‘Amazing Dream’ – Draft Mix, pre lyrics and title

So for this week I thought I’d try something a bit different. Normally I’d leave this sort of ‘different’ for a 5th week special, but since I royally failed to deliver something special last month and there isn’t a Wednesday one again until next month, I’d make up for it this week. Delving into the lost and really disorganised folders labelled “Uni” on my old external hard drive (many with duplication or odd bits found in other folders elsewhere), I came across an old studio diary written as an assignment as part of my first year “Studio Production 1” module. This assignment was never graded in the end due to an error on the CD and DAT tape we handed in, so I had to resit with an essay – so it’s never really been seen or heard outside of the group I worked with…until now.

The following is a copy of the notes of our recording sessions (with due credit added) for our group ‘Leave it Blank’ I undertook with fellow students at the time Matt Parker (epic composer and guitarist, last seen enjoying FC Barcelona and installing resource intensive VSTs) as my fellow recording and mixing tech and Chris Jarman, Tom Clark and Josh Thomas (all of whom breathe talent like it was fresh air and later formed the following band into ‘Missionary’) as our band performers.

The song file that can be heard at the bottom is a draft composition by Chris, Tom and Josh that was later refined into their original song ‘Amazing Dream’ with original lyrics written by Josh.

I hope you enjoy the scribblings of 18 year old me:

Leave it Blank – Studio Diary

Session 1 – Recording – Rehearsal Studios

In the first session, we recorded the drum track onto Hard Disk using the HD24 recorder in Rehearsal Studio 2. Using the Soundcraft Ghost desk I aided in setting the levels for the 8 channels we used. Following this we discussed how the track was to be performed and connected up the headphones for [Josh] to listen back on. The process took several takes, each of which I was responsible for talking back and preparing the HD24 to record.

Session 2 – Recording – Rehearsal Studios

The second session involved us finishing the drums in which I played a similar role to the first session. We then made a start on the guitars, where I patched an SM58 to the desk and using a close mic technique aided in recording the drafted rhythm guitar parts, leaving space for the lead parts for recording at a later date.

Session 3 – Recording – Rehearsal Studios

This session involved us recording the second part of the song. We had to split the song into 2 to help the performers get used to the time change and to free ourselves of the limitation of 24 channels. After adding the new song data into the HD24, I set the levels for the drums and guitars while [Matt] helped me and set up the microphones. After doing the basic rhythm and drums we added the lead guitar part to both song sections.

Session 4 – Recording – Rehearsal Studios

This session was for tidying up parts to songs and to record a better rhythm section for the whole song. There was also a clean section added using the same close mic technique used to record the rhythm section using two guitars that were recorded one after the other on one SM58 and Amplifier. After taking over from my colleague, I set up the Behringer Ultra DI box on the Bass guitar using the Ghost desk to supply Phantom power.

Session 5 – Mixing – Mixing Studio 1

In this session we only mixed the drums. I aided in adding EQ to each track as well as being responsible for patching in and controlling the effects units. To achieve the heavy metal the Bass drum effect desired, it was necessary to cut out the High and Mid Frequency and boost the Lower Frequency.

The snare drum had the LMF cut and the HMF boosted at 1K5Hz to give it more of a “punch” effect. Gating was also applied to remove the hi – hat sound using the Drawmer DS201 and using the t.c. electronic M-One reverb was added to restore the natural trailing effect. The snare drum was panned at 2 ‘o’ Clock which made it sound where it was coming from in the live room on the drum kit.

The same effects we applied to the hi – hat channel and EQ was added in the form of cutting out the High & Low frequencies and boosting the middle (about 2KHz) to give a mid- range sound. We then panned this to 10 ‘o’ Clock, to represent its position in the setup.

The Toms were affected by boosting the HMF and cutting the LMF to get rid of a nasty effect from the tuning that had resulted in making the drum skin sound ‘loose’. These were then panned hard Left and Right.

The overheads sounded OK from the original recording stage when put into the mix and so nothing was changed about them with the exception of panning the stereo sound hard Left and Right.

All this was then grouped into 2 channels and sent as Left and right signals into Cubase SX 3 where we recorded our finished part. The two parts were then was then aligned fused together as a whole song for the next session.

Session 6 – Mixing – Mixing Studio 1

In session 6, we mixed in the rest of the instruments. As part of my share of the mixing job, I Added EQ to the guitars of the clean section and used the M-One XL to add a little reverb to the rhythm guitar to give it a more vibrant sound and a more authoritative position over the clean guitar within the mix. I also added a Delay on the Alesis Micro Verb 4 as this made the guitar still sound strong but also mellow.

Session 7 – Recording – Overdub Studio

In this short session we added some vocals to the chorus sections of the song. While [Matt] set up the hardware for this session I handed bringing in the levels into Cubase and recorded both channels of vocals.

Session 8 – Mixing – Mixing Studio 1

In our final mixing session, a decision was made to remove one track of vocals and to re – import the clean guitars as the delay on them didn’t sound as good after listening back on home speakers. I looked after setting up the effects again as well as aiding on Cubase via the Mackie Master Control.

Once all this was sorted, [Chris, Tom, Josh, Matt and I] listened back to the track and I prepared the track on Cubase to be recorded to DAT tape. I was then responsible for controlling the sound from Cubase as well as generating the fadeout via the mater fader on the Ghost desk, whilst [Matt] looked after the recording onto the DAT tape.

‘Amazing Dream’ (pre title and Lyrics) by Chris Jarman, Tom Clark and Josh Thomas – Rough Mix

Mike