In the studio: Nicholas Clark Timber Tales

I spent my evening a few Saturdays ago at the Maine Music Mill in Brunswick recording Nicholas Clark's Ep titled Timber Tales. We spent over six hours diving into four different original songs that represent Nicholas as a singer-songwriter. We spent a few weeks prior to this session formulating what was desired by the outcome of the session and the stylistic approach of how we would get there.

We met up for a coffee a few weeks before the session to discuss logistics. This proved to be a productive step as it gave me a good amount of insight into Nicholas's composition and performance style and answered a number of questions that did not have to be answered during our limited session

time. It also gave me time to dive into some of his older tunes and learn about his musical influences which helped narrow down both recording and mixing strategies that would be considered applicable. Initiating a meeting with an artist prior to a session is something I plan to do as much as possible. Utilizing even a short meet up can help build a mutual understanding of the artists motives, influences and performance styles which drastically speeds up the planning and execution of a recording session.

Photo From (http://www.trainweb.org/usarail/brunswick.htm)

Moving forward, The idea behind this EP for Nicholas was that he wanted a recording that would represent him and his relationship to his music. Something that would allow a listener to understand him as a musician and as a songwriter. This being the case he spent the few weeks after our first meeting picking out the songs he felt depicted these qualities the best. He ended up choosing two gorgeous acoustic compositions (one of which is an instrumental) and two bluesier tunes that really emphasize his musical character.

So understanding the motivation and style of music we were going to be producing I knew exactly how I should attack the session and what I needed to shoot for regarding the characteristics of the recorded sound.

Because Nicholas is a solo singer-songwriter I knew there was not going to be a lot of instrumentation. At the very least, different from what you would hear in a full band. So my goal was to make his guitar and his voice sound as full as possible. I knew the way I recorded these songs was going to determine the overall success of the finished demo.

I have done a lot of research about mic placement for all types of instruments and have cataloged a lot of these techniques into my "go to" strategies. Prior to this session however, I had not had any great success in achieving a great acoustic guitar sound. I had always kept the set up minimal and found that the result was always lacking fullness, it never sonically occupied the deep lows and shimmering highs that a well made acoustic guitar will project. I finally knew what I needed to accomplish and what would make a guitar and vocal track sound as full as a complete band.

The key is maintaining the presence through out the entire frequency spectrum. Usually when mixing a complete band certain instruments are fighting for space and it requires the engineer to recreate the frequency balance of each instrument through equalization so that each element has its own space. However when you are working with only one instrument it is the exact opposite. You want to make sure you are capturing as much of that instruments character as possible. For this reason I choose to use three large diaphragm condenser microphones to capture the acoustic guitar.

I started with a stereo mic set up. I choose the mid side configuration as I knew the natural space of the room we were recording in would benefit the sound, while also providing a stereo image for the guitar. For the purposes of this blog I will not go into detail on how to set up the M/S technique as it requires an understanding of a few in depth subjects to mix and process correctly. However I will say it is used to capture both the direct sound of an instrument as well as the early reflections of both left and right sides of the space it is in. With the M/S configuration alone the guitar had a nice clear mid and high end from the direct cardioid mic (circled red) and had a nice room sound and stereo presence from the figure 8 mic placed above (circled blue). However, it was still missing one thing, A "fat" low end. To achieve this low end on the guitar I placed the third large diaphragm condenser behind the body of the guitar (circled green). By doing this the mic is capturing less of the high frequencies from the neck and more of the resonance from the body. Placing it behind the guitar is advised for a few reasons. The first reason is because when the mic is placed behind the body you avoid the risk of capturing the boomy and muddy lows that would be captured directly in front of the sound hole. Second, you also avoid any phase issues that could come into play while having three unpartitioned microphones in close proximity to each other.

Besides acoustic guitar the rest of the session was quite simple and did not involve any more multiple microphone techniques. We ended up using DI's for the electric bluesier tunes as it granted more control over the sound and allowed Nicholas to focus more on his performance. The final thing worth mentioning in terms of the technical aspects of the session was the AKG P820 Tube microphone Circled red above) as well as the Focusrite ISA 428 Preamps. This equipment was the power house for the session as we used this signal chain on the acoustic guitar and the vocals. I want to thank Jeb Enoch recording for letting us record this demo at the Maine Music Mill. Having access to unique rooms and diverse high quality gear makes so much difference in the final product and I am so grateful to have use these resources to help talented and deserving musicians.

Nicholas Clark's Timber Tales will be finished up very soon. I will be sure to make a post on various social media platforms regarding the specific dates and where to find his music. Keep an ear out for these tracks as you will be blown away by the gorgeous acoustic and compositional complexity!