Live From Fantasy Studios with Delphi

One of OwlCove Productions' final sessions at Fantasy Studios before the closing of the historic recording space was this incredible live performance from Delphi.
Gear Used:
Lead Vocal: Telefunken ELAM 251 - 1176 REV A - LA2A - Neve 8078
Acoustic Guitar: Telefunken ELAM 260 Pair - Pultec EQP1A Pair
Bass: RE-20 and Avalon U5 DI - API 550A - GML 8300
Cajon L+R: Telefunken M60 FET Pair - API 312 - Manley Pultec
Cajon "Snare": Shure SM57 - API 312
Cajon "Kick": AKG D112 - API 550A - API 312
BG Vox: Shure SM7 - 1176 REV A - Neve 8078
Room 1: Neumann U87 Pair - Neve 8078
Room 2: AKG 451 Pair - GML 8300
Idea behind setup:
We set the band up all facing the same way for the in-studio audience, but wanted to keep sight-lines as open as possible. We noticed that in live videos of the band, that the lead singer looked at the cajon player to help sync their tempo, as well as vocal + backing vocal phrases. Because of this, we placed the cajon player to her left, which is where her eyes tend to go while playing guitar. We then placed the bass player in a position that gave him a sight line of both the lead singer and the cajon player.
The lead vocal mic is placed in a figure-8 polar pattern with the null pointed at the guitar to help reduce bleed. We placed an absorber on the ground where the rear side of the figure-8 was facing to reduce reflections from the band getting into the vocal take.
Acoustic guitar mics are utilizing hyper-cardioid capsules to again reduce bleed from the vocal and rest of the band. We found that XY and ORTF stereo techniques were not providing a wide enough stereo image for the larger than life sound wanted from this small acoustic setup, and was competing too much with the cajon. M/S was out of the question due to the surrounding instruments and in-studio audience. For these reasons we chose a spaced-pair technique, the placement of which we worked with very carefully to maintain phase correlation between both the guitar and the vocal, while also finding beautiful sounding sweet-spots to capture.
The cajon has a pair of M60 FET's on the front for a stereo image, as well as an SM57 pointed at the player's "snare slap" position to help accentuate the snare sound when hit hard. We also have an RE-20 in the rear of the cajon for our "kick" sound.
The bass has a single RE20 and a DI. The bass amp is Fantasy's vintage B15, placed in an iso room.
For more information, or to book with OwlCove Productions, please visit out website: www.owlcovestudios.com

[@joelnorman2287]

Keep rocking Delphi!! You are gonna hit the big time!!

[@philballou7387]

Fantastic song, fantastic sound, historic space. When was this recorded?

[@OwlCoveProductions]

Thank you very much! This was recorded in May of 2018. Fantasy unfortunately went on to close it's doors that September.