Oddsox

25/06/2023

Hi, Hattie wanted me to do a backing track for Bohemian Rhapsody which she could sing over. This is it. The vocals were recorded in one take and although there is the odd missed word or two, I like the freshness. Backing track made in house.

24/02/2023

Hello, hope you are well.
When I turned my house into a studio a couple of years ago, I decided to make some acoustic panels.
I tested 3 panels by recording a drum kit, with and without them.
The video shoes the process and you can hear the results.
I've made about 12 of them now and find them invaluable for room treatment for recording and mixing and for isolation in the live room. They now have fittings to link them together and can be free standing or wall fitted.
If you are thinking about treating your space, I hope you find this video useful.
The background music is a backing track I made for a vocalist recently, amazing how much virtual instruments have come on 😎

06/02/2023

06/02/2023

Hi, today we have the last recording from a live gig featuring Julie Edwards on vocals and Kevin Dearden on saxophone. This one really showcases Kevin's Sax playing and the interplay between the vocals. As a recording, I'm really pleased with the dynamic range on this one. Too often our poor ears are subjected to loud over compressed sound, with little dynamic range. Loud, sounds good to our ears - at first -but, pretty soon it becomes fatiguing, annoying and unmusical. Things got really silly for a while, and the era was dubbed the 'Loudness Wars'. Streaming platforms put the brakes on this by limiting loudness of tracks to about 14 LUFS.
The irony is that increasing the loudness too much destroys dynamic range and as a consequence makes the music much less impactful. Pink Floyd are a good example of a band who made full and effective use of dynamic range in their ground breaking recordings such as 'Dark Side of The Moon'.
This recording of 'Crazy Love' also has a large dynamic range. It starts off quietly and then builds slowly but gradually for a near continuous 3 minute crescendo. This is so much more engaging and impactful than just having it the same volume from start to finish by squashing with compressors and limiters. It also puts back in control, the listener, who is trusted to use their own volume control.

29/01/2023

Hello, we have a bass guitar solo today from George Beastall. The bass was DI'd straight into one of the high impedance preamp inputs on the Focusrite Clarett. The drums are recorded using the same mics as the drum solo I posted last, in fact they're both extracts from the same song - I wonder if you can tell which song?
I almost always prefer a DI'd bass guitar to putting a mic on the bass amp, or even a blend of the two. It always sounds fuller and more precise to my ears. There are minimal effects on the master bus, some gentle compression, side chained so under 80Hz does not trigger it much, some mid warmth added about 500Hz with a very broad Q and a limiter that takes off 2 or 3 dB at peaks, used to up the output level.
I've been working on a video, testing how effective the acoustic panels I have been making are. Should be out next weekend.
By for now and thankyou to George for an excellent bass solo.

18/01/2023

Hi, today, we have a drum solo recorded live. A fairly minimal set up, with a pair of Neumann 184's as overheads, quite close to kit - each 1.5m from the snare. A Beyerdynanic M160 above the kit centre again 1.5m from snare and a Beyerdynamic M 88 outside bass drum about 3 inches away. The 184's give a nice stereo spread and clarity off attack, the Beyerdynamic brings out the mid range thump of the toms and snare.
Please contact me on 07889 477265 if you would like you band, event or yourself recorded and produced.

29/12/2022

This recording is of the Humberside Police Brass Band. It is a trumpet duet, called 'The Prayer' and is performed by father and daughter, Pete and Rosie. The interplay between the two trumpets is rich in emotion and was one of the highlights of the concert.
Technically, trumpets can be difficult to record, because they are so loud. They are picked up by every microphone and it requires some careful mixing to blend with the band.
Microphones used: Sontronics Apollo, stereo ribbon - main stereo image (blumlein); pair of rode TF5's - stereo image (ortf), percussion - Neumann 184, Timpanis - Neumann 184, drums mono overhead - Beyerdynamic M160, Bass drum Beyerdynamic M88, trombones - Sontronics Aria, Saxophones - Beyerdynamic M160,
Tubas - SE T2, Bassoons - SE 4400a.
In mastering this recording, it became apparent, that my usual choice of limiters coloured the sound even though peak levels were well below the threshold and no gain reduction was taking place!
Orchestral and BrassBand music is particularly good to notice this.
The most transparent - by a long way - limiter I tried and then used was Reaper's stock limiter Realimit.
Wasn't expecting that!