Home » R/E/P » Whatever Works » Anatomy of a Session in May
| Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247235] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 18:25  |
|
Well, as mentioned somewhere here in the past few days, I had originally planned a day-by-day "session blog" of the album I'm currently working on, complete with daily pix. But "I forgot" just how much time recording takes, and how little time there is left to download and resize photos, write copy, etc. I chose to sleep briefly instead.
So I never could get around to it while we were tracking.
The group is, again, Widespread Panic.
I (with the band's agreement of course) decided it would be good to try to get out of the "4-5 years between albums" syndrome that the big groups today seem to get locked into, and return more to the "days of yesteryear-rock," when it was more like 1-2 years between new recordings.
Of course the problem comes when trying to fit all that songwriting, planning, logistics, etc. into a busy touring schedule. And Panic is one of the biggest touring bands out there. Live is where a band can really make their daily bread money...these days, as great as sales might sometimes be, the recordings seem to be slanted more towards driving the big touring engine ...but maybe it's always been that way, and we just forget over time, as we hold in our hands the recorded music, but have forgotten the grueling live circuitry.
But whatever it took, we were able to pull it all together, and although it seems just yesterday that they left here with the last album in their paws (although it's been over a year and a half), here we were again, excited eighteen year olds, ready to have some fun.
The beauty of working with a band like this is that they really do care most about the music. Money is great, and everyone likes to afford their house and car and feed their family, but these guys really, really do care far more about the integrity of what they play than they do "selling out" to make a "hit."
And these guys can really play. Every one of them is very accomplished on their instrument, and it shows when they go from song to song, playing first blues, then power rock, then jazz, then almost country, then funk...in other words, it makes it a fun musical experience, not a whole lot like "work."
But in absence of the daily blog, I did promise to go ahead and post some session information and photos, and I have indeed had a lot of email and PM's requesting this be done.
So, here goes a lot of consecutive posts, each with a photo, for your enjoyment or derision...you decide which!
Some may notice that in much of this session, I adhere to the tenets upon which I have occasionally pontificated, but in other areas, I purposely deviate from same. When deviations were made, the original rules were kept still in mind, but "broken" for specific reasons.
To get started, here was my tracking view from the control room:
All posts in this thread ©2007, Terry Manning. Posted with permission.
|
|
| |
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247238 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 18:31  |
|
For some reason, everyone seems obsessed with drum sounds, as if beating on wood and metal is music, so why not start with that?
The basic drum sound is from two microphones, a Neumann U47 fet on the bass drum, and a 251 on the kit.
I did add a C12 VR over the floor toms, because a few of the songs were quite floor-tom-driven, and it is nice to have the presence of the 2-3 floors when needed.
Also, an SM-7 was put "on the snare," not really for the snare sound, but more for a discrete reverb send when needed. This way, not all of the drums and cymbals have to be dunked into the reverb tank, if not so desired.
All of the drum microphones were amplified by API-centric preamplifiers. No compression or equalisation was needed during tracking, and little, if any, will be added in the mix.
|
|
| | | |
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247245 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 18:44 |
|
I guess the next "basic" part of the rhythm section is the Bass instrument itself.
We are very lucky to have Dave Schools in that role. Dave played several different basses, choosing 'based' on the sound appropriate for each song. He played older Fender Precision and Jazz, as well as his newer Modulus, and probably one or two others I've forgotten about.
The bass went first into an Ampeg SVT DI, the one with the integral mic pre built in. This was the first time I had recorded with it in this way, and I found that it worked extremely well. Having the mic pre right "in the same box" made it very easy, and gave a very nice, punchy direct sound. This method allowed me to plug directly from the DI/pre at line level into an xlr mic tie line, and thence directly from the patchbay end of that, to a track input. Oh yeah, with an EAR 660 limiter/compressor in between. Again, no EQ necessary.
But that doesn't get to the bottom of the story. Coming next: The other part of the bass sound...
Attachment: BsDI_web.jpg
(Size: 271.09KB, Downloaded 11731 time(s))
|
|
|
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247247 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 18:53 |
|
As good as the Ampeg SVT DI is, and I have done many albums before with only DI bass, for most rock music I really do like some good ole' B-15 bass amplification.
And as much as I like to make decisions "right then and there," I do usually indulge in the luxury of recording independent DI and amplifier tracks. Some songs in the mix will get just the bass amp track, occasionally just the DI, and often the two mixed together. Usually, I have this decided well before mixdown however, having "found the sound" during overdubbing playbacks.
So from the DI, the "through" lead went into my B-15, ensconced inside the palm frond-topped isolation booth. The microphone, almost directly on the speaker grill cloth, was a Røde Classic II w/ NOS valve and Jensen transformer. I have started liking this mic on bass amp recently. No EQ, no compression, just straight to a Lucas MP-VMO preamplifier (V section).
The amp's volume was kept pretty low, as there was no need on most songs for a lot of distortion or extra growl.
|
|
| |
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247251 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 19:13 |
|
Speaking of Sunny, on the previous album, I had him playing live with the band on congas as they tracked the basics. Almost all of those takes were kept and used. But, to avoid the drum bleed, and to be able to get good ambient sound on the congas, I had placed him in the Rec Room down the hall. He was a smiling trooper through all of the isolation, and of course played brilliantly, but to be honest, he wasn't truly happy being away from the action, connected only by microphones and cans.
So for the first track this time, I set him up near the drums, right in the same room with everyone else, and had him play live. Then the plan was to immediately, once the basic was done, overdub his same part "almost live," while the feeling and performance was still fresh. This would give great sound from our live wooden "drum end" of the room, but also give me the islotaion necessary for sonic control.
Great plan, except for the fact that he plays so hard and loud on those things that he actually bled a bit much into the drum mics!
So we ended up compromising a tiny bit. On all subsequent tracks, he played "live" with conga sounds out of his Handsonic, DI'd to input/headphones, and then overdubbed the real congas immediately thereafter. This seemed the best of all possible worlds.
The congas were mic'd in two ways. For my initial tracking experiment, I had put a Sennheiser MD-402U, a hyper-cardiod microphone with a very gentle high end rise, right between the two conga heads, very close, trying to give the other guys some conga sound in the cans as they tracked. Then for the "real" ones, played right after the basic of each song, I had my new "Lucas Experimentally Modified" Bova Ball Head stereo mic. I put two Bova Balls on either side of our experimantel "head," which in this case was an old Ampex tape box. Simulating the concept of the Jecklin disk, I suppose. The box was to serve as the "head-in-between" the two omni-directional "ears" (the B-Balls).
However, I ended up liking the combination of both mic techniques. The Bova "Head" gave amazing and beautiful true stereo from a fair distance, providing excellent room sound ambience. The 402-U, mixed in relatively low, gave a tiny bit of present "thwack" of the hands directly on the heads.
The Bovas were run through the matching Bova preamps. No EQ or compression.
Here's the "head."
By the way, I now have in my possession a replica human head used to showcase wigs, and I am designing a stereo 'headstand' for future use.
|
|
|
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247252 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 19:17 |
|
Sunny plays a lot more than congas. of course, being a true Percussionist, but even he can't play them all at once.
Most tambourines, shakers, maracas, crickets, triangles, timbales, etc. were done on overdubs later, utilising most often the 251 and/or a TNC fig-8 lollipop ribbon through an EAR 824 microphone preamplifier.
Note that by the time we got to this, the room was pretty full of junk (not meaning Sunny)!
|
|
| | | |
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247259 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 19:31 |
|
Piano was a definite overdub. We don't have ours built into the wall like some silly people did for a while, and blankets and rolls of paper towels only can do so much.
So I did my best at isolation, and we planned from the start to open up and overdub as soon as practical after the basic.
The mic(s) remained the same, however, just moved around to be either shut-in or free as birds. The mic(s) throughout were NT-4 stereo X/Y through TAB/Funkenwerk V-78M's. No EQ or compression needed. When recording the overdubs, the lid was opened, and the mic(s) placed about 3 feet from the centre point, facing down towards the strings.
Jojo got his mug plastered all over newspapers and magazines and the Internet on the last album, so he won't get any more face time here. Instead, here's a shot of some of the outboard mic pre's in use. The piano was, as mentioned, traveling through the two Oliver's there.
One of those boxes is not a mic pre...can you guess which one?
Good Billy, good Peggy!
|
|
|
| Re: Anatomy of a Session in May [message #247263 is a reply to message #247235 ] |
Thu, 24 May 2007 19:39 |
|
When we didn't keep live guitars, which was honestly more often than not, the overdubbing began.
We are very, very fortunate this time to have the great Jimmy Herring on lead guitar. Not that we were ever suffering for that instrument, or lacking anything! Jimmy is just one of those rare players that can come along and make something appear in a higher plane that it might have a right to.
Jimmy has his own special setup for stage, and was concerned about getting it right in the studio. His sound is so good, that I didn't see any need to change it. So, as mentioned before in another thread, I used a pretty complicated (for me) setup and microphone technique for the actual lead guitar.
Here's a bit of what was written in that other thread:
"I had not one, but three amp/speaker sources, each with a different sound coming out (direct from a Super {AKG D1200E}, guitarist's special FX 100% wet delay from a second, 100% reverb from a third {stereo cardiod HM-1's in NOS config}).
This just happened to be one of the best players in the world, in total control of their instrument and sound.
I just happen to also have one of the best sounding rooms in the history of recorded music at my disposal, and that room was fully filled with wonderful guitar sounds mixing beautifully from the three sources, so I also wanted to capture that. I set up my special BovaLucasDiskHead® stereo omni situation at the rear of the room (the deader end), and a single omni 251 at the front of the room in the live wood and glass "drum" section, phase reversed.
The amplifiers were in the middle of the room, facing rearwards.
In the mix, I will use all sources.
But I shudder to think what a mess this setup might sound like if the instrument was in the hands of a player who could not properly control it."
Here's a shot of the Supers (one was the better sounding amp section, the other for the Tone Tubby speakers mounted inside):
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
Current Time: Fri Jul 30 18:07:07 CDT 2010
Total time taken to generate the page: 0.02042 seconds |
Members
Search
FAQ
Register
Login
Home
