Studio production and engineering

Always By My Side

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:36:35 +0100

This was the closest I ever got to mixing a three minute (well, 4’02”) pop song. The track was being considered by Vivid Records, the label that I was running, for inclusion on a promotional EP, and had been recorded and mixed by the band in their home studio. Although we loved the song, the mix was awful with the chorus in particular sounding quite dull and lacklustre with almost no bottom end whatsoever. Unfortunately, since the band line-up had changed, there was no possibility of rerecording it, so we decided to see what we could do in terms of remixing the track in the studio.

I went into the studio at about 4pm one Friday afternoon, expecting to spend about four or five hours mixing. I eventually emerged some 14 hours later clutching the DAT of the final mix in hand, very happy but completely exhausted. I remember lying on the grass embankment outside the School of Music, practically tripping due to sleep deprivation, noticing that my hearing had become so attuned everything around me that I felt as if I was wearing ‘ear binoculars’ — a term I coined when later describing the experience to a friend.

In any case, the mix turned out very well, and I was able to use many of the tricks I’d learned from previous mixes; the characteristic delay effect to add interest to the vocals, Dolby A compression to give a more up-front sound, selective Aphex enhancement of solo instruments, plus the big impact when the chorus comes in that we’d previously been looking for. It’s a shame that I don’t have a copy of the original demo mix for comparison, but all in all, we were very pleased with the results.

This was also my last mix for Vivid before Gateway decided to pull the plug, although I did do a number of commercial jazz, rock and classical recording sessions for them afterwards, including some with Evan Parker and Ben Castle (son of the late Roy Castle), as well as some highly entertaining and enjoyable stuff for various children’s TV programs (including Spot the Dog with the guy who wrote the music for the cult 70s classic, Mr. Ben, if I remember correctly!)… Ah, those were the days!

A Reaction

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:16:00 +0100

This simple and understated piece is probably my favourite track to come out of the Semble recording sessions. It is quite simply a beautiful song and there really isn’t a thing I would change about it (except perhaps the title — I always felt that Any Reaction would have fitted the melody better, although it’s still a lot better than ‘Hairy Back’, the working title of another Semble favourite!).

The two guitars, played by Steve and Matt, were recorded live as a single take, although we must have recorded at least half a dozen versions before selecting this one for the final recording. It just seemed to have a special, almost magical quality to in, no doubt in part due to Matt Fields’ and Richard Blandford’s careful engineering and scene setting in the studio beforehand. I don’t think we actually had candles burning but the lights were down low and there was a great atmosphere — all very romantic!

I love the intimacy of the overall sound, and Beth’s angelic backing vocals just seem to float above the cello line like a dream. Probably my favourite moment is the piano break after the second chorus, which was improvised by Matt and Steve under my direction. I’d always felt that this section lacked something, so I suggested adding a little piano with an over-the-top delayed Lexicon reverb that was inspired by Harold Budd and a Debussy track called La Cathédrale Engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) that I’d heard some years earlier. I think the result speaks for itself and needs to be heard on headphones to be appreciated to maximum effect!

When the whole Vivid project came crashing to halt in the summer of 1999 due to management incompetence and funding difficulties (ironically just as we had built up a great collection of material to promote), this track came to symbolise the futility of trying to pit yourself against the world when the cards are stacked against you. The final lyric, “Some things are out of our control”, just seems to say it all.

Remind Me

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 21:09:22 +0100

Another track from the Semble album/EP sessions. We decided to stick quite closely to the sound of the original demo recording, which was very good in its own right, but with an extended end section featuring additional vocals, classical guitar and strings. The basic idea was to create as much contrast as possible between the first stripped-down section of the song and the flute solo and recapitulation after the drum break, which is essentially the same thing again with a richer arrangement and backing vocal harmonies.

We went to great lengths to secure the use of a real (rather than sampled) harmonium for the end section, which was kindly provided by the leader of a local Hare Krishna group that had played on the world stage of the Kingston Green Fair, which I’d done the sound engineering for that year. It sounded great and he even brought along some traditional Indian sweets for us to try (although the guy himself was from South London). I seem to remember they nearly made Steve (the vocalist) throw up, although he managed to hide it very well, and the rest of us graciously declined the offer!

I was very pleased at the way this track turned out as it has a slightly mysterious and exotic feel due to the unusual arrangement and instrumental break. It always makes me think of jungles and rainforest for some reason, hence the picture above! My only regret was not putting enough reverb and delay on the flute solo to give it the shimmering, liquid feel that I was aiming for. Unfortunately the band thought that it was just a little over the top and detracted from Beth’s playing, but I think the result is a little lacklustre, especially when compared to the original demo. I wish I had run off another copy with the effects at their original level, but I guess that unless you’ve heard it that way, you don’t know what you’re missing!

Little Sunflower

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 14:14:44 +0100

This track is taken from an album of material recorded for Vivid Records of The Dave Jones Trio, plus special guests. Dave already had one album released on another independent label and just happened to be studying for an MA at Kingston University. We recorded the second album over a weekend, plus a few more sessions for mixing, and were relatively pleased with the results, although there were some slight tuning problem that didn’t get spotted until later that caused us a few headaches. On this track, Dave swaps his usual grand piano for a Fender Rhodes, which has a great sound (it always reminds me Charlie Brown!), with Nick Hill on trumpet and John Piper on drums.

The first session was rather tense because Dave had been keen to involve his producer from the first album, a guy whose name I can’t remember but looked a bit like Harry Enfield playing Mike Smash of Smashie and Nicey fame. I thought he was having us on with the dark glasses and Hawaian shirt, but apparently he was for real and he quickly became agitated about the informal setup, which involved several Gateway students in co-production and engineering roles, despite having had the situation explained to him in detail over the phone. I had to try and calm the situation down, but we eventually agreed that it would be best if he left the project, and the record company would reimburse his travel expenses for the trouble. He later billed us for about £500, which we refused to pay, although he did get his £50 train fare back!

Apart from that, it was a very fun session, and one of the special guests being none other than bassist Herbie Flowers (one of the reasons we had agreed to do the recording), the well-known session musician who wrote the bass line to Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, amongst other things. Herbie was an absolute star (as many experienced musicians are — it’s the amateurs who you have to watch out for!) and had a wealth of stories to tell about his rock’n’roll days, including one time when they removed the cover of the mixing desk to snort some coke that had fallen down between the faders!

The tracks were engineered and mixed by Rolf Schlamberger and myself. Rolf later went on to work at the Royal College of Music before chucking it all in to become a policeman (and I thought my career choices were fairly random!). Sadly, John Piper died about a year after making this recording from cancer, which made the result all the more poignant as it was the last thing that the band recorded as a trio.

Better Man

Sat, 27 May 2006 12:13:15 +0100

This was a mix I did and part recorded of an original track by my friend Stu that he had written some time before. In the end, he ended up re-recording the song for an album project he was doing, mainly because he wasn’t happy with the drum part on the original, but otherwise I think it still stands up pretty well and is a great song that I still enjoy listening to.

Recording electric guitars has never been my strong point and the ones here could probably have done with being a bit beefier. I had also intended for the vocal section at the end to come across more strongly as I think it’s a great part of the song (I labelled it ‘epic vocal fade-out’ on the track sheet!), but we ran out of time during the mixing session and had to make do with a more modest fade-out (although the music does fade out more quickly than the vocals, which creates quite an interesting effect). I still like the sound of it though — very Beatlesesque!

In line with my obsession with time-based effects, I added a delay to the backing vocals in the second and third choruses, which really helps to lift the song and brings out the harmony nicely. I think Stu ended up keeping this feature in the final mix (which was nice).

Update: the final version of this song complete with new drum track can be found on Stu’s own web site.

Find Out For Yourself (rough mix)

Sat, 27 May 2006 09:12:48 +0100

This is the studio version of the same track, which was recorded about a year after the original demo in a different studio. Although the structure of the song has hardly changed, the sound is quite different with a more menacing, brooding feel that comes from the more aggressive vocal style and choruses, which come in with a huge crescendo.

The vocals that you hear in the final mix are actually a composite of several different takes, cut together to give the strongest possible performance — something that subsequently influenced the way that the song was performed live. The meandering flutes have gone and the acoustic guitar in the chorus has been mixed a lot louder. In retrospect, I think this was a bad idea as it detracts from the drum parts (which are still underdone in terms of effects!) and makes the end of the choruses sound cluttered and confused.

Apart from that, there are some really nice moments in the song. If you listen very carefully you can hear some timpani and Hammond organ simmering away in the background of the second verse and middle 8 (although the keyboard solo is still missing) and there are some wonderful sounds in the intro that I just love. Actually, this was the subject of intense debate in the studio and was probably the only time that I actually fell out with the band, who wanted to mix the intro in a completely different way. However, this was at about four in the morning after a long night’s mixing and we managed to reach some sort of compromise, although I’m not sure it was quite what either of us wanted.

All in all, I think it was a commendable attempt to try and capture an unusual and difficult song in the studio environment. The result has some good moments, but I don’t think is one of the best tracks we recorded although it’s a vast improvement over the demo version. The sheer size and volume of the track proved to be just too difficult to capture on tape, and I suspect further work on the arrangement would be required to do it justice.

Find Out For Yourself (demo)

Fri, 26 May 2006 17:25:56 +0100

This track was recorded by myself and Stuart Jones for a student project back in 1998 (or thereabouts). I have featured it here because it’s a good example of how a song can develop during the production process. This version was effectively the demo for the final studio recording — although we didn’t know it at the time — which took on a darker, more haunting feel with a much fuller arrangement and sound.

It was a very difficult track to record and mix, largely due to the huge difference in dynamics between the verse and chorus. The idea was to have the drums thundering away in the background during the choruses (think Peter Gabriel 4, Rhythm of the Heat) and the verses much more intimate, but we ended up being too timid on the reverb front which somewhat undermined the effect.

Although Stu and I both liked the song, which is a great live number, we both felt that the flute wasn’t really adding much and tended to detract from everything else that was going on. This was subsequently dropped from the final version with the exception of the snippets in the chorus, whose last note was drawn out to double the length for maximum effect.
Although we never got around to overdubbing the keyboard solo in the final version, it adds a lot to the song, giving a dreamy, floating quality to the middle 8 (16? 32?). It’s amazing what you can do with a simple sine wave!

Nest in a Box

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 18:30:41 +0100

This curiously titled track, apparently written about an actual bird’s nest that the singer’s girlfriend found and kept in a cardboard box, was another one of my early demo recording efforts for now defunct rock band, Grain. It’s a great song that I still enjoy listening to and the mix has a punchy radio-like quality that I was quite proud of at the time.

All of the guitar tracks were DI’d straight onto tape via a Roland guitar effects box (I tried to convince them to use a real amp, but to no avail!). As is evident from the treatment of the lead vocals, I was very much into experimenting with delay effects at the time (and still am!). I think it works well and helps to give the lyrics an intimate close-up kind of feel without cluttering the mix, also lending a spooky kind of vibe that fits in well with the rest of the song.

The vocals were recorded more or less as a single take with a few punch-ins here and there for some of the more throat-wrenchingly powerful ‘Giiirrrrllll!!!’ lines at the end of the choruses… Great stuff!

A Quitter Never Wins

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:01:11 +0000

This was one of several tracks I recorded and mixed for blues-rock band Slippery Jim as part of a demo tape that was be sent out to prospective live venues. Their original demo was a rough and ready affair and they wanted something a little more professional sounding. Although the band were very happy with the results, which definitely helped them get more gigs, at least one venue sent the tape back commenting that with such a slick production, the band were obviously out of their league!

The recording session was tremendous fun, largely due to the professionalism and laid back attitude of the band, and I particularly enjoyed recording the Hammond organ, which had genuine rotating Leslie speakers (miked up in stereo with a pair of SM57s and an AKG 414). Unfortunately, the speaker cabinet was too big to fit down the corridor into the studio and so we ended up recording it in the hallway with the guitar amp strategically positioned in the ladies loo to get better separation (you can actually hear the ambience if you listen carefully)!

The song is a cover version of a 1997 Johnny Lang track, and I was going for a Pink Floyd-esque sort of sound for the final mix. As I still hadn’t quite got the hang of mixing drums at this point, the kick drum and toms sound a bit flat, although the gated reverb send on the snare worked out pretty well (good trick, that!). As I refused to accept any money for the session (it was done as a favour for a friend, and was useful practice for me), the band thanked me for my efforts with two bottles of Captain Morgan’s dark navy rum (my favourite tipple), which was probably the nicest payment I’ve had for a job ever!

Welcome

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:11:44 +0000

This was the first studio track that I mixed from start to finish (in Gateway Room 503, I believe!) and although some of the treatments are a bit dodgy (the drums in particular sound very thin and weedy), I think it’s a great song, which I still enjoy hearing from time to time. The tortured guitar riffs and post-apocalyptic lyrics give it an edgy prog rock feel that I really like.
I was particularly pleased with the vocal echo effect in the instrumental break (delayed reverb, in case you’re interested), which had to be manually punched in and out during the final mix to selectively pick up particular parts of the lyrics. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn it off when the chorus came back in, but I think it kind of works!

I remember getting nearly chased out of the studio after spending the whole afternoon mixing only to find out that they closed early at the weekends. Fortunately, the technical officer who was on duty that day—Mark Burville, I seem to remember—gave me an extra ten minutes to run through one final pass before having to reset the desk and lose all of my hard work! Still, it turned out pretty good, especially for a first effort.

Seemed To Be Fine

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:58:50 +0000

This was the first Semble track I recorded in the Gateway commercial studio, and my first effort at a full blown studio production. Unfortunately, we never managed to create a definitive final mix, but this is a fairly good effort, and probably my favourite piece of recorded work to date.

Particular highlights include the way that the electric guitar pans across the stereo field during the intro, and the mad cowbell and ‘wailing banshee’ effects in the section leading up to the middle 8 (16? 32?). I love the ad libbed vocals where Steve just let it rip (under my considered guidance, of course!), and which we were later able to build into a whole set of vocal harmonies (although I think I drove the Dolby A compressors a little too hard at some points so you may hear some distortion!). I was especially pleased that these vocals later became a permanent fixture of the song, which I felt had always needed something to lift the middle section beyond a weird instrumental break.

You may also be interested to know that the booming bass drum that pervades the track and chorus ‘aah-aah-aah’ effects were recorded and overdubbed from start to finish (in one take, in the case of the bass drum) rather than being looped or sampled. This was something that the band insisted on and I think helps to give the track its overall organic quality. That said, it made mixing it a bit of a nightmare as we had over 40 different tracks to cope with, plus a few extra samples (the xylophone sounds during the intro and final chorus) that were threaded in later via ProTools. It was one of those situations where an automated mixing desk wasn’t a luxury but an absolute necessity, as there just weren’t enough pairs of hands and ears in the room to mix it manually!

The track appeared in several guises, including on an EP of the band’s early recordings (which is available to buy online) and a limited edition sampler CD of Vivid Records’ artists, including Future Paradise and The Dave Jones Trio.