EQ Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 8)

Punch In Tensions in the Groove BY JEFF TOUZEAU “IN the beginning, we had a lot of big ideas, ” Robbers on High Street’s lead singer and principal writer Ben Trokan recalls of the composition process for Grand Animals [New Line]. “I was writing arrangements on piano for other instruments, and I thought, ‘I have zero experience writing a string part.’ So, originally, we thought we would find someone to help bring a kind of soundtrack experience to the project. ” Scheduled to enter Sonora Recorders in Los Angeles in the not-so-distant future, Trokan and crew called upon Italian film composer Daniele Luppi in hopes that the cinematic mastermind could help take the band’s raw, relentless rhythms and unorthodox melodies to a grander level. As luck would have it, Luppi was up to the challenge, and with engineer Seth McLain in tow, the unlikely PHOTO BY JASON PARRY THE DRUMMER QUIT. THE SINGER’S ON THE KIT. THE TUMULTUOUS RECORDING OF ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET’S GRAND ANIMALS. conglomerate entered Sonora. There was a slight problem, however. The drummer had quit, and the recording budget wouldn’t allow hiring session musicians. “Ben was put in the position of playing about 75 percent of the album alone, says Luppi. “He had to play a zillion guitars, piano, ” and all the drums and percussion. ” Did I mention that Trokan is not really a drummer? As a result, the basic tracks were recorded by dialing in a click track, and then praying that Trokan could hold the beat together. To help keep the grooves on track, Pro Tool’s Grid feature was employed to quantize Trokan’s somewhat naïve bashing. However, when it was time to layer instruments, Luppi didn’t want to grid the overdubs in order to sync the tracks with the timecorrected drums. “We just kept the drums on the grid, and then tracked the rest of the instruments, which produced this surreal push-pull effect, ” says Luppi. “There’s an enormous tension between the overdubs and the drums on the grid. It doesn’t always match up, but it works. ” Luppi also pushed the band to perform many of the sonic sweetening parts themselves, rather than rely on samples. “‘Guard at Your Heel’ is a good example of that approach, ” Trokan says. “We wanted some tuba and a marching bass drum, so Luppi gave Morgan [King, bassist] a tuba, placed a Royer R-121 in front of it, and then handed me a marching bass drum with an RCA 44 mounted about four inches off the skin. Then, he said, ‘Here you go. You want a circus sound? Make it.’” “I’m convinced a human being will always do it better than a sample—even if it’s not right, explains Luppi. “I don’t ever want to ” use a GigaOrchestra, or whatever. Why even bother staring at a computer, looking for sounds, when you can just have a person play the instrument?” The recording of Grand Animals wasn’t entirely reckless, of course. Luppi is incredibly sensitive to mic selection and placement, saying that, next to the players themselves, this is the most important part of making an album. “They had a 1965 Ludwig drum kit in the studio, Luppi says, ” 8 EQ JANUARY 2008 www.eqmag.com 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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