Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Tommy Wales

Tommy Wales (of Wales Road fame) returned The Whale on saturday to cut the follow up to "Snake Hisses and Judas Kisses". SHJK was the first of Wales 15 records to be recorded with me, and was his best selling and most played EP to date. Thus, a return trip was in order.

This new EP will be tracked entirely in Logic Pro, a departure from my usual modular and nearly analog system. My Logic rig was predominately a remote recording system for live multi-tracking. All of the live cuts on Violet Mary's "End Times Puppet Show" single were recorded using it. I followed that by doing a more traditional recording project for the Silver Threads. Logic came through as well, though I didn't have to set up cue mixes or overdub at all. The end result was remarkable, and the process was rather smooth. I was curious about mixing a full EP with a mouse, and found that while I missed the faders and knobs, the act of automating a mix made up the difference and then some.

Assuming Wales Road's project is a success, I will likely transition The Whale to Logic. It will be hard to let go of my knobs and faders (get your heads out of the gutter), but Logic greatly expands the studio's capabilities. It's hard to pass that up.

M.

(audio samples with the next post!)

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 9

I Hope You Like Our New Direction

The remaining tracks on the record are being laid down in a slightly different fashion. For these tunes, I'm less concerned about keeping a perfect tempo throughout the song, and less concerned with layering tones of instruments (though always reserve the right to do so if the song begs for it). We're writing these tunes with the intent to track the principle rhythm parts live as a band. We're slightly limited by space and by available inputs, so Cranfill mans the desk while we track. He then overdubs his parts as needed.

This batch of songs are all simpler than the first half as well. The difference between them isn't night and day, but there is a distinctive simplicity that is appealing and attractive... much in the same way that the many ebs and flows of Leviathan are attractive. These tunes are:

Whiskey Drinking Woman

Off The Wall

Buffalo

Rock and Roll (This is What It Takes)

As I Lay In The Red Earth

A Brief Aside

There may be others, but at this point, that's where the record feels like it will end. There are other pieces on the fringes of this record that may wind up on an EP in the future, or may make the core of the next record. Mel has a beautifully haunting song called Love Unfinished. This one may actually make the record, and serve a similar thematic role as "Dissemination Part 1" from Marionette. There are also several pieces that I've worked up and have demoed for the band, but we simply haven't had the time spent of them yet. We may choose to include them in the sessions, but it's more likely that they get more time after we finish tracking this record. All that to say, we're in a rather prolific time as a band, and it's a wonderful time to writing new music in Rochester, a town that is rip for revival! [end of aside]

And... Back To Our Story

The first of these tunes we cut was Whiskey Drinking Woman. This tune was originally very different. Tyler did a clever rewrite to it, giving it a little bit of a swagger to it and channeling a bit of Black Crowes, some early Zeppelin and some alt-country. I put together the bridge which is heavily Crowes influenced. For those looking for musical quotes, you will find the Mel makes a reference to an old Theophilus song within the keys feature. I'll leave to you, gentle reader, to find said quote. The rhythm tracks (guitar, bass and drums) were all cut live. If memory serves me, the take that will make the record is around take 6 or 7. It didn't require more than 2 hours to find the pocket. We then overdubbed the remaining instruments during the following session. The guitar tracks on this tune are all done with my Budda Superdrive 30 through a 1x12 cabinet loaded with a Peavey 'Greenback' clone. The short lead adds a new germanium fuzz I found called a Sybil by Retroman. It's big and wooly and awesome. Interesting note on the snare drum sound: I wanted a slightly choked, early 70's tone from the snare. Scott swapped out his babinga snare for a Pacific snare with all-wood suspended rims. We then turned it lower than the previous snare for less of a 'crack'... but it still needed some deadening. The solution: drape half of a t-shirt over the batter head. The resulting sound is a little spitty and muffled... exactly what I was shooting for.

We followed that tune with Off The Wall. This is one of Mel's tunes, and practically wrote itself in one rehearsal. We did some polishing to it, but the core of the song as Mel presented it was solid enough that we just added our personal flavors. The outro was a Hendrixy jam that we added to it, and may lead to a song of its own one day, but is a fun out for the song. Again, the rhythm instruments (drums, bass, electric guitar and keys) were all cut live with very few 'fixes'. We required a few more takes on this one, oddly enough. In the end, we did about 10 or so, then started goofing around. That goofy take didn't lead to anything of quality, but loosened everyone up and we had a good laugh. The take immediately following it is the keeper take and will make the record. Again, acoustic guitar are overdubbed. Cranfill used a mid-90's Guild to track the two acoustic parts. The first is his main chording, the second is voiced higher and appears on the choruses. This will help the song have a three dimensional aspect, contracting during the verses and widening on the choruses.

Next on the docket will be either Buffalo, a tune I penned somewhat tongue-in-cheek that has a lovely smack to it, or Rock And Roll, Tyler's ironic take on what it takes to be a rock-and-roller. Both are really fun tunes, and we hope you will enjoy!

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 8

Returning Home

Recently, the band reconvened at The Whale to begin tracking the second half of our next record. The plan was to spend the past few months penning out the rest of the tracks while I had other bands producing at The Whale, and we'd return with a fresh batch of songs to round out the sophomore effort. For the most part, this is where we're at.

We finished instrumental tracking on the first six tunes in the fall:

Leviathan

Long Dark Night

Three Over Four

You Won't Rule The World

Some Things You Never Wash Away

The Contented Tune *

The tone of these 6 tunes is polished and precise, with all the production of late Zeppelin and Queen. With those tracks, I really want the sound to be expansive,... even on Three Over Four, which has a very intimate feel. On that track, I occasionally have two or three layers of acoustic guitars to give it a full, rich quality. Each of these tunes was tracked to a click and each was tracked in pieces... starting with scratch tracks, then adding the instruments like legos to form the finished sound. This is the approach we took on Marionette almost entirely.

The Contented Tune was left half done at the end of the fall sessions. Tyler was still wrestling the bass line down, and the keys remained scratch. We chose to start with this song when we returned to The Whale. The Contented Tune has changed slightly in the last few months as we've adapted the piece for live shows. On the recording, I have layers as many as 5 guitar parts at one time. I am a man of many talents, but playing all 5 parts at once is beyond even my extraordinary reach. In addition, Tyler and Scott have honed the groove down to its essence and allowed the song to really breath. All that being said, we elected to keep the work we did in the fall for the recording and add to that, as opposed to starting from scratch on it. Using preamps by ART and an Electro Harmonix fuzz box, Tyler tracked the bass part in 2 takes... one to practice, one for history. I will give you a taste of The Contented Tune when we have finished tracking the keys.

For now, peace to you all.

Mike.

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 7

Some Things You Never Wash Away

Most of this record has been quite effortless. Many of the tracks are single takes on the drums and bass... most of the guitar tracking just flowed off the neck. Some Things we've been wrestling with a bit. You've read in previous posts about the rewriting of the tune. We landed on an arrangement we really liked and decided this would be the next track we'd lay down.

All tracking for this record starts with laying down a click. I decided to lay down a 1/16th note click as the head riff tends to get away from a little. The more subdivisions one has in the click, the easier it is to hold to it. Once deciding on the click, we programmed it into the computer and let it roll for about 8 minutes. As I was laying down the click, I was noodling and chatting with the band Only after laying down the scratches did I realize that the mics were live and bussed to the same output as the click... so the click track was blended with my non-diatonic bends and such. At that point, we needed to start over.

Within an hour, we'd recreated the guide tracks and moved into tracking the drums and bass. Tyler and Scott worked their magic as they are known to do! Within a few takes, they'd created a groove. Scott added some new fills that really spiced up the track (see the turnaround into the third verse) and Tyler accented his outro groove with some excellent ghost notes.

But, here's the part that gets me all hot and bothered. Punching drum tracks is extremely hard to do. One has at least 11 live mics live, all of which need to be picking up any number of cymbals and drum hits at the same time as the take one is punching into. Doing so is very difficult, both as an engineer and as a drummer. I'm proud to say we successfully did it in three places :)!!! My ego's still huge around it. Normally, Scott's tracks are a complete take. That keep take is commonly take 4 or 5. This time out, Scott his a killer take... all of which was inspired save about 8 bars. A few punches later, and the take is clean and clear.

"Where are the cool studio pictures?", you ask. I'll have pictures posted in the next entry, along with an updated photos of the all-knowing white board.

For this tune, I won't post an MP3 until the guitar tracks are down... then we'll play "spot the punches".

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 6

Ed. Note: I'm sorry this session blog is delayed. I've docked my own pay, and have received a stern warning! :)

Night of The Cranfill

In our last session, we focused on adding Cranfill's guitar parts to the tracks I'd worked on the previous week. The focus was on acoustic guitars for Long Dark Night and Leviathan, and electric parts on Leviathan. For the acoustic tracks, Cranfill borrowed a lovely Guild acoustic from our friend Scott Austin. This thing tracks like a million bucks. I used a Shure KSM32 (my go-to mic for acoustic instruments, vocals and guitar cabs alongside a SM57). Positioning the mic is key for a great acoustic song. If i'm using a stereo pair, i like small-diaphragm condensers placed about 18" away from the guitar in an x pattern. The center of the X is at the neck joint (about the 15th fret), with one mic pointing at the neck and the other at the sound hole. I then take these mics and pan then hard left and right. The product is a spacious, clear and full acoustic sound. When using one mic, i usually place it about the 12th fret and then face it slightly towards the sound hole. I wasn't gaming for a large spacious acoustic sound, more for a familiar, intimate sound. I think we got it here.

Long Dark Night

We also added this same sound to the bridge of Leviathan, accompanied by Cranfill's electric part. For the electric sounds on Leviathan, we used two tones. The verse and bridge tones were courtesy of an AC30.. bright, jangly with a little grit. I then applied a bit of internal reverb and a subtle tape echo. The chorus part was a little harder to nail down. We used a few Racontours tones as our benchmark. Essentially, the tone is a JTM45 on about 7 with a ton of mids. The bass was on about 3 and the treble up the middle... presence rolled off. Cranfill tracked the part with an ash tele on the bridge pickup, tone rolled half way off. This gives it a slightly muffled thud. My guitars are decently bright and provide note definition. Cranfill provides the thud!!!!

Leviathan

Next Up: Keys and more guitars!!!!!!

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 5

I went into the studio on wednesday to begin tracking electric guitar parts. For me, this is a little bit of heaven... alone with guitars and amps and endless possibilities. I set out to track 2 songs: Leviathan and Long Dark Night. For the most part, I knew going in what I wanted to track for each song and how I was going to achieve those sounds. Of the new record material, these are the two songs that are most rehearsed and more prepared. The bonus was The Contented Tune (There Is A Light) I finished the other 2 rather quickly, so I used the remaining time to create the textures I'd been hearing for The Contented Tune. Here's a geeky play-by play:

Leviathan - really straight forward Black Sabbath meets Maiden style tones, both clean and dirty. No solos for this track. The main rhythm sounds are Marshall Plexis: The right side is a just the bright channel gained out, the left is the same amp with the channels jumpered and slight boost. These sounds hold down my portion of the rhythm. My part in the bridge is sparse, and just a clean fender. A little delay and verb on the fender, and away we go. Les Paul for all the dirty parts, strat for the clean. This clip is from the middle of the song, so you can hear the bridge cleans and the Maiden Madness

Leviathan Clip

Long Dark Night - My parts are even more sparse on this tune. The acoustics and piano hold down the majority of the chordal content here, and will be added later. The chorus rhythm is double: a cleaner fender deluxe with the strat and an AC30 slightly breaking up with a Les Paul. Each has a hefty amount of delay for character. The bridge is that same AC30 on one side and my plexi bright channel tone from Leviathan on the other... this tone carries the lead line at the end. The gain is slightly less than on Leviathan and I'm not hitting the notes with as much gusto. There are also some textures provided by a flanged clean guitar with delay and tons of verb...and a slide. This clip is from the end of the song, where all the parts meet

Long Dark Night Clip

The Contented Tune (There Is A Light) - This one was just magic. I'm not at all trying to cop an Edge-like delay, but looking for a similar swirling delay. The right side is a chorused, delayed Plexi set a to just barely break up. The left side is an AC30 gained out with flanger and massive delays. Both tracked with the Les Paul. That's just the prechorus section. The chorus are much more of The Who meets Marc Ford style tones. The left is a Matchless Chieftain gained out with the mids pushed, and the right is my plexi sound again (lovin' the plexi these days). This clip will show off all the parts nicely.

The Contented Tune Clip

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 4

Tracking Live:

We returned to the studio on July 3rd, geared up to re-track a tune that just wasn't jivin' the way we wanted it to. Three Over Four is a blues in 6/8 that really requires dynamics and a live feel. The scratches we'd laid down for the track were uninspiring (which is fine, they're non-keeper tracks... but...) and were difficult for Scott to track anything with feeling. Scott commented that he plays off of Mel's vocals and keys primarily, and that having Mel track with him may yield a more passionate performance.

We decided to track the bulk of the tune together. The lofty goal was to keep it all, but even if we just got a great drum track, that would be a victory. Within a few takes, we got a winner:

Three Over Four

The vocals will most likely be cut again, and we may retake the keys and guitar, but the drum and bass performances were very solid and full of emotion! A victory for rock and roll

The Low End Thump Sticks:

After our victory on Three Over Four, we moved on to two other tunes: The Contented Tune (There Is A Light) and You Won't Rule The World. These tracks only have one thing in common, a militant adherence to the click. The Contented Tune has a layered looping prechorus ala The Edge meets "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream" from Dream Theater's Awake. To accomplish the feel of swirling chorused delays, the time needs to be incredibly steady. We did a number of takes to make this happen, and in the end, Scott punished the click and gave a great performance.

You Won't Rule The World is more in the Radiohead direction, with a Clapton-esque head riff. It's tight and punchy and fast,... another reason to be slave to the click. Oddly enough, this is the first take that Scott and Tyler did... one take wonders on this tune. I think you will hear in the take the frantic energy and frenzied pace of the tune,... and the performance is killer. This tune is going to melt people when they hear it.

So, in one session, we worked on a blues in 6, a triumphant piano-driven textured piece and a frantic riff-based rocker. This record's going to lay you out!

The Contented Tune (There Is A Light)

You Won't Rule The World

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 3

Session 3:   Good Tone and Click Tracks

Getting Tone

Drum and bass tracking began on saturday... if you live with the blast radius of Scott's kick drum, you already knew that.    We started by getting a bass guitar tone.  This is generally a pretty easy proposition: 

********************************

Good Bass Tone

prep time - years

cook time - abo

ut 5 minutes

1 part awesome bass player (make to separate the hacks from the talent)

1 part good tube preamp

3 cables

salt & peppa (I mean, seriously, i use them on everything i cook up)

********************************

We also built the cue mixes for Tyler and Scott.  This is the first project in 10 years of The Whale where i'm actually building cue mixes the way they should be built.  I'm so proud of me :).   Tyler's mix station is unique to the others, and probably looks most like a big-kid recording studio.   He's got a small mixer running between me and his headphones.  To the mixer is whatever he needs from the recorder (Click, vocals, scratch instruments) and a feed from the input-thru of the direct box.  This gives him increased co

ntrol over the amount of bass he hears in his phones.  Bass is hard to monitor in headphones if you're used to hearing yourself through an amp, in that it doesn't carry the low end information the same way, and you can't 'feel' it, like you can with a bass amp.  It's very easy to loose the bass in a cue mix, which leads to the bassist playing the strings harder than he normally does and sending a very plunky sound to tape.   This new monitoring setup seems to work very well for tyler, which is excellent!

The Tyranny of the Click

Tracking to a click is also a challenge if one is not used to hearing "BEEP, boop, boop, boop" over and over a

gain in your ears for five minutes while playing.   In general, having the click allows us to maintain an even tempo and serves as a marker when sections of songs where the drums are not playing.   The click is a evil taskmaster as well... and points out those places within the song that one naturally speeds up or slows down.   Sometimes those ebs and flows of tempo are good things and provide emotion to the track.   But often, when listening to a studio recording, those fluctuations sound more like amateur hour than polished, as it's much harder to make a tight recording when the tempos ride a wave.   When you play live, you can see each other, you can feed off of each other... tracking with overdubs doesn't always afford that luxury.... what you gain in limitless possibilities you sometimes have to sacrifice in spontaneity.  

Here are two songs we cut to the click and cut mixes.   The drums and bass are real tracks, the rest are scratch (like underpainting on a canvas) and will be covered over.   You may notice the keeper tracks deviate slightly from the scratch tracks.  In these cases, the deviation is minor.  Remember, the scratch tracks will be covered over with keeper tracks of their own, and those tracks will be recorded to the real drums and bass.   

Leviathan    &    Long Dark Night  

Scott & Tyler Screwing around to YYZ

Change of Plans

The third track we recorded in this session was "Three Over Four".  This is a track that I wrote up in the vein of "Bell Bottom Blues" (Clapton) or "Sometimes Salvation" (Black Crowes).   It's more typical blues, and was dying at the hand of the click and cue mixes.   It felt very sterile in tracking.   So, we've decided to track that tune live with the full band.   This friday, we'll go into the studio together.  Cranfill will man the board, and the rest of the band will track the tune together: old school... everyone live.

Hopefully this will yield a more passionate performance.  

Inside The Belly Of The Whale: Session 2

Session 2:  Brainstorming & Scratch Tracks

We spent our second session by set

ting up the coveted White Board.   Every self-respecting band going into a full-record studio project begins by laying out the white board with all the songs one will be focusing on.   We broke those down in to two categories:  Songs that are arranged and ready for tracking, and songs still in need of polishing.   For those keeping track at home, you can follow the progress of the White Board here!

After populating the White Board, we started laying down scratch tracks.  Each track is recorded to a click to help keep us honest and steady.   Following the click, we added rhythm instruments, vocals and solos as needed.   None of these tracks will be keepers, they're place holders that are tight to the click and give

Tyler and Scott a representative track to record their bass and drum tracks too.   Tyler and Scott will be tracking live together, which will allow for some great interactions.   I will post some audio from the first tracking sessions in the next post, along with those drum tone samples I promised!

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!

Off To The Mastering House

On saturday, I wrapped up the mixing on Violet Mary's first record, Marionette.   I can confidently say that I've not worked on a stronger release, nor have a been more proud of a project.   I'm very excited to get the record into people's hands.   The mixes are in Canada at Digital Sunspot for mastering, and should arrive back later this week.

In other news, we'll be picking our album cover art on friday.  We commissioned two Rochester artists, Bethany Beams and Cathy Bileti, to work up design ideas.   They will each be exhibiting their work at the release party on April 18th.   

I will be posting again in a few days, sharing some of the ideas that are brewing for the next record!     

Mixing Violet Mary

Tonight, I head back into the studio to finish mixing Violet Mary's first record, Marionette. No matter how many records I mix at The Whale (my studio), it never gets old. I still get a real pit in my stomach when, after hours of listening to the same song over and over, I think i've got the mix seated. Generally, I try and push my abilities with each mix... depending on what the previous mix's strengths and weaknesses were.

The last full record I mixed was a project for CrossCreek Community Church. Their mix was very dense, often with all 24 tracks full, and some tracks with multiple parts tracked on it (ie. backup vocals and accessory percussion on the same track). For the mix, my goal was to build a clean mix, one that allowed space for each instrument to breath. I also played a lot more with depth by applying reverb when mixing. The finished project was very clean, if not too clean. The tracks mixed a bit clinically.

With the Violet Mary record, my goal is to build a mix that has emotional content and punch. I'm almost ok with things being less clear if the mix has power to it. I also decided to employ two new micing techniques when tracking that have added to the power factor: The Glyn Johns technique for overhead drum micing and distance micing on guitar amps. More on both of those later.

For now, here's a sample of Trigger Happy, track 5 from Marionette.    

Peace,

m.