:: This is a very early mix of a recording I did for my final Intro to Audio project. Due to gear issues, my microphone setup was pretty basic: the drum kit mic placement consisted of an AKG D112 on kick drum, Sennheiser 441 on snare, and two Electrovoice RE16's on overhead left and right. The RE16's were not my first choice for the overheads; I really wanted some condenser mikes to capture the transients and high frequencies of the cymbals. Fortunately, most of the good sound I got was due to the environment. I had the drums set up on the floor in the orchestra rehearsal room with all the curtains open, resulting in the wide open feel; I also oriented them lengthwise in the room to delay the reverberation even more. I really had no intention of getting this effect, but it worked really well anyway. I just wanted all the musicians to be able to see each other. Just goes to show that every recording has it's own special elements that make it unique and sometime unexpected.
As for the guitar and bass, the musicians didn't have amps, so I used a direct box to plug them straight into the board. I regret that any effects that I put on these instruments will be artificial, but hopefully I can get them to sound as natural as possible, especially the guitar. I realize that the bass is much too loud, and on headphones the spacing between the two instruments is a bit unnerving. More to come next week when I finish editing and mixing ::
UPDATE: There are two versions of this file now available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
5.30.2008
5.23.2008
Just A Little Something Extra
:: This eerie snippet was from my very first quarter of Intro to Audio. I recorded some open chords on my guitar, and then simply reversed them. The resulting effect sounds creepily familiar.... If you want to use it for some project of your own, let me know and I'll send you a download link. Have a good Memorial Day weekend ::
UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
5.19.2008
A Tribute to Grandma Fran
:: For the midterm project in my spring quarter of Intro to Audio, we were assigned the task of recording a "radio drama". Simply put, we needed some dialogue, music, and perhaps sound effects. Many people did interviews, but I had no idea who to go to for something like that. I decided to go with a reading of my Grandma Fran's old children's poems in her memory. The poem "Who Will Play With Me?" seemed perfect; it was littered with animals (perfect for the sound effects) and ambiance (well suited for music).
I had my girlfriend Nadia Aikins read the poem for me since she has a much better voice than I do. It was recorded on the bed in our room with a simple Marantz PDM660 portable recorder and an AudioTechnica lavalier (lapel microphone). The music has guitar, played by myself, and piano played by my classmate Whitney Eden. I actually got the piano pieces by accident; I took a break from playing to get a bite to eat, an apparently I took too long because when I got back in the control room Whitney was in the rehearsal hall jamming away on the piano. I just sat back and listened for a while until it became clear that she was really good. I tried using the XY stereo miking technique to capture the high and low ends on the right and left respectively, but the placement was such that the effect wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped. Still, I got some really good material to work with.
As for the editing and mixdown, we had just been introduced to the 5.1 surround sound mixing room, so I was really excited to get my hands dirty in there, especially since film sound is what I want to focus on. It was never booked, so I got a lot of time in there. I really needed it too; the room wasn't equipped with ProTools, so I had to learn Digital Performer instead. While I decided to forgo any surround mixing in favor of good old stereo, I learned a lot about this new software an discovered that while it had some flaws, it seemed a lot more intuitive than ProTools and will definitely be more useful as I become more involved in movie audio ::
UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
I had my girlfriend Nadia Aikins read the poem for me since she has a much better voice than I do. It was recorded on the bed in our room with a simple Marantz PDM660 portable recorder and an AudioTechnica lavalier (lapel microphone). The music has guitar, played by myself, and piano played by my classmate Whitney Eden. I actually got the piano pieces by accident; I took a break from playing to get a bite to eat, an apparently I took too long because when I got back in the control room Whitney was in the rehearsal hall jamming away on the piano. I just sat back and listened for a while until it became clear that she was really good. I tried using the XY stereo miking technique to capture the high and low ends on the right and left respectively, but the placement was such that the effect wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped. Still, I got some really good material to work with.
As for the editing and mixdown, we had just been introduced to the 5.1 surround sound mixing room, so I was really excited to get my hands dirty in there, especially since film sound is what I want to focus on. It was never booked, so I got a lot of time in there. I really needed it too; the room wasn't equipped with ProTools, so I had to learn Digital Performer instead. While I decided to forgo any surround mixing in favor of good old stereo, I learned a lot about this new software an discovered that while it had some flaws, it seemed a lot more intuitive than ProTools and will definitely be more useful as I become more involved in movie audio ::
UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
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