AA - Week 2 - Session Planning

This week in Audio Arts we looked at the preparation needed before a recording session. In particular, we looked at devising a session plan.

The first thing the engineer needs to do before a recording session is make sure it is all planned and can run smoothly. To do this, he or she needs to have a clear idea on what the musician wants from the recording. For example, the style of music, the sound they are looking for, and the instruments used. They would also need to know of any effects the musicians wanted in the music.

Once they have gathered this information it needs to be put into a session plan. I can see that this would make everything faster and more efficient, and makes a lot of sense. The session plan is a record of all the instruments and their microphones.

I decided to use a band that I would like to record as the project later in the year. The band is called The Nameless and is a punk rock band. They have 4 musicians, a vocalist who also plays the rhythm guitar, a bass player, the lead guitarist and a drummer. Because their sound is so grunge and rock, i put emphasis on the drum microphones. Many of their songs are well driven by the bass and drums, so I needed to make sure those two instruments in particular had sufficient microphones. I'd also have to talk to the boys, because sometimes the bass player sings a harmony line. So whether he needed a microphone would depend on the song being recorded. I assumed this one wouldn't need it.

Other notes I would need to remember is that they like to use effects. So I would have to find out what, if anything, they wanted done and allow for that in the plan.

The other points brought up in class involved mike placement. Things like making sure the microphones aren't getting any feedback, or catching the other instruments.

With this session plan, I would be feeding it directly into DigiDesign's ProTools, eliminating the need for the mic amp/EQ/Patching mentioned on the example sheet given to us in class.