Unfinished…
When I started taking music technology in 2007 I was very excited to get into the studio. I had been creating my own music using Adobe’s now re-branded programme Cool Edit Pro 2.0 and having lots of fun doing so, getting used to the idea of unlimited possibilities in sound manipulation. The problem I noticed was that other people on my course had become seduced by the facility of post-production and shoddily recorded their instruments with intent to iron over the bumps in post. Although I had it clearly set in my head that I wouldn’t fall into this trap this year I believe I’ve been stymied by time constraints in the studio and struggles with the new technology. I bring this up only to retrospect on the drum recording of my second task.
I had tried recording drums with myself with Adam as I considered myself competent on drums at least as a rookie but I couldn’t keep in time with the metronome very closely. Cue Justin. Me and Adam had decided on getting someone else in to drum for fresh ears on the track and more punctual percussion to mix with. First of all however we tried recording acoustic guitar with some suck-it-and-see techniques and then looked some techniques up online as I was rusty.
Justin preparing for take 3. Sitting.
My intention for the first task (as I was finding structuring the song problematic)was to record each section separately and rearrange the parts in the arrange on ProTools.This technique come to think of it is aped from Miles Davis’ album Bitches Brew. I remember from reading the sleeve notes that although Miles had mythologised the album somewhat claiming the whole album to have been improvised in the studio, a lot was pre-rehearsed and new cut and paste studio techniques from Teo Macero were cunningly umentioned. The sleeve notes however had said that although the music was predominantly improvised round themes, timings and chord structures Mile’s would suggest to the other musicians, significant post production editing from Teo Macero innovated new musical structures from cutting and pasting various recorded parts together.
Teo Macero is responsible for recording three of the best known and influential jazz albums of all time in Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew and Dave Brubeck’s Time Out. Taking his cue from Pierre Schaeffers’ innovations in the studio, Macero used sampling techniques, looping, reverb chamber and echo effects on Bitches Brew which were highly innovative at the time. Here’s an interview with Teo Macero about making that album.
I would sync them up to the metronome and then record the drums to the arranged track. What turned out was that many of the parts sounded better with different microphones and placements so it is a bit of a hodgepodge so far. At this stage I still might re-record everything as I think the drums sound too flat and an electric guitar part might carry the riffs a little better. The unedited recording is at the bottom of this blog.
Recording the acoustic guitar, we first tried pointing a DPA condensor microphone at the bridge 10cms away and an AKG 414B facing towards the 5th fret on the guitar 10cms away. From researching acoustic guitar close-micing there seemed to be a rule of thumb called the 3-1 ratio. This dictates that the distance between the microphones themselves should be triple the distance apart that they are from the sound source, so they were 30cm apart.
10cms away from guitar, 30 cms away from eachother
Here is the guitars and drums recording we made on 04/11/10
