EQ Magazine - September 2008 - (Page 18)

¡NATURALISMO BOHEMIO! strings. We got the right amount of hammer, string, and body, and the listener has a ‘view’ like he or she is inside the instrument.” Taylor says that a large part of Grizzly Bear’s sound on Yellow House came from applying compression during tracking as opposed to saving dynamic manipulations for the mix. “I came to the conclusion before we went in the studio that I wasn’t going to record first, and then affect the signal later,” he says. “For the drums, I’d run the overheads directly into the Universal Audio 2-1176, using the ‘allbutton mode’ to make the drums sound overdriven. [Editor’s note: On an 1176, “all-button mode” refers to the technique of simultaneously engaging all four compression ratios—4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1. On the dual-compressor 2-1176, this can be achieved by simply turning the ratio selection button to “all.”] I’d set the impedance on the unit to 15k as well, which made the track sound brighter and punchier.” In terms of sonic chicanery, Taylor says that “Plans” is the album’s standout track. “Nonhorse’s G. Lucas Crane plays tapes during the song,” he explains. “He has two Sony TCM-929 tape players—which have great internal mics—that he stores sounds on. He mixes them like a DJ, flanging the tape wheels and cuing back and forth between the decks. We ran him through a P.A. into the live room, and I recorded the room sound with a Neumann U87i into Pro Tools.” According to Taylor, a portion of the songs that make up Yellow House were initially built upon simple loops. These rather simple compositions were then fleshed out on the fly in the studio, eventually taking on a life of their own. The ultra-creepy album closer “Colorado” is a strong example of this compositional technique at work.“‘Colorado’ began as a twominute piano loop,” Taylor says. “I had this idea that we could take this real eerie, heavy piano part and turn it into this epic, rocking song. Ed Droste [Grizzly Bear founder] played an old Acetone Rhythm Ace drum machine for the song’s rhythmic pulse, and then he wrote this cascading four-part vocal arrangement in the studio. He laid the vocals down piece-by-piece until it made sense rhythmically. The song was this amazing organic growth that was completely unlike anything we had ever done before.” SYNISTER SYNTHS Midlake’s Paul Alexander engineered and mixed his band’s newest CD, The Trials of Van Occupanther [Bella Union], as well as playing bass, keyboards, guitar, piano, and bassoon. But regardless of the plethora of instruments present on the album, Alexander says the band’s keyboard collection is to blame for the earthy and lush lo-fi washes. “The drums and bass are very present in some songs, like ‘Chasing After Deer,’ ‘Young Bride,’ and ‘We Gathered in Spring,’” Alexander says, noting that the two instruments were tracked on an Otari MX5050 8-track because the medium imparted “warmth and throatiness” to the sound. “But a lot of the album is synth-based, recorded using a Roland 18 EQ SEPTEMBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.strobosoft.com http://www.strobosoft.com http://www.morgan-page.com http://www.eqmag.com

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

EQ Magazine - September 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Freak Folk Todd Rundgren Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Sony Acid 6 Ableton Live 7 Portable Recorder Showdown Gadgets and Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - September 2008

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