MPA 408 Lab 02/26/10 Tracking Guitar

Aside from the setup, which included a Royer (isolated) about four feet away and an E22 off axis. Today proved to be an extremely easy day in the studio. We set out to complete at least 2 songs and walked away with a foundation for four. I felt personally that the pace we worked at was quite expedient and Shaun Day proved to be well rehearsed. On the engineering side we took turns at the helm for each of our prospective compositions in my opinion this helped to elicit the exact sound that was desired in each persons mind. It also helped with productivity the fact that only one of todays arrangements needed consecutive strumming, for all of the other songs we just punched in at the necessary points. One thing I've started to notice on a major scale was the fact that most of the songs are starting to take on identities of their own. Although they're all based on tracks that have been done already the connection to the original is audible but the whole feel is on another plane. At this point we are slightly ahead schedule and I believe we should stay on pace as long as nothing catastrophic happens.

For more blogs from this week check:

MPA 408 Lecture 02/24/10 EQ 'n' By Octaves

MPA 408 Lab 02/22/10 Tracking Bass cont.

MPA 408 Lecture 02/22/10 RTAS Medium Delay 2

MPA 408 Lecture 02/24/10 EQ'n' By Octaves

Today we touched on two essential weapons for the production engineer today, the ability to eq. using microphone (and mic placements) and the notion of equalizing by octaves.

Mic's as EQ's

Basically we were displayed a diagram of the polarity pattern of a microphone (namely a SM57). The diagram stated that pick up pattern on dynamic microphones had its greatest effect for full range pick up at the tip (the 180%) point. Therefor each shift in the mic would result in a percentage of low end roll off. In the event that you set up mic facing the opposite direction of your objective there would be 100 db difference in the pick effectively soaking up more high and less low. This was discussed as a viable way of recording snares.

EQ 'n' By Octaves (a brief synopsis of key points)

To set up a template that we could apply this concept too we record a short expert with drums, bass, piano and vocals.

Bass RE20

Snare Sm57

OHL 4050

OHR 4050

Piano 414

Bass Millinia

Vocals 414 (through Distress-ors)

Input: 4.5

Attack: 2.5

Release: 3.5

Output: 5.5

Once we were done recording we experimented with various eq'n' variations these were the results:

50 Hz ~ An increase at this adds fullness to the bass drum & bass while a deduction takes out the boom'e'ness of the bass

100 Hz ~ increasing in this range gives a harder sound (more punch on the end)

and adds body to a snare. Decreasing the bass down here gives room

for kick to stand out. This range is also used to add fulness and reduce

boom'e'ness.

200 Hz ~ adds fulness to vocals because it deals with the fundamental. However, in the it kills the attack. Removing db's in this area takes out the gong on cymbals and removes muddiness in vocals.

400 Hz ~ increasing this range on the bass adds clarity while removing this range on snare removes ambiance

note: shifting the shelf dimensions in the 500 Hz arena creates a telephone effect.

lastly we talked about:

1.5 kHz ~ it was displayed that complimentary chords were brought out when this range was increased. It was also said that a reduction here removes the cheap sound of cheap guitars.

MPA 408 Lab 02/22/10 Tracking Bass cont.

In lab, we zeroed in on finishing up all the necessary bass parts that we hadn't yet gotten too, and then retouched other tracks that were still in the looping phase. To my surprise Nick had already straightened out the issue that plagued the recording process last week by finding a more suitable loop for Loving You Always (the song with the clipping problems). All and all I found this session ran rather smooth. The only the only real problem that arose came in the form technological issues. First the system wouldn't allow for writing edits (so we discussed the various possibilities for getting around this aliment. We finally decided to save to the hard drive (of course transferring our work afterwards) at which point it allowed us to continue editing. In recording the bass in we followed the same technique as usual going through the Millinia, the only notable difference was that Nick brought in his foot pedal so he was able to augment the sound in some pretty crazy ways. For one of the songs we worked today I originally used an Arp synthesizer, however with his kit he was able to find a saw that pretty closely replicated the sound. Next lab we start guitar!!!

MPA 408 Lecture 02/22/10 RTAS Medium Delay 2

In today's class we looked at 5 different effects that could be achieved using the RTAS (med. delay 2) plugins. To demonstrate what was going we mic'd up a SM57 and recorded James Meter singing a tune into Protools. This vocal rift would go in to stay embedded in my head for hours after class. First we were shown the vibrato effect.

Note: Vibrato was explained as the modulation of pitch. It bit he illusion of everything being in tune (when played within a close vicinity).

1.) Vibrato (used on either leads or back ups) apply RTAS Medium Delay 2 and set to the following dimensions:

Mix - 100%

Delay - 3 - 8 ms

Modulate - 20%

Feedback - 0%

Rate - 1 - 3 Hz

Note: ADT - is used to thicken up weak delivery. Gives the feel of a more prominent sound.

2.) ADT (Audio Double Tracking) take the main vocals and aux. stereo. Bus out to 1 & 2 (@ 100%) apply RTAS Medium Delay 2and set to the following dimensions:

Mix - 100%

Delay - 20 - 50 ms

Modulate - 40%

Feedback - 0%

Rate - 1 Hz

Note: Chorusing an effect that simulates multiple individuals singing the same thing.

3.) Chorusing (mostly used on back ups) apply RTAS Medium Delay 2 and set to the following dimensions:

Mix - 20 - 70%

Delay - 20 - 80 ms

Modulate - 10%

Rate - 1 Hz

Feedback 0 - 2%

4.) Multi (create an aux stereo channel) apply RTAS Medium Delay 2 and set to the following dimensions:

L Mix - 40% R Mix - 50 %

L Delay - 25 ms R Delay - 75 ms

L Modulate - 9% R Modulate - 12%

L Rate - 1 Hz L Rate - 7%

L Feedback 0 R Feedback - 0%

5.) Flanger apply RTAS Medium Delay 2 and set to the following dimensions:

1. Wet Dry - 50/5o
2. Delay 0 - 20 ms
3. Depth - Over 25%
4. Rate Sync to Group
5. Feedback -

6.) Multi 'n' (out the box) apply the following patches:

A) Sent vocal track out A1 from Protools into the multi section on the mixing console

B) Used the returns and sent them into channels on the board 38-40

C) Next we placed aux sends on the board

A1 - XPX paned hard L echo return 1

A2 - Lexicon paned hard R echo return 2

A3 - echo return 3-4

Note: Ran into a slight hiccup in the process because aux master volume was down.

MPA 408 Lab 02/19/10 Tracking Bass

In our lab today we focused on applying the bass to all the recorded tracks. This was done by going directly in via the Millinia. I found this process rather easing in comparison to the previous sessions. Unfortunately we only completed four of the perspective seven songs due in part to mistakes made in a previous lab. One in which cost us the better half of our lab time last friday. It turns out, that in one of the songs that we decided to build from loops (played by Chris Hansen) contained various points of clipping. As a result we'll have to go back and find a better section to loop from. Another issue that arose today was in the realm of backing up our work. I recently purchased a new hard drive dedicated solely to saving our classwork. However, in trying to back up our sessions, the hard drive proved to be incompatible. Hopefully I can mediate this issue before the next Lab. On Better note I have found that lately I am getting a little more proficient working within the protools setup. I guess like all things, the more you do it the more comfortable you get. Because of the furlough schedule missed one lab; but because we accounted for wiggle room in our production schedule we still maintained our projected pace. All and all I look forward to making next week just as if not more productive then this one.

For more blogs from this week check:

MPA 408 Lecture 02/17/10

MPA 408 Lecture 02/17/10

Today was focused largely on checking the status of each groups current progress, (in regards to their prospective albums). Key points of interest included the topics of tracking, plug-ins, modulation, and pitch shift of instruments. I found the lecture particularly easing in comparison to our regular pace. Examples were taken from our current projects and manipulated in various ways, to give us ideas in which other applications may be applied. Also, the concept of backing up our work was reiterated, and proved to be an essential part of the recording process.

The first thing that sparked my interest today was the idea of tracking all drums in one session. In my personal recording setup, I set a template and record all things into the template and use the save as feature to differentiate project from project. However I now understand how recording all of one intrumentation (drums) at once in the same session folder could be more productive, ( and keep the work flow more proficient) than creating a new session for each recording.

Next we experimented with modulation of the snare using the even tide plug-in, on one of group c's compositions. We also took a look at the SPXs' ability to do voice alteration. Lastly we touched on the idea of the golden mean, and how retracing the path of previously laid paths could help to lay form that others are already familiar with, thus making our compositions feel more familiar. I look forward to our next lab session.

MPA 408 First 2.5 Weeks

Production Schedule Posted Separately

Album Concept

In Discussions About The Album Concept I Believe We Took The Obvious Route, By Imploring The Assets That We Had Most Readily Available. A Female A Male And Competent Musicians. On The Base Level The Idea Of A Natural Transition In A Relationship From Inception To Demise Was Thrown Out There. I Personally Felt That This Could Be Solid Foundation For Introspective Arrangements To Blossom. Then To Make It Apply To A Larger Range I Pitched The Idea Of MUSIC THE INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE OF LOVE.

This Would Be A Journey Of Two Individual From Extremely Different Backgrounds But, With Similar Circumstances. They Meet And Take Part In Quite The Courtship Process. Throughout Their Journey We Narrate Entire Event With Interviews (Or Brief Monologues) From Various Individuals Speaking In Multiple Languages. Although, Many Wouldn't Initially Understand The Dialect They Would Be Able To Grasp A Healthy Dose Of What's Going By Tuning In To The Music Its Self. Although, After Listening To Your Directions In Class I Feel That Would Could Still Find A Way To Dig Deeper. Perhaps, By Going Into Their Backgrounds Further Could Help To Illuminate Specific Points Of Correlation And Give A Better Understanding.

Current Track Listing (Working Tittles)

Fuck You Lata

A Song That Captures Raw Uninhibited Emotions Of The First Meeting. Touches Slightly On Their Backgrounds And The Animal Instincts That Naturally Ensue When inhabitants Are Involved.

Loving You Always

Naturally The Guy Tries To Woo The Female By Spitting Sweet Nothings In Her Ear. Tells Her Everything That He Believes She Would Want To Hear.

Understand

At This Point They Are Both Explaining Their Previous Situations. She Seems Heartfelt And Extremely Impassioned About Her Reasons For leaving, While he Displays Some Of His Regrets At A Point When It Appears To Be To Late. Yet, Compelled By The Ties Binding Her To Current Mistake She’s Not Sure If This Is The Right Time For Such A Move…

Let’s Take A Trip

Boy Tells Girl Leave Her Current Situation And Gives A Glimpse Into What Her Life Could Possibly Be Like If She Just Explores The Opportunity Placed In Front Of Her.

Rapunzel

After Finally Going Through With The Breakup She’s Reluctant To Quickly Hop In A New Relationship. So Although She Me Or My Not Have Feelings Towards Her New Suitor Her Damages From Her Current Past Relationship Don’t Allow Her To Explore The New…

A Little Bit Of Alcohol

Once Again When The Inhabitants Set In It Gets A Harder To Draw Clear Define Lines Between What’s Right A Wrong. So In A Moment Of Weakness She Allows Things To Get Slightly Out Of Hand And Confuse A Situation She Believed She Had Under Control.

Take You To Another Level

He Finally Realizes Why He’s Experienced All The Hassle In Vying For Her Attention, When Other Men Are Entered In The Competition. Still Vigalent In His Efforts He Continues To Pursue Although, His Passion Is Visible Waning.

The Final 2 Compositions Have Yet To Be Incorporated. They Would Likely Be Used As Conclusions To The Saga.

The Organization & Technical Choices

From The Gate I Feel We've Been Pretty Much On Par With Our Projected Production Schedule. Having Had The Pleasure To See These Guys Work In Studio Session Before I Never Really Doubted Our Ability As A Whole To Stay Focused And Obtain (At The Bare Minimum) The Required Number Of Compositions. I Believe Out Of Our Three Previous Studio Sessions (For This Semester), We Were On Required To Actually Set Up Our Mics And Room Treatment Arrangements One Time. Due To The Fact That Previous Group Was also Recording Drums This Helped Our Work Flow Roll Much Quicker. Each Studio Session Pretty Much Followed Suit.

Mic Set Up

Kick In D112

Kick Out RE 20

Snares E 22’s

Toms 421

H Hats 4050’s

OHL & OHR Royer 122’s

On The First Lab We Recorded Shaun And Shannon Tunes. Shauns' Song Was Recorded Playing Through With A Scratch Guitar And Click Track. Then Shannon Was Recorded To Just A Click Track, That We Would Later Chop Up Loops From. In The Recording Of These To Tracks I Noticed Little To No Difference In The Dynamics And Feel Of The Music From A Production Stand Point.

Mic Set Up

Kick In D112

Kick Out RE 20

Snares E 22’s

Toms 421

OHL & OHR 4050’s

For Our Next Lab We Were Slightly More Ambitious In Our Work Load Knocking Out My Two Songs And One Of Nicks. Once Again We Had Chris Hansen Drumming For The Session And He Appeared Extremely Well Rehearsed. This Helped Us Knock Out More Work Than We Had Planned Based On Our Productions Schedule. Halfway Through The Session Lucas Took Over The Helms At The Drum Kit Finishing Up The Last Song Of The Day. I Notice That He Found It Easier (Or Just More Convenient) To Play Whole Songs Rather Than Small Excerpts For Loops.

Mic Set Up

Kick In D112

Kick Out RE 20

Snares E 22’s

Toms 421

OHL & OHR Royer 122’s

The Last Lab For Tracking Drums Was This Past Monday. In That Session We Recorded Shannons' Second Track And Josh's Composition. Once Again The Drums Had Been Played Through Versus Taking Orchestrated Loops.

Rehearsal Issues

Within The Aspects Of The Rehearsal Realm I Found No Real Issues. Both Tracks That I Composed (To Contribute To The Album) Went Along With The General Theme That We Had Discussed Prior To The Break. The Fact That We All Had Personal Recording Set Ups, Made It Easy To Compose Demo Versions Of Our Tunes And Find Ways To Incorporate Our Teammates. One Specific Instance Where I Found This Helpful Was When The Group Came Over To Work On Fuck U Lata, And Nick Explained How My Current Choice Of Key Combinations Made Little Sense Musically. So We Tracked The Drum In Minus The Keys And He Showed How Playing Something Slightly Different Could Give An Entirely Different Fell.

Another Point At Which I Saw Rehearsal As An Extreme Benefit Was In The Tracking Of The Drums The First Two Days. Because We Rehearsed Ahead Time In The Annex With Chris When It Came Time To Actually Record He Was Very Confident And Had Programmed Slight Deviations In The Form Of Fills That He Felt Could Improve The Song Rather Than Just A Repetitive Pattern.

Interpersonal Issues

I Feel As Though I Understand A Great Deal Of Things That Are Discussed In Class. My Only Real Issue Is Going Back And Forth Between What We Learn In Class, How I Adapt Those Principles At Home In Sonar And Then Correlating Between The Applications In Protools. In The Process I Often Get Frustrated Because I Feel As Though Its Often Things That I Would Consider Basic Knowledge.

A Few Of The Principles Discussed, Such As: Summing, Bussing And Routing Is All Things That I’ve Been Doing For Years I Just Never Knew How Explain To It Or What Call It. In Contras The New Information That We’ve Be Learning Lately Has Me Extremely Stoked. I’ve Always Thought That The 808 Drum Was Simply A Synthesizers, However With The New Tricks That Were Displayed In Class These Past Two Lectures I See How That Is Obtainable.

Note: I’ve Realized Through Years That I Pick Up Information, More From Observation Then Actual Notation. Sometimes I Feel I Get Lost Trying To Write Down Every Thing That’s Going Or Being Displayed And Miss The Crucial Pieces Of Info. But, I Feel The Handouts Aid In Mediating The Gap.

Natural Reverb 02/01/10

First, We Started Out By Mic’n’ The Drum Kit: Kick (RE20), Snare (SM57), Hi Tom(421 Off Access), Floor Tom (SM57), OHL & OHL (4050’s), Foyer (SM57) and The High Hats. Then The Lower Half And The Upper Half Were Recorded Separately. The Cymbals And The Foyer Were Recorded Together To Capture Natural Reverb Of The Kit. Once All The Audio Was Recorded In We:

1. Duplicated Drums

2. We Grouped The Cymbals And Sent Them To A Stero Aux Chanel (W/ Prefader)

3. Explored Panning Options In Stereo Aux Fader

4. Muted The Original Audio From The Drums And Placed Limiter On Aux Chanel

5. Crushed Audio And Placed Expander/Gate On Snare

6. Strip Silence On Drum Kit And Places Fades On Clips

7. Corrected The Natural Latency That Occurred In The Foray Track.

~ Then Bus The Cropped Snare To A Gated Snare Aux

· Place Reverb

· Compressor

· Gate (Using Chain And Key Input From Bussed Crop Snare Channel)

~ Route To Real Foyer Verb

· Put A Gate On The Foyer Verb

· Key Input And Side Chain From Cropped Snare

Reverse Reverb 02/03/10

To Demonstrate This Principle, Of Reverse Reverb We Mic’d Up The House Drum Set. Recording In The Bass Drum And Cymbals And Afterward A Piano Piece. Then, We Followed The Proceeding Steps:

1. Duplicated The Chosen Track (Cymbals)

2. Reverse The Cloned Channel

3. Add (church) Reverb To The Selected (Reversed) Chanel

4. Then Record Track To Another Adjacent Track

All Using The Buss And Key Input Feature

5. Reverse Track Back Then Aligned To Preference

We Discussed How Making Minor Adjustments Like This Could Give The Feel Of A Much Larger Composition.

MPA 408 Lecture 02/10/10 Side-Chain Processing

Today We Discussed Side-Chain Processing Using An External Key. To Demonstrate The Process We Mic'd A Kick Drum (D112), Snare (SM57) OverHead (At4050), E Guitar (Royer) And Bass DI (Millinia). Then Patched And Set Up A Protools Session. Next We Recorded A Drum Pattern Followed By A Short Piano Accompaniment Then Added In Electric Guitar And Bass. Once All The Audio Was Input We Followed Our Notes To Get The Effect Started:

1. Click The Key Input Selector And Select The Input Or Buss Carrying The Audio From The Reference Track.

2. Click External Key To Activate External Side Chain Processing.

3. To Listen To The Signal That Will Be Used To Control Side Chain Input Click Side-Chain Input Click Side Chain Listen To Enable It.

4. Dial In The Frequency You Want Gate To Hear

5. Playback And Adjust

Note: The Effect Was Describe As The Mechanism Dj's Use When Talking Over Music.

To Show Practical Uses For The Effect In Our Mixes, We Duplicated Both The Kick And Piano Tracks And Applied Strip Silence. Then (From The Cloned Track) The Kick (bus 17) Was Bused To The Key Input (On The Plugin Gate Along With An Added Compression Plugin) On The Piano Channel Trigging The Gate To Open Every Time A Transient Pass Through. (Hopefully That Makes Sense). The Same Was Done For Snare And Electric Guitar Tracks.

Note: This Caused A Calculated Descending Echo Effect

Then We Panned The Original Piano Hard Left And Its Gated Clone Hard Right. And Did The Opposite To The Original Guitar Track (Panned Hard Right) And Its Clone (Hard Left). This Gave The Audio Balance And An Effect That Could Only Be Obtained Artificially.

Note: We Also Learned How To Manipulate The Trigger Range In Such Manner That Only Minute Section Of The Audio Spectrum Would Open The Gate.

Note: We Also Observed How Applying A Universal Reverb Could Tie An Arrangement Together

Production Schedule

Projected Production Schedule

Group D

Lab 1 - 2 Jan 25^th – Jan 29^th

^{We plan to rehearse rearrange and organize the songs that we each individually came up with over the break, finding ways to incorporate the elements readily available by our group members. Aside from the key components that the group provides we will also plan out projected production schedule (within a realistic margin of era). This will include delegated time set aside to employ the talents of fellow musicians available for collaborations.}

Lab 3 - 7 Feb 1^st – Feb 15^th

^{In following handful of session plan to cover all the drum sections needed for the entire project. If adequately prepared, we should easily be able to do able to do 2-3 songs per session. Leaving an extra lab at the end of this cycle to critically listen for flaws and make any necessary adjustments.}

Lab 8 - 12 Feb 19^th – Mar 5^th

^{The Next block in our schedule is dedicated to covering bass, guitars and possibly any necessary keyboard arrangements. Once again the aim of the group would be to lay down a bare minimum of 2 tracks per session leaving an extra lab to make any adjustments.}

Lab 13 - 14 Mar 8^th – 12^th

^{These two lab days we would bring in any experimental or unaccounted for instruments that the music called for (aux percussion , random sound effects, brass ect..)}

Lab 15 - 20 Mar 15^th – Apr 2

Our last recording block would be solely for vocals. Our aim here would be slightly less aggressive, at pace of about 1 and a half to two songs per session. This time would also include any add features.

Lab 21 – 25 Apr 12^th - 23^rd

The remaining labs would be mixing and arranging the album.