Manchester MIDI School

Airtight Studios, Manchester : www.airtightproductions.co.uk/

Day One

Arrived at studio in good time.  I had checked out the studio online, to see
what the set-up was, and through e-mail conversation with Alan, the studio
manager, I had an understanding of the sessions I would be sitting in on.

Upon meeting Alan, he gave me a brief tour of the studio and its two control
rooms.  In addition to the main live room and control room, there was a
smaller project studio, adjoining a vocal booth, which was used more for
pre-production and MIDI-based sessions.

The main live-room studio was equipped with a Pro Tools HD system with two Digidesign 96 audio interfaces and a Control 24 surface.  There was a bit of
outboard including a TLAudio Ivory compressor/mic-pre and a Focusrite
8-channel pre with digital output going into Pro Tools to add more inputs.

Before the day's session got under way I had a good chat with Tom, the
engineer for the main studio.  I told him about my experience and college
work, and developed a good rapport with him, especially when I remarked on
the pump organ in the live room being "very Tom Waits"!

The day's session was to be recording backing tracks for a rap artist using
a strong set of session musicians that Tom had worked closely with.  As Tom
was to be handling guitar duties within that ensemble, which also consisted
of bass guitar, drums, keyboards and saxophone then I was to operate Pro
Tools and handle various overdubs and re-takes.  Luckily, my own experience
of Pro Tools at home, as well as operating a couple of different control
surfaces, allowed me to do this without being overwhelmed at the task.

We wanted to engineer the session to record the whole backing section live
but maintain enough separation for any subsequent overdubs.  Once the
drum kit was in place; I set about micing it up, arranging the mic stands,
and working with Tom on how to place the mics best.  Following Tom's
instructions, I routed the mics through to the multicore in the live room
corresponding with the inputs in the Pro Tools session.

We were to DI the guitar direct into Pro Tools and run a guitar amp
simulator, thus avoiding the need to use an amp which would spill into the
drum microphones.  The same process was done on the bass, but as we had used the entire DI boxes, I suggest DI'ing the bass direct from the Ashdown amp.  I have an Ashdown amp as part of my bass rig and knew that you could get decent results from the DI out on the amp.

Having selected some good basic patches for the guitar and bass amp
simulators (which I believe were Live 6 plug-ins in Pro Tools), it did not
take long to set up a good mix, which would be routed through to the
players' headphones.  Some rough demos had already been recorded so we knew what sort of mix/sound would be required.

Tom went into the live room to have a few quick run-throughs with the band,
and I was left to operate Pro Tools, and after a brief rehearsal we cracked
on with the recordings, of which about 4 or 5 takes of each tune were
tracked.

Between songs, the band would come into listen to each of the takes and
decide which to go with, as well as making minor adjustments to the mix.  It
was good to see how professional musicians worked in the studio and I made
sure they were happy by bringing them plenty of cups of tea!

I learnt some good tips and tricks throughout the day from Pro Tools
editing to importing settings to keep each song's Pro Tools session
consistent, and it was good in general just to see how a professional
engineer works, realising that many of the practices were what I had learnt
throughout college and my own recording work.

The session continued upto 11pm, and having recorded 5 or 6 songs, I
proceeded to tidying up the live room, taking down microphones and
organising all the leads, DI boxes, headphones etc, ready for the next day.

Day Two

The day was set out for a mixing and review session for a singer-songwriter
who also wanted to do some vocal, percussion and other instrument overdubs
for some of his songs.

Tom, the engineer, who as well as being an accomplished guitarist, is also
an incredible trumpet player, and so again, I was to handle overdubs on Pro
Tools as he worked on his trumpet parts.  I had a good conversation with the
client, and talked a lot about music and influences, and built up a great
rapport.  So much so, he asked me to play a bit of percussion (wine
bottles!) on one of his tunes.

It was great to here each of the tunes develop, and to get an insight into
how different musicians work.  Quite a different day to Day One, as it was
more about critical listening, and working with the client to realise what
they wanted.  A very productive day, in terms of building communication
skills with the client.

Day Three

A day similar to Day Two, with a client coming in with already recorded
material (for the new Fall album), for mixing and editing.  Due to the more
professional nature of the day's session, I decided to take less of an
active role, as Tom needed to work fast.  However, I learnt a lot from the
session and it was great to see Pro Tools working hard with different
edits.  The client was extremely professional and knew exactly what he
wanted from the session so the day was less about input and more about
producing what the client demanded.  I made sure he had a fresh cup of tea,
and so kept him happy!

After the session, I managed to have a very interesting and insightful chat
with the client, and realised his breadth of experience and output, as well
as his stature in the music industry.

Day Four

Today's session was revisiting the recordings from Day One, but consisting
mainly of saxophone overdubs, and mixing the tracks ready for the client.

Where as the band was quite busy with the recordings on Day One, today
allowed me more chance to get to know them, and how they worked.  I really
appreciated that they treated me like another musician/engineer, and not as
a tea-boy or work experience bod, as would probably be expected in another
line of work.  The experience made me understand how transferable the skills
I have developed at college are, and my own background in music allowed me chat constructively with the musicians and clients, and they were very open
and often asked me for my opinion on certain parts.  I felt completely
relaxed in that environment, and even suggested certain parts for the
keyboardist.

Throughout my time at Air Tight, I made sure I fully understood what was
going on through each session, but without wanting to interfere with the
(paying) client's time.  I was very eager to help out, and did not want to
take a backseat at all.  Tom remarked at how well I had done at the studio,
and commented that I would be his first choice if they were looking to
recruit another engineer.  Tom also said that I had a good rapport with the
different clients, and he stated how valuable this trait is, as you need to
really work with the client, and realise their musical visions.  It is also
important to have a good frame of reference of music, so you see what each
client is trying to accomplish.

Again, I learnt a lot from each session.  It was great to see how Tom
worked, and I was glad that I was able to fit in well to their working
practice.  Having seen the power of Pro Tools in action, I came away
promising myself that I would train myself up on it more at home.

Tom Owen

Midi School Music Industry consultant Ben Davis composed the music for a short film “Would You?”, which was entered in the Straight 8 Film Challenge.  The rules were one cartridge of super 8mm film and no editing which is sent straight off, developed by the judges and the soundtrack dropped on which the filmmaker then sees for the first time.  The result is a creepy urban horror short that leaves the viewer none the wiser.
“Would You?” got to the competition finals at the Cannes Film Festival and won a very respectable 10th place out of 175 entries in The Media Guardian Viral Grand Prix.

http://www.straight8.net
http://www.flash-studios.co.uk