We are BACK!

Wow what a crazy few months Mike and myself have had. We have spent the last few months developing our idea for our major project for uni. This is a passion project we have been think about for the past year almost and we are very very excited to be almost at the production phase for the project.

However, due to the recent events regarding COVID19 we will not be able to being the recording and production phase of this project until the group bans are lifted. Recording is mostly a social, collaborative activity and in this capacity it appears as more primal or instinctive than the commonly more isolated and lonelier processes of mixing and mastering" (p. 9). This means that we have the next few months despite having to change our planned recording sessions for this trimester and next we have been keeping engaged in the technical side of this production. We both enjoy researching technical aspects of recording however. It's been a little while since I have put in some solid hours to recording and technical research. We need to make around 8 different mic lists in for the 8 different bands we are intending to record later this year.

Recording a compilation album isn't as simple as recording 8 different bands and mixing them then mastering them and releasing the thing. This is a cohesive project. We want this to have a 'sound' and 'tone' and over all sonic imprint of us in all these songs one way or another.

Mike and I will be recording and mixing this whole project together. We work really well as a team and keep each other inspired even in these strange times we are keeping each other motivated to self direct our learning and we have come quiet far over the last week with developing the technical research side of this project. We are doing this in order to come to a conclusion about the cohesive aspect of the project we are going to include for each band. This could come in the recording or mixing phase at this point.

Mike has written some pretty spicy interesting posts this week about drum mixing techniques and making how albums can sound cohesive through recording.

This post I have explored some different guitar mic techniques and mic combinations for different tones and genres. We will be working with essentially 8 different bands and have plenty of time to practice some of these techniques just with the two of us! This is something I have always intended to do. Not a mic shoot out but just taking in my guitar and and two different amps and a bunch of techniques to try and record them so we have samples of the different tones and mics and placements to go with them incase we wish to replicate these in the future.

Some fuel for thought I found while reading as a general thing to consider when recording that I had not come across before!

"The player and the instrument contribute about 50 percent to the overall sound (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less— but always the greatest portion). The room contributes about 20 percent to the overall sound. (Even on close-miked instruments, the room is far more responsible for the ultimate sound than many engineers realize.) The mic position contributes about 20 percent to the overall sound. (Placement is really your acoustic EQ and is responsible for the instrument’s blend in the track.) Ǡ The mic choice contributes about 10 percent to the overall sound. (This is the last little bit that takes a good sound and makes it great.)” (Owsinski,p.100).

I thought I'd start by looking at some ways in which to fill out a guitar sound. I have double tracked guitars and guitar parts with bands a few times and was searching for perhaps a different recording technique to fatten up a guitar tone "Recording guitar is not easy. Unfortunately, there is no foolproof recipe for getting a good guitar sound. First of all, so much of it is ‘in the fingers.’ Second, guitar sounds are so subjective (Owsinski, p.192).

I came across this video on YouTube from one of my favourite producers on youtube. This technique is more aimed towards heavy guitars in this video and he only gives an example with a heavy tone. I am very intrigued to try in on more lush distorted guitars.

This is super cool technique I'd love to use for one of the recordings at least to beef out the guitars. There is no extra steps to this technique when it come to the processing or mixing. This technique is interesting in the sense that the mic placement and set up is rather simple in this video he is only using one mic for the guitar amp. He places an Sm57 on the outer part of the cone in this praticuar instance. However id like to try this with a few more mic's on the cab for the initial recordings then change the mic set up for the technique. SO! what exactly is this technique? Well... it involves using a wha pedal and a P bass guitar. The concept is to double track the rhythm guitar. Then using the same amp and mic set up plugins in a bass into a wha pedal then into your guitar amp. The idea is to play the same root note of the chords in the rhythm on the D string. This is where there are a lot more mid range guitar sounding tones, however the sub harmonic content that is produced from the fatter thicker and heavy strings is what we are really trying to hear for.

This where the addition of the wha comes in. By adjusting the wha you can really hone in on some ugly stabby mid range tones here. This sounds horrible by its self. However mixed in with the guitars you really can feel the warmer low end swelling in the balance. I think its very dope. Here is the video:

So this was my little inspiration to get my research started this week. I am thinking of how I can use this in addition to more complex mic set up or alternatively a simple one and do more takes? "When doubling or adding more guitars, it’s best to have a variety of instruments and amplifiers available. Two guitars (a Les Paul and a Strat, for instance) and two amplifiers (a Fender and a Marshall is the classic combination) combined with different pickup settings will allow a multitude of guitar tracks to more effectively live in the mix together. In an odd paradox, smaller amps and speakers tend to sound bigger" (Owsinski, p.193).

I have been reading about different but classic studio techniques in Recording Engineer's Handbook that we maybe able to use in conjunction with this technique as well as room mic!

I came across some classic mic combinations that we could try as like a 'base' for the recording tones and speed the mics out or add any more in/take them away from here! This technique involves using three closed mics on the cone of the guitar cab. A ribbon a condenser and a dynamic mic all in phase and capturing the same sound. From here there is the freedom then to move the ribbon mic further away to capture more room tone/ ambience and move the condenser to the rear of the amp. "After finding the correct position as shown above, bundle an SM57, a 421, and a Beyer M160 (or other ribbon mic, such as a Royer R-121) together. All three mics are aimed directly at the speaker. Add together to taste. The 57 will provide the bite, the 421 the mids, and the 160 the body.

(Owsinski, p.194).

This video demonstrates this similar mic combination set up. They move the mics around and give great examples of how they sound mixed and separately.

This video also has a great room mic technique in it. We are considering having a cohesive element to all the recordings some how. We could defiantly try and incorporate a single mic placement for guitar recordings that we use for all the bands. This room mic technique involves facing the mic away from the guitar amp at a wall around head height. The result depends on the loudness of the amp, gain, tone and all these things. However if we can find a place in the room that doesn't capture too much reflection but just enough for there to be an undying tone this could be an option.

The Quilty of the room tone of course depends on the room. In this studio they appear to have some nice wooden walls that would be great for absorbing higher harsh frequencies. So we will need to consider the glass in the NEVE live room if we want to use this technique!

ACOUSTUC GUITAR

This video demonstrates a really beautiful acoustic guitar recording technique using a spaced pair. Surprisingly I haven't recorded an acoustic guitar for a band before. I have done it in my own time for experimentation but have never worked on implementing it into a mix! This technique is more of an open roomy sound that I think could work for one of the acoustic guitar layers in Pure Milks cover. This acoustic guitar needs to sound huge and I think that using a similar set up to this in addition with some layers will set us up nicely. I am especially excited that we have access to KM184's and there for can use this mic to try this technique!

"With acoustic guitars it depends on whether there’s going to be singing simultaneously with the acoustics. If there is, then you have to try to make the mics not favor the vocal" (Albini, p.187).

Another thing I have been noticing while reading and watching youtube video is the debate as the weather to EQ and compress while sound checking and recording. “Steve Albini says every mic has someplace where it will sound best. Sometimes the search resembles questing for the Holy Grail. You should always trust your ears and begin by listening to the musician in your studio, find a sweet spot, and then begin your microphone placement there. If you don’t like the resultant sound, then move the mic or swap it with another. EQ is the last thing you should touch”(Owsinski, p.102).

I have found some really great acoustic guitar recording techniques such as this one that talk through some very great sounding recording EQ and compression ideas I'd like to try. "For great rhythm guitar sound, start with a small-diaphragm condenser 12 inches from the twelfth fret, aiming at the twelfth fret. Don't let the guitar player move to face the mic in the sound hole of the guitar. Engage the hi-pass filter on the mic and on the preamp. Compress at a 6:1 ratio with a slow attack, which should make the attack blend nicely with the hi-hat and rhythm percussion. Compress with a fast attack if you want to hear less pick. If you double the part and hard pan them, it leaves a nice hole in the middle for your main instruments." (Owsinski p. 189). This high pass sound allows a lot of clarity in the top end to really shine.

This video demonstrates some interesting points about layering acoustic guitars. This one although I think we will use more than one mic when tracking. In this video he does only use one mic on the guitar pointed at the body of the guitar just under the 12th fret. The EQ and compression he uses are super transparent. The compression only hits when he is really playing. This is something we will need to consider when working with artists and acoustic instruments like this. Everyone will play differently which will effect the processing we will need to do. Which brings me back to the Steve Albini quote about getting the mic placement right before touching any EQ or compression. Even though he has only used one mic for this demonstration he has very carefully placed it and has only used very basic high and low pass EQ to get the achieved sound!

More over, the next step to this technique is recording a guitar that has three high strings from a 12 string guitar and three for a regular guitar. However he has tuned them an active higher. This has a super jangly full sound when blended in with the double tracked regal acoustic guitar. This is something id love to play around when recording if it is at all possible!

So, we have a lot to considering when recording the guitar parts to the album. These luckily aren't designs we have to make today. We won't be recording this for a few more months now so we have heaps of time to get studio ideas together to try! Stay tuned for more updates coming this week regarding cohesive mixing techniques and a post about Brisbane's music scene!

REFERENCES:

YouTube. 2018.Big Guitars Production Trick - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9Zpp7i-8Mw> [Accessed 7 April 2020].

YouTube. 2018.Recording Electric Guitar - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiN6EKo4pHg> [Accessed 7 April 2020].

YouTube. 2017.Recording Electric Guitars With Phil Allen - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ-bxfWCDP0> [Accessed 7 April 2020].

YouTube. 2018.That Pedal Show – How To Mic Your Guitar Amp: Mic Types, Positions & All That Stuff. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4kU-7t7gpc> [Accessed 7 April 2020].

Owsinski, Bobby. Recording Engineer's Handbook, Course Technology, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sae/detail.action?docID=3136143.

Created from sae on 2020-04-06 19:39:36.

Lellis, Carlos.Music Production: Recording, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sae/detail.action?docID=1251060.

Created from sae on 2020-04-06 22:11:34.