Side Project: Guava Lava 5-Track Live Recording

So for quite a while, I've been wanting to get my friend's band, Guava Lava, in the studio and because I've wanted to try to record a band live by myself, I thought this would be a great opportunity. Before this project, I wanted to record a psychedelic trio and had everything prepped for it but they weren't really active online and I was running out of time so I had to drop it, (hope to record them either in the holidays or next trimester though). My friend Sam from Guava Lava asked me after if I was able to record 5 of their new tracks live and I gladly accepted. I did a lot of research on the best mics to use and made sure I prepared for the session to not make the same mistakes from the bass session.

Overall it was a really good session and we all really enjoyed ourselves. They were really surprised to see all the pics set up ready for them when they arrived and described it as "an art instalment" which was nice. I was surprised that I set up everything quickly (could've done it quicker if I planned mic placements but yeah will do next time), and that it ran smoother than I thought. I wish to have done more research on mic placement but I learnt a lot in that session, especially when it was my first time recording a punk band and doing it by myself. We all had a couple of good laughs and I got to watch them perform live from the control room which was a bonus too, then after, shared a breadstick with hummus outside which was pretty nice.

Micing

I used 15 pics in total: 6 of them condensers and 9 dynamic. For the drums, I had an AKG D112 in the kick hole and from Bobby Owsinki's The Recording Engineer's Handbook section about drum mixing, I replicated his kick drum technique by angling it about 30-45 degrees off-axis.

Kick Drum Kick Drum mic technique by Bobby Owskinski

The snare's mic placement was a bit of a challenge to me as there was a lot of phasing going on but I managed to place it to where there wasn't any phasing. The most recommended mics from online sources which I used were the Neumann KM 184s for top and bottom, which I kinda regret due to how hot the signals were, even when I turned the gain pots to zero. I should've changed it in the beginning but I'll try to fix it in post, but if the signal sounds a tad distorted, at least it will match the genre of the band so I guess I'm kinda safe there... I don't know. Really wish I looked more into proper mic placements for the snare because it was frustrated me and I just moved the mics to a place where it didn't introduce as much phasing.

Snare Top Snare Bottom

For the toms, I used Sennheiser MD421s for the rack and floor toms, which were highly recommended and are commonly used from online sources. I had them placed just over the drum head facing downwards on the head of the toms. Again, I wish I prepared the mic placement for the toms as it didn't really serve anything I don't think.

Floor Tom Rack Tom

I had an AKG C451b on the hi-hats and had it placed on the side with the mic pointing down to where the air would escape from the cymbals. I remember using this mic technique in class when our class recorded drums, which it seemed to work, so I used it as a reference.

My snare mic placement Class reference

For overheads, I used Neumann U87s and had them positioned on either side of the drummer and had them pointed down a tad towards the drums. Really wish I could've done more experimenting and research on overhead mic placements as I would've loved to have a a nice wide stereo of the drums but I thought it worked well.

OHs from the drummer's left side

For both guitar amps, I had a Shure SM57 positioned close to the cone but off-axis so that I was able to get more of the mid frequencies and so that the signal wasn't too harsh, which I found from class recordings.

SM57s in off-axis position on guitar amps

When Guava Lava arrived, I noticed that they didn't have a bass (which I planned to have DI'ed), which then they told me that they weren't going to record with bass so I was lucky to have set up a room mic which was the AKG C414. From previous recording sessions, I've found that mic to pick up really good bass frequencies so even though we had no bass, I would at least get some bass frequencies from all the instruments. I had the room mic placed in front of the glass facing the back of the room.

AKG C414 as Room Mic Room Mic Perspective

For vocals, I used SM58s for the 3 front members as I wanted to set a live setting for the singers and so that the vocals would sound live as well. The lead vocalist faced the back of the room to give visual signals to the drummer and the backup singers faced the control room.

SM58s for vocals

Monitoring and Mixing

I only had to work on one part of the desk as I only used 15 channels (excluding the pre- made bass DI channel) which was good. I had drums on the first 8 channels then the room mic, guitar amps and vocals for the rest. Because it was a live setting, they preferred not to use headphones except for the drummer as he needed to hear the vocals so that was another job lifted off my shoulders.

With gain staging, I tried to keep the levels around -15db or just around the green area but it was impossible to keep the high levels of the snares down. I didn't want to add any compression to the signals while recording as I want to mix with raw stems.

Setting appropriate levels (the snares weren't cooperating)

The Band and Their Performance

Guava Lava The band's Hype-Woman Cheryl-Ang

The band wanted to record 5 tracks all live, which was a big relief to me as I didn't really have time to record each instrument and have multiple takes of them, plus, they are a punk band and a live performance of each song would be a better suit of their style. When they were ready, I pressed record and left it running most of the time until they completed the last track. They weren't happy with some of the takes in most songs so I allowed them to just perform as many takes that they wanted until they were happy to move on to the next song, which took about 3 takes for each track.

The band performed well and seemed comfortable which was good. I helped out as much as I could by helping them bring their gear up to the studio, filling up their water bottles, and just making sure they were good to go. They also brought in their hype-woman Cheryl-Ang (pictured above) which was really great to see in person (she hung out with me in the control room) as I think they've only recently added her to the band. You'd have to ask them the story behind her because I have no clue, I just think it's great.

I really enjoyed the session and it was great to work with an easy-going band. Was really surprised how well it went as well as I thought it would turn bad as I've never recorded a punk band, let alone by myself so I was surprised with the turn out. For next time, I hope to do more research with mic placements, as well as more research with choosing the right mics as I know that'll help a lot with getting the right sound, and I know it'll help me improve my recording skills as recording is a skill I lack in at the moment.