Week 2 – Bass

Callum Price /

This week we recorded bass guitar. We decided we would record the bass guitar using a DI (Direct Input) box as well as mic’ing up the amp. We decided to use this method as we thought it would give a good mix of bass sounds. The amp allows us to keep a lot of the plucking sound where as the DI keeps a lot more of the bass tone. Mixing these sounds together provides a very clear bass tone that will fit well into a mix.

Methods of Recording

D112 – This is a kick drum meaning it is very good for picking up low frequencies and sounds brilliant on bass amps

AKG 414 – this is primarily a vocal microphone but ended up working quite well for picking up some aspects of the bass

DI box – This captures exactly what the pickups output which works very well for mixing

di

We had a few problems with sorting the tuning out on the bass as the intonation on the bass was slightly out. We rectified this by detuning the guitar to make sure the notes were in tune. As the bassist was sitting in the control room we didn’t need to send the mix to him through headphones. This made the recording process faster. To end we got a good bass recording that will fit very well within the mix.

bass

Week 1 – Drums

Callum Price /

For this week i was playing the role of the drummer which meant i had a good hands on experience with the position of the microphones and their placement in regards to the kit.

room

Microphone list and Positioning:

AKG D112 – We used this for the kick drum as it can take a high amount of SPL and has a good frequency response for bass heavy instruments. The polar pattern for this microphone is cardioid meaning it works brilliant for a single sound source. We placed the microphone in the middle of the kick drum to give a kick sound that was both boomy and click.

Sm57 – We used this for the snare because it has a very good frequency response for low mid heavy instruments like a snare. We had the mic pointing directly t the middle of the snare where i would hit it to give the most prominent sound.

Audix i5 – We used this to mic up the bottom of the snare to get the rattle for mixing purposes

Audix D2 – We used these to record the tom’s with as they are very very easy to use being clip on mics. These also have a very good frequency response for toms

C414’s – We used these as overheads because they have a very good treble response and there position helps with giving a very good stereo response. We had them positioned equal distance from the snare to do this.

Audix ADX 51 – We used this as a room mic to help with mixing the drum kit together. It was positioned behind me to get more of a drummers perspective sound.

Over all drum recording went pretty well and we got a full run-through we could use.
414