From January to December 2018 I followed the producer/sound engineer training at the Abbey Road Institute in Paris. During this training I had the opportunity to record bands in the premises of the former Omega Studios in Paris.
It's quite simple, I learned everything there! The last 6 months I was doing a lot of internships and I didn't have the time to take care of that. Out of the 10 sessions I did there as an engineer, here is what I learned:
Session #1 Octobre 2018 : Nama - le voyage De Nama
Here is the recording of my very first session as a sound engineer. We recorded this 8 minutes piece with drums, (2 snares and 1 SPD), bass, synths, a sampler, 4 different guitar parts, with 3 singers and a storytelling passage. The whole things in 2 times 4 hours installation and arrangements included each time. So no time to make the sound, and to experiment with the microphones and the placements. As it was our very first session we had all the problems imaginable with the console, the mics and protools. A very pleasant and rich learning session though.
The first afternoon we did live recordings of the song (which we divided into 2 parts): Drums/bass/synth/guitar and witness vocals. The next afternoon we did the guitar overdubb, vocals, storytelling and synths.
This was one of my very first mixes too! So I still want to do it again and improve it but you have to settle and move on!
The mix was interesting because I had to improve what couldn't be done during the recording. For example I layered different guitar takes to make the sound bigger. As it was not planned so the guitar parts are different in rhythm and interpretation. I managed to make it work as well as possible. I am not 100% satisfied with the guitar sound, Joaquim played on his amp: a bass combo with a 15 inch speaker. This gives an original sound but as these speakers need more energy to move the sound is less precise. Wich I didn't know at the time. Hence the interest to always record a signal in DI to be able to re-amped if necessary.
"Le Voyage De Nama" is the final track of the musical show of the same name. A very beautiful track, very rich and original! A dive into the universe of the show.
Nama :
Joaquim Pavy: Singing, Guitar, Ebow
Hector Tidom Manuel : Vocals, Bass, Synths and Sampler
Mahmadou Toure : Drums and SPD
Coraline Mages : Storytelling and Vocals
Recording/mixing : Léo Chupin
Pre-amp: SSL 9000K
Mix " in the box " on protools
Assistant : Théo Slagt (with also the presence of Lucas, Issidor and Cyril)
The SSL 9000K desk from the Paris's Abbey Road Institute.
Coraline face the Neumanns M149 and U47
Hector and his keys
Joaquim's Ebow