Bass, Guitar and Vocal Recording and Mixing

Following on from the previous blog post which detailed the drum recording and mixing setup, this post focuses on how the Bass, Guitar and Vocals were recorded and mixed.

Bass

Recording and mixing the bass guitar was one of the most challenging aspects of this recording process, due to the Jason’s distinct combination of low frequency rumble and fuzz. Jason’s rig featured a Trace Elliot amplifier head and two bass cabs with differing speaker sizes (15″ and 10″).
To prevent the bass bleeding on to other recorded content, Jason’s cabs were placed inside the control room of studio 3 which worked as an isolation booth.
The microphones that were used on the bass guitar cabs were the AKG D12VR and Shure Beta 52.

Bass Mixing

EQ was applied to both of these channels, mainly to remove the low frequency content. This EQ decision was made because the low frequency build up from both amp cabs was overwhelming on both microphones. To replace the low frequency content, and therefore use the amp signals as a tonal addition of fuzz, a DI signal was taken from the bass guitar pre-effects. This meant that a consistent and balanced low end could be achieved, without overwhelming the mix.

All bass signals were not routed to the main mix bus, however, instead; all bass signals were routed (via track bus 24) to the Warm Audio WA2A, before returning on channel 21 (labelled bass sum). By using an optical compressor, the bass guitar could be compressed heavily, without it reacting quick enough to disturb the transient of each note.

Guitar

When miking Alex’s guitar cabs, the aim was to create a tone that sounded like it was from one source but subtly different in the left and right stereo field, in order to achieve greater stereo width. To achieve this, I used a pair of Sennheiser HD421  microphones to mic both cabs. both were placed in similar areas on the speaker cabinets, however, the left mic was positioned slightly more off axis.

 

 

Guitar Mixing 

In order to create a wide guitar sound, the first step of mixing involved using a sample delay in ProTools. Following the principle of the Haas effect, this would create more stereo width when panning the guitar channels hard left and right.
once returning to the SSL channel strip, the guitars were EQ’d identically to remove low end, add presence and soften the brittle high end before routing to the Neve 33609 Stereo Compressor via the channel insert. This was used in order to, once more provide the consistency that would typically be achieved through automation and compression during mixing.

Vocals

Vocals were originally setup to be recorded using a Shure SM7b, however, under Al’s request this was exchanged for a Shure SM58. This decision was made in order to reject more spill from the guitar amps and drums, as well as promoting a better performance from Al, who is used to using an SM58 when performing live.

Vocal Mixing

When mixing vocals, the first stage involved using the SSL preamp’s VHD ‘Variable Harmonic Drive’ function to drive Al’s vocal signal. Following this, the vocal was routed to the Vermona VSR 3.2 vintage spring reverb via an FX send. Following this, the reverb returned to another channel which allowed me to ride the fader according to Al’s vocal part and the amount of reverb that it suited.

Mix Bus processing

Before routing the final mix to the mastering chain, I used the SSL’s Mix Bus compressor to gently control the average dynamics of the mix, as well as aiding in glueing the mix together. A low ratio of 2:1 was used with a medium attack and slower release was used to achieve this. By using a lower ratio, the compressor could be pushed harder. This meant that average the average dynamics of a performance could be smoothened effectively.

Mastering

After recoding the mix into ProTools, in order to allow for the possibility of other releases such as vinyl. I then routed the mix to a mastering rig which contained a Maselec MLA-2 Stereo mastering compressor and D.A.V electronics Broadhurst Gardens No.3 Stereo Mastering EQ. From here, a relatively high compression ratio of 5:1 was used with a quick attack and slightly slower release in order to mainly control transient peaking content. In combination with the mix bus compression, both average dynamics and transients were, therefore, controlled. The EQ processing that was applied was shelf attenuation at 25Hz, a shelf boost at 32KHz and a small boost and 120Hz, creating a more balanced master recording.
Finally, the master signal returned to ProTools, where a Limiter was implemented to ensure that transient material did not risk peaking at 0dBfs. If a signal did reach 0dBfs, this would distort the recording that we only had one take to get right…

 

Drum Recording and Mixing

Although much of the recording plan remained the same, a number of changes were made on the recording day.

Drums
The final recording setup for drums featured an Audix D6 on the front of the kick drum with a Shure SM57 directed toward the beater. This setup allowed a balance between low end energy and the attack of the beater to be created.

Having never used the Audix D6 before, I was pleasantly surprised by how broad its response to the kick drum was. A balance could have been created with only this mic, however, because the SM57 had slightly more clarity in the higher mid frequencies, the decision was made to continue using a two mic setup. Although the Audix appears to be placed unusually far out of the kick drum, I found that this position captured a lot of the low frequency energy that this mic was intending to focus on.

To record the snare drum, I used a Shure SM57 on the top skin and an AKG C414 on the bottom. This, once again allowed me to create a balance between the two tonal aspects of this drum, as well as creating a focussed snap to the snare sound, through using a 414 set to figure of eight polar pattern. Typically, a cardioid polar pattern would be more desirable in this scenario, however,  I found that too much bleed from the kick drum was present on the under snare microphone in the cardioid position. By using a figure of eight pattern, more side rejection was created, which removed much of the kick beater.
Directing the top snare microphone slightly toward the rim of the drum cartured more resonance, however, this became too present on the overall tone. To counter this, moon gel was applied to the skin, which dampened much of these overtones.

When recording the toms, it would’ve been ideal to use an identical microphone design for each drum. My initial choice out of the mic cabinet was the Electrovoice RE20 because of its exceptional response to lower frequency content as well as its ability to handle SPL without distorting. Unfortunately, on the recording day there were only 2 available. To get around this issue, a Shure SM7b was used on the rack tom. Being a dynamic broadcast microphone, the SM7b is similar to the RE20 in many ways. The main difference would be the RE20’s slightly extended low end response which I noted through testing the microphones on the same drum. Using the SM7b on the rack tom was, therefore, appropriate because of the higher pitch of this drum and its inability to generate as much low frequency content. Having listened to the demoes that were provided by Yo No Se; I also understood that much of the tom drum content was focussed on the floor toms, therefore, I felt it was important to make these sound as cohesive and related as possible.

 

As well as close miking the elements of the kit mentioned above, a spot mic was placed on the hi-hat. This was used to provide a consistent hi-hat signal for mixing, as I knew I would not be able to use editorial mixing techniques, such as clip gain automation, on the fly whilst recording. The microphone that was selected was my Electro Voice RE-200, due to its detailed response to high frequencies, presence lift and its unidirectional polar pattern.

When capturing the cymbals and overall spatial impression of the kit, I used a matched pair of Neumann U87’s which are large diaphragm condenser microphones. Having mostly used small diaphragm condensers as overhead microphones in the past, I was pleased with how smooth the high end was represented with these microphones. Clarity was achieved without a brittle or harsh tonality also being present.
These microphones were placed as a spaced pair, with the intentional of creating a big and wide drum sound during mixing, given the style of Yo No Se’s music and their small band size which allowed more stereo space to be occupied by individual elements.

Drum Mixing

When mixing the drums, it was recognised that a fine balance needed to be achieved between dynamics processing and room ambience/spill. Due to the fact that all band members and guitar amps were in the same room, compression in particular would result in less distinction between each element of the kit and room spill would be lifted, if used too aggressively.

Using the SSL Duality’s EQ the front kick drum microphone was affected by attenuation in the high frequencies at 15KHz, a small attenuation across the mids at approximately 3KHz and 850Hz and a low frequency boost at 40Hz.
This added body and punch to kick which could be blended with the beater microphone for an aggressive kick drum sound. As well as EQ, the Warm Audio WA76 was used as an insert on the front kick drum mic, in order to create a more consistent kick drum mix and improve the sustain of the kick.

When mixing the snare drum, the SSL’s channel strip compressor was used with a fast attack engaged and a fairly high ratio. This was used to provide consistency to the snare drum, given that I could not editorially manipulate this recording through methods such as clip gain automation.
A low frequency roll of was also used on this, in order to remove the kick drum from this channel, isolating the snare further.

When EQing, the toms were affected in much the same way. For each of the drums I swept through the high frequencies as Thom hit them, aiming to locate the area that the attack of the drum sat. One located for all tom drums, a small boost was applied to these frequencies, to aid in allowing the drum to pop out in the mix a little when hit.
A similar process was then used to find and boost the resonant low mid frequency body/pitch of each of the drums. Once this was complete, each of the drums was placed in the stereo pan, according to their position in the overhead microphones.

The hi-hat recording needed no additional processing because the microphone pairing worked really well in this application and naturally rejected low frequency content. This channel was panned according to its position in the overhead microphones.

Finally, when mixing the overhead microphones, low frequencies were first attenuated slightly. This removed much of the low rumble of Alex’s guitar amps and also the low energy of the kick drum. Following this, a slight attenuation at 1.5KHZ was used on both microphones, in order to soften the piercing content that was occasionally present in the cymbals. These were then panned according to the drummers perspective, left and right, however, this was not hard left and hard right as I anticipated stereo width in the electric guitar recording as well.

Originally, I had planned to use drum bus compression to glue the individual elements of the kit together and restrict the dynamics of the drums to create a more consistent mix. Unfortunately, in this setup this was unsuccessful because of the amount of guitar spill on the drum microphones which was only accentuated by mix bus compression.
To resolve this, rather that using the entire drum bus, I routed only the kick and snare microphones to Mix Bus B and patched into the Empirical Labs Distressors. Following heavy compression and distortion using the Distressors, I patched into the Warm Audio WA-EQP, in order to tonally enhance this heavily compressed signal. This signal was then routed into channels 19 and 20, where it was used as a parallel signal to the drum kit, adding consistency and a more aggressive tonality.

We Did It!

The instant music process was a success!

The E.P. was uploaded at 4:56PM on 31st March 2018 to Yo No Se’s Bandcamp

A full video can also be found on Yo No Se’s YouTube Channel, Courtesy of Toby from On Par Productions.

A full breakdown of the recording, mixing and mastering setup will follow.

Getting there…

Vocals, Guitars and Bass

Vocals
In order to ensure the vocals are captured with as little spill as possible, a unidirectional microphone has been selected. The microphone that has been selected is a Shure SM7b. The SM7b is a dynamic microphone, therefore, it will also be less sensitive than if I were to used a condenser microphone, which would likely pick up more bleed from the other instruments due to the sensitivity and broad frequency response that is associated with condenser microphones. As well as this, the SM7b will be more suited to Alex’s singing style, which is often loud and aggressive, because of its dynamic design and therefore its ability to high SPL from sources in close proximity. Being originally designed as a broadcast microphone, the SM7b will likely work will with Alex’s vocals as well.

Guitars
When considering how the guitars will be placed in the mix, I have decided that Alex’s guitar can occupy the width of the stereo field, given that Yo No Se only consists of three members. Alex will be playing through a Vox AC30 guitar amp with an extension cab. By placing a microphone on each speaker, Alex’s guitar can be given stereo width.
The microphones that intend to use are Sennheiser MD 421’s, not only because of their dynamic design and cardioid polar pattern, but also their bass roll off dial, which will aid in controlling the guitar tone and spill from the kick drum and bass guitar.

Bass
To record the bass guitar, I will first take a DI signal which will ensure that clean low frequency content can be added in parallel to the amp signal. To capture the tonal characteristics of Jason’s guitar amp,  An AKG D12vr will be placed in front of the speaker cab and, during mixing will most likely be blended with the DI signal. The outcome of this will be reinforcement of low frequencies that the AKG D12vr did not reproduce well.

– Callum Godfroy

Drum Recording Plan

When recording with multiple musicians in the same room, isolation is crucial in ensuring flexibility during mixing and mastering. This is particularly important if compression is being used extensively because, if bleed from other elements of the recording is too present, it will be exaggerated, making every recorded element lose focus and clarity.
As well as this, the stereo image of the final mix will be less defined because, as individual elements are panned, bleed from every other instrument will also be panned. This means that individual elements cannot be placed in their own stereo location.

To prevent this, microphone position and polar patterns should be used with the intention of reducing bleed.

The final microphone setup will be most likely be different to what has been planned. It is important to highlight what are the crucial elements of the kit that must be focussed upon and understand the limitations of the recording setup. On Friday 30th March, the band and I will work set up the drum kit according to the plan that I have created before evaluating which elements are effective and which must change

The preliminary setup for capturing the drum kit is outlined below:

Overheads
Firstly, the overhead microphones will be a matched pair of Neumann U87s. These will be set to cardioid polar pattern and placed as a spaced pair.
These should aim to capture a balance of the whole kit, with particular focus upon the cymbals. A spaced pair configuration has been suggested due to the stereo width that can be achieved. Due to Yo No Se containing three band members, positioning each subject within a stereo field will be easier to retain space, without having many elements positioned in a single location.

Snare and Hi-Hat
The snare setup that I intend to employ will likely be a two mic setup which uses a Shure SM57 on the top and an AKG C414 on the bottom. These microphones each focus on a different element of the snare drum. The top microphone will be directed at the point at which the stick hits the drum skin. This microphone will capture the attack and punch associated with rock snare drums. The second microphone will capture the snares on the bottom of the drum. Due to the fact that the snares of a drum generate a relatively quiet high frequency sizzle, a condenser microphone has been suggested, due to the sensitivity that is associated with this microphone design. The AKG C414 has been chosen because of its flexibility. The C414’s high pass filter will be particularly useful in rejecting the kick drum, for instance. Whilst having interchangeable polar pattern will allow the right amount of focus and ambience to be achieved. A figure of eight or hypercardioid pattern will aid in rejecting the kick drum beater click that is likely to bleed onto this position.

The phase relationship between these microphones is crucial. In my experience, if two snare microphones are not correctly phase aligned, the body of the drum is often attenuated or cancelled entirely. Because of this, I should aim to keep microphones equidistant from the top skin of the drum as well as reversing the polarity on one of the microphones.

As well as micing the cymbals using overhead mics, a hi-hat microphone has been planned in order to reinforce the rhythmic content that drives Yo No Se’s music. This microphone will most likely be subtly applied to create a more consistent reproduction of the hi-hat. The microphone that will be used in this situation must respond to transient material and be unidirectional. The microphone that I currently plan to use is an Electro-Voice RE200 because of its rising frequency response beyond 1KHz which makes it tailored toward reproducing high frequency details. Being a small diaphragm condenser microphone, this mic is sensitive to transient material, as well as having a cardioid polar pattern which will allow me to focus solely on the hi-hat.

 

Kick Drum and Toms

A similar technique to the snare drum setup has been planned for recording the kick drum, because two mics will also be implemented on each skin of the drum. The first microphone will aim to capture the high mid-frequency attack of the beater hitting the drum skin. This will most likely be a Shure SM57, because of its presence peak at around 6KHz. Following this, an Audix D6 can be inserted just into the soundhole of the kick drum. This microphone aims to capture the low frequency body of the kick drum. Blending these microphones together should create a balanced and realistic kick drum recording.

To mic the toms, I have decided to use Electro-Voice RE20’s. The RE20 is a microphone that is renowned for its responsiveness to low frequencies. By close miking the toms using this, bleed will be rejected by the cardioid polar pattern and a proximity effect should enhance the low mid frequencies of each of the toms. Being a dynamic microphone, it will be less sensitive to other elements of the kit. This means that a gate could be applied, in order to only produce signal when the tom drums are hit, allowing the toms to stand out during rolls and sit back in the mix when not being played. This will avoid capturing the resonance of the drum skins when not being hit.

The next blog posts will focus upon the other elements of the recording.

– Callum Godfroy

Live Room Plan

After meeting with the band to discuss the recording setup, I have noted a number of conditions that will affect the way in which the room and equipment will be set up on the final recording day.

As well as limitations of equipment and facilities, it is important to consider factors such as line of sight in performance space and artist monitoring setup which may affect the final recording session.

The list of conditions are as follows:

• Maximum 16 Channel Inputs
• 4 Studio Baffles
• 1 Live Room
• Band have requested to record together in the same room
• Guitarist, and possibly Bassist, would like their amps to be with them

Although I have 2 isolated booths available, the band’s performance may be affected if I begin separating musicians. I could use these booths as amp rooms, however, Alex and Jason use their amps to create effects such as feedback and may also wish to alter the tonality of their amps in the room. It is unlikely that anything will be recorded in isolation, outside of the live room.

The band have also advised that Thom’s cymbals are unusually loud.  This will affect not only the drum microphone placement choices, but also the kits position within the room and in relation to the other recorded subjects such as amplifiers and musicians.

For the final session I propose that the room is arranged in the following configuration:

Using this room layout, I hope to achieve considerable isolation between each instrument whilst maintaining a line of sight between the Alex, Jason and Thom.
Isolation is created through using the wall to separate the guitar amp and drum kit, using baffles to prevent drum and bass spill on to the vocal microphone and also using baffles to obstruct direct bleed from the hi hats, snare and cymbals on to the bass amp.

As well as this, I will mostly be using microphones with cardioid polar patterns, due to the directionality that is crucial when recording multiple instruments at high volume within a close proximity.

Over the following week I will be posting a number of blog posts which will present how each element in the mix will be recorded, before presenting how each component could be mixed and how the control room will be set up.

– Callum Godfroy

Who are Yo No Se?

Yo No Se was formed from the ashes of bands The Bad Joke That Ended Well and Factotum, featuring drums from Bristol legends Gonga.
The band’s sound ranges from 70’s style hard rock to grunge, to psychedelia and even incorporates elements of progressive rock. Yo No Se formed in 2016 and quickly began practicing songs for what became their debut album Soma. The band have supported many acts, ranging from Part Chimp in Paris to Monkey 3 in Bristol and have gained a following across Europe after rave reviews from their debut single The Sleeper Awakes.

It was Yo No Se’s Malthouse Session that attracted me to working with them on the Instant Music project and, as well as having masses of energy within their music, Yo No Se are a unit whose performance and writing style is more that appropriate for recording live.

Many of the tracks on Soma such as Master, bounce suddenly between complete cacophony and solo instrumentation, creating an evolving dynamic experience. Although, Yo No Se’s music will not require as much automated FX production as other musical forms, a focus on highlighting this dynamic shift will be crucial during mix down. This means that a lot of effort will need to be placed in adjusting faders to introduce or remove elements within the mix and compression must be used appropriately. Striking a balance between a recording that retains the innate dynamic properties of the music, whilst also operating in a manner that will not risk distorting the mix will be the main challenge within this process.

Others have described Yo No Se as:

“Sprawling hardcore…. joining the dots between Spaceman 3 and AC/DC punk…”
Steve Lamacq

“If you’re into Stoogey punk freak-outs and heavy, throat-shredding rock and roll, then this gorgeous debut 7″ should be in your sweaty palms yesterday”
Sly Vinyl

“Highly charged and hypnotic….unpredictable and fresh”
Cone Magazine

“Challenging for the set of the festival, Yo No Se can only be described as sounding absolutely huge. On a big stage with the level of sound on offer, they conquer. Their grooving blasts of raucousness has a big crowd incensed, gyrating and surfing on a wave of undeniably catchiness”
Bristol Live Magazine

“Totally heavy, six-legged groove machine”
Whisperin And Hollerin

Why Capture a Performance?

Much of this blog will feature information surrounding the recording process and techniques that I will employ when recording Yo No Se, however, I feel it is first important to discuss the philosophy behind this project.

“live music is most often understood to be the most ‘authentic’ of consumption experiences” 

My main objective is to honestly present the energy of Yo No Se’s performance. The reason behind this is because of the authenticity that is associated with live music and through my admiration of engineers such as Nick Launay and Steve Albini, whose work also captures this quality .

‘It’s all about capturing the energy that a band have when they play together – musicians feeding off each other’ – Nick Launay

It is this quality that I also aim to capture.

From listening to Yo No Se’s latest release Soma and from their other recorded content; it is clear that this band’s aesthetic focuses upon raw energy, as opposed to more controlled production methods.

Research suggests that many music audiences now search for more authentic recorded content which could be seen to explain the success of similar formats such as live session recordings.

‘The effect of an increasingly virtual world, where nothing is quite what it seems has led to a growing clamour for what is genuine and human’ – David Boyle

Through using a process that is engineered on the fly, where overdubs and edits are not available, a one of a kind record is produced which reflects the ‘human’ performance that these audiences desire.

– Callum Godfroy