studio update 8.2.2010

so it's time for another studio update. i know it's a couple weeks late, but in mid july i went into the studio with a band from Illinois named The Ashland Project to start tracking drums. I usually go to Darkhorse, but they were booked out for the weekend. I actually ended up getting a rare treat by being able to track at the Quad Studios (www.quadstudiosnashville.com) A room. the room is outfitted with an 80 input SSL 9000 J console and what's even more impressive, an incredible tracking room. it's been a couple years since i've been at this place, but i've always remembered how great the drum room sounded. i've changed the way i do things since then so i was excited to come back and try some new things out.

Here's the console....mission control.



what's ironic is that this console has 80 channel strips. that's 80 channels. and theoretically, you can bring in another track on the small fader so really, 160 channels. even with all my drum mics and scratch tracks i was only using about 15 of those. overkill? yes. but it still feels good. haha

They had a bunch of neve 1073 mic pre's so of course i had to use them.



although i used these for mic pre's, on some of the channels i ended up using the console EQ just because it's a lot more precise and better for carving out the sound. those neve's only have one sweepable band and two shelving EQ's as opposed to the SSL's fully parametric EQ.

The rest of the pre's i used were console pre's and this vintage API unit.



i don't know much about the history of API, but apparently this was one of the first incarnations of the famous mic pre's according to the studio.

and of course, some distressors. this will be my next purchase.



but like i said earlier, the most important element to a good drum sound (other than the drums and the drummer) is a good sounding room. this studio actually has a vaulted ceiling with adjustable acoustic paneling to control how live the room gets.



as you can see, the whole room is covered in wood paneling which has acoustic properties much more palatable to your ear than typical drywall. that curtain on the left isn't there so much to keep light out as it's there to deaden that wall when closed. the room mics in the foreground are Neumann u67s in an XY pattern as i've been using them lately. what you can see are the Coles ribbon mics behind the camera. i've only use those mics one other time and i really love their smooth sound.

and speaking of those mics, i've been messing around with compressing room mics lately. i've had some success with the Amek 9098 stereo compressor at darkhorse. Quad had a Neve stereo compressor. Rupert Neve also designed all the Amek gear so i figured it would be similar...



maybe i was using it incorrectly, but i couldn't get the same sound. i mean, it sounded fine. it compressed, but not the same crunchiness from the 9098.

monitors at the studio are always tricky. i never really know how the drums turned out until i get back to my place. and they actually turn out pretty good. that's all for now! talk to you all later.

sleep

hi everybody...it's been too long. i apologize profusely for my absence and utter neglect of this blog over the last week or two. anyway, right now me and @nathantbass and @stevenkadaradar are sittig in a hotel room after having played two shows this weekend at the Mistissini reservation in northern Quebec. and when i say northern, i mean way the heck up there northern.



the shows were great and the people were so welcoming. they even gave me a handmade guitar strap that was made from the hide of a moose. ya, you heard me. a friggin MOOSE.

anyway, the first night the three guys were all sleeping in the same hotel room. apparently (As Kadar tells the story), Kadar got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and i was talking in my sleep. i said something to the effect of "are you there peter?"

now my wife would agree that this is nothing out of the ordinary. i talk in my sleep all the time. but what's funny is that apparently nathan, fast asleep, responded to me and said "ya, i'm right here."

of course i've been thinking about dreaming lately after seeing Inception. and that movie is definitely the best movie i've seen all year....well, i mean, right after twilight: new moon. for those of you who do not know me, yes, that was indeed sarcasm in it's purest form.



i would like to set up a camera to start cataloging what i say in my sleep, except that reminds me too much of another movie - Paranormal Activity. i LOVED that movie but it freaked me out. if there's a ghost in my house i don't want to know about it.

my sister @AlieghShields is known, not so much for talking in her sleep, but for waking up without really waking up. once while a bunch of us were watching a movie, she fell asleep on the floor next to her boyfriend at the time. during the movie, she half woke up and started berating him saying "why do you always light me on fire!!!" another one of my sisters will sometimes sleep walk with her eyes open, but you can tell she's asleep because of this look she has on her face. when you tell her to go back to bed because she's sleeping, she gets very mad at you which is kinda funny, and then doesn't remember a thing the next morning.

and the last thing that i've been thinking about is the idea of lucid dreaming. the concept goes something like this: when you're dreaming, you don't know you're dreaming. if you can train your brain to recognize when you're dreaming, then you can start to control the dream and do whatever you want. my friend was telling me about it and said one trick it to look at clocks because apparently in dreams, clocks never move. so if you think you're dreaming, just look at a clock. if it's not moving, then you know you're dreaming and then you can start doing whatever you want. ya, and when i say whatever, i mean go crazy. i plan on dreaming about a world where the ground is made entirely of trampoline so that i can bounce around wherever i go. either that or something involving me playing a show at an indian reservation in northern canada....wait a minute...

the psychology of pedalboards

my wife loves accessories. if you look at any of her promo shots, you're sure to find her wearing lots of bangles and knick knacks and thingamabobs to carefully accent her outfit. she's good at that stuff. girls in general like accessories. sunglasses. earrings, jewelry, etc... well, guitar players like accessories too. but in order to hide how girly we really are, we dress up our accessories with an elaborate mess in an effort to make them as manly as possible. our accessories are pedals. guitar effects pedals. for those of you who still don't know what i'm talking about, they are little electric boxes that we plug our guitars through on the way to the amp to give us different sounds. and as you'll find out below, they also make us feel awesome.

i've often said that the size of a guitar player's ego is in direct proportion to the size of his pedalboard. to ilustrate this point, i've scoured the internets for a few examples of pedalboards and the types of ego boost they represent.

1. More Is More

come on, admit it. we've all been there. this pedalboard represents the most common of complexes where the player flat-out does whatever he can to scrounge any and every pedal he can buy, steal, and borrow to cobble together the largest, most douchiest frankenstein you can imagine. you know, because bigger is better, right? kinda reminds me of why certain guys buy big flashy cars...

2. Less Is More

Less Is More is really just the pupa stage of More Is More. as you see here, anything more than one pedal dictates that you need a pedalboard. and as the picture shows, a flight case is probably necessary too. you see, the floor just won't do. i mean, what the heck?? if you don't have a flashy pedal board case so the audience can clearly see you tapping little do-hickeys then why the heck did you join the praise band in the first place??? oh ya, to impress the youth group girls. haha...when i was 14 i thought i was so cool cause i could play nirvana songs...but i digress... pedalboard

3. The No Pedalboard

this is the setup for someone who desperately needs a pedalboard but refuses to buy one because he/she secretly likes taking their sweet time setting up every cable and every pedal at exact right angles from each other. Howie Mandel obsesses about washing his hands. other guys do this.

4. The Theoretical Pedalboard

this is the pedalboard for the guy who doesn't have and will never have the exact setup they want. for them, planning, sketching and deciding on theoretical purchases give them such a cocaine rush that even those who do happen to come into some money and get the gear they want continue to buy and sell because it's never quite right. cause you see, if they sound bad, it wasn't their fault. they just didn't have the right gear setup. which reminds me of what my old boss used to say - A shoddy carpenter blames his tools.

5. The Geek Pedalboard

seriously? really? a laptop? you might as well wear a tshirt that says "trying too hard."

6. The Messy Pedalboard

we all know at least one guy who is a good player, has a decent setup, yet refuses to put an afternoon of work into making himself a decent pedalboard. he shows up, opens the case and 8 pedals fall out behind a tangled mass of cables. he would probably sound pretty good if he weren't spending half the set adjusting pedals and fixing cable shorts.

7. The One Brand Pedalboard

there's something to be said for brand loyalty, but anybody who truly believes that one single company has the absolute best pedals (whether distortion, delays, trems, etc...) is just plain stupid. there are hundreds of big name and boutique manufacturers making pretty much any sounding pedal you can think of. some are better than others, some worse. usually this mindset is the result of living in a town where there's one music store that sells only one brand of pedal and also happens to have a very savvy salesman. if this sounds familiar, maybe take a road trip to the nearest guitar center or something. also, file this under Multi-Effects Processors.

8. The Ergonomic Pedalboard

i can see how someone would think this is convenient....that is, if you're playing guitar while sitting on a swivel seat.

9. The AWESOME PEDALBOARD

this pedalboard is the AWESOME PEDALBOARD because it happens to be the setup i'm drooling over right now. a simplified switching system tied to racks of pedals and multiple amps with the ability to use whatever gear you want and recall any setting with a single button push. I NEED THIS.....actually, i've been confusing the words "want" and "need" lately. also, the AWESOME PEDALBOARD is a title that can be switched to whatever setup i want at any given time.

10. The Modded Pedalboard

first step, get a More Is More pedalboard - i.e. lots and lots of pedals. then complain about how hard it is to control them all. then get a custom true bypass strip made which conveniently "simplifies" the routing, and also happens to be one more big thing to put on your pedalboard with lots of buttons. more buttons means more choices. more choices means more power. maybe we could call it a form of a classic napolean complex.

you see, here's the thing. any device that you send your guitar signal through degrades your signal by a tiny bit. the most pristine signal goes straight from the guitar to the amp with the shortest cable possible. i can't find what the exact statistic is, but you lose something like 3dB for every 10 feet of wiring and cable. every pedal that you put in your rig harms your signal and adds noise, but we make that sacrifice in order to have a cool effect - a good distortion or delay or something.

ok, now last but not least, i'll give you all a picture of my current pedalboard setup for when i play with stephanie smith (@stephanaynay) and feel free to comment on my narcissistic tendencies. maybe say something like "this pedalboard is made by a minimalist who takes prides in his minimalism - and probably writes blogs about it." peanut, i'm looking your way on this one. don't let me down.

two quick things

at a show last week a kid wanted me to sign his amplifier.



in addition to signing it, i crossed out the 10 and wrote in "11" because all amps should go to eleven.

and in other news....


DANG REDBOX! YOU RACIST!


click to enlarge

it might take a second, but you'll see it. i saw this in nashville the other day. i'm thinking someone should maybe fix that.

how it is

i'm not even going to pretend like i'm some young 19 year old kid playing guitar, posting über awesome shots from the stage. i mean, i've done that before and looking back, it's not that awesome. i think my time is much better spent making fun of myself. and of course, real life is funnier than fiction.....actually i think the expression uses "stranger" instead of "funnier", but you get my drift. in that spirit, here's an awesomely horrible shot of me playing a show last week.

what else what else...oh ya. spending every free second recording. that's right. i just finished tracking a project for a band called Captions from Pensacola, FL. they're a 6 piece that's got a big sound and have enlisted me to do a bunch of programming on the record as well so i'm pretty pumped about that. and of course, whenever i track in nashville i do everything i can to work at www.DarkhorseRecording.com. so last project i was on a Neve VR 72 and for this one i was on the Trident Series 80 desk.

the two consoles are complete opposites of each other in the sense that the neve is an in-line console where the mutitrack send fader and the return fader are all on the same channel. there's all sorts of cool tricks you can do with faders swaps and surround mixing that i never learned. i just figured out how to make it record awesome stuff and kept moving. the trident is not in-line meaning that one channel is used to send the signal to the multitrack and another channel is used to for the return monitoring. the in-line console is handy, but is unnecessary if you have loads of legit outboard mic pre's - and darkhorse has plenty.

and of course compressors:

for outboard pre's i used the vintech x81's which have been a favorite of mine lately, the brent averill 1073's, the api 512s as well as a few of the console pre's. for compression i used the distressors and the alan smart c2 which is basically the bus compressor from an SSL 4000 console.

here's my drum setup:

most of my pictures turned out blurry because of low light, but i was excited to try a couple microtech gefell tube mics about 20 feet off the ground up on a ledge on the far end of the recording room. i usually work out of the Cabin at darkhorse but this time we were in the Lodge and these were probably the best sounds i've gotten out of the lodge. and most of it had to do with the room mics.

one other thing to mention is my micing of the hi hat and ride. one thing that bugs me about drum kits is that they are inherently asymmetrical. the snare is a little to the left, the toms a little to the right and the hat way left. but in a mix we put the snare dead center, the toms panned evenly and yet we still put the hat a little to the left. so drum mixes by nature are off balance. so in an effort to correct this, i've been experimenting with treating the ride cymbal and the hi hat as a stereo pair. i mic them with a matched pair of mics that are pointed at the same angle and same height - even if that mean the mic is closer to one of the two cymbals. i'm still working on it, but i've definitely got a good start.

ok, that's all for now. i'll be sure to post some music once this project is done.

back to chicago

a couple days ago i got back from chicago. i'd been there for about a week and a half recording and producing a project for a worship band named Before Morning. I knew some of the guys from back when i used to live there. in addition to playing at their own churches, they travel around to conferences, youth camps and other church sunday services pretty consistently.

after a few days of pre production, we started with drums at my old stomping ground, chicago recording company (www.chicagorecording.com). we were in studio 4 on the Neve VR72 console. there have been a ridiculous amount of records and major artists recorded here. so much that i'm not gonna even try to list them. they have them on the website if you wanna check.

that big box in the foreground and under the console is a mackie powered sub....a sub usually used for live sound. and you can't see it, but there's an identical one on the other side of the room. this is in addition to the two 18" subs behind the console. when we came in a hip hop session had just ended and apparently two 18's weren't enough bass so they had to hook up these two babies to really bump.

and check this out:

that right there my friend, is a toothpick. why do we stick toothpicks into consoles that cost six figures? well, these Neve VRs get really hot. and they don't have the same cooling fan systems that other consoles do. back at CRC we have a saying that a session is going good when the "neve is cooking". it literally means that after you've been working a while, you could feel the heat coming off the console. anyway, these analog monsters burn through caps like my attention span burns through things to pay attention...what was i saying?? oh ya, the heat also over the years has melted some of the plastic that holds the buttons down and so the assistance of a toothpick is needed.

the drummer, stevie harmantas, was using a vintage ludwig kit that sounded amazing. and what's great about stevie is that he really knows how to tune a kit. he also brought along a ludwig black beauty, a maple snare, a copper snare, and some other snare that didn't sound good so i didn't even bother remembering it's name. here's a pic of the drum setup:

if you can't tell from the pictures, here's what we used:

Overheads - vintage Neumann U67s

Hat, Ride - AKG 451

Toms - AKG 414

Snare top and bottom - Shure 57

on the kick we used three different mics:

here we have a Shure Beta 52 on the inside, a Neumann FET 47 on the outside and a Yamaha Sub Kick also on the outside. i know the D112 is kinda the standard that people use for inside kick, but i just like the 52. i don't know, i guess i'm weird. the FET 47 is like a great sounding U47, but it can handle the level better than the tube mic.

and here's the thing about the sub kick. i've tried sub kicks before. or so i thought i had. on two different occasions i've been at studios here in nashville and asked if they had one. their answer was yes. then they came back with a handmade sub kick which is basically a yamaha NS-10 woofer wired up in reverse as a mic that looks something like this:

i was skeptical but decided it was the same thing. and ya know what? it didn't sound great. after this happening two times, i decided i didn't like it. but this time stevie brought his own sub kick - but the real sub kick, not some cobbled together facsimile of the original. anyway, this thing sounds great. it accurately captures the low sub kick frequencies around 60 - 80 hz without the accompanying muddiness from the low mids. i don't know if the casing makes a difference or what, but the real sub kick sounds better.

and for rooms mics:

vintage Neumann M249s in X-Y pattern

and...

B&K 4011's in X-Y pattern

after the tracking day, we spent the rest of the week at a smaller studio out in the suburbs closer to where the band lives.

we used a geddy lee jazz bass for all of the bass parts. i love jazz bass's. joel from tfk plays them except he switches out the stock pickups. they're one of my favorite jazz basses.

for guitars we had a decent little setup.

in there we had a few tele's, an '89 les paul (it's hard to think '89 is more than 20 years ago), a brian moor guitar and a PRS.

and here's amps and cabs:

we primarily used the Divided by 13 head, as well as the marshall Plexi and that tiny little head on top of the rack is a new offering from mesa that actually sounds pretty good. my scribe skills are lacking because i don't remember the model numbers of the mesa or the divided by 13.

as for Pre's, we used the avalon 737 and the API with distressor.

here we have two different divided by 13 cabs - one closed back 2x12 and an open back 2x12. the third cab had been refinished so i don't know who made it. again, my note taking is unacceptable.

and for vocals, it's the tried and true Neumann U87

well, that's all i've got for now. hope you enjoy. if you have any gear questions about details i forgot, just hit up the comments and i'll try to answer them all.

utter comedy

the best comedy comes from real life. truth is stranger (and funnier) than fiction. one of my favorite comedies right now is a poorly made low budget movie that's so bad it crosses the line into humorous. it's a movie that was originally put out in 2003. It's called "The Room" (the title has nothing to do with the movie) and it's the brainchild of a European immigrant named Tommy Wiseau who apparently loved american cinema so much that he spent $7 million of his own money to produce this film which he wrote, directed and starred in. and here's the thing - it's utterly horrible. bad writing, bad directing, bad editing - everything about it is horrible. so horrible, that it's funny to marvel at the fact that it was ever made in the first place. anybody can cobble together a CD in a home studio. but a full fledged movie takes crews, actors, producers, directors, catering, city permits, etc. how did everyone involved work on it with a straight face? the trailer is hilarious. here it is:

i especially love how they say it's the "best movie of the year" with a straight face. i mean, isn't that a joke from talladega nights?

Ricky Bobby: wow, i feel like i'm in highlander

Jean Girard: what is a highlander?

Ricky Bobby: it's a movie. it won the academy award

Jean Girard: oh for what?

Ricky Bobby: best movie ever made

the movie has garnered cult film status as they periodically have midnight showings around the country. apparently there was recently one here in nashville at the belcourt theater, but i missed it. what's even funnier is that the guy is now trying to say that he meant it to be so bad it's funny all along. he calls it a black comedy. so we're supposed to believe his movie is the kind of comedic genius that's on par with wes anderson? hmmm...sorry bud.

anyway, i managed to get a copy of the movie. don't see it. it's got boobies in it and a bunch of awkward sex scenes. just go to youtube. all the funny scenes are there without having to wait through that acting that's just bad and not funny at all.

oh, and here's a homework assignment for you all. usually the disclaimer is for kids not to try this at home. but i definitely recommend trying this:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

the next time you're at a birthday party or some event where you need to sing happy birthday with a group of people, have some fun with it. whenever it's time to sing the birthday song, there's always an akward start because no one wants to be the first one to start singing. there's always someone who courageously blazes a trail and the rest follow. well, whenever i'm around, i like to be that someone. except my motives are more devious. you see, the happy birthday melody starts a full octave below the high note. if you choose a starting note that is fairly high, then that means the high note will be a full octave above that and as your voice fades into the background, you enjoy the hilariosity (i know it's not a word) as people awkwardly try to hit the high note. i mean, the average person already feels a little weird singing in front of others, let alone trying to hit an uncomfortably high note.

ok, i just re-read this whole blog and it really sounds like i have a seriously sadistic sense of humor. i promise i don't always laugh at the misfortune of others. i'm not that big of a jerk. oh, and speaking of dark comedies, i found out a friend of mine has never seen a wes anderson movie. if any of you haven't yet, go see bottle rocket, rushmore or the royal tennenbaums. ok thats all i have for now. i wish i had a funny last line to leave you with, but sometimes the witty endings just don't show up. even in a blog about comedy. how ironic.