Recently I recorded an Acoustic Folk/Pop single (Void of Your Grace by Gling Hunt) with fellow audio engineer Bhavya Menon. At the end of the session we had some great sounding stems, and I learned what methods I used that worked. But perhaps more importantly, I learned what didn't work so much!
So here are some things that I learnt, that could perhaps help you too!
Click here to play the finished mix while you read.
Vocal set-up:
For vocals, Bhavya and I set up a Rode NTK (Tube condenser mic) hanging directly above an AKG C414 condenser along with a pop filter in front and a vocal baffle behind. In the end I was super pleased with the warmth of the NTK and went with it alone for the mix, however the recording wasn't the issue here. We had unfortunately set the mics up in a position where Gling was unable to see us in the control room without leaning to the side to look past the vocal set-up and baffle. The reason I didn't like this was because it is important for me when communicating with an artist, to look at them and be seen in order to include body language and facial expression as part of getting the artist comfortable and maintaining clear communication. It's also important to me to maintain a human connection with the artist not only to have fun in the studio, but to hold an easy space to be in.
Next time: I'd love to set up the vocal mics at an angle to the control room window, in order to reduce reflections and have easy visual from the artist to engineer for communication!
Recording doubles for vocals:
We went through and got a few beautiful takes of the lead vocal and moved on to harmonies!
Working with a skilled vocalist like Gling Hunt makes things easy, so when it came to the harmonies, Gling only took a few takes to get a great compliment to the lead.
But during the mixing, I chose to add two of the lead vocal takes together to have some big doubled vocals in the chorus. Great idea, and in the end I think I've done a pretty good job, however it took me many hours of editing, smooshing syllables together and comping to achieve what I have, because we did not give Gling the reference of the previous take in his headphones while he was singing the lead vox. This would have helped a lot with consistency.
Next time: I'd get clear on the creative doubles and harmonies sooner in the production and pre-production and aim to have an outline of the mix before recording. This would save a lot of time trying to double vocals that were not recorded to be doubled, I'm still pretty stoked about the finished vox though!
p.s. check out this sound on sound article to understand vocal doubling the effect it provides.
Acoustic Guitar!
We recorded a few 6 string guitar sections as well as a 12 string section for the chorus as part of this single. We initially had several ideas about how to mic it up for this type of song, ranging from 1 sole mic to X/Y pairs, mid/side techniques and ambient and room mics as well. At the end of the day, we went with 1x SM57 on the body of the guitar to capture low end, and 1x AKG C451-b positioned just under the base of the neck, angled to the edge of the guitar, both a few inches away.
I'm glad that we went for this set-up because we achieved a great sound with a wide range, however I've noticed that even with just the C451-b mic alone, the guitar sounds excellent and full. My point is that you don't need to have 4 or 5 mics all around the room to get a great sounding acoustic. You can capture some amazing things with a single well positioned mic, and reduce the complexity of both your recording and mixing, saving heaps of time for you as an engineer while still achieving a full sound at the end of the day!
Drums:
Check out Bhavyas' recording of our drum set up below!
During our drum recording session, surprisingly mostly everything went smoothly, we set all the mics up as agreed, and sound checked each, adjusting levels and moving mics according to how we wanted it to sound. We even ended up getting a killer sound!
But! During one of our takes, the lefthand overhead stand started drooping and didn't stop til it was almost hitting the snare. with a small C451-b on the end, theres no way a mic stand should do that. We even had a problem setting up one of the tom mics as the stand drooped even when tightened (check out the time-lapse below!).
Next time: I'll make sure that I have available some solid stands, as drooping mic stands not only looks unprofessional to artists and other clients, but it also ruined a perfectly good take.
These lessons I'll surely take with me to my next recording, and maybe they have even helped you too :)
- Stay tuned for a blog on mixing this song! coming soon.
Bibliography:
Walden, J. (2011). Vocal Comping |. [online] Soundonsound.com. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/vocal-comping [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
RØDE Microphones. (2018). RØDE Microphones - NTK Valve 1' Condenser Microphone. [online] Available at: http://www.rode.com/microphones/ntk [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
Akg.com. (2018). C414 XLS | Reference multipattern condenser microphone. [online] Available at: https://www.akg.com/Microphones/Condenser%20Microphones/C414XLS.html [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Pop filter. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_filter [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
White, P. (2009). Double-tracking Vocals |. [online] Soundonsound.com. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/double-tracking-vocals [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
DPA. (2018). PRINCIPLES OF THE XY STEREO TECHNIQUE. [online] Available at: https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/principles-of-the-xy-stereo-technique [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
DPA. (2016). PRINCIPLES OF THE MS STEREO TECHNIQUE. [online] Available at: https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/principles-of-the-ms-stereo-technique [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
Akg.com. (2018). C451 B | Reference small-diaphragm condenser microphone. [online] Available at: https://www.akg.com/Microphones/Condenser%20Microphones/C451B.html [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
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