EQ Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 19)

control the bleed from the snare onto the beater-side kick mic. percussion overdubs notwithstanding, the band decided to stick That’s something I learned about from a band that had recorded pretty close to its stage instruments for the new recordings. with Albini.” Robbins miked the guitar amps with a beyerdynamic M500— Robbins also placed two Crown PZMs on the floor—approxicomplete with a Steven Sank ribbon-stock mod—and a Royer mately six feet back from the kit—and a single Oktava ML52 R121, both placed off-axis, at about five inches away from the positioned roughly one foot above Sutton’s head. The Oktava was speaker, and run through API 312s. For the acoustic guitar tracks, run through a TL Audio Ivory 2 5050 Valve Preamp/Compressor Robbins aimed a M147 at the soundhole, and also pointed an combo with the input gain cranked and the compressor engaged. AKG C414 TL2 toward the soundhole from the 12th fret. For With the basic drum tracks down, Rahim and Robbins begin Bordeaux’s bass, Robbins used an Electro-Voice RE20 and Audioexperimenting with various percussive overdubs. Technica AT4033, both run through a Universal Audio 2-610. “Going into this record, Rahim talked about the way Brian Eno “I used no compression on the bass, notes Robbins. “They ” made those Talking Heads albums [Fear of Music, Remain in have a weird Fender Bassman cabinet with 12" speakers aimed in Light], and the Eno/David Byrne collaboration My Life in the Bush at each other at a 90-degree angle. So I took off the speaker grille, and put the mics inside the of Ghosts, where each song was cabinet—each on-axis to an oppobasically a jam, and then all these site speaker, but 90 degrees away overdubs would get stacked up on from each other.” top, says Robbins. “The final ” Adding and subtracting percussion overdubs to basic tracks is If any studio techniques pique arrangements were determined by a technique that has been employed, to varying degrees, in a Rahim’s interest, it’s the tactics subtracting certain elements throughnumber of different genres. The trick, of course, is ensuring that used on early Beatles recordings, out the song. It’s a really cool way to all those cool overdubs actually add rhythmic interest, rather such as panning instruments hard make records—although if you only than run the groove off the rails, or gum up the percussive left and hard right. have ten days to make an album, it’s impact. Happily, Rahim also wanted to evoke the panoramic “For Ideal Lives, we panned the probably something to keep in the stereo of old Beatles records, and savvy panning and positionbass and guitar across from each back of your mind, rather than apply ing of mix elements can help clarify even the densest amalgam other, says Robbins. “This time, ” to every song.” of overdubs. because there are so many more While it wasn’t the most timeThe first step to percolating rhythmic layers is to consider overdubs, we had to pan things a effective approach to assembling a narrowing the stereo spread of the drum kit. Pan the kick and little differently. For example, we record, Rahim were dead-set on folsnare to center, and pan the toms and overheads no wider used two mics on the guitar amp, lowing the overdub method. Laying than 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock. Now, experiment with moving so I panned one mic to the left, and down basic tracks quickly, the band the percussion overdubs around the basic drum pulse based on one to the right. It’s hard-panned, began chipping away at an ambitious their frequency ranges (low end, midrange, high end). Try but it’s still a fairly narrow stereo list of overdubs that was affixed to doing a bit of a Phil Spector-ish, monaural wall of sound with image of the guitar. Then, we the control room wall. bass-oriented instruments—such as big floor toms and congas— brought in the ‘extras’ in a kind of “We were going for more of an and pan them in the middle. You’ll also need to tweak the fun way, so you may hear the cowindustrial-percussion feel, explains ” relative volumes of these overdubs to ensure that the low end bell all the way over to one side, Sutton. “Instead of using bongos to delivers a propulsive, dance-club boom, rather than just a and the tambourine coming in way get that world beat sound, we incorbunch of muddy bass. If anything starts getting goopy, pan the over to another side.” porated really raw and abrasive offending low-end overdub ever so slightly to one side, but leave Ten and a half days after hitting sounds—like garbage cans and most of the hard-right and hard-left space for midrange and treMagpie Cage, every song was Spackle buckets—to bring in a sort of ble elements. I tend to pan midrange sounds (slapped congas, recorded and mixed—a feat urban-style groove.” tablas, wood block, etc.) between 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock, and Robbins attributes to strong and All three members contributed high-end parts (tambourines, triangles, hi-hat counter-rhythms, decisive songwriting and pre-propercussion overdubs. Robbins had etc.) full left or right at 7 o’clock and 5 o’clock, taking care to duction. never miked a bucket or a trashcan nudge level relationships so as not to have everything chatter“The mix is really mostly about before, and the operation was furing right in the listener’s face. I also mute parts here and there balancing the tracks, he says. “It’s ” ther complicated by the fact the to open up mix space, and then add elements back to punch up down to the band’s sense for musicians’ feet would tip the bucket a song section as needed. Ultimately, you should go with arranging its material and their up while they were playing. whatever methodology works for you, and as long as the sounds. Rahim knew exactly where “On some tracks, we put a Shure groove cooks, you can rest assured you’ve managed your pereverything belonged before they Beta 52 under the bucket for that cussive textures brilliantly. —Michael Molenda got into the studio, and that, to me, deep ‘P kick drum’ low end, says .A. ” is the best way to work.” Robbins. “Otherwise, we miked them at a distance of about four or See exclusive five feet away with either the M147 footage of or the M147/C12VR M/S array.” Rahim at Rahim’s main goal in the studio is www.eqmag.tv. to make a record capturing the energy and immediacy of its live shows. So, HOME COOKING tv. www.eqmag.com JANUARY 2008 EQ 19 http://www.eqmag.tv http://www.eqmag.tv http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - January 2008

EQ Magazine - January 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Robbers On High Street Rafter RTX Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Toolbox Rahim Dimmu Borgir Wu-Tang Clan Special Feature! Mastering for Musicians Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drumheads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 7 IK Multimedia Virtual Instruments Yamaha MSP7 Shure KSM137/SL K+H O 300 & O 800 Sonica Livetracker Apple Logic Studio Novation XioSynth 25, Audio-Technica ATH-M50, Samson G-Track

EQ Magazine - January 2008

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