We first Had to perform are song "creature song" infront of all the production students in G11. The reason for this being is it meant that if anyone was especially intrested in the kind of music we were performing they could be are producers and it would mean that both performers and producers would very likely work well together. After performing infront of the UAL production students two weeks let we were asigned both Izzy and verity to help produce are demo track and possibly are live studio recording too however that hadnt been conformed. I have worked with both production students in the past and was very happy to have them as they are very talented at there roles and i new we were going to make a amazing demo track for the studio session in which the producers will definetly have a great understanding of the kind of sound we are looking for.
George was the first one to record as the most other instruments need the drums to go of when recording. He played to a click and had set up with headphones allowing him to hear the click in the recording booth. He initially could hear himself in the recording and requested later on after doing three practice atempts if he could not hear himself through the headphones as it was over powering the metronome and he wass being thrown of by it as he could here it in the room already and wasnt needed. He played all the way through the song withought recording to make sure he new were the different sections were without the instrumentalistic elements helping cue him in. He needed this specifically for the double chorus as it needs to be in sync with the bass and guitar due to the fact if it isnt correct when they record there parts george would have to re record it which would put us behind scedule massively. George only needed 3 tacks before he got the perfect take and everyone in the studio including the producer was very happy. Due to us having a lot of extra time as we didnt believe we would record the drums as quick as we did we deside to record bass aswell. bellow is the finalised drum track for the demo.
Tom spoke to izzy the producer and they agreed to have him record in the control room through a DI box would help them comunicate easier as we he wouldnt need headphones and would be able to talk as there isnt a mic to pick it up. The reason they agreed to use a DI box was if we wanted a specific kind of sound we could change it when producing the demo before sending it to the different producers we will be working with. Due to it being a demo track aswell it didnt need to be a perfect recording sound wise like effects and it was mainly focusing on the core sound of the bass we had used before which was a classic bass tone. bellow is a small clip of tom performing the chorus of the song in the studio. After three takes tom was happy with the recording and wanted to listen over to make sure he had stayed in time with the drums. The reason tom needed to take so many takes was because he had a lot of problems with ratling on his guitar due to him having a rattling problem.
We then made sure it weas correctly imported into logic and that we were happy with the DAW we had and then had some time left as we had a break and a extra hour so we decideed to records guitar. Ollie set up his amp while izzy preped the logic project with a new input and used the mixer bothe in the studio connected to the recording booth. Ollie used the deffault setting on the amp and didnt use much distortion or effects as it was a demo track and if needed wanted it to perfect so would do it in post production of the demo track. We explained this to izzy and said in post production could we have a lot of reverb and distortion implanted into the guitar. He used a SM57 microphone checked levels with the producer and started recording to the trackl both tom and george had recorded before hand. After ollies first he explained to me that he wanted to do another take as he believed he wasnt loud enough and instead of the producers having to do a lot of work to turn him up he wanted to play \ strum harder to see if it picks him up better. We also suggested that he turns up his guitar via the volume nob or on the amp, that way he doesnt have to changew his playing technique as he plays like that in rehearsal and we wanted that soft aspect just louder. We explained we could change that in the mixing slightly aswell. After three more takes he finally got the take we wanted. After talking we dcecided not to follow are original plan with double tracking the track and leaving it as it is and conclude the recording session. The reason being is after listening to it all together both the bass and guitar together made the peice so full and we believed it would have been to overpowering over the piano and vocals. Bellow is the Drums, Bass and Guitar finished demo track.
We decided to have kiefer record before vocals as it is commonly know to record vocals last as most of the time the singer need the rest of the band to sing in time and stay in key. Kiefer decided to like tom record in the control room to save time and while he sewt up the piano me and verity set up the vocal mic so we can spend as much time recording instread of setting up and down equipment. Keifer decided to use a keyboard but use as a piano and we asked as we were using a DI if there would be a chance to use a syth over it and verity said that would be fine. He used a guide track with everyone else in the band so he new what to follow as he did infact need the vocals to go of and he relised this after 3 or 4 atempts. However after this he was able to get a perfect recording. We new it would take a lot longer for keifer to get the perfect track than the others as he doesnt have as much experien e as the others however after a hour and a quarter he was able to get his finished track. Even though this seems like a decent am,ount of time we had booked in to have the studios for a 3 and a half hour long session as we had them for a hour in a lesson and stayed there in one of are two hour breaks. Meaning we had around two hours to record both vocals which was plenty of time. Keifewr said that the reason it took so long is he wanted to make sure he had memorised and perfected the chorus and had to change his dynamics a lot throughout the song and this way meant he could split up the song with multiple recordings to get the perfect outcome but he understands he doesnt have that much time in the studios in the pheonix. He also had to find a similar synth setting to the piano he uses in G11 as this piano was a completely different model that he hadnt used much so we know to use equipment we have practiced on and have it prepared to be recorded on.
We got ash to record vocals first as they have to sing first in the song so it only made sense if they were the one who sang initially, they asked if they could hear themselfs ever so slightly through the headphones so they were happy with the out come of the track. Verity asked Ash after everything was set up if he would like any reverb or distortion or any other effects to be on the vocals to help them feel more confident when recording. Ash requested heavy amounts of reverb as it makes him belt louder and sing with a bit more confidents which is exactly what we want. The way the production students did this was they used a wet signal in a space designer I asked ollie if he new the names of them and he told me this as he had already asked for future reference while i was setting up the mic and mic stand. After everything was set up ash took his first take and this is in the video you can see bellow. As you can see when watching the video back the vocals when ash would belt due to the large amount of veverb would clip and it was because ash was singing to far into the microphone when belting however after explaining that to ash two takes later it was fine and izzy and verity changed the gain levels slightly just to be safe to save tim and this can be slightly altered in post production aswell. A few more takes ash was happy with one of them and we moved on to my recording.
The first thing wer had to do was change the mic placement from ashes, the reason being i am much taller than ash and have a completely different voice and I use different vocal techniques aswell. For example when i sing im quite loud an d powerful and belt so have to be further away from the microphone. This meant that we had to change the placement of were the microphone would be in proportion of my mouth for example due to ash having a soft voice he hads to be up close to the mic were as i have to be one or two stepts back depending on the section im singing. I had a few tecniqual dificultys these being my headphones jack started playing up so in my forst two takes there were points in which I couldnt hear the track so had to restart, the way we delt with this was by giving me some more proffesional and modern model that was more reliable. I also had a problem with audio and my vocals wasnt being picked up as the leads were dodgey. Even though there were many problems i was able to get a good recording after a few takes. We decided as it was a demo track not to do harmonys asa it wasnt ever however we said we would explain that to the producers we would be working with.