Music Technologist Project T5.

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57 (original piece of music)

I decided that I wanted to experiment with the recording of this track by using SM57
microphones exclusively. The creation of the track came naturally through sitting around
experimenting with various instruments, chord progressions and riffs. After finding the
Bass Guitar riff that plays throughout, it was clear that the feel of the song was to be
relaxed so from there I began to think of other instruments that would complement this
new aim. The track consists of a Bass Guitar, Tambourine, Congas, Baby Grand Piano,
and originally an Acoustic Guitar which I decided to cut from the from the final mix. I felt
the Acoustic Guitar didnt sit well with the other instruments, it was slightly scratchy and
I couldnt find a way to make it work.
The Congas were the biggest challenge while recording this track. Miking up a pair of
Congos is difficult when using only one SM57. At first I had the mic in the centre of the
two drums faced downwards, but after recording found that it lacked punchiness and
needed a bit more attack. I then positioned the microphone so it was in the centre on the
drums but directed very slightly towards the Quinto. I thought that by doing this I would
capture that initial hit on the drum skin while also picking up some room ambience from
the other and it seemed to be effective but I still wasnt happy with the recording. I came
to the conclusion that it was how I played it that was throwing it off so I decided to use a
pair of drumsticks to hit the Congas instead of my hands and the sound was perfect after
adding some EQ, Compression and Reverb. I used Logic X for all of my work in this unit.
Im not sure what genre the track belongs in but I took influence from Youth Lagoons
Year Of Hibernation, Third Ear Bands Magic Music and Ben Howards I Forget Where
We Were.

Like A Rolling Stone (A new Arrangement)

As a big Bob Dylan fan this was the obvious choice for me to rerecord for this project. The
original version of this song was produced by Tom Wilson, being the only song from
Highway 61 Revisited that wasnt produced by Bob Johnston. It has elements of Blues,
Rock and Roll and Folk. My version was recorded twice. The first time I recorded it was in
a live studio environment with myself playing the Electric Guitar and Harmonica with a
drummer and it was played well on the first take, however the bleed from the drums was
drowning out everything else, the Harmonica was barely audible until the gain was
pushed up and then reducing the bleed from the drums was very difficult. On top of this a
faulty USB caused the recording to have random spikes of static noise which meant the
whole thing would have to be scrapped and recorded again. This time I recorded the
Guitar using a MIDI room, an Electric Guitar and a DI and it sounded much better.
I decided to use the drummer on Logic to provide my drum track. Its quick and easy to
use and would be good experience as I hadnt used it prior to this track. It allows you to
select the tempo, the style of playing, the amount of fills and cymbals but I needed a
relatively simple drum track so I kept these to a minimum. I listened to the original track
on Spotify and attempted to isolate each instrument track and think of how I could
implement them into my own version. Theres a lot of instrumentation in this song so I
decided to strip it back a bit, going with just the Guitar, the Drums and the Organ. The
Organ was the most difficult part of the process as I couldnt find the tab or the chords
online so I had to play it by ear and create what was almost a harmony with the Guitar as
I dont have the keyboard skills to recreate Al Koopers playing.

The Man Who Sold The World (MIDI)

I felt this was an appropriate choice of song due to David Bowies recent passing. It
translates fairly easily into MIDI but I couldnt find any helpful tabs or scores so I played
the whole thing by ear. Originally I used a synth sound which later changed to an
Acoustic Guitar. I split the melody into separate tracks named: Riff, Chorus, Verse and
Scale. These individual tracks playing alone sounded slightly weak so I doubled up each
one and brought all the notes down an octave to create multiple harmonies, giving it a
more full sound. I attempted to use the Drummer again but it would go out of time
whenever the drums had to drop out at the chorus so I inputted the drums myself
through MIDI. After Reverbing, Compressing and EQing the tracks the song was finished.
Recorded Developmental Pieces
For this section of the project I used a Drum Kit placed in a small drum recording booth. I
wanted to see what kind of recording Id get using various microphones to mic things
that they traditionally wouldnt be used for. In my first set up I had an Audix f15 as an
Overhead mic, an Audix f10 as a Kick Drum mic and a Neumann KM184 on the bottom
Snare.

Floor Tom#02.aif

Kick#03.aif

OH#02.aif

Rack Tom#02.aif

Snare#02.aif

My second setup used the same mics on the same drums but with each of them moved a
couple of feet away from the kit. This reduced the attack from the drums and increased
the presence of the room, almost making it sound like the Drum Kit is in a slightly larger
environment.

Floor#01.aif

Kick#01.aif

Overhead#01.aif

Rack#01.aif

Snare#01.aif

In my third setup I miked only the bottom Snare (Audix f15) and the overhead (Neumann
KM184) to see if a minimalist approach might sound better than expected. However, this
didnt make for a good recording in my opinion. The Bass Drum is barely audible and the
Cymbals and Snare are over empowering.

OH#02.aif

Snare#02.aif

Its clear to see why certain microphones are used for certain functions. Thanks to its
slightly enhanced frequency response and cardioid pick up pattern the Audix f15 is
ideally suited for overhead applications. It can perfectly capture the high mid sound of
the cymbals and still get the feel of the room as the rest of the drums are played.
The Audix f10 is better suited for Kick Drum miking than any other microphone I had
available. It is slightly boosted in the low end which helps to capture the punchiness of a
Bass Drum. Typically I would use it to mic the Toms or the Snare however.
The Neumann KM184 has a slight frequency response increase at around 9 kHz. It is well
rounded and ideal for many studio applications but I would use it for Cymbals, Brass or
Acoustic Guitar, anything that may need a mic that handles high frequencies.
For the 4th setup I moved to the HNC studio and used the Drum Kit in there to test the
different acoustics of the space and also some more microphones. This room is
considerably larger than the first so I expected a larger sound. The setup I used was as
follows: an Audix f12 on the Kick Drum, Audix f10 on the bottom Snare, Shure SM58 on
the top Snare and 2 Neumann TLM 103s as overheads.

Bottom
Snare#02.aif

Kick#02.aif

Left OH#02.aif

Right OH#02.aif

Top Snare#02.aif

Then for my final setup I moved the microphones away from the kit again. Thanks to the
bigger room I had much more space to play with so the overheads were moved back 2
3 metres or so and the other mics moved back a few feet.

Bottom
Snare#02.aif

Kick#02.aif

Left OH#02.aif

Right OH#02.aif

Top Snare#02.aif