EQ Magazine - February 2009 - (Page 24)

THEATER PIECE the overdubs were either amped or re-amped on the stage or in the hall— which acts as an enormous reverb chamber. The synths on “Dream Again” were re-amped in the hall. We used the massive dome for some stuff like the hand claps on “Send Him Away.” We’d set up a mic in the center at ear-level, and get some really heavily concentrated reflections. The acoustics in there were phenomenal. Carey: We didn’t want to use any artificial reverb, so most of the ambience that ended up on the album was purely from the spaces we tracked in. What console and recording sys tem were you using? McCarthy: We picked up an old Flickinger console a while back. It’s an amazing old American desk. There were only a few of them built—one was made for Sly Stone, and one for Ike Turner. It’s a really simple desk with big faders and big buttons. We like it because it has a really warm sound, and it’s very easy to use. Carey: The tracking was done on an iZ Technology Radar V Nyquist. Later, we brought the Radar system back home to my place, and we did a transfer of all the drums, bass, and guitars to a two-inch analog 16-track deck. Most of the overdubs were done on Radar and Logic, so we really moved among the three systems. Some of the tracks ended up with analog tape, Radar, and Logic all running together. How did you lay down the basics? McCarthy: As far as the playing goes, we’d often record the songs in sections. We’d start with the verse, and play it over and over like a loop until we got that groove. When you do rhythm-based things, it just suddenly locks after about five or six minutes, so we’d take the best takes from each section, then move on to playing the chorus, and so on. Carey: When you stand in the room as the band rehearses, it sounds amazing. They’re super-energetic players, and very cohesive, as well. I found that when we separated everything and gave everyone headphones, there wasn’t as much of a connection between the four of them. So we really tried to find ways to capture that kind of “rehearsal” feeling on the recording. Did you track with everyone in the same room, then? Carey: We didn’t want to record each song the same way, so we took several approaches. The most extreme route we took was to put the drum kit in the middle of the room, the bass amp behind the drums, Nick’s amp next to the floor tom, and Alex’s amp [co-guitarist Alex Kapranos] next to the hi-hat. Then, we’d find the best position for one mic—usually a Lomo 19A series—and place it about a yard away from the kit. As long as all the levels were right with the amps, we picked up a really great sound in mono. We used that on a few songs, or for parts of songs. The whole band on one track? Carey: By the time we transferred the audio to the 16-track machine, it would have the mono Lomo track, a kick drum overlay to support it, and maybe a ribbon mic on one of the guitars. So we’d bring that kind of “three track” recording into analog, and then overdub more guitars and synths using either Radar or Logic. Usually, however, we were miking things a bit more thoroughly. Some of the other songs we did with the whole band in one room had perhaps three mics on the drum kit, one mic on each of the amps, and the bass was sent to an amp in the next room. Of course, a monitor was set up so the band could hear the bass. Also, we did some tracks with the band in one room, and the amps set up down a corridor. How did you typically mic up Paul Thomson’s kit? McCarthy: We wanted to mic the kit like you would hear it from the audience’s perspective, so everything was miked from the front and underneath. Sometimes, we’d have an ElectroVoice RE20 on the kick, and we’d add a Yamaha SKRM-100 Subkick if we needed the extra punch. Then, there was either a Shure SM7 or a RE20 positioned beneath the snare, and a Neumann KM184 on the hi-hat. If we wanted a stereo sound, we’d put some Lomo mics out in front. Carey: That method was used mostly when we recorded underneath the stage. On one or two tracks, we put the drums in the hall, and used large baffles to completely encircle the kit. We placed some baffles overhead, as well. The baffling wasn’t enough to make it seem as if the drums were recorded in a small space, but it did 24 EQ FEBRUARY 2009 www.eqmag.com http://www.sonicus.net http://www.sonicus.net http://www.eqmag.com

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

EQ Magazine - February 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Dave Cooley Low vs. Diamond Hank Williams III Travis Franz Ferdinand Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Apple Logic Pro 8 Cakewalk Sonar Near-Field Monitor Roundup Gadgets &�Goodies Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - February 2009

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