EQ Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 24)

FOR THE RECORD SAM ERICKSON keyboards were sent through an unspecified Mesa Boogie bass amp, which was miked with an Electro-Voice RE-20. However, Broemel’s multitude of boutique combo amps were also brought in from time to time to “add some reverb, vibrato, and distortion and open up the possibilities,” such as on stand-out track “I’m Amazed.” A similar approach of mixing amp and direct signals was employed for bassist “Two-Tone” Tommy’s tracks. “I have a bad habit of lightly slapping the strings along with the snare,” Tommy confesses. “That can be problematic when going direct. [A DI] is too clear, too unforgiving.” Tommy is cut from the same cloth as his bandmates in regard to the shared proclivity for constantly switching up rigs. For Evil Urges’ 14 songs, Tommy used no less than seven basses—from the more aggressivesounding 2001 Fender Deluxe P-bass (for raging rocker “Remnants”) to a 1980 Rickenbacker 4001 (for the fuzzed-out lead bass lines in “Two Halves”); from a ‘70s Fender Precision fretless (for the über-smooth “Librarian”) to the ’76 Alembic that cuts sharply through the mix on kick-off track “Evil Urges” [for Tommy’s trackby-track gear list, go to www. eqmag.com]. Chiccarelli says that the direct signals were all piped through his trusty Demeter Tube DI and that nearly all the amp tracks were courtesy of a Mesa Boogie 400+ head matched with a Mesa Powerhouse 1000 cabinet (miked with an Electro-Voice RE-20 on the 10-inch speakers and an AKG D112 on the 15-inch speakers). “I also used an old Ampeg B-15 for the fretless tracks,” Tommy adds. “We used the RE-20, placed in the upper right-hand corner of the speaker.” As a general rule of thumb, Tommy tends to keep his bass sound fairly dry. But for Evil Urges the bassist decided to go nuts with an ElectroHarmonix Bass Micro-Synth. “It’s on quite a bit of the album, including ‘Evil Urges,’ ‘Smokin’ from Shootin’, and ‘Look at You,’” says the bassist. “The only way you can rein the signal in is to send it through the amp’s effects loop, so we had to use an amp signal.” hile lead vocalist Jim James has one of the most singular voices in rock today, he says that he Joe Chiccarelli (left) convenes with Bo Koster (middle) and Jim James (right) while comping together a few choice sections. approached the Evil Urges sessions as an opportunity to branch out and expand his range of vocal personalities. As each song became a quest for what the vocalist calls “the perfect color,” Chiccarelli found himself auditioning, and ultimately using, a stunningly wide array of mics and effects. “Almost every song employed a different vocal mic,” Chiccarelli says. “A lot of the vocals were done with a Neumann U47 or a U67. A couple of things that were more breathy and quiet were done on an [AKG] C24, and for his oldtimey, radiophonic vocal sounds, we used an Altec 639 ‘Birdcage.’” Though James would step up to a Shure SM58 and do a baseline vocal live with the rest of the band, he would often immediately go straight to the booth after the take and perform a couple extra passes. These tracks would then all be comped together for the perfect vocal. Chiccarelli says that James’ ability to work with various mics allowed him the opportunity to experiment on the fly. “Certain singers will find themselves getting shy around more than one or two mics, but Jim sounds pretty good on just about anything—it sounds like him whether he’s on a [Shure] SM7 or a [Neumann] U67.” “We made a conscious decision to always vary the mics when we did a backing track, or when we were shifting vocal personalities,” James says. “For instance, if we used a U47 for EARLY COMMITMENTS “The great thing about working with Joe is that he’s constantly helping you make choices and stick with them,” My Morning Jacket front man Jim James raves. “That way you are really mixing the record as you go along. I am very into that old-school work ethic from when bands only had a few tracks to work with and the engineers had to place and practically mix the performers before they even hit record. It kept everyone honest.” Chiccarelli explains why he isn’t shy about tracking with EQ, compression, reverb, or any other signal processing: “I started in the early ’80s where everything was done on analog 24-track machines and people really made decisions and committed to their sounds before the mix. They bounced down background vocals, bounced down guitars—they would use 20 tracks and then make a submix and that was it. All the other stuff was erased! I would rather commit to something and build other sounds around—even if it means having to re-cut tracks late—than I would leave so much uncertainty to the end. Being uncertain just isn’t the way I like to work.” W 24 EQ DECEMBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

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

EQ Magazine - December 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In My Morning Jacket Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 8 Propellerhead Reason 4 Indie 500: Lunchbox Pres and Compressors 500 Series Preamps 500 Series Compressors Gadgets and Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - December 2008

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