rays and records: snow sessions vol. 1
5 min
Hello everyone! My name is Aaron Needham. I first met Ravi through an internship with Manhattan Beach Recording, a recording studio based in Midtown Manhattan. From the first day of our internship, it was clear that Ravi and I were like-minded individuals with a passion to grow. This quickly blossomed into a wonderful friendship as Ravi and I embarked on a journey into the music industry fueled with curiosity and passion. After I left the studio, I continued to work with Ravi in any capacity possible from assisting with live music at South Asian weddings to personal projects. With a personal love for the changes in the industry that Ravi Ray Audio stands for, I have officially joined the team as an Audio Engineer and Live Sound A2!
You could’ve easily lit up a room with the passion Ravi expressed the moment he first introduced me to the concept of Snow Sessions. His goal was to expand his horizons and step outside of his comfort zone by collaborating with new artists and by experimenting with new recording styles. And thus was born, Snow Sessions Vol. 1. - The beginning of season-themed projects that showcase rising South Asian-American artists across genres.
In the spirit of collaboration, Ravi brought on me as an Assistant Engineer, in which I helped in tracking all 4 songs and making sure the logistics ran as smoothly as possible. Alongside myself, Ravi also brought on Archit Upadhyay, an amazing videographer and Chief Creative Officer at Outer Voice Records to film and edit the live performances. The visuals delivered by Archit were the key to truly bringing this project to life!
As you journey through the following performances, I invite you to take a peek behind the curtain as I reflect on the process of recording Snow Sessions Vol. 1
As a Studio Engineer, I typically work through a lens of customer service. There is a creative and technical lens as well, but at the end of the session, the most important takeaway is client satisfaction. The nature of a gig like Snow Sessions however introduces a new point of view as we approach engineering from the perspective of a camera lens.
Bilaal Avaz’s “Had Me At Almost,” being the first session of the day, quickly made us shift gears. When we started setting up lighting and cameras, we realized that we may have to place our performers differently as well as change the approaches taken to record them. Originally the AKG C214 we used with Bilaal covered too much of his face in the shot. Many of Ravi’s sessions have used this exact setup, and it reliably captures killer vocals. However, we had to pivot prioritizing the shot whilst still capturing Bilaal’s performance effectively. The end result; A mic flipped on its side, angled slightly up at Bilaal.
Though it’s the second release in the Snow Session lineup, on the day of recording Shilpa’s “Time” was the last song we recorded. As engineers, any kinks Ravi and I had to iron out were taken care of by this time. Plus, only having the task of recording a single vocalist, this was the perfect way of closing out the day.
Shilpa’s preparation really showed and after only 3 or 4 takes, we had more material than we could’ve asked. With each take, Shilpa left the production team speechless. Her song and delivery took advantage of the intimate setting and commanded our attention. As you view the video, I encourage you to put on headphones and immerse yourself in the ability of Shilpa to draw you in with a single LIVE take.
Jam and Philly’s song was unique as it was the only song recording more than one acoustic source. This meant we had to deal with bleed. Two issues typically arise with microphone bleed. The first is isolating your primary source from secondary ones when mixing. This is usually addressed with a combination of microphone choice and positioning to reject unwanted noise. The second issue you run into with microphone bleed is Phasing. When we as engineers look at phase, we are looking at the difference in time it takes a source to reach each microphone. The time difference does not need to be great for an audible difference to be perceived. This is the primary issue we had to contend with for Jam and Philly.
Our physical placement of Jam and Philly, as well as the placement of their mics, resulted in some nasty phase cancellations. Normally the easiest fix of phase misalignment is to flip the phase 180° but this is a broad-stroke solution. Unfortunately for us, our phase issues sat in just the right place to make our lives that much harder. Between the reflections in the room and the placement of Jam and Philly in the shot, there wasn’t much leeway to fight the cancellations. After some time fiddling with mic placement, we got to a place where the cancellation was not as audible. Any leftover effects of the microphones being in the same room we adopted as an “element of live performance.”
Archana’s “Heat,” as the final release was the most technically complex setup from an engineering perspective. Using the gear available to us, Ravi and I were tasked with getting a clean microphone signal to Pro tools, as well as sending that same clean signal back to Archana. We also then needed to get audio from her Ableton Push which was sending us the live track and live vocal effects she performed that day.
Ravi is currently tracking with an Audient iD44 (the first iteration) which allows the ability to send separate headphone mixes if needed. Though this feature is not something he regularly requires for his tracking needs, it is a similar process and something I do quite regularly inside of pro tools and with my own Aurturia Audiofuse Studio. So, we took the microphone input as normal, and then sent back to Archana a clean feed through separate headphone mix. This feed was sent directly into her Scarlett Focusrite Interface. And then finally we recorded the output of her Scarlett, back into Ravi’s iD44 giving us both the raw microphone signal and Archana’s processed signal. I would encourage everyone to look out for Archana’s use of her Ableton Push as she not only triggers changes in her track but performs live vocal effects!
Snow Sessions Vol. 1 was full of many wonderful firsts for me. It was the first day I worked as a recording engineer for Ravi Ray Audio, the first time I saw the RRA Studio, and the first time I set up a studio session for filming.
It warms my heart to have been on a project like this and to support the work of Ravi. He continuously strives to bring creatives together and give them the platform they deserve to showcase their art to the world. His mission to empower diversity and representation within the music industry is one I’m proud to be a part of and can’t wait for the projects in the pipeline.
Check out the full YouTube playlist here, and stream the album here.
We hoped you enjoyed a behind-the-scenes view of Snow Sessions Vol.1! Leave a comment of who’s performance melted you the most.
Stay Creative, Be Empowered!
~Aaron
Edited by: Meera Tikku
