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[compasspnt]

Well, as mentioned somewhere here in the past few days, I had originally planned a day-by-day "session blog" of the album I'm currently working on, complete with daily pix.  But "I forgot" just how much time recording takes, and how little time there is left to download and resize photos, write copy, etc.  I chose to sleep briefly instead.

So I never could get around to it while we were tracking.

The group is, again, Widespread Panic.

I (with the band's agreement of course) decided it would be good to try to get out of the "4-5 years between albums" syndrome that the big groups today seem to get locked into, and return more to the "days of yesteryear-rock," when it was more like 1-2 years between new recordings.

Of course the problem comes when trying to fit all that songwriting, planning, logistics, etc. into a busy touring schedule.  And Panic is one of the biggest touring bands out there.  Live is where a band can really make their daily bread money...these days, as great as sales might sometimes be, the recordings seem to be slanted more towards driving the big touring engine ...but maybe it's always been that way, and we just forget over time, as we hold in our hands the recorded music, but have forgotten the grueling live circuitry.


But whatever it took, we were able to pull it all together, and although it seems just yesterday that they left here with the last album in their paws (although it's been over a year and a half), here we were again, excited eighteen year olds, ready to have some fun.


The beauty of working with a band like this is that they really do care most about the music.  Money is great, and everyone likes to afford their house and car and feed their family, but these guys really, really do care far more about the integrity of what they play than they do "selling out" to make a "hit."

And these guys can really play.  Every one of them is very accomplished on their instrument, and it shows when they go from song to song, playing first blues, then power rock, then jazz, then almost country, then funk...in other words, it makes it a fun musical experience, not a whole lot like "work."


But in absence of the daily blog, I did promise to go ahead and post some session information and photos, and I have indeed had a lot of email and PM's requesting this be done.

So, here goes a lot of consecutive posts, each with a photo, for your enjoyment or derision...you decide which!

Some may notice that in much of this session, I adhere to the tenets upon which I have occasionally pontificated, but in other areas, I purposely deviate from same.  When deviations were made, the original rules were kept still in mind, but "broken" for specific reasons.


To get started, here was my tracking view from the control room:



All posts in this thread

[Harland]

Thank you! Really looking forward to following this!

[compasspnt]

For some reason, everyone seems obsessed with drum sounds, as if beating on wood and metal is music, so why not start with that?

The basic drum sound is from two microphones, a Neumann U47 fet on the bass drum, and a 251 on the kit.

I did add a C12 VR over the floor toms, because a few of the songs were quite floor-tom-driven, and it is nice to have the presence of the 2-3 floors when needed.

Also, an SM-7 was put "on the snare," not really for the snare sound, but more for a discrete reverb send when needed.  This way, not all of the drums and cymbals have to be dunked into the reverb tank, if not so desired.

All of the drum microphones were amplified by API-centric preamplifiers.  No compression or equalisation was needed during tracking, and little, if any, will be added in the mix.

[compasspnt]

As mentioned, several of the songs are quite laden with floor tom.  From a production sense, I have always like using floor tom(s) as a timing/driving force, much in the way that a hi-hat or ride does, but with more power and bass than those can accomplish.  Maybe it's the ancestral native influence peeking through.

Also, I have always really loved Gene Krupa's playing, the guy who literally invented the modern "drum kit" setup, and played it like no other.

So, we did end up with some floor tom sounds...

[compasspnt]

To complete the low end of the kit, here's a shot of the bass drum microphone in all its Teutonic Glory.

[compasspnt]

And it wouldn't be complete without the man on the seat behind the beat.

Please note that most shots of the band were done during actual takes or run-throughs, so I didn't use flash, because to my mind, that often can spoil the concentration.  So, many of the band shots have a little movement, or aren't "lit" as well as a flash would do.

[compasspnt]

I guess the next "basic" part of the rhythm section is the Bass instrument itself.

We are very lucky to have Dave Schools in that role.  Dave played several different basses, choosing 'based' on the sound appropriate for each song.  He played older Fender Precision and Jazz, as well as his newer Modulus, and probably one or two others I've forgotten about.

The bass went first into an Ampeg SVT DI, the one with the integral  mic pre built in.  This was the first time I had recorded with it in this way, and I  found that it worked extremely well.  Having the mic pre right "in the same box" made it very easy, and gave a very nice, punchy direct sound.  This method allowed me to plug directly from the DI/pre at line level into an xlr  mic tie line, and thence directly from the patchbay end of that, to a track input. Oh yeah, with an EAR 660 limiter/compressor in between.  Again, no EQ necessary.




But that doesn't get to the bottom of the story.  Coming next:  The other part of the bass sound...

[compasspnt]

As good as the Ampeg SVT DI is, and I have done many albums before with only DI bass, for most rock music I really do like some good ole' B-15 bass amplification.

And as much as I like to make decisions "right then and there," I do usually indulge in the luxury of recording independent DI and amplifier tracks.  Some songs in the mix will get just the bass amp track, occasionally just the DI, and often the two mixed together.  Usually, I have this decided well before mixdown however, having "found the sound" during overdubbing playbacks.

So from the DI, the "through" lead went into my B-15, ensconced inside the palm frond-topped isolation booth.  The microphone, almost directly on the speaker grill cloth, was a R

[compasspnt]

And here's Dave himself, thinking of the next flurry of notes.

Sunny in background contemplating a percussion performance.

[compasspnt]

Speaking of Sunny, on the previous album, I had him playing live with the band on congas as they tracked the basics.  Almost all of those takes were kept and used.  But, to avoid the drum bleed, and to be able to get good ambient sound on the congas, I had placed him in the Rec Room down the hall.  He was a smiling trooper through all of the isolation, and of course played brilliantly, but to be honest, he wasn't truly happy being away from the action, connected only by microphones and cans.

So for the first track this time, I set him up near the drums, right in the same room with everyone else, and had him play live.  Then the plan was to immediately, once the basic was done, overdub his same part "almost live,"  while the feeling and performance was still fresh. This would give great sound from our live wooden "drum end" of the room, but also give me the islotaion necessary for sonic control.

Great plan, except for the fact that he plays so hard and loud on those things that he actually bled a bit much into the drum mics!

So we ended up compromising a tiny bit.  On all subsequent tracks, he played "live" with conga sounds out of his Handsonic, DI'd to input/headphones, and then overdubbed the real congas immediately thereafter.  This seemed the best of all possible worlds.


The congas were mic'd in two ways.  For my initial tracking experiment, I had put a Sennheiser MD-402U, a hyper-cardiod microphone with a very gentle high end rise,  right between the two conga heads, very close, trying to give the other guys some conga sound in the cans as they tracked.  Then for the "real" ones, played right after the basic of each song, I had my new "Lucas Experimentally Modified" Bova Ball Head stereo mic.  I put two Bova Balls on either side of our experimantel "head," which in this case was an old Ampex tape box.  Simulating the concept of the Jecklin disk, I suppose.  The box was to serve as the "head-in-between" the two omni-directional "ears" (the B-Balls).

However, I ended up liking the combination of both mic techniques.  The Bova "Head" gave amazing and beautiful true stereo from a fair distance, providing excellent room sound ambience.  The 402-U, mixed in relatively low, gave a tiny bit of present "thwack" of the hands directly on the heads.

The Bovas were run through the matching Bova preamps.  No EQ or compression.

Here's the "head."




By the way, I now have in my possession a replica human head used to showcase wigs, and I am designing a stereo 'headstand' for future use.

[compasspnt]

Sunny plays a lot more than congas. of course, being a true Percussionist, but even he can't play them all at once.

Most tambourines, shakers, maracas, crickets, triangles, timbales, etc. were done on overdubs later, utilising most often the 251 and/or a TNC fig-8 lollipop ribbon through an EAR 824 microphone preamplifier.





Note that by the time we got to this, the room was pretty full of junk (not meaning Sunny)!

[compasspnt]

Guitars were done in two distinct stages: tracking and overdub.

Sometimes the things played in tracking were just so good that we couldn't stand to lose them.  Sometimes they were parts-in-progress, and we knew we would be re-doing them.

We built our traditional Compass Point guitar booths to provide a reasonable live sound, yet as much isolation as we could get.  I like bleed, but if you do end up changing a part, there can sometimes be a bit of a problem!

So we got some cross-pollination of sound, but not enough to destroy later utility.

Here's the booth:



Jimmy's live guitar just got a 57 thrown on it, and JB's got an  RE-20, both right up on the cone(s).

During actual takes, of course the front door of the booth was pushed shut.

[compasspnt]

Here's JB playing (and singing guides) during tracking:

[compasspnt]

And here's Jimmy during rehearsal of one tune, just before the tracking.

Jojo is in the background on piano...piano technique next up...

[compasspnt]

Piano was a definite overdub.  We don't have ours built into the wall like some silly people did for a while, and blankets and rolls of paper towels only can do so much.

So I did my best at isolation, and we planned from the start to open up and overdub as soon as practical after the basic.

The mic(s) remained the same, however, just moved around to be either shut-in or free as birds.  The mic(s) throughout were NT-4 stereo X/Y through TAB/Funkenwerk V-78M's.  No EQ or compression needed. When recording the overdubs, the lid was opened, and the mic(s) placed about 3 feet from the centre point, facing down towards the strings.


Jojo got his mug plastered all over newspapers and magazines and the Internet on the last album, so he won't get any more face time here.  Instead, here's a shot of some of the outboard mic pre's in use.  The piano was, as mentioned, traveling through the two Oliver's there.




One of those boxes is not a mic pre...can you guess which one?

Good Billy, good Peggy!