iii Trio Project: Intro & Tracking

iii Trio - Photo: Fergus Hurst

About 2 weeks ago, myself and 2 friends from my class (Jake and James) started on a project, which was to record and mix a Brisbane Jazz-fusion trio (Ryan, Brendan, and Julia). Jake and James have already recorded and mixed with this band last trimester and had great results and enjoyed working with them, so I asked to join them the next time they record them as I've always wanted to record a jazz band. I was also surprised that they used a simple set up with no effects being used and that the sound came out clean and natural and it was simple to mix. We booked the Neve on Monday night and also had another friend, Benjamin to help us set up.

Micing

Because Jake and James already recorded the trio before and their setup worked well, we decided to go with the same setup they did last time. The instruments that we were recording were a bass, vibraphone, and drums. The total channels we worked with were 12 (including 3 talkback mics), which was a surprise to me as we got really nice sounds from the instruments. It was also a relief that we didn't use too many mics, the patch bay, or any special effects as I'm not a big fan of excessive gear use in the studio.

12 channels used

With the drums, we miced the snare and kick (Snare: Shure SM57, Kick: Electro-Voice RE20) with 2 overhead condenser microphones picking up the rest of the drum kit which was the hi tom, floor tom, ride, and hi-hat (Overheads: 2x AKG 451). We also placed a leather wallet on the snare to give a tighter sound.

Mic Setup of Drums (Overheads are above drums)

The bass was simple to mic as we put a AKG D112 in front of the amp, positioned in the centre of the cone, to pick up the full sound. We also didn't want to DI the bass as we wanted to hear the amp sound as it'd give a more natural and raw sound.

Mic Setup of Bass

The vibraphone was also easy to setup as we had 2 NT5 Condenser Mics on each side of the instrument, and had them angled. As we sound-checked the instruments, we noticed that we were hearing a lot of drum spill on the left mic of the vibraphone so the boys had a good idea to wrap one of their flannel shirts around the mic, to reduce the noise.

Mic Setup of Vibraphone

We had two room mics: one which was positioned at the front of the live room (AKG C414) and a custom built mic made by James called the "Spitfire", which was positioned in front of the drum kit on the floor. This was the first time James used the "Spitfire" and we were all really impressed as the mic added a really nice lo-fi sound to the whole mix.

Room Mics (Left: AKGC414, Right: The "Spitfire")

We applied some EQ on the desk to the kick, snare, and overheads so that we were able to get a clearer sound but it didn't effect the signals going to Pro Tools. We also created 2 headphone mixes, one for the drummer and one for the vibraphone player and bass player, but they preferred not to use it, which was fine and lifted a bit of weight off our shoulders as we didn't have to focus much on headphone mixes.

We then ran through a final sound check and worked together to make sure all the gain levels were set and that the musicians were comfortable in their space. We had turned the lights off for the live room and had the giant lamp shining from one corner which helped them feel more relaxed, and we also mirrored this in the control room as it made the room look cool too. Throughout the session, we took turns on the desk, assisting in the live room, as well as operating the DAW. I took notes of everything that was going on in the session and that helped us recall some info during the session. During the session, I was asking Jake and James questions of how and why they did certain things with settings or any of the setup so I could get an idea of what they were going for, and they were happy to help me and they taught me a few techniques and methods that I could use in future recordings. All of this helped us solve any problems any of us had with the desk, DAW or anything in the live room, which made the session run smoothly.

Mood Lighting (not as dark as it looks don't worry)

Notes

Tracks

We recorded 3 songs: "Red Clay", "Tell Me A Bed Time Story", and "Naima", which all ran for about 7-10 mins each. These were all covers of original songs and we ended up having about 2-3 playlists for each song. The musicians really knew the songs as we didn't have any muck-ups and they played through all the songs really well. It was exciting to hear each take as each playlist was very different to another because their improvisation was always different. Because "Naima" was only played by the bass player and the vibraphone player, we only did 2 takes as they did well on both takes and there was no need for a third.

So this was our tracking process with recording the iii Trio! In terms of mixing the songs, we all decided to split up the 3 songs between us so that we'd be able to focus on one song, which will be interesting to hear at the end as we'll have different mixes. The band believes that they'll put our mixes on SoundCloud so no mastering will be required or anything like that.

The session went really smoothly due to our team work as well as how laid back everyone was. We always found a solution to something and we were helping each other along the way, which made the session go quick as well.

In my next bog post, I'll be discussing how I mixed "Tell Me A Bed Time Story" as well as "Naima" and any processes that I went through.