Audio Arts (Minor)
Before I begin, I would first like to thank:
Jodie O'Regan - Voice in "Need A Hit" and "Self Reflective Mirrors"
William Revill - Guitar in "Need A Hit" and "Self Reflective Mirrors"
Matt Mazzone - Recording Assistant in "Need A Hit" and Keyboardist in "Self Reflective Mirrors"
I had initially organised a band to record, but they ended up pulling out on me. So left with nobody to record, I decided to rework and finish an old Idea I wrote last year. Because I emailed my players their parts at 11pm the night before the recording, it was no surprise my players (including me) weren’t quite ready to play them when it came to recording time. There's a big lesson to be learnt here; give your players their parts well in advance (ie make sure the composition is finished at least a couple of days before the recording) so they can learn their parts properly. When I think about it, it was a kind of inconsiderate of me to have them come in and try and get their parts right for around 4 or 5 hours. My intentions were totally unrealistic, and a practice I don’t intend to repeat.
Anyway we got the acoustic guitar down, and a rough piano part. The following Thursday we all came in again to finish ‘Need A Hit’ off, and this time we were able to get all the parts down in half the time we spent on Tuesday.
Naming:
Why is it called ‘Need A Hit’? I don’t like to spend forever thinking up a name for a piece so I usually just spend a minute or two and considering whatever feeling or thoughts come by listening to it. The piece originated from two small ideas that were scrapped from a composition that contained four different ideas blended into each other. The second half on this piece I thought sounded like something surreal and ‘out-of-it’ and the first part sounded kind of tense. I put these two feelings together and envision a heroin addict running dry and desperatly needing a hit of the first half, and then recieves his hit in the second half entering a surreal state of mind. No, I haven't tried heroin, so this piece is only a speculative representation of what it might be like. You tell me, is it in any way representative?
Microphones and Placement:
Voice
Microphone – U89i (Hyper Cardiod) + Popper Stopper – was overdubbed
Placement – In front of mouth
Acoustic Guitar
Microphone – U89i (probably Cardiod, can’t remember)
Placement – Offset from resonating chamber
Microphone – SM57 – (didn’t end up using because I couldn’t get a reasonable level and didn’t add to the sound of the U89i)
Placement – end of neck near fret board
Electric Guitar
Microphone – U89i (forgot to note polar pattern)
Placement – About a meter away direct facing amp, slightly offset from speaker cone
DI – (didn’t end up using because it sounded too dry and didn’t have the correct character for the piece)
Piano
Microphone – 2x U87 – one Fig 8, one Omni
Placement – M/S Technique. Placed over sound board, 3rd hole from the bass strings.
Production:
Voice
I wish I had recorded a couple of extra takes not only for doubling purposes, but also because although Jodie did a phenomenal job, she was a little of tune in a few areas (nothing to do with her singing ability; this was my fault as she didn’t have long enough to learn the piece). Speaking of tuning, it would be very nice if the uni could get an ‘auto-tune’ plug-in for Pro Tools.
Piano
I applied a stereo delay on the piano for first half to make it sound boomerangy. I EQed the piano in the second half to make it sound muffed and distant.
Guitars
The original plan was to double the electric and acoustic guitar tracks, but I soon realised I only had enough takes to double the acoustic. Instead I decided to pan the acoustic tracks hard left and right, and then slot the electric track in centre panned. I wanted a predominantly acoustic sound, so I subdued the electric guitar in volume as to provide the icing on the acoustic. I did however add a delay on the electric to make it stand out a little.
Voice
Upon starting the production of this piece, it soon became apparent how challenging it is to mix a classical vocalist. More to the point, it was difficult to try and manage Jodie’s dynamic range. The compressor I added somewhat helped in this area. I wanted to give the impression of more than one vocalist. Ordinarily you would double the vocals in this case, but because I didn't have enough unique takes to achieve this, I decided to duplicate one of the voice regions and offset it a little from the other to alleviate reinforcing frequencies. Although this produced a degree of phasing (usually considered undesirable), in this case I thought it sounded ok.
"Need A Hit" 2:33
Jodie O'Regan - Voice in "Need A Hit" and "Self Reflective Mirrors"
William Revill - Guitar in "Need A Hit" and "Self Reflective Mirrors"
Matt Mazzone - Recording Assistant in "Need A Hit" and Keyboardist in "Self Reflective Mirrors"
- "Need A Hit"
I had initially organised a band to record, but they ended up pulling out on me. So left with nobody to record, I decided to rework and finish an old Idea I wrote last year. Because I emailed my players their parts at 11pm the night before the recording, it was no surprise my players (including me) weren’t quite ready to play them when it came to recording time. There's a big lesson to be learnt here; give your players their parts well in advance (ie make sure the composition is finished at least a couple of days before the recording) so they can learn their parts properly. When I think about it, it was a kind of inconsiderate of me to have them come in and try and get their parts right for around 4 or 5 hours. My intentions were totally unrealistic, and a practice I don’t intend to repeat.
Anyway we got the acoustic guitar down, and a rough piano part. The following Thursday we all came in again to finish ‘Need A Hit’ off, and this time we were able to get all the parts down in half the time we spent on Tuesday.
Naming:
Why is it called ‘Need A Hit’? I don’t like to spend forever thinking up a name for a piece so I usually just spend a minute or two and considering whatever feeling or thoughts come by listening to it. The piece originated from two small ideas that were scrapped from a composition that contained four different ideas blended into each other. The second half on this piece I thought sounded like something surreal and ‘out-of-it’ and the first part sounded kind of tense. I put these two feelings together and envision a heroin addict running dry and desperatly needing a hit of the first half, and then recieves his hit in the second half entering a surreal state of mind. No, I haven't tried heroin, so this piece is only a speculative representation of what it might be like. You tell me, is it in any way representative?
Microphones and Placement:
Voice
Microphone – U89i (Hyper Cardiod) + Popper Stopper – was overdubbed
Placement – In front of mouth
Acoustic Guitar
Microphone – U89i (probably Cardiod, can’t remember)
Placement – Offset from resonating chamber
Microphone – SM57 – (didn’t end up using because I couldn’t get a reasonable level and didn’t add to the sound of the U89i)
Placement – end of neck near fret board
Electric Guitar
Microphone – U89i (forgot to note polar pattern)
Placement – About a meter away direct facing amp, slightly offset from speaker cone
DI – (didn’t end up using because it sounded too dry and didn’t have the correct character for the piece)
Piano
Microphone – 2x U87 – one Fig 8, one Omni
Placement – M/S Technique. Placed over sound board, 3rd hole from the bass strings.
Production:
Voice
I wish I had recorded a couple of extra takes not only for doubling purposes, but also because although Jodie did a phenomenal job, she was a little of tune in a few areas (nothing to do with her singing ability; this was my fault as she didn’t have long enough to learn the piece). Speaking of tuning, it would be very nice if the uni could get an ‘auto-tune’ plug-in for Pro Tools.
Piano
I applied a stereo delay on the piano for first half to make it sound boomerangy. I EQed the piano in the second half to make it sound muffed and distant.
Guitars
The original plan was to double the electric and acoustic guitar tracks, but I soon realised I only had enough takes to double the acoustic. Instead I decided to pan the acoustic tracks hard left and right, and then slot the electric track in centre panned. I wanted a predominantly acoustic sound, so I subdued the electric guitar in volume as to provide the icing on the acoustic. I did however add a delay on the electric to make it stand out a little.
Voice
Upon starting the production of this piece, it soon became apparent how challenging it is to mix a classical vocalist. More to the point, it was difficult to try and manage Jodie’s dynamic range. The compressor I added somewhat helped in this area. I wanted to give the impression of more than one vocalist. Ordinarily you would double the vocals in this case, but because I didn't have enough unique takes to achieve this, I decided to duplicate one of the voice regions and offset it a little from the other to alleviate reinforcing frequencies. Although this produced a degree of phasing (usually considered undesirable), in this case I thought it sounded ok.
"Need A Hit" 2:33
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home