Artefact One - Dakota / Stereophonics

My first artefact I have included is a recording of Stereophonics - Dakota which I produced in NQ last year. I chose this song to try and show my progress since this initial project. This track was recorded in a group with just one other classmate. I helped to create a Gantt chart to show a recording plan and made a diary of how the studio time was used and any problem solving we that occurred. I was involved in the set-up of mics for recording and helped to organise performers that we asked to play for us in the recording. I worked the studio desk in a professional manner to both record and communicate with performers, I also recorded my vocals on the track. I had a very big input when it came to mixing and mastering the track even with very little experience.

Learning how to use Ableton as our DAW helped us to navigate and produce the final track. The more time I spent in the studio using the desk I become more comfortable and familiar in the studio setting. Which also let me gain confidence and experience in all aspects of a studio engineer role. I gained a lot of experience working with live performers, learning in which order is the most effective way to record and different techniques available. 

Recording

Rather than starting the recording with the original song in a track line, We decided to make our own guide track a more exciting option. We recorded drums first, for the rhythm guitar to play along to. Thought process was that having drums track will keep all musicians in time and locate the part of the track they are at. Next recorded for the guide track was the bass which also plays a significant role in the guide track. It was then my turn to record lead vocals as a guide, good practise and to get a feel of the way the track dynamically moves. All of the recordings were done in a treated room This all went well and I`m glad we opted to create a guide track as it really sped up the recording process. I feel it was a lot easier to follow and helped me gain experience as this was a different method but super simple to achieve.

So we had the guide track we set up the drum mics with an Audix kit. We had a D6 dynamic mic on kick drum which is used for it`s Ability to enhance low frequencies, take out middle and collect some high for a full bassy, but punchy sound. There snare we used a Audix i5 dynamic mic. This choice was made as this mic best captures a recording in a close position it also has a good range of frequency response. For the hi hat we used a Audix D2 another dynamic mic we wanted a richer tone. This mic is proven to give that although there was other mics we could of chosen. Once we set up and tried it we found it was perfect for this track. The last two mics were Lewitt LCT -040 condenser pencil mics used as a stereo pair of overheads which are equally measured from centre of the snare.. One mic on a high mic stand placed facing down towards kit. Drummers right capturing a bit of everything including cymbals. Whilst the Drummers left mic picking up from snare , kick and hi hat. The drums are the backbone of the track and needed to be recorded perfectly.

Once the guide track was recorded we went through the recording process again from drums, guitar and finally vocals. The recording was successful and recreated a good cover of the track.

Mixing

This was the first track I had mixed, I started by mixing the drums I put some reverb on, followed by EQ Eight to adjust the frequencies on each drum recorded and then adjusted the volume to create a nice blend. I put EQ Eight and reverb on guitars to make them punchy . EQ and reverb on bass to enhance the low frequencies. Vocals I added compression, Chorus and a touch of autotune as it has a lot of dynamics to the track.

YOUTUBE LINK

https://youtu.be/FaHPnj2O9Mo