| I guess you could call this a "book report" of the time I spent last weekend
in the studio. Greg House and Tom Gallo both asked me to "keep notes" on
what happened (and how/why/when) for future reference, and I thought some
of this might be of interest to others as well. Please note that this is my
first time recording in a "real" studio, so I may be repeating things that
others find totally obvious. On the other hand, I may leave out some glaring
details, so feel free to ask me anything about the experience.
First off, some background: My band, See No Evil, needed to go into the studio
to make a half-decent demo tape. We're a cover band, and needed something to
pass out to club owners/managers and agents. Previously, we had been using
a rough 4-track recording that was done in our rehearsal space, and it was
rather shaky (although at the time we thought it was good! 8^). The aim of
the session was to cover 5-6 songs, recording only about 60-90 seconds of
each song, in order to create a 8-10 minute medley.
BASIC STUDIO INFO
-----------------
Studio: West Sound Studios
14 Sherwood Rd.
Londonderry, NH
603-434-3676
Producer/Engineer/Co-Owner: Mike West
16-Track 1" Tascam recorder with outboard dbx, a 32-channel Tascam board
(w/16-channel sub-mixer on it). Bunch of outboard gear, but some of the most
used were (3) Yamaha SPX-90II and (2) Yamaha REV-5. He also has a lot of
MIDI/keyboard stuff available, which we didn't use.
COSTS
-----
Studio Time (10.5 hrs. @ 22.50/hr) $236.25
Tape cost (one reel of 3M 1" tape) 78.00
DATs (2 @ 13.50 each) 27.00
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Total $341.25
BEFORE GOING IN
---------------
One of the biggest problems most bands have in the studio is lack of
preparation. Its something that we tried very hard to avoid, and for the most
part we were successful. For several weeks before the actual recording, we
were playing the pieces of songs that were planning on recording over and
over. We made a tape of those exact 8 minutes we wanted to capture, and the
guys would go home and listen to them and play along with them. We figured
out all our weak spots, and worked on them. And just basically really
tightened up the songs, so we could play them in our sleep by the time
we go there.
Also, some basic stuff - all the guitars were intonated the night before, and
had new strings on them (including the bass). The drummer was recommended to
have new heads put on (pinstripes preferred). Although he didn't put new
heads on, the ones on there were in good shape so it was ok.
TIME BREAKDOWN
--------------
9:30-10:00am - free load-in time, off the clock
10:00-11:00am - miking the drums
11:00-noon - miking the guitars and bass, getting setup with headphones, etc.
noon-2:20pm - recording basic tracks for 4 (of 5) songs
2:20-3:20pm - lunch break (off the clock)
3:20-5:30pm - recording basic tracks for last song, adding leads (and acoustic
guitar track) for all songs. Also, breakdown and loadout of
drums (and amps, once finished with them).
5:30-7:00pm - recording vocals (in empty drum room)
7:00-9:15 - mixing the songs down to DAT
9:15-9:50 - making cassette copies, cleaning up, billing, etc.
MIKING THE EQUIPMENT
--------------------
I paid special attention to the miking of the various pieces of equipment,
since this is something that people are always interested in. The drums
were first to be done, and took about an hour to set up.
On the BASS DRUM, Mike had an AKG D212 mike inside the bass drum, and he took
the head off the front.
On the SNARE, he attached an EV N/D408 mike directly to the snare, and placed
it right above the lip of the snare. He also had to place some sort of muffler
on the snare, because it was ringing a bit too much, After that, it sounded
real fine.
For the three TOMs (2 rack mounted and one floor tom), he used Sennheiser mikes
(not sure of the model number) - all were placed about �" above each tom, at
about a 45� angle.
For the HI-HAT, he used a Shure SX12-48 (I think that's what it was!), and
just had it pointed horizontally towards the hi-hat, about level with the
hi-hat cymbals when its closed.
And for the cymbals, he used an AKG 414 for one of them, and one Nuemann U87A
for the other two (each placed about 4-6 inches above the cymbals).
BTW, I should mention that the drums were in an isolation booth by themselves.
Each of the two guitars had their own isolation room. Dave Ickes' Boogie was
miked by an EV RE20, and Jack Barrier's Fender Twin was miked by a Yamaha
MZ204. On Dave's Boogie, the mike was placed about a foot in front of the
amp, pointed directly at it. For Jack's Twin, the mike was also pointed
straight at it, but only about 6" out.
The bass was run directly into the board.
GENERAL RECORDING INFO
----------------------
First off, it should be noted that ALL instruments were recorded as dry as
possible, and effects added later. The guitars only had distortion on them,
and there was a bit of noise gating and compression on the drums, but that
was about it. Everything else was added in mixdown. For Dave Ickes, that
meant that he ended up abandoning his GSP-21, and going straight from his
guitar into the Boogie.
The band recorded their basic tracks live, with the two guitars, bass, and
the drums all playing together. With the exception of the drummer, the rest
of us were all in one room. Everything was heard through the headphones,
and I sang a guide vocals to go along with the music. There was also a click
track that was sent to us from the control room, which helped us out with
the timing (and would allow us to go back and overdub the drums later, if
we needed to, which luckily we didn't).
Also, we tuned every instruments after every take! This was important, to
keep everything sounding *just right*. Even being a tiny bit off made a really
big difference in the sound, and we had to go back and redo a couple parts
because someone was slightly out of tune.
All the instruments volumes were kept ALL the way up, at ALL times during the
recording process. I don't know why this was (shoulda asked!), but I know
Mike reminded and asked us several times to make sure the volume knobs were
all the way up on all the guitars. (Maybe its because he simply didn't want
us changing volume levels on him partway into recording, maybe there's some
other reason, I don't know....)
We worked on one song at a time, which means that we would get down a basic
track that we were happy with first. Then go back and punch in overdubs and
leads, and also re-record any tracks that had glaring errors. It turns out
that on each take, there was at least one guitar track to be re-done. For
the most part, we tried to get a good rhythm section take, and then redo the
guitars if needed.
THE SONGS
---------
Hard To Handle - This was the first song we did, and it took a few takes to
realize that the distortion was too thick on Dave Ickes guitar. After we
cut that back some, it was much better. Word of advice - a guitar that sounds
really good alone might sound terrible when mixed in with the band. Many
times, you don't need a TON of distortion to get a good rockin' guitar tone.
Other than that, nothing special about this song really, pretty
straightforward. No solos or anything.
Jenny Jenny (867-5309) - This was a touch more involved, because there were
three guitar parts instead of just two. But for the most part, it was no big
deal. We ended up getting a good rhythm section track, then going back and
re-recording all the guitars one at a time.
Bad Case Of Loving You - The problem with this song was again the guitar
tones. This time around, Jack didn't have *enough* distortion on his guitar,
it was too clean. We ended up going back and having re-cut his track, using
his guitar through Dave's Boogie.
Cold Shot - We sort of whipped this one out real quick, before heading off to
lunch. Only took about 3 takes, and then the guitar lead was overdubbed later.
Wonderful Tonight - The most intricate of the songs, this is the only one
which used all 16 tracks. There were four different guitar parts on here -
two different rhythms (one picking the chords, the other simulated the organ
by playing double-stops), then the lead guitar, and finally an acoustic guitar
(doubling the picking rhythm). At first, we thought there was no reason to
add the acoustic guitar in there, but then Mike suggested that we should do
it anyways. Luckily that happened, because the final mix sounds *fantastic*
with the acoustic in there! The acoustic (an Ovation Balladeer) was recorded
in an isolation room, with the Neumman U87A mike placed about a foot or so
in front of the soundhole. No signal was taken from the built-in pickup.
VOCALS
------
We knew vocals were going to be the key to a good tape, and we were also aware
that our background harmony vocals are the weakest part of the band. Because
of that, we specifically picked songs and sections of songs that minimized
the need for intricate harmony work. None of the pieces had more than one
harmony line to them, and we kept them pretty simple for the most part.
Hard To Handle - This one was a two-take effort, and I was really surprised at
how fast it was done. (I guess I expected to spend a lot more time on vocals
than we ended.) After two takes, we just had to punch in one line on the
chorus, and it was done. No background vocals.
Jenny Jenny (867-5309) - Again, another quick one. I think this one was done
in just one take, with no punch-ins. There were two background vocals parts
here - one is a harmony part during the verse, which was sung by Dave Nelson.
The other is the answering vocal during the chorus, which was sung by both
Dave Nelson and myself. This was done in two takes, with both of us singing
together live.
Bad Case of Loving You - I must have been getting cocky, after getting the
first two songs in one or two takes, because this one suddenly gave me all
sorts of problems. But I think mostly because my vocals weren't loud enough
in my headphone mix, so I couldn't hear myself well. After a terrible first
take, I thought this one might give me problems, so I decided to save my
voice and go on to the other songs. After doing "Cold Shot", we came back
to this one, and I was able to do a half-decent job the first time through.
We ended up punching in a couple lines that were a little sharp at the end
of the chorus, but nothing too bad. We then wanted to add a harmony to the
chorus, which was usually sung by Dave Ickes when we play it live.
Unfortunately, it was tough for Dave to right in and sing that line, without
any warmups or anything, and he was having a tough time. I ended up giving it
a go, but it was touch too high for me to sing. In the long run, we ended up
slowing the tape down a touch, to drop the song a full step, and then I was
able to sing the harmony part no problem. Since we didn't actually slow the
tape down that much, it didn't sound too Chipmunky when we sped it back up.
Cold Shot - I'm not sure, but I think this was another two-take song. I do
remember that I was singing and incorrect word, and had to go back and re-do
it again because of that! Again, nothing fancy though, and this went pretty
quick.
Wonderful Tonight - again, the most difficult of the songs we did. For some
reason, its much easier to sing on-key when you're shouting out and really
letting it rip, rather than singing quietly (or at least it is for me, I
dunno if that;s a general rule or not). After two tries through, we decided
to record this one line at a time (yup! ONE line at a time!), so we could
get it just right. It took a bit of coaching from Mike to help me out, and
point out exactly where I was singing sharp (again with the sharp! I thought
most singers sang flat! Not me though...,.. I gotta be different!). After
doing the first and second line individually, I had a better feel for the
pitch, and was able to complete the verse all the way through. Then the bridge
had to be done several times also, trying to get it just right. This was sort
of a real pain, but Mike was patient with me and helped me through it. For
background vocals, we just added a single vocal singing "ooooh", to replicate
the album. This wasn't as bad as I feared, and actually was done in either one
or two takes.
MIXING
------
Well, here's the critical part of the whole process - putting it all together!
To my surprise, the actual mixing of instrument levels took minimal time. Once
they were set up, they pretty much stayed the same for all the mixes. But
the part that took all the time was adding in all the effects on different
instruments! Boy, what a pain!!!
This section is going to be mostly generalities, since I wasn't able to
remember all the setting and effects Mike used on everything. For the most
part, the only things that Mike played with a lot were the reverbs (mostly
on the snare), and certain effects specific effects we wanted on the guitars
or vocals for each song.
The first thing I have to mention - learn how to use something called Pitch
Modulation!!! This was used to a GREAT extent to help fill out the vocals
and some of the guitar parts. What this basically does is takes the original
signal and duplicates it twice, one just above and once just below the pitch
of the original signal. This does three things - first, each of the two
altered pitches are panned left and right, helping with the stereo imaging.
Second, it makes the vocals sound much more full and, well, for lack of a
better word, more "professional" sounding. And third, it helps hide the
little pitch variations in the vocals, which might show up otherwise. I guess
this effect has a touch of the "fix it in the mix" to it.
So - all the vocals were sent through pitch modulation. Some more than others,
depending upon the effect we were looking for. For example, "Bad Case Of
Loving You" is heavily modified, while "Cold Shot" is hardly touched at all,
so it retains that personal warmth that SRV had on the original. The
background vocals were also fed through the pitch modulation, and usually had
a bunch of reverb thrown on them, so they sounded a bit "airy". Again, this
helped hide some of the inferiorities of the background vocals, making us
sound much better than we probably are!
When there were distorted guitars, these were pretty much left alone, except
for some basic reverb added to them. On the clean guitars, there was sometimes
some pitch modulation, usually some chorus, and reverb. Also, on "Cold Shot",
we added some flange to the guitar (to help simulate an organ sound that's
on the record).
For the leads, it was pretty much the same as the other guitar parts, except
that there was some delay added on. (I should note that I was surprised that
delay wasn't used that much as an effect, it was mostly reverb and pitch
modulation, and some chorus. Delays were not used much at all!)
Unfortunately, I didn't notice much else in the way of effects. I particularly
wished I had noticed more EQ stuff, and more compression setting. But by
this time I had been there about 12 hours, and was starting to get pretty
beat!
The first songs took about a half-hour to mix down, the following ones each
took about 20 minutes. Dave Ickes and I were the only ones to stay for the
complete mixdown. For the most part, we just let Mike do the work, and then
we would make comments for suggestions. There were some minor things we
pointed out to him (certain effects we wanted, bringing up the snare a bit
in "Bad Case Of Loving You", etc.), but for the most part he knew what we
wanted and was able to get the results on his own. I suppose it probably
helped that we were doing cover songs, since he already knew what the
originals sounded like.
SUMMATION
---------
Overall, we were incredibly pleased with the result, and the entire
experience. For a minimal price, we were able to get a pretty high-quality
demo tape that we should be able to use to a variety of gigs. If it even
helps us get ONE show, it will pay for itself!
I truly believe that the recording was a success for two reasons: our
preparations, and Mike West.
We spent a LOT of time getting ready for this session, carefully mapping out
exactly what we wanted to accomplish, and practicing the parts to death. We
walked in there fully prepared, both musically and equipment-wise, and there
was no lost time. This was important, since we had a LOT to do, and we had
very little time to waste. As it was, we went over our allotted time by about
a half-hour, but that was no big deal. But if we had been less prepared,
this session wouldn't have been nearly as successful.
And the other reason was Mike West himself. I gotta hand it to him, he really
knew what he was doing! The studio is right in his home, and he works there
full-time, usually 6-7 days a week. This is a big advantage, because he REALLY
knows the equipment he's working with. There's no fumbling around with stuff
he's not familiar with, there's no wasted time on his part. He sits there and
twists knobs, and dials in sounds, all without a second thought, like the board
and the gear were an extension of himself. Also, he really know the rooms and
how miking things will sound, so we allowed him to dial in whatever tones he
wanted on the guitars and stuff. That worked out fine, again, because he knew
what he was doing. I guess we took a chance on allowing him so much freedom
to control our sound, but in this case were lucky enough that it all worked
out well.
So - there's the key to a good recording. Good preparation, and a good
engineer/producer! Keep that in mind, that both of those things are equally
important. Before you step foot in that studio, you should have clearly
defined goals, and have a plan to reach them. (We had everything timed
out beforehand exactly, and came very close to sticking with those time!)
And make sure you get an engineer who knows his work, and knows the studio.
It will save invaluable time and energy.
Hope this all helps (anyone who got this far)! I know there's a lot of stuff
in here, some is probably good info, some is probably gibberish. If I think
of any more things that I've forgotten, I'll try and post an addendum. And
as I mentioned up top, feel free to ask any questions of me about any step
in the process, I'll try and answer as best I can!
alan
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