EQ Magazine - December 2008 - (Page 28)

FOR THE RECORD vocals, the background vocals, whatever guitar and percussion overdubs, and to re-cut one song, ‘The Golden Touch’—which didn’t make the album and most likely will be released as a B-side. It was good to take a couple weeks’ break and reflect on what we did at Avatar. We came in hearing everything fresh and instantly identified sections that needed work.” According to James, the band traveled to Blackbird to partake in the studio’s “insane gear list.” “We were among the first to use their brand new API Legacy Plus console,” Chiccarelli adds. “It’s the largest API ever built—96 channels, 192 inputs, 200 faders. The console’s pres and EQ sections offered a good contrast to the tracks we cut on Avatar’s 8088. We also took advantage of the multitude of vintage effects they’ve recorded, especially the Urei Cooper Time Cube, the Ursa Major Space Station, and their echo chamber. We used these delays and reverbs on a lot of the backing vocals. Again, all of the effects and approaches were song-specific. If a device worked for the lead vocal, it was printed on a separate track after the vocal composite was complete.” It was at Blackbird that Chiccarelli and My Morning Jacket parted ways and Michael Brauer [Coldplay, John Mayer, KT Tunstall] jumped aboard. After mixing the lavish live album Okonokos, Brauer was asked to lend his talents to the upcoming Evil Urges. “We wanted to work with Michael again because he gets a big sound,” James says. “He has this muscular, athletic way of mixing records. He gets into it like he’s playing basketball. I wanted this record to focus on the rhythmic side of the band, the interplay between drums and bass. Michael used to be a drummer, so I feel like he naturally comes from that perspective of ‘making it thunder.’” Chiccarelli agrees that Brauer did an amazing job at keeping the final mix faithful to the sounds the band achieved during the tracking sessions: “He really blew my mind. He was able to build a more exciting version of the rough mixes— which were done in less than 10 minutes. I’d just put the faders up, get a balance, and press ‘record.’ He didn’t go in and tweak stuff and turn it into something it wasn’t. This album was really built from the floor-up, from the live tracking. He honored that.” While James says that Chiccarelli had “the golden ear that we were looking for,” the producer modestly defers all accolades to the players themselves. “They are great musicians with a great work ethic and they aren’t precious about anything,” Chiccarelli says. “If they couldn’t play a part and had to adapt and write something new or couldn’t use their favorite guitar amp because it didn’t blend right, they didn’t care. I think that when you go about things with that sense of abandon—where the only thing that matters is the end result—that’s when you end up with something great.” 28 EQ DECEMBER 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.tanageraudioworks.com http://www.tanageraudioworks.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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