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First on “Through these eyes” was an acoustic
guitar. Mic'd with an AEA ribbon about 18 inches in front
of the guitar and a Shure SM58 close up where the neck meets
the body, balanced and summed to one track via one of our
old Audio Development compressors. These really are great
units....literally plug in and forget it!
The acoustic guitar was double tracked and panned left and
right then Bryan had some keyboard ideas to explore to build
up some textures. A synth pad and some string and organ
parts were played into Cubase for editing and tweaking the
sounds. These were recorded direct from the keyboard.
Bass guitar was next. Played through a Trace Elliot amp
and cab and mic'd with the trusty old Neuman U47fet close
up on the grill. The bass amp was in the control room with
a long speaker lead running through into the studio. This
way I can adjust the sound coming out of the cab whilst
hearing the player in with the track and using a long speaker
lead is preferable to a long guitar lead in terms of loss
of signal quality. We also did this with the rhythm and
solo guitar overdubs. The bass was compressed with one of
the AD limiters.
The distorted rhythm guitars were mic'd with an AEA ribbon
angled at one of the speaker cones and a Joe Meek JM47 similarly
placed on the other side of the cone. The ribbon provides
the fullness, warmth and space and the JM brings an edge
without having to add much EQ to the overall sound at all.
Again, with the amp in the control room I can tweak what's
coming out of the cab in order to sit things in the track.
The two mics were balanced and sent to track of the Radar
then double tracked, again placed left and right.
The solo guitar parts were recorded after the vocals but
using the same set up although Bryan does tweak his amp
and effects settings for solos in order for them to cut
through quite often dense backing.
Vocals
All the lead vocals on the album were recorded using the
Joe Meek “Meekraphone” Jm47 and this is a classic
case of “most expensive is'nt necessarily best”!
Over the last ten years I've recorded Bryans voice with
such diverse mics as Neumann U87 and 47 (too clean and clear),
AKG 414 (too bright), Shure SM58 (not clear enough) and
an AEA ribbon (too full-bodied) but the JM47 (to me) works
really well for his voice bringing good clarity without
enhancing it's graininess. We worked on the various different
parts of the song and assembled (by dropping in) a complete
vocal take, double tracking each section as we went. These
two tracks were then copied into Cubase (running in synch
with the Radar), assembled and processed with the PSP Vintage
Warmer, one of the few software plug-ins I regularly use.
The same process was used for the vocal harmonies. I always
like to have lead vocal tracks sounding as finished as possible
before adding backing vocals in order to make judgements
on tuning and phrasing etc.
| Vocal
Tracks |
Lead Vox 1/Joe Meek JM47 |
Lead Vox 22: Joe Meek JM47 |
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Backing
Vox 1: Joe Meek JM47 |
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To
hear the audio files above simply double click on
them and they will play in the media player you have
set on your computer. To download the files, create
a new folder on your hard drive and then right click
on the files above and choose "Save as Target"
to your new folder. When you have downloaded all the
files open up Cubase or a similar audio programme
and create a new project. In Cubase go to Import<audio
files and select all the MP3s in the folder. Cubase
will ask you if you want them on the same track or
separate tracks. Choose separate tracks and it will
paste them into a new project for you.
SEE VIDEO.
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| FX
Tracks |
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Stereo FX |
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Organ
L : DI |
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Organ
R : DI |
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Key
Pad L: DI |
Key
pad Rt: DI |
To
hear the audio files above simply double click on
them and they will play in the media player you have
set on your computer. To download the files, create
a new folder on your hard drive and then right click
on the files above and choose "Save as Target"
to your new folder. When you have downloaded all the
files open up Cubase or a similar audio programme
and create a new project. In Cubase go to Import<audio
files and select all the MP3s in the folder. Cubase
will ask you if you want them on the same track or
separate tracks. Choose separate tracks and it will
paste them into a new project for you.
SEE VIDEO.
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The
Mix
The final mix was fairly straightforward, just a matter
of balance really. I never record lots of alternative takes
of anything preferring to focus on one particular performance
of each recording to build the track around. I like to make
decisions early on and stand by them unless I later think
that some particular part could be significantly better
or different.
We did however, have one more thing to do. In the middle
of the song there is a section which has some FX voiced
by Bryan's uncle. These were dubbed over some audience reaction
samples (kindly supplied by Roger Newport) and mixed as
a seperate piece which meant overlaying the FX mix onto
the music track at the mastering stage. It took some time
to get the balance sorted but worked well in the end.
Have fun.
JS.
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