Blog of an Audio Engineer

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Symphony Wind Recording

For this recording my team had to set up a mics to capture a full wind symphony with timpani, marimba, and bells. We set up a basic space pair with two U87 microphones in omni direction and then two AKG414′s set to cardioid facing the audience in hopes to capture the room tone. After that we used different spot mics to capture the more subtle instruments or sections we wanted better represented in the mix.

After setting up our microphones we ran each one into a Focusrite preamp that ran into a RedNet interface. We then ran a single ethernet cable to our studio computer where we had the Dante system receiving the audio processing it into ProTools for our recording

The mix was left raw with simple editing and level mix. Other than that the sound heard is true to the tone of the microphones and system running at 24 bit depth 48KHz sample rate.

Finally as a back up plan practice that every good engineer should follow we had a bluetooth microphone set to omni recording the room, but thank God we weren't only left with that. Definitely wouldn't have sounded as good.

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This Sunday I had the opportunity to record Capital University's Wind Symphony performance in Capital University’s Mees Hall. For the recording my team used a Focusrite Dante RedNet system to record the performance into ProTools.

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This track is a compilation of my best mixes to showcase my talents!

Please listen to the mix and continue to follow my work to be posted to my blog. Check out my online portfolio on silvidiaudio.com

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Rude Crew Jive Tribe Tracking Session & Mix

https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-silvidi-19213209/rude-crew-jive-tribe-tribe-ride/s-knZRh

For this project I made contact with the Columbus group Rude Crew Jive Tribe for their first tracking session in studio F. The group consists of drummer, 2 key players, 2 guitars, viola, trumpet, bass, rapper, and vocalist. The group was a lot of fun to work with. The track we recorded was titled Tribe Ride.

I made contact with the groups lead from networking with the last group I tracked, King Bradley. I was assisted by Cap student Tristen Jandrey.

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New Mix!

In this track I got a chance to practice my AutoTune chops on two lead vocals and a group vocal harmonization. Really cool plug-in if used correctly bringing the vocals to a professional level. The vocals can be the hardest instrument to track because of the precision of the vocalist and their consistency needed. After so many takes your vocalist will not be sitting on every note they need to hit so AutoTune comes to save the day.

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SM57 Mic Shootout Cont.

So let me summarize my experience with this popular dynamic mic. There is defiantly a reason everyone expects to see this microphone when they open your mic closet. And I really familiarized myself with what this lil’ guy does and why he does it best. For this microphone what really needs to be understood is that whatever you put through this microphone, will get that SM57 touch as it goes into your multitrack recorder. And sure, every microphone does this no shit. But this microphone does it well maybe even the best while still being very present. So when considering what to mic you must really understand how the instrument will work with the SM57. Because it doesn’t give you a lot to work with other than that.

This is why I think I liked it on the snare and guitar but not on the viola and the vocals. The color it adds will never be as clean as some condenser and ribbon microphones but if thats what you like then thats what it will sound good on. So if you are considering using the SM57 on an instrument consider this, “do I want that SM57 frequency equalization to be stuck on this track for the rest of my mix?” That is what you are going to be stuck with, and there is no undoing that SM57 color.

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SM 57 on Viola

https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-silvidi-19213209/viola-sm57/s-YEht6

My final test was on something I have honestly never tracked before which is an electro-acoustic viola. So will the Sm57 do the trick? Well to get a real reference I compared the microphone with the Neumann u87 which is a large diaphragm contender microphone with a hefty price tag. On the link you only hear the SM57 on the viola but for my own ears I wanted to compare the two, but hey thats not what were are doing here to day we want to know if the SM57 will work? Does it sound good?

My judgment? No it does not. Well not really. I found the microphone lacked to represent the full range and overtones of the viola which is such a complex stringed instrument. It also adds that color that it does to every instrument. However, let me say that if I could pair this microphone with a small condenser mic I do believe a professional sound could be produced from it with a good mix. But that U87 did the job all by itself, just sayin.

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SM57 Snare

https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-silvidi-19213209/snare-sm57/s-WIAx4

Next we are slapping this dynamic microphone on the most prominent drum in any kit recording, the snare. I wanted to get a fully body recording so I decided to throw this mic on the beater and resonant heads on the drum. And I won't play the idiot here because I’ve used this mic on this drum before and I knew how it would sound, and I like it. This is what the SM57 was made for, to recorded high transient instruments that only certain frequencies need to be represented. The snare drum just sounds good to my ears from these mics. The color it adds just sounds good because of the microphones frequency response that we saw in my last post. Sometimes you don't need the cleanest sounding microphone when the result is something that sounds good so forget those expensive condenser mics that your drummer will probably dent with their stick. Slap on this $99 microphone that gets the job done.

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https://soundcloud.com/nicholas-silvidi-19213209/vocal-sm57/s-QHGjD

Next up is the SM57 on vocals. It was placed in front of a pop filter to get rid of those nasty plosives. But did it do the trick?

The microphone’s cousin the SM58 is an extremely popular live sound vocal mic and if you compare the two frequency response charts you will see they don’t vary to much.

In the frequency response chart we see where the sensitivity in the frequency spectrum is for the SM57.

Now the SM58. More rounded out bumps in the high and low end but not radically different. 

What I came to decide on is that live sound and recorded sound ask for very different specs in the equipment. And what the SM57 offers for vocal recording is muddy and colored. The end product is something I would never use in my recording as my lead vocals. Maybe in a pinch if the vocals were heavily filtered and thrown in the back I would consider this Shure microphone. Other than that this mic should just be used for scratch vocals and talkback. 

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First we begin with a recording done to an electric guitar.

After listening to the recording I deemed the SM57 fit for recording the electric guitar because it represents the mid range of the of the guitar well and frankly sounds good. I will however mention that I would not use this microphone alone  when tracking a guitar. I would likely pair this mic with a small diaphragm condenser mic which would give a better tone to the high end of the guitar which I would mix together. In all SM57 is a yes for electric guitar.

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SM57 Shootout

In this Mic shootout I decided to compare the more versatile microphone in the recording industry, the Share SM57. Many regard this microphone as the can do all tools for a recording session. I wanted to put this microphone to the test and compare it against a variety of instruments to see if it can really perform or if this is just the universal “scratch microphone”.

We begin by isolating the variable and running the microphone through the same Daking 500 series preamp.

These bad boys got the job done while tracking and gave a foundation to the recorded sound of each recording.

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Just did our first Studio F session with King Bradley. Awesome Columbus metal jam band with some great studio sound. I was working with fellow engineers Cameron Ferguson, Kyle Blazek, and John Carey. We tracked two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. The musicians were great to work with and we really got a solid sound, but I guess its kind of hard to not get great sound with such amazing equipment. We used Focusrite preamps for the drum set, Shadow Hills preamps for guitar 1, Daking preamps for guitar 2. Very excited to see what can be done in post with this track. Check out the photos below to see more of our process.

2/6/18

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Here is the track I refer to in my two previous blog post. I used elastic audio on my kick track. I also used the Slate Trigger 2  plug-in on my snare and kick tracks. Have a listen

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Slate Trigger 2 Plug-in

In my previous post I showed how I used elastic audio on my kick track to adjust the transients so they lined up more precisely. Now, I like that my kick is in time but I really didn't like the tone of the drum. What Slate Digital has created a dynamic plug-in that replaces the transients on your track with sampled audio. This gives the mixing engineer the ability to completely recreate the sound of their drums set if they didn’t get the sound they wanted in tracking. I viewed these two videos to familiarize myself again with the process. I suggest you watch the video if you don’t know what the plug-in can do, before reading on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ha4P8iShs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3TmV9_k4I

In my mix I used the Trigger 2 plug-in on my kick and snare tracks.

on the kick track I used a sample preset and adjusted the detail setting so that every transient activates the sample. This is what makes the plug-in dynamic because it can be attenuated in sensitivity, attack, hold, and release. The sample had three different aspects that could also be faded in gain. You can alter these to get a sample sound that best fits your mix.

My snare track looked the same way and I processed it like my kick track. I used a sample from the same drum set from the plug-in but altered it so the sound was more to my liking. 

This plug-in is a process saving fix to low quality drum tracking. I wouldn’t use it for any acoustic song released but for electronic music I think it has a place in a final product.

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Protools Elastic Audio

Musicians can be good, real good, but even the best musicians can slip up on a track. Whether it be a drum hit off tempo or a bass note that drags a little to long all your problems can be fixed thanks to the magic of digital audio. I used these two resources to familiarize myself with the process of elastic audio and I suggest you view them to if you don’t have the fondest idea of what I’m talking about, before you read on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_VufsUuiRc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWhHj052J60

Now that you have a better idea of the process you can see why it can be so crucial when mixing in post to be able to fix the mistakes on the recording. Even if its a minor detail it is the precision all engineers strive for when creating a final mix.

In my mix I utilized elastic audio on my kick track to clean up the patterns on the double kick.

You can see all the lines are where I made adjustments to the transients. It was a lot of minor clean ups but it made a major difference in the end. 

Read my next blog post where I use the Slate Trigger 2 plug-in to change the tone of my kick and snare.

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Here is a podcast explaining my acoustic guitar microphone shoot out. The shootout was done between an SM57, AEA A840 (which I accidentally refer to as an A84), a Blue Kiwi, and a Rode K2.

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Mic Shootout Concluded

To order these mic from last preference to first it would go: SM57, A840, Blue Kiwi, Rode K2. Each mic does a particular job and represent that guitar well. This may be attributed to the excellent Chandler Limited TG2 preamp, but we know the microphones all did their part. The dynamic and ribbon just didn’t make the cut for the wow factor with the guitar. The condenser made the microphone sound clean, but I came to the conclusion that the tube gave the sound just enough color to make it the best. Make your own decision and share with me. I would love to hear your feed back.