Tales of a Recording Project

[crankyrayhanky]

We're excited to start up a recording session!
I started this original project in Dec 2014 & have had auditions for over a year.
I hope we can bring this to the finish line as there have been numerous hurdles/setbacks
Drums are setup in my living room, I'll wire it up tonight and he'll jam tomorrow to prepared click tracks.
Here's the set:

 

[midnightlaundry]

Cool. I wish I had a band..

Have you decided on a guitar mic? Lol

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I started this band from scratch and love every minute of it, even the tedious bad audition days. I say go for it if you have the time. Home studio stuff really helps to get things going as we only practice like 1x week for a few hours. I can share demo ideas quickly and my drummer comes to a jam uber prepared making it tight on the first play. This would never happen in previous decades!

We have 12 tunes to record, but in the end will shoot to finish just 3 or 4 just so we have something to get the gigs going and social media and stuff. Hopefully finish them all at some point but we need to get this project off the ground.

I'll start with Two Notes Live to get it done quick. It sounds pretty awesome so it may stick. Once vocals are complete, I'll circle back with some mics. Aggressive hard rock/metal rhythms will likely get (2) 57s; we have a couple of more mellow bluesy rock tunes that may like the Naked Eye ribbon. I could get into all kinds of experimentation with a few different mics and placements but in reality I want this done quick so it will likely be TNL. I flip and flop all the time though so I'll use the force to guide me, lol.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Mic'ed up!

 

[Anonymous]

Are you just recording demos or full mixes? With respect, that drum room looks like an acoustic nightmare

Also, your profile pic is awesome

 

[JTyson]

My heart goes out to you, recording a kit turned out to be a black hole for us. We had great mikes and not quite enough great mike-pre's, which turned out passable but not stellar drum tones, and the room we were using (that we could do very little about) fought us at every turn. After awhile we figured out that the acoustic sig of the room was affecting everything we tried in a negative way, and it was tough to dial it out without affecting things we did not want it to affect.
In the end we changed over to V drums and used the midi track with a drum software program as a plug in that was mapped to the kit.
The results were stunning. All the sudden we had absolutely massive sounding tracks that fit in the mix with everything else that was already there. The room made no difference whatsoever, and we could dial in or out anything we wanted.
I wish we had known that a year and a half earlier, we would have saved ourselves at least a hundred hours of beating our head against a wall.
If you cant get it where you want it, get some triggers (they are cheap) and a good drum program, and record the cymbals with mikes and dont look back
Not trying to discourage you at all BTW, its a fun process

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Thanks for the feedback, I can talk recording and gear 24/7

Are you just recording demos or full mixes? With respect, that drum room looks like an acoustic nightmare

It's a full mix demo
Goals are to have a product that we can use to put our band on the map- local gigs, airplay....I've done this before in much worse settings and succeeded so this setup has me stoked.
Unfortunately, there is no cash to get into a pro level sonically treated drum room. We're better off anyway; I've seen the majority of bands invest lots of $ into a project only to see the band implode before completion- too much pressure with the investment I suppose. Recording demoes can be a wrecking ball for projects.
I've worked in many commercial studios that had small bedroom sized drum rooms that were acoustically treated and I'd much rather be in a large room with no treatment. Actually large room that is treated but that's expensive, lol. What the pic doesn't show is the high 21+ ft ceilings; the room sounds fantastic so I hope I can get decent mic placement.

No, some of those angles are not ideal. I think about the RHCP and how they rolled into a house with no treatment and recorded a great sounding disc that won awards about 10 years ago.

Also, your profile pic is awesome

Thanks; she was a newborn in that pic and she just turned 3 last week! Time flies

JTyson: I hear you, drum recording is by far the hardest part of the process. I did triggers about 15 years ago and it worked well, I know the new samples are basically industry standard. I'll likely get some trigger down the road, but if I can get a decent tone organically, despite imperfections, I'll be thrilled. I'm a child of the 70s and 80s so ACDC type recording philosophy of no frillls is attractive to me. I also love F Fillipetti's work on a few Korn discs and read all kinds of stuff on his techniques.

Here's some morning pics:




and the view for the drummer, looking right at my kid's stuffed animals and toys:

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I only have 8 inputs for this session.

• Kick: D6
  Snare: 57
  tomL: D2
  floorTom: D4
  room center: Crowley & Tripp Naked Eye ribbon
  overheads: Avantone ck40 stereo mic

#8 is the wildcard.....here's what I am deciding on:

• Avantone Tube SDC: put it up high in the loft looking down as in the pic above
  Avantone Tube SDC: put it in the room as a far room mic
  Copperphone: room center

Copperphone is awesome, but I don't think I want that on all the time, maybe just in a few select parts. Maybe I'll have the drummer replay those parts later (we are working on a click).

As soon as this is complete I'll start on guitars and bass, probably tonight!
Considering it's only 3 or 4 song demo, I may just try to stay with one amp sound as opposed to trying to flex all of my amp options.
Amps to choose from:

• Orange OR100
  Kruse modded DMoll
  Kruse modded EVH 50w (won't be here until next week though )

I think any of that would work well, but I'll probably go OR100 as that is the one I've used the most at practice (the DMoll is not playing nice with my FX8, midi chip replacement incoming). The OR gets that fuzzy 70s thing really well on our blusier tunes and brings modern aggression with a clean OD boost for the rock/metal.

 

[JTyson]

I just assumed you had an 8ft ceiling, yours is worlds better

 

[russoloco]

The cheap way would to just hand a sleeping bag or two in that corner as a bass trap. Or, you have a few, just stack them.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

sleeping bag is a great idea!

I tracked for 4+ hours and just mixed/edited for 2 more....sounds great, real happy with the performance and the capture tonight
clips late, must sleep

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I wouldn't be too worried about it, I have a low ceiling in my basement and the result is that my overheads lack the space to breathe. I have bass trapping in the corners and walls but it is what it is. You have a nicer kit with nicer shells, good enough mics, and what looks like a higher ceiling in your living room. The pulse of the drums is kick and snare. I am happy enough with my results and I am using a gate plus basic compressor and I am getting good enough results I can wok with. In fact, there is a feeling of pride and no matter what, the sound is always better than those over hyped drum samples and inhuman drum beats. That said if the toms don't turn out great , you mix in a bit of a sample to fatten it up. The whole feel of the kit will still be a real drummer. So much better than ez drummer or superior drummer. Bit of drum editing and you have a real feel.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

right on Kapo, don't let the robots win 01010101

The kit is my drummer's custom made TJS set
http://www.tjscustomdrums.com/

They sound crazy good!

 

[crankyrayhanky]

#8 mic was an Avantone Tube SDC that went up high. It sounded so stunningly awesome in the mix I can't believe I almost didn't do it:

 

[Stumplegriltskin]

You got Elmo bro. All you need.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

How do you find the a avantone mics? I have been interested in them as I am considering new overheads with more shimmer but less harsh than the behringers I have. How well does a stereo mic work for overhead? I trust there is no issue with two seperate tracks and you have control over editing R/L sides without any problems?

 

[Mattfig]

Looks cool Ray...Looking forward to hearing it!

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Looks cool Ray...Looking forward to hearing it!

How do you find the a avantone mics? I have been interested in them as I am considering new overheads with more shimmer but less harsh than the behringers I have. How well does a stereo mic work for overhead? I trust there is no issue with two seperate tracks and you have control over editing R/L sides without any problems?

The stereo capsules area dream to work with on drum overheads. They sound great in front of the kit too. I can't remember where I bought them as it was >7 years ago. The tube sdc is a great tool on many sources like acoustic guitar. A local pro here uses a tube sdc by Charter Oaks on hi gain guitar cabs, so I'm going to try some of that with this avantone and see how it goes.

As much as I love these Avantone mics, I would also checkout Cascade for inexpensive solutions. They have a stereo ribbon mic that would probably rock for drum overheads and would surely solve any brightness/harsh issues. Never used one but tempted to pick it up and note that is almost half the price of the Avantone.

Before I used a Rode NT4 and that was a great piece on drum overs too. I loved the fixed position of xy to keep phase issues away. I worked with a few people who hung 2 separate mics and besides being a hassle it never sounded as good as the sessions with a permanent xy fixed stereo set. I don't seem to need any close mics on hi hats or ride as the xy is pointing right at it with snare in the middle. Easy Sneezy and sounds great

 

[crankyrayhanky]

update:
I spent 2 nights mixing and editing drums. They sound great!
I started changing strings on guitars and realized I only had 1 set; more Kalium ordered!

I went to change out my Bass strings and the one tuner broke on me! Total bummer. I went to Guitar Center- this is like their only value in my life and they did not have a proper replacement. I ordered a cheap one on Amazon and hope it will get me by.

Recording can be a challenge of the mind. The tuner break really threw my mojo off...I tried recording guitars last night and it sort of sucked. I'll get at it today and will fight off the fates who try to stop my musical creations!

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

I spent 4 hours just organizing my 7 drum takes to begin editing.... seriously, how fun AND TIME CONSUMING are editing drums?? lol. I refuse to quantize and time align the whole thing as well. I used a metronome in my ear for everything and it teaches your body to feel the time as well. A few crap hits and takes here or there but that is why I did 7 drum takes. Seems to me they could have done more editing in the 80's as well but because they had to splice everything by hand with razor blades, they opted to get as much as they could out of each phrase of music before pasting it into another part of another take. Right down to individual takes though? The musician doesn't even have to have any talent any more. Everything is too simple now... like you said before 010100111001010101010. fight the machines!!

Oh, I have a fathead... not sure I am in love with it though. I use it to fill out the 57's on the guitars but i find it rather thick with the top end considerable rolled off. With lower ceilings, I think if anything, I need a little more clarity and top end for overheads.