I went into the studio by myself to cover Gin Blossoms’ song Found Out About You. It was there for quite a long time and left unsatisfied with what I had recorded. Fortunately my classmate, Abby, offered to work together on this final project. The final prduct wouldn’t have been as fantastic without her help. We did another session where I re-sang the vocal parts, replayed the guitar solo parts, and added a small amount of toms. We mixed some that day and some more two days later. I”m not a fan of hearing my own voice, but we got through it.
Final Mix, QPKB works.
Best/Worst
Best-http://www.myvideo.de/watch/6367094/Prince_Kiss
Worst-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5MqXPYE2P4&feature=youtu.be
Final Project Pictues
Compression, EQ, Drums Notes, DAC, Reverb
DAC
- ADC- Analog Digital Converter
- DAC- Digital Analog Converter
- The Highest Sample Rate You Can Use = Improved Fidelity
- A digital sample is an instantaneous voltage measurement
- Bit depth 24 bits per sample
- 16 bits is the standard for CDs
Mix Reverb
- The % of dry vs. wet
- Decay Time (short) .7-1.5 secs, (long) 4.5
- Diffusion: How are the frequencies that goes in going to spread out?
- Cut below 200 Hz Cut
- Pad is every volume dropped
Drums
- Low frequency detail two mics on the ground one up top
- Near coincident
- Two mics 8 feet out from the floor in a stone arc went in a delay device
- Binary means it’s made with two components
- Dynamic= Changing Refers to volume in music
- Dynamic range is the highest and lowest volume that a mic or circuit can get
- Compressors control dynamic range boost lows and cuts highs (volume not frequency), controls volume
- Expanders expand dynamic range
- Threshold- Is the point in the signal that the compressor works “time for me to compress not time for me to compress”
- Ratio- 4:1 ratio compressing took it down to 25% if it goes over the threshold you dial these in as well as the threshold
- Attack- how soon after it reaches the threshold do I compress
- Release
Guidelines of Compression
o Vocal ratio between 4 and 8 to 1
o About 6 db of gain reduction after threshold
o 4 to one magic ratio for basses
o Parallel Compression- you get a regular version as well as a compressed version
o Ducking the bass compresses the bass
o Multi-band compression Signal in split into 4 compressors each picks up different frequencies – knock you down mixes
Equalizers
Two Categories
Peaking- Peak at 1000… Peak however many db at 1000 and nothing else
Center frequency is the most affected frequency
Shelving- Peak and then everything above it is also consistent raise at the same db
ABBA
Article by Micheal Trentow -http://abbamikory.blogs.com/abbamikory/2013/05/interesting-interview-with-michael-b-tretow-in-february-1980.html
ABBA Documentary -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMFMPVCL-A
Dancing Queen -https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dancing+queen
Take a Chance on Me -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-crgQGdpZR0
The ABBA Experience
- ABBA is a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm Sweeden in 1972, comprising Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad
- The name “ABBA” is an acronym for the first letter of each band member’s name.
- ABBA has sold over 380 million albums and singles worldwide although the band was only active for ten years 1972-1982. One of the band’s greatest hits “Dancing Queen” has been commonly regarded as one of the most successful singles of the 1970s as well one of the greatest songs of all time (rated 174 on RS 500 greatest songs of all time).
- The band mixed in Polar Music Studios in Stockholm, Sweden where other famous artist such as Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, and the Beastie Boys recorded. A Harrison 4032 mixing console was used, which was modified by technician Leif Mases to give it a unique sound, which almost resembled a Neve. The Harrison 4032 Console is famous for recording Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as well as tracks from bands such as Blondie, Beach Boys, Sade and many others. The 4032 is still sought out by collectors for it’s distinct vintage quality.
- The band’s mixing engineer was Michael B Tretow born August 20th 1944 (his birthday is today!).
- Drums
When recording drums they were almost always put in an isolated drum booth to get a more dry sound and to avoid leakage onto other tracks.
o The toms were recorded with AKG 414’s;
o The bass drum and the bottom of the snare were recorded with RE 20s; and at the top of the snare was a CK1.
o To get the overall sound of the kit he would place 2 mics about 7 ½ feet apart on the ground (he read this in a US recording magazine). He never used limiting or compression on the drums and only relied on ‘good old tape saturation.
C34 and U87 used for VOX
U87 for acoustic guitar
Glockenspiel- RCA DX66
- Piano/Synth
o The grand piano is cut with three 414s in the sound holes.
o The middle mic is limited and fed through the MXR Flanger
o Polymoog synth feed it through a Dolby 361 unit in the decode position.
- Guitar
o Guitar amps isolated in a closet or a separate room
o Fed through a MXR Flanger
o 2 Mics, Dynamic for the amp and Condenser for the room
-To add ambience to the overall track, after the final take was recorded Michael would ask the band to overdub all the instruments and record them with two ambience mics only
Homework Week 1
Questions for Week 1
1. Talkback is a way to communicate with with the artist in the recording area
2. Slating is when the engineer records their voice onto the track at the beginning of a track to identify the song and the take
3. A mic preamp is what the mic signal goes through so it can be brought up to a level that other equipment can process because mic signal are originally pretty weak
4. Mic level is signal strength -60dB
5. Line level is signal strength +4dB
6. Four sections of mixing counsel
Input- signals going in
Output- signals going out
Monitor- Allows you to listen to signal
Communications- allows talkback to artists
7. Direct sound is sound that has not been reflected
8. Early reflections- The sound that arrives later that the direct sound and has bounced of the recording spaces but only 1 or 2 bounces
9. Echo is a repetition of sound
Reverb is the persistence of sound after the sound is produced
10. mix- change eq/levels
edit- move/record/delete tracks. display audio/waveforms
11. You can use AU tracks to route signals and cannot record on them directly
Homework Week 2
QUESTIONS From WEEK 2
1. What is sound?
Vibrations that travel through a median whose frequency can be heard by vertebrates
2. What causes sound?
Vibrations that move your eardrum back and forth
3. What is “Phase”?
How far along a waveform is in it”s cycle
5. Why is phase important?
Two signals can cancel each other if they are each other’s opposite you have to invert the phase of one
6. What is the relationship between the frequency of a sound wave and its wavelength?
The higher the frequency the shorter the wave length
7. What is Frequency?
The rate at which a vibration occurs determines pitch
Low frequency- omnidirectional
High- very directional
8. How high and how low (in Hz) can a person with excellent hearing hear?
20hz- 20khz
9. What is Amplitude?
How much energy is there, how far the pressure swings high and low from cycle to cycle
10. What is Timbre?
The tone quality that a particular sound has, changes waveform
11. What are Harmonics (also called “Partials”)?
Frequencies that are present in any sound that are not the lowest frequency
Production 101
How to mic a piano 101 w/ Terry Setter.
The MOTU interfaces, making it all communicate nicely (most of the time)
The dreaded (and not uncommon) Pro Tools error message pop up.
The MOTU interfaces, making it all communicate nicely (most of the time)
The inner complexity of a Kawai piano keyboard.
Drum mic positioning: the basics.
Homework Week 3
HOMEWORK FOR WEEK 3
1. What are the two qualities of microphones that divide them into various categories?
Pattern, How they create signal
2. What are Polar Patterns?
The mic’s sensitivity to sound relative to the direction or angle in which the sound arrives
3. What are the three basic categories of polar patterns?
Omni-driectional, bidirectional, unidirectional
4. What is the difference between cardioid, super, hyper, and ultra cardioid patterns?
The more intense the cardioid pattern the more directional the mic becomes, meaning the more favorable the mic becomes of only detecting signal from a specific area and canceling out other sources
5. What is the Theory of Electromagnetic Induction?
The theory states that a conductor placed in a changing magnetic field will cause a production of voltage
6. How do moving coil and ribbon microphones work?
In a moving coil mic the sound waves strike the diaphragm and move it back and forth the diaphragm is mounted on a coil which also moves back and forth
In ribbon mics, a ribbon of conductive metal moves in- between two magnets as the air pressure changes, and a current is produced
7. How does a condenser microphone produce a signal?
Uses voltage from a capacitor
8. What is phantom power and why does it not compromise the audio signal?
Phantom power is what gives power to a condenser mic it is the 48v signal that is sent to the mic and it does not compromise the audio because the board does not detect it as audio
9. What is the 3:1 rule, and how much “Isolation” does it provide?
-9.2dB If you are using 2 mics place the 2nd one 3 times further away from the source that the first to avoid phase issues
10. Why might a small diaphragm condenser mic sound different from a large diaphragm mic? The diaphragms are different sizes and different frequencies do better with different sizes of diaphragms
11. In Pro Tools, how can you “erase” or “cut” sections of recorded waveforms?
Select what you would like to erase and press delete