Artifact 1
Recording & Mixing
RECORDING (IF YOU WANT TO) BY BEABADOOBEE
For the recording and mixing project, my group and i decided we were going to do a somewhat realistic cover of the song "If You Want To" by Beabadoobee. We were planning to make our own take on the song with different effects and stylistic changes. We chose this song because we felt it had a lot of potential for creative effects and gave us room to add our own style while still keeping the original feel recognizable. when it came to Amps, Instruments and mics, we chose the instruments carefully to match the mood and energy of the original track.
Research
For the research of this song, I couldn't find the techniques the she used. I managed to find some of the microphones that were used on the song. So we decided to implement these into our cover to try and make a somewhat realistic cover. For the research of the lyrics and tabs, it was all online and available for us to use. As for the Drum part, Ashton our drummer was able to play it by ear, as he said "It wasn't to hard to play". This gave him more time to get more creative with the fills.
Mic's, Instruments, and Research
The instruments helped us to create a fuller and more layered sound for our version.
Drums: Audix Kit
Kick: Audix D6
Snare: Audix I5
Toms: Audix D4
Overhead: Audix ADX51
Acoustic Guitar: For the recording of the acoustic guitar I got one of my friends from out with my college to come in and play the song for us as no one in my group was a confident guitarist. To record we used two AKG C414’s, one aimed at the sound hole and the other aimed at the neck of the guitar this was done so we could the nice lush sound from the body but also so we could get the sliding of the chords on the neck.
Electric Guitar – The electric Guitar was recorded using a DI Box as well as two SM57s aimed at the sound cones as the amp we were using had two cones which meant we were able to pan the two microphones left and right making the sound more rounded and fill the space in the song. One struggle we had when it came to mixing is we realised that the DI doesn’t sound great so originally, I had cut it but after listening to it again I actually decided to change my mind and try mixing it and eventually ended with a version that fit really well with the feel of the song.
Piano – for the small piano section you hear within the song it was recorded through midi on Ableton and then I bounced it down and imported it onto Pro Tools also I mixed it on Ableton this allowed me to just keep the effects I had on it when I bounced it.
For the bass I didn’t do much mixing wise as i was happy with the overall dry sound of the bass the only thing i did do was add an EQ with a high shelf preset. This lowered the highs slightly to around -9db and boosted the low to around 2db. I also Added a compressor just to make the bass slightly tighter and stop a little bit of the string rattling.
Vocals – The vocals were recorded using a AKG C414 with a pop shield. One challenge I faced when recording was communication with the singer, I struggled to get across exactly what I wanted for the song for example I kept asking the singer for her opinion on how she wanted to record it and she ended up getting breathless but instead of asking her to change we ended up sticking I think for next time I do a project like this I will definitely be more assertive with the singer on how I want the vocals to sound. One thing that made it easier is thankfully I knew the singer who were brought in so it was a little easier to ask for I wanted.
Mixing process -
When mixing, I wanted to make a somewhat realistic cover, adding my own effects and tweaks to show that its mine.
For the Drumkit I have used the channel strip plugin. I then used a preset for hi-hats, This would cut any low frequencies, removing unnecassary rumble. I also used a high frequency shelf cut to reduce harshness.
The section Í have done the most work on was the vocals. I have used the valhalla supermassive plugin, with a capricorn mode and small and wide preset. This made my vocals sound more vibrant and fuller and gave the track a more echoey feel.
guitar - For this track i decided to remove the eletric guitar as it had alot of problems and it was making a buzzing sound. For the acoustic guitar i have inserted the fabfilter Pro-Q 2 and applied a steep high pass filter, this removes a good amount low end from the guitar, getting rid of rumble. ive also used a Dyn3 De-Esser and used the Male De-eESS preset. ive tuned the frequency to 16.0kHz and set the range to -13.8db. I have also used AIR REVERB on the guitar, this has a short pre delay of around 10ms, a room size at 50% and I used the preset "booth". This effect helps the guitar sit nice into the mix.
Photos -
