RESEARCH-
Target Audience:
Our target audience is males and females from early teens to early 30’s. This is because people in their teens are most open to new music and actively seek out new music to listen to. This is compared to a study that shows that on average, people in their 30’s stop listening to new music due to having more refined taste(ajaymkalia, 2015). Because of our target audience, it would make sense to upload our EP to youtube as well as other digital music platforms. This is because of a survey conducted in 2016 that shows that 94% of youtube users between the ages of 16 – 24 use youtube almost exclusively for music (Paul Maskell, 2016).
STUDIO RESEARCH
MICROPHONES
DRUMS
The first place to start when recording drums is the setup. One important note that I took from this video was to have a flat snare which helps to keep consistent rimshots, this is important to give an aggressive sound which is what we want for this EP. Also, it is important to have relatively flat toms to help with the attack from the drummer. having flat toms means you can hit down onto the toms with more force instead of glancing off them. Again, this is important for aggressive styles of music. Other important aspects of a drum setup for recording was to have the hi hats set up high and far away from the snare. This is to help eliminate hi hat bleed on the snare mic. This reasoning is also why it is advised to have the cymbals high up and away from the tom mics to help prevent bleed from the cymbals.
The microphones that are recommended in this video are an audix d6 for the kick drum, modified shure sm57 for the snare, sennheiser md421 for the toms, octava mc012 for the overheads. I will see what mics are available at college that are closest to these that I can use.
The main aspects that I picked up from this video was that in my opinion, having the overheads set up in a spaced pair configuration sounded much better than the other two advised configurations which were xy and ortf. I thought the spaced pair was more lively sounding than the other two which both sounded too treble-y and dead, because of this, this is the configuration I will use when recording as it sounds the best and is what we have used when recording in college before. Another aspect I picked up on was to have the overheads using the 3:1 ratio rule, this means the distance between the capsules is 3 times greater than the distance from the capsules to the source (the snare) I will start off using this technique but also experiment with different distances until i find what works for me. It is important to note that the overheads need to be equal distance from the snare.
After watching this youtube channel, I decided to look at a video from a different channel also talking about mic placement to get a second opinion.
What I learned from this video was to check phase when recording with overheads. Phase cancellation can be a big problem when recording drums. To avoid phase cancellation is to make sure that the difference from the snare to the overheads is equal. Then to record the drums, zoom in to the wave forms on logic, and make sure that they are both in phase, if not, move the mics until they are. Another important point is the stereo image. This means that the centre line of the stereo image is diagonally on the kit, over the kick and snare. Your overheads should go either side of this imaginary line to get a balanced stereo image.
Another useful tip I got from this video is that when putting on the close mics, to have the mic three fingers away from the rim, with the capsule of the microphone slightly inside the rim, and pointed at the centre of the drum. This video also showed me that when micing up the kick drum, if you want a more balanced sound with less attack it is important to pull the mic closer towards the port hole than the batter head whilst still inside. However, for more attack, push the mic closer towards the batter head. I will experiment with both of these to find which sound I prefer.
In this video they do a side by side comparison of how different rooms have an effect on the sound of the drums. After watching this video, I decided that Air Studio One had the best sounding results due to the natural reverb. Air studio is a large room that is famous for its pleasant sounding natural reverb. I found that the reverb made the drums sound livelier and more real. The close second studio that I thought sounded best was Snap Studio. This studio is closer to your average studio with a medium size room with a large window at one end which is very reflective. In my opinion, this came in second place because it made the drums sound well produced, but a bit dead and fake. Because of this, I would like to record the drums for this EP in a large room with nice reverb. Because of this I am going to try record my drums in the Henry Mitchell hall at Bradford College. The Henry Mitchell hall is a large hall with nice natural reverb, when we recorded our first college gig there the drums sounded fantastic and it is a very nice sounding room. in addition to the natural reverb is has very high ceilings which is almost a necessity for rock and metal drums as it gives the cymbals room to breathe and sound their best.
GUITAR
When recording an electric guitar live, the most common way, which i’ve learned during the recording units at college, is to use a shure sm57, 6 inches away from the speaker, on axis, and pointed at the centre of the cone. However, this was to record a basic guitar tone, so i’ve looked into other ways to mic up a guitar amp.
After watching this video, I have learned that generally, the sweet spot for sound is to have the microphone pointed at where the dustcap meets the cone on the speaker. With the sound comparison, I came to the conclusion that having the microphone pointed at; the centre of the cone right against the grill was too bright, the middle of the cone was too bassy, off axis was less bassy sounding but still too bass heavy for my liking, the sweet spot pulled back was too dry. My two favourite sounding mic placements were the sweet spot up close, which gave quite an aggressive sound, and off axis pulled back, which had more body. I will do my own comparison in the studio to see which technique sounds better.
BASS
After researching the best ways to record bass, I came to the conclusion that it would be best to record the bass both through a mic and directly into the mixing desk. This is because it will give the bass guitar the low end and note definition of recording directly, but with the added body to the sound that only really comes from recording the amp with a mic. The best mic to use is a dynamic mic because they are better at recording loud volumes than condenser or ribbon microphones. A suggested microphone to use for recording bass is a kick drum mic as they are good at picking up low frequencies. Again, I will see what microphones are available at college to use for this. As for the placement of the mic on the amp, generally, for recording bass it is one foot away from the speaker which gives a solid tone with lots of body and nice note definition. Having the mic pointed at the centre of the cone gives a more aggressive sound (which is what we are after), whereas pointing it to the edge of the cone will give a softer sound. I will experiment with all these factors once in the studio to find the best sounding one. (research collected from (http://www.practical-music-production.com/recording-bass-guitar.html)
When researching this topic further, I found that to record both directly and through a mic, I will need to plug the bass into a DI box, plug the DI box into an amp, and the DI box into the interface. the method of recording with a mic will not change. However, with the DI and mic channel, the microphone channel will be a fraction of a second behind the DI channel, this is a natural occurrence. To solve this, I will simply need to play both channels on logic, and send the DI channel through a digital delay, advised to have it around 2ms until the sound snaps into focus. (research collected from http://www.musictech.net/2015/09/how-to-record-bass-guitar/)
VOCALS
It is best to use a large diaphragm condenser for vocals as opposed to a dynamic mic because it gives a clearer and more pleasant sound.
An essential for recording vocals is a pop filter, this avoids the microphone popping when the vocalist is singing plosives, it is a quick and easy fix to make the recording sound better.
The most common positioning is to position the singer 8-12 inches away from the mic, this helps control the proximity effect which can make the voice sound too bassy when up close. It is also important to keep the dynamic of the recording even. An easy way to do this is have the vocalist move closer to the mic when singing quietly. Singers naturally do this when singing anyway so it should be relatively simple to avoid uneven dynamics. It is also important when recording to make sure the gain level is lower than a standard instrument. This helps to compensate for the voices dynamic range and the vocalists movement.
This is a video a professional recording engineer mad that highlights 5 mistakes to avoid. The 5 mistakes are
PERFORMANCE RESEARCH
A drummer that I draw a lot of inspiration from when I’m performing with The Obscurities is Vinnie Paul of Pantera. In this song, one this you notice straight away is that Vinnie Paul accents the guitar riff with cymbal crashes to make the riff more apparent and hard hitting. He carries this on throughout the verses but accenting with open hi hats instead of crashes. Another aspect of this song is that he has his snare drum tuned quite high for a metal drummer which I like the sound of. These are aspects that I would like to incorporate into my drumming.
Another idea that Vinnie Paul uses is playing the beat normally for 4 bars, then switching the hi hat to the off beat for another 4 bars. You can hear this at around 2:25
Another drummer that I take inspiration from is Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers. The aspects that I like about his drumming is that in the intro he builds suspension in the introduction by simply playing single semiquavers on the snare but building dynamic. Another idea he uses which is similar to Vinnie Paul is accenting the guitar riff in the chorus with cymbal crashes.