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Date: September 2024
Style: Barokpop
Label: Skippy Music
ISRC: NL7PC2200006
Producer: Antoine van Kampen (Skippy Studio)
Spotify: [here]
Lyrics, Composition and Arrangement
Composition and Lyrics: Daphne Reijnoudt
Composition violins and cello: Antoine van Kampen
Arrangement: Daphne Reijnoudt, Antoine van Kampen
I started by making a template of the song in Cubase following the chords of the original arrangement using a chord track and midi track (with empty events). The tempo of the original song was about 120 bpm (slightly fast to my ears) and 5 minutes in length. Because I wanted to make it shorted and because we wanted to end up with something different than the original, I started by changing the tempo to 98 bpm to enforce a different arrangement and feel. This increased the length to about 6 minutes. To make it more in line with commercial songs, I reduced the arrangement by removing part of the intro, large part of the instrumental bridge sections, and the outro. This reduces the song to about 4mn30s.
Image. Structure of the song in the Cubase project window. Two marker tracks at the top with an ‘export’ cycle marker that leaves sufficient reverb tail. The unused tempo and signature track. A midi track with empty events, and the Chord track.
Performance
Vocals: Daphne Reijnoudt
Violins and Viola: Amber Boots (LinkedIn)
Cello: Nico (Kunstloc Brabant; Instagram; YouTube)
Piano/Hammond: Antoine van Kampen
Acoustic guitar: Karel Bravenboer
Electric Guitar: Bas van Kampen
Meet the artists. From left to right: Daphne Reijnoudt, Karel Bravenboer, Antoine van Kampen, Amber Boots, Nico, Bas van Kampen
Recording
During recording a headphone mix was provided on the closed-back Austrian Audio Hi-X55 headphone to avoid spill on the microphones.
Image. (Getting ready for) the first recording session
Vocals
The vocals (Daphne Reijnoudt) were recorded at Skippy Studio using the sE2200a MkII (large membrane condenser). The sE2200a MkII signal was split using the Radial Pro ProMS2 passive microphone splitter. One output of the ProMS2 was directly fed into the X32. The second output was fed into the Neve pre-amp clone (Golden Age Premier Pre-73) with the Air EQ set to +3dB and the gain set to30 dB with the OUTPUT level potentiometer to its maximum. This was fed into another channel of the X32. On this channel I also used the Golden Age Comp-2A compressor during recording by inserting it on the Pre-73 channel of the X32. In this setup I get a clean and a processed vocal recording in Cubase. If the processed vocal turns out to be suboptimal, I can still process the clean vocal in-the-box. In the mix I used the processed vocal.
Image. The Golden Age Pre-73 pre-amp and Comp-2A compressor. The UR44C audio interface, I don’t have anymore. The green box on top is the Pro-MS2.
Guitars
The acoustic guitar (Karel Bravenboer) was recorded with a matched pair of Lewitt LCT 140 AIR microphones. Recordings were made in the ‘AIR’ mode that results in a slight boost in the high frequency range. I pointed one of the microphones roughly at the junction between the instrument’s neck and body, where one can usually achieve a fairly good balance of the body and panel resonances while simultaneously catching a good dose of added liveliness from the strings themselves. The second microphone was pointed at the body of the guitar. Inspection of the two signals in Cubase showed that they were almost perfectly in phase (I didn’t make any further correction).
Here are two versions of the initial recording: one unprocessed and the other with some audio enhancements. At the time, our intention was to keep the song minimalistic, adding just a touch of violin. However, as you’ll hear in the final version, that idea quickly evolved to something completely different. None of these guitar recordings were used in the final mix.
At a later stage, after recording the violins and the song had developed, it became clear that the guitar part (mainly arpeggiated chords) did no longer fit the song very well. I made everything to busy and didn’t align very well with the other parts that were added to the composition (e.g., violins and bass). Therefore, we decided to have a second guitar recording session (Karel Bravenboer). This time, for the acoustic guitar, I used the Beyerdynamic M 160 ribbon microphone and the sE2200a MkII large diaphragm condenser microphone. Both with the ART Pro MPA II preamp. In addition, we recorded an electric guitar using the Fender Mustang GTX50 amplifier. I recorded the DI output of the Fender and mic’ed up the cabinet with the Shure SM57 (with the Golden Age Pre73 preamp).
In the final mix I used both the M 160 and sE2200a recordings of the acoustic guitar. However, the electric guitar at the end of the song was still too busy, and also the sound was too crunchy. I asked Bas van Kampen to re-record the electric guitar part. He provided me with a processed and clean DI recording. I still found the processed sound too crunchy and therefore settled for the DI recording in combination with Amplitube. Bas also provided me with a lead guitar for which I used the processed part in the mix. These parts also made the outro much stronger.
Image. The ART Pro MPA II and Golden Age Pre73 preamps together with the Golden-Age Comp-2A compressor. On top, the radial ProMS2 microphone splitter.
Violins
The two violin parts and the viola (Amber Boots) were recorded with the Beyerdynamic M 160 ribbon microphone with the ART Pro MPA II preamp (input impedance set to 2400 Ohms; plate voltage turned on to avoid tube saturation). The M 160 rolls off at about 18kHz preventing a harsh sound (leave the judgement of this to you). This microphone was placed approximately 50cm above the violin. No compression used during recording. I simultaneously recorded with the sE2200a MkII large diaphragm condenser microphone (with the Golden Age Pre73 preamp) as an alternative for the M 160, and the Lewitt LCT 140 AIR back-electret microphone to capture room ambiance. However, since the M 160 recording sounded good, I didn’t use the recordings of the LCT and sE2200a microphones in the mix.
The resulting violin recording can be heard in the clip below. In this clip you also hear the Spitfire Audio AIR Studios Reverb that I also used in the mix but at a lesser level.
Cello
The cello (Nico) was recorded with two Lewitt LCT 140 AIR stereo pair back-electret cardioid microphones with the ART Pro MPA II preamp (input impedance set to 600 Ohms; plate voltage turned on to avoid tube saturation). This microphone was placed approximately 40cm in front of the cello. No compression used during recording. I simultaneously recorded with the sE2200a MkII large diaphragm condenser microphone set of OMNI (with the Golden Age Pre73 preamp) as an alternative for the Lewitt.
We did three takes of the song. Two were used in the mix but I used all three microphones which sounded very different. The resulting cello recording can be heard in the clip below. In this clip you also hear the Spitfire Audio AIR Studios Reverb that I also used in the mix but at a lesser level.
In the next clip you hear the violins, viola, and cello together.
Image. Recording the violin and the cello. Microphone setup for the cello recording (Lewitt LCT AIR and sE2200a MkII)
Piano and Hammond
Piano and Hammond were played by Antoine van Kampen. Piano was recorded as MIDI using the Nord Stage 2. This allowed me the more easily change the timing of a few notes to ensure it fitted the acoustic guitar parts. In the mix, I used one of the Native Instruments Komplete VST piano’s. The Hammond was recorded as audio using the Hammond XK5.
Summary of the production
Fender Rhodes
The Fender Rhodes part during both bridge sections were played by Antoine van Kampen on the Komplete Kontrol S88 and recorded as MIDI and, subsequently, rendered as audio. The Rhodes sound comes from the Native Instruments Komplete Scarbee Vintage Keys VST instrument.
Drums, Percussion, and Bass
The drums and bass were composed with Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3 and EZbass respectively. Both are Virtual Instruments (VSTi). I used the Superior Drummer 3 ‘Dry Funk’ preset for the drums. The individual drum parts (e.g., kick, snare) were exported as wav files from Superior Drummer into Cubase for further mixing. For the bass, I used the Clean DI preset from the EZbass Modern library. This was exported as MIDI to Cubase and converted to wav in Cubase when no further changes were required. For percussion (bongos, shakers, tambourines), I used Session Percussionist from the Kontakt library from Native Instruments. This library doesn’t allow export of midi nor audio. Instead, each of the four percussion instruments were routed to a separate Kontakt output bus and, subsequently, recorded real-time in Cubase.
Image. Superior Drummer 3 and EZbass from Toontrack for the drum and bass parts respectively. The Native Instruments Session Percussionist took care of the percussion.
Strings
I composed the three violin and cello parts in Dorico 5 using the Spitfire audio BBCSO library. I kept the orchestral composition very straightforward in terms of harmonies to avoid clashes with other instruments during mixing. In addition, I composed while listening to the lead vocal to ensure they nicely fitted. This required synchronization of Dorico and Cubase. Below you can find the composition.
Image. Dorico 5. Left: part of the composition in Dorico 5 in the upper panel. The lower panel shows the piano roll and controller CC11 (Expression) . Right: VST section in Dorico showing the viola library (long articulation) from Spitfire BBCSO.
Mixing and Mastering
I did the mixing in Cubase Pro 13 and made a preliminary master in WaveLab Pro 12. Both were done using the VSX headphone mixing system. Since it is very difficult to make a master from your own mix and because dedicated mastering studios just do a better job and provide a second pair of ears, a second master was produced by Jeffrey de Gans of Da Goose Mastering.
A selection of mixing aspect:
- For this mix I used the UAD Studer A800 Tape recorder plugin on most of the mix busses.
- For the vocal chain I used the UAD Studer A800, SSL Channel strip 2, the UAD LA-2A compressor, the UAD Pultec EQP-1A, and the Nectar 4 de-esser (see also [here]). On the vocal bus I used the SSL bus compressor with a few dB of compression. In addition, I used parallel compression (UAD 1176LN Rev E) and used the Soundtoys microshift in parallel. For reverb, I relied on the ValhallaVintageVerb.
- Since, prior to recording, I forgot to mention that the song was tuned to 440Hz, the two recorded violin parts were tuned at 442Hz and were, therefore, pitch shifted in Melodyne during mixing with 8 cents to 440Hz. The viola was tuned at 440Hz. I did some minor editing in Melodyne: I rhythmically changed one bar in both verses that were played slightly different as written down in the score. At some places I tightened up the differences in timing between the three violin parts. I corrected the pitch of some notes and little bit moved all notes more closely to their pitch center. I tightened up the timing of the notes in the four last outro bars to have them in sync with the bass and piano. Most work was done on the trills just before the third chorus. The pitch was not always correct and there was quite some pitch drift, which I improved. For 1 bar of the second violin I could not improve with Melodyne and, consequently, I used the Spitfire BBCSO sample library (violin leader) to play that bar (MIDI), which is very hard to distinguish from to real violin. Can you hear it?
- For the cello parts, there was a little phase difference between the microphone recordings. I corrected this with the Waves InPhase plugin.
Image. Mix and master session with Steinberg Cubase 13 and WaveLab 12.
SoundCloud
Original song (vocals/piano: Daphne Reijnoudt)
Final mix
Final master (produced by Antoine van Kampen)
Final master (produced by Jeffrey de Gans; Da Goose Mastering)
Files
Multitrack available on request
Last updated on September 28th, 2024 at 08:30 am
