Group 5 Keane 'Everybody's Changing' Recording & Mix

Recording

This was our first recording session, we have never collaborated with a band before.

So, we set up all the mics and linked the cables to the board, we used
this sheet as a helpful reference: 

 (Thank you Emma)...

Funnily enough, two ports were broken! (5 & 6 for reference).

When the band came in, I asked for their names -

Rob told me to write them down asap, which makes sense, considering

I can barely remember what I did five minutes ago, let alone new names.

Note to self

Half-haphazardly scribbling unintelligible names down after five minutes

of already hearing them doesn't work - Write down immediately.

The band were really cool and considering it was our first time the set up was fairly

smooth. We went through a couple of sound checks, and then the band played some run-throughs to practice.

From what I could tell, this band was somewhat rather shy or timid, this is fine,

but could use some more productive encouragement.
The Bass guitarist made a few mistakes, but these can be fixed
fairly quickly over the mix...just need to figure out how to actually do that.
I talked to the vocalist about some good vocal techniques and attempted to make them all feel comfortable - smiles and humour can work folks.
Unfortunately the vocalist was still somewhat reserved in her singing, possibly there are communication skills I'm missing or could improve on?

Note to self
Rob commented on bringing drinks and such for the band's, this can help with 
a more comfortable environment to play in, also hydration is always necessary for a vocalist.

Remember to get more involved, don't panic if problems occur and try to work them out together accordingly, there's always something you can help out with. 


Thinking back there were definitely some obstacles; forgetting how to set particular parts up within Logic or the studio, remembering specific microphones and what they go with genre/instrument wise.

Points for next time!

Bring a pen and paper (always).

                                                          Make a checklist!                                                                - Things to remember to do, or something you forgot to do last time can also be added to the list
 (just do it).

                                                   Bring all guide sheets!                                                    
~ These were the sheets given to us throughout the year, guitar & drum guides, mic identification sheets etc.

Take more pictures!!!
- This looks so empty... :(

Reference Track -  Ref Soundcloud

Mix

During this session I explored mixing. 

I learnt how to zoom in and out of my tracks and how to use the cut & fader tool etc:

Here we had two takes of the vocals, one with noise (talking) at the beginning and one without.
Here I was taught how to take the noisy section from take 2 and replace it with the quieter version in take 1. I then cut out all remaining noise.

Before the piano begun on the piano recording, I heard the drummer's 4 clicks to signal everybody. I decided to get rid of them from both the front and the back microphones to get rid of any distractions and give it a more in-your-face approach.

Before:

After:

This is where I heard static at the end of the bass recording, so I cut the end out but for some reason heard a click sound at the end where I had cut. I was then taught how to use the Fade tool located on the Tool Menu button above the recordings. The I held command and dragged the fade in as far as I wanted to, which removed the click and gave it a really nice fade out effect.

During the Bass Mic recording and D.I. box there was a loud out of time chord aggressively struck - just a bit overkill. 

So I Solo'd the Bass track, zoomed in, went to the S tool and selected which area I wanted to cut (the overkill bass strum). Remember to select from the start of the wrong note, to the beginning of the next note.  There have to be repeating notes in order for this to work. So cut bad note, copy the one you want, paste it in the place where the dysfunctional note once was - select tracks effected and use the fader tool, press command and drag.

And there you have identical strums that you want. 

Tried experimenting with the EQ Vocals for a bit without really knowing what I'm doing.

When the vocalist sung, some of her 'S' and 'T' words sounded very sharp ("so", "little"), I tried changing them via EQ but nothing worked...

Tried out the Adaptive Limiter without much prevail...

Played around with Reverb to try and soften out the overkill S & T's...still didn't work but overall made the sound a lot nicer and well rounded.

Bounced and put up to soundcloud. 

Things to consider: 

• Ask Rob about the 'S' & 'T' words

• Learn more about EQ 

• Learn more about Reverb

• Why did the backing vocals practically disappear after adding effects?
• 
  

So, here's my first finished mix! ~ Finished Soundcloud