EQ Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 24)

Victorian Arts glory. We’ve always had Yamaha NS10s as basic reference monitors, but we were looking for something we could listen to for hours and hours on end without getting fatigued. Of course, we did another one of our shootouts—this time with every pro-audio speaker we could find. At the last minute, we found these really wacky-looking Barefoot Micromain MM27s with subs on their sides. They were by far the sweetestsounding speakers all the way across the spectrum. We never looked back. I even bought a pair for myself to use at home. How about microphones? Jenkins: On my first album, I was extremely uptight about what to do, so I begged and borrowed every vocal mic by every dead German you could think of, and the Telefunken 251 won out repeatedly. I ended up using it for the whole record, and I finally convinced the guy I was renting it from to sell it to me. I must have paid for it three times—including rental fees—but it was still worth it. Is that the only vocal mic you ever use? Jenkins: If I’m doing something where I want to move around, or if I’m working with an artist who wants to move around, the Shure SM7 is a really good mic. We use those a lot, and the Neumann U67s often get used for backing vocals. Do you have tried-and-true ways of recording, or are you constantly experimenting with new techniques? Beresford: We still use traditional methods so you don’t regret something later on, but, for me, it’s all about randomly trying things. For instance, I haven’t used a Coles 4038 in a long time, because I never found an application where they sounded good. But we had to put the drum kit up in the corner of the chamber just to tidy up, so I thought, “What if I put the Coles behind the drum kit?” Suddenly, they sounded amazing. So, you see, sometimes it’s just pure experimentation— something a little different. Jenkins: Some very successful producers tend to go, “This is my trick. This is my setup. This is how you do it. We’ll double the guitars on the verses, quadruple them on the choruses, and then put everything on the grid.” That’s not the approach we are taking at all. Beresford: It’s not really an esoteric type of thing—it’s just fun to try new things. Like today, we got this Heil PR30 top-address microphone, and we set it up on an amp. After listening to it, we thought, “God, it sounds horrible.” Then, I accidentally knocked it almost upright, but I left it there, and it ended up sounding absolutely fantastic. If you look at it now, you might think I’m using the mic wrong—like it’s a side address— but it just sounds really good in the “wrong” position. Like you’re getting the off-axis response? Beresford: Right! But it’s not like we think we know better than anyone else—it’s just like, hmm, we’d like to give that a try. Jenkins: I think what Sean’s trying to say is that we have no idea what we’re doing. We’re just trying to figure out what these things do [laughs]. But, really, I think that’s a much more exciting way to record. You start with a song, and you get excited about it. There’s something appealing that energizes it, and you say, “Great, how do we put it together? What amps should we use?” Then, you choose something, check out how it makes the song feel, and you start fiddling with things until you like the result. I mean, we’re being funny about not being thoughtful about the recording process, but not thinking too much does allow for spontaneous creativity. Do you track with EQ and compression, or do you save those until the mixdown? Jenkins: We’ve definitely been taking a more natural approach. Our focus is on the player and where it all starts—the part, the fingers, the instrument, the microphone, the mic preamp, and just trying to get everything in that combination. So we basically leave EQ and compression out. For example, we have a really beautiful chamber to work with, so we’ve been tracking vocals more “Sinatra style.” If you want the vocal to sound more open, just back away from the mic. If you want the feel of some compression, then get closer to the mic. Sean always has his hand on the gain, so he’s the compressor. Beresford: [Laughs.] I’m not nearly fast enough to actually work like a compressor, but that technique has been working very well. I like tracking things raw. I used to try too hard. I’d hit the EQ hard, and I’d really hit the compressors hard. Now, it’s so much more about having a great instrument in a great space with a great player. Jenkins: At the end, when everything is together, is when we’ll go, “Okay, there are still too many mids.” That’s when we bust out the EQ and compressors, and start to explore the sound more thoroughly. Beresford: We use quite a bit of compression when mixing. Sometimes, every last piece we have is being used for the mixes. We’re using the Mercury Audio M66 compressor on the vocals a lot. Jenkins: We’re also using the Thermionic Culture on vocals to add a little sweet harmonic distortion to my life. We also put a lot of the guitars through it, because it just sounds fantastic. Beresford: We don’t use a lot of outboard gear for spatial effects. In fact, the only outboard units we have are an old Sony SRE-777 sampling reverb and an AMS RMX16. So far, we haven’t even turned up the aux sends on the console. We do use a fair amount of plug-ins. We love the SoundToys stuff and Altiverb for creating environments and thickening things. What is the greatest benefit you discovered while recording your upcoming album in this new space? Jenkins: The thing I’ve realized from having such a great space to record in is this: When you’re tracking an acoustic instrument—particularly drums—you’re not really recording the drum, you’re recording the room that it’s in. That’s the reason Led Zeppelin’s drums sound so amazing—the engineers were focused on the sound of the room. So when you listen to our new tracks, a lot of what you’ll be hearing is the sound of the ballroom. That natural approach definitely gives the instruments a largerthanlife sound that is going to punch you in the face. 24 EQ MARCH 2009 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

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

EQ Magazine - March 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Mr. Scruff Apollo Sunshine Al Schmitt Toolbox Third Eye Blind Kind of Blue Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Ableton Live Vocal Tools Gadgets & Goodies Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - March 2009

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