Recording and Mixing

 

Cowboy Nudes

For the Recording and Mixing unit, me and my group decided to choose the song Cowboy Nudes, by Geese from their 2023 Album 3D Country. We chose this as we were all aware of the artist and the song, and it wasn’t a song that would get old really quickly due to excessive playing. Choosing this song also helped with research as one of my group members already had great knowledge of it and almost everything to do with the song, such as time signature, tempo, key and instruments used. We decided as a group to recreate the song in a different genre going from experimental rock/mix indie, to shoegaze.  

 

 

Microphones, Instruments, and Research

Microphones I used for recording sessions of drums were Audix d6 for a kick drum, Audix i5 for the snare, AKG C-451 B  for the hi-hats, Lct 040 for Overheads, and finally D2 for rack toms and D4 for the floor tom. The reason for using these are that they capture the tones of the instruments to their own individual quality. Me and my group members all decided that we would use these specific mics as we have used them before and we are familiar with how to use them and how reliable and good they are. We used an Audix d6 for the kick drum as it is a dynamic mic and perfectly captures the low ends of the drums. We used an i5 for the snare as it is a dynamic mic built for loud hard snaps produced by the snare. We used Lct 040 for the hi-hat as it responds well to high frequencies, as well as we collectively enjoyed how it sounded. We agreed to use Sontronics Stc-1 as they perfectly capture the all round frequencies of the entire drum kit. Finally, we decided to use the D2 and D4 respectively for the toms, rack and floor in order as they capture the bass and overall sound to how we wanted it to sound.

 

When recording vocals, we decided to use an AKG c414 as it is a condenser microphone built to handle lots of vocal ranges, we also decided to use this, as it allows for a range of polar patterns. This can also allows for multiple singers to use the microphone at once using the figure 8 polar pattern, which can be useful when recording backing vocals. 

We recorded bass and electric guitar using d.i, however, we did amp the bass as well, and we recorded it with a fender rumble mic, this is because the rumble is built to capture the power of a bass guitar.

 

Further Recording Info

When recording electric guitar, we used a Headrush Pedalboard with built in amplifier and effects simulator.

We used the Headrush to record 8 different guitars with different effects, and 2 bass guitars, we double tracked 2 d.i rhythm guitars at the start of verse 1.

We also decided to approach the leads, and bass by swapping them, what I mean by this, is we have taken the bass and played the lead guitar part and played the bass parts with some of the electric guitars.

Mixing Details

 

During my mix process, I aimed to go for a Slowdive/Fleshwater kind of atmosphere, and I aimed to achieve that through tons of reverb and distortion on a lot of instruments. I added an EQ3 7-Band onto everything, to ensure that nothing under 100hz is heard as it worked with the way I wanted the mix to sound, I also boosted the highs in the guitars as it suits how I wanted my mix to sound, and that is a dark and punchy shoegaze vibe, however. I boosted everything under 100hz on the bass as I wanted to accentuate the low frequencies, and to further show that the bass and some guitars have been swapped, it as well complimented the highs of the guitars. I boosted the mids of the vocalist also using an EQ3 7-band, as it allows for a more precise mix. I boosted the vocals, as the singer has a very mid frequency vocal range, and it enabled the vocals to be the main point of the song, all of this led to my desired hollow, and dark feel of a Slowdive and/or Fleshwater song such as "As The Sun Hits", or "Baldpate Driver". 

 

Instruments and how we recorded them

 

When recording drums, we used a Mapex drum kit and recorded them using an Audix mic set, along with lct 040, AKG C-451 B, and finally D2 and D4 as seen in the - Microphones, Instruments, and Research section. We chose the Audix mic set as we felt confident and competent enough to use them, as we were most knowledgeable about it.

We sat the Audix d6 just inside the lip of the kick drum, we placed the Audic i5 around 2/3 inches above the snare, the AKG C-451 C was placed an inch above the hi-hat, the D4 and D2 an inch above their respective tom drums. Finally, the lct 040 used as overhead microphones were around a metre and a half away from the kit.

 

Instruments and how we recorded them

The process of recording the 8 guitars featured in my mix, was done using 1 electric guitar, and a Headrush Pedalboard, this is contains a built in effects and amplifier simulator, which is useful for recording multiple guitars with different effects, such as reverb, delay, chorus etc. We recorded this by plugging the guitar into a d.i box, then into the Headrush, and finally into the desk. 

For the process of recording bass, we captured this via d.i and amp, we decided this as a group, as it had both that rawness of direct bass, but also the crunchiness of the amp. We recorded this in ssl2 using an Audix D4 placed just in front of the fender rumble amp.

When recording vocals, we used an AKG c414 as it allows for the use of multiple polar patterns, this is particularly useful when recording a vocalist as it can be used to focus upfront when using the hyper cardioid polar pattern. We placed the microphone around 2/3 feet in front of the vocalist, we did this as it captures the raw vocals perfectly when using a highly effective polar pattern like hyper cardioid.