Multi Channel Recording

14
Multi channel recording for this unit we used studio 1. This studio comprised of soundcards to amps here is the gear we used to record our multichannel recording. Our base of our studio was a mac pro which runs logic 9 and logic pro x -We used Adam a77x studio monitors - these monitors are near field meaning that they are designed to be used in close proximity to the user to achieve the maximum potential these speakers has a flat frequency response which are good to mix on because it does not give any coloured sound like beats head phones where they over emphasise that bass. If you were to mix on bass heavy speakers when you play your mix on another set of speakers you will find indescrepencys between the speakers making the mix sound un finished. There for using a flat frequency response is key to getting a good mix. Fir this I would recommend the Yamaha nx10 these are a studio essential because they are widely know has the best speakers for mixing on with price range incorporated because of it flat frequency response. Is you get you mix sounding god on there when you transport them over to other speakers they your mix will sound amazing. -We also used a pre amp in recording you use this the same ad DI a guitar or bass but using the foucsrite ISA 1

description

college

Transcript of Multi Channel Recording

Multi channel recording

for this unit we used studio 1. This studio comprised of soundcards to amps here is the gear we used to record our multichannel recording.

Our base of our studio was a mac pro which runs logic 9 and logic pro x

-We used Adam a77x studio monitors - these monitors are near field meaning that they are designed to be used in close proximity to the user to achieve the maximum potential these speakers has a flat frequency response which are good to mix on because it does not give any coloured sound like beats head phones where they over emphasise that bass. If you were to mix on bass heavy speakers when you play your mix on another set of speakers you will find indescrepencys between the speakers making the mix sound un finished. There for using a flat frequency response is key to getting a good mix. Fir this I would recommend the Yamaha nx10 these are a studio essential because they are widely know has the best speakers for mixing on with price range incorporated because of it flat frequency response. Is you get you mix sounding god on there when you transport them over to other speakers they your mix will sound amazing.

-We also used a pre amp in recording you use this the same ad DI a guitar or bass but using the foucsrite ISA 1 it gave a it more tone and body to the sound. This preamp is a solid staed pre amp meaning that it runs of transients not live a vale preamp which runs of valves / tube to achieve tonal chartists

furthermore whilst recording we used an spl talk back monitor which allowed us to talk between the player and the sound engineer

the audio interface we used was 2 focousrite pro 40s which were hooked up to the live sound boxes in the live room. These were both firewire connection and have 8 preamps and were designed for low latency.

22

1331

54

8966

107

1: screen/ monitor 2:krk rocket 5(s)3: adam a77x studio monitors 4:e magic logic controller mixer 5: impulse midi keyboard 6:focousrie pro 40 audio interfaces 7: sphone headphone mixer8: focousrite isa 1 (solid state pre amp) 9: spl talkback montor and talk back controller 10: keyboard and mouse

When micing up the drum kit we used a set of audix microphones which we used to mix up the rack tom floor tom and the kick drum. We used 2 different microphones to mic up the snare drum on the top skin we used an sm57 and for the bottom skin to capture the snares we used an sm58 microphone because they are both dynamic microphones and they transmit the sound needed also both of these microphones are cardio pattern allowing the microphone to capture the whole sound of the drum left and right of 90 degrees.

http://mathforum.org/mathimages/index.php/Cardioid

micing up the kit what we used and why

kick drum- we used an audix f6 this mic has a hyper cardioid pick-up pattern this stops the mic from picking up any other drum/ ambient resonance to a certain degree which enables it to not pick up any other sound bar what you have miced it up to do. We positioned the mic so that the capusual was slightly inside the skin of the drum so that we could get a mixture of both skins. However the way we positioned this on my track ( hotel California) I though the bass drum did not sound good as if it was lacking tone and thinking back on this I know why. When I miced up the kick drum I aimed the mic at the center of the back snin where the kick was hitting the back skin. This lead for a snappy sound and not did not translate the true tone of the kick drum. In future I would aim the mix toward the edge of the back skin so that it would allow for more of the tone of the drum to come though rater than the snappy tone we had from the kick drum. In future I would angle the mic towards where the back drum skin meets the meatal because that is where the maximum tone will come from because the pedal hit in the center of the skin the maximum tone comes from the edge of the drum.

Post recording give life back to music

We used eq on all of our drums to create space in the mix so that the mix did not have too much going on in it so that it would sound muddy and flat.

Once we had eq the track we would use compression. On the tracks I have uploaded I heave used many different compressors one was an external plugin which was a soft tube tube tech 18 and the other was the compressor which comes along with logic. When using the compressors I would not take more that 5 db off on a single track because then I feel that the track looses its chartists and become to compress which would stand out. On many of times I would of over compressed a track and after taking a break I would revisit my tack and find out that I have over used the compressor meaning that the sound would become flat and cover compressed. On the track give life back to music I had a problem with over using the compressor however after a few days when I started to understand how a compressor works more when wehad a tutorial on hw to use compression in studio a I felt that I knew a lot more about how a compressor works and how to use in on tracks. For the track give life back to music I did not use any more effects apart from the EQ tool and compressors because I felt after I had used these two the drums were sitting good in the mix and they did not needed any more doing to them.

The guitars on the track we used a combination if reverb compression and eq for the intro guitars seen here.

and for the verse guitars we use al the same but we use logics amp designer to achieve sa sound similar to the original track of give life back to music. On this track I chose logics version of and fender. I chose this because I felt the sound hat I wanted to achieve was a more American sound amplifier rather that a British sounding on like a vox or Marshall.

you can see I have placed the mic slightly off center to try and get a less bassy tone and a more mellow sounds.

Hotel California

On this track we used a close mic placement already show earlier. But here are some more close up thumb nails.

on the track hotel California we used eq all of the drums with compresson on the snare drum in my opinion this drum sounded really good I feel that the mic placement was good and we got a good tone out of the snare. On all tracks we used an sm57 for the top snare sin and a sm58 for the bootom which allowed us to capture the snares. Once recoreded the kit first of we would use the eq to eliminate all the hums and other sounds what the mic picked up which was not needed.

here you can see that we have added a bass cut and a small top endcut to eliminate resinatce you can also see that I have ephisised 300hz the reason why I have done this is to create a more fatter and more pronounced sounding snare.

when using the eq for the bottom snare I have eq it in the same way but have taken more of the high end out because I feel that it is nit need. I also did a 1.5db boots around 4khz because I wanted brighter sounds from my bottom skin snare.

When micing up the toms we angles the mics towards the centre of the drum which then would pick up the true sound of the drum we used two audix microphones.

To capture the symbols we used two matched pair of audix pencils condensers microphones we used the pattern of spaced pair this is when you have two condencer angles in at the snare drum and are of equal distance apart from the snare. This here is key because if they are different lengths you will run into fazing issues. One way to doing this is taking an axr cable and measuring the diftance and using the bottom of the xlr able as a pioot place the other mic so that it mets the xlr cable exact then you will not run into problems. Or you could measure this with a tape measure and make sure it matches. The key to this is keeping the mics the same length away from the snare.

Once the mics are in place we on connect them to the Daw we used two stage boxes. These boxes where connected to the audio interface the 1st stage box which was imidialy when you walked in the room which used up inputs 1-8 on the audio interface. The vocal boot used inputes 9-10 and the far stage box used up inputs 11-18.

Vocal booth Studio Live room

In addition to these two track we were also given another track just to mix this was we used the same style of compression and eq on the drum trakcs as seen abouve. However there were multiple harmoneys so I used the eq on the main vocals and for the backing vocals I eq them a bit different

1st of all I done a low cut to get rid of some resinance and guttural tone because this is only going to make the mix sound dull. Also you can see for the lead vocal I have done a high cut to get rid of some of the sibilance. I have done this because you are eliminating resinace. This high cut took out some of the sibilance luckily but in case it didnt I would of used a do esser which would of worked just as well. For the backing vocals I have increased the high cut to 78khz because the backing vocals do not need to be as promenade in the mix. I also boosted around 2khz because it represents high end valve mics. You can see the backing vocals have this 2khz bump in them as well but I have put the backing vocals right on 2khz because I didnt want those frequencys which I boosted in the main vocals to get cramped with too much going on in those frequencys.

to conclude I feel that I have learned a lot about mixing and hope to get as much practice as I can to further my knowledge about mixing and using compression and eq.