A log of the recording of a full-length album.

[seaneldon]

I'll keep updating here. All names but my own have been changed. I'm also trying to keep this as self-centered as possible to avoid having people get angry with me for something I say about someone. Anyway, prepare for 2 months of journaling. I've done this privately for a few years, and it's always turned out quite interesting, so thought I might share this time around.

 

In the next 2-3 months, pretty much non-stop, I will be working on one band's full length album. I will be engineering throughout. Rehearsals, preproduction, all tracking, editing, mixing, all the way up to delivery to the mastering house. This will be a "man-diary" of exactly that.

 

Here you go:

 

[saturday December 9, 2006]

 

Today was long. Maybe that's not "in depth" enough for log purposes. Well, in that case, today was rather excruciating. How, you ask? I'll tell you.

 

I have pretty awful hemorrhoids, for one. Yes, there are moments when the pain is temporarily eclipsed by how funny hemorrhoids are in their nature, but holy hell in a handbasket...this is powerfully uncomfortable. I'm not old enough to have this kind of problem.

 

If that's not bad enough, you must consider that I've also had some kind of constant problem with my lungs since the middle of Deepwave construction in like...October. It's too complicated for me to grasp completely, but apparently I was exposed to something during construction (sawdust, etc.) that weakened my breathing ability or something, and it triggered some insane allergy to my two dogs. And everything they've ever come into contact with. Or looked at.

 

The cough that I've developed is impossible to describe. If someone made a horror movie where the monster was a huge, repeating cough so unbelievably wild that it made the victim crack a rib twice in a month, it would be close enough and I'd tell you to rent it. I go into 20 minute rages once every few hours where I can't do anything but blow my lungs out in a very loud, horrifying fashion. It's "treated" with an Albuterol inhaler, which calms down the coughing but speeds up my heart. And the amount of coffee I drink in your average day can't be helping (probable cause of hemorrhoids, too!), nor can my habit of chainsmoking Camels. But {censored} that. I'm old school. I am what I am.

 

I was on steroids (prednisone) from late October until December 1st, and I just got off a week of antibiotics. What does that mean? It means my body is WAY {censored}ED UP. I'm weak and tired all of the time, but can't sleep more than 30 minutes because I wake up choking. My first and only proposed solution to this problem is to be constantly drinking beer and smoking a little weed to trick myself into passing out. You can imagine what that looks like.

 

So yeah. My health isn't exactly where it should be. And I think it's been like this long enough for me to stop caring. I've gotta get on with life and ignore it until it goes away. Which I imagine it should.

 

So I kept busy. In the midst of all of this madness, I've also fallen into the trap of attempting to build, start, and operate a mid-large recording studio in Manhattan or Brooklyn with a very good friend of mine. I won't go into too many details now because there are so many things that need to get solidified and ironed out in the whole process, but you'll surely hear about it soon enough. I've gotta get away from this now.

 

About 6 months ago I came in contact with a fellow by the name of John Brown. He's a guitar player native of nowhere with a drummer and bassist behind him. Very hardworking, constantly touring and spreading the word. ACTUALLY doing work. Very admirable guy. Very un-New York of him. We'd hit it off early and to make a long story somewhat shorter, let's just say that I've signed on to record his next album. Straight up rock and roll, only the dude's playing a bluegrass guitar into a fuzzy tube amp, and the drummer goes absolutely ballistic. All the time.

 

Tomorrow starts my first day of actual work in about 3 or 4 weeks. I will be with the drummer of this band, Richard, and we will be visiting various studios in New York and Brooklyn. Getting tours, checking out the tools and environment, and trying to decide which room will be the best fit for what we want to do and how we want to do it.

 

This go-round is specifically for drums, so I'm looking into all of what I believe to be the "key characteristics" for a good drum recording situation.

 

1) Multiple drumkits in multiple rooms, with multiple possibilities for microphone selection and placement. At the very least, one small kit in a big live room and one large kit in a medium sized, deader room.

 

2) Somewhere to get away every once in a while. Recording drums can get extremely tiring with regards to your mental state and your ears. A spacious, somewhat separate "lounge" with a place to have a beer and a smoke on a break is ideal. Anywhere other than the control room with some kind of overly-comfortable chair or couch is certainly acceptable.

 

3) Somewhere with an inexpensive or free assistant that actually knows the room and how it works best, but also knows how to leave something alone after I've touched it. A separate "runner" is also a huge bonus. Friendly, attentive staff would be a simpler, and maybe more effective way to put this.

 

So yeah, we'll be looking at four rooms that are available for the dates we need them. Two in Manhattan, and two in Brooklyn. We are planning on having a decision ready no later than the next day. Then we get started on the 16th and don't stop until the drums are absolutely 100% finished.

 

It's going to be another long day tomorrow. And I'll still probably have hemorrhoids. Only now I'm going to have to walk around NY and Brooklyn for hours, and sit on hard, unforgiving subway seats. While gasping for air.

[PKO]

Prep "H" mother"F"er!!!

[seaneldon]

[sunday December 10th, 2006]

 

So I wake up slightly damaged/hung over around 9am. Coughing, of course. Almost gagging. You wish you were me. I know it.

 

After a glass of not-so-delicious Morning Relief, I put on the new Tom Waits stuff and unwillingly lugged myself into the shower. I must say that shower seat someone got me as a gag-gift a few years ago really came in handy today. Got me out of a really tough place. Sitting down while cleaning yourself. Nothing better than that.

 

I blew through a half pack of smokes before 11:30, and made my way to the train. It would have been relatively uneventful if it wasn't for the large, sweaty man who was reading the newspaper over my shoulder. He urked me and I let him know about it in a manner that you could call "loud and obnoxious". Needless to say, he moved his seat the very instant a 5'11" 120lb. weirdo with an enormous beard and bloodshot eyes started yelling at him over a sports section.

 

Meet up with Richard, the drummer of this musical collective, a few blocks from Penn Station around 1pm and we start the adventure. We hit a few rooms, just "scoping out the scene", and they were all indeed excellent studios. All well thought out, sounding great, attentive staffs, etc. We've pretty much picked out where we want this part of the recording to happen, though. Quite the impressive digs at this place, indeed. Great microphone collection, heaps of outboard, and various live rooms and sound locks. Cool fellow running it, too.

 

So yeah, that's pretty much it for today. We start tracking on December 16th. We've got rehearsal tomorrow. I'll report back if anything interesting happens.

[scarecrowbob]

This is interesting, keep it up.

[C JoGo]

Is this "daily life" in the rock & roll world of NYC ?? I'm staying with the s l o w pace of Carmel ~Big Sur > I would take up drinkin' & smokin' too --if I had that world...WHEW You can have that Big City stuff

[seaneldon]

Originally posted by C JoGo Is this "daily life" in the rock & roll world of NYC ?? I'm staying with the s l o w pace of Carmel ~Big Sur > I would take up drinkin' & smokin' too --if I had that world...WHEW You can have that Big City stuff

 

Hah! You West Coast fellas just don't have a clue what goes on out here! I've done records at many studios on both coasts and it's two completely different worlds.

 

I mean, I've got plenty of good friends based out of LA. I like (some) people out there. I'm not totally against that scene. I mean, I am, but not with a passion of any kind.

 

Matter of fact, I'm probably subconsciously writing this specifically for California cats. Maybe I'm making a fatal second attempt at a book deal (you should read my jokebook. really. you need to. not kidding.)

[UstadKhanAli]

I'm enjoying this. I think I had an idea what to expect since I've read a little bit of your blog on your web site before. I've spent almost no time in NY (although I'm comin' out there for my cousin's wedding in late June) but have always enjoyed it when I was out there.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I think if I had to record in NYC, and couldn't book Avatar, Right Track / Legacy, or some place like that, I'd want to do it at Straosphere (on West 26th).

 

http://www.stratospheresound.com/stratcenter.html

 

I like Neves.

[seaneldon]

Believe me, I got in touch with them. Both studios at Stratosphere are locked out for the rest of the year.

 

Really, the weakest part of the studio we chose is the console. And it's not at all weak. It's been completely rebuilt into some ridiculous zombie console with Telefunken input transformers, 990c opamps EVERYWHERE, incredibly lower S/N ratio, etc. It actually sounds phenominal. It's just that I know what that thing sounded like when it first came out of the box.

 

Regardless...I will not be using the console at all for this particular phase of the recording. I'll use the outboard mic pres straight to A/D.

 

Very cool studio. Microphone collection ideal for drums. AKG C60s EVERYWHERE. U47s EVERYWHERE.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally posted by seaneldon Hah! You West Coast fellas just don't have a clue what goes on out here! I've done records at many studios on both coasts and it's two completely different worlds.

 

You've got that right. So is Nashville. But I AM a "west coaster", and this is not only where I grew up, but also where I'm generally most comfortable. Okay, I'd rather live in the mountains someplace, but that's harder on the clients...

 

Anyway Sean, I think this is pretty cool, and look forward to readng it. Just make sure it's cool with your clients first, and / or change all the names, etc. so neither you or I wind up getting into trouble. You've already given me enough information that I could get the "real names" if I wanted to badly enough...

 

This go-round is specifically for drums, so I'm looking into all of what I believe to be the "key characteristics" for a good drum recording situation.

 

1) Multiple drumkits in multiple rooms, with multiple possibilities for microphone selection and placement. At the very least, one small kit in a big live room and one large kit in a medium sized, deader room.

 

Out here in LA LA, it's generally your responsibility to bring in the kit(s) you want, or hire someone like Ross Garfield to bring in the kits you want and to tech them. Some rooms will have a kit, but not all - and you're usually not going to have a selection of them onhand.

 

2) Somewhere to get away every once in a while. Recording drums can get extremely tiring with regards to your mental state and your ears. A spacious, somewhat separate "lounge" with a place to have a beer and a smoke on a break is ideal. Anywhere other than the control room with some kind of overly-comfortable chair or couch is certainly acceptable.

 

A lounge is a must... we've got one, but it has "the world's most UNcomfortable couch". Every time my wife comes in and sits on it, she threatens to get a replacement... but always forgets. I suppose I should just do it myself.

 

3) Somewhere with an inexpensive or free assistant that actually knows the room and how it works best, but also knows how to leave something alone after I've touched it.

 

Change it without asking on MY session and I'll be requesting a new second... after I break his fingers. Not really... but I expect a second to help me, not hinder or second guess me. I want information from my second the quirks of the room and gear, etc. I also want them on top of everything that is said and done in the room - if the band says they liked take #3 except for the bridge, a good assistant will be able to tell us that later, the second someone says "what was that take we liked?"

 

A separate "runner" is also a huge bonus. Friendly, attentive staff would be a simpler, and maybe more effective way to put this.

 

It's always nice to have someone around to send out for food, or guitar strings or a "bag of nanoWebers".

 

So yeah, we'll be looking at four rooms that are available for the dates we need them. Two in Manhattan, and two in Brooklyn. We are planning on having a decision ready no later than the next day. Then we get started on the 16th and don't stop until the drums are absolutely 100% finished.

 

Are things so slow in NY that you can book a room for extended drum tracking sessions on a couple of days notice? Out here (or at least at my place), you'd usually need a month's notice to be certain of getting the date(s) you wanted.

 

Again, cool thread Sean - and good luck with your sessions!

[seaneldon]

Originally posted by Phil O'Keefe Are things so slow in NY that you can book a room for extended drum tracking sessions on a couple of days notice? Out here (or at least at my place), you'd usually need a month's notice to be certain of getting the date(s) you wanted. Again, cool thread Sean - and good luck with your sessions!

 

No, actually. We got a really really "late start" on this one. This is a record I thought would be done by now (I think I signed on to do it 6-7 months ago...), and we haven't even started recording. We lucked out tremendously by having several excellent studios that were available for such a short-notice booking. A lot of the rooms I wanted to use were indeed booked. This was not my fault. The dude just made the decision one day that he wanted to get started, and that I needed to find a studio immediately because the drummer was only gonna be around this time and this guy has to do that and blah blah blah. It was a nightmare, but that's over now.

 

And yes, all names have been changed as was stated in the first post.

 

ALSO! Regarding "bring your own kit", that's simply not an option for this album. The drummer will be doing live performances like 3 out of 5 nights after recording. We can't be breaking down his kit every night and going through setup EVERY SINGLE DAY. So, we needed a studio with an excellent selection of drums. And we got one. Stupendous GMS kit, tons of cymbals, and most importantly, about a dozen snare drums from the late 1890's-1960's. And they all sound fabulous. The 1920's Black Beauty they've got over there, in particular, is stunning.

 

So, we're actually gonna get the ball rolling early and start getting sounds on Friday. Pictures of how I decide to go about mic'ing the kit will follow.

[seaneldon]

Oh! And don't forget about the customizable acoustics in the main live room! Flipping panels from wood to fiberglass absorption every 2 or 3 feet on all walls. Very neat. Good way to sculpt the sound in the room. An indoor/outdoor carpet can also be spread across the entire room, or removed completely. Lots of tonal options at this place. Very good thing.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally posted by seaneldon Oh! And don't forget about the customizable acoustics in the main live room! Flipping panels from wood to fiberglass absorption every 2 or 3 feet on all walls. Very neat. Good way to sculpt the sound in the room. An indoor/outdoor carpet can also be spread across the entire room, or removed completely. Lots of tonal options at this place. Very good thing.

 

That kind of sounds slimilar to the live room in Studio C at Henson (formerly A&M) in Hollywood, except their panels are on sliders, kind of like sliding closet doors. That sort of arrangement can offer you a lot of flexibility in tailoring the room sound.

 

Most of you have probably heard Studio C on record - while it's the smallest of the rooms there, it was used to track Karen Carpenter's incredible vocals...

[seaneldon]

So we've been at it hard for two days, and I'm a day behind with this bull{censored} journal. I'll make up for it with pictures tomorrow night, and maybe a "SPECIAL DOUBLE ENTRY" on Tuesday when we're done with drum tracking and I've got a few days off. Anywho...

 

[saturday December 16, 2006]

 

Knowing my session today would start at 1pm, I'd set the alarm on my cellphone to go off at 8am. Now, the alarm is one of the only functions that still works on the {censored}ing thing, thanks to the countless times I've dropped the thing onto hard wood, concrete, or into toilet water. I can rarely make phone calls, but for some reason I can receive them. And believe me, the {censored}ing thing rings off the hook and I wish everyone would leave me alone. Either way, it's time to get a new one. Or maybe I'll just throw it out the {censored}ing window and be done with the whole idea of cellphones for the rest of my life.

 

Yes, the alarm did go off at 8am. Only it didn't wake me up. You see, I was already awake, and had been for 3 hours thanks to the awful cough fits, which now feature bits of blood and one or two yet-unidentified substances. I'm still in the camp of "It'll get better later. Pass me my cigarettes."

 

I have a couple of beers for breakfast to soothe my throat and chest. And because it's all I've got in the house right now. I contemplated putting it in a bowl with some cereal but decided against it when I saw that my girlfriend has completely cleaned me out of the good stuff and left me with some ridiculous "Kashi" health flake crap. You know, the stuff that would ruin two perfectly good beers. Grab my hat and get movin' to the studio.

 

Even though I was pissed at waking up so early, especially under these painful circumstances, at least I knew that I'd be on time today.

 

Yeah, {censored} that.

 

Long Island. Home of the Long Island Rail Road. This is how you get around when you're going somewhere in New York where parking is virtually impossible, as is the case with the studio I'm working out of for this record. Plus, since this whole thing with my lungs giving up on me started, I've been trying very hard not to drive, if only to avoid fatal accidents where a furious cough slams my face into the steering wheel and sends me into a center divider or unforgiving ditch. So {censored} it, I'll spend 20 bucks for a cab and round trip train ticket. $20 versus a $10,000 hospital bill when you've got no insurance...I'll take the former. Yeah, no insurance. Guess why I'm still coughing after all this time.

 

The cab driver is particularly...old...and even though I know this guy's been driving around Nassau County his whole {censored}ing miserable life, he's going the most ASS BACKWARDS {censored}ING ROUTE to the train station, driving up the fare and making me miss the 11:49 westbound train. Idiot. Whatever, there's another one for two minutes past noon, but it's gonna be cutting it real close if I wanna make it in by 1 o'clock.

 

The funny thing about the LIRR is that it's always on time. Except when you need to go to work. If the girlfriend (who will be referred to as "34C" from now on) wants to go to some horribly flaming Broadway show or photography exhibit, the train is {censored}ing early and we get on with no problems. When I've got a client waiting for me in Brooklyn, this is not the case. From now on I know that 12:02 really means 12:30. What the {censored} could cause a 28 minute train delay, anyway? They stay on {censored}ing tracks, and there isn't much "traffic". Regardless, now I come to realize that I'm going to be quite late.

 

Get to Jamaica station at five to 1, and run my skinny self downstairs to the subway. You guessed it. Train doesn't show for 10 minutes.

 

I'd typically call the band and the studio and let them know the situation, but not only can you not get a cell phone signal in NY's underground subways...it WOULDN'T EVEN MATTER IF I COULD BECAUSE I CAN'T MAKE PHONE CALLS FROM MY PHONE. I pull some hair out of my head, but tough it out through the whole ride.

 

I stroll up to the building at about 1:40, ring the bell, and make my way upstairs to the studio. I start to apologize to the guy that runs the joint, but he soon stops me to say that he thought we were starting at 2pm, and that John (the group's singer, guitar player, and songwriter) and Rich haven't shown up yet.

 

So after all that bull{censored} and stressing about being late, I'm 20 minutes early.

 

Absolutely {censored}ing killer! I set down my bag, notebook, and coat and meet my assistant for the week, Akira, a quiet Japanese man who appears to be in his mid to late 20's. We head to the live room to start putting new skins on the drums.

 

The building is pretty weird. Cool, but weird. It's an old, OLD school building which has been converted into a couple hundred enormous live/work lofts, and is inhabited by every {censored}head "artist", "painter", and "musician" in the area. The guy that owns the studio (who is actually a super guy, and a KILLER musician AND engineer)...well, he lives in his studio. When he was building this place, he wanted a large live room. This meant he had to get two separate lofts.

 

I guess there were none available on the same floor at the time, because the walk from control room to live room is a solid minute and a half, and involves going down two flights of stairs, and through countless confusing hallways and turns. A bit annoying, but for some reason it's got it's charm. It's also a good excuse to pull out a cigarette when you need to move a microphone or flip the (awesome) wall panels from reflection to absorption.

 

So as I'm reskinning the toms, John and Rich get in and greet me, excited as can be. Rich takes over with putting on the new heads so I can focus on the other {censored}. I start barking out microphones, stands, and accessories that I'll need and Akira kindly fetches them. Now, I normally don't hang too many mics but John wants a lot of options for mixdown, so I went a little nuts. Here's what the setup is like:

 

Drums -

GMS Custom Maple kit (7x10, 8x12, 16x16 toms. 18x22 kick drum. We chose two 1920's Ludwig Black Beauty snare drums that we swap from song to song, one 5x14, one 5x15)

 

Microphones and such -

(Stereo overheads) Coles 4038s, spaced pair.

 

(Mono overhead) Royer R121, equal height to the 4038s (8-9 feet), but behind the drummer, pointed directly at the snare drum.

 

(Stereo room) 1950's Telefunken U47s. M7 caps and VF14 tubes. Set to cardiod XY about 10 feet back at rack tom height.

 

(Trashy room mic) Telefunken ELA M250 down low in a corner behind the drums being absolutely RUINED by a Telefunken U73 compressor. Sounds so good that it kills me every time I push up the fader.

 

(Kick drum) Shure Beta 52 just inside the hole, Neumann FET47 about 2 feet from the resonant head.

 

(Snare drum) Single Sennheiser MD421 just barely peeking over the rim of the drum, shooting straight across the head.

 

(Toms) MD421s all around, same general positioning as the snare drum, only a little bit higher off the skin and angled slightly.

 

(Hi-Hats) Artist's request to mic these. I typically don't worry about them. Shure SM57.

 

(Scratch Guitar) Tweed Champ in the booth with a 57.

 

(Scratch Vocal) Shure SM7 in the same booth.

 

Outboard used: Daking, Neve, Calrec, Telefunken, Vintech, Manley. Purple Audio, Universal Audio stuff for the throw-away tracks.

 

Spent about 4 hours getting the sounds "perfect" (who am I kidding? They're {censored}ing spectacular, nonetheless), patching in various pres and EQs, fine tuning the drums, all that jazz. We managed to really open up the room by flipping all of the panels over to their reflective wood sides, and it absolutely blooms with all sorts of GOOD life. The drums are {censored}ing thundering. And this is rock'n'roll! {censored} needs to be thunder!

 

Now, as I was stating before, a good assistant is HUGE when you're working on this kind of album. I'm playing the role of semi-producer (a job I don't particularly like taking on, but let's just say I got an offer I couldn't refuse) in addition to doing all of the engineering, so having an assistant who understands what I need and can deliver it before I even ask him is extremely important. So...how does Akira work out for me?

 

Let's just say that the first time I let out even the smallest yawn, the next time I turned around he had a fresh pot of coffee under my nose. {censored}ING STUPENDOUS! He's also been a big help with patching, calling for food and beer, and making adjustments for me downstairs, being that I'm not always in the mood to take the death-walk down to the live room (I call it the "death-walk" because taking more than 20 steps WITHOUT stairs involved makes my lungs cry for help). This is too good to be true. But let's not turn this into the Akira love fest. This {censored} is supposed to be about me.

 

Well, we even managed to get one song completely tight and tracked! Hot damn! Productive day! I've got excellent sounds to work with, and these guys can ACTUALLY PLAY TOGETHER! Hoorah!

 

[END]

 

I'm gonna guess that the rest of these entries will have way more details as to what goes down during actual tracking, but today was mainly getting the sounds right and feeling out the room and how to use it best. But whatever, I'm sure you assholes just want pictures. And you'll get them very soon. We've got plenty

 

So yeah, I've gotta get some sleep. We worked another 8 hour day today (which is a 10 hour day for me with travel), and we're doing it at the same time tomorrow. Hope everyone is enjoying this...because if you're not, why am I spending hours writing it out?

[nobrainer440]

This is by far the most interesting thread I have read in a long time. Keep it up!

[skibob]

Originally posted by nobrainer440 This is by far the most interesting thread I have read in a long time. Keep it up!

 

+1

[seaneldon]

just got home from the last day of drum tracking. extremely tired. pictures tonight and something of an update.

[Flaat]

sean, your are great writer. Very interesting thread.

[seaneldon]

drums.

[seaneldon]

overheads.

[seaneldon]

whole kit.

[seaneldon]

snare and franken-elam.

[seaneldon]

47s.

[seaneldon]

left rack.

[seaneldon]

right rack.