Revolution Mother Studio Session

My tech nerd-dome landed me a gig recording a song for Revolution Mother at Studio in the Country; recorded my Ben Mumphrey and myself.

Studio in the Country is an amazing studio in Bogalusa (of all places) that has been around since the 70s. Stevie Wonder, Kansas, Neville Brothers, Blues Traveler are just a few of the artists who have recorded there over the years. It's got this great 70s sort of vibey thing going on and the gear selection is fantastic as well.

First up... a couple drum setup pictures... with gear selection:
Kick: Beyer M88 > API 312 > DBX 162
Snare: Beyer M201 > API 312
Overheads: Neumann KM84 > Calrec PQ-1161
Toms: Sennheiser MD421 > API 512C
Spot Mic: Nuemann U67 > Neve 1064
Room Mics: Scheops Tube > Calrec PQ-1161

Drums Setup 1

Drums Setup 2

The bass player had his tone dialed in nicely, so tracking bass was painless. We used 2 mics and took a direct off an Avalon DI.
Mic 1: Sony C-500 > LA-2A
Mic 2: Sennheiser MD421 > 1176 Rev D

Bass Setup

The guitarist also had his tone dialed in nicely, so it was just a matter of setting up some different mic combinations and seeing which ones we liked the best. The guitar setup pics show the size of the live room. The 4x12 cabs look quite small in that room.

Guitar Setup 1

Guitar Setup 2

I think we ended up using a gritty SM-57 > Calrec PQ-1161 combination on each cabinet... though I must admit I preferred the Beyer M-160 and Sony C-37A.

And, of course, a shot of Ben tracking some guitars to the Pro-Tools at 3am in the morning. (Notice the Studer A-800 sitting just behind Ben... and yes, we recorded straight to Tools)

Guitar Tracking

Window Restoration (Part #3)

I am finally finished the sash work on the two windows in my spare bedroom. I added weatherstripping and re-attached the sash chords and weights.

Sash Chord

I used zinc weatherstripping at the meeting rail, head, and sill. This type of weatherstripping is extremely durable and should last for many years, unlike that cheap stick-on squishy stuff that might last 2 years. I used v-shaped spring bronze (attached to the sashes) to stop airflow from entering around the sashes. This type of weatherstripping travels with the sash, so the weight pockets are still accessible. This also gives the window a more historic look since no weatherstripping is seen as the window sashes travel up and down.

Meeting Rail Weatherstripping

Bottom Sash Weatherstripping

The Completed Windows

Interior

Working Sashes

Exterior

Next up... finish the mill work around the windows and doors.

Window Restoration (Part #2)

The exterior side of the windows...

I let the putty (glaze) dry for a solid two weeks. Priming/Painting the exterior is a much slower process and requires more patience. I typically use Benjamin Moore Penetrating Primer Alkyd, but this can cause the putty to wrinkle. Instead, for the glaze, I opted to use Benjamin Moore Fast Dry Alkyd with no Penetrol, and didn't experience any sort of wrinkling or warping of the putty. I used the penetrating primer with Penetrol for all other wood surfaces. Once this is dry, I'll apply two top coats of BM Atrium White.

Bottom Sash Glaze Dry

Top Sash Primed #1

Top Sash Primed #2

Window Restoration (Part #1)

I've spent the past couple months in my spare time restoring the 70+ year old windows in my spare bedroom. They are fairly typical, double-hung sash windows. The window casings and sashes were extremely weathered and in need of some attention. I'm currently restoring the sashes of the second window. The first window is complete.

I first completely de-glazed (removed window panes) and stripped the many, many layers of paint off the casing and sashes, similar to my methods in previous posts. This process is rather painful and I hate doing it. But it has to be done. I then applied an oil-based exterior primer (make sure the primer has linseed oil) to the interior side of the sashes. Due to the humidity here, it takes roughy a week to dry.

Bottom Sash Primer Only

After the primer has dried, I applied two coats of 100% acrylic (latex) paint and lightly sanded with 220 grit sandpaper between all three coats (1 x primer and 2 x paint). I like to let the latex dry overnight, but 4-8 hours is generally ok between coats. It's kind of difficult to tell from the pictures, but the painted top sash pictured below definitely looks better than the primer only sash. The paint is much smoother and richer.

Top Sash Primed and Painted

Moving on to the exterior side of the sashes, the window panes need to be installed and re-glazed to form an air right seal. Many of the panes in this particular sash were broken, or I broke when de-glazing, so I'll need to get some glass cut at the local hardware store. Before glazing, it's a good idea to apply glazing points to hold the pane in place. It's the small, triangular piece of metal.

Glazing Points Installed

After the glazing points are installed, I used an oil-based glaze (putty). I do not recommend using any form of water-based glaze, or anything that comes in a tube. Those products are generally crap and won't hold up over time. There are many methods to glaze a window, and it actually takes a little practice to get the hang of it. But the nice thing being oil-based, there is plenty of time to scoop it out and start over if the glazing isn't going well. The picture below shows an empty pane, glaze applied, and then the glaze smoothed to form a nice beveled edge.

Glazing in Progress

Glazing Done (Still Missing Panes)

Once the glaze is dry (takes about 7-10 days), I can apply primer and paint (similar to the interior of the sash) to the exterior of the sash. Once it's dry, the sashes are complete.

More to come on the window casing, weatherstripping, hanging counterweights, and putting the window back together.

But for now... beer time... Cheers!

October Travels

Austin:

Brooklyn:

Coney Island:

Bye, Manhatten:

Hello, Schwenksville:

Haarp Does Truck Farm (08/17/07-08/19/07)

After a two year break from recording, I finally got myself together for a weekend session with Haarp (Ex-Rat in a Bucket) at Truck Farm Studios. I didn't really sleep much that entire week, as my anxiety level was toxic and my mind continuously went through every possible situation that could arise. In short, I was obsessed, and I have to thank my trusty assistant/co-engineer Eric Martinez for keeping my head on my shoulders the week prior.

The Studio
A few shots of the main tracking room and control room:

Live Room

Live Room from Control Room

The Console

mmmm... The Gear

Eric and I arrived just after lunch on Friday for an afternoon and evening of setup. Since we planned to track Haarp live (with the exception of vocals), we needed to get everything right the first time. No overdubs. Truck Farm has a nice selection of gear, but there are some pieces in my gear collection I just cannot do without... so I brought them along:
- Neve 31102 preamp/equalizer modules (2)
- Calrec 1161 preamp/equalizer modules (2)
- Type 312 preamps (2)
- Type 1272 preamps (2)
- Bloo Technologies LA-2A
- G4000 Stereo Compressor

The Studer
Even though the mixes would eventually be transferred to ProTools and taken back to my mixing studio, my love for analog tape still forced me to record to Truck Farm's Studer A80VU MkIV first. This is one of the best tape machines ever built, and it is, by far, the best I've personally had the pleasure to record on. I spent an evening prior to the session aligning the machine (+9). I kind of hate aligning tape machines, but it's very important to have every track to spec.

Here she is in all her glory:

Studer A80

Drums
I typically like to work on drums first. They usually take the longest to setup and mic and are probably the most complex. Keith plays a typical 5 piece set with a kick, snare, two rack toms, and a floor tom. His drums sounded very good in the room and needed little tweaking, but I immediately knew his cymbals would present a problem becuase they were very low; just over his toms. It took us several takes and mic adjustments before we settled on final placement. All in all, the cymbal bleed was minimized and very manageable. Some shots of the drums:

Replacing Drum Heads

Drums (in Mid-Setup)

Fuzzy Coles 4038

Keith Says Hello!

We did some additional tweaks Saturday morning, but ultimately settled on the following setup:
- Kick: Beyer M88 > Type 312 > API 560B > Distressor
- Snare: Beyer M201 > Type 312
- Overheads (stereo pair): Neumann KM84 > Type 1272
- Rooms (stereo pair): Coles 4038 > Calrec PQ-1161 > G4000 (sounded awesome !!!)
- Rack Toms: Sennheiser MD421 > API 512C > API 550B
- Floor Tom: Electrovoice RE-20 > API 512C > API 550B

Bass
I absolutely love recording a bass player who has his shit together. Pomes came with a nice bass setup, new strings, and tuned to C (damn!). We pulled a DI (clean) and a mic (little dirty) for a nice blend and flexibility when mixing. Final setup:
DI: Avalon DI > API 553 > Sta-Level
Mic: Beyer M88 > API 560B > LA-2A

Da Pomes (in Best Borat Voice)

Bass Setup

Guitars
Getting good, solid guitar tones took a bit longer than I had originally planned. Both guitarists had way too much bottom end, and not enough clarity in their tones for recording. For both guitarists, we swapped cabinets and/or heads until we got what I was looking for. It may have taken some time, but the tones we got were killer. Big, thick, rich, and creamy... and heavy of course.

Grant's Setup:
- 90s Les Paul > Randall Head (model?) > Mesa Cabinet
- Mic #1: Beyer M160 > Neve 31102 > Blackface 1176
- Mic #2: Sony C37A > Calrec PQ-1161

Grant is Mysterious

Jason's Setup:
- Guitar? > JCM800 > Randall Cabinet
- Mic #1: Beyer M160 > Neve 31102 > JoeMeek SC-2 Optical
- Mic #2: Shinybox 23C > API 512C

Jason Rockin' It

Vocals
Shaun is a maniac. The most challenging aspect of recording Shaun was getting him to feel comfortable. At shows, Shaun is used to holding a microphone, moving around, raising his hands, and screaming his ass off. I knew that if he had to stand still in front of a mic on a stand with a wind screen, his performance would be terrible. So I opted to give him a microphone that he could hold and run around the room. We tried a couple different recording setups, but settled on a Shure SM7 > Neve 1272 > Bloo LA-2A, and we tracked straight to ProTools.

Shaun Screaming

Shaun Relaxing

Sir Martinez
We did this entire project in a weekend, and easily spent over 35 hours. Eric was with me through it all... and shitty drunk most of the time. He made my work that much easier by setting up mics, keeping things neat and tidy, and just drinking alot of beer being Eric. I couldn't have done it without him.

Eric (Photo by Keith)

Cheers... can't wait to do it all again.

I'm Tired and Need a Beer.

Who-Dat DIY

I am pumped for Saints football season... and I am such a gearhead it's kind of ridiculous. So I thought it would be best to combine both worlds in my latest piece of home-brew DIY recording gear. I introduce the "Black and Gold" G4000 VCA. It's a stereo VCA compressor based on the quad compressor in an SSL Series 4000 console. This one has a couple unique features. It has a 5 position selectable sidechain HPF (err... High-Pass Filter) and a 10 segment gain reduction LED meter, with a selectable range of either -10dB (1 dB/LED) or -20dB (2dB/LED). It uses gold can DBX 202C VCAs. The gold cans originally sparked the little Who-Dats in my brain to do something with a Saints theme.

I finished it just in time for football season... and it sounds wonderful. I used it this past weekend during the Haarp sessions at Truck Farm (more to come on that).

Go Saints !!!

(Click for larger)