Mixing the Recording of the Band
Lesson 19 from: Studio Pass: Sylvia MassySylvia Massy
Mixing the Recording of the Band
Lesson 19 from: Studio Pass: Sylvia MassySylvia Massy
Lessons
Class Introduction
01:56 2Avast! Studio Overview & Walkthrough
07:26 3Sylvia's Recording Philosophy
10:07 4Introduce the Band, Thunderpussy
07:53 5Drum Setup & Tuning
18:21 6Drum Mic Placement
09:21 7Drum Micing - Mid-Side Overhead Technique
04:11 8Drum Micing - Room Mics
41:25Drum Micing - Toms
22:10 10Drum Micing - Kick and Snare Final Tuning
10:59 11Bass Setup
20:20 12Guitar Setup
36:13 13Vocal Setup
17:32 14Band Mic Check
26:05 15How Sylvia Plans a Lesson
07:29 16Budgets, Time and Planning a Session
13:17 17Recap and Intro
04:17 18Recording the Band, Thunderpussy
32:32 19Mixing the Recording of the Band
09:08 20Re-Recording Chorus
13:46 21Process for Editing
18:42 22Guitar Solo and Overdubs
52:35 23Vocal Overdubs
32:12 24Creative Studio Techniques
1:00:11 25How to Mix: Drums
43:56 26How to Mix: Add Bass & Guitar
13:34 27How to Mix: Add Vocals
36:24Lesson Info
Mixing the Recording of the Band
So why don't y'all let me do an edit, and then we'll listen to the whole thing and see what we got, okay? Cool. Great. Now when I'm doing the edit, I don't know if you wanna be in here for that, because it's kind of like, you don't wanna know how the sausage is made, right? (laughter) Should we go and-- Yeah, we can-- (overlapping chatter) Alright, good, alright. (laughter) Okay, okay. So, there was some problems with the kick drum on that last take. There was also some problems with some tom fills. I think overall, the structure on that last take was good, the tempo was good, but I'd like to see if we couldn't use a lot more of that, the second take. I'm gonna do some listening now I'm gonna do some detailed listening on all the tracks, to see that we've got what we want out of them before committing to these being the final takes. So let me start by just playing take two and we'll isolate the different tracks and see what we've got. Here's take two. (rock music with heavy b...
ass) (rhythmic drum beating) Okay, here's our sub. (subwoofer beat) (kick drum beat) Alright, kick drum sounds pretty tough. (snare drum beating) Pretty ugly snare. (snare drum beating) (drums and base line) Those are ugly. Hmm, alright. (drums beating and cymbals clashing softly) Nice. Alright, overhead sound good. That might be the end of the take. Is that the end of the take? Alright. (drums and vocals of rock song) Wow; those are the coals. (drums and cymbals playing rock song) Alright. (drums beating and cymbals crashing) Alright, that's the American mic, I like that. The phone. (distorted record scratching) Well that's pretty unusable. (laughs) But fun. (drums beating rock rhythm) Alright; that's the EV and that's pretty-- that's a pretty regular old room mic. Let's see our shotgun. (drums beating rock rhythm) Pretty good. The shotgun, you can really hear the sound of the room. And it's a small room, so it is a small sound. (muffled drumming) That's the hose. (muffled drumming) I love the hose. (muffled drumming) Okay, alright. (mixed muffled and unmuffled drumming) Okay, I have a decision to make here, because the rag tom has got some distortion on the top mic. So the question is, should we re-record because there is a little distortion on the top mic, or do we keep it and go with it because the whole thing's kind of gnarly and dirty to begin with? So, I have to make decisions about this. Well, my thought process is, where does this recording go from here? Is it only gonna be for me? If it's gonna remain in-house, maybe it doesn't matter, because I'm going to want to mix it a certain way that does not feature the individual tom mics, and it'll more feature the room. However, in this case, this recording might go to another mixer. It might go, you know-- it might live on in remixes for years, who knows? So for that reason, I think I'm going to have to re-record at least the beginning, just to make sure that we have good, clean tom recordings for whatever might happen to this recording later. Alright, decision been made. Let's get the band back in here. No problem. Thank you. Can you describe your settings and how hard you were slamming the overheads with the Manleys? Why did you make that decision? To compress so much? Yes, the overheads are being hit fairly hard with the Manleys and it's to give it more excitement. I want the whole track to kind of pump and to live and to jump and to be a little unpredictable. So yes, I'm using a lot of compression. However, I think that most of the compression that I'm using is in the room mics. So I can strip away the room mics and still have a pretty traditional-sounding drum kit, just by using the overheads with the straight, kick, snare, hat, and toms mics. But I am adding a little extra because I think it's appropriate for the song and for this band, to have a little more excitement and to go a little more aggressive with the compression. Okay. Okay you guys, was there another question? If you wanna take one. Okay, one more question. Yeah, we'll do one more. What's the tape echo being applied to right now? Is that being actually committed to the track or are you recording that as a separate track? It's being recorded as a separate track and I'm feeding drums, bass, and guitar into it, not vocals, just in case we re-record-- Well, we will be re-recording the vocals, so I don't want any ghost vocals from the scratch going into that. But everything live, all the drums, the bass, and the guitar, including the leads that Whitney's playing now, are going into the tape echos, and committed to a separate track so we can strip them down if we don't wanna use them.
Ratings and Reviews
Jimmy Foot
This Studio Pass episode with Sylvia Massey covers a lot of ground. From fundamentals like correct mic placement and phase to experimentation with amps, cell phone delay and a few extra parts, Sylvia makes it fun! I have been lucky enough in my career to work with a number of great engineers and producers. I haven't had the opportunity to work with her, but Sylvia is certainly in that category, and anyone who gets a chance to work with her would be a lucky person. This broadcast is the next best thing. Great job there at Avast Studio and fantastic camera work! And as for Thunderpussy; you guys rock!
Marc Felish
Wow, that was such a blast. Thanks so much Sylvia and everyone else for making this such a fun experience. I picked up so many new ideas that I can't wait to try out! Sylvia is such a creative producer, it was so much fun to be a fly on the wall watching everything. Loved it!!
Marcus Soares
Awesome! A great opportunity to pick into the creative mind of one of the greatest and get that kind of knowledge that you can't acquire otherwise. Highly recommended!
Student Work
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