds on the left control measure for fullness. I was also able to create more snap on some portions of the overall song. I found that there wasn’t too much needing equalization needed

 

Conclusion

 

When I looked over the entire audio recording project there were some areas that I felt needed more attention. I could have made things easier by playing the guitar more evenly rather than having to apply the compression and reverb to reduce the dynamic range. In some respects, the reverb gave the bass more fullness which turned out ok. I would have preferred the bass to be louder but the dynamics were to overpowering. A short rehearsal with band members could have improved some of the basic instrumental rhythm and melody composition. Nevertheless, in light of the technical principles of audio recording, this was a very educational and enjoyable exercise. When I heard the overall song I was happy with the result. I had other thoughts about the recording later however.