Studio Engineering

Studio Engineering for a popular and well-regarded Scum Rock band named SKINTERN. They were in Bristol performing at Monochrome — the festival of ugly music — alongside other gigs. On behalf of Rockaway Studio, Daniel planned and executed a creative and efficient session recording their 'FREE USE' EP. As a Studio/Live Engineer at Rockaway Studio, he took on this session, clarifying the artists' ambitions, creative style, and deliverables.

Daniel captured SKINTERN's aggressive vocals and gritty drone-like backing in an authentic performance of their art and a sound they were very pleased with.

Creative decisions were made to record all instruments at once, as they would at a gig, so intentional positioning of microphones and careful polar pattern selection were imperative for isolation in a small and busy room. The ambition was for this record to sound just like it does on stage, and Daniel organised the session to recreate this feeling, both for the audience and to make the band comfortable in familiar surroundings and performance style.

The final deliverables were a 6-song EP with 13 individual semi-isolated instrument tracks for the Drum Kit, Bass Amp, 3 Guitar Amps, Vocals & Room Mid-Side in combination with the band's pedalboard.

This video contains a Master track excerpt of the song 'Teeth', and the session was developed into a rough mix and recorded using a variety of vintage gear, including 1970s amps and a 1968 Oktava ML-16 ribbon microphone.

Arima's cover of Fear Not This Night by Jeremy Soule is the focus of this showreel, although three other mixes were delivered: AiAiA by Ado, Gravity from Hazbin Hotel & Choke Me by Alexandra Căpitănescu. 

Recorded in a less-than-ideal home studio scenario — a lively untreated room — a lot of audio repair work had to be done to improve the sound prior to mixing. Daniel used spectral editing in iZotope RX to reduce the compounded harmonics, noise floor, and phase issues as a result of the room. Once this process was complete, he moved on to developing the vocal performance and its tonal quality. Initially, the original song required stem splitting to remove the vocals, and various spectral editing & processing to reduce the artifacts created as a result of this process.

The balance between a perfect take and a natural performance was a priority.

Through chopping, gain matching and manual tuning, the vocal performance was developed into one that was thoroughly balanced; Daniel focused on bringing out the best of Arima's vocals in every phrase, word & syllable, ensuring timing & pitch are as intended. 

Placing the lead & backing vocals into a simulated hall via Audio Modeling's Ambiente masked & improved the recording room character. A series of digital and analogue compressor emulations, including Teletronix LA-2A, balanced & improved the dynamic performance musically, creating a pleasing warmth through harmonics.

Finally, the reverberation character of the original version of this song — performed by Asja Kadrić for the video game Guild Wars 2 (2012) — is one of long reverb tails, lush character and ambience. A blend of Quantec Room Simulator, Ambiente & Fender FX Pedals was used to algorithmically produce halls, plates and ambience reverbs, creating the tonal character and space required.

On behalf of Valley Arts, Steve Tilston & Friends performed at the Old School Room to a sold-out audience of over 100. An intimate long hall venue, comprised of old woods, a vaulted ceiling and a lively reverberation character. Steve Tilston on acoustic guitar (steel string & nylon) & lead voice, alongside Keith Warmington (harmonica & voice), Tony Orrell (cajon) and Hugh Bradley (double bass). A folk-themed night for Tilston's final album 'Last Call'.

Daniel, alongside Ivan Batchelor, reinforced the performers' sound using a varied selection of dynamic & condenser microphones and DI inputs, creating a sound that supported the musicians while still allowing them to hear their original sound. While the performance took place, Daniel took time to record the gig using Mid-Side (Shure KSM137, Aston Spirit), alongside X-Y close & ambient (Zoom H4e & H4n) microphones.

This setup captured the warm, reinforced vocals, alongside the hall's charismatic reverberation, while minimising problematic phase interactions, which so often affect recordings such as these; high-fidelity 32-bit float recording at 96KHz provided sufficient headroom, eliminating clipping and noise floor as potential issues where stable levels throughout an entire performance are often difficult to predict. 

Mixed using a series of FET, Vari-Mu, Upwards & Opto compressors, Baxandall EQ and tape & tube saturation modules to glue the tracks together, creating a balanced recording that accurately recreates the feeling of the live performance.

A deep-sampling project designed and undertaken by Daniel Finch of a Yamaha U3 Upright Piano in a sound-treated studio space. Recorded using pairs of Coles 4038 & AKG C414 XLS and a Neumann M 147 tube microphone. A carefully planned design, microphone choices and mixing decisions.

The natural room capture from the beautiful-sounding ribbons, combined with the wide dynamic range of large-diaphragm condensers and a warm central tube, creates an intimate feel. Not only reacting to the original instrument faithfully, but also creating one that translates to a pleasant digital performance. This instrument shines in its naturalness and authenticity. The musician is offered a choice of microphone captures — close and far — to hone in on the sound that matches their art.

The process took Daniel through editing, naming & spectral denoising of the 540 samples to fully prepare for programming — areas that normally aren't addressed in standard recording. An otherwise unproblematic noise floor becomes an issue when upwards of fifty individual samples are triggered simultaneously during an expressive performance, thanks to five microphone channels combined with a sustain pedal.

Recorded, mixed & programmed in both Kontakt and Logic Pro Sampler (EXS) by Daniel Finch.

Kyle Kelly's performance on the Yamaha U3 is what was captured and sampled in addition to the demo tracks.