Session - Monday 7th February 2011
Today we had the visit of a string band called 44 gun.
We were recording tracks for their new CD. This string band is a four piece outfit with instruments comprising double bass, banjo and guitar, violin & vocals. We set up a range of dynamic and condenser microphones for the instruments and also dynamic vocal microphones. We made sure the instrumentalists were comfortable, warm and happy in their surroundings so they could play in a relaxed manner.
What went well with this session?
We were able to set up and get recording in motion within half an hour or so and used a wide variety of microphones and placements using knowledge already gained from previous recording sessions
What didn’t go well?
The floor had no carpeting as we thought the sound might be better for recording purposes. This proved a problem with the instrumentalists needing to feet tap and acoustics weren’t great, so we put mats down and had to rewire some microphones so that cables were out of the way.
What did I learn from this session?
I learnt about various types of microphone and techniques for setting up acoustic instrument microphones and their positioning.
What did I ultimately get out of this session?
This will be a valuable lesson and session because our assignment brief indicates we must get many different microphone recordings, from different instruments and situations in order to get a good grade at the end of the year.
I believe this session has taught me a lot about acoustic instrument set up and how to use the digital recording equipment in various different setups depending on instrument setup, as usually we have a lot of MIDI instruments and digital sound sources which are entirely different in setup procedure.
