Overview

Recording of a live session for my band in the countryside of Hungary.

Roles Directing, Editing, Color Grading, Songwriting, Performing, Mixing / Mastering

Process

The project combined songwriting, live performance, cinematography, recording techniques and mixing and mastering.

Pre-production

Planning for the session started months in advance. The band arrived several days early to rehearse and write new material on-site. The recording equipment was carried down to the location by the band members themselves. The crew arrived the day before the shoot to test the audio setup and lighting.

Overnight and during the morning the band finalized songs that were written during the retreat.

The recording

The recording session itself took place during a single day during which we recorded 5 songs.

The crew worked with a lightweight, minimal setup so to remain unobtrusive during the performances while still capturing high quality footage. The video setup consisted of a Sony A7 IV mounted on a gimbal alongside 2 Neewer variable lights with matte boxes.

All instruments were tracked live with a combination of live monitoring and digital recording, while some parts were re-recorded in post. The drums were captured with a 4 microphone setup (kick, snare, stereo overheads). Guitars, bass and vocals were monitored through a PA system but were recorded through a digital interface.

Handling audio bleed

The audio bleed that went into the drum microphones were either masked with other frequencies and removed with AI-assisted stem separation, resulting in a cleaner and more accurate mix.

Post-production

After the crew handed over the footage and recordings, I handled all aspects of post-production. I re-recorded vocals, mixed and mastered the audio, and color corrected the video including balancing the light between the performance area and background.

I also handled promotion on social media and distribution across Spotify / YouTube / Instagram.

Results

The reels that promoted the track on Instagram reached beyond the band’s follower count. While none of the videos went viral, all of the reels had high view counts relative to the band’s size.

The YouTube videos also performed fairly well, as they generated about 1000 unique viewers and 1500 total views. For a band this size, these are strong engagement metrics.