EQ Magazine - September 2007 - (Page 20)

NO COMPROMISE! t the editing stage, Porcupine Tree’s majestic sound is handled entirely with the TDM version of Logic Audio that interfaces with Pro Tools. Plug-ins are run on Pro Tools, so that Logic can handle editing functions without an added load on processing power. For plug-ins, Wilson favors the Focusrite d2/d3 EQ and compression plug-ins, and makes heavy use of Line 6’s Echo Farm delay simulator. “I also use the Mellotron library that comes with the Logic Audio EXS24 sampler, he adds. “We had a real Mellotron for a ” couple of the records, but, to be honest, the sampler became so good that we didn’t bother with the real thing, because you just cannot tell the difference between the Logic Audio library and an actual Mellotron.” A real orchestra makes an especially gorgeous appearance on “My Ashes” and “Sleep Together.” For these tracks, Wilson employed the London Session Orchestra — 24 of the best players in London, who do numerous film and TV sessions, and who are used to dealing with headphones and playing to click tracks. Wilson handed his ideas — initially sketched out on his Logic A sampler — to Dave Stewart, who crafted the final arrangements. (Note that this is the Dave Stewart of great early ’70s progressive/jazz/rock bands such as Hatfield and the North, Egg, National Health, and Bruford — i.e., The Only Dave Stewart Who Matters.) he visually and sonically high-tech advances made by Porcupine Tree in the last few years can also be witnessed on the recent Arriving Somewhere DVD — a limited-edition set licensed to Snapper Music — that puts on vivid display how Porcupine Tree rises above the vast prog-metal hordes. “The conscious decision is not to water down the music, says ” Wilson. “If I’m completely unconscious about the music I’m making, then I can be sure it’s the kind of music I would make anyway. If I start thinking about it, and worrying about what the record company expects, what the fans expect, what the radio stations expect, and what the media expects, then that’s when the composition process becomes conscious, and that’s also when the music starts to become compromised.” T HOME COOKING Steven Wilson explicitly and fearlessly follows his muse, and that’s a pretty essential strategy if you have a firm belief in your creativity, and want to produce unique and individual recordings. Here are some quick tips for inserting the “Porcupine Tree Method” into your own home-studio explorations. Screw the haters. Everyone will have an opinion about your work. Wilson doesn’t care about the fleeting, frustrating, and often confusing input of the public. He crafts music for himself, and has faith that an audience will follow. Remember that approach when you’re all alone in your studio with only yourself — and perhaps your band or a few collaborators — to answer to. Forget about the outside world when you’re tracking. Commerce doesn’t matter. Record companies don’t matter. It’s all about making tracks that get you all kinds of giddy and excited about your project. You have to be honest with yourself, of course; if something sucks, you should be able to admit it and move on, rather than assess the part as being “almost cool,” or whatever other mental gymnastics people unleash to rationalize tracks that should have been pummeled into oblivion with a Howitzer. Follow your instincts, be extremely self-critical, and you’ll be well on the way to making thrilling and interesting recordings. Seek texture. Wilson creates guitar textures by layering real amp sounds over a Line 6 Pod’s digital amp models, but if you’re not in a position to mic amps in your home studio, you can still craft cool textures. The simple trick is to smack your guitar processor around. Want to emulate what Wilson calls the “punch” of a real amp? Then add a clean, Fender-style amp model to your guitar layers, and aggressively boost the midrange EQ. Dialing in a slap-reverb effect will intensify the impact (just be sure to leave any distorted tones completely dry so that the layers don’t get washed out with reverb). One of the easiest and hippest maneuvers is to simply plug your guitar into a direct box, and route it to your recording medium. This guitar-direct-to-recorder sound is a true analog texture — albeit a clean analog texture — that can add density, impact, or girth to digital models, depending on how you EQ it. Clean tracks = myriad options. Wilson records a clean, direct bass sound, and then clones the bass to another track where he treats it with an Amp Farm plug-in to add some “amp” sizzle. Then, he blends the two sounds to taste. Brilliant! If you’re working with a digital workstation, get in the habit of recording clean guitar, bass, and keyboard tracks (alongside processed tracks, if desired). If, during the mixdown, your idea of the perfect sound changes, then you’re not married to what is already down. You can simply select the “clean” track, process it as you wish, and use the new track in the mix — or even blend it with the original track. It’s all about keeping your options open. Mix it up. Porcupine Tree songs always have surprises for the listener, because Wilson evolves the track by adding parts. To foist a few aural shockers yourself, don’t view your composition as a strict A-B-A-B-C-A-B structure with all A sections maintaining the same instrumentation and parts, all B sections the same, and so on. Think about dropping a cool guitar lick only into the second verse, never to be heard again. Mix in different reverbs or modulation effects to intensify certain sections — even go as far as to, say, dramatically increase the reverb level on a vocal as the voice builds to a crescendo. Dropping out parts briefly is another cool way to build dynamic interest and keep listeners on their toes. — Michael Molenda 20 EQ SEPTEMBER 2007 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - September 2007

Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly Ben and Vesper Kaiser Chiefs Toolbox Ozma Porcupine Tree Rush The Software Power User Guide Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drumheads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Chameleon Labs TS1 and TS2 Primera Bravo Se Disc Publisher Roland MC-808 Magix Samplitude Professional 9.1 Massey Tape-Head Big Fish Audio Revolucion Reggaeton Sonivox World Beats Sony Pocket Diva Adobe Audition 2.0 Cakewalk Sonar 6 Room with a VU: J Street Recorders, Sacramento, CA

EQ Magazine - September 2007

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