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Old 03-03-2010, 04:24 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Default Vicarious recording fun for yez

I just finished a tracking session for a band yesterday and thought some of you folks might enjoy peeking into the session. I'll give you a rundown of mics and other pertinent data so you can get an idea of how things went down. Tomorrow we take the same song into string overdubs.

DAW - Mac dual quadcore running Neundo with Steinberg interfaces.
Console - Yamaha DM2000
Preamps - Avalon VT737s

The basic rhythm section: Drums, bass, sampled piano, synth. We may replace the sampled piano with the real thing. We've got a nice Knabe grand in another studio.

Drums:
Kick - I used a Shure Beta 52a. I've had really nice results with this mic lately. I position it about three inches back from the front head port. I did have an EV RE-20 and an RE-27 sitting by in case I wasn't happy with it.
Snare - I have a unique system for the snare that has been serving me well, especially when I've got a quick setup situation and may not get to fiddle much: I mic the top with a Shure SM-57, sitting at the edge pointing about 1/3 of the way in, in order to get the skin sound. I mic the side of the snare with an AKG C451b. Yes, the side, with the back side of the pickup/rejection pattern facing the hi-hat. I don't have to reverse phase on the lower mic when I do it this way and the bright AKG allows me to get both body and snare sound. I can adjust up and down to get a good blend. In the mix I can blend the two mics at will.
Tom1 - Sennheiser MD-421 pointed abut 1/3 of the way in. It's old school, I know, but it just plain works. I've got a nice EV condenser tom mic array use when I have an assistant* or plenty of setup time.
Tom2 - Sennheiser MD-421, ditto
Hi-hat - I use an AKG C451b so that I can get a really fine point on the half-choked sound. I point it down at the edge.
Ride cymbal - AKG C460 pointed down near the edge. It picks up the ring and zing, and believe it or not, the bell, really nicely there.
Overheads - (2) Neumann TLM-170 LDCs set about two feet above the cymbals in a spaced pair adjusted to get a coherent picture.

Drums are in the main room, keys and scratch vocals are in the iso room, bass is behind me at the producer's desk in the control room. The drummer had his own headphone mix going through a pair of Fostex closed-back cans. The keyboardist prefers Sony MDR-7506 cans. The bassist monitors in the control room and predictably says, "Can you give me more of me?"

Bass is run into the front panel jack of an Avalon preamp. A tiny bit of compression (say 2-3 db) is added while recording. I basically run the bass flat and treat it in the mix.

I prepped the workstation and console the day before. The morning of the session the drummer sent me an audio file via email with a loop to go under part of the song. I dropped that and a click on the project time line in preparation then set up the studio, checked out the mics, cables, and stands from our locker, and faxed the lines and headphones. The drummer trailed in about an hour and a half before the session. We set him up, chatted, got his sound, and gave him a chance to hear a previous scratch of the project to get familiarized. All that, just in time for the keyboardist to arrive and get set. Last to come was the bassist with his active MusicMan Stingray bass.

First we positioned the loop and then recorded a synth intro on the time line. Then we ran down the song with the group. After the first pass, the keyboardist/vocalist requested that I just copy her scratch vocal performance into the time line on all successive passes so she could concentrate on her key work. So, on the rest of the takes I copied in the synth, loop, vocal, and click. In all, we ran it three times before we were satisfied with the basic performances and the drums. Then we released the drummer to strike his gear. Next, we punched a couple of clams for the bass and released the bassist. At that point it was just a few punches on the piano part and the musicians were done. I did a few organizational things in the project, turned off the lights and gear, and went home at 7:30 last night.

Today I cleaned up the studio and checked all the gear back into the mic locker. I took a while to organized the basic tracks and rough-in a mix to make it easy to adjust them for the string section tomorrow. I also set up record folders to record the string passes: All I have to do is hit record on a folder to record all the mics to their tracks in the folder. All the routing is preset. The goal is to make it so that the symphony musicians don't waste any time waiting for me to get organized. Maybe I'll pass on more of tomorrow's festivities tomorrow!

That's it for now. I hope that's interesting to some of you.

Bob
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Old 03-03-2010, 10:16 PM
sir_strumalot sir_strumalot is offline
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Very cool play-by-play!

As a working photographer, I'm reminded of discussions about photographing a room for a client. The clients will invariably ask: "Why does it take so long?"

I'd wager a guess you've heard that question a few times yourself when they haven't seen the process.

Thanks for sharing that!


/me? I play and record strictly for fun
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Old 03-04-2010, 07:45 AM
sir_strumalot sir_strumalot is offline
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Question: Are scratch vocals like a rough draft? A first run through?

Inquiring minds want to know.
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Old 03-04-2010, 08:13 AM
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Scratch vocals are a guide track for the ensemble to work through. No attempt is made to make the performance perfect. In this case, the singer, who also wrote the piece, called directions in a few places to remind the players of where they were. Before we go into string overdubs today I'm editing out the directions. The string players have a score before them and don't need the directions.

Bob
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Last edited by Bob Womack; 03-04-2010 at 09:31 AM. Reason: speeling - duh!
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Old 03-04-2010, 09:14 AM
sir_strumalot sir_strumalot is offline
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Thanks, Bob! I find the whole process fascinating.

Up until a couple of years ago, music was a one-way street for me. Now that I've started playing and getting my feet wet with recording, seeing what a pro does behind the wheel, uh, board is very cool!

btw... "punch a couple of clams for the bassist"? I've known people who hate seafood, but dude!

/this is why my kids hate me
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Old 03-04-2010, 11:12 AM
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Har-har-har! Jargon can be fun!

I'm all set up for the string section now. I've got four Neuman TLM-170s up, four straight-backed chairs and four music stands out, and the headphones going blat-blat-blat. Marvy. Producer will be here in five minutes, string quartet in thirty-five. Off we go...

Bob

Update: I'm hemorrhaging mics! Another studio needed a TLM170 priority so I had to swap it out for a TLM103. I'm putting that one the double bass, hoping that the little mid bump isn't an issue. We'll see...
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Old 03-04-2010, 01:14 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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bob, great information!!!

some of the jargon does escape me tho: what is punching clams? also, what is faxing lines and headphones?
thanks again,
mikeB.
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Old 03-04-2010, 05:44 PM
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I'm back after the session. First to the questions:
A "clam" is a missed or bad note. "Faxing" is connecting up, routing, and checking the lines. On a tracking session you can have fifteen to twenty lines, both dynamic and condenser mics and line inputs. In our world of entropy, you need to make sure you've got signal down each line, that you've got phantom power running down the ones that need it, that the console attenuators or trims are set to a nominal level, that the channels are routed to the workstation inputs, that the daw outputs are routed to console monitor inputs, and that those signals go back to the headphones. It's a long and complicated signal chain that need to work from the moment the musicians sit down and put on their headphones.

Bob
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Old 03-04-2010, 06:47 PM
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Now, to the session. I was able to hold onto the final mic compliment, three TLM170s and one TLM103 for the bass. The producer arrived at 1:30 and the musicians at 2:00. As they began looking over the charts, I began setting the mics, setting trims, and honing the headphone mix per the requests. I switched out a stand to accommodate cellist's request for a position shift. Finally it was time to start recording at 2:25.

We began with two-note drones under the intro on the double bass. I tracked those independently. Just for purposes of depth, I decided to double track everything. The real fullness of a string ensemble comes alive with slight pitch and timing errors that produce the choral effect when blended together. When you are dealing with excellent, union-scale musicians who are sight-reading, you are going to get great results but there will be gaffs and clams that have to be punched in and a second pass helps blend things down.

The basic tracks involved the whol quartet and were written two-deep, ie., the arranger often wrote two parts for each instrument to be played in two separate passes. We'd then double each pass for a total of four sets of four tracks, one for each instrument, or sixteen tracks. Add to that specials or solos (doubled) and a typical section had eighteen tracks of strings. We punched in a few times and broke the sections up into legato (slow, deliberate) and staccato (faster) sections, to make it easier on the musicians. The violinist was excellent and had just the right touch. My sight-reading is rusty, I'm distracted by operating the gear, and darn it, the measure numbers in a multiple-take time line never match the silly score, so I'm constantly trying to figure out where we want to go. If I could trust that we wouldn't revisit any take other than the master take, I'd dump the others and pull the master to the head of the project so the measures matched. I may fiddle with that next time around by moving the unused takes out past the master in the time line.

Eve with a ten-minute break in the middle, the recording was finished right on time at 4:00. The violinist asked me to audition a few mics for him and suggest possible mics for him to record at home so we spent a few minutes fiddling and talking. When he was gone, my co-producer asked that I spit out a mix for her to share with the vocalist who'll be doing the tracks. Reconfiguring the workstation from split outputs for monitoring to stereo summing to generate a mix took about fifteen minutes and whipping up a quick scratch mix took me beyond 5:00. From there it was a matter of returning the sundry mics, mic stands, and music stands to their homes and putting the studio back to bed for the night. I made it out at around 6:00pm.

We've got a really good start on the song, now, and I'm looking forward to the next overdubs. I'll probably be taking in some of my electric guitar rig to record subtle accents here and there. We're looking for some rhythm accents as well. From there it will be vocals, final touches, and a mix.

Bob
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Old 03-04-2010, 07:03 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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bob: this is great! wish i was a fly on the wall so that i could see and hear it all going down!
thanks again,
mikeB.
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Old 03-05-2010, 07:12 AM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Oh, by the way, while I was auditioning mics for the violinist, who is the assistant concert master for the symphony, he asked about some small-diaphragm mics, and asked me what I have at home. I told him I have a pair of AKG C451Bs, and then I played him a recording of a classical guitar piece I made with them. Halfway through, I said, "I recorded this in my bedroom at home." His eyes lit up and he said, "YOU played this? YOU?" I said, "Yeah, as an equipment check." He said, "This is very good! Do you have an album?"

Oh, my gosh, that was one of those little personally gratifying moments. The symphony's conductor is a classical guitarist so he knows his technique pretty well.

Bob
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Old 03-05-2010, 01:10 PM
muscmp muscmp is offline
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bob:
good for you! go for it!!!
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Old 03-07-2010, 05:29 PM
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Ok Bob, you are more and more becoming my hero .

As we've discussed before, I really wish we lived closer together just so I could come and shadow you. I find this stuff highly interesting.

BTW, I'm still messing around with my mixes. We're finishing up the studio at church, so I'm going to try to get some good live drum tracks for my songs. I plan on doing some vocals this next weekend too. I'm having so danged much fun I can hardly stand it
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Old 03-07-2010, 05:50 PM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Thanks, Roger. You are too kind. I enjoyed your site.

Bob
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Old 03-07-2010, 07:14 PM
RogerC RogerC is offline
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Hehe, thanks Bob. I haven't done anything with that site in about 3 years now.

I would actually love to hear some more of your stuff. That "sample" you sent me was great!
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