408 Production Synopsis 8

This week all the main lead vocal parts were finished for the album. We used the same set up and settings as we have been using for the previous weeks: CM7, Neve, Distressor. Everything has been going fairly smoothly with the exception of myself getting a little frustrating with my singing takes...I just need to practice and get better. We met twice outside of our scheduled lab time this week in order to rough in mixes so that we will be one step closer once mixing OTB time comes around. The first step that we are trying to accomplish is to use replacement on a lot of the snare hits. We also have been messing and playing with guitar tones as we tracked almost all the guitar parts dry and have been figuring out what tones we want coming out of the sansamp plugin. There are so many choices! On top of that, now that we know how to use elastic audio, it seems like we will never be able to work on the mixes enough to how we could ideally make them sound. Other than the snare replacement, we are working on cleaning up the drum sections, making the bass fit in the middle with the kick and snare, as well as getting the vocals to sit appropriately. We plan on finishing up all recording with a few auxiliary sounds such as wood block, tambourine, piano, vocoder, backing vocals and gang vocals.

408 Production Synopsis 7

During the last few weeks of tracking, finishing vocals has been the main objective. We have been using the Wunder CM7 in the midilab with the vocal booth walls as baffling. The main signal path has been CM7-Neve Pre-Distressor-PTs. The purpose of the Distressor has been to slightly even out vocals so that they are a little closer to being ready for final mixing down. Depending on the material, the parameters for the Distressor have been as follows: ratio either 3:1 or 6:1, input 5, attack 5, release 4, output 4, high pass engaged. We have finished vocals for 4 songs and are well on our way to being done with tracking. Other than vocals, we have been utilizing our time to complete a ton of auxiliary sounds. For the first song on the album, Caught Up, we have a military march sound happening. A marching snare was double tracked with a 57 in room 100 with a small amount of baffling. Marching bass was also recorded, though we have already talked about it not being necessary. Many tracks of stomping on the wood floor has been recorded, as well as chanting. Toms were also recorded with a single 414 in omni, they sound super open and huge. Toms and claps were also recorded for Neon Cannonball. A kaos pad was used on Neon Cannonball as well.

One of the coolest effects that we have recorded thus far has been achieved by using the roland vocoder. It took a lot of getting used to, as the signal path was quite confusing, but we were able to get the hang of it. We created an auxiliary track in PT for the guitar track that we wanted to use as the vocoder music input. Sends were created from the guitar tracks to the new aux and sent out to the patch bay. From here, a TT to TS was used to send the signal into the vocoder's line level at 0dB. We used a 57 and plugged it into the microphone input on the vocoder to act as the vocoders 'voice trigger.' The microphone level was set to approximately 10 o'clock. The wet/dry mix was set to fully wet to ensure only the vocoder's sound was being heard and not what I was speaking. The volume was set to approximately 3 o'clock. The frequency adjustment had the biggest boost in the mid range, or between the 6 and 7 knobs. The lows were almost nonexistent and tapered off below the 6 knob. Above 7, 8-9-10 were around 0dB, while the knob 11 was fully 'off.' We used the 'Vocal Amp' output with the level selector at high. A quarter inch was taken from the vocal amp and into the millennia; from here the signal was routed through the patch bay and back into PT. A new 'voco' audio track was then made in PT to record what we were hearing from the vocoder.

It took quite a while to get used to tracking with the vocoder, as the guitar part that we were recording with was very syncopated, which isn't an ideal sound. In the end we used a couple of short phrases that went along with the lyrics of the song for a powerful birdge section.

408 Production Synopsis 6

This week group C was able to finish up electric guitar parts with our usual set up and continue on to vocals and a few auxiliary sounds. We tracked stand up bass sections for 2 songs in room 100 using a 414 a few inches away from the f hole, as well as 122 about 3 feet back for some added depth. Additional lead lines were done in one of Chad's song with a whammy pedal to give a unique feel. We did some textural experimentation with 3 delay pedals to give some background excitement and drive. The delays were all on different setting and once we had a good sample we just started turning knobs to the rhythm of the songs and it turned out super cool and spacey. Acoustic guitar was tracked for 2 songs in the midilab with a bunch of baffling set up. A 414 was used about a foot away from the neck joint. A shaker and clave part was recorded for a latin section that we have in one song. We used a 57 in the center of room 100 to give a bigger sound, considering the depth that we were able to capture in the big, open room. Vocals were tracked for one song so far using a a 421 and the CM7 in the midilab with heavy baffling. We ran the two mics through the neve pres and into the distressors in opto mode before protools. When listening back to the vocals, its obvious that we need to pay more attention to the compressor settings. All the vocals are definitely useable, but some of the phrases sounded a little lopsided because of the effect that the compressor had on them. Luckily, I was happy with the performance I gave, which rarely happens, and I think it will be easy to salvage the takes. One thing that we need to remember is to engage the high pass filter on the distressors because I think it pulled down the level awkwardly at some points.

408 Production Synopsis 5

This week group C ventured into recording guitars. On Tuesday's night session, both guitar tracks were recorded for Joe's songs. For setup we positioned Joe's small fender 60 watt, 1 cone guitar amp on top of some foam to decouple it from the ground in the middle of the stage area of room 100. Two walls from the whisper room were positioned in a 'V' format enclosing the area around the amp. As a close mic on the amp, we used a 421 pointed slightly off axis, about an inch away. A few feet further back, and nestled into the smallest part of the 'V,' we placed a 122. The wall baffling provided a lot of sound rejection for the back of the Royer. We decided to place the 122 a few feet back in order to give the amp's signal a little space to mature and allow a little room ambiance and character. Both mics were put through the Neve pres to give a very clean and present sound. When tracking, things went rather smoothly, though it was hard to get a great high gain distortion coming from the amp. We were able to get an acceptable and useable sound, but we wanted to get a little more out of it. To insure we would be able to recreate the sound that we were imagining in our heads, we double track all the distorted parts in Joe's song twice as well as recording a clean take. The clean take will serve as a 'back up' recording in case the distortion won't mix right with the song. We played around with the re-amping plugin in pro tools and we were able to get a respectable sound. A lot more full and punchy compared to what we were hearing from the amp.

Earlier today guitar was recorded for one of Chad's song. It took longer than we expected because the song has a prevalent finger picking part as well as a strumming part. The set up was the same as before, though we changed out the 421 in favor of the e22 as a close mic and the everything was done in the midilab. We recorded the finger picking and strumming to different tracks because the volumes of each were very dynamic. So were had to adjust the pre amp levels for each section depending on the part that was being performed. Next week we plan to finish the rest of rhythm guitar tracking.