Recording Techniques – Putting The Courses Into Practice
Logic and Mixing learner Nick Burns (Captain Mermaid) tells us how he put the recording techniques he learnt on the Logic course and even the Mixing course into practice when he recorded and mixed this collaboration with singer Rebekah Anne Steele.
“I used two SE small capsule condenser microphones on the guitar and arranged them in a XY pair to get a nice stereo image. I did record a DI signal, but didn’t end up using it in the mix in the end. If you want to know how not to record a guitar, see the video!
I got Rebekah to sing the vocal into her wardrobe, so the clothes would absorb most of the sound waves after they pass the microphone diaphram. Most of the sound waves would get diffused by the hangers and pole. I chose her wardrobe as she has much more clothes in hers than I do in mine! If it was mine, the sound waves would just bounce around the empty wardrobe which would be worse than bouncing around a room! I used an Audio Technica AT4050 large diaphragm condenser mic which I borrowed form a friend with a pop shield. I popped in the high pass filter as I live near a train line, so wanted to cut out any rumbles at source. After the mic, I used a Focusrite ISA 430 with a little compression to get a hot level without squashing it too much. She’s quite sibilant, so I used the built in de-esser subtly just to avoid getting any nasty sibilant spikes but still retaining a good level.
Nick On The Mixing CourseStrangely, apart form the microphone techniques which I learnt on the Logic course, I learnt all the recording techniques on the mixing course. The singing into the wardrobe bit on week one in acoustics, and controlling the dynamics on week 2. Next up for me is Ableton, and I want to do an EMP course after that. I wanted to be the first to do every single course, but now with the relatively new Songwriting and Pro Tools courses, that may not happen. The Songwriting course looks tempting, but i’m not sure I want to learn Pro Tools just yet. I think I have enough to be getting on with right now!”
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