CS4044 Applied Digital Audio:

Rock/Pop Band Production.

Daniel Beere: 0867241.
William Kennedy: 0726885.
Brian Rogers: 0869414.
James Cahill: 0747955.

Introduction:
Following confirmation with a Group of musicians to take part in our Project, we
then arranged a Date and Time to book the Undergraduate Studio in the
Computer Science Building in the University of Limerick. During set-up and
recording we planned to implement what we have learned from Lectures and
Labs this Semester. The material studied during the semester also aided our
mixing and editing as well as the experience we gained from the first Project in
Applied Digital Audio. Our group consisted of Daniel Beere, William Kennedy,
Brian Rogers and James Cahill.

Recording:
Drum Kit Set Up: When setting up the Drum Kit we used our existing
knowledge and what we have learned from Lectures and Labs to do this. The
Drummer preferred not to use a Click track as he explained that was not
comfortable with it. When we placed Microphones on the Kit, we began with the
Kick Drum. We placed a mic just outside the hole of the Kick Drum and did not
face the mic directly into it as we faced it at an angle in order to remove some of
the loud boom noise that the Kick Drum may produce. We also put a jumper
inside the Kick Drum to dampen the noise and to deaden the reflections while
recording. For the Snare, Hi-Hat and Floor Tom, we positioned a microphone a
few inches just over each piece. As for the Toms, one microphone was placed
between each Tom to pick up both. We also used the XY microphone technique
for the overheads. We used two Rhodes cardioid microphone’s for this which
were placed at 90 degrees so the two diaphragms are vertically aligned. These
cardioids also needed Phantom Power when recording. A total of seven mono
audio tracks were set up in Pro Tools to record the Drums.

Bass Set Up: When recording the Bass, the recording artist brought a Line 6
POD X3 Live Guitar Multi-Effects Pedal. The Bass was plugged into this and then
a lead was plugged into the junction box. A mono audio track was set up in Pro
Tools to record the Bass.

Guitar Set Up: For the Clean Guitar, we used an XY microphone technique. The
two Rhodes cardioid microphones were placed at 90 degrees in front of an amp.
The microphones were then hooked up to the junction box and again these
needed Phantom Power. A distorted Guitar effect was also used by using an
Effects Pedal. While recording the lead Guitar, we placed a Neumann u87
(Cardioid Polar Pattern) microphone a few inches in front of an amp. During
recording of the lead Guitar, the musician again used the Effects Pedal. A total of
five mono audio tracks were set up in Pro Tools to the record the Guitar. As we
used an XY microphone technique, we needed two audio tracks for the clean
Guitar recording and two audio tracks for the distorted Guitar recording and one
for the lead Guitar.

Piano Set Up: When setting up the Piano for recording, we considered applying
the Mid-Side (MS) recording technique, but as there was only to be a small
amount of Piano in the track, we decided to use just the one microphone. We
placed a Neumann u87 microphone inside the Piano and switched the Polar
Pattern to Bi-Directional (Figure-8), but we were unhappy with the resulting
sound so we employed a Cardioid Polar Pattern which produced a much better
sounding signal.

Vocals: For the Vocals, we set up a Neumann u87 microphone, again switched
on Cardioid. This was placed at about chin level to the singer and a Microphone
Guard (Pop-Sock/Pop-Filter/Pop-Screen) was also used between the microphone
and the singer. This can reduce the level of loud pops produced by the vocalist
during recording. Two vocal tracks resulted following recording, one as the main
vocal recording and another as additional vocals and back-ups.

Headphones: A headphone mix was bussed out for the musicians during the
recording sessions.

XY Microphone Technique: We used the XY microphone technique during

recording as it is: 1) Mono Compatible.
2) As sound arrives at the same time, there are no time differences and no phase
difference. The make and model of the microphones being used must be
identical when applying the XY microphone technique.

Mixing:
Auxiliary Tracks: We began our mixing by grouping the instruments and then
bussing to different Auxiliary tracks such as Kick, Drums, Overheads, Bass, Clean
Guitar, Chorus Guitar, Lead Guitar, Vocals, Vocals Backup, Vocals Reverb and
Reverb.

Panning: From here, we adjusted levels for a rough mix and panned certain
tracks such as Overheads 61 degrees left and right, Clean Guitars panned 45
degrees left and right and then bussed to control their position in the mix (61
degrees left) , Lead Guitar 60-70 degrees right and Snare 20 degrees left
approximately. We Panned the Distorted Guitars 84 degrees right and left and
automated the Panning on the Clean Rhythm Guitars to rise from 45 to 60
degrees during the Chorus as we felt the Chorus sounded slightly muddy. The
Piano was also panned slightly to the right, around 36 degrees. We applied
automation to Pan the Piano during the Chorus as we increased the panning to
around 57 degrees. We wanted to widen the Stereo Field for each Chorus and
give it room to breathe.

Plug-ins, Inserts, EQ: We tried to follow a familiar format for plug-ins and
inserts when mixing each track. We first applied a gate, an EQ (Corrective),
compressor, EQ (Musical) and a Limiter to most tracks. We used Gates such as
C1 Gate, Compressors such as C1 Compressor, Bomb factory and Joemeek SC2,
L1 Limiter and EQ’s such as Q10 and 4-Band EQ3. Below 200 Hz was cut from the
Chorus Guitars to achieve a brighter sound in the Chorus. We also cut 60 Hz from
the Bass to make room for the Kick Drum and heavily EQ the Kick Drum to
achieve a larger punchier sound. We applied a very sharp cut to sibilance at
6000 KHz for the Vocals as we felt there was a harsh sound at that range. The
Vocals were compressed using the plug-in Joemeek SC2 Compressor, with a
Ratio of approximately 1.7:1 (The Vocals were compressed already before going
into this plug-in). We used this compressor (Joemeek SC2) again when
compressing the Piano.

Effects: A Reverb plug-in that we used was ReVibe, which we applied to the
Piano. We set the Reverb to 31% Wet and selected the room type to “Large Dark
Room 1”. We also used the same plug-in for the Lead and Clean Guitars (Both
11% Wet & Large Dark Room type). We used this Reverb plug-in again later for
the Vocals which were set at 19% Wet and Small Bright room.

Fading: We used markers on the Editing Window to organise our recording with
labels such as Verse 1, Verse 2, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, etc. For Fades we used the
Fade Tool to fade into and out of tracks at the beginning and end of the song. For
Fades for each chorus, we grouped the guitars and bussed them to one Auxiliary
track. We then selected each of the tracks to “Write” and during play we
increased and decreased the volume manually before and after each chorus. We
then reselected the tracks to “Read”, which then automatically executes the
Fades that we created during play. This method was also done for the Vocals on
the chorus.

Schedule:
Week 10: Drums and Bass Recorded.
Week 11: Clean Guitar and Distorted Guitar Recorded.
Week 12: Lead Guitar, Piano and Vocals Recorded.
Week 13: Editing and Mixing.
Week 14: Final Touch-Up’s and Finalise Report.

References:
Sound on Sound (1995) ‘EQ: How and when to use it’, [online], available:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/mar95/eq.html [accessed April
2010].
Dummies (2010) ‘Miking the Drumset in Your Home Recording Studio’, [online],
available: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/miking-the-drumset-in-your-
home-recording-studio.html [accessed April 2010].

Shure (2009) ‘Microphone Techniques’, Drums, [online], available:

http://www.shure.com/stellent/groups/public/@gms_gmi_web_ug/documents/web
_resource/us_pro_mic_techniques_drums_ea.pdf [accessed April 2010].

Rumsey, F. McCormick, T. (2006) Sound and Recording: An Introduction (Music

Technology), Fifth Edition. Focal Press.
Note, we actually used a Fender amplifier for the finished recording.