Well, I'm a hobbyist but I take learning very seriously. I've done a couple paying jobs as a studio engineer.

I'm running a pro tools LE setup, using the Focusrite ISA 428 as my preamps for almost everything.

December 2005 I worked on a demo for a friend's band recently. It came out okay, but I learned a number of things.

1. mic'ing drums is something I've only done ONE OTHER TIME prior to this! As such I made a big mistake and put the overhead mics in the same plane as the crash cymbals. This created a pretty washy sound that I was very unhappy with. Amateur that I am I didn't think it was that bad until I had everything tracked. Oh, well, live and learn. The band barely noticed it.

I really liked the SP B1 mics on overhead. The hi-hat sounded great that way.

I was able to get drums into 5 channels: overhead pair, kick, snare top, snare bottom. I was having problems with my digital inputs so the tom channels were eliminated. Still sounded pretty good, even with weak tom fills.

2. It was fun tracking multiple musicians simultaneously. For this project I was able to get the drummer, bass player and one guitar player at the same time. The drummer was in the family room, the bassist and the guitar player were in the 'control room' with me.

3. Mic'ing guitar cabs... so far it's hit or miss. I used a 58 on the guitarist's Twin. Now I think it's very 'ringy' sounding. I had the impedance set to 'high' on the ISA428, which may be part of the reason.

On the other hand, the second guitarist came in with his les paul and blues jr. amp. Since we were overdubbing I used a B1 and it sounded very nice. Round, clean tone.

4. The B1 worked well on flute, harmonica, and even on some voices. Since I had just purchased them and my only other LDC was a rode NT1a I thought I'd use the B1's everywhere I could. The four band members all sing and I mic'ed them all with B1's. The results were mixed. Two of the guys sounded really good through them. One sounded adequate. The fourth was not very good. The difference was the first two were fairly low voices, with smooth tone. The third was a bit throaty and more tenor, and the fourth was somewhat 'reedy'.

Well, the project was done with a very 'conservative' budget from the band. They were happy and I was happy to get the chance. Overall it sounded pretty good, much better than some of the other demos I've heard here locally.

The biggest challenge was mixing these various song clips together. We recorded a small segment of about 12 songs all on one continuous pro tools session. So the mix automation was a little cumbersome. I still think that was the simplest way to do it. Since we were looking at 20-45 second sections it would have been ridiculous to have a separate session file for each one. Plus, it gave the demo more of a consistent sound so prospective employers (this is a bar band) would know what the band sounds like.

Another paying job! Recording a backing track for a vegas Dolly Parton impersonator. Very nice lady. She wanted to do Dolly's version of God BLess the USA.

Back up... I'm in a band which among other gigs plays for a casino backing up various 'tribute' (impersonation) artists here locally. The performers come from Vegas, mainly, once per year. Each year we've got 8-12 of these different acts to play. So Sandy, the Dolly Parton performer was here recently and was so happy with the band she asked if we did tracks.

Okay, to the present. I got the price agreed upon. I hired the band members to come in and play their parts. We overdubbed everything, starting with drums. For clarity and simplicity we used V-drums and a TD 20 module. The purpose of the track is to play over PA systems during live performances so I needed clean, crisp sounds.

We did a couple guitar parts, and I added acoustic guitar and bass myself. One other band member and I did background vocals as a 'choir' and later I added our female singer to the mix on some parts. Big sound. I got to use the ADK hamburg for the first time on this project. Very happy. THanks Larry and Dan!

I kept the mix very narrow since I don't know how the PA systems at these venues will be setup. It would suck to have the hi-hat only playing to half the audience! I also kept the mix very dry for similar reasons. I don't want bad rooms/PA gear to wash the sound out further. Plus it would sound wierd if the singer was almost dry (which is usually the case in these things) and the track was lush, studio reverb'ed.

Sandy was happy with the track. It was a great experience, and hopefully she'll want more. The track was played at some large event in DC, with some big names in attendance. That's so cool... all those people in the capitol hearing my voice, my playing, my tracking/mixing...! Nevermind they won't care who it is or ever even know. It's still cool.

Ah, looks like I just got my biggest job yet! More backing tracks for celebrity impersonators (not the Dolly Parton, but another duo).

They want 4 or 5 tracks! That's going to be very good for me. I can hire the band to play their parts (we've already performed the songs live a few times), and earn some dough to re-invest in studio gear.

Last time I did this, I used the V-drums for clarity and simplicity. This time my drummer is refusing to play them, insisting that we use his kit. Eek. I'm a little nervous about my ability to make a very clean dry drum sound (which is what I believe these sorts of tracks need, most of the time).

I'll begin setting up session templates tonight, I think.

8/27
Tracked the drums for a 7 minute medley. It took about 3 hours of setup and 5 hours of tracking time to get what we needed.

Last time I did this type of project (Dolly Parton track) I used V-drums because I didn't want the hassle of getting good, clean drum sounds acoustically. This time, the drummer insisted on his acoustic kit so I instisted he replace the heads! We got a good sound, but I can hear places where I could improve for sure.

so I went ahead and tracked the bass guitar that night since I'm the bass player. Easy stuff. I'm hardly a real virtuoso, so I like to keep it very simple and rely on the song to suggest the bassline that complements the arrangement the best. Of course in this case the songs are covers so I more or less stuck with the ideas found in the originals.

8/29
Tracked the guitars for the medley. I just had the guitarist come to the studio (or, den if you prefer) and set up his Blues, Jr on a chair. Mic'ed it with a hamburg about 4" away. Good sound. We double tracked almost all of it. Took less than 2 hours.

9/1
Tracked keyboards for the medley. The keyboardist we have is very good but the keyboard she brought this time didn't have a very usable grand piano sound. We ended up using midi and using the grand piano in Reason. It's not great, but for this project it works adequately. I'm really looking forward to more money so I can get Akoustic Piano from NI.

We did a basic track with a DX7 sound through the whole medley, then went back and added grand piano, organ, and horns as needed in various parts.

Did a bunch of editing / mixing as I went along since I knew what it should sound like ahead of time. So by this afternoon I had a demo to send to the performers to see if they like it.

Well, we finally moved! With the move comes a new 'studio' for me. It's a bit larger than the 10x10x9' room I had before. The new room is 17 x 11.5 x 7.5h.

So this weekend I'm beginning the remodel.

Cool! You should post some pics while you fix up your new studio. I also like the SP B1 on amps. I put it about a foot away and then I put an sm57 close on the amp and I blend them.
I've heard that B1's are well liked as overheads too.

evt

Hey, I finally got the room done a month or so back and I have pictures of the process on my website (along with samples of recorded tracks).

www.junglenoisestudio.com

Well,

I've had some time to track and mix in my new studio over the past couple months.

I've done a lot of drum tracking. This is good as it allows me to experiment some and I've learned a LOT! First, I no longer fret over bleed. In fact, my goal is to carefully position the mics to complement eachother and blend to make a whole sound. To that end, I no longer shift any of my drum tracks to 'adjust' the time alignment. Naturally, I have to flip polarity on a track from time to time but it used to be common for me to nudge the tracks so they all lined up better. No more.

The other experiment was room mics. I had good results placing a mic just a few feet out from the kit down about 2' off the ground. I wanted a bigger beefy bottom end, and it worked! Then I changed strategy and put the drums at the live end of the room and put a spaced pair of cardiods at the other end of the room (it's only about 10' from the kit) but the effect was really cool.

I'm really surprised by the clarity of the high end in the new room. I don't add any hi end, and before I commonly bumped a shelf of a couple dB to make the cymbals sizzle. Using the same pres, mics, etc. Room is king. No question.

Been awhile...

I've done a few little projects this past year.

Right now I'm working on a demo for one of the bands I'm in. In this band I'm a guitar player and kind of utility guy.

So I picked up some Cascade Fatheads and I enjoy them a lot. I want to try blumlein drum overheads with them, if I can find a suitable sounding song. The FH is good on guitar cab, for sure. Very big.

The new demo is coming along really well... it's just a cover band, btw... but I'm plagued by a certain lack of quality in sound. At this point I can't tell if it's technique, or gear.

I find I have too much of some frequencies and not enough of others but I can't quite get my finger on it. It always just eludes me. Plus there's a lack of depth and 'reality' which I can't quantify but I can hear it.

Not sure how to get past that.