Production Journal

Final Major Recording

Joe Pearce
Sondheim Suite
Introduction
The clients for this project will be up and coming local bands/solo musicians that we will be working with to
record, mix and then film. There isnt really a specific genre for the work which I shall be submitting due to it
being more of an internet show with an array of different artists but I would say that there is definitely an
audience for this style of work, this audience will consist of people looking for undiscovered music and
musicians or just people who generally enjoy casually listening to music whilst surfing the web. Certainly with
this style of work there are clear precedents in the marketplace witch organizations such as KEXP who are
based in Seattle in the city of Washington. Triple J who are based in Australia or even in England we have
our own equivalent which is Radio 1s Live Lounge sessions.

KEXP - http://www.kexp.org/about
TRIPLE J - http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/about/
RADIO 1 LIVE LOUNGE - http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/rnc5d4
JITV - http://www.jaminthevan.com/about/

These websites are all ordinarily a source of online radio but also do live videos of performances by various
bands of various genres which then get uploaded to either a youtube channel or to the creators website
where they will be archived and available for viewing online at later dates.
The videos will all be filmed in the same room (The Sondheim room) for the sake of consistency,
professionalism and the projects namesake.
The audio will also all be recorded in the vocal booth of Studio 1 or the Sondheim room due to the quality of
audio recordings available in these rooms.

The production goal for this unit will be to get four original songs recorded by various artists and one cover
song by any of these artists who will be happy to oblige, as well as accompanying videos for each of these
songs. The cover song would be used to help produce buzz for the project by being the first to be released
and then one song every other week until all five are released.

- This is the artwork for the youtube channel which I will be uploading my work to.

Suburbia Tainted Love

Instrumentation
The instruments recorded and mixed in this track are as followed:
Drum kit with x2 Floor Tom, Four string electric bass guitar, Six string lead guitar and one main
vocalist.

Inspiration Track
This song is a cover of a cover in a different style than the original. This cover was first performed
by The Scorpions - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQV9Cpm9jLQ
The band who we had in to record this song also desired to record their own style onto this song
which I think can be heard quite clearly in the finished mix.

Target Sound
The desired sound for the final mix of this song was supposed to be quite punky and punchy and I
think I achieved that quite well in the recording by using a spaced pairing to record the drums but
not having the overheads too distant from the kit to achieve a closer, more full sounding drum
recording.

Key Instruments
The key instruments within this track to mix it to a standard wanted by the clients were the drums
and the lead guitar. Listening to the inspiration track and the musicians themselves these key
instruments quickly became obvious as important pieces of the puzzle to get a professional
sounding cover.

My Mix
While mixing this track I used EQing on the drums I opened the Gain insert on the lower snare
recording and reversed the phase so that the polarity of the microphones and the audio wave from
the top snare recording were not cancelling each other out at all.
On the left & right overhead condenser microphone recordings I added a small shelving EQ to the
high end of 18KHz upwards to be slightly boosted so that more of the cymbals and higher
frequencies from the overall drum kit would come through in the mix.

On the vocals I applied a small low frequency cut and also attenuated a small amount at around
100-150Hz due to the bass in the vocalists voice being quite prominent and this sounded like it
helped the track to increase in clarity after I had applied other audio inserts such as the built in logic
pro x silver reverb with high dry signal and 20% wet signal as well as 70% smoothing and 15%
feedback. As well as reverb, there was tape delay also inserted into the vocal effects. Changing to
the 1/16th dotted note feedback preset on the tape delay gave me the effect I required without too
much tweaking.

To the vocals I also added the insert of overdrive and distortion to help create more of a growl and
to try and help make the vocals sound a little rougher but without losing clarity.

Due to the lead guitar being DId into the ISA One in Studio 1 and already going through the
guitarists pedal board, I chose to apply a logic pro x guitar amp and for the amp I chose to use the
Clean R&B amp as this didnt distort any of the sound but still gave me enough control over the
frequencies to apply changes to the guitar tone easily. Also by applying a guitar amp insert I was
able to emulate microphone placement which is used to affect which frequencies are picked up by
the virtual microphone being miked up to the virtual guitar amp.
The bass guitar was DId into the stage DI box in the Sondheim room and then during mixing I also
added a bass amp to this, I chose to use a clean 60s bass combo for this as I found that it replicated
the sound of a genuine clean bass amp sufficiently after also adjusting the microphone placement.

Evaluation
The recording and mixing part of this track went very well. The only thing I wish I had done would
have been to set the lead guitar up still going through the guitarists pedal board but to have miked
up a real amplifier and recorded the signal this way to get a more genuine recording.
The video for this song could not be completed due to schedule clashing of the media crew, sound
crew and the band themselves unfortunately.

Suburbia RocknRace
Instrumentation
On this track there is drums with floor tom x2
This is miked up as follows:
Kick Audix F6
Bottom Snare Shure SM58 pointed up at a 90 degree angle
Top Snare Shure SM57
Rack Tom Audix F2
Floor Tom x2 Audix F2
L & R Overheads Audix F9 x2
I used these microphones due to their frequency response and polar pattern response which led me
to assume these would be the most suitable for the corresponding drums.

Electric Lead Guitar which again was plugged into the guitarists pedal board and then into the ISA
One pre-amplifier.
Electric Rhythm guitar was recorded with a SM57 slightly angled to the side of the woofer on Vox
cab in the Sondheim room vocal booth which was set through input 1 on the stage box. This was to
oppose SNR which could have had a negative impact on the recording.
Electric Bass Guitar was recorded by plugging into the stage DI box in the sondheim/live room via
jack and then sent into the stage box via XLR connection to receive signal in the studio.
Vocals for this track were later recorded and put into the track as I decided it was more important to
get the track recorded before vocals.

Target Sound
The target sound for the finished mix of this song after speaking to the band in post production was
to be able to hear all instruments coming through clearly within their frequency ranges but to then
have a slight amount of delay & reverb as well as chorus to create a slight psychedelic yet still
acquire a modern punk sound on them while on the vocals some other audio fx such as overdrive
and distortion. I think I achieved this to the standard that the band wanted.

Key Instruments in the Mix

I feel that the key instruments in this song would be the lead guitar and the drums as the lead guitar
has a solo which certainly brings a much more interesting structure as the solo is played more
towards the coda than the middle eight. The drums are also very important in this song as along

with the punchy bass they bring it together and keep it from feeling too psychedelic and add more
edge which I feel grabs your attention a lot better.

My Mix
My mix for this song was actually not too dissimilar to the tainted love cover this band also
performed for us to record. Again I mixed the drums first, once I had attenuated the resonance from
the drum kit recordings I went on to slightly boost frequencies I wanted to cut through more in the
mix such as boosting the high end frequencies to get more cymbals & hi-hat to cut through.
Lead electric guitar was mixed by first using the clean R&B built-in logic pro amplifier and
adjusting the emulated microphone placement whereas with the rhythm guitar because it was
recorded with a real microphone from a real amplifier I didnt need to do this. I then EQd and
compressed the guitars accordingly and once this was complete I added insert fx such as tape delay,
silv verb and chorus.
The solo from the lead guitarist was panned using automation from left to right periodically to help
bring out a more stereo mix.
Bass was mixed by first choosing an emulated bass amplifier and adjusting the emulated
microphone placement accordingly, then slightly boosting from around 80-150Hz to help the bass
cut through a little more punchier. Compression threshold at 21dB, attack at 10ms, hold at 35ms,
ratio at 1.4 and make-up gain at around 6dB. I chose these settings to give the bass a warmer, softer
compression.
Vocals were mixed last but I started them by opening up the equalizer and seeing where they were
most prominent and slightly attenuating them where necessary such as where I had boosted the
bass, I cut them from 100-200 slightly to help allow for other frequencies to come through in the
mix. For compression of the vocals I decided to control the dynamic range slightly more than usual
as I thought it was be a more interesting finished piece if the drums and lead guitar were where I
really wanted the dynamics to grab your attention most; but without being under-compressed and
just not very pleasant to the ear.

Evaluation
Overall for this track I believe the recording, mixing and filming went smoothly so I have no
complaints. One of the only things I would say, again, is that I would have liked to have recorded
the lead guitar through a real amplifier to capture a more authentic sound. Maybe even after
listening to the finished song I will go back and edit the vocals to be lower in dB and the lead guitar
& solo to be slightly higher in the mix.

Southside Use Me
Instrumentation
The instruments played on the recording of this track was Cajon which I used an Audix F6 partially
in the sound hole as from prior experience recording these instruments I know how high the signal
can be and if not properly signal checked you will end up with a recording that is too audibly loud
and the recording itself is then useless.
One six string acoustic guitar which was recorded with a single shure SM57 facing the twelfth fret
to capture the sound clearly.
Two vocalists which were recorded with two shure SM58s, one for each vocalist. Lead singer &
Backing vocals.

Key Instruments in the Mix

I feel that for this mix because there were only 4 musicians with two of them being vocals that they
were all key to making this one sound the best it could.

My Mix
My mix on this song initiated with the eqing of the Cajon, which due to all instruments being
recorded in the same room at the same was difficult to control due to this signal being picked up
from the other microphones at the same time. The only way I could help this was to cut parts from
the audio tracks when they werent necessary and to also apply noise gates to each individual
channel. After I was happy with how the Cajon sounded overall with the EQ and compression I had
applied, I added slight amounts of reverb just to help soften the audio that little bit more.
The recording of the acoustic guitar came through clean and with strong signal so this was easy
enough to eq and compress, I applied what I thought was necessary to help the guitar sit nicely in
the mix and I then went on to adding slight amounts of reverb and low levels of tape delay to make
the song feel like it has more going on inside of it with only 4 channels.
For the vocals on this track I decided to start with the backing vocals, firstly opening up melodyne
and transferring the audio to there and then I chose to snap to the root note and adjust the pitch drift
and modulation to around 15% each and then after checking the audio for any parts that sounded
robotic I decided that this was enough to be happy with without any further melodyne being needed
on it.
I then went on to do the same procedure with the lead vocals just to help tidy them up a bit and to
help make the finished mix sound more professional.
After auto-tuning the vocals I EQd and compressed accordingly, attenuating the lower bass tones
of the vocals and helping to boost the frequencies which needed to be heard for the vocals to really
stand out in the mix. I then applied the usual inserts such as reverb and delay.

Evaluation
Overall I was happy with the way this sounded once complete but through recording this and
mixing I would change the way I recorded it. I would have much rather of recorded these
instruments separately just so that when mixing I would have had a lot more control over the
frequencies and could of in turn ended up with a better sounding final mix for this track.

Remi Frozen Colours

Instrumentation
On this track the instrumentation is as followed;
Standard drum kit miked up with 7 microphones in a spaced pair technique.
Bass guitar DId into the ISA One pre-amp
Lead Guitar also DId into ISA One pre-amp
Vocals recorded in the Studio 1 Vocal Booth with a Neumann TLM 102

Key Instruments in the Mix

The key instruments inside of this mix are the vocals and the lead guitar. The vocals more so though
as the client for this song was the vocalist who really wanted this track to be about the vocals and
less about the instrumentation in the mix.

My Mix
I started mixing this track in the same way I started my other tracks and that is with the drums.
Once the drums were recorded I decided that the top snare was not suitable for use in the mix so I
chose to go ahead and use drum replacement which is made easily available to you in Logic Pro X.
I adjusted the threshold until I was only picking up the signal from the snare and then transposed
that into MIDI and using the EXS24 Sampler on Logic I chose the snare sound that I wanted and
gave it another listen over and decided I was happy with how it sounded.
I carried on mixing the drums by EQing, cutting resonance where needed and boosting certain
frequencies which I thought were needed but wouldnt muddy the other instruments or any of the

vocals. Compressing the drums went smoothly, just applying what I thought was correct on the
Threshold, ratio, attack, hold and make-up gain.
Moving onto the bass I added an emulated bass amplifier to the inserts and adjusted emulated
microphone placement as well as adjusting the settings on the emulated bass amplifier.
Slight EQ boost of the bass frequencies and a slight cut at the high end frequencies.
The lead guitar was mixed starting with EQing the frequencies that the guitar was prominent in
such as 350-700Hz for this track so I gave a small dip there and boosted around 1KHz to help the
guitar ring out alongside the vocals.
The vocals which were the main priority for this track were recorded bit by bit as the client didnt
want to risk vocal fatigue. These separate tracks were then sorted accordingly and merged back into
one full track.
Starting to actually mix the vocals began with boosting the vocals in the sections of frequencies that
had been attenuated from the other instruments which also fall into these frequency ranges.
Compression was applied to soften the dynamic peak of the level of dB on this track and then
inserts such as reverb and delay were applied.

Evaluation
I was personally very happy with how this track finished up. I had never worked with such a strong
vocalist before so I found it to be a very good learning process. If there was anything I would like to
re-do on this track it would be to re-record the drums as the signal I received from my recordings
was not up to usual standards.

Overall Evaluation
I think the overall strengths about the technical side of this project was definitely that after working
with different clients who all wanted something different from their work is that there is a positive
mix of audio for this final result. I think that this project, if taken further could easily be taken to a
whole other level of professionalism where there is a gap in the market in the U.K for a more
alternative version of Radio 1s Live Lounge.
The marketing tool I chose to utilize in this situation was using Covers to gain traffic to my
website/web page where I choose to upload my final pieces to and I feel like using youtube as a
place to store the work would be feasible as the amount of traffic that website receives from all
around the world would surely help direct some of that to the cover that is the marketing tool.
I feel that to monetize this project would be very simple due to the way that we have already started
off with it. Bringing in Local bands who have seen our videos, either by chance or on social media
would be able to contact me easily and get their time for free but after a while once the skills of
everybody involved in the project develop we could begin to start charging and work upwards from
there.