So it’s a little late, but it’s time for me to update this blog. Starting with the guitar tracking!
It was Robin’s turn to perform this week, and a mighty good/complicating job he did of it too!
To record the guitar we used three microphones, using inputs 1-3, one Shure SM57 which was pointing directly at the speaker cone on the guitar amp, one which was placed at the edge of the amp, and then one AKG 414 which was used to collect the room sound. When soloing each of the microphones, there wasn’t much of a noticeable difference between the two SM57s, nor were there any phase cancellation issues, but there was a huge difference between the Sm57s and the 414, which was the intended result. We also made sure to place Robin behind a board so that the room mic didn’t pick up so much fret/strumming/string noise.
Now, superstition is a bit of a funny one when it comes to guitar. What with there being multiple lines at least, but this was actually quite beneficial for us as it allowed us to do some multitracking. To do multitracking, we could simply move the XLR cables into different inputs in the mic box, however it’s much easier to change the inputs in pro tools instead. We find out later on that this starts to make a bit of a mess of the session, but it’s not that big of a deal. So, after we changed the inputs and outputs in pro tools, all we had to do was turn up the volume of mix B on the new channels (4-6) on the desk.
Apart from a few mistakes here and there warranting a couple of drop ins, the recording went rather well indeed.
This allowed us to record the clav part in the same session, we did this in a similar way to the bass by just directly inputting the electric piano into the desk. Alice performed her part well, and just a couple more takes were needed. This was great, and it allowed us to use the playlists feature in Pro Tools. Playlists are useful for recording more than one take on the same track, as you just hide each recording, and then keep the one you want when it comes to mixing. Pretty useful really!
But, that’s it for guitar. Vocals next!
– Anthony.