Two Instrument Recording Project
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Song: Give Me Away by Riley Roth
Instruments: Vocals and keys
Talent: Tsahai Johnson
Introduction:
My friend Tsahai is getting married next month and wanted to surprise her mom with a song. As soon as she said that a light bulb went off in my head – I can record her singing and playing the song for my MRT project, and she can give her mom a present she’ll never forget! She loved the idea and we recorded the very next day!
Setting Up:
Since she’s used to playing keyboard, I suggested that we record in the blue room. I first set up the keys by connecting a quarter inch into the Fender acoustic amp and then into a DI box. I then plugged a cable from the first channel of the amp into the thru of the DI. Then, I connected that into input 2 of the snake. Since she wanted to play and sing at the same time, I put the vocal mic over the keyboard so she could sing into while playing. I decided to go with the AT2020 because it’s pretty reliable and gives the vocals a bright, shimmering quality that complimented her voice. I plugged this mic into input 1 of snake.
Tracking
I made three tracks titled Vox, Keys amp, and Keys DI. Gain staging was pretty simple. I had her play and sing separately and then together to test the levels and balance them out. The recording process was pretty easy. She did a few takes and was happy with the last one. She thought the recording process was super cool and loved the vibe of the blue room.
Post Production:
While the setting up process usually takes the longest for me, this part of the project was the most time consuming. The biggest issue was the bleed in from the piano onto the vocal track. I tried to ignore it and add inserts to the track, however, the keys were drowning her out. So, I used CapCut to separate the vocals from the keys and it worked pretty well. I’m sure there’s a way to do it in Pro Tools but I wasn’t sure and am very comfortable using CapCut, so I just went that route. After that, I imported the isolated vocals into the session and began the mixing process. The trimmed the end of the session and added a fade to both in the beginning. I didn’t change the panning at all because I just didn’t think it was necessary.
For the EQ, I used the VEQ4 because I love that it can target certain frequency areas with knobs instead of just bands. I amplified the middle and high frequencies because that’s the area where her voice shines the most. I also added both a high pass and low pass filter to give the sound more body and depth. For compression, I used the Pro Multiband Dynamics along with the De-esser because, like me, Tsahai emphasizes consonants when she sings. For the keys, I added the REQ 6 and omitted a lot of the lower frequencies because it was a little too bass-heavy. I added two reverb sends for both the vocals and keys and used RVerb.
Additionally, I added a little bit of melodyne to Tsahai’s vocals to enhance them slightly. Though, honestly, she really didn’t need it.
Reflection:
Tsahai is one of my really close friends and I’m glad we were able to do this. I had a lot of fun working with her and I loved how excited she was throughout the entire process. I hope that her mom is happy with it.
