Adam Dean Ellis

Recorded at MTSU Studio A – March 2009 Only Girl in the World 0:00 / 0:00 Danny Boy 0:00 / 0:00

RagTag Quartet 3 Photos

The RagTag quartet is a traditional Barber Shoppe quartet from Nashville Tn. We created these3 recordings at MTSU in the class Production Seminar I, which is first year MFA. We chose the RagTag Quartet because it was something different. Most everyone records rock or pop music around here.

Two approaches, or production methodologies, were considered leading up to the sessions, an ensemble approach and an individual approach. The ensemble approach would utilize stereo microphone techniques to capture the whole quartet to a pair of tracks. The individual approach uses a separate mic for each person in the ensemble recorded to separate tracks. Both have their various strengths and weaknesses. Current production trends, especially in the studio environment, would often dictate that we take the individual approach which would allow us to exercise the control, and propensity for non-committal processing, allowed by computer recording technology.

In the end, we decided to opt for the ensemble, or stereo, approach which poses the new question of which stereo technique to use. The first stereo techniques that come to mind are the spaced pair and the coincident pair. The spaced pair would offer a wide stereo image and poor mono compatibility. The coincident pair would would have a more narrow stereo image, although still very stereoy ( stereoy – that the best I could do), and be more mono compatible. We could use the Mid/Side technique that usually yields an excellent stereo image, is mono compatible, and would allow us to make some changes to the balance of he ensemble. Or finally, the Blumlein pair which would allow a greater sense of space due to the figure eight patterns of the mic.

What to do….

Try em all!!!!!

In the bottom left we have our M/S pair and almost directly above that is the Blumlein pair. To the outsides is our spaced pair, which is a little more spaced than I would have normally liked, however space is a concern. Finally, towards the top right, on the stereo bar, is our coincident pair. First, let me clarify that only two mics in this situation would ever be used from this amalgamation of stereo setups. Trying to use more than one pair at a time on the same source could be vary bad. Also of note, is that the M/S decoding was handled inside and outside of pro tools by routing the side mic to two tracks in pro tools, and reversing the phase on one of them. We then sent the tracks to three channels on the SSL Duality and took are of the panning there. The MID is panned dead center, SIDE 1 (no phase change) panned hard left, SIDE 2 ( 180˚) panned hard left. This allows us to monitor the M/S signal decoded, and in confidence.

Trying to figure out which technique was our favorite for this situation is where things got interesting. In the end, we agreed that the best stereo technique on tracking day depended almost exclusively on the song. Obviously there would be major differences in the sound of each stereo pair, but should not the ensemble sound relatively the same from each song to the next on the same pair of microphones?I thought it should, and I was just plain wrong.

Have a listen. Each of these example are unprocessed, and represent the input directly. I find one to be more appropriate than the others. What do you think?

So what is the variable? The only explanation I can conceive is that the song is the variable. Every song is different and, as it should be, a musician approaches every song differently, giving it the shape and balance that it calls for. That being said, we should be able to construct a set of guidelines that would indicated which pair would give the best results. However, for a “type” of song there are an infinite amount of artistic possibilities that would prevent the creation of any hard and fast rules. The final judge should be the ear and which one feels the best. The choice can have a profound impact on the experience of the final listener.

The mixing phase was easy because largely the work had been done on the front end. The group balanced themselves well and their where very few edits to make. All we really had to do was add a little reverb since the space we recorded in was very very dry. Other than that we ran the tunes through the bus compressor on the SSL AWS900 and we where done. We mixed all six songs in about 4 hours and where happy with four of them. The Total time spent on the project was around 8hrs.