You could say that the story of the recording industry over the last decade and a half — the era since the MP3 rattled its game plan — has been a struggle to find a balance between the consumer’s demand for widespread access to music, the artist’s desire for high-quality product and the industry’s need for compensation.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Artist - Summer People
Track - You Lose (Demo)
Recording Studio - A random house outside of Ithaca, NY.
Mixing Studio - Calibrated Recording
Instruments
A whole bunch of awesome gear owned by Summer People. I didn’t write down all the gear because there are 8 people in the band, and I had no assistance in setup.
Microphones
AKG D112 - Kick
SM57 - Snare
(2) MXL 103 - Rack and Floor tom
(2) Neumann KM184 - Overheads
(3) SM57’s - EGT 1, EGT 2, EGT3, Electric Cello
SE2200a - Bass and Vocals
(2) Naiant X-M - Upstairs and Kitchen room mics
Recording Equipment
Pro Tools 8.0
Digi003
M-Audio Profire 2626
(2) Grace m101 mic pre’s for vocals and overheads.
Other Information
- The band recorded live, all in one room. Vocals and percussion were overdubbed.
Pre-production
This recording session was a daunting task. I was asked by my friends in Summer People to help them out with this, without really knowing too much before the weekend.
I knew nothing of the house I would be recording in, room sizes, or where I’d be sleeping. So, I packed up all of my gear, loaded it into my hatchback, and trekked down to Ithaca to record.
For the actual sound of the recording, I knew I wanted to get the band live, all in one room. Summer People has an incredible dynamic live on stage, and I wanted to try to capture it on record. If I was to ask them to track everything individually, I would’ve been worried about losing the cohesiveness of the band. Plus, the plan was to record four songs in two days, and with six people in the band, there was no way to accomplish everything in that time.
Press Record
When I got there, I pulled up to an old wooden house, probably built in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Wood floors, a big living room, and a dining room off of that. Off the dining room was a kitchen with linoleum floors. Also, there was an upstairs area with two bedrooms and a bathroom, and the stairs led down to the large living room where the band was going to set up.
The band set up facing each other, with the guitars lining one wall, bass on another, and drums on another. In this picture, we see Justin and Pete against the far wall. Using what blankets and cushions we could, we isolated the guitar amps from the drums.
Everyone was in good spirits, and the energy flowed. I was in the adjacent room sitting at an old writing desk with my monitors propped up on not very ideal crates.
Since I don’t have much more to say about the space, I guess I will walk you through how I mic’d everything. Since everyone was set up live, there was going to be major bleed in all the mics. However, this is exactly what I desired.
Drums (Steve Anderson)
Since Steve had a nice boomy kick with a good attack, I decided to forego putting the mic deep inside the kick. I used the D112, in the hole, right at the front of the kick. For the snare, I placed an SM57 on the top to get the deep, throaty sound. The floor and rack toms had MXL103’s placed near the rim. I used the KM184’s as overheads, spaced about 3 ft. apart and about 4 ft. above the cymbals.
Guitars/Electric Cello (Justin Musa, Peter Ives, Graham Feltham)
I used SM57’s throughout on guitar amps, in my usual spot. Pick the best sounding speaker in the cab, and place the mic so that the capsule is facing away from the center, on the broadside of the cone.
Bass (Brandon Musa)
For the bass, I ran a line DI, and set up the sE2200a in front of the cab. Pretty simple.
Percussion (Alex Craver and Steve Anderson)
The percussion consisted of toms and bongos, so I mic’d them up with the KM184’s in an XY Pair about 6 feet above…Alex got really into it, and I didn’t want him to hit them.
Vocals (Alex Craver and Jade Soto)
I tracked the vocals in the middle of this large room with the sE2200a in my usual position. I’m not a huge fan of pop filters, so I hang the mic much like engineers did in the 50’s and 60’s. Initially, the mic is placed with the capsule aiming at the forehead, then aimed down at an angle towards the mouth…much like the photo of Sam Cooke below:
Room Mics
This is where I had some fun. I placed one mic on the 2nd floor at the top of the stairs, right above where everyone was playing. Then, I placed another one in the kitchen….
…super technical, right?
Why do I do this? Well, I like to just see what happens. Sometimes it turns out to be awful and I will move the mic, and sometimes you get a special sound.
I purposely wanted to capture “the house”. No one had ever recorded there, and there probably never will be anyone else recording there. Therefore, this recording serves as a unique sound that is solely attributed to the house…I like that.
Mixing
After spending 4 days in a house with a bunch of dudes and one girl, I went back to Rochester and went back to school for classes, and just let the sessions sink in. I started on the mixing later in the week, and I do believe this was the first song I tackled.
My method of mixing a band is to start from the drums and work my way to the vocals. So, I started getting the sounds for the drums, which consisted of lots of gating (kick, snare, toms), compression throughout, and making sure the compression did not allow for more bleed from the other instruments. I usually send all my individual drum tracks to a mix buss, where I add more compression, EQ, and I do believe I added a bit of reverb to these drums.
Next, I moved to the bass, which I feel was captured perfectly. Brandon has always had a very angry bass tone, and I feel that the combination of the DI and mic, along with some compression through a BombFactory BF-76 plugin did the trick.
Onto the guitars, where I added some compression using LA-2A and LA-3A plugins. I don’t think I did much else.
For the percussion, I know I added some limiting through a LA-3A, and some delay to fatten up the sound. I EQ’d the toms to get more low end from them, and had Alex do 4 overdubs so that it sounded like a drum corps at 1:30. Again, I sent them to a mix buss and used stereo compression.
Lastly, I mixed in the vocals. For Jade’s vocals, I used a Waves RVox plugin coupled with a PSP EasyVerb. I wanted her vocals to sound upfront, yet had some depth and distance to them. Since she was singing a simple, slow melodic line, I wanted the reverb trail to lead into the next word. I should note that I did not use any AutoTune on the vocals. I generally don’t believe in pitch correction, unless the performance is terrible. I will rant about that another day. For Alex, I used the RVox and a Sonalksis De-Esser. I also added some slapback delay using a PSP Lexicon 84.
Now that I had a basic mix going, I started to have some fun. I decided that halfway through, something should change when the big hits come at 1:40. So, the entire beginning of the song, there are no room mics (the Naiants). Then, at 1:40, those mics kick in, giving the recording a different depth and hugeness that made the song kick just a bit more. If you really want to hear the difference, listen to the drums (not percussion) at the beginning, then again after the loud hits. There is a noticeable change in the sound of the drums between these two sections.
A static mix is something I dislike. Sure, you can build the music itself using different textures of instruments and sounds coming in and out to give the song some shape, but as an engineer you need to think about giving your mix some shape. Add some mics here, change a sound there….the mix needs to be part of the song, enhancing sections that are important, and keeping the listener on their toes.
Tails Out
Unfortunately, Summer People did not decide to release these versions of these songs, so no one really got to hear them. I was slated to record the record Teamwork, but I had to regretfully pull out due to school work and lack of access to a studio. They ended up tracking in Syracuse, and they did a great job with it.
I know there were some issues with the mix within the band, but since I was in Rochester, and them in Binghamton/Ithaca, we never got to be in the same room to hash it out. It was pretty much a bunch of emails back and forth. I advise anyone not to do this….call it a lesson learned for me.
If I remember correctly, Summer People’s main issues were with the way the guitars were mixed. They felt that the guitars were too low in the mix and wanted them boosted. I boosted and boosted, while remaining true to the cohesive sound of the band, but it was not to their liking.
And that is ok. Not everything an engineer does will be loved and accepted. My teacher and friend, Dave Fridmann, was asked to mix a song for Sigur Rós, which he did, but they did not like what he did to the song (however, I feel his mix is better than what was on the album). It happens. There will be differences. Just don’t let the differences get in the way of being professional.
I’m still good friends with everyone in Summer People (even though I forgot about their show in Rochester last night…oof). When I see them at the Belmar in Binghamton, there are always plenty of hugs and drinks to be shared.
- Steve
P.S. Summer People just released Teamwork on vinyl, and you should go order it here.
189 plays
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Artist: Stephen Roessner and Soporus
Track: It Is Happening Again. It Is Happening. Again.
Recording Studios:
The Juilliard School (Piano) and Matt Stone’s Basement (Guitars). Matt Stone recorded the guitar tracks.
Mixing Studio:
Calibrated Recording
Instruments:
Steinway D-274 Grand Piano
Fender ‘72 Tele Deluxe Re-issue
Fender Jaguar
Piano Mics:
Earthworks PM40 PianoMic
(3) Schoeps CMC6 with Omnidirectional capsules
Recording Console:
AMEK/Langley BIG
Mic Preamps:
Millennia HV-3D
Other Information:
- Guitars were tracked DI, through a Line6 Delay Pedal, ElectroHarmonix Poly Chorus, and into Guitar Rig 3 on ProTools.
- Piano was tracked to Pro Tools at 24/96.
Pre-production:
I wrote the piano for this song a few years ago while living in NYC and working at Juilliard. Obviously I was influenced by the work of Erik Satie, and wanted to write a simple melody with a simple chord structure.
After tracking the piano late one night at work, I sent it off to my friend Matt Stone of ex-Saxon Shore and Soporus. Matt has a guitar sound which I cannot even begin to emulate, so I figured I’d ask him to help me out. Matt also suggested the title of the track, which is a reference to this scene from Twin Peaks. I briefly thought about including the voice from the clip in the song, but I felt it would distract from the ambiance I was trying to create.
Press Record
I can only talk about how the piano was recorded, since I was not present for the guitar recording…perhaps I’ll ask Matt to walk through his process at some point in this blog, since we collaborate quite a bit.
As far as the piano goes, I tracked with 5 mics as listed above. The Earthworks mic system has two omni mics attached to a bar which sits above the strings in the piano. They were a recent addition to the Juilliard mic closet at the time, and I fell in love with them. Clear definition and a full sound…what I look for in a grand piano.
The other mics I had up were the Schoeps. They were located about 10 feet from the piano, arranged in a Decca Tree formation. For those of you unfamiliar with stereo mic setups, I plan on writing a post about it sometime soon, but for now I will give a brief explanation about it.
The Decca Tree setup is one of my favorite mic setups for small classical ensembles. String Quartets, woodwind trios, and solo piano benefit well from the spaciousness that the mic placement gives. A Decca Tree looks much like this:
In this photo, taken from Avatar Studio’s website, they use AKG 414 mics.
Basically, a Decca Tree is a spaced set of microphones, usually omnidirectional, spaced a specific width apart from each other. This spacing can vary with ensemble size, but the general rule is that Right and Left are about 6 feet apart, and the front Center mic is 3 feet in front of the line that links the Right and Left mics.
Why did I use this setup? Mainly, because I knew I wanted more room sound than direct piano attack for this piece. I went into recording the piano part with a sound already in mind, and this is pretty much how I work. Generally, whether I am recording music I’ve made, or recording a band/artist I am working with, I have an idea of the type of sound I want to achieve even before I hit record. It is always good to have a plan in place, rather than to just haphazardly launch into the recording process…however, it is important to be flexible. The sound you hear may not be what the artist hears, and ultimately, you are there to facilitate their desires.
Ok, moving on.
I tracked about 5 full takes of the piano, 2 without click, and 3 with click. I ended up going with a complete take tracked with a click, because I wanted to be able to finely tune my delays and reverbs to relate to the tempo. Also, it would allow Matt to time his delays with the piano.
After I was done tracking, I bounced the tracks, closed up shop, and rode the subway home…but didn’t listen to the tracks. My ears needed a break.
Mixing
I sent the piano track to Matt, and after a few weeks, he sent me his guitar parts. Since he records most of his guitar parts in stereo, I faced a problem of the 5 guitar parts pretty much overwhelming the piano part. So, I decided to make 4 of the guitar tracks mono, leaving one in stereo since it had the most stereo information of the 5.
I lightly compressed each guitar track, using Waves LA-2A and LA-3A plugins. I did not add any reverb or delays to the guitar tracks.
For the piano, I compressed the close mics using a Waves 1176 “Bluey” plugin to bring out the attack of the hammers. Conversely, doing this allowed for two things to happen:
1) You could now hear the felt of the damper bar touch and release the strings
2) You could now hear my shuffling around on the piano bench.
If you listen closely, you can hear both of these things in the track. Honestly, I don’t mind. I consider it part of the performance..and frankly, I am a sucker for things like that. It makes the recording less perfect, and more accessible.
For the mics on the Decca Tree, I summed them to a stereo Aux Buss, and effected that with a Lexicon PSP 84 stereo delay and PSP EasyVerb. The delay was barely present, it was there to add just a bit of a slapback to give it some more depth, and the Easy Verb was set on a warm hall with a long trail.
Tails Out
As I listen back to this track, there are some things I might do differently, but all in all I am happy with the emotion of the piece. Matt’s guitar work proved invaluable, because it is the driving force of the dynamics. If I were to change anything, it would be the clarity of the piano. At times, it seems a bit muddy. Currently, it is not a detriment to the track, but I sense it can get lost at times.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Comments, messages, and questions are more than welcome. Until the next post, keep recording.
-Steve
160 plays
Welcome and purpose of this blog.
Hello everyone.
I’m starting this blog as an educational forum for audio and recording. I am by no means an expert in the field, but I love teaching what I can in regards to audio, music, and recording.
Every so often, hopefully weekly, I will post audio from albums I’ve worked on and walk through the processes with you. From my mic selection and setup, post-processing, mixing habits, to general thoughts about the recording. At times, I may post different versions of a mix as I work through it, so that you may hear my thought process as I go.
I hope this blog will serve as something to spark imagination in your own recording practices, or perhaps inspire you to try something different.
Also, I will always appreciate suggestions and constructive criticisms of my work. I know I still have much to learn myself.
-Steve
