Recording Blog

Capstone Project: Experimental Recording of Patrick Richard

Overview:

I have a big project coming up with an artist I trust and I plan to use it as an opportunity to learn as much as I can from the experience. My goal is to work with my artist to record a four song EP while incorporating experimental recording and production techniques, and at the same time create a product which both the artist, and average consumer would find digestible and easy to listen to. While working on the project I also intend to involve underclassmen at the university as studio hands to provide them additional studio experience and also create some unique learning experiences.

Pre-Production:

In working with my artist, Patrick Richard, we determined that we would be recording four songs: two original compositions and two original arrangements of jazz tunes, all for solo guitar. I put together a playlist of music which employs some of the techniques I hoped to use, although I was seeking for a more standard listening experience and an honoring of the jazz traditions at the same time. (Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0eOyo9rvm8RrzbguQRtn0Y?si=1e7f230695844641). I also at this point worked to narrow focus on what limitations I would put in place during the tracking process. 

One song would be recorded traditionally, to serve as somewhat of a control when compared to the others. This would mean more typical mic choices and placements, with a combination of ribbon and condensers to capture both close and further stereo images of the performance. 

The second song would be recorded using only a telephone which had been converted into a microphone. With this piece I hoped to use the artifacts and distortions as well the frequency profile as an advantage, creating a more interesting sonic profile than what might be expected.

The third song would be recorded with only Shure SM57s, with it being one of the most common and plentiful microphones available, I hoped to see what could be captured when it is all that is available.

Finally, the fourth song would be captured only with distance/room mics. No microphone would be within ten feet of the sound source in order to create a more live listening experience. In the production process I hope to further accentuate this feel with reverb and time based effects.

Tracking:

Unfortunately, the tracking process ran into some complications due to illness. First, my artist contracted Covid, which limited the amount of time we had for recording. Thankfully we were able to schedule two sessions after his quarantine period, during which we were able to complete the planned recordings in full. The second complication was that my studio hands then contracted Covid just before these studio sessions. As such I had to find someone else to help, not an underclassman as I had hoped, but a third year, and I feel I was still able to provide some valuable learning experiences.

We began with the first song, an arrangement of Beautiful Love originally composed by Bill Evans. This is the tune recorded traditionally. All of the songs were recorded with a DI as a backup, as well as for later use in Granular Synthesis. In addition, the amplifier was recorded with an XY pair of Shure Beta 181s close, as well as an AEA R84 directly above those. A reyer M160 close mic'd the guitar on the strings, and a pair of Shure KSM44s setup in a blumlein configuration about 20 feet away as room mics.

The second song, decidedly an arrangement of Dedicated to You, composed by John Coltrain. This tune was recorded with, in addition to the backup DI, an old phone handset directly on the amplifier. It has a very Lofi charm that I quite enjoy, and I feel it was the right choice for this tune.

The third recording was for an original composition titled "Jess Perceptions". This was the track recorded with exclusively Shure SM57s. One pair of SM57s was setup in XY directly in front of the amplifier, and then one spaced pair of SM57s on the far end of the room to capture room sound. This limitation was actually quite easy to work with. The track lacks some low end, but it actually is not too incredibly far off from the more traditional recording, but with a more rustic DIY flavor.

The final recording was another original titled "Some Things Need Let Go". This was the recording accomplished using only distance mic techniques. A spaced pair of Shure KSM44s about 8 feet high and 5 feet from the artist was accompanied by a further Audio Technica AT4050 mulit-diahragm condensor which captured a wide stereo image of the room.

Overall, I found the tracking process to lend itself to quite a few creative opportunities. As each track was recorded with its limitations, a sonic spectrum began to emerge. From the high fidelity traditional recording, to the middling DIY feel of Jess Perceptions, to the Lofi feel of Dedicated to you, and finally the spacey possibilities in Some Things Need Let Go. The project begins to feel almost like a concept album, rather through production than songwriting.

Mixing: 

The first song I tackled for mixing was "Beautiful Love." The intention behind this song was to have it serve as both the opening to the album and a control compared to the experimentation of the others. As such, I kept it fairly traditional with mixing. Here, the first tracking issues began to show themselves. The first was the obvious breaths throughout the recording, as well as an amplifier distortion issue which is only apparent in one section. Both of these I spent a long time attempting to remedy and came up empty. RX9 is only so powerful I suppose. I removed the strings mic entirely and that made the breaths less obvious, but otherwise I had to accept the other issues as part of the character of the recording.

The second song I tackled was "Jess Perceptions". In speaking with Patrick, my artist, he shared that the concept of the song was for it to be a conversation between two people, as displayed by the two guitars trading back and forth. In addition to accentuating this idea in the mix, I wanted it to be informed by the somewhat rugged tracking method used. I wanted to emphasize the motion of the two voices, and the DIY but not quite fully Lofi charm of the recording. I accomplished this primarily through a use of automated panning and effects, especially time based and modulating effects which added to the sense of space and back and forth, as well as a liberal hand on tape saturation. The back and forth between the sections feels quite dramatic but I feel it lends itself to the feeling of highs and lows in conversation, a splitting apart and coming together of two voices as they communicate to one another.

Next, I went to work on "Dedicated to You". A classic jazz tune recorded through an old telephone handset, what's not to like? I wanted to take this one extreme in the direction it was already headed. I eliminated as much unpredictable hiss as I could, and got to work accentuating the harsh frequency response with EQ and extreme tape saturation, just enough drive on the tape plugin to cause a bit of distortion at the highest dynamic points. I also broke the number one rule of jazz and compressed the snot out of the track which I feel added to the sort of damaged and aged feel of the recording. The track felt a bit barren and I wanted to fill some of the sonic gaps without detracting from the primary voice of the guitar. The solution I came to was a plugin called Snare Buzz, which behaves like a tightened snare in the recording room, rattling along with the playing track. I took this buzz signal, destroyed it as if it were coming out of a telephone, ran it through a fuzz to make it more like a noise than an instrument, and then used delay to make it fill out more of the gaps of the song.

Finally, I went to work on "Some Things Need Let Go", and I knew I wanted to push this mix to an extreme with experimentation. The concept of this recording, only using distanced mics, made me want to explore the extremes of space and motion as a concept. I had the image of a vortex in my mind and I wanted that to inform the mix. Step one of this was to break another rule and place a reverb plugin directly on the master fader. From here I wanted to create a constant motion without it becoming too distracting from the music. During most of the song I used a plugin called Energy Panner which works essentially as a dynamic panner, the louder the signal, the further it pans, the quieter, the more centered the signal is. In addition, during the solo section, the soloing voice is direct down the middle, while the other voice is auto-panning left and right. Finally, I wanted to create some percussive effect within all of this swirly space. I routed everything through RX 9's de-click module, and set it to output clicks only, which gave a strange clicky, wet sounding version of the song which I brought in and out for some of the more energetic moments. It is subtle, but at times I feel as if it almost sounds like congas.

Final Steps:

With things mixed almost fully down, some final steps were needed. Primarily, a glue was needed between each song to make them flow as a whole listening experience rather than a random collection of songs. I wanted to create interludes that served as sort of tone setters to guide the experimentation of the EP. I collected some backgrounds and edited them together with  clips from an old 1930s radio play (fair use of course). I felt the addition of the voice felt both a little spooky and mysterious, expanding the artistic concept, as well as grounding the interludes more in humanity. I also thought the very 1930s radio aesthetic would lend itself well to the solo jazz work, adding to the 'image' of the EP. I wanted something outdoors to start off the EP, I felt it would set a good, warm and comfortable tone as it led into Beautiful Love with its traditional Jazz sound. I used Tape Cassette sound effects to lead into the more artistic DIY and tape saturated Jess Perceptions. The next interlude continued and furthered that theme, adding back the oddness of the radio play voice as it leads into the crunchy old timey Dedicated to You. Before reaching the crescendo of experimentation and rule breaking in Some Things Need Let Go, I wanted to have an interlude that did the same. Here, after not finding a place to adequately use it on any of the songs, I employed a granular synth known as "Oi Grandad!" to create a sort of digital Musique Concrète. The album then ends lightly on the optimistic sound of Some Things Need Let Go's intro, returning to where the song begins in one big vortex.

The Final Product:

As this narrative wraps itself up, I am currently working with Patrick Richard on arrangements to release this EP to streaming platforms. For the time being, I edited together a 90 second medley to show off the overall vibe of each of the songs.

Mixing Skin Altar’s Operation Wandering Soul

This track was a beast to mix, I have had some experience with death metal; but not a ton so a lot of clean up had to be done in the mixing process. The band suggested the album From Mars to Sirius by Gojira as a good reference for the kind of sound they were looking for. This especially gave me an idea of the balance between  drums, kick and snare a lot louder than I would typically mix them, bass in the middle, and vocals a lot quieter than I typically would mix them.

I started by trying to get the right drum tone, and since it makes sense for the genre, I relied on drum sampling through Trigger 2 a lot. The Snare Top and Kick In tracks were totally replaced to bring it to that almost mechanical super punchy death metal sound. This was blended with the original Kick Out and Snare Bottom tracks to make it feel more a part of the original kit (being careful to flip the phase on the Kick Out). Everything was EQed to remove unnecessary frequencies and boosted in the fundamental and high snap for each drum, reducing as much mud as I could. From there it was a matter of finding the right compression and compressing each channel pretty heavily, then sending it into a drum bus for some light overall compression.

From there I began to add in the bass, compressing pretty heavily, and EQing for a low cut, giving the kick room to shine, and then a boost just above the kick frequency, and a boost in the highs around the clicky frequencies. I then made a single band scoop for the fundamentals of the snare and beater snap of the kick. Then I tossed on an exciter to make sure the bass would be audible on speakers with low bass response.

Next up was the rhythm guitars. I packed each guitarists tracks into folders so I could create a fader blend for tone, and then do all of my processing on the folder tracks. I cut a ton of the low frequencies, just a big high pass filter, dropped a tiny bit of compression, but as distorted as it was, not much was needed. Then I went through the process of cutting frequencies to allow space for each other track. I put frequency analyzers on each drum, the bass, and the vocals to find the fundamental and then scooped those frequencies on both guitar tracks. I then went back to the bass and scooped some guitar frequencies, as well as the vocal frequency. My goal was to make sure every individual instrument could be clearly distinguished, and this was a huge step in that direction.

I then moved on to lead guitars which needed very little work, the artist brought them in already processed and sounding amazing. Some light compression, a little low cut filter and good to go. I experimented with some ‘creative’ pan automation but could not come up with anything I liked so I left them simple and let the tracks shine.

The vocal performance was incredible, mixing them however, was a challenge. Finding the right compression took many tries, but eventually layering two compressors together, each doing some mid level compression got me the sound I wanted. EQing was a matter of boosting clarity, I cut lows, cut some low mids for mud, boosted presence at 5kHz, boosted consonants around 1kHz, then boosted some extreme highs, but cut off around 18kHz. Although the style itself is a bit difficult to understand, this made the lyrics come through a lot clearer.

Finishing up was all about light compression on the sound effects, volume automation for consistency on the vocal, bass, and drums. Finding the different parts to make certain instruments shine and automating to that effect. It is an awesome song, super fun to mix, and I like to think my work has effectively elevated it to the next level.