Kelly came in like a storm. She always has lot on her mind and with being a Semi-Finalist in the Andy Kaufman awards, she also has a lot on her plate right now.
We spent the first part of the session mixing one of the songs. God Wants You To Cum (GWYTC), is not the kind of song I would share with my Mother, but it does have a good moral. Its about a woman and her intent on letting you know just exactly how to get the job done.
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| photo by Craig Schober |
MIX: I inserted some EQ, compression and a mild gate on the BeatBoxer's thumper and vocal mic. A "gate" is basically an envelope that opens and closes. It opens to let the sound thru, and closes to reduce it or cut the sound off entirely. This gives the percussion more punch and helps subdue some of the breaths and slight bleed from other instruments. A BeatBoxer isn't exactly going to sound like a drum kit, nor should it, but you want to resemble the drums as much as possible regarding the beat. Steady, pumping and moving the song along.
With the bass, I inserted EQ, added some mid-range and rolled of the bottom at 45hz. The mid boost depends entirely on the player and where they fit in the sonic spectrum regarding the drums and guitars. So I usually boost 1khz a few decibels, and then move it around till it brings out some nice details in the playing. You can hear it pop right out of the speakers when its in the right place. A compressor can keep the bass right in the center of the track as well. Slow attack, fast release and let it bump the meter around -4 to -6 then add some make up gain. I used a gate on Joe's bass as well. I've found that a gate can help shape the groove. You close the gate with the beat, so again, it helps move along the rhythm of the song. It also cleans up some unwanted string noise and between note undertones.
For Mike's guitars, we had two performances. The original live take, and the big guitar overdubs. The song has a Reggae vibe so I panned them out left and right. The subtle differences in the playing make for an interesting stereo effect. A little low mid EQ adds a world of good to fatten up a guitar sound. I sometimes boost 250hz up to 500hz depending on the sound, then roll off the lows at 150hz. Getting rid of low end leaves room for the kick and bass guitar.
On Blair's alto sax, I also added a little bit of mid low, and he had asked for an echo delay while recording. It adds a nice bit of depth to the track and we can keep him rather light in the mix since he sticks out so much in the upper frequencies.
Next was Kelly's vocal. We used her live performance with the band. Almost no edits, easy and breezy. With Pro Tools 10 and 11, you can adjust volume within the waveform instead of automating each move. Such an easy way to even out a performance without messing with the dynamics. Lets you use a compressor for just those big notes and you don't have to go in and draw your levels anymore. I added some EQ for warmth and presence. Bumped up a little 7khz and a shelf at 10khz. Rolled off the bottom to about 120hz and gave another smidge of 300hz for warmth. I also added a very slight (9%) short delay (87 ms) with a medium feedback. This helps give the vocals a roundness, and is like an "uneffect". You don't hear any effect, but it sounds SO much better with it. Tricks of the trade. With a bit of ambient from a Vocal Plate, splish splash we're
moving on.
Backing vocals, again I leveled out the performance a bit with the waveforms. I spread them out left and right. Pamela's voice is so clean, I didn't use any reverb or anything. They sound great and with two performances, give a natural chorus effect. I tucked them behind Kelly's lead vocal and vu-ala! We're done.
We spent the second half of the day recording vocal for Robot and putting together a quick mix of Hypochondriac. There's still a few sessions to go. I'll basically use this first mix of GWYTC as the template for the entire EP. It sounds big and full.
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