The
Ribbon mics continue to impress with a great new acoustic session from
Graham Hodge CHECK IT OUT. The
BIG IDEA is to run a studio recording materclass weekend. Look out for
details!!!!!!!!!
This
was, to all intents and purposes, a “live” studio
recording. John Walton had composed eight original pieces to be
recorded along with four standards chosen by Anya Thomson the
singer. The schedule was two days recording with the full band
then one day for recording vocals and another two days for mixing.
The line-up of the band was Pat McCarthy-guitar, Rick Woolgar-tenor
sax, Jon Trier-piano, John Perry-drums and Warren Jolly-bass.
All very experienced and talented working jazz musicians. I had
discussed with John Walton prior to the session my ideas for recording
and I wanted to get as much in one pass as possible.
The band were divided into the three rooms at Fairview partitioned
by glass sliding doors to give maximum sonic seperation whilst
maintaining eye contact throughout. Anya provided guide vocals
from a mic in the control room.
The
session
The
drum kit was in the livest sounding room and was recorded
with an AKG
D112E about four inches in front of the bass drum front
skin,(those of you looking for that “killer”
bass drum sound should look away now), a Shure
SM57 on the snare, Neumann
KM84 on the hi-hats and a pair of Neumann
U87s as overheads. All recorded flat EQ with a little
compression from a Focusrite 3 on the bass drum and snare.
In the main room was the upright acoustic piano, miked from
about 2 feet behind with a 90 degree stereo
coincident pair of AKG
414s. I’ve miked this piano up from every conceivable
angle over the years and this set-up consistently provides
good results. Also in this room was the double bass. This
had a pick-up fitted which was feeding into the bass player’s
amp and from which I took a balanced line out to the desk.
This sound had plenty of attack and mid-range pluck but
a Neumann
U47 placed about 6 inches from the “f” hole
added a fullness and warmth- as well as a degree of spill
from the piano!
Pat McCarthy played guitar through a Line 6 Pod and I took
a direct stereo feed to the desk.The sax player was in the
third room and mic’d with an AKG
414ULS about 12 inches offset from the bell. The spill
from the main room was neglible and thus we were able to
re-record the odd sax part without too much trouble.Once
we were set up and everyone was happy with the foldback
etc and I was happy with with my signals we worked through
a series of tunes over the next two days. Recording in this
situation relies very much on the abilities of the musicians
but that’s what I’m there for! To capture that
elusive “magical” take. We recorded twelve songs
over the two days, some of them being first takes which
the band didn't even know I was recording.
I tend to record everything these days.You never know when
that piece of magic is going to happen . I didn't worry
at all about spill from various instruments onto other tracks.
As long as there’s no major musical cock-ups then
that’s it.It’s like a photograph-
this is what we did in this place on this day- publish and
be damned.
To
hear the audio files above simply double click on
them and they will play in the media player you have
set on your computer. To download the files, create
a new folder on your hard drive and then right click
on the files above and choose "Save as Target"
to your new folder. When you have downloaded all the
files open up Cubase or a similar audio programme
and create a new project. In Cubase go to Import<audio
files and select all the MP3s in the folder. Cubase
will ask you if you want them on the same track or
separate tracks. Choose separate tracks and it will
paste them into a new project for you.SEE VIDEO.
The
real discovery was using the AEA
R84 Ribbon through a Focusrite ISA 428mic preamp on
Anya’s voice. I was very new to this mic and struggled
initially to get the gain structure right. I liked the sound
very much but was concerned about the noise levels and the
intensity of the proximity effect which starts at about
8 feet according to the manual! We recorded three vocal
tracks at the end of the backtrack session and I remember
being very happy with them.
On May 2nd we came back to record the remaining vocal parts
and because I had used this mic on some intervening sessions
I was more favourably disposed and used to working with
it.
And it was stunning. For a young singer Anya has great support
in her lower register (which is unusual) and this mic captured
it all. Apart from rolling off all the peakiness I generally
encounter with this type of voice it reinforced the warmth
and depth of her vocal timbre. A little gentle compression
via a Urei 1176 enabled me to sit the vocal in the track
with great success.
We finished the vocal session after about nine hours work
and the integrity of the voice sound still stood up.
I will be mixing this session on May 8/9th and will post
comments here as well as some downloads from a track.
