Ok, the technical stuff:
We did inital tracking on this stuff way back in October. What can I say? The band is broke & it took them a while to pay me off before I could release it.
Guitars:
We used my 'el cheapo' Jackson performer Rhoads V, loaded with an EMG 81 pickup with booster for rhythms. Leads were done on my 29 fret Washburn.
Amps: 5150 green channel, crunch in, bright OUT. Running into this was a tubescreamer. D:0 T:5 L:10
My Marshall V30 cab was miked up with an i5, right on the grill cloth, with the center of the mic directly over where the dustcap meets the cone.
Amp settings were:
Gain: 10
Lo: 5
Mid: 2-3
Hi: 6-7
Res: 5-5.5
Pres: 6-7
Post: 3
Guitars were quad tracked, and turned out a little on the muddy side.... post EQ included a gentle wideband boost around 4k, with cuts at 790, 490 & 300 hz of varying widths. Then all were multiband compressed from about 90hz to 380 hz to keep the low mids from jumping around too much.
Leads were done with a tubescreamer & the 5150 on the RED channel... lots of mids thrown in, gain around the 5 mark.
An interesting point: This is the last piece I've done with the single mic technique. Shortly after tracking the guitars for this, I started that "clayman" thread & moved on to the dual 57 on/off axis technique... which is giving me better results, IMO.
Preamp was the Great River Mp2NV.
Vocals: The humble Studio Projects C1 was the main vocal mic. Now, you'll hear alot of bullshit about this mic on gearslutz.com, but the truth is, it's a great sounding mic, regardless of the price. It doesn't work with every singer, but it's usually my first choice. This went into a Great River MP2NV, then an Emprical Labs Distressor.... at a 6:1 ratio, HP & sibilant detectors in, HP & Dist 2 modes engaged in the audio stream, attack 4, release 5. I like to stomp the crap out of vocalists as I can't stand it when they're too dynamic. Fortunatley, the Distressor can be very, very clean & not leave too many artifacts.
Drums:
This was my third-to-last track done with an XY overhead setup. I switched over to spaced pairs a little while back.... it took a little while to get it thru my stubborn head to try something new. Actually, the last 4 songs I did with these guys (what started as a 3 song demo mutated into a 10 song album!) was my first foray into the world of spaced pairs. This will be discussed in far greater detail on the drum guide thread.
Preamps: Overheads & rack tom 1: Ward Beck M480c. Kick & Snare, Great River MP2NV. Rack tom 2 & floor: Vintech Dual 72.
Anyway, yeah, it's an XY overhead setup with Oktava Mc012's. 57 on the snare, e604's on the toms. Kick: It's a home-grown sample of the drummer playing the kick. I felt that his double-bass work was just a touch too dynamic (I.E. his rolls were too soft) to maintain defenition in the full mix. So we went with a drumagoged (at about 50% dynamic range in the advanced settings) sample of the dude hitting the kick drum... I think it was 12 layers. We did it with the front head ON, and used an Audix D6. The weird thing is, this is one of the only songs on the record where the kick is a sample.
Now, this mix sat around for quite a while & sounded nice, but then someone a week or two ago got to asking Andy about where he rolls off the overheads.... I pulled this mix back up & tweaked it out a little further. Oh's were rolled off at 600 hz, and man, did it ever clean things up! Suddenly, the toms were huge without being overbearing... and the snare reverb took on a new life. Everything was much more defined. I also sidechained the Overheads with the snare mic: 0 attack, 20ms release. It takes the inital crack of the snare out of the overheads, but leaves the sustain.... the other cool thing is, during tom rolls, it's out completely, so I'm still picking up massive tom attack. Very cool. I'm really beginning to dig the whole idea of sidechaining. One other point: when agressivley rolling off the overheads, I notice that phase between the OH & close mics becomes a whole lot less important. If they're out of phase, the canellations are FAR less apparent. Definitely a cool way to work.
Anyway, I just got a Canon Digital SLR, so here's my chance to show off what nice pictures it takes. Here's a recent shot of the kit we used: Yes, it's a pic of a spaced pair... you'll see what that does in the next part of my drum guide.
Cheers!
-0z-
About Ward Beck:
For those of you who haven't heard of Ward Beck, here's the short story: These consoles were designed back in the 70's to compete with Neve. When they didn't take off in the studio world, they found a market in broadcasting. They've often been referred to as the "Canadian Neve" but I think they have a sound all their own. If you've ever watched "Hockey Night in Canada" you've heard the Ward Beck vocal sound, as these boards wound up in just about every CBC radio & TV station across the country. What's really cool is you can pick these up for dirt cheap these days, as they don't have that name recognition that old Neve boards have.
I've got an old 12 channel Class A radio console that was originally owned by the CBC, and then the Canadian Military. I think half the reason it sounds so good is due to the power supply. Pulling the back off this thing reveals 2 of the biggest transformers I've ever seen! I mean, they're fucking huge! So yeah, this thing has a very, very stable power supply.
I found it on Fleabay, and after a couple nights with a soldering iron, converted it to studio use. The preamps just happen to have balanced -10 outs going to the 2 buss... so I was able to split the signal right there and hand-wire an output patchbay. What's odd is that they push a really, really hot signal, so have absolutley no problem going into a +4 input, which happens to be the setup on my Fireface 800. If anyone is interested in Ward Beck stuff, I can put you in contact with a few people... a guy named Dave Thomas in particular. He's out on Canada's west coast & is pretty much the Yoda of Ward Beck stuff.
Here's the original ad for my console:
I just love how they describe it as "transportable." The bastard weighs 110 pounds!
