408 Production Synopsis 9

This week our group spent most of our lab time setting up the tracks for the mixing process. This was done by creating group sums for each prominent section of the songs (drums, vocals, bass, rhythm and sometimes others.) We spent some time tracking gang vocals for one song in room 100 using a 414 in cardioid. We decided to not use baffling so that the sound would be more spacious sounding and not dead. We had a piano part that we recorded last week and used it as the vocoding instrument for a vocal line. It took us around an hour for us to tweak the vocoder to sound like what we were envisioning, but we are really happy with the sound now. Earlier today we spent most of our time doing drum replacement and vocal comping. We have the kick and snare sounds dialed for about half of our songs now and we are all getting really fast at the replacement process. We also did a few background vocal takes for Neon Cannonball and Chad feels that everything is completely tracked for the song. We are planning on meeting up in the next couple of days outside of class to complete the rest of the drum replacements.

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.