Duration: 6’
Signature 4/4

My first challenging recording, the harp in close mic in a small studio room. While the harp is more particularly an instrument that projects enormously and is made to be played in beautiful large rooms, I took up the challenge of recording it with close mic technics in the SAE Brussels   for developing my personal experience.

For the recording I used 2 AKG C-414 on the side as AB stereo couple and details, 1 Neumann D-1 as front side and room microphone and 1 No Hype Audio LRM1 Ribbon microphone for the low frequencies. (all microphones furnished by the school). 

My mixing strategy, The harp has a vertical projection and the major content come from the resonance table. 
The harp frequency can be tricky in the low mid around 200Hz and the brightness between, 3KHz and 5KHz. Must be careful opening above 10KHz to not move the presence away. 
In this case, I really didn't have a lot of room so I had to go through my library of temporal plug-ins in order to add a nice reverb and simulate a room while keeping the harp nearby to be immersed in the delicate playing of the harpist.

Huge thanks to the talented artist, Judith Soumillion for her time and professionalism. Artist link details; https://metaensemble.be/

Judith Soumillion Harp - The Lark – Glinka (arr. Balakirev)

Here my second recording and so far my favourite, I learned a lot of new technics on it from the recording to mixing and mastering and had a lot of fun doing it. 

Recording: 

I recorded Julie in the SAE Bruxelles small 02R Studio, using Shure SM81 microphones as XY stereo couple to record the guitar + DI and Neumann D-1 numerical microphone for the voice. 

As I was passing through the Neumann D-1 Interface I had to use the Yamaha 02R compression on the voice instead of the hardware in the studio for the first voice level recording compression, Easy Threshold, soft Ratio, fast attack and release. 

The B- are the fact that wanted to recorded everything apart to be able to add some treatment to each single instrument and voice which make result with a little lack of coherence between the voice and guitar environment. I also tend to be too shy on Gain staging which brought me a lot of noise to ratio from the mic and other electric artefacts coming from the school electric installation. 

Mixing: 

I have D-Esser and 3 steps of compression on the lead vocals, I always start softer with the compression to be able to work by stages. The second stage tend to be more agressive and the third I keep a low ratio but longer attack and release than the first stage. 2 EQ stages mostly worked with Fabfilter and Saturn 2 with boost in the treble band. I used 1176LN on choirs for compression.

The tricky part on the acoustic guitar was dealing with the low rumble and low mid. I applied HP filter until 83Hz and low shelf from 235Hz cut in 335Hz and lil boost in 4.3KHZ. I used Pultec plug-in from UAD to had some more air and space to the guitar and LA-2A for a smooth compression. There is also separate treatments on each microphones. 

FX: I play a lot with. automation on vocal transients with a small delay on the "Things Change" chorus. I used Altiverb and Mod delay 3 + a snap delay for the end of the track on the vocal.

On this work I slowly entered into the Mastering technics which i will not describe for now. 

Help and advises participation on this project :

Shure SM 81 microphones kindly furnished by Mike Ollinger @ Blackcatsound https://www.instagram.com/blackcatsound/  

Mixing advices and mastering technics advices by Adrien Schockert https://www.adrienschockert.com/ 
Gabriel Domberger @ https://www.instagram.com/milgrammusic/ and Antoine Van Den Berg @ https://www.instagram.com/vandenbear/ 
@ SAE Brussels supervision

Julie Van Simaeys - Things Change.

I used the same microphone set up as the previous recording (Things change) XY Shure SM81 couple and Neumann D-1 for the voice. 

I have mic noises on the L side of XY couple due to an electrical issue into the studio, I tried to removed it by using RX but did not work so I applied a soft shelf high cut automation on the pall mute.

Julie Van Simaeys She's Mine

Here is "Belong",  from my friend Anna Delgado

https://www.instagram.com/anna_eternaduda/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/57Pj78J7aM3reGSEEmOOIU

Her second single recording and mixing by myself and Mastered by Adrien Schockert 

https://www.adrienschockert.com/

Studio 02 R @ SAE Institute Bruxelles

Anna Delgado_Belong

Umami Quartet, 

https://www.instagram.com/umamiquartet/

Recorded with the SSL 4000e studio @SAE institute Bruxelles

Umami Quartet

Elisa Gragnani,  Singer Song Writer 

https://www.instagram.com/elisa_gragnani/

Recorded and mixed by myself on SSL 4000e 

I used 3 multi patterns condenser microphones and choose figure 8 pattern, 2 Warm Audio U47 One placed at the bridge and another placed 20 cm from the first one at the 12 fret and 1 AKG C 414 XLS 90 degrees above the 12 frets microphones also in figure 8 to capture the voice. 

A credit technique I found watching:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggDfSVkU0o&t=236s&ab_channel=GeorgNeumannGmbH

As we know, Figure 8 microphone are picking sound coming from the front and from the rear and avoid sounds from the sides. As said in the video, at 90° working anti phased the sound arriving to both rear diaphragme is cancelled out. This is the best recording technique I've experimented today.

For the mixing technique, I've treated everything together sending all my tracks in one Aux bus and processed everything together adding a smooth Valhalla  Plate reverb.

Elisa- Aquarela Italian Portugues.wav

Recorded and Mixed by Myself at Studio SSL SAE Brussels.

Elisa Armenia/Gaelic

Written by Myself 
Recorded By Antoine Vandenbergh https://vandenbear.carrd.co/ @ Studio Neve SAE Bruxelles 
Mixed by Myself 
Mastering by Adrien Schockert https://www.adrienschockert.com/

Benjamin Scoyez- SLOW ROMANCE

Recorded and Mixed By Myself @ SAE SSL Studio.

https://www.instagram.com/umamiquartet/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfG4wKxX1g&ab_channel=BertCoppens

I Recorded and mixed Suicide Sue at SAE Institute Bruxelles for my studies in audio production. 

https://www.facebook.com/suicidesueband

We worked together with the SAE Film section to build up a bigger project, an entire unplugged live session recorded and film at the studio. 

The recording has been supervised by Antoine Van Den Baer 
https://vandenbear.carrd.com

And Mastered by https://www.adrienschockert.com/

You can watch the Documentary it here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Yrma5g7VY&ab_channel=SuicideSue

Link to the full EP:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2dt2eu9WFCvTFnvJVKvQiW?si=ogL3ZLeBRt-jb3kIlUjVAw

1 Everything You Want

I've been Recording and mixing my friends from Suicide Sue at SAE Institute Bruxelles for my studies in audio production. 

https://www.facebook.com/suicidesueband

We worked together with the SAE Film section to build up a bigger project, an entire unplugged live session recorded and film at the studio. 

The recording has been supervised by Antoine Van Den Baer 
https://vandenbear.carrd.com

And Mastered by https://www.adrienschockert.com/

You can watch the Documentary it here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-Yrma5g7VY&ab_channel=SuicideSue

Link to the full EP:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2dt2eu9WFCvTFnvJVKvQiW?si=ogL3ZLeBRt-jb3kIlUjVAw

2 Ashtray Love

This profile is dedicated solely to my projects as a sound engineer, to share my evolution and my work within my passion and to exchange with experiences through this field.  You can find on this profile most of my recent works regarding, recording and mixing production.

Benjamin Scoyez

Popular tracks