Band Recording Update #2 + Editing

After doing two sessions of recording the band, we figured it would be more efficient to divide up the scheduled time slots by categorising the instruments instead of scheduling the band to come and wait for their turn to record. Unfortunately, the band could not make it as a whole, therefore, we decided to do it in a much efficient way by accommodating their available time. It is also better for us to get at least something to mix and edit. Therefore, we paired up the drummer with bassist, lead with rhythm guitarist, male with female vocalist and keyboardist into one slot respectively. We ended up getting to record several takes for the drums and bass together completely for two other songs last Monday night.

DRUMS SETUP:

Overhead mics: Cardioid Wide pattern right above cymbals - Not padded and no low off

Kick mic: Right centre at the beater

Hi-Hat mic: Upright straight above the hat (after fixing) - Not padded and no low roll off

Snare: Angled towards the centre

This time round setting up the drums, we actually tried mimicking the way we set up for Lewis Pragasam's drums. We also started off with the "preset" gain with the mics (same gain settings from Lewis' recording) and to our surprise, each kit worked at a good signal level. The only thing which I adjusted was the gain on the hi-hat mic.

EDITINGS

After going through several takes that I have, I settled down to listen to one complete set of takes and start doing some fixes. I first slap on gain plugins on each track to balance out the volume before touching the faders.

Then, I did some EQ-ing on each kit to mainly cancel out the unwanted energy and boost the region of frequencies that each kit should ideally have. Using the presets from the Channel EQ gave me a better idea of how a certain sound should be equalized. I also created a summing stack for the drums instead of a folder stack in hope to easily insert plugins like compressor to control the drum set as a whole.

For the bass, I did almost the same thing as well by setting the gain level down so that I have easier control on the fader later on. Compressor is also used as well but this time I used a preset to start off with.

The next crucial thing I did in the editing stage is flex time. Due to several attacks happening in the song, some of the part were quite off in most of the takes. Instead of cutting and pasting from other takes, I choose to do flex editing on just one complete take because slicing out the good parts from other takes, let say the kick, and insert it back into the chosen take might cause the recording as a whole not in sync as the remaining recordings would pick up the kick from the original take as well, thus, more editing will have to be done for the other tracks, for example, the overheads.

I started off doing the editing by cycling 4 bars of the intro and solo the kick track. After fixing the timing, I solo the snare instead and continue with the editing. Then, I solo both the kick and snare together with the metronome on to make sure the beats are all synchronized with no delays. After continuously doing so up until half of the song, I tried experimenting with group edit - quantizing. (Research link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201943

At first, it worked wonder for me. The kick and snare tracks were the only tracks I labelled as the Q-reference mainly because I would only have to fix the up and down beats from both of these tracks. Q-reference basically is the chosen ref track which determines the quantization/editing which the grouped tracks have to follow. After a while, it got a little bit confusing for me as more "transient markers" (as how my group member and I like to call it) appear in the audio files. Eventually, I realized that these transient markers that appeared didn't really help in synchronizing the sounds but rather I had to X most of them away to make them sound more original and in sync. I turned off the group quantize and did it manually like I had in the beginning stage to finish the other half of the song as another recording session was nearing in an hour, which explained why I ditched the group editing technique (which I would have to detailed-ly learn how to efficiently use it soon!) and opted for the manual way of doing it to save time from being confused.

Another reminder while doing flex timing was to not always edit them "too on time". There are some parts where being on beat and time are essential, but for some other parts, for example, syncopation, I realized them making them on time sounded too robotic and lack of groove. Hence, in some parts, I respect the "decisions" made by the drummer.

As soon as I get back to editing, the next thing to be fixed will have to be the bass as the player mainly followed the drummer. I also recorded the vocals on Saturday night and will have to start producing it too.

Here are some of the notes taken for vocal production in class:

Before flex time:

After editing the drums: