So Bad  -  Post 2

R&D

My research didn’t have to go very far. Maria was the creative director/producer so she choose her instrumentation, structure, the whole thing etc etc. Part of her decision making was to have a basic drum setup consisting of just a kick drum, a snare, a hi-hat and two symbols. The bass, I just took a DI so I could re-amp later and not on the bands time and same for piano/keyboard track. Maria was to play the guitar and sing at the same time in the iso booth and everyone would have their own headphone mix.

Like in “I’m A Blind Man” the band wanted to perform together. To accommodate their needs I see up a routing system that gave each of the 4 performers their own headphone mix, controlled by the output auxiliaries on the recording console. 

This very basic setup allowed me to really focus on my mic choices for acoustic sound sources. I used a beta 91 as my kick in: It has a lot of the punch in the kick drum and when blended well with the kick out can sound amazing. My research really only went as far as asking for technical suggestions from the Music Technicians. 

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I have the few mics that I always use, just because I understand them and know what to expect. Usually I’d use F12 or D112 on a kick out, but a techy suggested I try the Electrovoice RE320: A cardioid dynamic microphone with a frequency response as low as 30Hz. Sounded amazing. I did however continue with my ways of using the C414s as the OH, an MD421 on snr top and a 57 on snr btm. I know I get great results out of these industry standard microphones and together they captured the drum performance beautifully. 

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Performance wise, the bass was pretty weak. Not really any feel to it, bum notes and an out of tune D string (by the end of every take). So I was glad to have a DI signal that hadn't bled into the drum kits microphone (meaning an over dub was a potential option). Now, funny thing is; I had tested the electric piano during the research part of production (to find a suitable piano sound). I personally sat down and played on the keyboard in live room E and it had 88 weighted keys, a sustain pedal and a L+R out. It was perfect. But while sound checking all the instruments together there was something out of tune. Not the guitar or the bass (that I had personally tuned to concert A 440Hz), but the keyboard. An out of tune electric keyboard…. how?

Option 1: detune everyone (only a few cents) and hope it works out okay. 

Option 2: wait until the people using the keyboard in live room C leave and then hope we can get it

Option 3: ditch the keyboard and just record the vocals, guitar, drums and bass

Option 4: leave it as it is and find a solution later

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 We went with 4. Only no one wanted to hear the piano (but the player) so it was left out of everyones mixes. I did record it in but it was never going to be usable… I just thought I might as well to keep morale up with the band. 

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After two hours of recording one song, the primary recording concluded. We tracked some harmonies with Maria and a backing vocalist and I was then to take the project file away, mix it, master it and return it to Maria/the client. At home, I recorded and programmed my own piano line for the track using MIDI and making edits in the piano role. With Maria’s consent I added my line into the final mix. The drums were out of time and couldn't be rectified as that would further push the bass track of (which was distorting when I tried to flex time that as well). I couldn’t really make it shine as some of the performances were a bit off and it didn’t really carry a vibe in my opinion. Still; Maria was very happy with what I produced for her and she went on to release it as a single (see below).