Update!

Mainly been mixing the past many weeks and have gotten to work on some really good projects. Things got a little sidetracked by a medical situation which now appears to be under control (despite the worst wishes of one obsessive, mentally deranged individual) but hoping to this week wrap up mixes with the.blackout.district. It's been a highly educational set of sessions as their vision for the songs is often really different from mine so working to find a ground we both can stand happily on has led to working out some nifty new tricks.

Finished two EPS prior to this, one with the super secret band that I'm still not certain I can reveal the identities of (heh) and a group called The Dustys, which I co-mixed with Nick. This group is absurdly good. They've got these great ways of layering really lovely vocal melodies and almost-over-the-top '70s psych-metal guitars that sound exactly the way electric rock'n'roll should sound. The recording was done over a stretch of time both at their homes and at Inner Ear with Nick, who's recorded guitar sounds are always so good as to make me feel rather insecure. I'm really glad to have been able to get involved, and will definitely be giving copies of this EP out for holiday gifts. It's really really good stuff. Death By Sexy has been in a few days as well mixing a full-length Nick tracked which is obviously full of great sounding guitars. I hope we get to make a blooper reel of this one. Those guys have a knack for mid-song banter, and Dex put a flanger across the drum bus at one point. I salute him for his verve, as well as his floor tom skill.

Have one more day of tracking with e.l.m.s. - a project starring Emily and Susan of Exit Clov, Laura Burhenn of her own well-deserved repute and that of Georgie James, and May Tabol, who once was in a band called Le Loup and now has a band called Pree (also w/ some lovely guitar atmosphere courtesy of one Mr David Barker) who are so good that if they aren't the darlings of everyone who loves music by this time next year I may lose all faith in humanity. It's a holiday song! It feels like great 60s/70s folky stuff; I've been sort of using "The Only Living Boy in New York" as a sonic model for it (and in fact was so happy after our last tracking day that, after a few glasses of wine, I had to record my own somewhat silly take on the Simon & Garfunkle tune.) Emily and Susan are always really wonderful on violin and vocals, and it was no exception here. We've been tracking generally a few sources at once to get some bleed - with violins it's been the TM2 on one and the Reslo ribbon on the other - one a rich, dark tone, the other more reedy and sorta haunting. Vocals have pretty unfailingly been with the MD1a+76+MC77. And wow, the vocals! Each of the four were awesome. Like two takes, no splicing, just straight up excellence. I was so dumbfounded by how great it sounded and how freaking easy it was I could barely talk straight.

And woah. As the total opposite... had a guy in the other day who'd gone to Memphis to record at Al Green's old place. Done to 2" and flown into PT, he needed some quick reference mixes done. Just a fast, couple hour service. Right? Holy shit. Like 144-bus ProTools sessions, multiple playlists, menus I didn't know existed, routing configurations that went everywhere but the simple way. I would love to see what this place looked like inside what with all the crazy routing done on those sessions that now had their actual hardware endpoints removed. Luckily the guy was super nice, and the band he'd had playing with him were seriously professional. I'm dying for a Wurli 200 as a result. It definitely reminded me it's time to dig a little deeper into what PTHD can do, but as well that sometimes just pretending it's a tape deck living in the computer feels really nice.

Anyways. We've got sessions booked at Inner Ear in Jan/Feb for more Blackout tracks and the completion of the Bellflur record, and perhaps some new stuff with the super secret mystery band as well. It's nice to be busy.

Inner Ear Blackout

First time running sessions at Inner Ear, and without any permanent damage! 4 piece group - drums, guitars, synths/keys, laptop, bass. Drums and bass went to tape (as did other tracks, but it was elected that they be redone) and flown into PT for overdubs.

Basics - kick was a 24" unported. Lots of boom, not a ton of attack. Mic'd with a 60s and Blue Mouse - good sound but there will definitely be some notching around the kick, bass guitar, and synthbass to get it all sitting right and bring out some attack in that drum. Both ran into 2108, with a Distressor on the 602 at 4:1, slow attack. Snares had a Beyer 201 on top, 441 on bottom, both into V276 and an MC77 on the top, 4:1, slow attack, very fast release. Toms - 421 rack, ATM25 floor, both into Sytek. Bova over the shoulder into DRS, with a Manley Vari-Mu in limit mode doing moderately heavy compression on a couple tunes. MD1a in front of the kit on a few songs into Altec 1566a, crushed in the Vari-Mu (limit mode.) Overheads were stereo (woah) - Altec 201s low and spaced far more as cymbal spread mics that regular overheads as the drummer had a lot of cymbals up and actually played them tastefully and precisely - I know, right?! These ran into the V76s. High stereo OH was an SM69 into 1272.

Bass guitar was done direct at the time for lack of a bass amp that sounded good enough to use. Avalon U5 - Sta Level, sometimes also an ADL-1000 after the Sta to help keep things smooth. We'll be reamping for the final tones.

Electric guitars were all over the map. One guitarist primarily relied on a Tele w/ neck HB and an old cool Danelectro amp. Generally an M88 into 1566, UA610, or 1272 sounded right. Few songs we swapped things up - brought out an AC30, which we mic'd with an SM7, the M88, a Fathead ribbon, a 414... song to song changed. Always those same preamps aside from the 414/v276 chain used on one song. Other guitarist went through the AC30 and a couple small old Fenders. The Fenders got mic'd with the Crowley and Tripp ribbon most often, M88 here and there. Same preamps. Put in the ADL1000 for some cleaner parts that needed smoothing. A few times we used an old Philips omni on the AC30, which I really loved.

Synths/Keys... they had absurd stuff. Kept tracking it simple. Moog direct into 2108 or the board, same with the Korgs, and Nord Electro via Tab Funkenwerk v71. Vocals we ended up dual-micing - GT MD1a and a Cascade ribbon, both through the 76s. Sounds nice! Farfisa went with my usual organ mic - the Beyer 201. Just sounds cool.

acoustic guitar, KM84, 2108, Vari-Mu. Wow.

Day 2

Switched up to the 26" kick for three songs. Snares were the Jazzfest abd the blue Singerland, always side mic'd, and with a bottom mic on the Slinger. KSM141s moved up to OH position, and (gasp) came out of omni for a song. Same kick mics, but out front this time unless the ATM25 was under the snare. MD1a came down to the floor to get slapback. More later.

Two days in the mansion

Just some photos for now, as I'm too tired to type it all out. But five songs into the rest of the Bellflur record, and I'm really happy. Things are sounding great.

We've used different drum setups on most every song, and we're tracking more live than we have before. It's working nicely. Day one was 5-5-5-6 and Rhythms of Waking and Sleeping, both with Hunter's new Mapleworks kick. Rhythms was his Mapleworks snare, 5556 is the Big Black. Kick mics are e602 inside and ATM25 in the hole, both into 2108. Snare side is Beyer M201 into V276. Bova is into the V76, GT MD1a switches between mono overhead and room mic, through the DRS1 and sometimes the MC77. TM2 in front of the kit, mainly in omni, into V76 and sometimes Sta Level slow attack/fast release. Rooms are KSM141s in omni, toms are M179s, all into the Sytek. Yamaha CP70 into Ampeg B25/1x15 cab mic'd with SM7b into V276. National guitar into Pro Jr mic'd with Beyer M88 into Altec 1566a and sometimes Drawmer 1968me. Bass (guitar and synth) both into V71 and sometimes the Sta-Level.

Tracking Complete!

Not Bellflur, of course, we've still got a couple eons left on that one.

No pics, but rundown on the past two days...

Vocals - "normal" vocals are all the TM2 through either the M76 or V276, depending... the 276 is sort of "harder" sounding and meaner, the 76 has the big bottom end and feels generally softer. Always through the StaLevel, usually sorta cranking. EQP1 inline all the time too, usually boosting a couple db at either 100 or 200db and a slight boost at 8 or 10db depending on the song. I keep the lowpass engaged on the TM2. Sounds nicer to me without the highs there, made up on the Pultec thingy. There were lots of non-normal vocals. One has a normal vocal panned hard left and the main is through the Copperfone. Another is awesome. Singer is up the stairwell singing into an intercom - the Bova Ball is at the bottom of the stairs, and in the kitchen, there's an SM7b on the other end of the intercom. Super mean.

backing vox were generally Beyer M88. A scream on one track is Dex holding the EV SpaceLazer 5000 into a cranked v276 into a cranked StaLevel.

Organ was done very simply these past two days - Beyer M201 over the Leslie into the V76. Last session with organ was KSM141s on the side horns through the 2108 with the TM2 out front into the 1566a driven into distortion.

Kazoos. Yeah, heck yea. We doubled them up because we're always pushing the envelope of modern recording. There's an acoustic kazoo into Beyer M201 while I'm playing the electric kazooka DI'd into a 76. Resisted temptation to put it through a wah-wah.

Basic Tracks Down

Three pretty solid days of work. We put down the bulk of six tracks with just lead vox, keys, and some additional guitar parts to add in the coming week. We did indeed swap out the Vox for the Super for most of the main parts, but did lots of overlay with the AC30 for more snap, as well as a couple Leslie tracks. Relied pretty heavily on the two Gibsons for most of the main guitars with the Tele coming in on a few rhythm tracks and a couple flourishes. The Super was generally run straight in, the AC30 with a Beano Boost inline. Micing was pretty varied, but in general, the M88, Crowley & Tripp, and SM7b were the main go-to mics. KSM141s made a few appearances, the I5 once, and the EV 642 SpaceLaser5000 in one case. One track was done with heavy fuzz using the homebuilt Tele + barge Bee-Ba + Sound City with the SM7 in a 276. The Mercury m76m was definitely the primary preamp, with the Phoenix DRS generally #2 and almost any track using the Crowley mic was into the Altec 1566 slightly overdriven. Acoustic parts were done 451/m76. I'll dissect a song or two later... too much right now to type out as I'm wiped.

Bass was mainly direct v71/Sta Level; a 70s Ric was the #1 bass. We used the Tele on one track and an Ibanez semihollow on another. One track was done live through the Ampeg B25; others will be reamped later in the week.

Drums stayed as they were - the Jazz Fest snare never left the stand. For the last two tracks we changed out to the 26" kick - one was a White Stripes sounding stomping sort of song, the other more Spaghetti Western country, for which we dampened the kick a little taping a foam ring to the batter side and a felt flap on the res head. Micing changed for these tracks - 4047s came down, replaced by 141s in omni as stereo rooms on the floor and the Bova as a mono omni overhead. MD421 on the outside head, ATM25 on the batter, TM2 moved in to emphasize kick.

Coolest thing was doing tracks fully live - acoustic guitar and main vocal in one mic, a couple of us gathered around another singing backups. All moving into a hallway to record handclaps together. Just finding nice sounding spots, setting up a single mic, and playing to it. Lots of bleed. Sounds like... music!

Mixing & Prep ... back to life, eh?

Cranking through the Bellflur EP mixes - we were racing against the clock as we were using demo plugin EQs that expired within a week. Not the most ideal way to work. But with my two EQP1s down, we were short equalisers. Drums are sounding insane. Too insane. Have to reign in that low end...

Just finished prep for tomorrow's session with a group. We're using my li'l Gretsch kit for most of it - we may swap out to the 26" for something. Looks like the Jazzfest will be the primary snare, with the Oyster subbing in on a track or two. Dex retuned the kit for me today with his fancy planar torqualising tensionometer and fuck! It sounds amazing again. My tech notes:

Kick In is the ATM25 into the 2108 35/5, Kik Out SM7b into Sytek @ 3.5. FOK is the good ol' TM2/V76/EQP1 (got one working) w/ the 76 at 24/11:30/12 and the EQP1 +2 at 100 +4 at 5khz. OHs are 4047s in modified Glyn Johns formation into the Tele 276s. Rear room is GT-MD1A into Altec 1566a. Snare top M201/2108 35/7 / snare bottom I5/Sytek 2/inverted. Toms are M179s, floor in hyper and rack in cardioid to deal with cymbal placement. Both into the Sytek.

Guitars, thus far I've set up the AC30 in the side hallway for main rhythm tracks. We may swap out for the Super depending on the playing. The Vox is mic'd with an M88 into V76 18/4:00/5:00 and the Crowley & Tripp mic into the DRS pad in -40/2:00.

Got the Leslie and ES330 set up as well. He said he wanted late period Beatles, and dammit, I can do that. Also amazing what the basstraps did for the weird echoes in the room...

Also, happy birthday to me. Bought the URS Neve EQ and put in an inquiry with VK on a pair of Calrec AM16 33609s... yeah, like I can afford those...

note: I *hate* the compressed tonal range look thing in pictures. Don't think I do it because I like it. It's because the one thing it actually is good for is showing detail in shadows for technical documents. Fuck that garbage everywhere else.

note II: A few nights ago heard a band play called The War on Drugs who despite the shitty name are pretty amazing. Singer does the Dylan/Boss thing without sounding like a ripoff, meanwhile the band is massive walls of shimmering beautiful double drummed sound. Nice.

Neato video

Tom made a pretty spiffy li'l video from various footage he's been sneaking at sessions, placed to one of the demo roughs of Insect. See it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUMCq_fx_Vo

(I like teh car door dings as an opening sound effect, too.)

Back in Ready for Action

No posts for a month +. Three bands were in, but due to a number of technical difficulties it's been an unproductive spring thus far. The console went back due to a number of intolerable build issues/malfunctions, most notably. By the end of the week though we will hopefully have our new ProTools HD system up and running, and the search for a new snappy location goes on. Seen a couple potential spots, but nothing perfect yet. Er, nothing perfect that hasn't been purchased by developers to be razed and replaced with shitbox yambo stainless steel luxury condo (w/ health club) living. Damn them. There was one seriously cool building in Arlington, I think from 1929 and kinda reminded me of a tamer version of the Child's Building from Coney Island, but it's obviously out of the price bracket. And I think it's being torn down to make way for a CVS to sell hair gel and birth control to the people in the new ZOG or whatever it's being called future luxury highrise around the corner.

Hot Cider, Hot Fire

Four Bellflur tracks are that much closer to done after a pretty good night. Redid a lot of vocals in a new style - we'd been feeling a lot of the parts felt a bit awkward, and then Carlos says he'd really like to try and do some of the vocals in more of a Sparklehorse sort of style. Ok, I thought, sounds fun, let's try. Started with an MD421/m76 and the Copperphone/DRS, switched the 421 with the MD1a. Summed into the Sta Level at it's fastest release, pretty slammed, finally into an EQP1 just putting in 1.5db at 5khz and attenuating 15khz 6db with a pretty wide Q. It's going to need a de-esser after that compression, but the sound is pretty darned cool. And it finally fits! Hurrah. Did a bunch of Tom's backing vocals too, mainly the MD1a or my new OmniMouse, which I'm thus far enjoying, DRS all around.

Had to add a couple samples as well. We didn't have the proper adaptor, and felt too lazy to go find a flashdrive, so hey! Let's just mic the laptop. Why not?

Emily and Susan arrived a little later, we're happy they arrived at all, as the roads were coated with ice. We all just about maimed ourselves every time we walked outside which was equal parts comedic and inconvenient. They did violins over a few songs, the O-Mouse in the middle through the DRS, and then each with their own overhead/spot. One was KSM141 - 2108, the other TM2 - v76. For a couple parts we had them play together into the Bova Ball. Their vocals were done two ways. Some parts both sang into the MD1a together, a few we pulled two mics, adding in a 4047 with the two mics about two & a half feet apart and the vocalists facing one another. I am tired, and another group in tomorrow. Resting time.

And Now, for Something New

A break from the 'flur to track a few songs for some ex-bandmates. We kept it simple - close mics, track live, easy.

Drums were the "house kit" - some random Mapex with a 22" kick. Snare was '65 Ludwig Jazzfest for 2 songs and the Pork Pie Big Black for the other. Snare mic was Beyer m201 into UA2108, kick was ATM25 - 2108, toms were CAD M179s in hypercard into V276, FOK was TM2 - m76, OH Groove Tubes MD1a - m76. No EQ or compression at tracking as the room we were in sucks and I didn't want anything until I was hearing it totally clearly in the monitors (or as much was possible when still in the shitty room, burned out/exhausted, and coming down with stomach flu.)

Guitar was primarily DuoJet RI and p90 SG into a Hiwatt/Matamp 2x12, mic'd with SM7b into Phoenix DRS. Bass varied the most. One track a Geddy Lee(!!!) Jazz into Tom's Mesa 400, one the Jazz into the dying fuzzy Ampeg B25, and one featuring Venus In Furs, the ol' Tele bass, also into the Mesa, all using Tom's 4x10 cab. Thanks, Tom. Mic'd with 4047 - 2108 - Sta-Level really cranking.

Vocals were mixed around between the TM2 and MD1a / M76 and v276, as is normal for me now. MD1a/m76 was my favorite. The Copperphone was used to feed a stereo reverse reverb on one track behind the main.

mixing was done uncomfortably quickly but sounds decent for such a quick job, I thought. All done in the box aside from 2-track bounce on one track which went through the pair of EQP1's and Drawmer 1968 as it needed more low end push and a little touch of tube harmonic distortion sorta something. The rest leaned heavily on UAD Neve 1073 EQ and Plate 140 reverb, the Chandler limiter for drum parallel/vocal, and a little of the Massey CT4 here and there for shaping things (need to get the new Transient Designer plug... and switch to Logic...)

Strings + Vox

Lost my cardreader.

SO. We did some strings. Emily and Susan from Exit Clov came in and tracked many, many layers of violin over a few tracks. This was my first time doing strings so played it safe and set up a couple options. Started with a Crowley and Tripp Naked Eye and a C451EB as closer-mics for each (going for one darker, one brighter tone), a Pearlman TM2 overhead getting both, and the Copperphone as a room mic, just for kicks. The 451 was right away apparently not right so it was swapped out for the Royer 121. The NE was backwards, using the brighter side of the ribbon. The NE and TM2 ran into Mercury M76m, the 121 in Phoenix DRS, and the Copperphone Altec 1566a. This worked out pretty fantastically; when we did multiple tracks of them we could just pan to make things sit right with a little volume automation to push things back.

Vox. Same as before, mainly. TM2 into v276/Sta-Level, sometimes the EQP1 to open things up a touch. Blending in random mics for color.