AE-240 Fall'09Here ya go, fresh from the foundry and still warm, analog metal...
Week-10: Dan Rau's band, Brother's Loyalty
I'll refrain from comment until all the votes are in - as in, PLEASE get your final coments in early.Week-9: Willie Chambers Mix
Below are links to our raw mix, plus a processed version to lift the bass. Compression and limiting was used between 40Hz and 160Hz.
Easy-raw Easy with Lo-Lift and edit Baby Guitar EDDIE's MIC TECHNIQUES
Mic techniques evolved from what is often undone during the mixing process. How many times have you rolled off bottom on drum or guitar mics - or even low mids, for that matter?
Most directional mics are flat at 1 meter, which is why I mic guitars from 2 or 3 feet away - to reduce proximity. You can't quite do the same with snare, so the mic is never straight down on the head - that will give more bottom than stick - it's always across the head, to improve the stick attack. For a kick drum, my mic positioning appears off axis, but it's actually pointing at the beater, the angle reduces low end while improving the beater sound. This techniques seems to work with or without a front head or a hole. With careful attention to phase and polarity, I can always get plenty or too much bottom. Because I see alot of broken stuff, I know that inside kick drum mics fail from abuse. Why trash a $300 mic when you can be nice to it? I use the crotch mic to capture the beater.
The end result - I hope - are basic tracks that don't require alot of surgery before mixing. It also increases the resolution at frequencies where detail is needed. Think about it. Proximity can easily add 10dB of low end, which shows up as level at the A/D converter. All of the other frequencies are 10dB below - they don't get the needed resolution - so by reducing proximity effect, I can record 10dB hotter.
I'm not a fan of wide-spaced drum overhead mics, so I often mic x-y, which, even when wide-panned deliver a nice 3dimensional sound. I try to apply my preferences whenever possible - but my techniques do not work well when the musicians don't cooperate - old loud habits are hard to break. Again, why waste the power of your tools on fixing a problem when the fixing can be done by performance? As soon as you waste a tool on a repair, it leaves it's mark - you've taken the stink out of the turd, but you still have a picture of the turd. Now of course, there will always be some corrective surgery, but I've seen students use some freaky-ass EQ curves and compression that just don't work. If the fix is complicated, it is often the wrong fix.
Now, it's your turn...
From Dan Rau...
I've really loved our class and getting to know how to run the tape machines. I was very much in the dark about the whole art of recording to tape and it has really given me a different thought into how to record. The mixing lesson we had the other day also helped me learn alot about mixing. You really stood your ground on the eq and it showed me alot of what can happen if you just fix placement of instruments in the mix rather than hit everything with eq and compression. I would still love to have a chance to mix that jackson 5 song.This has been a very interesting class and has lead me to think about recording some things to tape when I have the option. I will really enjoy seeing how our song comes out - not having everything dead locked to the grid - and kinda having the natural flow to it. I've never gotten the chance as a band to get live take recordings done and hope this to be a new experience that I will like and be able to apply to the digital studio recording.
Week-6: DeepSoul Deities session
Deep Soul Deities played live in the studio (please forgive the 'imprecise' song names).
Players: Drums (dave), Bass (dan z), two saxes (Rachel and Kyle), guitar (jake) and a rapper (tim).The setup will look something like the image below. The rapper (Tim)will be in the rear booth and will have headphones. The players will be in the room listening to the rapper through the surround system in the room.
kick - ev 664 - into pultec MB-1
crotch - nady 1050 into altec 1612
snare - modified sm-57
mono oh - ev dynamic omni
stereo oh (behind drummer) -akg-61 tube condensersBass: DI (from head) and amp (sm-58)
Guitar - Nady Ribbon into altec 438
Saxes - two fathead ribbons into
hallway - MXL condensers
Week-5: A Better Word with Harmonium, Oboe and more cello
New to this version are the aforementioned instruments (original cello still in the mix) plus a test edit at the end and noise reduction to remove the offedning HF artifact on the vocal track. All other processing is in the analog domain - vocal de-essing, mix buss EQ, comprssion and limiting.
Four tracks were allocated to the harmonium, a pair of AKG C61s were chosen for the mix. On the sample below, a modified Nady Ribbon mic (formerly vacuum tube, now passive) is on the left (via Altec 438 preamp) and a modified Nady TCM-1050 in omni is on the right (via Altec 1612 mixer / preamp). A slight amount of noise reduction was used to reduce rroom tone.
Week-4: 4-track to 24-track transfers
During and after a 'spirited debate,' the four-track session was transferred take-by-take to the 24-track, filling 16 tracks plus a stereo pair for the reference loop. The last lead vocal and guitar take was deemed 'best' and was also complete - a good reference for determining what could be compiled from the other tracks. (other vocal part links are available below and should be considered before the week-5 mix.) All of the conflicting or 'pitchy' cello parts were erased. Guitar doubles were found to complement the complete take.
During the process of shuttling tape back and forth, the sound of the reverse guitar swell revealed itself and requested to be flown in at both normal and half speed. Eddie and the ghost thought this was pretty cool. The mix was completed in two passes around 12:45pm. It passed the car test on the way home and was edited and processed on Wednesday morning.
Students will mix this on Week-5. So far it looks like Dan Zamzow's band will be coming in week-6 and week-7.
Week-3: Adam Levy and Dan Zamzow (cello)
These recordings have great textures and remarakble acoustic guitar isolation thanks to the cascade ribbon mic. The challenge is to assemble the best vocal performances. We will then overdub or fly in the cello parts.
So, the gig is this:
- lay down the loop and then assemble the stereo iso-vox tracks choosing the best vocal
- keep meticulaous notes so we can do this with tape on Tuesday.
ROUGH MIX ISO-VOX (L) Acoustic Guitar (R) Better Word Master take (part-2 of v3d-09) Week-2 Recording: Adam Levy
MICS
- Vox: EV-664 and Neumann U-67 (in Omni)
- Acoustic: Cascade Fathead Ribbon into Altec 438
- Room: Nady TCM-1050 into Altec 1612
NOTE: DS Subtraction is the result of subtracting raw mix-2 from DS'd mix-2.