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Matt's Podcast

The recording in question was made with both a piano and a handheld drum with small metal balls inside that act as snares. These particular instruments have been used in order to create a solid beat without the problems that come with room micing a full drum kit and for example losing all the bass from the kick drum. Whilst the drum works to create a beat, the piano has been chosen in order to create a thick sound that picks up on microphones well from a short distance. The beat itself has also been kept relatively simple to allow for the recording to have clarity yet depth to it. 
The microphones that have been used are two Neumann KM184’s, which have been set in an x-y placement with the outputs on Pro tools panned completely to the left or the right. The two microphones were positioned, after a deal of experimentation, at a high height just behind the back of the piano and pointing almost directly downwards although not completely, in order to allow for the drum to be picked up as well. The microphones were set up in this way in order to catch the warmth of the piano coming from the open top whilst still picking up the drummer who is sitting directly next to the pianist. Along with this two sound dampening walls have been set up directly behind the musicians where the microphones are pointing in order to cut out any reflection from the hard walls. Although the room’s natural reverb can be heard on the recording, the damping stops any interference with later notes. 
Experimentation with a AKG microphone using different polar patterns and different positioning resulted in a long process of finding a way to record properly. Every set-up until the one used had the problem of either sounding sloppy or spill problems from one end of the piano to the other and the clearest way to pick up the sound from the piano would not bode well for the drum, so a compromise was made in order to facilitate for the instrumentation. 
The project was recorded on pro-tools and the bounced to logic. On logic very minimal post-production has been done to the recording. This consists of only adding a very slight EQ boosting some of the high end on the piano chords and the slightest small room reverb. 
The biggest problem that this assignment showed was getting a warm sound from the piano and most of the effort was put into finding a way to do this without ending with fazing problems or a piano sounding distant and unclear. The drum pierced through and was not difficult to pick up  although the placement of it was a problem at times to get the volume and amount of punch right. 


Stereo recording (24th january)

Born To Die(mattcooper)1

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