Project Updates 7 - One more to go + Mystery Side Project Revealed!

Heyo! Yeah its me again, back with yet another big ol project updates blog for ya'll! This last week has been an absolute whirlwind with me finally beginning to record Chase's EP, to moving house and even finishing yet another side project! Let's get into it!

Recording Chase Johnstone

So the day to begin recording Chase for his EP finally came around and within the last week, with the help of Richard, I have managed to capture great takes of main vocals, acoustic guitar, bass and partial backing vocals! Considering that we only had around 5 days with Chase in the city, the hustle was real and yet despite that, it did not intimidate any of us. We were prepared, knew what we had to do and were aware of the constraints that came with it.

Vocals

Considering that the genre of Chase's two songs is a rather chill/folk, I really wanted the vocals to sound warm, so for this recording I decided to use a Shure SM7B Broadcast microphone. This way, whether the vocals were soft and smooth or intense in the chorus didn't necessarily matter as the 7B still kept its warm tone.

Shure SM7B Broadcast microphone setup in the NEVE Liveroom at SAE Institute to record Chase - Photos taken by Chase Johnstone (left) and myself (right) respectively on 20th November, 2018.

Acoustic Guitar

If you were looking closely at the image on the upper left, you have noticed 2 condenser microphones set up in a mid-side pattern, these two were Neaumann U87 condensers and the were used to record Chase's acoustic guitar. A D.I Box was also used to record the clean signal of chases guitar however, due to unknown technical difficulties, we were only able to use it to record the guitar signal for Chases first track - 'Fire In My Soul'. I also discussed with Chase when he arrived at the studio as to whether or not he would prefer to sit or stand whilst performing his songs, he decided to stand as it felt more natural for him to play this way as he is a regular live performer and rarely performs sitting down. either way, the Neuamann captured his guitar rather well as the mid-side pattern that Richard and I set up had a rather wide range.

Chase performing 'Fire In My Soul' Live in the NEVE Studio at SAE Institute on the 20th of November, 2018 - Photo taken by yours truly

Overall, these two sessions with Chase were great and ran really smoothly. The only possible faults I can when looking back is that Richard accidentally recorded some takes from Chase's song 'I'm Lonely' into the Pro Tools session I had set up for 'Fire In My Soul'. But this was easily fixed as both sessions were recorded at the same sample rate and bit depth so it was just a matter of exporting certain tracks out of one session and then importing them into the other!

Bass

Oh? you think we stop on the weekend? Think again! The bass guitar for this EP was recorded just on this Sunday past in the S6 studio with the help of my very talented friend Kevin Barber. The bassist who performed on these tracks was also none other than a great (and amazingly talented) friend of mine, Dan Quaglia! Before I go explaining how this session went I firstly need to applaud Dan for how great of a performance he gave and just how well he coped in the studio despite arriving with zero information in terms of the musical structure of the songs. He had the scratch tracks I had given him months prior but had no knowledge of the chords to which he had figured out in minutes on the spot just by listened to the scratch tracks on his phone.

Recording Dan Quaglia on Bass Guitar in the S6 Studio at SAE Institute Brisbane Brisbane on the 25th of November - photos taken by Kevin Barber and Yours truly

Now comes the tricky bit, see Kevin and I are both very used to using the S6 studio as a mastering suite however, when it came to actually recording an instrument in there, we were initially stumped as to what to do. Due to the fact that the S6 studio desk is merely a control interface, it doesn't have any pre-amps to actually drive the signal in for recording. This is when Kevin had turned to the outboard gear and realised that the Avalon interfaces actually were the pre-amps for the studio! By mear coincidence, Dan was also late to studio that day as he slept through his alarm so it gave Kevin and I plenty of time to figure out how everything ran before he came in. Kevin and I also communicated regularly with Dan to inform him what we needed in terms of takes and to make sure Dan was happy with his performances.

Mystery Side Project revealed:

Who Am I?

There was a reason as to why this one was kept in the dark for a while and that reason being that this project actually completely transformed over the last few weeks! Originally, this track started off as a remix for another producer at uni but after sitting on it for a while and eventually losing motivation to continue it, I decided to bin it and begin something new entirely. Well, ladies and gentlemen let me tell you I have never experience such an overwhelming surge of creative energy in my life as my new track 'Who Am I' will be out for your bassy pleasure on Thursday this week! Visuals for this track are also being done by a very talented animator by the name of Danae Lowe!

Levels - 'Who Am I?' Completed Ableton Live 10 Session - Screenshot taken by yours truly on the 26th of November, 2018

To wrap up

Oh boy are we getting close to the end now! This trimester has been so insane so far and we still have a little bit more to go! Over the next week, drums and backing vocals for chase's EP will be recorded and the mixing and mastering stage will officially begin, its going to be a bit of a clutch but I reckon ya boi can pull through! Make sure to stay tuned for the next few blogs as I do yet another track teardown and fill you guys in on how my recent gigs have been going! Until next time!

Levels :)