RPM Challenge - Day 10 of 29
So, Sunday we had the big TEFP recording session for the and vice versa record. All things considered, it went well. I unfortunately ran into some computer issues that bogged me down for the first two hours and then cut us short toward the end. But, while everything was working, it was working AWESOME.
This was really the first full-band recording session I've done in the studio. And the absolute first recording session of any kind in the room was just the day before, on Saturday, with an acoustic/vocal thing. So, the studio was really tossed into the fire this weekend. And, to my great relief, it shined. I think I've been nervous about that for months now.
Drums... they... they just sound insane in the room. I'm trying to find a comparison... almost like the Boston QDvision room (Pixies/Surfa Rosa) but a little bit brighter in tone. It's also very similar to the old studio I used to work at (where some Pylon and Swimming Pool Qs records were recorded, not to mention TEFP's Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and several of our earlier bands and projects). It always had the most wonderful ambient tone and has become a holy grail or sorts for me since the old building was demolished. There's no room in Atlanta that I've found that sounds close. Until now. :) What's crazy, is my room is about 1/2 to 1/3rd the size of each of those other rooms. Boy did I luck up with my design. Anyway, as soon as 12ftguru and I heard playback, we got wide grins. It was like coming home to the old sound that so many of our early projects were bred in. I'll have to upload some clips this week.
The Toft ATB board sounds great. We were going direct to digital because I haven't had time to wire up and align my analog decks, so I was a little worried about it sounding too clinical. Well, I'm not quite ready to say "screw tape", but the Toft went a LONG way toward providing a true analog warmth. It'd still be nice to plow into some tape on kick, snare and bass guitar, but otherwise, I think I'll be going direct digital from now on.
We were able to get 3 of the 5 songs tracked, and out of one of those, create a loop that will become another song. We did:
"What Would Daniel Do?"
"Terribly Lucky Danforth Buckley"
"Catarina Valentino"
and then I created a new one called "Zed The Leper" out of a loop of the band.
So, not too bad. Not as many as I'd hoped to get done live, but we'll knock the rest out piecemeal to loops and clicks and just have Freddy Ether overdub drums and percussion to them on the 23rd.
And, this will only be of interest to the most obsessive recording geeks out there, but I've started keeping notes on session setup. I always liked how Albini put this stuff on Shellac liner notes, so I figured I'd start blogging with equal detail. This is how it went down -- sorry if my notes are confusing:
Toft ATB-16 console:
Ch 1 - Multi-purpose Mic: AKG 414 (used on acoustics)
Ch 2 - unused
Ch 3 - Multi-purpose Mic: AT4033 (used on acoustics, percussion, etc.)
Ch 4 - Bass DI: BBE DI100X
Ch 5 - Bass Amp: Shure SM81
Ch 6 - Rack Tom: AKG 140E
Ch 7 - Floor Tom: Sennheiser 421
Ch 8 - Drum OH: Shure 300 Ribbon
Ch 9 - unused
Ch 10 - unused
Ch 11 - Snare Top: Sennheiser 421
Ch 12 - Snare Bottom: Shure SM81
Ch 13 - Kick: AKG D112
Ch 14 - Jimmy's Guitar Amp: Electrovoice RE20
Ch 15 - Earl's Guitar Amp: Shure SM57
Ch 16 - Vocal Mic: Shure SM-7
Digi002 A/D Ins:
Ch 1 - Snare tp/btm
Ch 2 - Rack tom
Ch 3 - Floor tom
Ch 4 - Drum OH
Ch 5 - Bass DI
Ch 6 - Bass Amp
Ch 7 - Multi-purpose 414
Ch 8 - Multi-purpose 4033
DigiMax FS A/D Ins:
Ch 1 - Digimax pre direct input from AKG 451 - Room L
Ch 2 - Digimax pre direct input from AKG 451 - Room R
Ch 3 - unused
Ch 4 - unused
Ch 5 - Kick
Ch 6 - Jimmy's Guitar Amp
Ch 7 - Earl's Guitar Amp
Ch 8 - Vocal mic
ProTools Session (24bit/48k):
Track 1 - Kick
Track 2 - Snare tp/btm
Track 3 - Rack tom
Track 4 - Floor tom
Track 5 - Drum OH
Track 6 - Room L
Track 7 - Room R
Track 8 - Bass DI
Track 9 - Bass Amp
Track 10 - Jimmy's Guitar
Track 11 - Earl's Guitar
Track 12 - Multi-purpose 414
Track 13 - Multi-purpose 4033
Track 14 - Vocal Mic
This was really the first full-band recording session I've done in the studio. And the absolute first recording session of any kind in the room was just the day before, on Saturday, with an acoustic/vocal thing. So, the studio was really tossed into the fire this weekend. And, to my great relief, it shined. I think I've been nervous about that for months now.
Drums... they... they just sound insane in the room. I'm trying to find a comparison... almost like the Boston QDvision room (Pixies/Surfa Rosa) but a little bit brighter in tone. It's also very similar to the old studio I used to work at (where some Pylon and Swimming Pool Qs records were recorded, not to mention TEFP's Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and several of our earlier bands and projects). It always had the most wonderful ambient tone and has become a holy grail or sorts for me since the old building was demolished. There's no room in Atlanta that I've found that sounds close. Until now. :) What's crazy, is my room is about 1/2 to 1/3rd the size of each of those other rooms. Boy did I luck up with my design. Anyway, as soon as 12ftguru and I heard playback, we got wide grins. It was like coming home to the old sound that so many of our early projects were bred in. I'll have to upload some clips this week.
The Toft ATB board sounds great. We were going direct to digital because I haven't had time to wire up and align my analog decks, so I was a little worried about it sounding too clinical. Well, I'm not quite ready to say "screw tape", but the Toft went a LONG way toward providing a true analog warmth. It'd still be nice to plow into some tape on kick, snare and bass guitar, but otherwise, I think I'll be going direct digital from now on.
We were able to get 3 of the 5 songs tracked, and out of one of those, create a loop that will become another song. We did:
"What Would Daniel Do?"
"Terribly Lucky Danforth Buckley"
"Catarina Valentino"
and then I created a new one called "Zed The Leper" out of a loop of the band.
So, not too bad. Not as many as I'd hoped to get done live, but we'll knock the rest out piecemeal to loops and clicks and just have Freddy Ether overdub drums and percussion to them on the 23rd.
And, this will only be of interest to the most obsessive recording geeks out there, but I've started keeping notes on session setup. I always liked how Albini put this stuff on Shellac liner notes, so I figured I'd start blogging with equal detail. This is how it went down -- sorry if my notes are confusing:
Toft ATB-16 console:
Ch 1 - Multi-purpose Mic: AKG 414 (used on acoustics)
Ch 2 - unused
Ch 3 - Multi-purpose Mic: AT4033 (used on acoustics, percussion, etc.)
Ch 4 - Bass DI: BBE DI100X
Ch 5 - Bass Amp: Shure SM81
Ch 6 - Rack Tom: AKG 140E
Ch 7 - Floor Tom: Sennheiser 421
Ch 8 - Drum OH: Shure 300 Ribbon
Ch 9 - unused
Ch 10 - unused
Ch 11 - Snare Top: Sennheiser 421
Ch 12 - Snare Bottom: Shure SM81
Ch 13 - Kick: AKG D112
Ch 14 - Jimmy's Guitar Amp: Electrovoice RE20
Ch 15 - Earl's Guitar Amp: Shure SM57
Ch 16 - Vocal Mic: Shure SM-7
Digi002 A/D Ins:
Ch 1 - Snare tp/btm
Ch 2 - Rack tom
Ch 3 - Floor tom
Ch 4 - Drum OH
Ch 5 - Bass DI
Ch 6 - Bass Amp
Ch 7 - Multi-purpose 414
Ch 8 - Multi-purpose 4033
DigiMax FS A/D Ins:
Ch 1 - Digimax pre direct input from AKG 451 - Room L
Ch 2 - Digimax pre direct input from AKG 451 - Room R
Ch 3 - unused
Ch 4 - unused
Ch 5 - Kick
Ch 6 - Jimmy's Guitar Amp
Ch 7 - Earl's Guitar Amp
Ch 8 - Vocal mic
ProTools Session (24bit/48k):
Track 1 - Kick
Track 2 - Snare tp/btm
Track 3 - Rack tom
Track 4 - Floor tom
Track 5 - Drum OH
Track 6 - Room L
Track 7 - Room R
Track 8 - Bass DI
Track 9 - Bass Amp
Track 10 - Jimmy's Guitar
Track 11 - Earl's Guitar
Track 12 - Multi-purpose 414
Track 13 - Multi-purpose 4033
Track 14 - Vocal Mic