Blues Recording

The second recording of the year I did was a Blues recording. Before I start the recording I find it useful to complete a before-recording-checklist to set out my ideas and intentions for the recording. Below is the checklist, with a lot of detail added, as well as an overall thought on how the performance went.

Q: How many people are in the band?

A: Eight

Q: What are the instruments that you have to record?

A: Piano, bass guitar, guitar, vocals, trumpet, and drums

Q: What is the song you are recording?

A: 'Rock Me Baby' by BB King

Q: What is the song structure?

A: Introduction, verse 1, Verse 2, Instrumental, Chorus, fade out

Q: Are the band playing live together?

A: Yes

Q: Will The Band Want to overdub guitar parts of vocals?

A: No

Q: Does the band want a guide vocal?

A: No

Q: Where are you going to position the instruments?

A: The drum kit will be in the secluded 'drum room' with the door open, as to get some intentional bleed to capture the raw sound of a blues recording. Blues is usually performed live, so it is a good idea to capture the atmosphere. The guitars will be on the right hand side of the room, propped up on guitar amp stands and not too close to the wall, to avoid phasing. The bass guitar and piano will be placed on the left side of the room to create some space between the instruments to hopefully get some natural sounding bleed, rather than direct interference with all of the instruments. The trumpet will be closer to the front, further away from the singer to avoid bleed as a trumpet can have a very strong signal when recording due to the trumpet's acoustics.

Q: What miking techniques will you use?

A: I will use the Glynn Johns method for the drums. The Glynn Johns method makes sure the overhead mics are in phase with each other, this is useful for the recording as we do not want any frequencies to be cancelled out. This method, also allows for each part of the drum kit to be picked up by the microphone, helping keep a balanced drum mix. For the guitars, I will be placing the microphones on axis to the speaker, this will give me a strong signal from the mic, and a brighter sounding tone whilst keeping the muddier lower tones, which is what I think will suit the guitars in a a blues genre. For the piano I thought it would a good idea to use clip microphones to record from the strings, this captures a good source of signal, which is important as the piano is usually a focus within a blues recording. As for the vocal and trumpet microphones I will place them on axis to the sound source to receive a strong signal. The microphone distance to the trumpet will vary depending on how loud the player will play the instrument, as I want a good signal, however, I do not want to overload the microphone.

Q: What microphones will you use?

A: For the overhead microphones I will use two Samson CO2 microphones for each side of the Glynn Johns method. I chose this microphone, because, it is a condenser microphone, therefore, is more sensitive to sound sources, and since the overheads are further away, the microphone will receive a strong signal coming from the kit, despite the distance. The Samson also has a cardioid polar pattern. This pattern suits the use of the microphone, as it will be placed above and to the side of the drum kit and will need a wider range to receive the sound of the whole kit. The cardioid pattern also reduces some bleed from the other instruments, as it does not pick up sound from behind it, therefore, the drum kit will be focused on whilst reducing bleed from other instruments.

For the kick drum and the bass guitar i shall use a AKG D112. The reason for this, is because the frequency response of the microphone really suits the frequency range of the instruments. This is because the microphone has a boost at 100Hz which really favours the lower frequencies of these instrument. The microphone also has a boost at around 3kHz, this really fits the bass drums natural sounding 'crunch'. The slighter higher frequencies that creep in.

I shall be using a Shure SM58 for the vocals. I will be using this microphone due to the fact that the polar pattern it is a cardioid, this suits a vocalist as vocalists tend to move their head when singing, due to the cardioid polar patter, the microphone will pic up a wider range. It is also fitting, as it will not pick up much from behind, this eliminates recordings of reflections of the wall, as the singer will be placed closer to the front of the recording studio. The frequency response suits the vocalist as the frequency response focuses mostly on the mids, as well as covering some lows and boosting around the 7kHz frequencies. This is perfect for the the vocals as vocals usually sit within the mid frequencies, with detail added in higher notes.

For the acoustic piano I used AKG C518 M clip on microphones. The main reason I chose to use these clip on mics is because I wanted a strong signal from the piano with next to no bleed. Therefore, I used clip on microphones, and shut the piano lid down upon the mics, this really isolated the instrument. The microphone also has a very large range in which it responds to frequencies, and it does so with an incline towards the higher frequencies. With the instrument so varied in dynamic range, I thought these mics were perfect! I placed a microphone in the lower end of the piano, mids, and highs, the frequency response gives me the ability to record these frequency ranges separately, capturing the depth of the lower frequencies, and the pinch of the higher frequencies. As I have said before, the piano needs to be focused on as it's an important instrument in the blues genre.

For the guitars I used the Shure SM57 microphone. This microphone is a cardioid dynamic microphone, this mic records a guitar extremely well. When placing this mic on axis to the amplifier speaker, it captures the whole amplified sound due to its cardioid polar pattern, ignoring what is directly behind it, this gives the guitar some isolation from the other instruments. This is helpful with mixing as well as just capturing a strong audio source. The frequency response for the Shure SM57 suits the frequency range as a guitar, as it covers a wide range of frequencies boosting at 200Hz and 6kHz, this allows the microphone to capture the extreme ends of the guitar notes very well, lower and higher. The lower and high notes are usually the focus notes on the guitar, therefore, this frequency response really compliments the guitar.

Finally, for the trumpet I used a Sontronics Sigma ribbon microphone. I chose this microphone as before the recording we talked to the trumpet player, and he informed us that he would like to use a ribbon mic as he preferred the sound of the recording. With this in mind, i chose the Sontronics Sigma. The sontronics sigma is a ribbon microphone, and has a figure of eight polar pattern, which picks up signal from the front and the back, but, not from the sides. This was great as we had the trumpet player face sideways to the drums and guitars as they were the closest to him, this meant that the microphone was less likely to pick up bleed from the sideways direction. As well as this, the frequency response of the sigma is very well rounded, picking up a wide array of frequencies, and slightly dropping off on the higher end of the frequencies. I thought this fit the trumpet perfectly as sometimes the extremely higher aggressive notes on a trumpet can be ear piercing, and unpleasant, so if I can curb that at the recording, it would mean I wouldn't have to fix it later, and fixing a problem is never as good as not making the problem in the first place.

Overall:

Overall, the blues recording went really well, we took 4 takes and after discussion with the band the final recording was the recording the band thought was their best take. If I were to do this recording again, I would try using a different microphone on the acoustic piano with the lid open to get some intentional bleed. It would be interesting to see how this would sound in the context of a Blues performance.

The recording ran smoothly, however, I did run into an issue with not getting signal through a guitar, so I followed a systematic approach, I checked the that the jack lead was in good condition by using a cable tester, it was all good there. I then proceeded to check the guitar amp was set up correctly, without any volume controls being turned down, it was fine. However, with volume in mind, I checked that the volume control was turned up on the actual guitar, and that was the reason we were not hearing anything. From this issue, I learnt to put the most simple problems first, check them first to avoid further time into an issue when it is easy to solve.