Tag Archive for: recording

Bass Ventura single mastering

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Across the last few month I’ve been doing a bit of Bass and Afro House mastering for the Sydney / Gold Coast artist Bass Ventura.

Bass Ventura aka Sean Brodnik, is an old student of my from SAE Sydney, and therefore that history puts a great spin on the client/ mastering engineer relationship. Across the last four singles his production has gone from strength to strength with the subtle feedback that both mastering and mastering engineers can give re total mix balance and dynamics.

Here are the first two singles from this first batch of 4 masters. Enjoy and follow Bass Ventura at any of the below locations:

Sweetie – Punch The Shark EP released

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Back in Feb 2023 I was the recording engineer for Sweetie and producer Jono Boulet. The 5 tracks recorded over the 3 day session, have now received the Jono Boulet production, and are now available on a cracking new EP titled Punch The Shark. The EP is receiving some great reviews.

Check it all out at the below locations:

 

 

 

Back in the studio w Nic Cassey for his 3rd LP

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I’m excited to say I’m back into the studio with old friend and client Nic Cassey. Across the years we’ve made two LPs together, and are now working on his 3rd record from Stranded Recording Studios in Bellambi on the South Coast of NSW.

Nic is an artist that effortlessly taps into a sound and songwriting style that one could place as a 60s / 70s singer songwriter style. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, first learning drums and then piano and guitar. Vocally, he’s a great poet with a beautiful unique voice. You can check out his back catalog on Spotify.

On the first two tracking days at Stranded, we were joined by Scott Leishman and productively recorded the drums, piano, guitar and bass beds for 9 tracks. The Input List is as below.

Piano – A/B Pair – Rhodes pencil pair – BA JLM preamp
Piano Room – U47 (Chess Tools) – Great River Preamp – Smack Compressor

Acoustic Guitar – Sennheiser 4080 spaced pair – EZ1290 Neve Clone
Acoustic Room – same U47 as Piano

Kick In – D12 – Vintech 573 – Clark 1176
Kick out – Condenser (can’t recall the European brand) – desk pre
Snare Up – SM57 – Vintech 573
Snare down – SM57 – Desk pre
Hat – Beyer M160 – Desk Pre
Rack & Floor Toms – Toshiba Ribbon RB1 – Desk Pre
OH L & R – Coles 4038 pair – Telefunken V675
Crotch Mic – Sennheiser MD441 – Neve clone pre – Smack Compressor

Our third day at Stranded focused on vocals, and after a huge day, we had all vocals recorded and comp’d for the record. The studio had just invested in a few more mics and compressors so we had the fortune of recording in 4 fine mic flavours to give options during the mixing phase; the Input List is as below:

Vox 1 – Neumann U87 – Vintech V573 – Warm WA2A
Vox 2 – Neumann TLM 107 – Vintech V573 – Chandler EMI TG1
Vox 3 – Shure SM57 – EZ1290 (Neve Clone) – dbx 165A
Vox 4 – Chesspiece (?) U47 Clone – EZ1290 – Chandler EMI TG1

 

Recording Sweetie with producer Jono Boulet

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Early Feb 2023 I had a three day session at Stranded Recording Studio, recording a new EP for the band Sweetie, and the producer Jono Boulet.

Sweetie are a solid 4 piece rock band, so the mic tactics were somewhat standard, but the presence of the producer, Jono Boulet, always gives the recording engineer a bit more time and leeway to focus on the sounds.

The mic input list can be seen below from the studio pics. Stand out combinations of mic, preamp and compression that come to mind are as follows.

Firstly, the inputs at Stranded are restricted to 16 channels, so some compromises were made, that including just one mic for the kick drum. In this case we used my AKG D12 and Jono pushed it in further than usual to get as much beater sound as possible. This combined with the preamp choice of a Vintech 573 and some punchy 1176 compression was one of the best kick sounds I’ve pulled as yet. It also help that we were using the beautiful in house Gretsch drum kit.

Beyond, the kick, the toms were recorded with Toshiba RB-1 ribbon mics. I’ve become a fan of ribbons on toms over the years for two reasons; They have the ribbon thick, fat tone, and further, being a figure 8 polar pattern, they reduce the bleed from cymbals and other drums. The RB-1s worked a charm on this record as expected.

One last interesting mic combo worth mentioning was Jono Boulet’s stereo crotch mic technique. Rather than standard options for a crotch mic, such as Sennheiser MD 441, Jono likes to use a stereo XY pair of Neumann KM-84s. It was a cool stereo close pair, and whilst it takes mixing a record to really love and appreciate certain mic techniques, it looked like it was going to be a great option in the mix for Jono to dial in.

Last reflections, Sweetie were the first band I’ve recorded that wanted to start at 8am in the morning. Unusual, but productive! The two baffles pulled together in Stranded forms a quiet dead vocal booth.

Below are a bunch of pictures from the session.

 

 

Electric Korma recording session

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On the 14th of July I had the pleasure of tracking a rather curious band by the title of Electric Korma at Stranded Recording Studios.

Effectively they are a red hot trio that do abstracted, rocked-out Hindi Hits / Bollywood covers. A bizarre niche, as admittedly by the front man George, but profitable, and popular amongst the affluent Australian Indian community.

The emphasis of the session was to get great drum takes, and possibly some keeper bass takes and guitar takes. But band leader George and Bass player Joey, stated at the onset that they might do overdubs after the fact at their home studios. The Input list below confirms such, the emphasis being on the drums with minimal mic’ing of other elements.

ELECTRIC KORMA – 14/7/22 INPUT LIST

  1. Kick In – AKG D112
  2. Kick Out – AKG D25
  3. Snare up – Shure SM57
  4. Snare Down – Shure SM57
  5. Hat – Rode TF5
  6. Rack –
  7. Floor – Sennheiser MD – 421
  8. OH L – Coles 4038
  9. OH R – Coles 4038
  10. Room – Gefel – Um-70
  11. Bass DI
  12. Bass Amp – M88
  13. GTR Amp – Shure SM57 – LP 3
  14. Scratch Vox 1 – Shure SM58 – LP 4
  15. Scratch Vox 2 – Shure SM58 – LP 5
  16. Scratch Vox 3 – Shure SM58 – LP 6

The band wanted to play live, and this has informed and directed the mic choice to focus on dynamic and ribbon microphones to minimise bleed between instruments.

The mic choices are fairly standard, but a few things excelled or impressed me during the session.

Firstly, I’m loving the Beyerdynamic M160 double ribbon mic on toms. They have that ribbon warmth and have great rejection past 110 degrees (according to the manufacturers) which keeps down too much cymbals or other drums getting into the mic.

Secondly, The Coles 4038 ribbon mics are such a warm lovely choice for rock drum overheads, and in this particular application, really minimise bleed from bass and guitar amps compared to condenser mic options. They also respond so nicely to a bit of a high shelf lifting those higher frequencies that aren’t so pronounced in ribbons generally.

Lastly, a bit of an AKG overkill, but the D112 and D25 made for a solid, warm thumping kick drum sound.

Below are a few pics from the session.

 

M. McCosker Fith Studio Session

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A graduate of SAE has set up a studio down the road from my newish residency in Thirroul, namely, Fith Studios.

I’d been looking forward to taking a session down there, and some vocals and guitars for Michelle McCosker’s debut album seemed the perfect combination.

Fith Studio is a small, one live room, one control room set up, featuring a TLA Audio console, a small selection of outboard, and owned and run by some lovely crew.

How did it sound? The room was small enough, and live enough that when the vocalist hit their louder notes, the room sound became quite present in the recording when using condenser mics. Fortunately, the room reflections suited the tracks, sounded pleasant, and therefore the recording became a recording in the old fashion sense of the term; a record of a particular performance in a particular room / acoustic environment.

The stand out signal chains from the session included Fith’s in-house Neumann TLM 49 combined with their Neve 1073. The TLM 49 shares the same capsule as the famous U47 & M49, and approaches the warm sonic signature of the tube-based U47, but from a transformer solid-state technology. This into the legendary 1073, was a lovely coupling for a classy vintage vocal tone.

Also sounding great was a combination of gear that I brought down to the session, that being a pair of Sennheiser 8040s, coupled with a pair of Telefunken V672 preamps. The warm, classy definition of the 8040s combined with the vintage quality and character of the V672s was a great stereo A/ B micing combo on acoustic guitars.

Reflections; the studio is cool, but suits louder music generally. Those TLA preamps in the console need a bit of volume to get them going as they have a max of 60 dB of gain. Further, the slight sound bleed from outside noises and weather means that again, loud sources are the safest best for recording in this space.

Nevertheless, stoked to have such a studio within walking distance from home, and stoked to be recording the great vocals and songs of M. McCosker.

Below are a few shots from the session.

 

The Grove Studios

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Recently, I visited The Grove Studios, Studio 1, to record drums for a client’s record. We stayed at the studio over two days, loved the studio, pulled some great sounds and had a great time. A big thank you to Scott, Izaac and Owen for having us.

The input list for the session is at the end of this post. Stand out signal paths from the session include; the Crunch / Crotch mic, our Gabriel Roth / Daptone, one mic technique, and the Kick Out signal.

For a crunch mic, I usually will use a Sennheiser MD441-U (left), but went with a MD421 (right) as despite The Grove’s great mic locker, they were without a 441.

   

The mic worked well, but the real gold within this signal chain was a Neve 1064 (Pre-amp and EQ), and DBX 162 Stereo Compressor.

 

The Neve 1064 has that lovely colouration that has been commented on by many, and the DBX 162 can be driven into harmonic colouration as well. All up, it was a tight, warm and coloured signal that proved very punchy within the overall drum sound.

On a similar one mic technique, we used Gabriel Roth’s one mic trick, that being a mic placed side of kick, almost under the snare. The mic chosen was a vintage Reslo ribbon, notorious for a mellow lo-fi high-end frequency content, or lack thereof. The Reslo was patched into the SSL 4000 G console to balance the mellow top end of the ribbon with the brighter SSL preamp and EQ options. Further, an 1176 Silver Face was inserted to smash the signal, apply colouration, and to compress the signal and bring forth all the drum sounds into a tight image. Again, within the drum mix, this particular mic gave us access to a punchy, lo-fi, coloured overall drum sound.

 

The kick-out signal was comprised of a Rodes Classic in Omni (for a larger bottom end), a blanket to help the kick have separation from the rest of the drum kit, and the Neve 1064 preamp for a coloured and thick low mid. The signal was then routed to Empirical Labs Distressor; a slow attack, quick release applied. The high pass button was engaged in the signal detector to allow the bottom end under 80Hz to not trigger the compression and result in a larger uncompressed low end.

In conclusion, what a live room and control room. Very highly recommended for any studio needs. Lovely grounds, functional kitchen, and accommodation to boot. Below are some pictures from the session and the input list.

 

INPUT LIST:

1. Bass DI (J48 Radial Active DI) – Quad 8 – LA 2

2. Kick in – D6 – SSL – (1176 Black Face insert)

3. Kick out –  Rodes Classic – Neve 1064 – Distressor

4. Sub Kick – SSL – (1176 Black Face insert)

5. Snare up – Beyer Dynamic M201 – Telefunken V76 – Distressor

6. Snare down SM57 – SSL

7. Hi Hat – Octava MK012 – SSL

8. Rack Tom – Sennheiser MD-421 – SSL

9. Rack Tom – Sennheiser MD-421 – SSL

10. Floor Tom – Sennheiser MD-421 – SSL

11. OH L – Coles 4038 – SSL (C2 Smart L)

12. OH R – Coles 4038 – SSL (C2 Smart R)

13. Crunch / Crotch Mic – ? – Neve 1064 – dbx 162 L

14. Daptone (side of Kick position) – Reslo Ribbon – SSL (1176 Silver Face insert)

15. Room close – RCA DX 77 SSL – (1176 Blue Face insert)

16. Room Far – AKG C34 Stereo Condenser – Chandler TG-1 L

17. Room Far – AKG C34 Stereo Condenser – Chandler TG-1 R

18. Vocal Guide – SM7B – SSL

19. Guitar Tele DI – Neve 1064 –

20. Guitar Tele Amp – SM57 – Neve 1064 –

21. Hammond – Leslie Speaker – L  – AKG C414 – (Urei 1178 L)

22. Hammond – Leslie Speaker – R – AKG C414 (Urei 1178 R)

Danga Island comes to town

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2019 kicked off in fine form with a 4 day session for long term collaborator and man of mystery from Danga Island.

He and his musical muse, Cam Cooke, were down from their bohemia of Dangar Island, and had drummer Mark Spence in tow from Port Macquarie.

The crew had hired a beautiful mansion in Annandale with view across the city, and next to an allegedly haunted church. The sessions mainly took place at Musicfeeds aka Megaphon Studios with DI’d guitar and bass, whilst the focus was on great drum takes from Mark. By night a bit of extra tracking was also conducted at the mansion.

With all the inevitable large swirling psychedelic guitars and synths to come, we decided on a tight, smaller room drum sound, with a couple well placed room mics that allow us to expand the drums into a more splashy big room sound.

Notable elements in this session were;

The kick sound. We created a tunnel to avoid spill into the kick mics, and used the legendary D12 on the inside, plus a TLM107 on the outside. The TLM107, just keeps surprising. It seems a workhorse for a widest possible range of applications; vocals to kick drum mic ing.

The snare also sounded gorgeous, and for this session we taped both a AKG451 and a SM57 together for a bit of tonal flexibility in the mix.

Lastly of note, was the the movement between Pro Tools in the studio, and cloud-based multi-track recorder Soundtrap for the late night mansion sessions. Further, the acoustics of the large mansion were also of note and I look forward to hearing the takes back from those overdubs.

Nic Cassey Mountain Session

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I’m currently producing the 3rd record for Sydney-based Folk artist Nic Cassey. The first two records we recorded at Music Feeds (aka Megaphon Studios), but for this 3rd record we wanted a different experience.

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Sophie Hutchings / Apple

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Sophie Hutchings (Preservation Records) has been commissioned by Apple to produce a new piano piece for a forthcoming App.

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