Apologies for the lack of new material but the mobile and the studio are so busy at the moment that weve just not had time to put any new stuff up. We have some great new sessions waiting to go up and a sneak preview of a fantastic new compresser but thats all to come!!!!! In the meantime have a read about the first in our series of great mics under £100
Wild
Messiah are a four piece rock band from North Lincolnshire, UK,
comprising Mark Williams (vocals), Bradley Brown (drums), Martin
Shepherd (bass) and Glen Brown (guitar). They have been together
for three years or so and this was their third visit to Fairview
to record demos which they use to get gigs and to play on here....http://www.myspace.com/wildmessiah1
I have to say that this band has improved tremendously since their
first visit. They are learning what it takes to make a good recording
from the performer's point of view and it's particularly heartening
to see their gig list on http://wildmessiahofficial.com/
At a time when many bands are complaining that there's nowhere
to play these guys just get on and do it.
Right...I'll get off me soap box.
This
was a one day session during which we set-up, recorded, overdubbed
and mixed two songs so I tend to use tried and tested methods
when working this quickly. I generally find that a song a day
is the best formula for good demos but of course not all unsigned
bands can run to this financially so we do what we can in the
time available.
No surprises then in the mic'ing up department.
The
session
Bass drum mic....was a
very old AKG D12, dug out of the mic cupboard for sentimental
reasons. It's a very early model with a captive lead and
was recorded direct to the Otari Radar through my TL Audio
valve mic preamp and a Focusrite Red 3 compressor.
Snare Drum was mic'd with a Sennheiser e609 on the top,
also through my TLA mic pre and a Shure SM57 underneath
through a desk channel balanced, phase checked and summed
to one track via a Urei 1176 compressor.
Hi Hat mic was a Neumann KM84 about 12 inches away...recorded
flat.
The toms were mic'd with Sennheiser MD421 mics, again flat.
For overheads I put up a pair of Neuman U87s directly over
the cymbals and recorded these to a pair of tracks...left
and right....flat but with the desk hi-pass filter in at
around 100hz.
The ride cymbal was mic'd with a calrec CM1050 condenser...recorded
flat.
Because I was essentially recording the band live and the
guitarist was playing in the middle room, I was unable to
put a mic up in there for drum ambience (something I always
like to do). However I did put up an AKG414 on it's omni
setting around eight feet in front of the kit. This was
fed into the final mix at more or less the same level as
the overheads.
The bass guitar was mic'd with a Neuman U47fet close up
on the grill, routed through our GA Pre 1073 and compressed
with one of my old AD limiters.
All the guitar parts were recorded with a GA R1 ribbon to
get some room and a trusty sm57 up close taking care to
check for phase!!! through a desk channel and an AD limiter
during the backtracks then with the same mic through the
GA Pre 1073 for overdubs.
Again recorded flat but with some amp tweaking.
All the vocals were overdubbed using my trusty chain of
U47, GA mic pre and Audio Developments limiter direct to
the Otari Radar. These were copied into a seperate computer
running in synch with Radar at the mix in order to use the
PSP Vintage Warmer...one of the very few software plug-ins
I actually like!
As you can imagine, in this time scale mixing was quick
and uncomplicated....push up the faders and balance with
the desk automation,a bit of eq and compression here and
there and some level rides then put it down. As always the
bulk of the work is in getting the original sounds and levels
and then recording them as well as I can. The final mix
is recorded simultaneously to DAT and Soundforge (via AES/EBU)
using the DAT's convertors, then the wavs are processed
through a mastering program and finally compiled in CD Architect,
fully PQ encoded and with CD text written to full Red Book
standard...a copy for each of the band and a couple of extras
to send out.
Such is the work of the ordinary jobbing recording engineer.
The tracks sound like an accurate representation of the
band, not only as they played in the studio on the day but
also as they sounded when I saw them live some weeks later
(though not quite so loud)!
Have fun.
JS.
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
