Category Archives: Research

Mixing Drums and Vocals checklist (LO2, LO3)

Here’s a list of all the key pieces of information I’ve found through research that I’ll apply when mixing the drums and vocals on this project.

Drums

  • Pan toms left and right – mentioned by Butch Vig when setting a stereo space for the drums and the rest of the track, by extension.
  • Heavy compression on the room microphone, as identified by both Vig and Sheldon. They also note the importance not to over-compress the rest of the kit.
  • “It’s also worth compressing the kick and snare drum, but again, don’t overdo it.” – Chris Sheldon’s further thoughts on compression.
  • “Hearing the room mics is important. To me, the mid-range frequencies define what the room mics sound like, though these frequencies are also what can clog up a mix, particularly in the 300Hz-500Hz range. ” – Butch Vig on how to place the room mic in a mix.
  • “Sometimes I will push up the room mics in calm sections of a song, like breakdowns, and then pull them back when things get dense in the chorus” – Butch Vig on room mic automation.
  • Distort the drums and make the level of distortion change in certain sections of the song as in 1979. I may choose to leave this out depending on the rest of the mix.
  • Try using a gated snare, such as in 1979.

Vocals

  • “You might start with slow compressor, to let the consonants ring through and follow it up with a hard brick-wall limiter at the end, to push everything.” – Chris Sheldon, on adding compression to vocals.
  • Limit the dynamic range of vocals if needs be as “in full on rock songs, you don’t want a huge dynamic range on vocals, the vocal needs sit firmly in the middle of everything. So by limiting the dynamic range, you can make sure that it’s neither overbearing, nor hidden.” – Chris Sheldon on compressing vocals.
  • Double tracked lead vocal parts will be both central in the mix, which is something that was done by Butch Vig on Drain You by Nirvana. This can be seen in the video at the bottom of this entry.
  • The Butch Vig vocals plug-in. I’m going to try using this for vocals to replicate the classic grunge vocal sound, particularly as it seems that it would suit the nature of Ben, YCIALM’s vocalist’s voice
  • Backing vocals panned hard left and right as in 1979.
  • Set correct delays when using reverbs and delays in order to make the reverbs sound natural with the rest of the song. The reverb on the EP as a whole should be quite dry as is commonly found in grunge.

 

 

Reverb on Vocals (LO3)

While I’m happy with the research I’ve done on mixing vocals, which is part of my learning outcome 3, I haven’t managed to find much information on using reverb and delay on them. In the second recording session, Ben, vocalist of YCIALM, wanted delay on the vocals for one of the tracks. I hadn’t actually planned to use a great deal of reverb or delay on the EP but I think it would be beneficial for me to have researched the best way to use them.

An article on exponentialaudio.com outlines some of the key considerations when using reverb on vocals. Firstly, they claim that it’s best to record the reverb for vocals naturally. “‘Real’ reverb is around us all the time. Every space has its own sound. Wherever possible I like to record a vocal in a live space using a screen to keep the close mic dry while recording the room at the same time. If, as is more often the case, I receive a dry vocal to mix I may re-amp it into a room, hall or stairwell to give it a unique ambience.” At this stage in the project this would be difficult for me to do even if there was somewhere on the university campus that had a nice natural sounding reverb.

The article mentions that you should set the delay time on the reverb to match the tempo and timing of the track. It makes musical sense to set vocal delays to be in time with the track. However, straight delays such as quarter and eighth notes can get easily masked within the track. I usually start with an offbeat delay like three sixteenths which I find tends to naturally find the musical gaps. Then I’ll vary the delay slightly until it feels good. This is something I’ve previously done when adding reverb to all instruments in tracks.

Simon Gogerly, author of the article states that he’ll often “change the sounds and levels of effects on the lead vocal throughout a song. This can really help the dynamics of a track and keep it interesting. For instance, I may use a fairly dry sound with just a touch of plate & slap delay in a verse then introduce a longer delay and bigger reverb in the chorus.” This is also something I’ve done in the past.

https://www.exponentialaudio.com/pro-tips-source/2015/7/28/5-pro-tips-for-using-reverb-delays-on-lead-vocals

 

Client Liaison – Communication between me and the band (LO4)

Just as a follow-on from my last post about client liaison I’ll add here the communication between the band and I. While at times I was slightly frustrated with the relatively slow communication from the band, I think I may have been worrying a little too much as the sessions went perfectly as planned on Friday and Saturday. I assured them that I needed to record four tracks for the project despite their earlier thoughts on recording just three. Overall I think the communication was enough for the project in order for me to fully prepare and plan the sessions.

 

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Here’s the first email I can find from Alex where we’re discussing the format of the project. I had the idea of recording the band way back in November so I’ve had a long time to prepare for it.

 

 

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The original plan was to record in January but due to issues with availability that changed

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Finding out about instrumentation and demos

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Re-arrangement of recording dates

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I wanted to meet before recording to get a proper account of what the band wanted from the project

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Recording dates and meeting up

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Meeting

 

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Settling on recording dates

 

 

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Here’s a big delay on one of their replies which wasn’t significant in the end. I also tried to book the 15th with the band as a fallback but that wasn’t available either

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I checked the amount of songs we were recording and Alex mentioned that we’d be able to do some of the recording on the Friday night. I also checked whether Alex was bringing his own drum gear as the university’s isn’t fantastic. The same goes for amplifiers.

Client Feedback For Recording Sessions (LO4)

This morning I was sent feedback for my sessions with Your Cat is a Landmine on Friday and Saturday of last week an am really happy to say that they were very satisfied. Here’s a screenshot of the email from the drummer, Alex, which was forwarded to me by Dave McSherry.

I’m really pleased with this and hopefully this shows that I have been successful in my fourth learning outcome (liaise with the client in a professional and well-communicated manner, to ensure total client satisfaction.)

yebwoi

Recording Session Checklist (LO1, LO3)

With my recording sessions with the band on the 31st of March and 1st of April approaching, I’m going to bullet point a few key techniques I’ve discovered in my research that I’m going to try in the sessions. They regard the recording of drums and vocals.

Drums:

  • Recording with a microphone on the hi-hat and ride cymbal. This is mentioned in my previous blog post and is something I want to try, in order to get a rounded sound of the whole drum kit.
  • Record toms with a condenser mic. I will try using a a C414 on the rack tom(s) during the session which is something that both Butch Vig and Chris Sheldon do. I will, however use an AKG D112 for the floor tom, as I prefer to have a lot of low end in that particular drum.
  • Record snare with SM57s. Again, both Vig and Sheldon prefer this mic for snares, and it’s what I personally have always used. The top mic will be 1 inch from the head, as Sheldon recommends.
  • D112 on the kick drum. Fairly standard, and this is what Sheldon recommends.
  • Use a lot of C414s. Flood, who produced 1979, used a lot of C414s to get an ‘up front and aggressive’ sound. I’ve booked 6 of these mics.

Vocals

  • Record vocals with a Shure SM58. While there are higher quality and more expensive microphones that I could use, I’ve found that both Gil Norton and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins favour them for recording vocals. If I decide the sound isn’t quite what I want in the session I’ll use a different mic.
  • Double track lead vocal parts. As done by Butch Vig on Nevermind. Should time constraints allow me, I’d like to try this technique to add power to the vocals.
  • Multiple backing vocal takes. As done on 1979. This is to add space to the tracks and I personally think backing vocals are one of the most important aspects of any track.