2024
The Tower
Recorded in my bedroom as a proof of concept.
This is a song that I wrote, recorded, mixed, and mastered. It’s based on the tarot card “The Tower.”
Acoustic Guitar - Adithya Sastry
Drums - Jeremy Edwards
Vocals
I initially tried the U87, but it didn’t really suit the song. I was going for a darker and more intimate and close sound, so I just used my AT2020, which I’ve been singing on for years and which I’m very comfortable on. Sometimes artist comfort leads to the best performance, even if the sound quality isn’t immaculate.
Rhythm Electric Guitar
Wanted Mid-Side to make it wide and ethereal, but still center.
Ribbon for the sides and U87 for mid. Wanted it warm and creamy.
Distorted Melodic Guitar
Traditional setup.
Sometimes I was using the Boss DS-1 or sometimes I was overdriving my amp.
I used a reamp kit so that I could be in the control room playing the guitar, and so that I could also record one line and then mess around with different tones.
Drums
going for roomier and more distant drums, but still retaining punch and clarity in the mix.
decided on a mono miking technique to keep the drums distant sounding in the mix, like they were off a little ways instead of right next to your ears and super wide. I threw in some spot mics on the toms since they were played pretty regularly in the song, and I also threw in an extra frontal view mic so I could switch drum tones during the bridge section of the song, but I happened to like how it sounded so much that I blended it in with the snare overhead.
in the end, I didn’t pan any of the mics, only blended them together with a few phase flips.
references:
“Lost Cause: by Beck
“Black Diamonds” by Big Thief
Acoustic Guitar - KM140 pointing at 12th fret positioned from the neck side.
2024
Harmonettes
A cover of Japanese Denim sung by the Harmonettes, a student acapella group.
Recorded by Lukas Nepomuceno, Julian Sarkissian, and Renata Schmult.
Edited and mixed by Julian Sarkissian.
This song was a challenge in vocal editing, tuning, and mixing. But luckily we recorded the vocals such that each one was relatively isolated:
A large challenge was making sure each vocal section (Alto 2, Alto 1, etc.) was able to be heard and distinctly picked apart from the other. I achieved this by letting each vocal section have a certain part of the frequency spectrum where it could speak through.
Another hurdle was tuning and editing all of the vocals so that they were cohesive but not robotic. It was a lesson in moderation and subtlety.
2024
Written by Annabella Paolucci
Recorded by Coltrane Gilman, Annabella Paolucci, Shantelle Subkhanberdina, Nick West
Mixed by Julian Sarkissian
This track was a big lesson in frequency masking and automation. The song needed to build up over time, but not become a blur of sound by the end. I used a lot of subtractive EQ. And to reign in the bass of certain instruments I used multi-band compression.
2024
Kick - B52
Snare - SM57
OH - C414
Room - TLM 193
API Preamps
A cover of Jack Johnson’s “Breakdown.”
I was a co-recording engineer for this project. What you hear is the pre-mix version, so this is just the edited raw recordings with no post-processing; the only processing comes from the gear we recorded with, which included a few compressors and EQ’s.
The goal was to reverse engineer the song. All of the microphone choices, placements, and effects were made with that goal in mind.
Tracking the guitar:
SM81 with tape around grills to eliminate proximity effect.
Ukulele was tracked with the same mic, but without the tape and placed over the shoulder downward into the body of the Uke.
Ran through Pendulum OCL-2
Kick through the dbx 160SL.
Snare through a Distressor (not pictured).