Recording New Classical Guitar Lessons

June 2014 we recorded and filmed our first set of 'classical' guitar lessons with Matt Nisbet.

We decided to record these lessons in All Saints Church… a venue well known for having a beautiful acoustic.

In these new lessons we are going to present the various instruments in a number of alternative and hopefully complementary settings. Matt chose to play a piece of Bach, a sarabande as a warmup example and it seemed wholly appropriate.

The filming:

We used two Blackmagic cameras, the original cinema camera and the newer pocket camera, each featured a Zeiss prime lens.

The audio recording:

was made to ProTools using an Apogee Duet interface (perfect for two channel recording) which gave us the high quality A/D conversion that we were looking for.

Next to the Apogee is the FatTrack which I have talked about in previous posts. This is a valve powered preamp which provides a lovely 'fat' or warm valve sheen to the recording.

These are the mics that we used for the recording, a pair of SE Voodoo ribbon mics. 

This is the passive version so using a high quality preamp such as the FatTrack is always a good idea. The picture above was actually taken from a recording that we made of a string trio at St Georges Hall in Bristol. Another well known acoustic space in the UK. It shows the mics set up as a Blumlein Array - a classic configuration patented in the 1930's by Alan Blumlein, an electronics genius who came up with this technique for recording an accurate stereo image. (Used extensively in film sound).

The Figure of 8 pattern, inherent to the design of ribbon mics works perfectly in this combination. The two mics are offset at 90 degrees to each other and the result is a beautiful and transparent stereo representation.

Matt noodling

An Interesting Corollary in Developments in Digital Audio and Digital Video

In the professional world of audio recording, digital reigns supreme.

Digital recording, editing, mixing and mastering are four discrete pathways in the audio chain and in each case, digital has superseded analogue.

Some might argue that analogue sounds better and probably the majority of audiophiles wouldn't hesitate to agree but the advantages of digital: the flexibility, the relative ease of operation and the cost factor all combine to validate a case for going digital.

However, as bit depths, sampling rates and the overall sophistication of the software have increased, there has been a movement over the last few years to 'model' or digitally emulate the sound of vintage equipment (including hiss!!) and meld that sound with the super clean qualities of digital systems.

The corollary occurs in the fact that with the emergence of LUT's exactly the same thing is happening in digital video… but more on that later.

Below are a series of screenshots displaying some elements of the final processing featuring one of a number of Music College TV 'Genre Studies'.

(This is not a full treatise on mastering but some the techniques used in mastering are covered here).

The 'Genre Studies' feature a range of musical band studies that demonstrate a particular musical style or genre. The piece in question is 'Led Balloon'… a homage to 70's rock styles:

Led Balloon - Stereo Mix

Above is the original mix of the track, it features: drums, bass guitar, lead electric guitar and keyboard (hammond organ)… it appears here in Pro Tools on a stereo audio track.

VCC - Virtual Console Collection

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On the right is the first plug in to be used in the audio chain. This is the VCC - Virtual Console Collection from Steven Slate Digital. The intention of this plugin is to emulate the sound of certain 'classic' mixing desks with the aim of capturing that certain something that these desks imparted to the audio flowing through them. There are a choice of five sonically different mixing desks… the selection here is the Trident desk. One of a number of mixing desks associated with the 'Classic Rock' of the 1970's.

VTM - Virtual Tape Machine

The next plugin is placed on the master buss (rather than on the channel strip). Again this is an emulation but this time of the recording medium itself - tape; the plugin is called the VTM - Virtual Tape Machine. The particular characteristic that software designers want to capture is the warmth and soft saturation that real tape imparts. The sound is subtly transformed in a very musical way providing a final gloss to the mix.

VCC - Virtual Console Collection

Next is the master buss version of the VCC (Virtual Console Collection). The selection shown here is the Neve Console which once again is an emulation of a classic 70's mixing console. If this had been selected as the final choice, the bass frequencies would have been given a more pronounced lift but in the end, the choice was an SSL desk which imparted an enhanced stereo image and balance of frequencies.

VBC - Virtual Buss Compressors

The real secret of mastering is to enhance the mix with subtle, incremental steps… simply putting a limiter across the mix buss is not the answer.

This plugin actually creates the most significant difference… the VBC - Virtual Buss Compressors.  Not one but three very different types of compression that with significant subtlety lift a mix into new sonic areas. There is an excellent description of the processes involved on the Steven Slate website here: Virtual-Buss-Compressors. 

FG - X Limiter

And finally to complete the chain - a limiter. In this instance very gentle limiting as throughout the process it is important to retain a sense of dynamic and not to squash all life out of the material.

The Result

The audio levels are now at an industry standard. There is still good dynamic range but the mix sounds punchy and full.

So what about the corollary?

 Well actually, I think that's a discussion for next time… but a small taster:

Below is a still from one of Ryan's new guitar percussion lessons:

Ungraded

The original footage, shot on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Grade 02

Grade 02 features Fuji stock Emualtion 

More to follow soon!

Richie Blake's Custom Bass Guitars

The basses I've been using in these videos are both custom instruments made by Jon Shuker based near Sheffield in England.

The 4 String Bass

The four string version seen in the majority of videos is basically a custom jazz bass.  When chatting through the design with Jon, I was basically after a jazz bass with plenty of grunt!

The construction is a classic swamp ash body, but the capping wood is a piece of rotten maple.  It looked terrible when we pulled it out of the wood pile, but he back fills all of the holes with ebony dust, hence the beautiful dark pattern that you can see. 

The neck is a bolt on 5 piece laminate of maple and wenge with a Birdseye maple fingerboard.  The profile shape is based on an early 70's jazz.

In terms of pickups I chose EMG's and spacing is classic 70's jazz.  

In particular these are the extended range series with a DC model in the neck and a CS model in the bridge. 

Both basically have two individual single coils under the plastic and help to give the bass a hearty growl in the bridge, yet when soloed to the neck pickup the bass sounds smooth and buttery.

One thing that really pointed me towards Jon as a luthier is that he designs his own preamps and this is what's installed in this bass.  

Jon is a real advocate on making a transparent sounding preamp that allows the natural sound and combination of pickups and wood choice to speak out.  

It's too common nowadays for instruments to use lovely choices of wood and then have a preamp that allows you to boost the bass by 18db!!! 

The 5 String Bass

 

If you'd like to see more of Jon's work then please visit his website:

www.shukerguitars.co.uk

Update - A Snapshot of Various Highlights

A picture tells a thousand words:

I mentioned live streaming as one of our many activities over the last couple of years... this is a still from one of a number of live streamed lessons that we presented to the world.

One of the limitations of the streaming was the fact that we had to use our older cameras to interface with the Tricaster broadcast system.

We are developing a new system that is software based which will allow us to integrate new Blackmagic cameras designed for this type of work. More on this soon.

Tricaster Shots

 But we did do some interesting broadcasts, in addition to the regular bass & guitar lessons, we also brought in some industry friends:

Greg Haver - Producer

 Greg Haver, producer of the manic Street Preachers, Kimbra, Catatonia, Melanie C (and many others) in an interview with Richie.

Ian Matthews - Drummer

 Ian Matthews, drummer with rock band Kasabian, who gave a wonderful drum workshop.

John Pearce - Violinist

John Pearce, great musician, great violin performer who radiates quality and endless versatility.

Another live streamed session, this time a trio performance with Cliff, Richie & John playing Django (Modern Jazz Quartet composition).

 A recording & filming session in All Saints Church (lovely acoustics)

Richie in make up

Richie trying out a custom hand made bass

Ryan recording an acoustic set

Example of M/S microphone set up... used to record the ambience

 Meet Matt Nisbet

The instrument in his hands is a Theorbo, a member of the lute family with a number of resonant strings. We are working with Matt to develop classical guitar lessons.

A new recording interface

In our perpetual quest for quality the issue of A/D (analogue to digital) conversion is a significant part of the recording chain. 

Generally we now use the Apogee Ensemble when we need multiple audio inputs but we are hoping to upgrade this unit (more mic inputs). The quality is first class and the mic pres are also excellent. A very nice unit at a reasonable price.

There is also a piece of Apogee software that comes with all of their interfaces, Maestro, that includes a neat feature called Soft Limit. More on this later.

Black Magic Cameras

Our primary camera operator is Corry although he prefers the title cinematographer (!) and actually he's right in that definition because it's not just about working with a camera. It's also about the lighting, the grading, choosing the right lens for the job and that involves not only the level of detail but the overall visual effect that the lens creates.

I will talk in detail about our video editing software experiences in a later post but I will mention now that when we started out, a number of us were fully certificated Apple Final Cut Pro users.We still occasionally use FCP but now it's a mixture of Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere.

Our bottom line has always been quality and in Corry (above) his outstanding skills are only matched by his passion for film, cameras, lenses and generally making everything look as good as it possibly can!

Corry’s notes on filming Ryan Inglis - Percussion Guitar Lessons 3 & 4.

We shot the new Percussion Guitar lessons with Ryan on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 2.5k and Blackmagic Pocket Camera using EF mount lenses.

Corry used a thunderbolt cable connection out from the Blackmagic into his laptop, opening Blackmagic Design’s Ultrascope to get the camera settings perfect.

Next he shot a few quick tests then graded the footage on Davinci using a LUT he has designed. This was to make sure everyone on set was 100% satisfied with how the footage would look before filming. Maximum quality control.

The footage was then captured using Blackmagic's Media Express. Corry sat on his laptop marking out the individual takes and ‘pick ups’ as he went.

The Blackmagic’s 16mm sensor has caused some discussion online but for our studio setup the crop was ideal, allowing us a comfortable distance from Ryan and the audio equipment.

In our kit we have a 11-16mm lens (for wide angles on the Blackmagic) and 35mm and 50mm Karl Zeiss 'prime' lenses. The 35mm on the Blackmagic allowed Corry to capture Ryan’s guitar from a comfortable distance and close to his laptop, whilst at the same time getting the image sharp from the 35mm which is our primary 'go to' lens .

On the Pocket camera we put the 50mm which was used as the close up camera for detail shots. This was again ideal as the crop factor allowed us to get close ups on Ryan’s Guitar and as you can see from the picture, at not too far a distance from the video capture laptop.

 
You can see from the still pics (graded) from the footage, the skin tones are very natural.

Final details: we shot roughly around f./ 2.0 - 2.8, using film dynamic range on Apple ProRes (HQ).

What we particularly like about the Blackmagic cameras is the way the footage looks. It is beautiful but the quality is also matched by really good pricing.