International Rescue, a band from Bridlington, East Yorkshire came into Fairview earlier this year to record two new songs and an old favourite from their live set.
The band comprises Steve Skinner...guitar and vocals, Dave Waller...guitar and vocals, Chaz Cook..bass guitar and Joel Cash...Drums.
International Rescue and I are very old friends so we'd discussed at length the recording process. It was to be as “live” as possible...all playing together and hope for that chemistry to work which I think happened. All doors open, don't worry about the spill just capture a great performance...which I also think we did.

For more info on the band visit their website

The session
Joel's kit was mic'd as follows....
Bass drum mic..... Audix D6 set inside the bass drum along with an Audio Technica 4047 just outside the shell, summed to mono and compressed with a Focusrite Red direct to Radar.
Snare Drum was mic'd with a Sennheiser e609 on the top, also through my TLA mic pre and a Shure SM57 underneath through a desk channel balanced, phase checked and summed to one track via a Urei 1176 compressor.
The toms were mic'd with Sennheiser MD421s and recorded flat.
The overhead mics were Neumann u87s.
I added a Golden Age R1 ribbon into the set up placed in a gap between the snare and toms. This was recorded flat onto a seperate track and fed into the mix up the centre. It added a certain “thickness” to the sound.
I also put up a very old AKG C414 in it's omni position about 5 feet in front of the kit and at cymbal height. This too was recorded onto a seperate track and fed into the mix.
I like these mono drum room tracks and find myself feeding them more and more into the mix to add some realism to the drum sound.

Recording Drums
Kick drum: Audix D6/4047	Snare drum:e609/SM57	Hi Hats: Neumann KM84
O/H Left: Neumann U87	O/H Right: Neumann U87	Ride Cymbal : Calrec 1060
Drum Roomt : GA R1	Room Right:AKG 414
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.

The bass guitar cab was mic'd with my Neumann u47 fet through a GA Pre 1073 and compressed with one of my old AD limiters straight to Radar. Chaz gets exactly the sound he wants coming out of the cab and that makes it so much easier.
Steve's guitar amp was mic'd with the lovely ADK TT......right up against the grille and slightly off-centre of the speaker cone....routed direct to Radar via an old Audio Developments compressor.
Dave's guitar was recorded with another old AKG C414 on it's Hyper-Cardiod setting, again flat and routed to Radar via another old AD compressor.
After getting a take we all liked we tracked up both Steve and Dave's guitar parts.
Steve's vocals were added using the ADK TT as were the other vocal parts.

This was an interesting session for me on a couple of levels.
I worked as FOH engineer for International Rescue in the early '80s when I was moving into studio work. I saw what they could do to an audience and how well they put themselves across. I subsequently recorded them over a couple of albums and was never able to capture the energy and spirit of their live performances. I have to say that they'd also recorded an album in another studio which also failed to live up to their live potential.
So I made a conscious effort with this recording to try and make their playing environment as close as possible to live or rehearsal..all doors open...amps cranked up loud and don't worry about the spill and the band reckon it worked.
Certainly they all enjoyed the recording day and that wasn't true for them all in the past

Recording Guitars/ Vocals
Dave Guitar 1: AKG 414	Dave Guitar 2: AKG 414	Bass1: Neumann U47
Steve Guitar 1: ADK TT	Steve Guitar 2: ADK TT	Steve Guitar 3: ADK TT
Guitar Solo: ADK TT	Feedback: Golden Age R1	Steve Vocal: ADK TT
Dave Vocal: ADK TT
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

The mix was just a matter of trying to recreate what was going on the room....no special FX, no fancy reverbs just balance it as it sounded on the day.
Enjoy playing with it and good luck!!