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[Bo]

Chris (and whomever wants to offer an opinion) -

I heard early on in recording for DCFC you did a lot of the work in acoustically uncontrolled spaces.  I'm interested to know:
1. Is that true
2. Do you love or despise recording like that
3. Did you come across any cool techniques while doing so (if applicable)

Cheers, and good luck on the record.  And if you're ever back in fort worth texas - I'll love to buy you a beverage.

--Bo  

[WALLA]

I'm sure we'll be back in Fort Worth, Bo, and I'd love to have a drink.  Just flag me down.

All the recording I've ever done, I think, has been in an acoustically anarchic space.  Even when I'm in a nice studio I tend to put up microphones that introduce phase problems and weird incoherencies, but I tend to really like using that stuff in small doses inside a mix.  So, I guess, yes; I love recording like that.  I wouldn't have signed on for the last Decemberists record (in a church, no control room, total madness) if I didn't.

I like to be able to get far enough away from an instrument, especially the drumset, that the phase problems turn into delays.  Much of my recording philosophy can be traced to Shellac's 'The Admiral' single, with the photo and the legend and the comprehensive list of equipment.  If it weren't for that record, I'd still be trying to make everything sound like a Bob Clearmountain mix.  Which is, of course, great  ?  but something I'm totally incapable of doing.

[j.hall]

WALLA wrote on Thu, 07 April 2005 00:45

Much of my recording philosophy can be traced to Shellac's 'The Admiral' single, with the photo and the legend and the comprehensive list of equipment.  If it weren't for that record, I'd still be trying to make everything sound like a Bob Clearmountain mix.  Which is, of course, great  ?  but something I'm totally incapable of doing.

and here i thought i was the only one that fights, "chasing another man's ears"

i can't seem to stop trying to mix like andy wallace......it's really annoying at times, cause you said, it's something i just can't do......i just don't hear like that.

[xonlocust]

WALLA wrote on Thu, 07 April 2005 00:45

Much of my recording philosophy can be traced to Shellac's 'The Admiral' single, with the photo and the legend and the comprehensive list of equipment.

too funny.  when i first got that i'd just keep listening over and over and staring at that diagram.  i'd never heard anything like that before - and it was like trying to decipher a foreign language, all these mics and numbers and stuff. that 7" was the start of the end for me - recording people should totally check it out if you haven't already.  actually all of those 7"s. it's where i first heard nWb/m - granted i had no idea what the hell it meant at the time.

[drumsound]

Chris and J.

Good point on being one's self.  I always try to do that when engineering, playing or living.

Glad to have you here Chris.

[WALLA]

There's something to the Andy Wallace mixes that's really interesting, something I've gotten really, really into recently:  Mixing really quietly.  Like, as quietly as you can stand to do it; like almost not there at all.  His records rock really, really hard because he's working to get that thing that happens when you crank up a record in your car; where your amp gives up and your speakers act like a brick wall limiter.  The more work your monitors have to do in the mix room, the less they're talling you about what's actually happening.

Probably stuff you already know, but Andy Wallace is fascinating to me.  Listen to the second Ben Folds Five record again ('Whatever and Ever, Amen') and consider, for a second, that it's a bass, a drumset and a baby grand piano in a living room in Chapel Hill.  And that it's live, and that it's terrifying and exciting and great.  And that it's still all of those things when you listen to it really, really quiet.  Awesome.

[drumsound]

Whatever and ever is one of my favorite records.  I love all the stuff they left in that most people would leave out.  And I love the phone ringing in Steven's Last Night in Town.

[meverylame]

drumsound wrote on Thu, 05 May 2005 23:43

Whatever and ever is one of my favorite records.  I love all the stuff they left in that most people would leave out.  And I love the phone ringing in Steven's Last Night in Town.

"You want your secret track? I've got your secret track right here pal, RIGHT HERE. Ben Folds is a fucking asshole."