Creative Studio Production Diary

  28/4/24 Setup: I will be using a DI box to achieve this recording, due to not having a real clavinet only a Digital Piano with a clavinet sound. The DI box is because The Hohner Clavinet D6 has a jack output as seen in images on Vintage Rock Keyboards (2015) So I feel this will be the best way of recording it. Back panel of a clavinet.  Vintage Rock Keyboards (2015) I will be recording the clavinet in 8 layers identically to 'Superstition' (1972) as described by Trinity College London (Date Unknown) " What you hear on the track is actually eight separate clavinet tracks mixed together" Processing: The tracks will come in through Neve 1073DPA pre-amps, adding saturation, an idea suggested by Gear4Music (2023) "y ou can even place them on your mix bus to add gentle harmonic distortion." After the pre-amps the tracks will go through a Neve 1073LB EQ unit to take some bass off around 200Hz reducing clashes with the synth bass and drums and boost the high frequ...

  24/4/24 Room Setup: I want a dry sound from the drums so to accomplish this I will be using O-rings for the snare and toms, heavy blankets for the kick and I will expose the absorbing sides of the acoustic panels within the studios. Mic Placement: For the mic placement, the  Senheiser MD421-II placed 4 inches inside the kick as suggested by Eat Sleep Drums (2016) "We had an RE-20 in the kick drum, about 4 inches inside the kick port and aimed towards the beater port." Due to proximity effect this close micking should give the kick a desirable resonant punch, supported by Sound On Sound (2021) " ' Proximity effect' is the tendency for low end to become exaggerated as a directional microphone is moved closer to the source." For the overheads I'm using a spaced pair to capture a wide stereo image because, 'Superstition' (1972) features a prominent "Phantom center" Leaving space for the kick as detailed by AEA (Date unknown) " This c...

  23/4/24 Previously, I've examined an article by Eat Sleep Drums (2016) that recreated the drums from 'Superstition' (1972). The article was useful however, I later learned that they used one extra mic than the original. I'm not including a dedicated snare mic as I'm limiting myself to 16 tracks mimicing the production of 'Superstition' (1972). Eat Sleep Drums (2016) suggests the use of a hyper cardioid mic being placed "over the floor tom and ride cymbal and aimed directly at the snare." which will help capture the snare. Liveabout Dotcom's article (2019) supports this plan by clarifying that 'Superstition' (1972) only has mics for "kick, overhead left (including hi-hat), and overhead right (including ride cymbal". I do not have access to the mics suggested by Eat Sleep Drums (2016) So I have found the closest equivalents from the University's resources, notably replacing the ribbons with condenser alternatives. To Repla...

16/4/24  Following my previous research I've come to decide on what I would like to record whether that's re-recording instruments already present in the stems on new parts and what I will remove. The primary thing that I've considered is that 'Superstition' was originally restricted to 16 tracks which I would like to stick to for my own project. I've made in Microsoft Excel listing each tracks stems.  Changes I'm making: I will be removing all keyboard parts and replacing the electric guitar parts with a clavinet.  Additionally as I am keeping the original brass stems I will re-export one of them to include the trumpet track so I can have all brass instruments but still limited to 2 tracks.  For the drums I will be condensing my setup down to the 3 mic recording established in my previous post.. This Additional table I've created demonstrates what stems I will keep, Remove and replace and what I will replace with. My next goal is to decide what mics I w...

  13/4/24 Today I found an article on Liveabout Dotcom (2019) I discovered it as a reference someone listed in a Sound on Sound forum (2009) discussing how Stevie Wonder captured the iconic tones of this track. The article breaks down the original stems from the track as they are available online. The overall track is 16 tracks "On this mix, we have 16 tracks to work with"   Liveabout Dotcom (2019). The initial thing to note is that there are only 3 drum mics deviating from the previous article I studied. The drums feature "three channels: kick, overhead left (including high-hat), and overhead right (including ride cymbal)" Liveabout Dotcom (2019). The bass is a single track of a Moog synth as supported by Rolling Stone (2018) "The cavernous Moog bass with undulating ARP synthesizers that became Stevie signature sound in hits like 'Superstition' " The vocals are double tracked and were likely recorded using a Neumann 87 or Electro-Voice RE20 as sug...

 11/4/24 Today I found an article by Eat Sleep Drums (2016). It details a recording session undertook to recreate the drums in superstition. They describe having substantial acoustic paneling on the walls around the kit to make the kit sound dry additionally, they use Neve 1073 pre-amps which we also have available in the studios.  These are the mics they used: Electro-Voice RE-20 (Cardioid - Dynamic), 4 inches inside the kick. Coles Electro-acoustics 4038 (Bi-directional - Ribbon), acting as a mono overhead directly above the kick foot pedal. Beyerdynamic m160 (Hyper Cardioid - Ribbon), coming in over the floor tom and cymbal angled towards the snare. Royer 121 (Bi-directional - Ribbon), about 3 feet from the shell of the snare to capture the weight of the drum and some mild room ambiance. Below you can see the frequency response of each microphone used in this article. These along with the sources from which I got them from (see bibliography) will be essential in choosing th...

 7/4/24 Today I began work on planning my aims and goals for this project. The track I've chosen is 'Kane Guru' by West End Blend, as I enjoy the overall sound of the track with its funky style. Initially I've looked into exploring the use of a Two-Tone Ska track as my reference material, specifically 'House of Fun' (1982) by Madness . They share some similar aspects whilst having differences however, I discovered that there is little to no information on how Two-Tone Ska was recorded, the information usually leans into the social-political context of the music. I've instead settled on another track: 'Superstition' by Stevie Wonder (1972) I think looking into this track will be more fruitful as surface level exploration into information on its production seems to be more documented. The song features some similar elements to 'Kane Guru' such as brass. I reckon taking inspiration from this track will provide some interesting results by adaptin...