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CRAFT KILLER DRUM LOOPS
WITH GUITAR RIG
MIKING TIPS
FOR LESLIE SPEAKERS
10NEW TOOLS FOR MAKING BETTER MIXES
YEASAYERS GUIDE
TO SOUND MANGLING
EDITORS AND FLOOD
ON GETTING HUGE
ROOM SOUNDS
MAKE MUSIC
Ableton Suite 8 and Ableton Live 8
For movies, more info and a free 14-day license, visit:
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from denisbul
FEATURES
18 NORAH JONES
Norah Jones wanted to explore a darker, stranger
sound for The Fall and got just that from producer
Jacquire King and engineer Brad Bivens. The trio
discusses recording with a rotating cast of musicians,
Jones vintage mic collection, live vocal takes, pro-
gramming unusual textures in preproduction, and
overcoming demo-itis.
28 EDITORS
Tired of pushing a guitar-centric agenda in their
music, Editors pulled synths to the forefront for
their latest album, In This Light and on This
Evening. Producer Flood and Editors Russell
Leetch and Chris Urbanowicz talk about making
synths dirty, recording in big spaces, and appreci-
ating imperfections.
PUNCH IN
8 YEASAYER
10 JAMES PANTS
12 BLOCKHEAD
13 LAURA VEIRS
A
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CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 10
TECHNIQUES
34 GUITAR
Taming the Wild Leslie Cabinet
36 BASS
Favorite Studio Gear of the Stars
38 DRUMS
Big Boom in Small Places
39 VOCALS
Omnidirectional Bliss
42 TRACKING
Too Much Information
GEARHEAD
48 ROUNDUP: THE RULES OF THE MIXING GAME ARE
CHANGINGcheck out our exclusive tips, and
reviews of Waves Vocal Rider, iZotope Alloy,
Focusrite Scarlett plug-in suite, Cakewalk V-Studio
100, and three hot Universal Audio plugs.
62 GADGETS Shure X2u USB mic adapter, Zoom H4n
recorder, Monster Turbine Pro Copper earbuds
POWER APP ALLEY
44 PRESONUS STUDIO ONE PRO
46 NATIVE INSTRUMENTS GUITAR RIG 4
DEPARTMENTS
6 TALK BOX A Light at the End of the Torrent?
16 TOOLBOX
66 ROOM WITH A VU Rhyme Cartel Studios
Cover photo by Autumn DeWilde
from denisbul
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Talk Box
A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TORRENT?
From the extreme of the RIAA suing someones mom for a
zillion bucks, to big-name artists giving away music for
free, digital technology has turned the music industry on
its earand revenues have spiraled down year after year,
while illegal downloads kept accelerating.
So it was significant when the Guardian (UK) ran the
following headline: Sweden Sees Music Sales Soar After
Crackdown on Filesharing. From April 2009 (when strict
anti-file-sharing laws were put into place and judges ruled
against Pirate Bay) to November 2009, sales of music
went up 18% after seven straight years of decline.
Case closed, right? Bring out the stick, and sales
magically go up.
But hold on a second. Sales of physical media were
only 9% of that increase; paid digital downloads
accounted for a whopping 80%. Interestingly, coincident
with the crackdown, several new legal, digital download
options (like Spotify) appeared. This adds credence to
the theory that one reason for file-sharing is a paucity of
legitimate, appealing, economical options for digital
downloads. Sure, the Swedish experience doesnt mean
the end of stealing; but if it signals the start of people
gravitating toward legit download sitesfree of viruses,
awkward interfaces, and the chance of getting busted
thats a good thing.
However, this also underscores just how badly the
music biz blew it back in the days of Napster by pretend-
ing that file-sharing didnt exist, instead of embracing it
and innovating (remember, it was a computer company
that came up with a viable model for selling music online).
Record labels had resourcesback catalogs, alternate
takes, 360 artist deals, and much morethey could have
exploited to create ultra-cool online buying sites that
would have squashed the torrents. But they didnt, and
theyve paid dearly. Sure, we need the stick to keep peo-
ple from breaking the law; but perhaps even more impor-
tantly, we also need the carrot to give people a strong
incentive not to break the law.
Whats happening in Sweden suggests that maybe the
traditional record companies are not at their greatest risk
from the admittedly problematic pirates, but from smart,
legitimate competitors with new ideas and sales models.
Stay tuned; this story isnt over yet.
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 6
www.eqmag.com Vol. 21 No. 2, February 2010
Executive Editor Craig Anderton, canderton@musicplayer.com
Editor Kylee Swenson, eqeditor@musicplayer.com
Managing Editor Debbie Greenberg, dgreenberg@musicplayer.com
Contributors Kent Carmical, Ken Micallef, John Payne, Mosi Reeves,
Mike Rozkin, Patrick Sisson
Art Director Patrick Wong, pwong@musicplayer.com
Staff Photographers Paul Haggard, phaggard@musicplayer.com,
Craig Anderton, canderton@musicplayer.com
Group Publisher Joe Perry
jperry@musicplayer.com, 770.343.9978
Advertising Director, Northwest, Northeast, Canada, & New
Business Dev. Greg Sutton
gsutton@musicplayer.com, 925.425.9967
Advertising Director, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, & Southeast
Jessica Sullivan
jsullivan@musicplayer.com, 661.255.2719
Advertising Director, Southwest Albert Margolis
amargolis@musicplayer.com, 949.582.2753
Specialty Sales Associate, North Reggie Singh
rsingh@musicplayer.com, 650.238.0296
Specialty Sales Associate, South Will Sheng
wsheng@musicplayer.com, 650.238.0325
Production Manager Beatrice Kim
MUSIC PLAYER NETWORK
Vice President John Pledger
Editorial Director Michael Molenda
Senior Financial Analyst Bob Jenkins
Production Department Manager Beatrice Kim
Director of Sales Operations Lauren Gerber
Web Director Max Sidman
Motion Graphics Designer Tim Tsuruda
Marketing Designer Joelle Katcher
Systems Engineer John Meneses
Assoc. Consumer Marketing Director Christopher Dyson
NEWBAY MEDIA CORPORATE
President & CEO Steve Palm
Chief Financial Officer Paul Mastronardi
Vice President Web Development Joe Ferrick
Circulation Director Denise Robbins
HR Manager Ray Vollmer
IT Director Greg Topf
Controller Jack Liedke
Please direct all advertising and editorial inquiries to:
EQ, 1111 Bayhill Dr., Ste. 125, San Bruno, CA 94066
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EQ (ISSN 1050-7868) is published monthly by NewBayMedia, LLC 1111 Bayhill
Drive, Suite 125, San Bruno, CA 94066. EQ is a trademark of NewBay Media. All
material published in EQ is copyrighted () 2009 by NewBay Media. All rights
reserved. Reproduction of material appearing in EQ is prohibited without
written permission. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EQ., P.O. Box 232,
Lowell, MA 01853. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited
manuscripts, photos, or artwork. All product information is subject to change;
publisher assumes no responsibility for such changes. All listed model num-
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be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
Periodicals Postage Paid at San Bruno, CA, and at additional
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Follow us on Twitter!
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from denisbul
www.shure.com
2009 Shure Incorporated
The New SRh750DJ heaDphoNeS
Our professional DJ headphones deliver high-
output bass with extended highs, perfect for
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Visit shure.com to learn more.
SouND, STyle aND FlexibiliTy
PUNCH
IN
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 8
SONIC
OPTIONS
Yeasayer Edits and Processes Sounds
Into Oblivion for Odd Blood
BY PATRICK SISSON
After a season spent playing songs
from their woozy, soaring debut, All
Hours Cymbal, at outdoor festivals,
Brooklyns Yeasayer wanted to record
a sophomore album that was bold
enough for the big stage. Odd Blood
[Secretly Canadian], the result of a
stretched-out yet deliberate recording
process, reflects the bands constant
tinkering and drive to one-up their
electric debut.
There was so much creativity in
creating new sounds, engineer Britt
Myers says. Ive done sound design
and a lot of music mixing and engi-
neering, and this was really the first
record that combined both of those
backgrounds.
Vocalist/guitarist Anand Wilder,
vocalist/keyboardist Chris Keating,
and bassist Ira Wolf Tuton began with
a set of initial demos, some recorded
as early as 2007. They reworked
them in a rented house in
Woodstock, New York, owned by
drummer Jerry Marotta (Peter
Gabriel) before re-recording and mix-
ing with Myers at Great City Produc-
tions in Manhattan. Marottas
relatively remote home studio was
fully wired and boasted a cache of
gear, including Taos drums and vin-
tage synths, such as the Prophet-5
and Prophet-VS, which augmented
the Clavia Nord Lead, Nord Wave, and
Roland XV-5050 used on the album.
But Yeasayer hunkered down with
Pro Tools and a Digi 002, painstak-
ingly laying down and tweaking one
track at a time. Notes blur, melt, and
reform, partially due to the bands
habit of recording to Ableton Live,
then adding glide between notes.
Rome, with its jaunty mix of
spastic keyboards, is an example of
the studio mangling that was
involved. The native piano riff was
chopped up, the attack removed, and
then sent through filters before being
played on another keyboard
altogether by Wilder, who also sped it
up. On Ambling Alp, a Moog MF-102
Ring Modulator and the SoundToys
Crystallizer plug-in, a pitch-shifted
delay, gave extra dimension to the
viscous yet charging sax-propelled
single. And on Madder Red
inspired by the soundtrack to Lost
Boys and the guitar thrashing of War-
ren Ellis, Wilder saysa Gibson ES-335
is threaded through Frostwaves Sonic
Alienator pedal.
Our manager was laughing at us,
Wilder says. He said, You cant seri-
ously consider changing this little love
song. But we wanted to do balls-to-
the-wall production. We thought of it
as making a movie: Get as much
footage as possible with the idea that
later on youd edit the hell out of it.
To anchor the albums unique
sounds, Wilder says the band sought
to emulate hip-hop and dancehall
production, especially Timbaland
tracks. We were trying to get a lot
more bass, aiming for something
more clear and spare, he says. But
Yeasayer (left to right)Chris
Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and
Anand Wilder.
from denisbul
from denisbul
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 9
G
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then we always end up adding more
and more shit.
Low-end theory was consistent on
Odd Blood, even though bass notes
came from both keyboards and Tutons
range of bass guitars, including a Fender
Precision and a G&L Semi-Hollow
ASAT. At Woodstock, synths were
sent directly to Pro Tools, but if Tuton
was playing bass, he would send it
though an Ampeg B-15 flip-top, mic it,
and send it though an API 560 EQ.
Wilder says they removed the attack
and plucking but made sure the
processed sounds didnt get too syn-
thetic. A Peavey Kosmos brought out
extra sub tones.
When Myers was mixing, he ran
bass tracks through the SSL Duality
48-channel analog board and used the
consoles built-in EQ. Hed then send it
through a Neve 33609, a Urei 1176, and
a Moog MF-101 Low Pass Filter.
Id also send it through the Stan-
dard Audio Level-Or for more
crunchsame thing with synthetic
bass, he says. It has this crunchy
compressor that sounds awesome.
Distortion can be a mixed bag. You
can lose control of your mix easily,
and things can sound grainy and
harsh. The Level-Or does a nice job of
keeping things crunchy in a
compressed way.
Myers also amped up percussion to
provide more power to the tracks, and
he uses lots of parallel compression,
alongside an API 2500, to provide
punch and warmth to rhythm tracks.
According to Wilder, the real drums on
certain songs, including Madder Red,
needed the movement of air that the
synthetic pieces were missing.
When you have a band working
with a lot of f**ked-up, lo-fi sounds,
you need to have the power a big kick
or snare brings to the track, Myers
says. If you just have the big stuff, it
sounds clean and generic. Like the rest
of the album, here its all about the
right combination.
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 10
PUNCHIN
J
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BY MOSI REEVES
James Pants Singleton has befuddled
listeners since his 2008 debut,
Welcome, a cryptic mlange of early
80s boogie R&B and electro. It was
funky, for sure, but it begged the ques-
tion: Was he really serious?
A lot of those songs were from my
college years, says Singleton from his
home in Colorado. Some were really
serious, and some of them were me
just joking around in the studio. But I
wasnt trying to be ironic, and a lot of
people perceived it as such. All my
music is me being a different character,
whether its a doomsday prophet or
some dude trying to pick up chicks. Its
just me trying to create a fantasy.
Seven Seals [Stones Throw], which
Singleton quips is a soundtrack to a
cult, is an attempt to evolve beyond
the electro-fied nonsense of Welcome.
He incorporates a wider palette into his
quirky persona, from the familiar synth-
pop to 70s Christian rock, psychedelia,
and Goth darkwave. Through apocalyp-
tic numbers such as Sky Warning and
Wash to Sea, and with vocal tones
ranging from a low falsetto to a deep,
ominous baritone, Pants portends a
battle between heaven and hell. Influ-
ences include cult horror films such as
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,
Suspiria, and The Wicker Man.
I was getting a little tired of the
disco-boogie stuff, as much as I love
that genre, he says. I grew up listening
to a lot of psych music. My parents were
both Presbyterian ministers, so Ive
always had a fascination with the end of
the world and that kind of thing.
However, Seven Seals retains Single-
tons playful vibe and appreciation for
novelty, recording his vocals directly
into a built-in microphone on a Pana-
sonic RX-5100 boombox. I just put a
tape in and press record, he says. For
some reason, that boombox has a lot
of compression, so I can be really far
away and sound really close. Singleton
also uses a generic/no brand SM57
knockoff microphone.
Echo and reverb predominates
Seven Seals ghostly sound, which is
due in part to his Roland RE-201 Space
Echo. I use that on almost every
song, he says. Its got a reverb setting
that you can tack up a lot. For added
effect, he relies on the spring reverb
function on his 70s-era Peavey mixing
board, which he bought for $70 at a
pawnshop.
And using a Boss SP-303 Dr. Sam-
ples tape echo and distortion
functions, James mutates his vocals
and applies the reverb function to
instruments he samples. Ive been
using the 303 for so long that I feel
comfortable with it, Singleton says.
Between the 303 and a Dell [Dimen-
sion] XPS T550 Pentium computer, I
can pretty much get anything.
For A Chip in the Hand, Singleton
had saxophonist Paul Flores play
directly into the boombox, resulting in
a strangely muffled sound reminiscent
of Pink Floyds Us and Them. I usu-
ally try to [apply reverb] while Im
recording through the 303 or the
mixer, he says. If not, I use digital
effects with [Sony] Acid after the fact.
Those usually sound real sterile, so I
dont like them, but it worked out with
the saxophone.
For drums, he uses a Gibson
Slingerland Gold Sparkle Jazz kit as a
base. I usually [record drums] with
one microphone and lots of compres-
sion, and then I go back tediously and
add an 808 kick drum under each bass
drum hit because when I do the com-
pression, the bass drum just sounds
too weak, Singleton says. Sometimes
he places the boombox close to the kit
and angles it toward the snares; other
times hell place it several feet away
and jack up the compression setting
on the 303. The farther away I am, it
has a much bigger sound, huge like
John Bonham-style, he adds.
Keyboards in Singletons arsenal
include a Hohner String Performer,
Roland JX-3P, Korg MicroKorg with
vocoder, and a Radio Shack custom-
tone synthesizer he bought for $40.
The Radio Shack synth came in handy
for the simple string-plucked melody
on Seven Seals first single, Thin
Moon. I used the pizzicato strings
preset, and then I put the keyboards
stage setting reverb on it, he says.
Singleton likes to make music as
fast and as cheap as possible so he
doesnt forget any ideas, painting pic-
tures of the visions in his head. I think
Im just more impulsive, he notes. It
can be a completely messed-up sound
quality-wise, but the sound should be
an experience or a fantasy.
DIME-STORE
DARE
James Pants Brazenly Uses a
Boombox to Record His Sonic
Fantasies
James Pants.
from denisbul
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 12
PUNCHIN PUNCHIN
BY KYLEE SWENSON
Blockhead, a.k.a. Tony Simon, is a col-
lage artist in the truest sense of the
word. With 85 percent of his sound
coming from samples, his is a differ-
ent kind of talent: It takes a finely
tuned ear to fit together dozens of
sonic puzzle pieces that werent origi-
nally made for one another.
It also requires a lot of patience
and skill to get sounds from various
sources to lock in place and form a
totally new composition. In
Blockheads case, he made it particu-
larly difficult on himself by setting
harsh limitations, including a no time
stretching rule.
But then he fell in love with Able-
ton Live, and his whole process
changed with his fourth solo album
(hes also done production on eight
Aesop Rock albums), The Music Scene
[Ninja Tune]. Ive never used time
stretching before until this album, he
says. It was a lot of trial and error,
but I got it tuned over the years to
really pick out which sounds would
sound good with what.
Using Live, Blockhead opened up a
world of possibilities. I thought by
using time stretching, it takes away
the skill of what Im doing, he says. I
purposely wasnt doing it in the past
because I thought it was cheating. But
on this album I was like, Ive proven
that I can smash samples without
cheating, so let me try to take this to
a new level. Why be held back by
constraints that Im putting on
myself that dont apply to everyone
else? And it made these songs sound
bigger and more epic.
Blockhead still limits himself in
terms of what he samples, though. I
dont really mess with stuff thats
made after like 1982, he says. I just
think thats when the sound of music
changed, and I dont really like that
sound in sampling so much.
He used to go to the 99-cent bins
for records, but these days, hes
searching online because he says
obscure records are out of his price
range. Lately, hes found a wealth of
fodder on rare-music blogs. Mutant
Sounds (mutantsounds.com) for
example, has a blogroll that led him to
other sites. It takes a lot of snooping,
Blockhead says. An hour later, Im 20
steps away from where I started at
something Ive never seen before.
Now he weaves together whole
sections of sounds that previously
had nothing in common. I could
make my whole album one song if I
really wanted to, Blockhead says.
That would be awful, but I probably
could do it.
Instead, hell try meshing two or
three separate beats together (each
one containing various musical and
rhythmic samples), using one particu-
lar sample as an anchor, then pitching
and changing the tempo of the other
samples to fit the main sample. But
even when he can get two sections in
key, if the vibes dont match, he
moves on.
Blockhead still edits, pitches, and
tweaks samples with his Ensoniq
ASR-10 sampler (using floppy disks).
To stay organized, he labels potential
samples for different purposes, such
as transition or shift/tempo
change. I sit there with a pen and a
pad and pretty much map out the
songs like an equation, he says. Its
funny that making music, at least with
samples, is a lot more mathematical
than youd ever think it should be.
The Daily Routine, Its Raining
Clouds, and Farewell Spacemen are
examples of three-part Ableton
smash-fests. Its Raining Clouds, which
features a menagerie of samples and
stylesflute, sitar, horns, synths, piano;
drum n bass, rock, jazzstarted from
a scratch sound and backwards vocal,
and kept building from there.
Blockhead also had his friend
Damien Paris record bass and guitar,
and Wilder Zoby from the band Chin
Chin played/sang a DigiTech Talker
vocoder through a Moog Liberation
on Four Walls. Then Blockhead took
his computer to producer BabyDay-
liners house, dumped tracks into Pro
Tools, added more parts, and mixed
it using plug-ins such as Joemeek
Meequalizer, Tel-Ray delays, and Tril-
lium Lane reverbs.
But they didnt get too heavy with
effects. The emphasis was on EQ.
Sometimes samples are tricky
because they can have a wide palate,
frequency-wise, Baby Dayliner says.
You might find yourself dipping cer-
tain EQ ranges of a sample in order to
let other stuff be heard better in the
mix. We definitely wrestled with that
issue a bit.
Overall, Blockhead kept the
wrestling to a minimum. Its funny
because mixing has always looked like
this thing thats so anal, like, Lets
spend an hour on this snare and get it
to sound right, Blockhead says. And
Ive never thought that way. I dont
like to dwell on a sound for hours and
hours because really its the overall
package that Im looking at.
Blockhead Takes the Shackles
Off of His Super-Restricted
Sampling Process
PRISON
BREAK
Blockhead.
from denisbul
D
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BY KYLEE SWENSON
When folk/country artist Laura Veirs
began writing for her seventh album,
July Flame [Raven Marching Band],
things didnt go exactly as she hoped.
She wrote a lot80 songsbut it wasnt
until she got to about song 40 that she
started to like what she was doing.
I wrote so many that were not
really appealing to me, she admits. I
dont think it was just a matter of me
being overly self-critical. I was rehash-
ing the same old stuff and I was
bored, and boredom in your craft is
dangerous and probably inevitable
because Ive been doing this for a
long time.
After months hunkered down in
her barn (a converted garage
behind the house she shares with her
producer, Tucker Martine, in Portland),
she broke through to new territory.
Her goal was to create songs that
would stand out with just a guitar and
voice. It takes more work to get to
those types of songs, she says. Veirs
old, falling apart Mac running
GarageBand actually helped matters
by only allowing her to record four
tracks per song.
When it came time to record the
album, Veirs and Martine set other
limitations by mostly avoiding synths
and drums. Other instruments were
fair game. When I hear a song that
shes written that I really love, usually a
lot of the instrumentation is suggested
on the first listen, Martine says.
Sometimes shell have a
countermelody idea that shell mock up
on the demo [as a vocal] that we usu-
ally will assign to another instrument.
Conversely, a guitar part on the
demo of Life Is Good Blues ended
up becoming a vocal line so it wouldnt
interfere with another, more intricate
guitar line. After trying horns and
whatever was nearby, Martine had
bass player Karl Blau sing layers of
the part through an AKG BX10 spring
reverb. The end result sounds a lot
like The Muppets. We were laughing
so hard the first several times we
heard it, he says. We were like,
Were probably just doing this
because its fun and we need some
comic relief after working so hard.
But when we tried to listen without it,
we missed it. I think its important to
challenge your own idea of what
appropriate instruments are and not
always get caught up in being too
familiar or too tasteful, because things
start to sound precious.
Consequently, they broke the no
synth rule. On the title track, which
features a beautiful, doubled Gibson
ES-175 guitar part, theres a buzzing
synth thats a combo of a Crumar Per-
former through an overdriven Carr
Mercury amp (also used for guitars)
and distorted bass that Blau played
on a beat-up Telecaster basswith
rusted strings that havent been
changed in 15 years, Martine says
through a Big Muff pedal and Ampeg
B-15 amp.
Veirs, who grew up in Colorado and
studied Mandarin Chinese and geol-
ogy at Carleton College in Minnesota,
Laura Veirs Burns Through 80 Songs to
Get to the Gold
RARE RESOLVE
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 13
Laura Veirs.
Cast your votes for the Readers Choice Awards (including best 2009 cover
artist and best producer) now at www.eqmag.com!
Bring It!
www.eqmag.com
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 14
recorded many songs on the old nylon-
string Goya guitar shes had since she
was a kid. Otherwise, she played a Mar-
tin Smartwood steel string, Gibson Les
Paul Classic and ES-175 electric guitars,
and an Enoch banjo she borrowed
from one of her students (she also
teaches guitar, banjo, songwriting, and
vocal lessons).
To record acoustic guitar and banjo,
Martine set up three micsan RCA 44
ribbon mic for darker sounds, and a
modified Neumann U 87 and a B&K
4011 for brighter detail (panned left
and right on sparser songs)and
chose different blends. I had the U 87
on her guitar just below where the
neck meets the body, he explains.
The B&K 4011 was toward the boomier
side, behind where her hand was hit-
ting the strings, and then usually I
would bring the RCA up the center to
fill it out.
Vocal-wise, Veirs sang through
the U 87 (or occasionally a Shure
SM7 or Telefunken M49) through a
Telefunken Siemens V72 preamp into
a Urei 1176 silver face and an
Ecoplate III reverb. She sings whole
passes of leads, doubles, and
harmonies quickly, but she ensures
shes in a good headspace before
starting. Recording is so mental and
emotional, she says, and if youre
not quite there, itll be apparent.
Martine does superquick rough
mixes (using a Neotek Elite board)
leading up to the final mix because of
the unusual choices hell make on a
whim. Sometimes I pull up a rough
mix and think, Man, did I have the
backup vocals loud, but that sounds
cool! he says. I might discover that
notching out a little bit of 300 on the
acoustic guitar helps and then do that
when I pull up each song that was
recorded that same way. But I like to
give each song its own treatment and
not fall into habits. Its so easy to get
bogged down in thinking, Im going to
EQ everything perfectly and use just
the right compression. It might sound
more hi-fi, but the excitement of the
song is gone.
PUNCHIN
from denisbul
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Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Plug-in Bundle
What Reverb plug-ins
Why Provides seven Lexicon reverb algorithms that are designed to
deliver the highest level of sonic quality and function while offering all
the flexibility of native plug-ins.
How It includes unique plug-ins for each reverb including: Vintage
Plate, Plate, Hall, Room, Random Hall, Concert Hall, and Chamber,
and comes with over 950 studio presets.
Price $1,899
Web www.lexiconpro.com
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 16
TOOL
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ProducerLoops Pop Dan Sik
What Pop loops and samples
Why It blends electronic vibes with euro dance flavors
and club hall Top 40.
How The kits are presented in ACID/WAV and Apple
Loops formats. Each kit contains a full sample mix plus all
of the elements separated. This collection also includes
single hit samples in Battery 2, Kontakt 2, E-mu, Halion,
and SoundFont formats.
Price $22
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Waves Vocal Rider
What Plug-in for mixing
Why Sets steady vocal and
dialog levels automatically.
How The user sets the target
range of the vocal level in
relation to the rest of the mix.
Vocal Rider then compensates
for all deviations from the tar-
get, raising or lowering the
vocal volume, instantly. Unlike
compression, Vocal Rider
adds no coloration to the
track.
Price $400 Native, $800 TDM
Web www.waves.com
by Mi ke Rozki n
Roland SP-404SX
What Linear wave sampler
Why Offers 44.1kHz/16-bit sound quality, improved DSP effects, a more
versatile pattern sequencer, and easier data management.
How Includes 29 DSP effects (filter, delay, unique voice effects,
subsonic, and looper) that switch seamlessly for a smooth
performance. Twelve trigger pads, three control knobs, and a Sub
Pad for rapid triggering allow DJs, musicians, and sound engineers to
trigger samples and jingles, and apply effects on the fly at a club, gig,
or theater.
Price $465
Web www.rolandus.com
All prices are MSRP except as noted.
from denisbul
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 17
Voxengo GlissEQ 3.0
What Dynamic equalizer plug-in
Why Boosting up the highs will not create the
fatiguing effect of overload; boosting up the
lows will not make things sound mushy. Instead,
you get a transient-emphasizing effect bringing
life and dimension to your tracks.
How Filters with dynamic behavior, realtime
spectrum analysis, up to 32 filter bands, inter-
nal channel routing, and 64-bit floating point
processing.
Price $99, $59 for upgrade
Web www.voxengo.com
Square State Solid State Equalizer model one b
What Hardware EQ
Why Combines inductor-based topology with a high-speed op amp design.
How Low, mid, and high bands offer a substantial amount of cut/boost (nearly 20dB) at useful frequencies (six per
band), while still behaving musically when pushed to extremes. The switchable low and high frequency bands offer
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Price TBD
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Yamaha DTX-Multi 12
What Electronic percussion pad
Why Responds to the dynamics of a drummers perfor-
mance and the staggered layout makes it easy to hit the
right pad.
HowSplit-level multi-pad that adapts sound technology
from the flagship Motif XS synthesizer and the
DTXTREME III drum trigger module, and lets drummers
and percussionists enjoy three modes of play: with sticks,
hands, or fingers.
Price $899
Web www.yamaha.com
JZ Vintage
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What Vintage-style
microphones
Why New microphone line with
a unique design and the well-
known vintage sound.
Series The new mics have a flask
shape with built in shockmount
and unique capsule. JZ has
three different models, the V-
67, V-47, and V-12. Each mic is
intended to have a vintage
sound reminiscent of the U67,
U47, and C-12.
Price TBD
Web www.jzmic.com
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 18
A
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from denisbul
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 19
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 20
You think you know Norah Jones? She
of the 36-million-selling albums, lan-
guorous songs, and deep blue vocals?
Well, think again. After three sweet
releases of soothing tones in songs so
summery its like dipping your toes in
a warm country pond, Norah Jones
locates her inner darkness on The Fall.
Inspired in some part by her
breakup with long-term beau and
bassist Lee Alexander, The Fall [Angel
Records] casts the Norah we once
knew into a strung out, deliciously
dark world of torrid drumming, sultry
Wurlitzer (often played by keyboard
wizard James Poyser), angelic space
sounds, and the strange, nightmarish
guitars of Marc Ribot and Smokey
Hormel, creating an aura of sonic hal-
lucination and mental dislocation.
Norahs always gorgeous vocals and
darker subject matter are encapsu-
lated anew in a kind of beat-driven,
electric swamp music. Its like
Louisiana by way of England: New
Orleans-era Daniel Lanois productions
meet Dusty Springfield and a post-
modern Massive Attack.
Norah Jones achieves a delicate
balance with The Fall. Produced, engi-
neered, and mixed by Jacquire King
(Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Mutemath),
The Fall veers wildly between the new
darker, weirder Norah and the wide-
eyed ingnue who stole the hearts of
millions on her 2002 debut, Come
Away With Me. First single Chasing
Pirates tricks the ears with a funky
backward beat before straightening
out to include gritty guitars and
crunchy Wurlitzer, all delayed and
treated, yet never harming Jones
lovely vocal lines. Even Though gets
strangerreggae bass dollops driving
fractured guitars and a childlike key-
board. Queens Youre My Best
Friend comes to mind when Its
Gonna Be bounds from the speakers,
all gut thumping, shuffling drums,
voodoo keys, and guitar, Norah sailing
above it all like some beautiful phan-
tom describing the future. Stuck
recalls The Beatles final organic
rooftop gig, Norah pleading with some
dude to leave her alone while her
musicians lay it behind the beat like a
bar band on narcotics. Tell Yer Mama
kicks that same loser dude to the curb,
Norah refusing to cry for you.
But Norah Jones hasnt completely
forgotten her old fans while cultivat-
ing new ones. December, Man of
the Hour, and Youve Ruined Me will
appease those who still prefer their
Norah sweet and simple.
Demos for The Fall began at Jones
Manhattan home studio in May 2008,
with engineer Tom Schick manning
her custom Neve console (with 1073
modules), Otari 2-inch 24-track MTR-
90, and a sumptuous collection of vin-
tage tube mics (Neumann M 49, U 47,
and Telefunken ELA M 250). Knowing
she wanted to create a different
sound for her fourth release, Jones
considered some of her favorite
albumsTom Waits Mule Variations,
Santigolds Santogold, and MGMTs
Oracular Spectacularand called on
producer/engineer Jacquire King (who
worked on Mule Variations).
Recording in mid-2009 at New
Yorks The Magic Shop, Studio A
(Neve 80 Series console with 1079
modules to 16-track Studer A827 2-inch
24-track to Pro Tools|HD3) and
L.A.s Sunset Sound, Studio 2 (Neve
8088 with 1073 preamps and EQs to
Studer A827 2-inch 24-track to Pro
Tools), Jones and King adopted a
quasi Steely Dan approach, often
recording the same song with differ-
ent groups, then cherry-picking the
best performances.
Jones vocals were taken from the
first two or three takes. And in an era
when everyone comps or overdubs to
some degree, Norah Jones cuts her
vocals live, with the band, typically
finding her sweet spot by take three.
Assistant engineer Brad Bivens mar-
vels at Jones mastery in the recording
studio.
She is very in control of what is
happening, Bivens remarks. So even
if her voice sounds very kind and gen-
tle, she is very in control and the musi-
cians are aware of that and how she is
directing them. Her efficiency in the
studio is incredible.
After platinum- and diamond-selling
albums, a romantic breakup, and a
new producer who helped her forge a
fresh recording approach, The Fall is
Norah Jones most daring album to
date. Even Norah Jones must admit
things are looking up.
NORAH JONES ON LIVE
TAKES, VINTAGE MICS, &
ROTATING MUSICIANS
How did you envision this different-
sounding recording?
Ive always been drawn to these kind
of sounds. This time I thought more
about what I wanted sonically. On my
other records, I would just go to the
studio and play, mostly on acoustic
instruments with an occasional elec-
tric guitar or Wurlitzer. But this time I
wanted the sonic landscape to be a
specific thing. I wanted heavier drum
grooves, and to experiment with key-
boards and have weirder sounds
weaving through the background. I
play more guitar [a Gibson ES-335 and
1960s Guild archtop] and I wanted the
backgrounds to be dirtier than any-
thing Id done before.
Touring bandmate Sasha Dobson
(left) and Norah Jones playing at
Le Poisson Rouge in New York
City, September 24, 2009.
from denisbul
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 22
How did you decide on Jacquire
King as producer?
Jacquire is a great engineer and he
was a wonderful producer. I wanted
somebody who could really help me
get that sound I wanted. I like analog
gear and recording on tape and old-
sounding recordings, but I dont know
how to get it on my own. I wanted to
go in that direction with some songs,
then bring the other songs into the
same zone so they all fit together.
Part of the danger in trying this
new direction was doing all that and
not covering up my voice, which is the
thing that needs to shine through. I can
sing out but I sing the way I sing and
in a very intimate way. We discussed
all the interesting sounds I wanted to
get while still leaving room for my
voice. That was important.
You record your vocals live with
the band?
I love live takes. Its always better
when you can get it that way, right?
Its easier and more natural. I will
punch in sometimes. Usually I hope
for a live take, but before we move on
to overdubs Ill do a couple of takes in
the same space if Im singing okay.
Then if we need any fixes, we have the
takes without having to go back and
re-sing everything later.
How do you prepare to record
vocals?
Hot whiskey or hot tea! Some kind
of hot beverage that will open up the
voice if I am tired. On my first record
we really got into Lagavulin. I like Irish
whiskey. Its smooth. Definitely not
something I can drink too much of
without getting sloppy. Hot water
works as well, something to help me
breathe. Beyond that I just stay
focused and think about the song and
try to be present.
You have a great collection of vin-
tage mics. How did you choose them?
I bought the Neumann M 49 from
Sorcerer Sound where I made my first
record. It has a quality with the way I
sing that just works. I realized on my
second record [2004s Feels Like
Home] that it was pretty special. I
couldnt get that same quality as easily
with another mic. I love the M 49 and I
also used a Telefunken ELA M 250 on
my third record [2007s Not Too Late].
It depends on the type of song and the
way I am singing for which one sounds
better. I love the 49 cause it gets all
the grit and warmth, but sometimes it
can sound a little too muffled if I am
singing a certain way. Then the 250
gives some nice high end and a lot of
air. And I like to be close to the mic to
catch all the nuances.
After three records, do you have a
general recording concept?
The only thing that I have done
consistently that works is to have two
different sessions spread out over a
few months. My first record we meant
to record all in one shot, but we ended
up going in twice. It helps with per-
spective. You need the luxury and the
time and the budget to do that, of
course, but for me its been really
helpful to go in for a week and get
whatever creative ideas you have
down, then take some space from it
for a few months. For The Fall, I had all
the songs demoed in May of 2008.
Then it was helpful to listen to them,
see what worked, what I liked, what I
wanted to change. Thats when I
hired Jacquire; we went in for a
month with four different groups of
musicians to experiment. We had
enough knowledge from the demos
that we knew exactly what we were
going for.
Why did you record with multiple
groups of musicians?
I was experimenting. But I also
used a couple of the demos (Wait-
ing, December) for the final record-
ing. We didnt need to re-record them.
We added little things to the demos. I
have really bad demo-itis. I get really
used to demos. And even if theyre
imperfect, I usually like them. Some-
times I will try to perfect something
that isnt exactly what I wanted, but
then I will go back to the demo
because I really love it.
JACQUIRE KING ON
PREPARATION, DELAYS,
& NEW DIRECTIONS
Why did Norah contact you?
Stylistically, her demos were in areas
that were very familiar to her. She
wanted to get away from that. She
was looking for someone to get her
out of her comfort zone and expose
her to a new way of working. The Mule
Variations record was a good starting
point for us; thats how she found me.
How did you develop the demos
from the familiar Norah Jones sound
to this heavily delayed guitar, funky
electric Wurlitzer thing?
I did a lot of preparation. There
are 20 musicians or more on the
record and four different rhythm
sections [including drummers
James Gadson and Joey Waronker].
I was arranging certain sessions
around particular musicians. But I
didnt have a plan, per se. I was
there to coach her and create an
opportunity for her to feel inspired
and to help bring about something
new for her.
Also, [keyboardist] Matt Stanfield
and I did programming to all of her
demos as preparation. That enabled
me to create some dark rhythmic tex-
tures to the songs based around the
conversations I was having with
Norah. Very few of the finished songs
included those elements. But it let
me present her with something to fur-
ther get inside where we needed to
Norah Jones performing at
Le Poisson Rouge.
from denisbul
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 24
go. Also, being ready to capture
something in the moment is as impor-
tant as the sonic picture you paint.
Did you bring your own mics and
preamps to the sessions?
The only thing I brought along was
the Universal Audio 2-610. [And the
Massenburg MDW Hi-Res Parametric
EQ to add extra fluidity to every chan-
nel, Brad Bivens adds.] The Magic
Shop and Sunset Sound have wonder-
ful Neve desks and lots of outboard
gear, and Norah has wonderful micro-
phones. So instead of carting things
around, I just brought guitar pedals
[i.e.: Boss CE-1 Chorus], speakers, and
the 2-610, which is a tube mic pre with
EQ. It was used for Wurlitzer, guitars,
and bass. The vocals were recorded
through a Neve 1073 module. And
Norah has an ELA M 250 mic and a
U 47; then we chose the 250 paired
with a Placid Audio Copperphone. Its
basically an old pay phone telephone
voice element in a custom copper
enclosure. I put that right next to the
250. It has a very frequency limited,
old time gritty, edgy sound and gave
the vocal a little more texture. Some-
times I leaned heavier on background
vocals to give them a different texture
and separate it from the lead vocal.
What ideas did Norah have about
recording her voice?
She was into adding delay on her
voice, trying not to just make it pretty
with reverb. The delays were both
analog and plug-in. I use Audio Ease
Altiverb, SoundToys EchoBoy delay,
some of the UA plug-insthey have a
nice EMT 140 emulationand the
Cooper Time Cube Delay. We used
The Magic Shops Marshall Tape Elimi-
nator AR-300, a tape slap simulator.
And Norah had an old Ibanez analog
delay. We used a Roland Chorus Echo
and EMT 140 plate reverbs, too. Some-
times I will use an Eventide H3000 for
harmonic delay effects, and as I get
them going I will print them in Pro
Tools with the transfer from analog.
How did you record Chasing
Pirates, the first single?
We recorded that four
times; the third version is
where the drums, bass,
and Wurlitzer came
from. The programming
that we did prior to
recording was kept and
used to play to. I used
the vocal from the sec-
ond version and got it
going with the band. We
got some interesting
sounds going and built a
vibe where we were cre-
ating something differ-
ent from other versions.
Its a combo of different
bands and different
recordings.
Overall, how did you
help Norah find a new
direction while retaining
her signature vocal
sound?
I had to pay attention
to what felt comfortable and what
Norah reacted to and what she felt
inspired by. I wasnt there to tell her
how to sing in a new way. It was about
surrounding her vocal and letting her
react to the change in the music and
direction. I wanted to create a differ-
ent vibe to support her voice and have
her follow that lead. A vocal perfor-
mance is about words and conveying
an emotion and supporting that with
the right kind of sonic atmosphere;
thats what gave her the result of her
sounding different vocally.
ENGINEER BRAD BIVENS
ON ISOLATION, MIKING,
& QUICK TAKES
How did the tracking break down?
We did three weeks at The Magic
Shop and one week at Sunset Sound.
Half of the vocal takes you hear are
what Norah sang live with the band.
Every time we tracked, she did multi-
ple vocal takes just to see if she could
beat what shed already done. But she
is so quick and precise that often
what she sang with the band was by
far the best version.
When tracking vocals live with the
band, how do you adapt?
We knew what Norah was
singing at any given time would
potentially be on the record. We
made sure she was isolated from
the group. At The Magic Shop she
was in the live room with half the
musicians, but their amps were iso-
lated. When she played piano
[recorded with Neumann U 69 and
U 67, Soundelux E49, and Neumann
M 582 mics], we covered it with
packing blankets to isolate her mic
K
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K
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U
P
I
T
Z
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Norah Jones (far left), Jacquire King,
and Brad Bivens at Sunset Sound in
Los Angeles.
Brad Bivens.
from denisbul
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piano mic. Getting levels set before-
hand was important, and Norah works
very quickly. We were ready if
anything went wrong, and we had
backup scenarios.
What did you use to record bass,
and how did you approach compres-
sion and blending?
We used an Avalon U5 DI with a
dbx 160 for electric, and a Neumann
U 47 with a dbx 160 for upright. Basi-
cally, just having a subtle compression
on the bass from the 160 helps when
anyone is digging a little more. It con-
trols the level a slight amount before
going to tape. We dont want to over-
compress the bass because the tape
will do that for us.
How did you mic and record
the drums?
We used a Sennheiser MD 421, AKG
D 12, and a GML 8200 EQ for the kick
drum; Shure SM57 and SM7, Altec
633A, and GML 8200 for snare; MD
421 for rack tom and floor; Neumann
U 67 for overheads; and two Coles
4038s through Urei 1176s for room
mics. We ran them all through the
same Neve module on the console.
We chose mics on how they helped
the drum translate. We would change
out the drum before changing the mic,
like switching a smaller kick drum for a
larger one or how much the head would
ring. The GML 8200 changed according
to the song. The drum mic choices are
pretty go-to for what we do along with
what was available at the studio.
Are we hearing more close miking
or room sound on the drums?
Its an equal balance. Certain songs
you can tell that they are leaning
towards the close miking. Its a much
drier, pointier sound. Its Gonna Be
was a double-tracked drum scenario
where we added toms to double up
the sound. That song has more of a
room mic sound. We used a 60s Lud-
wig and Gretsch kit. Everything was
song dependant. As you go through
you can hear the focus on a drier
sound versus a wider room-mic
sound. Chasing Pirates is more
room-mic sound. More decay trans-
lates into more room mics and over-
heads than close miking.
Do you mic amps direct to the
cone or off-axis?
We used Neumann U 67, Sennheiser
MD 409, Beyerdynamic M130, and
AKG C 414 TL II mics on the guitar
amps. The guitars are mostly upfront
in the tracking scenario because we
had to isolate the guitar amps to keep
the main room quiet for her vocals.
Theres a lot of close miking, and if
theres any space to it, thats done
with guitar pedals. We never mic
guitar cabs at a distance, but we
shift it around on the cone to find the
best sound. But mostly right up on
the grill.
What was the main key to captur-
ing Norahs vocal?
Finding the right mic. After trying
out several, we ended up with the
ones shes used on her earlier records.
And the Copperphone gave her a new
edgier character. She is so quick in the
studio; it doesnt take her long to nail
a take. We rarely did more than three
passes of vocals, including the track-
ing take. And it usually ended up
being the one she did with the band
that we used. That is pretty rare. Usu-
ally the vocal you hear on record is
the result of numerous takes after the
band tracks the song. People might
comp together the vocal from differ-
ent takes, but for Norah, what you
hear is one full pass.
from denisbul
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EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 28
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from denisbul
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 29
Whether youre rocker or folkie, a jazzbo or DJ, the ultra-competitive
world of popular music demands creative evolution to ensure your best
shot at longevity. This is the realization that Editors came to as they
prepared for the release of their latest album, In This Light and on This
Evening [Fader], a darkly atmosphere-laden experience that largely
foregoes the bands more high-sailing guitar dramatics in favor of a
synth-laden world, framing singer Tom Smiths portentous tales of life in
the gray-orange glow of London at dusk.
The follow-up to 2007s platinum-selling An End Has a Start, the new
album was produced by the Grammy-winning Mark Flood Ellis, hailed
for his work with U2, Sigur Rs, and Depeche Mode. The recording took
place at Flood and partner Alan Moulders Assault & Battery studio in
North London, and the intention was to create a space that would propel
the band deeper into the industrial, mechanical landscapes that previous
albums had hinted at, but to leave no doubt that Editors are still a full-
blooded, fire-breathing band.
Before we started off, Flood says, Tom played me the demos, and
I just thought as a body of work it had a character to it. And Tom was
very adamant that he wanted to try a synthetic factor to the album,
which was music to my ears, to hear those songs in a very sort of
synth-driven way.
Bassist/keyboardist Russell Leetch was keenly aware of the need to
advance the groups sound beyond its earlier parameters. With our previous
records, wed stretched the guitars a little bit too muchthey were used a
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 30
bit too frequently to add a force, he
says. This time we got the grit and
the playing from the synths. And since
it was recorded live, mostly played in
one take, its still the band playing.
Thats what we wanted to capture.
DIRTY SYNTHS
The band came to the sessions fully
loaded with mountains of electronic
gear, fully cognizant of the sonic
clichs that can swiftly dominate
with the superficial use of E-Z-to-
use effects.
One of the things that I dont like
when synths are badly used is when
they sound overly sterile, Flood says,
because they just havent been
worked in an organic way. So what we
decided to do was to set up the band
in the studio and have them play the
basic tracks live. We had three differ-
ent drum kits [played by Ed Lay], and
then Russell was playing bass and
keyboards, Chris [Urbanowicz] was
playing guitar and keyboards, and
Tom was playing guitar, piano, and
keyboards.
Flood installed a house PA for
the band, with everyone on moni-
tors, so it was as if they were play-
ing in the rehearsal room as he and
his engineers recorded it. We really
tried to make an effort to get this
feel of human machines and to try
and make it as graceful and emo-
tional as possiblein a really stark
kind of manner.
We did the demos before wed
even met Flood, Urbanowicz says,
and wed had a kind of industrial
sound already and done seven or
eight songs with that kind of sound.
But Flood guided us in the right
direction. We have a pretty good
shit filter, but Flood has an even
better one. Anything that got a little
bit too sweet, the alarm bells would
go off and wed try and make it a lit-
tle bit dirty.
The bands slew of synths,
sequencers, and drum machines
were often strung together to get a
sonically ambiguous mashup that
would add to the burnished, other-
worldly ambience.
Leetch made extensive use of the
ARP Odyssey for bass-synth propul-
sion, Urbanowicz tapped into his
Moog Minimoog, Smith played a
TAPE TO DIGITAL
Flood recorded Editors basic foundation of tracks for each song live to
tape and kept going until they nailed the right takes. If youve got to edit
it, do it on tape. And then when youve got your final version, then I would
stripe the tape and then run Pro Tools as a slave at 96kHz, and then just
dump the 24 tracks straight into Pro Tools, Flood says. Ive found that if
you record on tape first, then transfer it all straight into Pro Tools at 96,
then youre getting the best of both worlds. You end up with everything in
Pro Tools, but you have all the benefits psychologically and sonically of
working on tape.
from denisbul
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 32
Roland Jupiter-8, and the band relied
heavily on Roland Juno-106s to get a
Terminator effect. Leetch also favors
the Korg MicroKorg for the presets
that model the Moog Voyager effects,
and for In This Lights big sheen of
string sprays, he got a lot out of his
circa 76 Oberheim keyboard.
EPIC SPACES
Flood and Moulders spaces at the
Assault & Battery studios complex
include a couple of rooms upstairs
with varied dimensions; the main
recording was done in the big room,
which is almost double-story high. The
sound contained in that room, as well
the smaller spaces, was critical to In
This Lights grandly epic aura.
We did experiment, Flood
reveals. Chris set up in one of the
medium rooms with all his amps, and
then we would try putting keyboards
or guitars through four or five amps.
We tended to mic him fairly close, but
if we wanted the sound of him in the
room, I would send that out back
through the monitors or PA stack to
give that sense of ambience.
Flood combined the miked
sounds with a little direct inject into
the studios Neve analog console.
We tended to take all the keyboards
DI and through amps so that we
could have the option, he says. And
then I also was running about three
Editors (left to right)Edward Lay, Russell Leetch,
Tom Smith, and Chris Urbanowicz.
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from denisbul
or four different room mics, so I
would be doing the monitors out in
the main recording room, and youd
be bleeding things out through the
main PA, which would be picked up
by the room mics, and then you have
the DI and un-amped sound from
these keyboards.
The Battery studios classic Neve
52 analog board, a mid-80s model
which Moulder had picked up at New
Yorks Soundworks studio, acted
almost as a fifth Editors member.
Flood is unstinting in his praise of
this old machine, with a couple of
qualifications.
Its got all the classic Nevegood
top and bottom, a bit scooped in the
midrange, so I tend to I push them quite
hard, he says. For me theres a very
small window where everythings just
sort of cooking nicely, where everything
is just on the point of harmonic distor-
tionand then you go one step over
that and it all starts to break down.
In the end, it was almost as if the
board had become the sound of the
record. With tracking and overdubbing
in that room, then trying to mix it in a
couple of places, that didnt work. We
decided to go back and mix it in the
same room.
MICS AND MISTAKES
Getting the right combination of inti-
macy and a mechanized alienation
suitable for Smiths vocals required
Floods trusty battery of cheap staples
and supervintage mics.
In the last 20 years, 95 percent of
the people that Ive worked with used
the Shure Beta 58 for vocals, he says.
And 50 percent of them would be in
the control room next to me. In this
particular instance, we tried to do the
vocals mostly on the floor, with the
music coming out of the PA, no head-
phones. And then there were a couple
of times when we tried a Shure SM57,
which also sounded good on his voice.
For a close, human vocal sound,
Flood also relies on three or four rela-
tively ancient Neumann Gefell micro-
phones, including a CMV563 with an
M7 capsule.
Often I will go to the Shure 58
because the voice will always come
to the front and will work and push
with the music and can help to solid-
ify the whole sound, act as sonic
glue, Flood says. Of course, if youre
the singer listening to a 58-recorded
track in solo mode, youll probably
hang your head in shame the way it
might sound, but in fact that is how
99.9 percent of the population is
gonna hear it.
The relationship between band and
producer is always critical in the suc-
cess of the resulting creation. It seems
producer Flood was just what Editors
needed at a crucial time. It didnt hurt
that they shared a vision about the
bands ideal future-soundand that
they got along like good old mates.
Flood was so down to earth, it
was ridiculous, Leetch says. I was
like, Do you want me to make you a
sandwich? And he was like, Yeah, Ill
have one bacon sandwich and one
sausage sandwich and a cuppa tea,
please, no sugarno, two sugars.
And Flood was no perfectionist
taskmaster, either. Theres quite a
few errors on the album, Leetch
admits, but the takes on the whole
worked, so we kept them. And that
was something that Flood drove
through to us: that it doesnt have to
be perfect to be great. We think its
by far our best record.
www.eqmag.com FEBRUARY 2010 EQ 33
by Kent Carmical
A guitar pushing a Leslie cabinet to
its full-tilt-boogie max is an experi-
ence to behold. The sound appears
to emanate from multiple locations,
slathering a searing solo with a deli-
cious mid-high sizzle, and transform-
ing a rhythm track into a psychedelic
swirl circa 1967, activating some pri-
mal lobe of the brain to squirt groovy
juice to your neurons. No wonder the
cool studios have them.
Unfortunately, attempting to inter-
face a guitar with a Leslie can be a
bum trip. Your guitar has a 1/4" plug,
but a 6-, 9-, or 11-pin Hydra is waiting
for you from the Leslie. Unless you
possess mad electronics technician
chops, buy a preamp boxeither by
tracking down that elusive artifact of
rotational sound lore, the Leslie
Combo Preamp (which has 1/4"
inputs and accepts the Leslie 6-pin
connector), or by investing $550 in a
Trek II UC-1A Combo Preamp
(www.trekii.com). Today, Hammond-
Suzuki (www.hammondorganco.com)
also makes smaller Leslies designed
especially for guitar with the appro-
priate inputsthe G37 ($1,495) and
G27 ($1,325).
Record Me Right Round
Baby Right Round
Most engineers record the Leslie
from the rearwith the back
removedfor a direct and well-
defined tone. For a mono recording,
you can get great results with the
Leslie cranked to the gills, and by
positioning a single Shure SM58 up
to a foot from the treble horn. If the
mic is placed much closer, a gnarly
amplitude-modulation effectcom-
bined with the wind noise from the
rotormakes a sound so foul youll
want to cut out your ears with a
plastic spoon. If you want a
mellower sound, position the mic at
the louvers cut into the sides of the
cabinet. If the Leslie is in an open
space, add a large-diaphragm con-
denser set to its an omnidirectional
pattern about eight feet away to
capture additional ambiance.
However, if you want to capture the
true spatial glory of a Leslie, stereo is
the way to go. Due to the Leslie not
producing much sonic energy
beyond 12kHz, a lack of condenser
mics is not a handicap. I achieved
great sounds using dynamic mics
such as Shure SM57s/SM58s and
Sennheiser MD421sall placed about
a foot away. Heres my basic method:
Place a pair of SM57s on each side of
the top rotor, and the MD421 pointed
at the bottom rotor. Create a stereo
mix with the top rotor mics panned
left and right, and keep the MD421
track panned center. Of course, you
should definitely experiment with
other panning positions until the
desired stereo image is achieved. If
you want to really blow the sound
up, try positioning a stereo pair of
mics at the top and bottom rotors.
During mixdown your options for
sonic perfection or mutation are
exponential, as, for example, you
could process one of the top and
one of the bottom mics (add distor-
tion, delay, etc.), leave the other two
mics unaffected, and blend the four
signals to taste. For additional spa-
tiality above and beyond the call of
duty, set a large-diaphragm
condenser set to its omnidirectional
pattern about six to ten feet away
from the Leslie cabinet at a height of
about five feet.
The Frequency and
Dynamics of Spin
Older Leslies roll off the highs
around 12kHz, but highly reflective
spaces can benefit from an extra dB
or two of additional gain reduction
in this area. Also, as guitars produce
a less harmonically pure sound than
organs, low notes can wash out at
mid to high volumes. If you dedi-
cate your Leslie to guitar only, you
might consider removing the belt
and disconnecting the lower rotor
motor. If not, experiment with cut-
ting around 700Hz to 800Hz to
remove the grunge.
To manage dynamics, a good
place to start is to set compression
ratio at 4:1. Keep the threshold low,
and experiment with more severe
ratios, because the sound starts to
get real interesting the more you
squeeze it. Now that your Leslie is all
miked up and humming, dont just
stop at plugging your guitar into it.
Get all Beatle-y and run everything
through it.
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 34
GUITAR For More Go To www.eqmag.com
Check it Out!
Got any cool Leslie-
miking tips? Share
them in the EQ forum at
www.eqmag.com.
TAMING THE WILD
LESLIE CABINET
from denisbul
by Chr i s Ji si
These hip insights are excerpted from
Bass Players Session Legends & Stu-
dio Gear supplement. For more
recording tips, check it out on the
newsstand, or go online at
www.bassplayer.com.
Meshell Ndegeocello
Most essential for me is my right
hand and my left handits all in my
hands. I dont mean to sound arrogant,
but I had a piece-of-crap bass for
years, and I had to make it sound like
what I wanted. Im not a tech geek, so
I think a compatible engineer is also
essential. I do like the Aguilar DB 680
bass preamp, though.
Larry Klein
Its a good idea to have quality DIs
and analog compressors handy. I love
the Eclair Evil Twin tube direct box,
and I also use some old Simon Sys-
tems DIs and the Avalon U5. There
are so many great tube compressors.
I like the dbx 160x for some tracks,
and Im really digging the compres-
sors and mic preamps made by a
company called Inward Connections
theyre really soft and warm sounding.
And you cant beat the Teletronix LA-
2A for some things. I definitely think it
pays off to put the bass through ana-
log gear on the way to Pro Tools. To
me, none of the plug-in compressors
come close at this point.
Randy Jackson
Im a very hi-tech/lo-tech kind of guy.
I need a bit of ghetto in my sound,
because thats what makes it work in
so many different styles. I like the com-
bination of a direct signal and the
miked sound of a vintage Fender Bass-
man or Ampeg B-15. Plus, Im never
without my Demeter tube DI and Neve
mic preamps and compressors.
Steve Rodby
(Pat Metheney Group)
Generally, the only two pieces of
gear I find essential are your bass and
your fingers. But for amplifying or
recording acoustic bass direct, the
one essential that is so often over-
looked is matching the output
impedance of the uprights
transducer pickup with the input
impedance of the first device its
plugged intobe it an amp, a pre-
amp, a DI, or an effect. If the devices
input impedance is too low, as it fre-
quently is, youll lose the bottom.
What I did was build a box that varies
the input and allows the transducer
to be loaded with the correct imped-
ance for the sound you want. Now I
have variable inputs built into all my
gear, and you wouldnt believe the
tone difference. Ive become known
for playing my upright through an
amp or through the board at loud
volumes, and thats my secret.
Marcus Miller
The two most essential pieces of
gear are your ears. Beyond that, its a
good instrument and good strings.
The benefit I had, from being a studio
musician back in New York, was
spending eight hours a day listening
to my bass through headphones, so I
really got to know how to tweak my
sound. These days, I like the Radial
Bass Bone DI and the API Lunchbox,
which I use as a mic pre. As for com-
pressors, I still like the dbx 160 for
subtle compression and the Empirical
Labs EL8-X Distressor for more
extreme compression.
Mark Hoppus (Blink-182)
An Ampeg SVT rig and a Fender
bassthe best bass sound ever!
EQ FEBRUARY 2010 www.eqmag.com 36
BASS More on www.eqmag.com
FAVORITE
STUDIO GEAR
OF THE STARS
HIP TIP!
Strings As Tone Controls
Strings are the most basic form
of EQ. New roundwounds have
more highs, and old strings
sound more dull (or mellow,
depending on your taste) and
may also have tuning inconsis-
tencies. Flatwounds have less
highs and produce fewer
squeaks. Also, playing fingerstyle
generally produces less highs
than using a pick.
To make sure your new strings
stay in tune while recording, after
tuning a string to pitch (prefer-
ably with an electronic tuner),
pull hard on it to take up any
slack on the tuning machine.
Retune, pull again, and repeat
until the pitch stays constant.
from denisbul
For those who never buy a 1.0 product,
just on principle, now might be the
time to break the rule
Studio One Pro 1.0.1 has an
arguably more appealing
interface than Logic Studio,
the one-screen approach
is easy to use, yet really
powerful and the app is a
solid and stable performer.
Plus the musical results
are impressive.
John Brandon Macworld.com November 2009
For full info and a free trial download of Studio One Artist, visit our web site. Or visit your PreSonus
dealer to experience the more intuitive, better-sounding alternative to Big Bloated DAWs.
www.presonus.comBaton Rouge USA
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