Fleabag is one of the songs I am playing with my band Taunt in Livewire. During the project. we recorded and mixed one song from our setlist. We chose to do Fleabag.
Recording process – This was the second time I have recorded music. However this was the first time I was actually involved in the recording process and not just playing the music. This involved learning a lot of new things and new skills. 1 of these was microphones, the different types of microphones and the placement of them. There were 4 types of microphones that we used, dynamic mics, large diaphragm condenser mic, bass mics and small diaphragm condenser mics. For the bass drum and the bass guitar we used a bass microphone, this microphone is good for capturing the lower frequencies. For the vocals we used a large diaphragm condenser microphone, as this is the standard microphone for recording vocals. We used the small diaphragm condenser mic for the overheads. Overheads are above the drums and capture one side each of the drum kit. These microphones are good for capturing high end frequencies such as cymbals and acoustic guitars. The specific microphone that we used is the AKG C 391 B. Then finally we used dynamic mics for the electric guitar and the snare drum and 3 toms. Dynamic microphones are the standard microphones that are used in studio recording as it is good for rock music and have so much utility. They are good for mid range frequencies, which is why we used them for the instruments that we did. The placement of the mics is another thing, as I am a drummer I spent most of my time setting up all the drum microphones and the placements of them. For the drums, the snare and 3 toms, the microphones usually have clips which attach to the rims of the drums. The mics also have to be aiming at the middle of the drum so that it gets the best sound possible. The bass mic needs to be aimed few inches away from the centre and a few inches away from the bass drum. If there is a hole cut out in the drum, then it’s better the place it a couple inches away from that, however there wasn’t one in the drum kit we used. So I placed it like I said. The overheads are placed on either side of the drum kit. There is a quick and easy way to make sure the overheads are equal to each other and are capturing the whole drum kit. This is by using a jack lead, putting it on the snare drum and measuring if they are equal length from it. For the bass guitar, we used a DI box to go straight from the amp to the software. For a DI box you need 2 jack leads, and 1 XLR cable. The bass guitar is plugged in to the input, then a jack lead from the amp into the output, then an XLR from the DI box into the channel box. For the electric guitar we just used a microphone and placed it next to the amp, then plugged that into the channel box. However the mic has to be placed in the middle of one of the speakers. You would think that it would be placed in the middle of the amp, however the speakers in the amp are actually on the left and right of the amp. So we placed it in the middle of the right speaker. After this we set the levels, there are 2 aspects to this. The playing and the actual setting of the levels. The playing is very simple, as a drummer all you do is hit the drum that the levels are being set for, then when it is overheads the best thing to do is play the beat to the song you’re about to record. For the other instruments you also just play the riff or part that you’re about to play. I have done this before for live sound so this isn’t new to me. The actual setting of the levels isn’t difficult either, all we did on this specific mixing desk is just turn the gain up or down until it is was the right level. There weren’t many issues during the recording process, however one thing that did happen was when Ellis made a mistake on the bass, he kept playing and didn’t mention it. Which meant he had to play the part again which wasted more time. We all learnt that if you make a mistake during the recording it’s best to say it and start again. Another problem was that the snare drum was sounding weird after the first take, this was due to a fault XLR cable. This should’ve been figured out during the sound checks, however it wasn’t which caused some more time to be wasted. As a drummer, overdubbing wasn’t a thing that I needed to do, however the guitar had to be overdubbed. Which just meant after Tom recorded his vocals and his guitar at the same time, he went back into the studio with headphones in and played the guitar over it.
Mixing process –