Ben Levitt Podcast.L

For this assignment we were asked to do a stereo mic recording in small groups. We decided to do a cover of Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac with vocals and a mandolin. The main part of the song are the vocals and the mandolin would compliment the vocals well. As the two instruments share a frequency range it was important to make sure the two instrument were able to have there own space and definition.  The mic's we used were an SM 57 and a SA, Condenser vocal mic. We set them facing away from each and having Alyssa and Zach standing facing each other. We did this so Zach and Alyssa were able to look at each other as the song wasn't rehearsed much. Another reason for this was that with the mic's facing away from each other there would be less sound coming from the other sound source. Withe the vocal mic being cardioid it still picked up some sound from the mandolin, this could be fixed by either moving the mic's away from each other but the room was too small for that but another solution would be to simply use a noise gate in the mixing. A easy way to make the song sound more professional the key things to use would be to add a compressor and some channel EQ's on the mic's. With the channel EQ's you would be able to define space for each instrument giving the song more depth and definition whilst highlighting the key parts of the song. As the song primarily based on the vocals we decided to keep the mandolin the underling and have the vocals as the dominant force in the song.   .Due to the fact we were in a small room with little padding, using two stereo microphones helped reduce the room sound to (as mentioned before) reduce reverb but also add room ambiance.  We also used a pop shield of the vocal mic to remove harsh tones and sudden pops in the recording. There were basic problems like assigning outputs and inputs and missing cables but these were all easily resolved through logic and google. As the recording was not meant to be mixed i added some pre-EQ's to smooth out some of the frequencies on Alyssa's voice and add some bass to the mandolin. Due to some issues with keeping in time we had to give Zach a in ear metronome so he could keep a steady tempo whilst Alyssa followed him. 

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