Audio Production

Milestones: Week One of the 3 Track Demo Project

April 14, 2009 Six months have now passed since our class started the Audio Production course at CDIA, and it's amazing how fast the time has gone, not to mention how much we've learned.
 
The first few months of classes were great fun with a lot of information to soak up fast. In addition to the audio theory there are two amazing recording studios to learn to navigate, plenty of class labs to get us working on the types of projects we'd see in the working world, and mix projects to get us using and strengthening our audio theory. Looking back to six months ago it's very satisfying to see how the whole class has advanced and gained so much knowledge.
 
We now find ourselves at our first big milestone: the three-song demos. In teams of two, we have three weeks to produce, record, and mix three songs for a band of our choice. This brings into play all we've learned so far, testing our ability to use the studios, produce a band, and mix the songs.
 
My partner on this project is classmate Serge and we're recording The Lights Out, a four-piece rock band from Boston. Before the three weeks started we had to book our studio time. We sat down and planned how much time we needed for each stage of the project, worked with the band to figure out their availability, and then grabbed the studio time we needed. We also got demos of the songs we were going to be recording from the band, lyrics, and talked to the band about what they've liked and not liked about previous recordings they have done.
 
Our first studio session was Tuesday evening - seven hours in studio D to track drums and bass. One thing I've learned from being part of a band in the studio is that things always take longer than you think, plus you have to take into account time for setting up, packing up, breaks, unforeseen disasters, technical problems, musician problems; the list goes on. CDIA has an impressive range of top mics and outboard gear you'll find in all great studios, so before stepping in the studio we planned what we were going to use on the drum kit and bass.
 
The band arrived a little early, and this is great as we were able to chat about the session and start setting up some drums. The lead guitarist wasn't able to make it, which, for tracking the drums and bass, actually makes things a little simpler. Then, with studio keys in hand, we got going. Drums were set up in the main live room, bass amp in one iso booth, guitar amp in another iso booth, and all musicians are playing in the live room with headphones. It took a couple of hours to get everyone settled, everything mic'd, outboard gear patched, and levels taken. It sounded great so we went for the first take of the first song. The Lights Out is a great band so we knew we weren’t going to have too many problems with them, and we didn't. The first two songs we got within three takes, with very few bass overdubs required. The third song took a few additional takes, it was getting late and tiredness was starting to set in, but we got it.
 
The next session is Sunday - eight hours for guitars. We can't wait!
 

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