Day 1: Studio 2 – Drums, Spatial Tetris, and Clicks

Friday, May 15th

We kicked off the first day of recording in Studio 2, focusing entirely on rhythm. Our drummer, AJ, who I had recorded previously—brought in his own snare and cymbals.

Studio 2 is a fantastic but highly confined acoustic space. Setting up the kit immediately tested my mic stand management. To avoid low-frequency rumble traveling into the microphones, I had to play a careful game of spatial Tetris, ensuring none of my heavy mic stands physically touched or overlapped with AJ’s cymbal hardware.

Once the hardware was safe, I built out an extensive drum micing setup. Every choice was deliberate, balancing traditional workhorse techniques (Robjohns, 2003; Blomqvist, 2010; Gasson, n.d.) with a few bold experiments to capture both transient detail and raw, physical weight:

Fig 1: Neumann U87ai placed outside the kick drum and SM7B placed inside it

Fig 2: Shure SM58 with grille removed on the snare batter head

Fig 3: Shure VP88 stereo M/S microphone routed in mono to capture the snare bottom

Fig 4: Neumann KM184 as drum overheads

Fig 5: Shure Beta 57A positioned on the low tom

Fig 6: Shure SM58 positioned on the hi-tom

Fig 7: Coles 4038 capturing the hi-hat

Fig 8: Neumann U87 positioned as a Wurst mic in the center of the drum kit

Fig 9: SE4400 deployed in the hall to capture natural spatial decay

After a quick soundcheck, Rachel and the producer/guitarist, Spencer, came in with a sorted demo of the first track. AJ is a pro—it took him two takes to figure out the groove, and we were recording. Rachel and Spencer popped in between takes with feedback, and we knocked the first song out incredibly smoothly. We then tracked the second, jazz-pop song called "Brown Suit," which sounded fantastic and only required a few targeted punch-ins to match the vocal phrasing.

The 30-Minute Sprint: Finger Clicks With just half an hour left on the clock, we needed to track a group of four people doing finger clicks. I completely tore down the drum mics and set up a Blumlein closed-pair configuration using two Neumann U87s. The Blumlein technique involves setting two bidirectional (figure-8) microphones at a 90-degree angle to one another, with their capsules positioned as close together as physically possible (Wikipedia, n.d.). By switching both U87s to their figure-8 polar patterns, this coincident setup captures a highly accurate, 360-degree stereo image.

Fig 10: Two Neumann U87s in a Blumlein closed-pair configuration for tracking finger clicks

I placed the mics directly in the center of the four performers. Because they were all performing the exact same part, I routed a single, unified mix across four outputs on our Hearback system so everyone heard the exact same monitoring. The Blumlein technique kept everything perfectly phase-coherent (Huber, Runstein and Audio Engineering Society, 2018; AEA Ribbon Mics, 2018). The result? Incredibly snappy, crisp clicks that will sound like a massive crowd once I apply delay and reverb in the mix.

The Intermission: Session Housekeeping

Before moving into the second tracking day, I sat down and meticulously cleaned up the DAW sessions. When you are moving between studios and bringing in new musicians, having a messy template is a recipe for disaster. I color-coded, labeled, and routed everything so that Day 2 would be technically flawless.

Day 2: Studio 1 – Pianos, Brass, and The 3:30 PM Deadline

Monday, 18th May

Day 2 kicked off with an incredible amount of energy in Studio 1. Rachel was buzzing with excitement, her producer Spencer had invited a photographer friend to document the session, and AJ was hanging out in the room. The undisputed MVP of the day, however, was JJ—a brilliant multi-instrumentalist who tracked piano, trumpet, and violin.

The Piano & The Logic Tempo Pivot We started with JJ on the piano. To capture a wide, detailed image of the instrument, I utilized a multi-mic approach (Robjohns and White, 2004; Inside Blackbird, 2023):

Fig 11: Piano Stereo Micing Techniques

Almost immediately, we hit a production hurdle. Rachel and Spencer hadn't finalized a tempo change for the outro, meaning Rachel’s original guide vocals were sung at the song's standard, static tempo. Before we could record JJ's piano outro, I had to fix the foundation in Logic Pro. I cut the guide audio, went into the Global Track to program the new tempo curve, and utilized time-stretching on the audio regions to match the new grid. I kept looping playback for Rachel, making micro-adjustments until she was completely satisfied with the feel. Once the tempo mapped perfectly to her vision, JJ laid down the piano for the outro.

Trumpet & Taming the SPL Next, JJ pulled out his trumpet. Brass instruments are notoriously loud and move a massive amount of air, so close-micing requires caution (Robjohns, 1999). Furthermore, you rarely hear trumpets recorded entirely dry, they are designed to excite acoustic spaces. To achieve a larger-than-life brass sound, I set up a three-tier spatial capture:

Fig 12: Microphone setup for the trumpet

Fig 13: Neumann U87 placed looking down on the trumpet bell

Fig 14: KM184s in a closed-pair ORTF configuration in front of the trumpet

Fig 15: Neumann U87 placed in the hall to capture acoustic decay of the trumpet

The Electric Violin The next overdub was JJ on violin. He brought an electric model, which completely changed the miking strategy. Because it didn't generate enough acoustic volume (dbSPL) to interact with the room, a hall mic was entirely unnecessary. Instead, I focused purely on capturing the physical articulation of the bow against the strings (Robjohns and White, 2004):

Initially, the instrument's output jack was behaving badly, dropping signal. Fortunately, it stabilized, allowing me to capture a clean DI signal alongside the heavily textured close mics.

The 3:30 PM Deadline: Bass on the Clock With the violin wrapped, we looked at the clock. We were down to the wire, with just about 15 minutes left before we had to completely clear the room for a hard 3:30 PM studio cutoff. The pressure was on to capture Spencer's bass parts.

Fig 16: Three-channel bass guitar capture setup on an Orange bass cabinet

Despite the time crunch, I opted for a massive, three-channel capture. We combined the clean low-end of a DI signal with a heavily textured dual-mic setup on his Orange bass cabinet to ensure we had tonal flexibility in the mix:

Fig 17: Neumann U87 angled toward the edge of the bass amplifier speaker cone

Fig 18: Coles 4038 positioned on the right edge of the bass amplifier

Spencer strapped in and delivered a series of blisteringly fast, tight takes, nailing his parts right before the clock ran out.

Day 3: Vocals and Studio Psychology

Friday, 22nd May

Fig 19: Lead vocal tracking session in the studio

The final day of tracking was dedicated entirely to Rachel's lead vocals. When capturing a commercial vocal, engineering goes far beyond microphone placement; it crosses into psychology and physical management.

For the vocal chain, I selected a Neumann U87. I mounted it upside down and positioned the capsule a little bit above her mouth, pointing at it at an off axis. This classic studio technique not only keeps the capsule clear of sheet music or lyric screens but effectively mitigates harsh plosives (pops) without solely relying on heavy filtering (Huber, Runstein and Audio Engineering Society, 2018).

Fig 20: Neumann U87 mounted upside down and positioned slightly above the vocalist's mouth

Before we even rolled tape, while Rachel was at the mic making mock noises and clicks to test her levels, I noticed excessive mouth noise. I instantly knew she was dehydrated and called a pause to get her to drink more water. It is a small detail, but catching dehydration early saves hours of tedious de-clicking in post-production.

Rachel was incredibly professional and went through a solid warm-up routine before diving in. However, recording your own song for the first time carries a lot of weight. During playback of her initial takes, she seemed noticeably displeased with the results. As an engineer, my job is to listen objectively: she was perfectly in time and perfectly in tune. The technical execution was flawless.

I realized she wasn't missing the notes; she was overthinking the performance. I stepped in and suggested that what she was actually missing was the "Curiosity of Mr. Bean" (referencing the specific vibe of the track). Sometimes, you have to remind a singer of their own original vision to help them get out of their head. As we continued running repeats, you could hear her start to find her sound. It was a meticulous process—she did multiple takes of several sections to ensure we captured the perfect emotional arc.

The Reality of Studio Time Because we took the necessary time to let her explore and find that perfect lead vocal, the only drawback was running out of time for ad-libs. We captured a few, but Rachel understandably wanted more layers to thicken the arrangement.

With her leaving the university for the summer, our in-person studio schedule had effectively maxed out. To finish the production, we transitioned into a remote workflow. Rachel recorded the remaining ad-libs at her home setup, and the producer, Spencer, tracked the final guitar layers at his place, sending the stems over to me remotely.

Day 4: DOOR

On this day there was no one else in the studio except me, as the song is inspired from Mr. Bean Rachel wanted me to record/ sample the signature Mr. Bean door slam. I headed to Studio 2 to utilize its heavy, acoustically treated doors. To capture the perfect mechanical clunk and natural room decay, I placed an AKG 414 mic just outside the studio door. I made mic height and proximity changes based on the amount of door squeak and slam sound recorded. You can hear the door slam at the end of the song.

References

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