Recording String Instruments for "Broken House" by Joe Cashetta

Joe Cashetta's reworked orchestration of Broken House relies on the string section for emotional impact. We recorded three violin parts and an upright bass part to provide a rich harmonic foundation and expressive depth.

The arrangement initially had viola and cello sections as well as the violin and bass, but we ran into problems. To retain harmonic texture, the viola section was adapted for a third violin. We also tried recording the cello part on the upright bass, but the huge range discrepancies and technical limitations made it too difficult to execute well. So, we scheduled an additional session to record the cello. The strings retain the orchestra's uniting and expressive power despite these changes.

For preproduction for this session, I decided to recall conversations with Joe Carrell and Leah Schattschneider. In set up for sessions, particularly bluegrass (since they usually have an upright bass), Joe and Leah like to use a large diaphragm condenser microphone for upright basses. They usually like to use the tube WA-47, which is Warm Audio's version of the Neumann U-47. This microphone brings out not only the warmness in the instrument, but the clarity. So, in relation to this microphone, I wanted to use the Neumann U-87 that we have at Capital University. I figured due to their relation that I would get a similar outcome - and I was mostly correct. I didn't get exactly what I wanted out of this microphone, however it was a great alternative to what was at my disposal.

In regards to how I decided to set this up for the bass, I went with a U-87 directed at the body of the instrument as well as another U-87 towards the neck.

Now, I don't believe in my time at Treasure Isle Studios I witnessed a time where they miked up a singular violin, so I decided to use what I know from the bass and apply it to the violin as much as possible. I decided to leave the U-87 that was on the crane stand about where it was for the neck of the bass, and just redirect it towards the body of the violin. I also decided to throw on the high pass filter on the microphone for the violin to get rid of the muddy frequencies so that I'd have an easier time mixing later.

I also included room microphones for this session as well, and I decided to stick with the Royer M122s because of their versatility when it comes to directional sound. I placed both of these microphones at an angle to the players, changing the placement between players due to how they each hold/play their instrument.

For preamps for this session, I decided to use the Daking Mic Pre IV preamp for all close mics because of how much I loved this preamp with other string instruments. It proved to work very well in terms of warmth and live-feel. The preamp I decided to use for the room microphones was the Focusrite ISA 428 MkII due to the extra bit of clarity that I wanted for the string room tone. Because of how much is going on in the string sections, especially towards the end of the track, clarity was a huge factor in determining what to utilize.

When it comes to challenges during this session, the biggest one was recording other instrument parts on the instruments we had at our disposal. The score calls for a Violin 1, Violin 2, Viola, Cello, and Bass - and we only had a violinist and a bassist. Now, we were able to record both violin parts with the singular player we had, but what happened to the Viola and Cello parts?

Luckily, our violinist was incredibly talented and agreed to playing a modified version of the Viola part and did a phenomenal job. We weren't so lucky with the Cello part. Our initial plan was to try and see if the bassist would be able to play the part (in the correct octave), and our bassist agreed to try. When it came time to record the part - we realized how difficult this would turn out to be, and we thanked the bassist for at least being willing to try for us, but we were going to have to scrap these files.

Now, while we have 4 of the 5 parts recorded (and they all sound amazing), we have to find an additional player when we couldn't originally. We are reaching out to some of our contacts we didn't get a chance to get in touch with previously, and hopefully we are able to find someone willing to play for us on our timeline.

Our players for this session were Thomas Secrist (violinist) and Nate Dickas (bassist). They were absolutely phenomenal in not only playing the part to our standard, but also going above and beyond to create additional layers to make the sound more like a full orchestra rather than two players.

These sessions are proving to be invaluable to my growth and knowledge of tracking sessions and how to move forward after challenges are faced. I am entirely grateful for this time, and excited for the remaining sessions! Only piano, cello, and vocals to go!

Thanks for reading!

Madelyn Jarrell

Recording date: February 2, 2025