Reggae Recording

Early September I got the chance to record a band. Their task was to perform a song within the reggae genre, and my task was to set up the studio and record them. Before recording, I thought it would be wise to set up a checklist to make it clear what microphones I would need, how many cables, what techniques I might use, etc. This way, I have a clear understanding of what needs to be done, and the recording will be a lot smoother. The checklist was as below:

Q: How many people are in the band?

A: Seven

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

A: Drums, percussion, bass, three guitars, piano, vocal

Q: What is the song you are recording?

A: 'Get Up, Stand Up' by Bob Marley

Q: What is the song structure?

A: Introduction, verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Verse 3, Chorus X3, fade out

Q: Are the band playing live together?

A: Yes, except the vocals

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

A: Yes, they want to overdub the vocals

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 reggae recording. Reggae is usually performed live, so it is a good idea to capture the atmosphere of a reggae recording. The drums 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.

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 very 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, which is what I think will suit the guitars in a reggae genre. For the piano I thought it would a good idea to use clip microphones to record from the strings, as it would give a bright sounding tone, which is familiar amongst pianos in reggae recordings, it will also get a good signal from the close proximity of the sound source to the microphones. As for the vocal and percussion microphones I will place them on axis to the sound source to receive a strong signal.

Q: What microphones will you use?

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 and percussion. I will be using it for the vocals due to the fact that the polar pattern of this microphone 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 both the vocalist and the percussion 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, This is the same for percussion, I wanted a microphone that had a good frequency coverage, and the Shure SM58 gave me that.

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 a 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.

Finally, 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.

Overall:

Overall, the Reggae recording went really well, we took 3 takes and the final recording was the recording the band thought was perfect. 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, however, when recording I may not always have the opportunity to experiment. I would also like to use two mics for the guitars to bring up the lower notes the SM57 drops off at, I would use an AKG D112 placed on axis with the Shure SM57 to capture both ends of the frequency. However, I tend to use this technique when recording heavier songs such as rock, where those 'muddy' sounding low ends are needed.