Sunday, December 30, 2007
Lazy
Slow day. Mostly cataloging serial #s and pics for insurance reasons, awesome. Other than that? We did some backing vocals and a vocal mic/preamp shootout for the main vox. Our "normal" chain is going to be Pearlman TM2 - V276 - Sta-Level - EQP1. More aggressive stuff is going GT MD1a - m76m - TG1 limiter. Snore snore. Later this week though? Strings, vibraphones, massive gang vocals. Fun.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Noise Day
Today was our day to make all the horrific noises we could handle to fill out tracks. Started out with Tom wailing away on the Jazzmaster with a drum stick through a mess of pedals as Carlos screamed into the mic. Oh, and the mic? A set of headphones broken in half in reverse wiring. It was later suspended in the middle of a huge bass drum as a floating echo mic which we could also beat on while tracking. Ran old vinyl records through a minispeaker mic'd with the Bova ball, looped back through the Lexicon Vortex and Kaoss Pad. Drums super-gated and fed into bitcrushers. Horrid, horrid, horrid, excellent!
Ended the day with guitars, redoing some earlier parts. Jazzmaster into AC30 and Sound City at once, a little compression and grind from an old Marshall Guv'nor. Bova Ball/m76 and MD421/2108 on the AC30, I5/2108 on Sound City. Started into some heavy fuzzed out chunka-chunka stuff but we decided we were just being impatient; with the tracks in an utterly unmixed state there wasn't the surge of sound we need at the end yet. We set out on a misguided heavy guitar mission but came to our senses... there just needs to be some dynamics built in around the bass mixing and drums to give the end of the song the push it needs. Power chords, be gone.
Ended the day with guitars, redoing some earlier parts. Jazzmaster into AC30 and Sound City at once, a little compression and grind from an old Marshall Guv'nor. Bova Ball/m76 and MD421/2108 on the AC30, I5/2108 on Sound City. Started into some heavy fuzzed out chunka-chunka stuff but we decided we were just being impatient; with the tracks in an utterly unmixed state there wasn't the surge of sound we need at the end yet. We set out on a misguided heavy guitar mission but came to our senses... there just needs to be some dynamics built in around the bass mixing and drums to give the end of the song the push it needs. Power chords, be gone.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Lightniplosionz!
Weird, man. Insane bursts of blue and green lightning like explosions in the sky all night and big winds had the power surging on and off (and all points between) throughout the night. The power conditioners kept thing moderately civil, but sessions were interrupted by several outages over the day.
When electricity was available, we worked on guitars, bass effects, and keys for Shooting An Elephant and Activate Your Cancelled Check.
Patrick's guitars were Jazzmaster + AC30 and Sound City 100mkIII. SM7b + Phoenix DRS and Audix I5 + UA 2108 on the AC30, MD421 + UA 2108 on the Sound City. AC30 for cleaner tones, Sound City for the fuzz. Can't begin to keep track of Patrick's pedals. Carlos' guitars were his brown turd special into the AC30, all low end carved out, mic'd with the EV 642 + DRS w/ boost and compressor pedals. Tom's basses were reamped from the V71 direct tracks into his Mesa head+4x10 and mic'd with MD421 + UA 2108 + Sta-Level taking just a couple db off. His effects... are classified. Keyboards today were the Bass Station x2 on Elephant's build section direct into UA 2108 and the Nord Electro into the Mercury M76m.
The guitars get pretty heavily layered so I'm generally carving out a low of low mids wherever I can, leaving usually just one track with much low end. What with the bass, keys, and all that it just gets too crowded.
Started tracking bass for We Can Build You, which is mostly chorded, but even tracking the bass through the AC30 we weren't getting enough clarity. Solution? We're getting a baritone guitar, which I think will be perfect for the chording while the Bass Station holds a constant low end (ducked by the chording baritone when it enters.)
When electricity was available, we worked on guitars, bass effects, and keys for Shooting An Elephant and Activate Your Cancelled Check.
Patrick's guitars were Jazzmaster + AC30 and Sound City 100mkIII. SM7b + Phoenix DRS and Audix I5 + UA 2108 on the AC30, MD421 + UA 2108 on the Sound City. AC30 for cleaner tones, Sound City for the fuzz. Can't begin to keep track of Patrick's pedals. Carlos' guitars were his brown turd special into the AC30, all low end carved out, mic'd with the EV 642 + DRS w/ boost and compressor pedals. Tom's basses were reamped from the V71 direct tracks into his Mesa head+4x10 and mic'd with MD421 + UA 2108 + Sta-Level taking just a couple db off. His effects... are classified. Keyboards today were the Bass Station x2 on Elephant's build section direct into UA 2108 and the Nord Electro into the Mercury M76m.
The guitars get pretty heavily layered so I'm generally carving out a low of low mids wherever I can, leaving usually just one track with much low end. What with the bass, keys, and all that it just gets too crowded.
Started tracking bass for We Can Build You, which is mostly chorded, but even tracking the bass through the AC30 we weren't getting enough clarity. Solution? We're getting a baritone guitar, which I think will be perfect for the chording while the Bass Station holds a constant low end (ducked by the chording baritone when it enters.)
Saturday, December 15, 2007
This Day Was Hard Fought
New rule: don't let the drummer get all tweaked on energy drinks.
also, try to limit one's coffee consumption. I think I'm going to internally melt.
This was a trying day. I struggled to find a sound I really liked for Activate Your Canceled Check, which we were redoing the drums on. After an hour of moving mics around small amounts, we got it, bu because of the shifting we did of the original recordings to match the speech samples that make up the bridge, the second half of the song was totally off the click, which led to many passes through before we had the one.
Then on to a new song, Shooting An Elephant. Easy to get a good sound in, took 20 minutes at most. ATM25 on the kick beater, a 4047 at the end of a drum tunnel. The beater mic was into a UA 2108 and Orban 642b, mostly to pull out tons of 300hz. Tunnel mic ran into Phoenix DRS. Snare top was Beyer M201 ino 2108, bottom was SM7b into Altec 1591. Overheads were Shure KSM141s, -15 pad, middle low-cut setting into Mercury M76m and Drawmer 1968ME, attack at 2, release at auto-1, tapping 1-3db reduction with no sidechain. Room mic was Pearlman TM2 into Altec 1566 + EQP1.
At this point, Hunter had consumed an amount of energy drink + vodka which led to many takes. Many, many takes. In the end, we spliced two performances together, and it sounds great. Kick was my Gretsch 20", toms were Hunter's Mapexes (his custom kit arrives the 20th) and snare was my blackie.
Bass was tracked with Tom's Jag + TAB V71 + Sta Level @ about 6-12db + EQP1.
whoo. long day.
also, try to limit one's coffee consumption. I think I'm going to internally melt.
This was a trying day. I struggled to find a sound I really liked for Activate Your Canceled Check, which we were redoing the drums on. After an hour of moving mics around small amounts, we got it, bu because of the shifting we did of the original recordings to match the speech samples that make up the bridge, the second half of the song was totally off the click, which led to many passes through before we had the one.
Then on to a new song, Shooting An Elephant. Easy to get a good sound in, took 20 minutes at most. ATM25 on the kick beater, a 4047 at the end of a drum tunnel. The beater mic was into a UA 2108 and Orban 642b, mostly to pull out tons of 300hz. Tunnel mic ran into Phoenix DRS. Snare top was Beyer M201 ino 2108, bottom was SM7b into Altec 1591. Overheads were Shure KSM141s, -15 pad, middle low-cut setting into Mercury M76m and Drawmer 1968ME, attack at 2, release at auto-1, tapping 1-3db reduction with no sidechain. Room mic was Pearlman TM2 into Altec 1566 + EQP1.
At this point, Hunter had consumed an amount of energy drink + vodka which led to many takes. Many, many takes. In the end, we spliced two performances together, and it sounds great. Kick was my Gretsch 20", toms were Hunter's Mapexes (his custom kit arrives the 20th) and snare was my blackie.
Bass was tracked with Tom's Jag + TAB V71 + Sta Level @ about 6-12db + EQP1.
whoo. long day.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Marathon Session
The whole point of doing this thing at home was to allow ourselves to take our time and finesse the sounds to right where we wanted them in a relaxed setting. Yesterday though we faced a decision; take our time all weekend and make our recordings at a relaxed pace, or get to play paintball in the woods behind the mansion the next day.
I think we went through two gallons of coffee. Definitely enough to make Tom and Supertaster Carlos sick and my eyes pump in and out of focus. The internal bleeding incurred at least came with rewarding results; we got through tons of tracks on the two new songs.
Brief Physics started out with the CP70 piano running direct into an Altec 1566a with a little presence boost and some low-mid clearing up with an EQP1. The Altec is pretty nuts for pianos, rich gooey sound you can dial just the right grit into. Rhodes was tracked through my Sound City Custom 100 mkIII after my Ampeg B25 blew up (shit!) and Tom's Mesa 4x10 bass cabinet. This was a pretty excellent sounding amplified Rhodes solution. Mic'd with a 4047 into UA 2108. There were a couple tracks of this including one Carlos played without listening to the rest of the mix which is then played into the RE-201 UAD plug with a patch made up for this song... I think we all sort of became Pink Floyd for a minute there.
Bass came from two sources - most of the song is a Novation Bass Station into the M78m and EQP1 giving a little definition boost at 3k and some lows at 100hz where it sits above the 26" kick. During the second half, it's an upright bass Tom refurbished after rescuing it from an unappreciative hippie-nouveau. Tracking it was pretty simple - Pearlman TM2 with the hi-cut engaged about 16" back from the body aimed just above the bridge into M78m. Sounds fantastic.
Guitars. Guitars! Lots of them! I can't keep track of Patrick's pedals. Most Jazzmaster + AC30. Mic'd with a Royer 121 + M78 and Audix I5 + 2108. A couple tracks were Epi Sheraton + Sound City with MD421 + Phoenix DRS. There's definitely going to have to be some subtractive EQ to make it all fit... lots of big echoey guitars and keyboards wanting the same space.
Finally percussion. Patrick used a Mapex floor tom and Pork Pie Big Black snare plus two crashes and a tambo. KSM141 on snare, CAD M179 on floor, TM2 in omni overhead, EV 642 Space Lazer 5000 across the snare. These I'm thinking will be bandpassed and panned Ringo-style so as not to step on the main drums.
On to We Can Build You. We tracked bass, keys, and guitar at once. Bass is the Fender Jag bass DI'd into the Phoenix. Nord Electro DI'd into UA 2108. Guitar is Jag+AC30 with the 121/M78 combo. Easy! We'll probably be reamping at least the bass though the Phoenix sounds really great as a DI - better than the dedicated V71 on this song.
Pictures, then off to the woods.
I think we went through two gallons of coffee. Definitely enough to make Tom and Supertaster Carlos sick and my eyes pump in and out of focus. The internal bleeding incurred at least came with rewarding results; we got through tons of tracks on the two new songs.
Brief Physics started out with the CP70 piano running direct into an Altec 1566a with a little presence boost and some low-mid clearing up with an EQP1. The Altec is pretty nuts for pianos, rich gooey sound you can dial just the right grit into. Rhodes was tracked through my Sound City Custom 100 mkIII after my Ampeg B25 blew up (shit!) and Tom's Mesa 4x10 bass cabinet. This was a pretty excellent sounding amplified Rhodes solution. Mic'd with a 4047 into UA 2108. There were a couple tracks of this including one Carlos played without listening to the rest of the mix which is then played into the RE-201 UAD plug with a patch made up for this song... I think we all sort of became Pink Floyd for a minute there.
Bass came from two sources - most of the song is a Novation Bass Station into the M78m and EQP1 giving a little definition boost at 3k and some lows at 100hz where it sits above the 26" kick. During the second half, it's an upright bass Tom refurbished after rescuing it from an unappreciative hippie-nouveau. Tracking it was pretty simple - Pearlman TM2 with the hi-cut engaged about 16" back from the body aimed just above the bridge into M78m. Sounds fantastic.
Guitars. Guitars! Lots of them! I can't keep track of Patrick's pedals. Most Jazzmaster + AC30. Mic'd with a Royer 121 + M78 and Audix I5 + 2108. A couple tracks were Epi Sheraton + Sound City with MD421 + Phoenix DRS. There's definitely going to have to be some subtractive EQ to make it all fit... lots of big echoey guitars and keyboards wanting the same space.
Finally percussion. Patrick used a Mapex floor tom and Pork Pie Big Black snare plus two crashes and a tambo. KSM141 on snare, CAD M179 on floor, TM2 in omni overhead, EV 642 Space Lazer 5000 across the snare. These I'm thinking will be bandpassed and panned Ringo-style so as not to step on the main drums.
On to We Can Build You. We tracked bass, keys, and guitar at once. Bass is the Fender Jag bass DI'd into the Phoenix. Nord Electro DI'd into UA 2108. Guitar is Jag+AC30 with the 121/M78 combo. Easy! We'll probably be reamping at least the bass though the Phoenix sounds really great as a DI - better than the dedicated V71 on this song.
Pictures, then off to the woods.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
We Can Build You
Overheads are AT4047s in a Glyn Johns sorta thing into UA2108. There's an MD421 into Phoenix DRS on the kick, but it's mostly just feeding a compression channel as the main kick sound is definitely coming through the room mic, a Sage Bova Ball into M76 + EQP1. Snare top is M201/M76, an SM7b through an Altec 1566a underneath, very lightly tapping the 1968ME after the transient. The tone is in the balloons.
Brief Physics
This one has some cool tom work at the end... "I'm going to channel angry Nick Mason!"
There's no kick mic. Pearlman TM2 out in front of the kit into the M76 + EQP1 bumping a few db at 60hz and 5khz. Royer 121 as a mono OH also into the M76. Stereo room mics; KSM141's in omni into the UA2108 (I love these mics so much.) Snare is a Beyer M201TG into Phoenix DRS-1 with the pad in. We took an MD421 and ran it outside into the empty pool in the fake Roman Bath (WHAT?) in the backyard because there was a spot there with nutty echo + birds chirping + airplanes + Stein the massive German Shepherd barking at cars. It's into an Altec 1566a and smashed silly with a Drawmer 1968ME, fastest attack and Auto1 release.
There's no kick mic. Pearlman TM2 out in front of the kit into the M76 + EQP1 bumping a few db at 60hz and 5khz. Royer 121 as a mono OH also into the M76. Stereo room mics; KSM141's in omni into the UA2108 (I love these mics so much.) Snare is a Beyer M201TG into Phoenix DRS-1 with the pad in. We took an MD421 and ran it outside into the empty pool in the fake Roman Bath (WHAT?) in the backyard because there was a spot there with nutty echo + birds chirping + airplanes + Stein the massive German Shepherd barking at cars. It's into an Altec 1566a and smashed silly with a Drawmer 1968ME, fastest attack and Auto1 release.
Drums @ The Mansion
Today we put down drums for two more songs. We were working upstairs from the practice space today in a room with lots of *good* reflective surfaces for once. I yanked out the fuse assembly from one of my EQP1s so we could get the M76m working and holy cow, it sounds great. Multithousandsdollars great? I dunno. I'm keeping it, though. Savings be damned.
Both songs used more or less the same drumkit - Hunter's Mapex toms, which sound great, mix of Paiste and Zildjian brass (one track with his 14" New Beat hats the other with my 13" K-Hybrids.) Kick drum was (thanks, Erin) a 26" Gretsch with an unported resonant head. We put some Auralex foam inside it, ran a strip of cloth over the res head, and at one point I wedged a styrofoam coffee cup into the front head to control overtones. One track we used my '65 Ludwig Jazz Festival snare and the other then '70s Slinger Black Oyster.
Both songs used more or less the same drumkit - Hunter's Mapex toms, which sound great, mix of Paiste and Zildjian brass (one track with his 14" New Beat hats the other with my 13" K-Hybrids.) Kick drum was (thanks, Erin) a 26" Gretsch with an unported resonant head. We put some Auralex foam inside it, ran a strip of cloth over the res head, and at one point I wedged a styrofoam coffee cup into the front head to control overtones. One track we used my '65 Ludwig Jazz Festival snare and the other then '70s Slinger Black Oyster.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Catch-up.
OK.
I'd meant to start this earlier. A li'l diary of the making of a record. The band is called Bellflur, a group I'd played with several years back. The recording is being done all in somewhat improvised spaces - old farmhouses may not offer the technical advantages of a proper studio but it's hard to argue with the comfort. You can experiment with sound all day and not worry about being billed by the hour.
We're this far wrapping up the first two songs, the main tracks are all down and we're just overdubbing the last backing vocals and waiting on two members of local group Exit Clov to come in and add some violins and vocal parts.
Day one was spent doing drums. We used Hunter's Gretsch Catalina kit and my old Gretsch 3 piece. My '60s Slingerland 6 lug snare for one track and my '70s Slinger 7 lug for the other; both are 14x6s.
Next sessions were done at The Mansion, as will most all sessions from here out. CP70s DI'd into the 2108 with a TM2 - Altec 1566a - Drawmer 1968me chain over the hammers. Bass DI'd into a Tab/Funkenwerk V71 and reamped into Tom's Mesa 400 + 4x10 cab, mic'd with SM7 and 4047s. Patrick's guitars into a Bassman RI, mic'd usually with SM7, Royer 121, Crowley & Tripp Naked Eye, and Audix I5. Glockenspiel with KSM141s into 2108. Vox mainly TM2 - Phoenix DRS - 1968, sometimes the Urei BL40. Synths, fuck, too much to remember. I'll take better notes from now on.
I'd meant to start this earlier. A li'l diary of the making of a record. The band is called Bellflur, a group I'd played with several years back. The recording is being done all in somewhat improvised spaces - old farmhouses may not offer the technical advantages of a proper studio but it's hard to argue with the comfort. You can experiment with sound all day and not worry about being billed by the hour.
We're this far wrapping up the first two songs, the main tracks are all down and we're just overdubbing the last backing vocals and waiting on two members of local group Exit Clov to come in and add some violins and vocal parts.
Day one was spent doing drums. We used Hunter's Gretsch Catalina kit and my old Gretsch 3 piece. My '60s Slingerland 6 lug snare for one track and my '70s Slinger 7 lug for the other; both are 14x6s.
Next sessions were done at The Mansion, as will most all sessions from here out. CP70s DI'd into the 2108 with a TM2 - Altec 1566a - Drawmer 1968me chain over the hammers. Bass DI'd into a Tab/Funkenwerk V71 and reamped into Tom's Mesa 400 + 4x10 cab, mic'd with SM7 and 4047s. Patrick's guitars into a Bassman RI, mic'd usually with SM7, Royer 121, Crowley & Tripp Naked Eye, and Audix I5. Glockenspiel with KSM141s into 2108. Vox mainly TM2 - Phoenix DRS - 1968, sometimes the Urei BL40. Synths, fuck, too much to remember. I'll take better notes from now on.
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