Recording - December 2013 - 34

Some of you regular readers may
recall a big article on ELECTRONS, when we worked on a
track for director David Lynch 2
years ago-you can read about it
in our December 2011 issue.
Anthony then reached out to
mixer Paul David Hager [Devo,
Goo Goo Dolls, Van Halen, P!nk,
Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus] to be the
mix engineer, and so off we went.
Ideas were flying back and forth
between the East and West coasts
with stops in the Rockies, all via Dropbox and WeTransfer (which was
used to get me the original stems from Sony).
You can read a bit about Anthony's and Paul's contributions in the
sidebars; here's how I got the remix started and built the basic structure.
Eric's rig and approach
I tend to work with a very simple set of gadgets; it helps me to focus
on the issue at hand, as sometimes too many options can create mud
and delays. My first two albums were recorded on a borrowed 4-track
recorder during a time when I was receiving chemotherapy for
Hodgkins' Disease. I recorded with a handful of pedals, a guitar,
amp, and a $5 synth I got from a garage sale. I received, and continue to receive, a lot of mileage in television licensing from those
recordings. Lesson Four: Focus more on the ideas, and less on the technological options. (This limitation, in Anthony's case, wasn't selfimposed; see his sidebar for details.)
I've been pretty Akai-obsessed lately, so my interfaces for Logic are the
Akai EIE Pro (reviewed 2012) for audio-which because of its looks,
reminds me of gadgets my father as always uses in his Physics experiments-and the Akai Professional MPK25 USB MIDI controller. To that I
added my basic Korg rigs: a Trinity sample-playback workstation, a
MicroKorg portable synth/vocoder, and a KP3 KAOSS Pad, a multieffects processor that can be "played" in real time using an XY control pad
to change parameters.
I first started with the original Roland Jupiter synth pad that plays in
the chorus, and slowed it down as the foundation for a more sci-fi intro.
Slowing it down actually made it sound kind of like the transporter
Paul David Hager on Mixing the Remix
I did the mix work for this track on an Avid Pro Tools 10 system; at
the time, I was running Pro Tools|HD 10.3.6 with a 32-channel Avid
Pro Control, on a 2.66 GHz quad-core Intel Mac with 16 GB or
RAM and a Lynx Aurora 16 A/D and D/A converter rack.
I used analog inserts on the buss with a GML EQ and a Focusrite
Red 3 compressor. I also used the AMS RMX reverb on the vocals,
thinking that would be a classic DM sound. The track was mixed on
ATC SCM25A Pro 3-way monitors.-PDH

RECORDING December 2013

materialization sound from the original Star Trek series, which
suited me fine.
For the rest of the arrangement, I felt that it had to stick to the
basic structure, but I wanted some kind of extended bridge section to build it into an explosive ending. The original mix is pretty simple, and has a great distorted synth impact in the way only
Depeche Mode can deliver. They tend to have some of these
very German techno sounding riffs, which bite in and out of consciousness, and I didn't want to lose that. So I rearranged the
rest of the track accordingly. I played the distorted stabs from the
intro randomly and in certain parts of the verses, playing with
the chord variations in such a way that you couldn't predict
Anthony J. Resta on Adding Magic to "Should Be Higher"
An interesting side note is that my entire studio was nearly packed during this process, as now we are relocated to
Los Angeles, and have moved our New England location to
a quieter mill building after being in the same spot for close
to 18 years [www.bopnique.com].
So I pulled out what I call my "C" rig [see pic] with its
SoundToys plug-ins, because it can turn a simple pad into a
rhythmic and spatial extravaganza with literally infinite possibilities. They are so musical sounding; I gave up a ton of hardware when I got addicted to them.
The main groove I added was made from kits I've collected in the Teenage Engineering OP-1, a portable sound workstation with a variety of interesting sound production features. I record parts with the OP-1's grid sequencer and the
finger sequencer to virtual tape using beat match. I love playing with the swing factor for the separate elements ever so
slightly to tape. Then I bounce them into the "Record Side A
or B" function, using the OP-1 in Disk Mode. This way I avoid
using the physical output of the OP-1, which is a bit noisy.

Eric reharmonized the intro and did a lot of really cool cinematic strings and pads, I added bleeps and transitional sweeps
with the Pocket Piano, a tiny analog synth made by Critter &
Guitari, and the Moog Minitaur, both through a Korg KAOSS
Pad. Some noisier bleeps and undercurrents were built with the
Nord G2x virtual modular synth; that synth is dangerous because
you can get lost in a patch for half a night, and lose your work in
an instant. At one point I had to put it away and move on.
We had our crackerjack mix engineer Paul David Hager put
the elements together in his studio in Los Angeles; we kept a lot
of space in the mix and let Paul work his magic. Paul did some
really great effects (complex reverbs and delays) on the vocals,
and wonderful treatments on our parts. Sonically it's startlingly
big and wide. Paul really nailed the overall sonics.
It was a lot of fun to work on, plus a challenge to do with far
fewer gear choices than what I'm used to. Restrictions can often
support creativity because you have to use things in new ways out
of necessity. With my Studio Bopnique moving to Los Angeles, it
was really exciting to list Depeche Mode as the old studio location's last client!-AJR

http://www.bopnique.com

Recording - December 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2013