Recording

[~nightfall~]

Anyone interested in starting a discussion on recording? Mics, equipment, techniques ( i know that one is spelled wrong ) etc. ?

Maybe we could post some of our own songs here aswell, as I know there`s alot of musicians on this forum.

 

[Nefilim]

Hey sure, recording is always interesting

I'll start by talking about the studio me and my band(s) are building... so far, we have a computer hooked up to a mixer (basically...), into which we plug various amounts of mic's depending on what we record. We haven't really done any serious recordings there yet, but we're going out this weekend to start recording our demo for Fall From Grace. Me and the drummer of that band have our own little slasher side project called Zombie Destrüktion, and we've recorded a little grind/death piece in the studio... it's totally unmixed, and we only had four mics for the drums so it's a bit tacky... but check it out if you like. Zombie Destrüktion - Brains

On this recording we used a V-amp for the guitar since we were just too lazy to mic up an amp for this project ... Besides, the V-amp sounds great if you just turn those knobs a little, so...

The mic config we used for drums was pretty poor, we had one overhang condenser mic, one condenser on Crash/Hi-hat/Snare, one dynamic on two of the toms and one dynamic on the kick... But for the kind of music we recorded it worked ok

The vocals were recorded through a regular condenser mic... not much more to say. I growled like mad, and it sounded ok, so we didn't do much more with it except add a little reverb (I think... can't remember exactly).

That's about it, a very quick recording gave this result, and I believe a little more time and energy (and more mics ) may give us a great sound.

 

[~nightfall~]

What can I say.. Very open sound, feels like standing in the rehearsal-room as you perform it. Kinda suites the song well. I must admit that this is not the type of music that I listen to that much though.

Which condenser mics do you guys use? I baught myself a Studio Projects C1 some months ago that I would give one of my testicles for. Suites my voice very well.

 

[Nefilim]

Yeah the sound is sort of open, but like I said, we didn't have time to mix it, and the project isn't very serious either so we just put it up for fun. With Fall From Grace we will take greater measure to make things sound the way we want.

Anyway, the condensers we use are a TSM MT87 and a Generis GC-1E. Now these mics aren't top of the line, but we're poor and so far they work fine for us... we'll probably upgrade sooner or later, but for now they are ok.

 

[L0bster]

I'm building a studio in my home, trying to find the best sound possible using as cheao equipment as possible.

right now it's mostly a guitar studio, I use programmed drums/bass. The guitar sound is pretty good though (above most demos). I use samson microphones, my hughes amp, my gibson guitar and a computer.

the next step is getting the drumming going. the bass sounds ok through my amp, but a real bassrigg is also on the to-get list. good recording requires a lot of money.

 

[Lykanthrope]

Right now i'm recording. I've rented a rehearsal space to set up my drums. Basically using a macking 1402 vlz, running six mics into two delta 44's into my computer and using cubase to record. And everything else. Well its late i'll explain later.....


requestdenied

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

I use guitar pro

 

[Luggal]

Here's my setup:

Roland VS-1680 Digital Workstation (external CD-R and 2GB Jaz drive)
Line 6 Flextone II HD Head
Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine
Alesis NanoSynth
Kaysound MK-4902 Keyboard
Ibanez JS1000BP 6 string
Ibanez Universe 7 string
Ibanez RG series 6 string
Marshall AVT 50 amp
Mesa Rectifier 4x12 cab
Shure SM57 mic
Yamaha RX-496 home theater receiver
Klipsch SB-3 speakers
Sennheiser HD-545 reference headphones

I've got about 6 songs recorded so far in the black/death metal vein, and over 2 hours of riffs - some of which are being incorporated into a new song I'm working on right now. I'll get a sample posted soon, but if I were to describe the sound/style, it could be like Dimmu Borgir meets Septic Flesh meets Edge of Sanity meets Carcass. You may not hear any of these things when you listen to it, but since I would consider these 4 bands to be my primary influences I think it's only fair to give credit (Thanks Dan! Your music has inspired, influenced and has been a big part of my life).

I used to mic the cabinet, but I found that the Flextone II has a really nice line out sound. I get a clear, crunchy sound that, for demo purposes, I'm extremely satisfied with. Line 6 did a nice job with the various cabinet emulators. Since most of my recording is done at night, this is a bonus since I don't want to annoy family and neighbors.

As far as recording vocals goes, does anyone find that certain microphones capture the scratchy black and/or low death metal vocals better than others? I've just been using the Shure SM57 for now, but should probably upgrade.

The Alesis drum machine gets the job done after building a custom drum set, but it still lacks a good variety of crash cymbols and toms, which altogether sound a bit too "electronic". Until I find a human to perform the drums, has anyone had any experience with any other drum machines that might suit this style? Other than the actaul sound, I think the most frustrating part of the drum machine is that it can't change tempo between segments, and it doesn't appear that you can chain songs (segment chains) together. Time changes often require the magic of digital editing to glue the pieces together.

I also incorporate a lot of atmospheric/epic strings, ensemble, synth, etc into my songs. The NanoSynth is ok, but I'm looking for something that offers a lot more variety and flexibility... especially more strings and voices.

 

[Lykanthrope]

For drums i've ended up using the steinberg lm4 plug in for cubase. It's pretty cool because u can get a kit editor for it and just insert ur own sounds. I hear the lm4 mkII u can just drag and drop sounds into it and have a lot more control over the dynamics and what not.

requestdenied

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

I have a small commercial studio in my home. I have some really cool gear, but I find that sometimes, the good stuff just doesn't get me the sound. Most of the time I use Coles 4038s (ribbon mics) on guitars. The other day I used my tape machine and a fuzz box for some really great black metal "tone" for a grind-based project. Some of the other crazy stuff I've done recently would be using a radio shack electret-condenser mic to do vocals, after spilling coffee and beer on the mic...and leaving it in a swampy basement for about a year. Very slight capsule distortion that made for an insane brutal screaming mic. I'd love to try that on a small guitar amp for that giant overblown Dismember/Entombed sound. I also rewired a 60 year old phone as a mic. Great for spoken parts. And one thing that I've been doing in creating giant sounding spaces for drums is using a mono room mic in a very dead room (small, or just EXTREMELY DEAD) and running that through a small room reverb, and then delaying that by a few milliseconds. It turns my small recording space into one that sounds like the rooms on Judas Priest albums or something. For drum machines, I've been using Battery, and recording my own kits. And those of you who use a computer. I'm a www.digitalfishphones.com junkie! Use the Dominion plugin for instant perfect snare sounds! Get all the attack, out of a weak snare.

 

[Inverness]

The band I'm currently playing with is basically risen from the ashes of a prog band, Twilight Kingdom. I don't think anybody would be familiar with them. I certainly wasn't when I joined this new group!

Anyway, Chris (the only survivor from TK), the drummer, uses a custom Tama set that he's changing all the time. He's got standard stuff (10" crash, 10" china, 12" china, toms, high hat, ride, etc.), but he also has a two wood blocks, rotor toms, bongos, sawblades, and a Houwitzer shell mounted on his set.

Pat, one of the guitarists, plays a variety of guitars. The one he uses throughout most of the recordings is a black with mirror pick guard 7-string Ibanez Universe (another one!) through a Soldano head and a Marshall 4x12" cab. He has various other guitars (two more Ibanezs at least, and a blue Les Paul Gibson sixer). When he's not playing through the Soldano-Marshall set up, he has an all-tube Ampeg head (not the SVT-CL, however) over a custom-built 4x12".

Nori, the other guitarist, doesn't have the gear that Pat does. He has a cherry sunburst ESP Horizon-NT. He usually plays through the Soldano-Marshall set up because the Soldano has many tones that Nori plays around with while Pat sticks to rhythm-like stuff. Nori himself has a mini Crate amp. The Horizon is only a six. Nori also plays keyboards, but... we're lacking in that department for the moment...

I am the bassist. I play on a "blue dawn" (oh those guitar companies and their crazy colors) Musicman Stingray5. Currently, I have an Ampeg B50 combo, an SVT-610HLF cab, and I'm going to inherit a Fender combo and a stand-up bass. I'm still undecided about what kind of head I'm going to ultimately get, but it's looking like an SVT-3Pro is gonna be the way to go... Any suggestions?

Only Pat and Chris have recorded stuff so far, since they've been playing together the longest (almost two years). Nori and I just joined in the past 5 months. The studio itself also had a keyboard with a large Peavey amp, but that's been lost. A Trinity functions as the brain of a keyboard. There's a 1680 recorder in there with some V-drums.

The studio itself is essentially what amounts to a sound-proofed garage of sorts. One singular mic is located in the center of the room, and from there things are recorded. My little combo couldn't stand up to the overwhelming noise of Pat's guitar and Chris's drums, so I was routed through the mixing board to a large, clunky Peavey amp. I just got that 610, so I shouldn't have those sound issues anymore.

Pat and Chris have put together about 12 songs that cover around 70-75 minutes of music. The four of us have about two of those songs down, plus we've also got a good version of "Hallowed Be Thy Name." Chris and Pat's stuff is of the polyrhythmic variety. It's as if Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah, and Nevermore all got together in an alley and tried to outplay each other. Pat's going to rerecord all the older material because he just switched back to standard tuning.

Name...? Uhh... Get back to that...

 

[Evil Audio]

Hey everyone!! I just joined this forum for this very reason!! I have been enthralled in Dan's music since I was a teenager back when I bought "Unorthodox" in 1994!! Every since hearing that, I knew this was something special for the world of metal. I cannot express how much Edge of Sanity's music means to me!! I also really like Dan's newer projects, although I have not heard them all yet, I like Moontower a lot.

Anyways, is this particular subject just Taboo for this forum? It seems as if Dan himself hasn't responded to any of these types of subjects... I run a studio here that specializes in metal and related-stuff and would LOVE to discuss what he did and what he used, especially in the early days. Not in any way to steal or rip-off techniques, but instead to touch on educational subjects, especially for the beginners around here, for new ideas to try and things that they may have otherwise not known of. There are many recording forums already, but it would be great to have some real answers to specific questions about Edge of Sanity, and other great projects Dan Swano has graced his talent on. I have seen the old pictures of his Unisound, and can identify some things, but it really amazes me how great everything sounds in that small area with the equipment I saw... there's GOT to be more to the story!!

Dear Dan Swano, (I feel I'm really going out on a limb here, being a new guy) would you be willing to answer some questions about specific recording techniques and/or actual equipment that you used whilst engineering? I understand if this is personal material you'd rather not reveal, but please let me/us know. I would be honored, as would others, I'm sure. I put you right up there with Skogsberg, Pytten, Tagtgren, Burns, etc... (gods of Death Metal production). Thank you very much for all the great metal, man!!

for my stuff (on horrible myspace encoding), check out: http://www.myspace.com/theensomberoom

"The Staircase Bodies" is a track from a band I play in....

-EA

 

[Lefthander]

Hi! ITS VERY COOL TOP!!!

I use
for drums: Native Battery 2( Drumkits from hell)

guitars
ESP M2 guitar-lin in-Guitar rig2

Bass-Steinberg Virtual Bassist

Vox-my throat and mics

check it!

http://audiostreet.net/raxa

One of my projects Raxa(ethno doom/black metal on ancient ritual aztec language)

 

[AnTz0r]

what pictures are there of the unisound studio? i could only find these

 

[paradoxile]

I posted in another thread a technique of recording a piano in studio quality with a simple set of earphones used as a stereo mic.
once I find it,I'll put a link here cause piano recording is always troublesome if you don't have the money for expensive mics and a room with good acoustics.

 

[Occam's Razor]

The band I'm currently playing with is basically risen from the ashes of a prog band, Twilight Kingdom. I don't think anybody would be familiar with them. I certainly wasn't when I joined this new group!

Hey, is that the band with the album "Adze" on Keith Menser's Siegen records?

 

[AmirH]

I posted in another thread a technique of recording a piano in studio quality with a simple set of earphones used as a stereo mic.
once I find it,I'll put a link here cause piano recording is always troublesome if you don't have the money for expensive mics and a room with good acoustics.

Yeah that was my thread! Was a great tip too.

A couple weeks ago I was reading about something similar where you use a bass heavey speaker wired to an xlr cable to mic a kick drum. Apparently it gives it a lot of presence and "thump" when used in conjunction with another kick mic.

I'm still very much a noob at recording. I know my way around a lot better now than I did a year ago though! On my little net project(which was what the other thread was about) drums were programmed(I think with reason) guitars and bass were both direct via a vamp2, vocals were a rode nt2 into a berry mixer, and piano was miked with a u87 behind the bench and blended with samples.

For my own stuff everything recorded is what I refer to as "beta" cuz it's just unmixed direct guitar and samples, and no drums cuz I'm trying to learn to record my drummer properly. I'm not in a huge rush as I'd rather it was done well than done at all but I've got 6 solid tracks which I've deemed worthy of finishing and it kinda feels like something I need to get off my back so I can get on with some of my newer ideas.

My biggest gripe right now is the vamp- I can't stand the damn thing anymore. I've used guitarsuite some but I'm thinkin an upgrade to a podxt is in order before I make anymore serious recordings. A nice tube combo would be even better of course but it's not really a practical option for me at this point due to the volume needed.

 

[Evil Audio]

Lefthander: That is some cool stuff! I like it! Thanx for the kind words about my stuff, if that's what you meant...

Antzor: I don't see any unisound pics on the link you provided. The ones I've seen are on a website that must be shut down now, cuz I can't find it anymore... even www.swano.com is gone... damn! There were some cool photos there...

 

[AnTz0r]

sorry! forgot to mention which gallery. it's the 1994 one - in the beginning part II. the guy in the white is the very young looking mr swano