Tracking Bass and Electric guitar

Jam session 06/02/10

Date: 06/02/10
Duration: 3.5 hours

Me and my friend who have had active projects in the past playing in the same band got together to throw ideas around. We jammed together for couple of hours, recorded nearly an hour length of material most of which we weren't so happy with so we didn't bother mixing them. We kept some snippets of audio which we felt could be useful.
We had no idea what we were playing but just improvised as we played. Every mini-session lasted roughly 10 minutes, we stop for few minutes dialing in new settings and played on.

All necessary recording setup were already set up from a previous recording session and thanks to the customised template I created previously we could get on with the recording.

After we finished recording we went back to parts of the recording we felt were worth keeping and we briefly mixed the audio. Other than some subtle EQ on the guitar, the guitar was left as it is. Snare and kick drum were heavily compressed and on both I reinforced the sound using samples I created on the same drumkit roughly 6 months ago.

 We bounced several audio tracks in AAC (compression) formats which I filed away for future reference.

Here is a small snippet of one of the mini-sessions:

Recording (Take the Fall) band

 Date: 30 & 31 Jan 2010
Total Duration: 11 hours

 I've been approached via facebook from a band called Take the Fall. I know the members personally as I have played in different bands along side members of this particular band. I have stayed in contact with the members since and have previously discussed the possibility of recording for them. They are recently formed band and have not yet played live but would like to record some songs so they can upload it to websites such as Myspace. They told me they were unhappy with the audio quality of their own recordings and they had little experience of recording music.

The band is 3 piece, guitar, bass and drums. The guitarist is the main vocalist and the bass player does backing. They have recorded some songs in the past but lack of equipment and knowledge meant they couldn't achieve the standards that they wanted.

Planning

In the past I have recorded bands newly formed who were eager to record their songs but once they entered the recording stage they became unclear on what they wanted and songs weren't completed. Many times I have musicians say it sounded good in rehearsal but when it came to recording they were clueless on bar lengths and tempos they wanted.
These problems are more common amongst 'less experienced' musicians but I always discuss in detail with the band before we start recording about what they want. I'll discuss song structure, tempo, time-signature, drum mics, guitar overlays/overdubs, MIDI etc. Discussing the details before the recording stage allows us to save time and effort and allows us to just get on with the recording.

Knowing the members of the band made it easier to talk about how realistic their goals are. In any recording there are compromises and discussing these areas with the band made the whole thing run a lot smoother.

Recording

Drums were recorded first on which everything will be based on. We mapped everything we needed and aimed to achieve the best performance possible with minimal mistakes and keeping to the click track. We decided on using my in house drums because of the convenience and the drummer brought in his own snare drums and cymbals.

 

With the guitar, we reached a compromise to achieve the guitar tones he wanted from the rig I own. This is because the sounds from the guitarist's amp cabinet had a low hum and a slight but noticeable buzzing sound that could not be removed. After spending time tweaking the EQ settings and getting no where we moved on. 

We recreated his pedal board settings on my Line 6 M13 stomp-box modellerand ran two amps simultaneously. We experimented to find the best tones possible for the song and decided on a combination of valve driven amp and digital modelling.

Blackstar HT-5 valve amp

Line 6 Spider digital amp

Line 6 Pod XT pro

For bass the bass player brought his own rig. There were issues to begin with hum but everything was corrected. I used a compressor pedal (he didn't own one) to tighten up the sound. The bass player doesn't use a plectrum and therefore there are huge differences in dynamics in his playing which is generally a good thing but when recording it can become difficult without a compressor.

Bass amp similar model used for recording

The signals of both the bass and guitar was split and fed into the Line 6 Pod xt pro. The dry signal is recorded into Logic 8 and that can be routed back into the pod for fine tuning of sounds.

Vocals

Vocals were recorded on the 31st Jan but neither of us (me and the vocalist) thought it to be great performance vocally and we decided to record the vocals separately in the future again. 

I used the Focusrite Twin track pro for the vocals and I used the AKG C214 microphone to record it.

We decided it be best for me to work on the materials recorded so far and hand over a rough mix for the vocalist to practice with.

Rough Drum mix

After deciding on taking a rough mix home I quickly processed some of the drums and the guitar. The main thing I did was to reinforce the bass and the snare drum by triggering samples via MIDI. I did this inside Logic 8 by taking a length of recording (ie snare track) and going > Factory > Audio to MIDI groove templates.

 

 This generates MIDI notes according to time and velocity of the recording. Adjusting the velocity threshold allows to discriminate between different sounds in the recording (ie kick drum sound is picked up on the snare mic but it is much quieter so increasing the threshold will mean MIDI event will not be generated for this particular sound).
I did this for both bass and snare. I chose a sample which most suited the genre of music and created a MIDI track with all the notes. Now if I play back the audio the sampled snare will sound at exactly the same time as the real snare and this increases its presence and punch in the mix.

 

After few careful EQing and comping I handed the vocalist the rough mix to take home in a mp3 file format.

I will be posting a post soon in which I record vocals with the vocalist and do a proper mix on the song for which to publish to the band's Myspace page.

Note

While we were recording I realised the Shure SM57 microphone the guitarist brought with him was fake. I have in the past been a victim of a Chinese counterfeit of the same microphone and spotted the fake early in the recording. The fake microphone has harsh mid-highs and high frequencies. It is for the most part void of proper bass response.
Fake SM57 can be spotted by its capsule grill, internal wiring (real=colour, fake=black) and weight (real=heavier).
I advised the guitarist to seek immediate refund from the seller who apparently claimed it to be 100% genuine.  

 

Creating customised Project template in Logic 8

Date: 20/01/10
Duration: 5.5 hours

In the past every time I plan a new project personal or for someone else, I always started with a blank template. Logic's own templates were not to my liking and in the end it was always quicker for me to set up a blank than organising a Logic's templates to suit the project.
After watching a tutorial online on how to create a personalised templates I decided to make one for myself. I went about creating a template which will accommodate most projects whether it be a full band setup or a simple four track recording. This will save me time in the future from having to set up and all the specific busses for FX sends and returns and comp groups.

I began by naming all the relevant inputs and output on my sound card. This allowed me to quickly figure out the Logic's equivalent sends and returns on a single page.

Next I went about creating audio tracks for vocals, guitars, bass, drums and spares. I also created tracks for external instruments (i.e. Line 6 pod xt pro). I then created all the aux sends for fx (Lexicon MX300 etc). I created appropriate inputs for the pre-amp.

I then went about colour coding all the tracks so they are easily visible during recording and for recognizing.

 

Once I was satisfied everything was labeled correctly and all inputs & outputs were connected properly, I went about loading up certain plugins which control the hardware such as the Lexicon MX300 plugin. The software itself does not manipulate audio in any way but rather control the hardware via USB. This allows for tailored presets for projects to be loaded up instead of noting down hardware settings every time the systems are turned off.

 

After everything was in place, I saved as template (in file) and every time I open a new project I can call up my personalised template which has all the ins/outs & sends & returns and will no doubt save loads of time in the future.


Note: I had to reconfigure the patchbay to work better with the template layout and wiring. This was time consuming but will help make my work flow better in the future

Creating backing track for a choir + Recording vocals

Date of recording: 11th & 12th Jan 2010

Date of mixing: 13th Jan 2010

Total Duration: 10 hours

I have previously recorded backing music for a choir based in London and was approached by the same choir coordinator to record a another backing track. All members of the choir is Japanese and me being able to speak the language helped in the recording process. The original idea was just to record the backing track but after having finished it, we decided to add vocals (Soprano & Alto) thereby creating 2 version. One with and another without vocals.

Having recently acquired couple of new outboard gear (Focusrite Twin Track Pro & Lexicon MX300), I decided to make the most it. All instruments (Piano, Violin etc) were recorded using MIDI using the EXS24 inside Logic 8.

The vocals was recorded using AKG C214 microphone through the twin track pro into the MOTU soundcard. NO de-essing or compression was added during the recording (everything was done on the mixing stage).

After all the material was recorded, I moved into the mixing stage. One of the difficulties in this project was working with 2 sets of vocals. I have some experience in dealing with vocals but never with simultaneous vocal lines (2 vocals lines sang through the whole song). Finding the balance between the soprano style vocals and alto lines was not as easy as I originally though and a lot of work went into making them sound the best they could. I have read articles in magazines such as Sound on Sound specifically about vocal processing so I dug through my collection of magazines to find the specific article and read though it couple more times to digest everything.

I also did research online to find out which particular compressor for example are favored by the professionals. I found few that were constantly mentioned and luckily I have access to these compressors through the Focusrite Liquid Mix 16 which gives me the emulations of the originals. I could at least achieve similar results if settings were dialed in right. 

Optical compressors were recommended by many experienced engineers and producers alike specific models such as Electronix LA-2A are a favourite and I used it for one of the vocal lines.

In the process of mixing, I was finding it harder to make each instrument or vocal line stand out from the mix. Certain part of the song required a build up which wasn't coming through properly. I had to use automation to correct balances and pan each voicing so they can be heard more clearly on the track.

All compression was handled using the DSP on the Liquid Mix 16 and reverbs & delays by the Lexicon MX300. I ended up with 2 separate mixes which I eventually discarded one and to my best of ability finished the other.

Initial reaction of the choir coordinator was positive and I gave her the hard copy of the tracks to her to take with her. She will be in contact soon as she has played it in front of the choir in London and has practiced with it so it may be further improved or embellished.

Outboard rewiring & Composing

Date: 5 & 8th Jan 2010
Duration: 8 hours

Since acquiring new outboard equipment (Lexicon MX300 and Focusrite Twin trak Pro) I decided to rewire the outboard rack to make it more efficient and flexible.

I bought 2 sets of mono 1/4"jack wire looms and I rewired the whole thing. All inputs and most outputs (ones in use) were all connected to the patch bay for easy access.

Once I was happy everything was connected correctly and having tested it, I went about using the new outboard fx for a project I'm contributing for a friend.

 

I used the Lexicon MX300 on the vocals/guitar and also on the piano. I also used some on the snare drum.

To send the audio to the outboard, I created a auxiliary channel and sent audio through the soundcard to the outboard. The output from the fx unit came back into the soundcard through the analogue ins.

The mix project handed to me from my friend is recorded on the built in microphone of his Mac book. The quality leaves a lot to be desired and the vocals and guitar will be re-recorded when my new pre-amp arrives. The main objective was to create accompanying pieces to go with the vocals and guitar on the original recording.

I will post a another post in the future where I will re-record the whole song properly under more suitable conditions.

(Above is the rack completely rewired and the new outboard gear fitted)

Live recordings

Date: 30/12/09
Duration: 5 hours (so far, more to follow)

On my previous post I posted about the recordings I made and the PA duties I did at the gig. This post is about my progress so far on processing those recordings. This includes EQing, comping, volume automation etc. I have so far finished 3 out of 6 recordings. There were other recordings made at the gig but they were almost beyond saving (reasons stated in previous post).


I first had to import recordings made at the gig from my Boss BR-600 portable recorder onto my iMac. I exported the files in WAV format.

 

Once the files were on the imac, I transferred those files into a folder.

Once I transferred the audio into Logic, I began by listening to the track few times and finding any anomalies. I used automation to control the balance of the track throughout, areas where I thought were quieter than others I raised the volume and lowered the volume were there were undesirable noises (ie feedback, excessive string noises etc). When I was satisfied with the balance of the track, I used compression to make extra sure the balance of the track were kept at nominal as possible.

I used EQ to make the vocals on the track cut through better and to attenuate bass and high frequencies.

Because the track was a joint stereo, it limits much processing that can be done. Ideally it will be much easier to mix audio if all sound sources were kept on different tracks but with equipment available it was not possible (Boss BR-600 only allows for up to 2 tracks simultaneous stereo tack recording). Not having the separation meant any processing done to the track affects all sound sources and this made it difficult. There were also reverb/delay used on the vocals live. This meant it was difficult to add any more reverb or delay to the track without making the recording sound muddy.

Here is a link to one of the song which has been processed. The song is a cover played by one of the groups.

Here is the recording: