D8 Skills #40 & D9 | Unit E | A Very Busy Day in the Studio

The end of today was the deadline for our 'three pieces' assignment. I had finished and submitted mine the previous evening, so I spent the whole of today helping others with theirs.

Firstly, I recorded, mixed and mastered three songs for a duo; a guitarist and vocalist, because they weren't happy with what their previous engineer did, and weren't sure they were going to get the recordings from him because of his unreliability at turning up.

I used an SM57 on-axis very close to the guitar amp pointing towards the centre of the speaker, and a Rode NT2-A up high pointing towards a wall to capture early reflections for a more spacious sound.

I used a Neumann U-87 with a pop shield in front for the vocals.

Since all 3 songs were guitar and vocals, I suggested that we record the guitar for all 3 songs, and then vocals for all 3 afterwards to save time. They agreed this was a good idea and we did it.

Secondly, Freak Tiege and I finished the mix for his submission together.

Thirdly, I recorded two tracks for Dr Harry Skinner on the acoustic guitar:

• Neumann U-87 - at the base end on the guitar, on-axis with the length of it
• 2× AKG C451B - in ORTF position in front of the guitar pointing towards the soundhole
• AKG D112 - on Skinner's foot, since in one of the tracks he taps his foot like a four to the floor kick drum
• 2× Audio Technica AT2050 - in cardioid setting, pointing in towards the guitar from the two corners of the carpet in front.

After the session, I packed up and left the studio tidier than I found it: