This page focuses upon visual representation of the recording, mixing and mastering elements of the EP production processes.
STUDIO RECORDING –
Track 1 (Snare Tracking): Within these sessions, I experimented with the use of multi microphone technique using both mono microphones and 2 NTG-2’s as a stereo pair. After various processing including compression and slight gating through the patchbay and EQ cuts through the soundcraft mixing desk the results were very pleasing!
Track 1: (Floor Tom Tracking): Within this session, all of the rack and floor toms were tracked for the opening piece, myself and ryan hand tuned the drums in use and applied appropriate dampening. As you can see from the photos I decided on using 2 direct shotgun mics for exact tom pickup, with a higher placed SM57 focusing upon rim shots from the drums. Additionally an overhead microphone was used to pick up the overall blend of both drums being played. The same process of EQ and compression/gating was applied to all of the tom tracks within the session, in an attempt to eliminate unwanted buzz/ frequencies ready for the edit.
(Rack Tom Tracking): For the rack toms a simple direct mic approach was used for each drum, with an overhead focused centrally above to pick up blend of the 3 drums.
(Edit Suite): After tracking processes in the studio the photo below showcases the original raw edit from the multitrack studio, ready for cutting and manipulating the best takes and drum rhythms to be exported.
Track 3: Street Drumming/ (Mashup based piece): The photos below demonstrate some of the ways in which specific items were recorded for the 3rd song. As I have never mic’d up items such as pots and pans and buckets before, this was a case of trial and error with 3 different types of microphone until gaining a clear sound representation of the object that I was happy with! 
(Control Room): These photos show some of the EQ settings I applied to the recorded tracks, the tracking session and the level representation. The final photo shows an additional perspective to some of the microphone positioning techniques I used while capturing the sounds, Ryan remained in the role of performer for this session.
MY STUDIO RECORDING & EDITING –
Track 2 & 4 (Project Process): The photos included below showcase some of the ways in which the second electronic based piece was created. See descriptions below:
(Track 2) Initial idea development: Mindmap Brainstorming
Yamaha DTX550: Used throughout both pieces via both DI stereo out & MIDI out
Example of 1 out of 70 Drum Sampling Presets included within the DTX550 Brain Module: Other sounds used included within the tracks from; HipHop Kit, Synth Drums, SFX Kit, D’n’B Drums, Cuban Kit, Oak Custom and more.
Complete view of the DTX 550 Brain Module
A visual track representation of elements pocketed/editing by myself within the second audio piece
Action Shot: Tracking the end drum and bass section for track 2.
EXTRAS
Mixing:
Mixing elements of the second piece: Plugins used throughout the mixing process included VST’s such as: Izotope ozone 5, Waves plugins including SSL Channel Strip, CLA Drums and JJP MU equalisers, PSP Mixpack & more.
An example of me editing and using sound replacement within Drumagog 5’s leveling feature.
Tracking:
Equipment (Track 2 & 4) : DI used to obtain a clear balanced signal from both the ipad drum machine and both stereo/mono out from the electric drumset. MIDI was captured and mapped via a Midi to USB cable, with the DAW buffer rate lowered to compensate for latency issues.
Mastering:
Photo taken from the mastering workshop with Ian Shepherd: Demonstrating the advantages of using correct metering when mastering tracks.
An example of one routed bus I had set up for the final mastering session of the project. The main plugins used for this final process included that of the TT Dynamic range meter, Bluecat’s (spectacular!) frequency analyzer, Waves Q1- EQ, SSL Compression, Izotope Harmonic Exciter, Izotope Stereo Imager, Izotope Reverb and the Waves L1 Stereo.