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David Rivera
Date of Session: Tuesday, February 15th 2012
Time in: 4:00pm
Time out: 7:30pm
Lesson #: 1
Reviewed Lesson 1 - Then We went over the Lesson Questions and Answers
My Mentor then Went through the lesson and Pointed out which were the most important
things in the lesson to really know.
He talked about Attack, Decay, Sustain & Release in detail he explained all of them each
in detail and explained what each ones purpose was in relation to a sound wave.
He then drew a Sound wave of a snare and showed us in detail where the attack, decay,
sustain and release corresponded to the Soundwave.
*For me the explanation definitely helped me make sense of each of the four.
- Attach - is the highest point on the sound wave
- Decay - is the downfall of the sound wave
- Sustain - is where it stays the same briefly
- Release - is where the wave releases or tapers off
He also showed me the difference between the sound wave of a Snare Vs the sound
wave of a vocal to show how the Attack is immediate with the Snare and with the vocal
sound wave the Attack is gradual or built up to its highest point.
We also touched base on Decibels and the pain threshold of the human ear
*Decibel - Scale for measuring sound
*How it is always important to keep the mixing volume at 85- 95 dB because if the sound
is to low the ear wont hear everything it needs to and if its to high the ears can miss
certain sounds.
After the Lesson 1 my mentor asked if I wanted to stay and observe and take part in a
little recording session with some of his other apprentices. They would be recording an
acoustic session first then a vocal session of course I was excited to take part and observe
of course.
Acoustic Session:
He explained to us (me & the other apprentices who were also there) About where the
artist should be in terms of placement first, then he went into mic placement.
*First the Artist was centered in the center of the room. He allowed the artist to
get comfortable with his acoustic guitar as well as with his feet placement.
*Once the artist was settled in he taped off where the artists feet are that way if the
artist moved or had to get up for some reason we would know exactly where the artists
position was.
When doing Mic placements always set up the Mic Stands first don’t try doing everything at once as you will be handling very expensive and delicate equipment.
Once you’ve set up mic stands, We bring in the Mics.
- During this session we used 2 Condenser Mics.
1. C-414-B-ULS - AKG Condenser Mic - mono
2. Rode Microphone Condenser Mic - mono
* We set up the Mics in the X / Y - Mic ‘ing Technique
He showed us the set X/Y set up for the mics
- One Mic was set up slightly lower than then the other one kind of at point where
the mic heads meet but one mic head slightly below the other so that the vocals arent to
bounce off the other might head.
- Also When aligning the mics he showed us to always have the Mic / Mic Stand
at a 90 degree angle centered toward the center of the guitar where the Body of the guitar
meets the neck of the guitar. Where lastly he plugged those mics into phantom power and we began the session.
Vocal Session:
My mentor used the two original Condenser Mics ( AKG & Rode Microphones) Along
with a custom Mic he named the 280 Condenser Mic. Which was a much larger tube Condenser Mic that gave a full rich sound, which he then centered in between the other two mics ( Akg & Rodes Mics) once those were set he plugged it in to a separate power supply box.
He did a couple run throughs with those mics in the acoustic room along with vocals on
this acoustic set. Then he took the artist to the iso booth and we did a few run throughs in
there with just vocals layed over the acoustic set.
After we were done he asked us if we could hear the difference between the acoustic /
vocal set the artist did in the acoustic room Vs the Vocals in the Iso booth.
We definitely could here a difference between the two
*The set in the acoustic room had that kind of had a live feel to it
*The recording in the iso booth had much more of a clean and clear sound
to it. Not so much live, but more of an Isolated feel to it.
At the end of these processes he showed us how to properly wrap cords up using the
Twist over / Twist Under techniques.
Patch Bay :
Lynx - Aurora 16
Pre Sonus Digital Studio
Pro MPA II
Avalon Vacuum Tube
I got to see my mentor work with the patch bay and plug in and plug out cords I also did a little bit as did the rest of the apprentices that were there.
At the end of every thing we put equipment back in its place and mics in there cases and ropes were wrapped up properly.
It was a good experience on my first lesson and look forward to my next lessons to come.
