Recording a pop song cover Unit 48

Cover of Yellow by Coldplay:

Yellow is a song by British alternative rock band Coldplay. The band wrote the song and co-produced it with British record producer Ken Nelson for their debut album, Parachutes (2000). The song's lyrics are a reference to band vocalist Chris Martin's unrequited love.

The song was recorded in March 2000, and released in June that same year as the second single from Parachutes, following "Shiver", and the lead single in the United States. The single reached number four in the UK Singles Chart, giving the band its first top-five hit in the United Kingdom. Helped by heavy rotation and usage in promotions, the song thrust the band into massive popularity. "Yellow" has since been covered by various recording artists worldwide, and remains one of the band's most popular songs.

Lyrics:

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow

So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know you know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do

Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do

1Task 3A: Multi – track Recording

Producer: Lewis Jones

Primary Sound Engineer: Ryan Hobin 

Name and artist of song chosen: Yellow By Coldplay

Instruments you will use, and how you will mic these (microphone placement).

 Acoustic Guitar:

To mic this I will use two AKG C1000S, these are condenser microphones. One of the mics will be placed in front of the sound hole around 20cm away; this will capture the higher frequencies closer to the bridge. The other microphone will be placed 25cm in front of the neck to capture the lower frequencies resonating from the guitar. This means that more of the sound is being captured, therefore getting a more ambient tone. putting the both tracks together will mean a lot more of the resonance is captured

Electric Guitar:

To mic this guitar I will plug the guitar into a fender 20 watt amp. I will then use a Shure SM58 placed in front of the edge of the speaker and a AKG C1000S which will be facing the other way in the opposite corner of the of the studio, this will be used to capture the ambient sound coming from the amp, so when both tracks are joined together the guitar will sound a high quality which is clean but also have some natural ambience.

Bass Guitar:

The bass that will be recorded is an Epiphone. To record the bass guitar I will be using a DI input instead of using a microphone next to an amp, this is because this ensures no background noise is captured and the bass sound is very clean. This means that the bass is directly plugged into the mixing desk and then straight into Cubase. This means that it will be a lot easier to get a good sound and will also be quick to set up. The mixing desk has a built in DI ready input so we wont need to use a DI box as well.

Vocals:

 To record the vocals I will be using a Rode NT1A and a pop shield to ensure a high quality sound. The pop shield will mean that any unintentional sounds from the singer are not picked up and ensure that it is just the voice. I will record multiple vocal tracks in the build up to the chorus, as this is what the original does. I might also record the vocalist performing harmonies in the chorus.

Keyboard:

To record the keyboard I will also use DI as it will capture a very crisp recording with no background noise as also makes the recording process very easy as It is plugged directly into the mixing desk.

Track list:	Instrument/part of instrument/mic or DI/name of possible performer:
Track 1	Acoustic Guitar- Sound hole AKG C1000S , Ryan Hobin
Track 2	Bass Guitar, midi , Ryan Hobin
Track 3	Electric Guitar, shure sm58, Ryan Hobin
Track 4	Keyboard, DI , Ryan Hobin
Track 5	Vocals, Rode NT1A, Ryan Hobin
Track 6	Acoustic Guitar- Neck AKG C1000S , Ryan Hobin
Track 7	Kick Drum, AKG D112, Hayden Bridgen
Track 8	Tambourine, Shure SM58, Lauren Thomas
Track 9
Track 10
Track 11
Track 12

Multi-track Recording log

Session 1

Name: Lewis Jones

Number and length of session: 2 Hours

Date of session:  1^st December

Names of engineers: Ryan Hobin, Lewis Jones

Names of musicians and instruments being recorded: Acoustic Guitar played by Dan Meer

Goals of the session:

To set up the Cubase file with the backing track

To record the whole of the Acoustic guitar track

 Section B

Were all goals achieved during session? If not what reasons were there for this?

 Both goals were achieved in the session

What are your plans for the next session in the studio?

 To record the bass and keyboard tracks using DI

Session 2

Name: Lewis Jones

Number and length of session: 2 Hours

Date of session:  8th December

Names of engineers: Ryan Hobin, Lewis Jones

Names of musicians and instruments being recorded: Bass guitar played by Dan Meer and Piano played by Ryan Hobin.

Goals of the session:

Record the Bass Track using DI

To record the whole of the Piano track using DI

Section B

Were all goals achieved during session? If not what reasons were there for this?

 Both goals were achieved in the session

What are your plans for the next session in the studio?

 To record the bass and keyboard tracks using DI

Session 3

Name: Lewis Jones

Number and length of session: 2 Hours

Date of session:  15th December

Names of engineers: Ryan Hobin, Lewis Jones

Names of musicians and instruments being recorded: Electric guitar played by Dan Meer and tambourine played by Ryan Hobin.

Goals of the session:

Record the electric guitar sections using a SM58

Record tambourine track 

Section B

Were all goals achieved during session? If not what reasons were there for this?

 Both goals were achieved in the session

What are your plans for the next session in the studio?

Record all vocal tracks including backing tracks

Session 4

Name: Lewis Jones

Number and length of session: 2 Hours

Date of session:  17th December

Names of engineers: Ryan Hobin, Lewis Jones

Names of musicians and instruments being recorded: Main vocals sang by Ryan Hobin and backing vocals sang by Dan Meer.

Goals of the session:

to complete both vocal tracks

Section B

Were all goals achieved during session? If not what reasons were there for this?

 Both goals were achieved in the session

Individual Tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/sets/single-yellow-tracks

Full Track:

https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/lewis-yellow-full-track

Evaluation: 
Acoustic Guitar: 

 I thought that the acoustic guitar tracks sounded good as we were able to capture the majority of the tone resonating from the guitar, this is because we used the two mics instead of just one. this means that it sounded more of a fuller tone. However i think it could of been improved by maybe rerecording some of the parts again. This is because in certain parts small mistakes were made.

Bass Guitar:

the bass guitar track went well and sounded very clean as it was recorded using DI this meaning there was no unwanted sounds.

Piano:
The piano track went very well as it was performed very well and the two AkG mics picked up a great sound. 

Electric Guitar:
I think that the electric guitar had a good tone and was performed well however I think it could be rerecorded to make sure that it was perfectly in tune.

Vocals
the vocals were sang very well however because of a breakage to the Rode mic we had to instead use a shure SM58, it sounded good but not as crisp as it could have done with the Rode. to improve it i would have rerecorded it with gain turned down as certain points there is a slight amount of distortion.  

Tambourine 
the tambourine sound good as it had a good tone captured by the SM58.


Full track evaluation:
The full track sounded professional however I thought that it would sound better with backing vocals and a drum kit. I also thought that the piano and tambourine could be slightly turned down as it at some points drowned out the electric guitar as well as the acoustic guitar ,however other than that, I thought that the track sounded very professional and close to the original Coldplay recording.

Recording a pop song cover PART 2

Recording plan for Strings

• Role of personel for acoustic guitar recording:
  
  
  Ryan Hobin- Ryan will be in the control room operating the mixing desk and the recording software Cubase, he will also be using talk back to communicate to the people in the studio. Ryan will also assess the recording and if needed be ask the performer to do a retake. Ryan will need the skill of being able to work Cubase quickly and efficiently. He will be responsible for making sure the recording sound right and doesn't have to much gain or distortion.
  
  
  Hayden Bridgen- Hayden will be performing for the recording playing  an acoustic guitar, he will playing an arrangement of chords into a dynamic microphone.  Hayden will require the skill of being very fluid and accurate whilst performing.  He is responsible for making the performance have no mistake and to be to a good standard.
  
  
  Lewis Jones- I will be in the recording studio booth with the performer, I will be setting up the microphone and will be responsible for the mic to be the appropriate distance away from the recorder. I will require the skill of being able to listen and communicate with the studio so the best possible sound is recorded.
  
  
  The type of Microphone we will use is a AKG C1000S the Polar pattern is Hyper Cardioid. It will be placed around 20cm from the sound hole of the acoustic. we would use this mic because the guitar resonates high pressure levels of sound.
  
  
  Problems we might occur could consist of microphones not working properly, we would therefore need to replace this microphone to overcome this. if their is an unknown problem I would test and change each of the different components to find out what equipment was broken.

Glockenspiel recording:

Lewis Jones- Lewis will be in the control room of the studio operating the mixing desk and the recording software Cubase, he will also be using talk back to communicate to the people in the studio. I will also assess the recording and if needed be ask the performer to do a retake. I will need the skill of being able to work Cubase quickly and efficiently.I will be responsible for making sure the recording sound right and doesn't have to much gain or distortion.

Hayden Bridgen- Hayden will be performing for the recording playing  a glockenspiel, he will playing an arrangement of chords into a dynamic microphone.  Hayden will require the skill of being very fluid and accurate whilst performing.  He is responsible for making the performance have no mistake and to be to a good standard.

 Ryan Hobin: Ryan will be in the recording studio booth with the performer, Ryan will be setting up the microphone and will be responsible to put the microphone the appropriate distance away from the recorder. I will require the skill of being able to listen and communicate with the studio so the best possible sound is recorded.

• The type of Microphone we will use is a AKG C1000S the Polar pattern is Hyper Cardioid. It will be  placed around 20cm from the glockenspiel. We would use this mic because we wanted  to see the  sound difference between that and the Shure. He will also set up the SHURESM58 30cm above the  instrument. Ryan will need the skill of communication with the performer and 
• 
  
• Problems we might occur could consist of microphones not working properly, we would therefore need to replace this microphone to overcome this. if their is an unknown problem he would test and change each of the different components to find out what equipment was broken.

Electric Guitar recording:

Ryan Hobin- Ryan will be in the control room operating the mixing desk and the recording software, Cubase, he will also be using talk back to communicate to the people in the studio. Ryan will also assess the recording and if need be ask the performer to do a retake. Ryan will need the skill of being able to work Cubase quickly and efficiently. He will be responsible for making sure the recording sound right and doesn't have to much gain or distortion.

Hayden Bridgen- Hayden will be performing for the recording playing  an acoustic guitar, he will playing an arrangement of chords into a dynamic microphone.  Hayden will require the skill of being very fluid and accurate whilst performing.  He is responsible for making the performance have no mistake and to be to a good standard.

Lewis Jones- I will be in the recording studio booth with the performer, I will be setting up the microphone and will be responsible for the mic to be the appropriate distance away from the amplifier. I will require the skill of being able to listen and communicate with the studio so the best possible sound is recorded.

• 
  
  The type of Microphone we will use is a AKG C1000S the Polar pattern is Hyper Cardioid. It will be placed the other side of the room from the amplifier, this is to record the acoustic reflection form around the room. I will also set up a dynamic SHURESM58 next to the amplifier, we would use this microphone because the guitar resonates high pressure levels of sound.
  
  
  Problems we might occur could consist of microphones not working properly, we would therefore need to replace this microphone to overcome this. if their is an unknown problem I would test and change each of the different components to find out what equipment was broken. I will need the skill of communication with the performer and the sound engineer as this will ensure we get the best sound possible. 

Nevermind Album Article

    Nirvana- Nevermind

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the most notable one being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990. Despite releasing only three full-length studio albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and important rock bands of the modern era. their most famous album being Nevermind. Grunge music with which it was associated became the most written about phenomenon in contemporary popular music since the birth of punk. 


Before its September 1991 release, Geffen Records were hoping to sell 250,000 copies of Nevermind. But Nirvana's second album went on to shift 100 times that amount. Nevermind was nirvana's second album following on from the album "Bleach". Bleach was well received by critics, but failed to chart in the U.S. upon its original release. Nevermind on the other hand was another story because even though there were low commercial expectations by the band and its record label, Nevermind became a surprise success in late 1991, largely due to the popularity of its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". By January 1992, it had replaced Michael Jackson's album Dangerous at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. , and the album has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Nevermind was in part responsible for inventing the genre Grunge and bringing it to to a large mainstream audience,this was a big factor to its success. Because of this fame it has been ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all timee by publications such as Rolling Stone and Time.

 The Recording of the album was approached very much from the live perspective, with the drummer set up in the middle of the room and the bass and guitars isolated for separation. Nonetheless, the sound engineer Butch Vig, was determined to push the band in order to achieve the right results, and to this end he had Krist Novoselic redo some of his bass parts and Kurt Cobain performing quite a number of guitar overdubs. the band didn't want the album to have any of the instruments too washed out with reverb or echo,  they wanted everything to be fairly dry and in your face.

 Dave Grohl's kit used an AKG D12 and a FET 47 on the kick, they built a drum tunnel consisting of old drum shells attached to the bass drum and extended out about six feet. That way you can move a mic back three to four feet, by having the drum tunnel, the kick is isolated, so that you don't get all of the cymbal bleed, this means that the bass drum mic isn't picking up other drums in the recording, this will make the kick drum more defined in the album, this making the overall quality of sound improve. Using a Neumann U67 and an LA2A, most of Cobain's vocals were recorded in the small Studio B at Sound City and ran straight to tape. The results alternate between a smooth, compressed, phasey sound.The guitars were in some cases, so over driven that the end result bears little resemblance to the instrument that originated it. Cobain doubled a lot of the rhythm guitars, he also  overdubbed clean and distorted tracks in almost all of the little solo sections. The album also used a fair amount of compression on the vocals so that Cobain dynamics were controlled , Kurt also did some double-tracking, particularly on choruses, he did that quite a bit on the record such as Breed, there was also two tracks of harmony's performed by Dave Grohl on songs such as in Bloom.


Comparison to other Album:
The techniques utilised in the album Nevermind are similar and can be compared to the album "wasting light" by the Foo Fighters , this is because Dave Grohl, the former drummer of Nirvana, decided that Twenty years on from the landmark recording of Nevermind he would reunite with that album's producer, Butch Vig. He also decided to buy the the mixing desk used in Nevermind and set it up in his garage. this meant that the album was completely recorded with tape instead of computers. the tape made wasting light have a very raw and similar sound to what Nevermind had. The band believed an analogue project would help the band reclaim its artistic freedom. The album incorporated 3 guitar tracks which were sometimes very over-driven, this is similar to the Nirvana grunge sound. because the album used tape instead of computer, they were limited on what they could , the tape makes the album sound more like a live recording with slight imperfections, this can be compared to Nevermind as that was also recorded very much from the live perspective.

This is a documentary about  how they recorded the song "something in the way", it talks about the harmony overdubbs of the melody and the recording techniques used.

 Evaluation of my own recordings:
 When recording our own instruments I recorded a electric Stratocaster into fender 20 watt amp using a Shure SM58 dynamic microphone and also an AKG C1000S condenser microphone. I decided on using these two microphones as I wanted to not only record right next to the amp but also pick up the acoustic reflection from around the room. I did this by placing the C1000S the other side of the studio and turned it the other way, by doing this the sound waves would have bounced against the walls before getting to the microphone meaning a more ambient sound. I chose the dynamic Shure SM58 as it could handle the high sound pressure levels resonated from the amplifier.  When both tracks are played together the recording has a natural reverb tone and also record more bassy tones which the Shure microphone didn't pick up as it was very close to the speaker. This electric guitar would have been similar to the way nirvana recorded their guitars on nevermind as i learned they also used two microphones on the amp. the overall sound quality of this recording was very crisp and in seemed to pick up the crunch tones on the amp without the mic becoming to over driven and distorted. To improve this recording I would say that the amp could have been put in a separate room than the performer, this would have meant that there were no background sounds of the plectrum strumming the strings and the amp would have been isolated. or if another room was not available the amp could have been turned up so the background noise could not be heard. It could also be improved by making sure the performers guitar was perfectly in tune as it sounds slightly out.  When recording the guitar there was the performer was in the booth with the guitar, I was operating the recording the software in the control room and we also had a person in the booth setting up the microphones making sure the instruments has a good quality sound. this is very similar to the the layout of where Nevermind was recorded as there was also two technicians . Constraints we came across when recording were factors such as cutting of the tracks too quickly instead of letting the note ring on and then edit later. We also experienced some feedback from the microphones when in certain positions, this was a problem as it could ruin the recording. We also were unable to add add effects such as a chorus pedal this meant the recording was a bit dry.



Acoustic Guitar
When I recorded a 12 string Guitar with two Condenser AKG C1000S, one 30cm in front of the sound hole and the other 20cm in front of the neck. This technique was incorporated so I was able to put both recordings together to capture all of the sound resonating from the guitar. And also to create a more ambient tone on the recording. As it was recorded in a completely sound proof studio there was no background noise. this made the guitar sound like a professional recording and would have been similar to how bands like Nirvana would have recorded an acoustic guitar. I also feel like as the quality of recording was to a good standard this meant the expression of the performance was captured and therefore involved the listener. Using the two mics instead of one increased the amount of tonal range on the recording and also picked all of the sound resonated from the hole of the guitar. this is similar to the way nirvana recorded the son 'something in the way' as they used similar techniques to record an acoustic guitar. The way that the recording could be improved is that occasionally throughout the recording there would be a tapping sound of the plectrum hitting the body of the guitar. to improve this the performer could adjust his technique so this did not occur, if he were to do this the recording would therefore improve.