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J-Himmy Productions
Week 7 was a pretty great week in my opinion. On Tuesday I was not abe to come in due to a scheduling problem in the system. I was booked the same time as another student so to make up for that day I was able to come in Saturday and Sunday to watch a band record in the A studio. On Wednesday I came in for an hour and my mentor and I went to work on Prootools and as well as last weeks chapter. After we talked about the next chapter and started talking about sine waves, but would get to that later on next week. When I came in over the weekend I could tell it was going to be a busy day just by all the stuff that was going on around the studio. There were many peole running around getting things orginized and ready to start recording for the band. I wasnt able to do much, but sit and observe the band on how they got set up, how my mentor set up the different types of mics for different instruments, and how he started to set up the session on protools. I was able to gain a lot of knowledge off watching this session and was able to take some tips with me home.
-Section 1:
- Planning - List of names of the band members and the instruments they play, the names of the songs you will be recording, and the specific instrumentation. Tempos, keys, meters, song length. Listen to previous recordings of the band to get an idea of what they sound like.
- Start planning out the set up. Think about what elements you are going to track live and what will be overdubbed. Positioning of the musicians and instruments in the room. Mics you will use, and where you will put them to get the desired effects. Preamps you will pair with which mics, what compressors and EQ's will you use and where. You want a setup that works for all the songs but isn't more complicated than it needs to be. Input lists and plot charts can be useful for documenting your setup ideas and will help communicate your plan to your assistant.
-Review Questions:
- Using "Dynamic" mics can help give you more separation of tracks and allow for a bit more control later on.
- "Large diaphragm" condenser mics are good for capturing the detail of a room, and tend to have better lower frequency response than other condenser mics.
- When choosing a mic for a particular task in a tracking session only the mic's frequency respose comes into play: "FALSE"
- List four considerations when choosing a microphone: Frequency reponse, transient response, sensitivity, and pickup patter.
-Section 2:
- Things to keep in mind:
- Line of sight - let band members see each other.
- Angle - Angle instruments so that it is neither parallel or perpendicular to the walls.
- Room features - Place instruments on correct side of room if half is reflective and other half is more about absorting sound.
- Volume - Make sure instruments are not overpowering the others.
- Comfort - Make sure the musisican is comfortable, so you can get the best performace.
- Tracking Session:
- Live room: Bass, Guitar, Drums, Keys.
- ISO 3: Vocals
- ISO 2: GTR CAB
- ISO 1: Precussion
Overdub session:
- Live room: Guitar, Keys, Sax
- ISO 3: BK Vox 2
- ISO 2: GTR CAB
- ISO 1: BK Vox 1/Rap vocal
Basics will include: Drums, percussion (congas and bongo), Bass, Keys, Drum Machine, Rhythm Guitar, Lead vocals and vocoder.
Overdubs will include: Back up vocals, some Lead guitar, additional Keys, percussion (Triangle and Shaker), guest on sax, and guest rapper.
Band name: Sikadelik Ninja Katz
Six-piece band including drums, bass, two electric guitars, keys, and vocalist.
Drums: Reuben, 5-piece Gretch
Bass: Clive, Fender P-Bass
Guitar 1: Julio, Gibson SG
Guitar 2: Paul, Les Paul Custom
Keys: Jerome, 3 keyboards & 1 sampler: Korg Triton, Yamaha DX7, Moog Sub Phatty, and Akai MPC1000
Vocalist: Leslatoria, Sounds similar to Beth Gibbons from Portishead, kind of a 40's vibe
The song you will be tracking is called "Roundhouse Kick: In Yo Face"
Description: Live drum intro with MPC drum sounds backing. Song has a funk, electronica vibe.
-Section 3:
-Review questions:
- After getting ready for your tracking seesion saving a "Template" in Pro tools, is an easy way to bring up the same settings for the next song on the album.
- Getting levels is the term that refers to setting the "Input" levels in a session.
- A(n) "DI box" is a device typically used to connect a high-impedance, line level, unbalanced output signal to a low-impedance microphone level balanced input.
