Help me with my degree!

[lanky noob]

Okay, so i'm fairly sure this is in the right subforum.. sorry if it isn't!

Bit of background, i'm in my second year at BIMM Brighton, and one of my modules is in studio recording, end of year exam is still quite a way off, but it's best to get stuff sorted now right?

In said exam, I have an hour to record someone and get a fairly decent mix/pseudo master going. I'll have an engineer at my disposal to twiddle all the knobs etc, but in the interest of saving time, which I obviously don't have much of, i'll be doing some subtle eq/compression on the way in.

Stuff i'll be recording is a female vocal, acoustic guitars, and possibly an acoustic bass, and out of the following equipment, i'm trying to figure out which chain would be best, so any help/advice you could give on getting me started would be MASSIVELY appreciated.

TL;DR I have to choose from and an hour to record and mix, doing stuff on the way in, help me refine my signal chains

Console :
TLA AUDIO VTC 32 CHANNEL CONSOLE

Outboard:
VACUVOX CL2 (ROHDE AND SCHWARZ) VINTAGE TUBE COMPRESSOR X 2
TLA IVORY VALVE COMPRESSOR
FMR AUDIO RNC COMPRESSOR x 3
DBX 160X X2
DRAWMER VALVE STEREO EQ
EVENTIDE H3000 MULTI EFFECTS
EMT PLATE REVERB
LEXICON ALEX MULTI EFFECTS X2
LEXICON MPX1 MULTIEFFECTS
LEXICON MPX100 MULTIEFFECTS
ALESIS QUADRAVERB PLUS MULTI EFFECTS
ALESIS MIDIVERB MULTI EFFECTS
YAMAHA SPX90 MULTI EFFECTS
YAMAHA PROGRAMABLE DELAY
(plus 1073 and 1176)

Mic's:
NEUMANN U149 VALVE
NEUMANN TLM103
NEUMANN U87
CAD AUDIO TRION 6000
BEYER M160 RIBBON X 3
T BONE RB500 RIBBON X2
GOLDEN AGE PROJECTS R2 RIBBON
SENNHEISER 451 X2
SENNHEISER 421 X2
SENNHEISER E609 X3
AKG D112
AKG 414 X2
AKG 451 X2
SHURE BETA 52 + SHURE BETA 57
SHURE SM58 X4
SHURE SM57 X8
SE E2200



Now, choices so far... i'm thinking about recording the acoustic gtrs with the Trion 6000 and TLM 103, with a U87 in the room for some ambience, going into a neve 1073 with the 1176 catching a few transients and adding a little bit of grit. Once it's into PT i've got a waves package at my disposal to carry out the rest of the mix with, so that's not a problem.

For Vox, I was thinking, more than likely the u87, given that it's quite a breathy vocal, heaing into the 1073 again and then into the vacuvox compressor.. although i'm still debating the mic choice, from there i'll probably jsut run it into a vocal processing chain i'm going to experiment with over the next few weeks

and as for acoustic bass, i've got no fucking idea.

Cheers for nay input guys, it's massivrey appreaciated!

again, TL;DR, need help deciding on a recordin gchain for my exam, vocals, acoustic gtrs and an acoustic bass, read through the list of gear, see if you agree with my choices and offer some advice!

 

[greyskull]

1176 may be a little aggressive for acoustic, what studio is that at?

I've done a lot of stuff at Brighton Electric in the past. LOVE that place.

Former BIMM student BTW!

 

[lanky noob]

Ahh awesome! what year did you graduate?

And nah, not electric, it's up at the Metway, Toby's place!

I was thinking the 1176 might be a bit too aggressive for acoustic, but i'm not entirely sure that I like how smooth the 1073 is.... but I LOVE the general colour of it, if you know what I mean, could switch it round for the vacuvox and put the 1176 on the vocal....

(I should point out htey're nt legit 1176/1073's, they're near identical clones. Not sure about the 1073 but the 1176 is made by a company called warm audio)

 

[Mago]

Seems like a good plan to me. If you're not sure about which vocal mic to choose then just set up more than one, and go with the gut when you get to the mix.
If you're not sure about the 1176 being too aggressive then leave it.

About the Bass I guess I'd start with the 414...can't go wrong with that on some many different stuff. And then maybe also a darker one...m160 or so? No idea how deep down it has to go with that acoustic bass.

Are you going live or overdub recording? Since you said you'd use the u87 for room and for vox, and theres only one u87 on the list I guess overdubb.
That would be my main concern tbh, you can waste a lot of time with doing takes if you're not really quick setting up the mics, re setting them for different instruments.
So you might wanna take into account to use the same mics on guitar and bass, so you can just switch out the player.
and for the vox the u87 that was the room mic.
If they had an SM7 I'd say set up that one before as well to have an alternative to the u87, in case it doesnt want to work with the vocalist at all.

Mixing shouldn't take too long with 3 elements. Find a panning you like, eliminate resonances if you hear them, basic eq, mit of comp, maybe reverb depending on the type of music.

I don't think the mix will be the stressful part haha

 

[lanky noob]

it's a relatively complex guitar part, so tracking live would probably be to my detriment, purely 'cause there'd be more likely to be mistakes made, and as for time setting things up, i'm jsut calling the shots, the studio's in house engineer is there to do pretty much fucking everything, it seems the exam is more focused on me being a producer than an engineer... I just have to bark out what mic's/pre's etc I want to use

Cheers for the advice guys!

 

[greyskull]

Ah yes, I remember that exam. Don't forget; focus on the song a little more than worrying about the minutiae of exactly what mic etc you are using, you have limited time, and a few more takes through to nail the song and/or capture the performance is way more important. Also keep in mind, he may already have something set up, and has a heck of a lot of other bands to track, so may not particularly appreciate re patching EVERYTHING.

IF THE exam is gear towards producing, produce. Obviously have a strong vision of how you want it to sound. Can you get to a bands rehearsal to do pre production with them?

 

[lanky noob]

I'm tracking one of my best friends, so it's more than easy to get some pre prod in with her, and as for my buddy who's playing bass... well he's in my band, and I know he's absolutely solid.

She's trying to get hold of the raw tracks from her last ep too, so I can get a rough idea how to process her vocal/guitar beforehand, hooray, less stress in the exam!