Artefact 4 - Spatial Recording & Reproduction

Overview

 

This Spatial Recording & Reproduction project that my group and I collaborated on was a brand-new experience for all of us. It ended up being a very crucial experience for me in my road to becoming and professional Producer/Remixer. Some examples of skills I learned throughout this project was working collaboratively in a group to achieve a goal, being able to show my ability to follow guidelines set for me, timekeeping when adhering to deadlines, my knowledge/use of advanced recording techniques, my competence in learning restoration software and my editing chops in Pro Tools. All these aforementioned examples will give me the chance to stand out in the industry in my journey towards becoming a Producer/Remixer.

This Spatial project was comprised of me & my group putting in time to research microphone choices & advanced micing techniques (such as the Decca tree or the Fukada tree set-ups), contacting an outside client to record as a sound source (choir, orchestra etc.), arranging dates to record, organising all the gear we have to take with us and then using advanced plug-ins/software to mix the recording in ways which allows it to be played back in both 5.1 multi-channel/surround AND a 2 channel stereo systems.

We also had to ensure that we were also considering the space where we recorded and how it would impact the capture – this aided our project in being as immersive as possible.

Working together throughout this assignment gave me many opportunities to sharpen my communication skills and work efficiently to ensure that everyone was contributing equally. We all worked well as a unit to push each other in terms of motivation, creativity and learning through the ups & downs. Furthermore, it was imperative that we were all on the same page as neither of us had taken on any workload like this before – in terms of having an outside client to work with. Since we had set strict deadlines for ourselves, we had to be specific & stick to the dates scheduled for meeting the client to scope out the venue, our recording date and our time to mix the recording.

Through thorough research, I had taken it upon myself (once we had picked a location to record) to understand which microphone types we were going to have the best capture with – especially since we had limited amounts/types of microphones to pick from. This gave us a head start when the real planning started as we then moved onto picking which micing technique would guarantee the best capture.

The most crucial part of the assignment, however, was after recording. We professionally used a 5.1 set-up to mix each channel (from the 11-microphone recording) and using advanced software like the 5.1 surround Outputs in Pro Tools to pan each microphone to a specific area to give a realistic playback experience – as if you are there in the room. In our case, we additionally had to improvise together to demonstrate our competency in restoring some audio that was corrupted. We were put in a position to work extra hours and even harder by learning how to use iZotope’s RX9 plug-ins like de-clip & de-click (on the fly) to restore some baked-in distortion.

 

Timeline/Logbook

 

  • Session 1 (24/2/25): This project needed to be completed in a very short timeframe so the very first day was very full-on. I rallied Fraser, Ryan and Lucy to be in a group together as this would lighten the workload and more importantly give me experience working on a project with others. We had a quick search on google and Instagram to find a local choir that we could record as we felt this would be really challenging to mix when we got to that portion. We found a choir that rehearses in The Pyramid in Anderston, Glasgow – Fraser sent a message reaching out to them on Instagram.

 

  • Session 2 (3/3/25): We began research into which recording techniques we would be using with the limited amount of gear we have access to. We decided on using the Fukada tree technique with some additional spot microphones depending on how many sections of instruments/singers we’d be recording. The Fukada tree was decided as it is an optimal set up for mixing in a 5.1 surround fashion down the line – this plus the possible spot mics give us a lot of audio information to work with and captures the room we’d be recording in. We were still awaiting dates for scoping out the venue and when we will record the choir, so we made good use of our time by deciding on microphones and having a look into the floor plan of their sports hall.

 

 

 

 

 

  • Session 3 (10/3/25) - We got confirmation from the main conductor of the choir via Instagram for the go ahead and we were just waiting to confirm dates to meet up. We had a game plan in place for which microphones we were planning to use for the most effective recording process and all the equipment we need get together. So now we were patiently waiting for a date to get the ball rolling.

 

  • Session 4 (20/3/25): We heard back and had a date to meet with Lindsay (the conductor) and the choir to get a grasp on the layout of the Sports Hall that we’d be recording in – on Wednesday the 26th of March. We also had a date in place to record the choir – Wednesday the 2nd of April. Everything was on track now, So I typed up a project proposal from here.

 

  • Session 5 (26/3/25): We went to meet Lindsay on this night and the Hall we were recording in was ideal for this project as it has a wooden floor, very high ceilings, concrete walls and a stage area which we were able to pull the curtains over (to reduce excess reverberation bouncing around and possibly cause phase issues). There were plenty of sockets around the room too for power with plenty amount of voltage to power all the equipment we planned to take. I made up a floor plan, took pictures of the hall and took some notes for how we originally planned to set up all the gear.
  • Session 6 (31/3/25): My group and I went over all the microphones and equipment we decided on with our lecturer, Clark, to make sure we were on the right track, and that it was possible that we could use everything we planned to.

We needed some gear that wasn’t immediately available for us to do some mock set-ups – so Clark thankfully helped us out by going to another campus to pick up an extra Audient 8-channel interface, so we had enough inputs as we were planning to use 11 microphones. This was due to one of the interfaces on our campus had internal issues. We grabbed the microphones, and 11 mic stands to practice the set-up – this was to be ahead of the game, so we knew exactly what to do on the 2nd of April.

 

  • Session 7 (1/4/25): This day we spent gathering all the gear necessary for this recording session on the 2nd. Clark had helped us out and grabbed the interface for us. We got a trolley to keep everything together & managed to get everything we planned in the equipment list – including extra XLR’s just in case some didn’t work. My group and I packed everything into my car – we took half of it to Frasers house overnight and half to mine. Lindsay had sent a message with more information about arrival time and what the general plan was.

 

  • Session 8 (2/4/25): We drove with all the gear to The Pyramid in Anderston and arrived about 6:30pm. We were able to get in a half an hour earlier than the choir to begin setting up all the mic stands, microphones, laptop and interfaces. When we arrived, we found out there were going to be around 80 choir members coming to be recorded so we had to change the original planned positioning of the mic setup – instead off us having our back to the stage, we had the choir positioned across the long side of the hall with us being at the opposite side. This was fine since we had scoped the place out prior and knew where power outlets were.

We had a pre-made note of the measurements to follow and a tape measure to help set up the Fukada tree and the spot mics Infront of each section of the choir – Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto & Bartione. Lindsay had her own setup with a keyboard, laptop and PA system to play backing tracks. As it drew closer to 7pm, people started to flood in and take their respective seats which we did a good job of keeping calm and relaxed to make sure we didn’t make any silly mistakes. We wrote up a channel list to keep track of which microphone was going into which input.

Once we had everything plugged in (interface, laptop, microphones), we turned on the laptop and opened a new session in Pro Tools – adding 11 mono tracks to begin gain staging as the choir was doing some warmups. The levels all looked to be sitting at a good level in Pro Tools around –15dB/-20dB. We were about to plug headphones in to hear the gain levels but Lindsay the conductor started to talk to the choir giving us an introduction and started getting them ready to sing – we ended up not double checking and going visually off the sound meters on Pro Tools.

 

 

We left the session to record for around 2 hours of them doing vocal exercises, warmups, full musical songs and all the in between. Every now and then one of us would quietly have a peak to check the levels and add markers for when they started a new song as to make editing later easier. The Audient that the microphones were plugged into would show a red light as if it was peaking a few times throughout but when we checked it all looked good in the DAW.

About 9pm the choir finished up – so we packed up all the gear, saved the session, got a back-up on my hard drive & headed home satisfied with how the experience went.

 

Session 9 (3/4/25): The following day we met up on campus and listened back to hear how the recordings went and began to panic – most of the 2 hours of audio was distorted, crackly and unusable. We were deflated as we were so happy with how the session went and couldn’t understand why this has happened. From here, we spent a lot of time together trying to salvage the audio – including Lucy over spring break took the files and tried to salvage whatever she could/edit the session down, so it was easier to work with since she has a copy of Pro Tools at home. I began to research and watch videos of how to use  iZotope’s RX9 software to restore any audio possibly after the 2-week break.

 

Session 10 (28/4/25): Me and the group met first thing in the morning to discuss what Lucy was able to salvage and which of the tracks recorded would be realistically possible to restore. In the session, the choir had performed a song called ‘Falling Slowly’ from the musical called ‘Once’. I had been putting some practice using RX9 and had an understanding on how to use the De-click and De-clip functions on the software to remove the distortion & clicks throughout the track. So, we took stereo bounces of each tracks capture (Omni left, Omni right, Surround mics etc.) of this song and put them into RX9 to begin reviving the audio.

 

I began feeling more hopeful and positive as this function was efficiently removing the baked-in distortion. Every time the distortion happened, you could visibly see it in the frequency spectral view – this helped to dial in & fix each time it happened. After asking some peers and discussing together, we concluded that this distortion was that the signal the interface was capturing was somehow peaking which could be due to hardware issues like faulty wires or frequency-receiving issues.

 

 

I was able to remove all the crackling and digital deformities after working for hours using the De-click and De-clipping functions and testing different frequency skewing to remove specific lower/higher frequencies. Then we made a brand-new session and added the restored audio clips into it to begin 5.1 mixing another day.

Session 11 (5/5/25): Me & Lucy spent the entire day in the studio to begin the mixing process. We began by adding each mic capture to tracks with 5.1 surround outputs and used Fabfilter ProQ2 on each to get rid of the rumbly, muddy low frequencies & the subtle hissing of the high frequencies.

 

From here, we used the 5.1 surround position view to pan each of the captures to fully immerse the listener and create a spatial experience that feels like you are there in the room with a choir singing around you. We had to bring some of the levels down for the left surround & baritones' recordings as the surround mic picked up more of the backing track through the PA system, and the baritones naturally sounded louder as they sung deeper. Also to help fill out the entire spatial area, we created some divergence between the Left & Right Surround speakers, so they bled into one another – this filled out the space directly behind the listener.

 

Once we had filled the 5.1 surround space, we decided to add some automation on the 5.1 panning at the end of the track to give the illusion of movement. When the choir sung the word “back”, we automated each track to go to the front left, to the back surround speakers, to front right, and then to the back surrounds once more. There is a long chord held by the choir at the very end, so we automated it to give the illusion they move from the centre of the room, back to their respective positions by the time the song ends.

 

Session 12 (12/5/25): This was the very final session. We bounced the audio using a 5.1 surround out mix source, and made sure to click “import after bounce” so we had a 5.1 WAV file but also were able to keep the new audio file in the session.

 

 

To get a final stereo mix, I added a down mixer plugin & used a stereo preset – this uses a sorting algorithm to turn it from 5.1 to stereo. Now all that was left to do was bounce this stereo mix and the project was now complete.

Project Excerpt - Before + After

Click this button for a link to the full, finished project!