EQ Magazine - January 2009 - (Page 27)

TOREY MUNDKOWSKY posthumous processing just makes them sound cheap to my ears. How do you think having a personal studio helped the band grow, beyond the obvious business side of things? Having their own studio was an important part of giving the record a unique sound as it kept them comfortable. Since they are all in Vegas, they have grown accustomed to being a little more detached from the rest of the music business, and they are fond of that. They really embrace the whole mentality of a homegrown product. Personally, my studio has always been at home, whether in a bedroom, or a spare room. I wouldn’t think of having it otherwise. For The Killers, it was important not to be in the center of things. It kept the excitement level of when they did their first record, before they hit it big. ENGINEER ROBERT ROOT ON TRACKING DAY & AGE Robert Root worked at The Killers’ Battle Born studio long before the band owned it, and well before they had even recorded their first demo. Back in the mid-’90s (when the studio was called Studio Vegas), Root recorded everyone from B.B. King and Motley Crue to Vegas icons Engelbert Humperdinck and Wayne Newton. Currently dividing his time between Battle Born and Digital Insight Studios, Root maintains a busy schedule in a decidedly nonmusical town, but he managed a free moment to chat about getting The Killers sound right at the source. Tell me about a typical day in the studio with The Killers. We’re talking late morning to late night—10 to 14 hour days. The process for this album actually started way before we walked into Battle Born. I got involved with Ronnie recording demos on his MacBook while they were rehearsing. It was meant to show Stuart Price the direction they were heading in. All the songs had that foundation, that was the framework. Ninety percent of it was we had a structure then we would replace a drum part with the same tempo or pattern, but the sonic differences are what changed when they began re-recording the songs. A lot of the times the demos were irreplaceable. Where there was a feel or sound that just worked The Killers’ percussion setup in Battle Born’s live room. for the song then you didn’t want to try to recreate it. Rumor has is that Ronnie Vannucci Jr. is adept at recording, and is quite adventurous as well. He actually did a lot of recording before I was involved. He knows his way around Apple Logic Pro and he gets a good sound. His drums are by far the best-sounding drums in person, they just sound like drums should sound. Putting up mics that wouldn’t take away from the sound of the instrument was the approach. Ronnie is a very controlled drummer, which is obviously important for getting a good recorded sound. He is a dynamic player and when he needs to be quiet he can keep the tone—it’s all in his technique. How do you handle recording his huge hi-hats? I hear they are 18-inches. He uses no hi-hat mic at all which at first I found odd. He uses those giant hats, which I love. It makes sense not to directly mic them. Hi-hats are almost annoying at certain frequencies—you want to get rid of them rather then add them in most cases. When they are sizzling or open they cut your head off. But with Ronnie’s hats, they never got in the way of anything, yet they were there and present. He’s great at manipulating them. The general setup of the overhead mics captured the hi-hats well. How did you record Brandon Flowers’ vocals? He used a Shure SM58 for a lot of the album, either in the control room or in the live room, Brandon typically cups the mic when he performs. We did put up a [Neumann] M149 on a couple tunes. The mics ran right into the API 1608 console, which has the same preamp design as a 3124. The 1608 is a brand new board—the band got the third or fourth model. It’s modeled after an old console, the 1604. The new one has more routing options, they also purchased the Expander. Stuart used either the 560 or 550A EQ for Brandon’s vocals. Other than that the vocals were generally very dry while tracking. Stuart would add a little reverb with a pre-delay for listening back, but all of those final decisions were left for the mix. Did the vocal sections require much punching in? Less than average. Brandon likes to go through the songs straight through then make a simple comp afterwards. Once he was in the right mood, he might do two takes, but rarely more. Battle Born has a huge mic cache. If not on Brandon, where do the Crowley and Tripp Studio Vocalist Ribbons get used? Guitar cabs and saxophone. Brandon plays great sax, and that ribbon gives it a great rounded top end. Bill Thomas at Mercenary recommended those for guitar cabs, so that’s why we picked them up. We also used the Crowley Naked Eye Ribbon for the cabs as well, along with a Shure SM57. How did you mic their cabs? Generally, for guitar cabs, I place the mic slightly off-center, off-axis. Trying www.eqmag.com JANUARY 2009 EQ 27 http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - January 2009

EQ Magazine - January 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Bob Dylan The Killers Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Microsoft Windows Vista Apple Mac OS X "Lite" Software Roundup "Lite" Software Gadgets & Goodies Sounds Room With a Vu

EQ Magazine - January 2009

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