At
this point any vocal melody or lyrical ideas existed only
in Bryan's head and the song was put to one side whilst
other pieces were started. I did some quick monitor mixes
and gave Heather a copy as she had some ideas she wanted
to work on.
I can't remember how long it was before we came back to
the song-maybe a couple of weeks later when Heather wanted
to try some edits on the piece in order to fit her vocal
arrangement. I had been running Cubase on a separate computer
in sync with the main Radar system and duplicating all recordings
into it so editing was a fairly straightforward procedure.
Once the arrangement was finalised Heather did some vocal
takes and it was here that the song took on its final identity
and structure. The edits made it much more direct and it
became easier to see how it was going to develop as a piece
of music.
I recorded Heather's voice with an AEA ribbon through a
Focusrite 428 preamp with no eq and into an Audio Design
compressor direct to Radar. We did three full takes, dropped
in some lines on each take then compiled a mastertrack from
these. After a couple more repairs on the mastertrack the
main lead vocal was complete and we moved on to some backing
vocal parts which Heather wanted to try. We worked on a
three part harmony piece which was sampled and flown into
the relevant parts of the song.
Again I did some quick monitor mixes and the song was put
to one side until the real drums were added some days later.
By the time the drum recording
was finished Anne-Marie and Livvy had arrived to work on
extra vocals and flute parts and Anne-Marie had come up
with a hooky little vocal part which she recorded right
through the song, then playing a flute solo which started
by emulating the vocal part. The rhythmic first part of
this solo was sampled and added to the last few bars of
the song. The flute was recorded using the newly-arrived
GoldenAge
R1 Active ribbon mic. We had been sent two
of these to try and I was very impressed. Positioned about
15-20 inches up above the player and slightly away from
the mouthpiece the mic produced a good open full bodied
sound with little wind noise. I compressed this through
a Focusrite Red3 unit for more control over the attack and
release of the compression.
Anne-Marie and Livvy then added further vocal parts to the
song which were also sampled and flown in to the arrangement.
I recorded all these vocal parts using the Jo Meek JM47
which has a more “present” sound than the ribbon
used on the lead vocal. This gives the backing vocals a
unique sound and makes it easier to sit them in the track
without extreme eq or effects. I must admit to previously
not being a fan of The Joe Meek range of gear having tried
their mic pre, Vocal channel and stereo compressor units
and finding them too coloured but I really like this microphone
and hope to use and review it further.
|
Vocals/ Flute Tracks |
Vocal 1: AEA R84 |
Vocal
2: Jo Meek JM47 |
|
|
Vocal
3: Jo Meek JM 47 |
|
|
|
Vocal
5: Jo Meek JM47 |
Flute:
Golden Age R1 |
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
Drums
The live drums were recorded at Henry's second session.
The kit had been left set up from his first visit and the
mics were already in place so it was just a matter of sending
him the track for some time while he played along to become
familiar with the structure and to get a feel for the song.
His starting point was the guide midi drum track played
by Bryan very early on and the whole track had been pretty
much built around this feel. As Henry played along I was
able to tweak the drum sounds and mic positions to sit in
the track nicely with the instruments already recorded.
This is my favourite way to record drums. It's much easier
to come up with “finished” drum sounds which
need very little work at the mix. In fact during the entire
album mix all the drum tracks were completely unprocessed.
It's obviously important to have a drummer who is comfortable
working to a click track and Henry is very good at this.
The drum kit was miked with the following.
Bass drum.....AKG D112E inside the shell and an Audio Technica
4047 just level with the front rim...both at beater height
but off centre. No eq on either mic, summed to one track,
phase checked and compressed through a Focusrite Red compressor.
Snare drum...Shure SM57 on the top and bottom skin, again
no eq, phase checked and summed to one track via a Urei
1176 compressor.
Toms...Sennheiser 421s, 3 mics summed to a stereo pair of
tracks, no processing.
Overheads were a pair of Neuman U87s with some low end rolled
off on the desk channels. I originally put up a pair of
Hebden omnis but changed them for the U87s to get closer
to the cymbals and provide a more focused sound.
Hi-hats.... AKG C414, set to hyper cardioid pattern...some
Hi pass filter applied on the desk.
Ambient mic was another AKG C414 on omni setting and placed
in the adjacent room with all doors open.
| Drum
Tracks |
|
Kick: D112/AT 4047 |
Snare: SM |
|
|
Tom
Left: Sennheiser 421 |
|
|
|
OH
Left: Neuman U87 |
OH
Right: Neuman U87 |
|
Hats:
AKG 414 |
Room
Ambience : AKG 414 |
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
Bass
The bass guitar was pretty much the last thing recorded
on this song. This was simply because of Andy Smith's availabilty
due to other commitments. As with the drums the bass amp
and cab were left set up from previous sessions so Andy
just jammed along while I tweaked the mic and DI settings.
We had the amp in the control room so that we could fiddle
with the EQ to achieve our sound.The cab was miked with
my trusty Neuman u47 right up against the speaker grill
and DI'd via a BSS AR116 DI box. These were compressed individually
through some very old Audio Development compressors and
recorded to separate tracks. In the final mix they were
pretty much balanced at equal volumes.
| Bass
Tracks |
|
Bass: DI |
Bass: U47 FET |
|
| |
|
|
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
Mix
The mix pretty much took care of itself. We hadn't recorded
anything we didn't want and there were no major decisions
to be made so it was more a case of careful balancing and
listening on a few systems to finalise things.
As I remember all the drums, acoustic and electric guitars
and keyboards were completely unprocessed at the mix. I
added a little low end to the bass guitar and a little high
end to the vocals but that was about it.
This was fairly typical of the entire album mix. There is
no doubt that the best approach if you can do it, is to
record everything by making your judgements as the song
builds. Listen to the sound source, the environment,
the microphones you have access to and try not to let technology
get in the way of great music.
JS
|
