%New Album%

[kenfobert]

Hey guys.

I'm looking for some advice on my bands next recording endeavor. This could be a long post so try and bare with me guys

My band is getting ready to record our second full length album. Our first album was recorded in a fairly nice studio(The Recording House Studio) here in Canada where we are from, and it cost $20,000 cdn to record/press. We are not signed to any label or management at this point.

I should give a little background info:

A couple months after we released the album, we signed with Intromental Management. Thus far we have been pretty happy with them as they have lined us up on a fairly big North American tour next month. They also announced in their press release about us, that our next album would be our first release on a Record Label.

So right now, we have to record another album, and at the managements request, we take 4 or 5 of the best songs from our first album, rerecord them and record another 4 or 5 new ones to make this new album(they didn't want to use our first album which we spent so much money on lol, to shop around to labels, because they didn't think it was strong enough).

Considering the amount of money we spent for the first album, there was no way we could afford to go to a studio again. So we have decided to record ourselves. And here lies the dilemma.

I was wondering what you guys would do if you were in this situation. None of us really have any recording experience, I mean the odd thing here and there but nothing that makes me confident about this process, considering this album could be getting released through a label.

Granted, we have some pretty decent equipment. We started doing some research and bought a custom computer, we have a nice mackie board etc. But other than that.....

We have decided to reamp our guitars so I've gotten a quote from OZ, and from hearing his stuff I know the guitars will at least sound good lol. But the drums, we don't have a nice room to record them in so we are programming the drums, vocals we will be going to studio for. Bass will also be reamped.

Our management has referred a couple people to mix it that most of their bands use:

Jailhouse Studios / Tommy Hansen
Jacob Hansen (denmark)
Spacelab (germany)
Thin Ice Studios (uk)

If anyone has read this far, which I doubt lol, but if you have I need some advice on how you would go about this.

Has anyone here had experience of working with a mixing engineer in a different Country? How do these things work?

Anyway, any opinions would be appreciated, thanks guys.

Ken

 

[Erkan]

I read through it all! Got nothing to say though... I'm not at that "level" yet

 

[Via Noctis]

Don't quote me on this, but I would assume that after you record everything. Put the whole thing on a DVD. and then ship it. But they might want it to be in protools format.

 

[AudioPhile777]

I would say rent a local studio out and do drums there... record DIs of the guitars/bass and send them off to OZ or whoever and try to get vocals done at your place... or rent out a studio for those as well...

I would definitely say go into studios as much as possible, especially if they said your previous effort wasn't very strong...

 

[kenfobert]

I want to record drums in studio, but the drums are the most costly thing to do in the studio. That's why we have chosen to program them. And considering now that we have this tour we are doing next month and we aren't signed to a label, we don't get any tour support. We've worked out the cost to be around another $20,000 lol. So after this tour we're going to be in debt.

"I would definitely say go into studios as much as possible, especially if they said your previous effort wasn't very strong..."

They were referring to some of the songs not being strong enough, not the production. They just thought some of the songs could be written better and they know we are capable. So they want us to write an album that will be strong the whole way through before they start sending out to labels.

Is there any way the formats can be changed for different recording programs? We are using Cubase Studio 4 or 5.

 

[egan.]

Unfortunately you aren't going to get anything worth shopping to labels on your maiden voyage as a recording engineer. Your best bet is to find an up-and-coming guy who you can financially abuse.
I have to say, my mind is blown that you spent $20k out of pocket.

 

[Razorjack]

Both Karl Groom (Thin Ice) and Jacob Hansen are excellent to work with. I worked on the guitar tones on an album produced by Karl a few years back and my own band have worked with Jacob on all our stuff so far. Karl's work is best when he works from start to finish but does a great job mixing even badly recorded stuff (whilst you can' t polish a turd you can make it listenable!!).

We recorded the drums for our album in a half decent room in a mates studios, bass was recorded DI into my MBox sat at the end of my bed (I was inbetween houses at the time, litterally just had bass MBox, laptop and headphones not packed up!!), vocals in a home made booth and guitars in a rehearsal room with a DI taken for each of the 4 tracks. Check out our MySpace below to hear the result of Jacob's work.

If you don't have the skills to record yourselves then as Egan said, find a local guy who has enough skill to get the raw tracks down well then take these tracks to Jacob or Karl.

 

[kenfobert]

I think we decided on Jacob Hansen to mix our stuff. Your stuff sounds awesome on your myspace dude.

What are your guys thoughts on programmed drums? Would you all just bite the bullet and go to studio? I think with the technology these days, programmed drums sound pretty damn good. The drums are the only thing I'm really worried about, considering all the guitars are being re-amped, vocals are being done in studio and will be getting mixed by a good engineer.

I guess the best person to talk to would be the engineer we decide to go with to see what he wants to work with and if he'll even work on programmed drums.

My thinking for the drums was, once everything is programmed and mixed down to wav files for the drums, the engineer will probably replace with his own samples anyway and mix everything to his liking. We'd just send the sessions to the engineer with all EQ flat and no plugins, that way he can have full control.

 

[Styvo]

I think you have received some very good advice from the previous poster's already and they know what there talking about.It sounds to me like you have it worked out also,but you're dead right about making that consultation with the mix engineer.He needs to know in advance what he'll be challenged by and which way you guys go about achieving a suitable result for him
The question i pose to you though is,do you believe your band has what it takes to get to the level you are aiming for.?

If you know the answer to my question,then look at this opportunity as an investment.
It may hurt your pocket initially but the rewards may potentially outweigh that in the long run,on the other hand get it wrong and you have potentially missed a great chance,that may or may not make itself available to you again.

It's not easy i know......but i wish you luck throughout the process.

Make the most of it i say.

 

[kenfobert]

I think you have received some very good advice from the previous poster's already and they know what there talking about.It sounds to me like you have it worked out also,but you're dead right about making that consultation with the mix engineer.He needs to know in advance what he'll be challenged by and which way you guys go about achieving a suitable result for him
The question i pose to you though is,do you believe your band has what it takes to get to the level you are aiming for.?

If you know the answer to my question,then look at this opportunity as an investment.
It may hurt your pocket initially but the rewards may potentially outweigh that in the long run,on the other hand get it wrong and you have potentially missed a great chance,that may or may not make itself available to you again.

It's not easy i know......but i wish you luck throughout the process.

Make the most of it i say.

You're absolutely right man. I'm goign to try and convince the rest of the band to record drums in studio.....but if it doesn't happen, I'm going to be a tight ass and make sure everything is done as best as it could.

I realize this kind of opportunity doesn't come around often so I'm going to do as much as I can to make sure we go down the right path.

Thanks for the words of encouragement man. Much appreciated.