Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 1

Welcome to the first of many session blogs from Violet Mary's second record.   First, let me catch you up and set the stage.   Violet Mary is my band... and Tyler's, Mel's, Scott's and Scott's. We released our first record in April on my label, Belly Of The Whale Music, and at the time of release, we had hired a new full-time drummer in Scott "Thunderstick" Butcher, and written more than half of a sophomore record.   Our sound had evolved significantly since the tracking of Marionette.  We decided to set up shop at The Whale in June to begin this next record, while at the same time gig with intention to promote Marionette.     I'm expecting this next endeavor to take until Thanksgiving, so there may be hope for Christmas release... but that's getting a little ahead of myself.

Loading In:   

We loaded in the drums on Saturday afternoon.   This is his Bubinga kit, one that he only uses in the studio.  The bulk of this session was devoted to set-up and tuning the beast for full and total domination.   Scott made sure to take his time,

giving each drum a good whack after setting it 

in place.   Within a few hours, he was shaking the walls and making his presence known.    Note the "Bump" sign on the back wall.  Tyler brought that from his apartment.   He was wise and padded the back side of the sign so as not to rattle.   

Meanwhile, Tyler, Mel and I helped our friend Ken unload a new-to-The Whale spinet piano.   Ken offered to give me his Story & Clark if I could transport it to the studio.   I figured 2 guys and a few beers and we'd have a new piano in the place, as a spinet is a relatively small piano. Let it be known, like elephants, even small pianos weigh a ton.   

Micing Up:This is by far my favorite part of studio work... micing up a drum kit.   With Scott's kit, I'm running 11 channels:  Kick, Snare, 6 Toms, 2 Overheads and a room mic.   The magic happens with the overheads and room mic, so I'll add a bit more detail there.  For those studio nerds reading, the overhead mics are Studio Projects B3 condensers.   They're not overly pricey, and sound great: a perfect pair for mid-sized studios.   I'm using a technique from Abbey Road studios called The Glynn Johns Technique.  It's a way of spacing overhead mics to get a stereo image while keeping the snare and kick in the center.   The key is making sure the mics are the same distance from the snare, thus making the snare's sound hit the mics at the same time.   The first mic is placed directly above the snare.  The second is placed over the floor tom at the drummer's right side almost parallel to the snare head.   These mics are both 43'' from the snare.   Then bring the gains on those two inputs up so that the snare is hitting evenly on both mics and pan them to 9 and 3 on the clock.   With that, the snare is in the middle of the stereo image, along with the kick and hats... and the toms magically pan, along with the other cymbals.  It's damn sexy.   I also add a mic about 15' away in the entry way of the studio.  The foyer is a 22' tall atrium that lends a massive room sound to the kit.   I used these same techniques on our last record... all the reverb on the kit was natural.     In our next session, we'll be tightening up the drum sounds to tape... I'll post some samples for your listening enjoyment.

Inside The Control Room:   Here are a few more choice images from the studio.   For those looking for the inside scoop on songs that may appear on this next record, check out the white board!