Recording a Live Band at Darkwood Studios

James Patrick is a house engineer at Darkwood Studios - a beautiful multi-room recording space set in the rural Hertfordshire countryside. During a couple of recent recording sessions - one with rock band, Fuzz Skyler; one with a string quintet; and one with a rapper - Headliner asked him to put Earthworks ICON Pros to the test on guitar cabs, and Austrian Audio’s OC818s on drum overheads, acoustic guitars, vocals, and strings. He gives us the lowdown on his findings…

The aim of the Fuzz Skyler session was for the band to play live with good separation, so that they could work on new material and record the backbone to a future EP. To allow for the easiest possible communication and to get the creative juices flowing, we had the band set up in the live room with their amps, and singer, Fuzz, in the vocal booth.

Seeing as the [Earthworks] ICON Pros are gaining a reputation as a live guitar cab mic, it seemed natural to use them here, and they didn’t disappoint. The ICON Pro has a beautifully modern, high fidelity, full-range sound. Super crisp, detailed, and very clear - not too bright, with no harshness – while still capturing the weight from the low mids without being in any way wooly.

Previously, my preferred method of recording guitar cabs in the studio has been blending a Shure SM57 and a Sennheiser MD421. Yet by itself, the ICON Pro gave a similar top to bottom sound. I also tried it on a few different sources on other sessions. It sounded really good on snare - it gave a bit of hi-hat bleed which could probably be fixed with some kind of mic shield - but I actually left it on there regardless because I liked how expansive it sounded. Because it has been designed as a voice microphone, I suspect an EQ curve has been built in to reduce the proximity effect; this may also be why it sounds fab on guitar cabs: the wooliness in the low mids and any harshness at 3k found on a voice (and often problematic on guitars) has already been reduced by design.

I also ran the drums through a Focusrite ISA 828, which I found to be an extremely clean and quiet preamp. It’s very simple to use; all the drums went through the 828 on the way into my [Cadac] console, and it helped me to generate a sonic consistency, with extreme clarity in the high end.

I also had the pleasure of trying out a pair of Austrian Audio OC818s and a single OC18 on drums, a 12-string the rest of the band playing live and the hypercardioid pattern of the OC818 did a brilliant job at rejecting the sound of the guitars and bass. That was outstanding. I also got to try out the OC818 on a rap vocal. I prefer something bright, aggressive and in your face, which the OC818 is not - but the artist I was working with loved the old school flavour of the mic, so I won’t argue with that! acoustic guitar, a rap vocal, and a string quintet.

Recording a string ensemble is one of the most exciting challenges, and my recent session with composer and musical director, Glenn Hogue, involved layering many takes of the ensemble to give the impression of a much larger group, meaning any shortcomings in the microphones would be magnified.

The most important microphones when recording an ensemble are the stereo pair capturing the whole group - and for that, we used two OC818s in an ORTF configuration. They were perfectly suited to the task: so smooth at the top end, which lends itself nicely to strings; and the multiple takes blended together perfectly with no build ups in the upper mids, whilst the low end was true, giving a balanced representation of the full frequency range right down to the lowest notes of the double bass. The stereo image was superb, providing a very solid, life-like reproduction.

Similarly, on the 12-string acoustic, the smoothness of the top end of the OC818 was notable, with no harsh scratchiness - the body making it perfect for recording a rhythm guitar part. For some recordings you may prefer something a bit more edgy and ‘cheap’ sounding, but this mic gives a great sound that works well where the guitar doesn’t need to be the centre of attention.

For the Fuzz Skyler drum overheads I used the OC818s as a spaced pair, mainly focused on capturing the cymbals. I really feel these microphones excel as a pair; there is something very solid and organic about the stereo image they produce.

The sound was smooth but not at all dull, bright enough to convey the excitement of the playing without getting overly harsh. The drums were recorded in a room with the rest of the band playing live and the hypercardioid pattern of the OC818 did a brilliant job at rejecting the sound of the guitars and bass. That was outstanding.

I also got to try out the OC818 on a rap vocal. I prefer something bright, aggressive and in your face, which the OC818 is not - but the artist I was working with loved the old school flavour of the mic, so I won’t argue with that!