Ken South Rock Deconstructed

SpeakerSonic

I saw Ken South Rock for the first time at Shea Stadium in Brooklyn, NY in 2013 with my wife. Adam and Ken have become fast friends of ours through helping us with the move of the Trident console. They've busted down walls, put in windows and rebuilt the walls they tore down, and helped dismantled the console. 

They had recorded in Nashville for their first album, Volcano. They recorded their most recent EP, Break the Walls, at pricey studio in Brooklyn. They are a ferocious rock duo. Two incredible talents hammering away at their instruments with surgical precision masked by their wild style delivery and explosive energy. The recordings translate the talent, but not their wily performance. Everything sounds very controlled and clean, trained even. IMO, too clean.

KSR Live at Lonewolf Nov. 19th, 2013

I wrote Adam on a whim, telling him I wanted to work with he and Ken. By this time, I'd seen them play a half dozen times and have become a big fan. I told Adam I wanted to hear on a recording what I hear at their live shows. Just my luck, they were already talking about working with me on a project for a new song. One song for a new music video to be directed by Julie Lamendola and Preston Spurlock. We had two days to record and mix the thing. 

I set out to capture a very raw and lively sound. I tuned the drums up for Adams arrival and he and Ken set up in the space for the session. They wanted to start with Drums and Bass so that Ken could later add his guitar parts, as they were still writing the song during the recording process. I focused on a really well miked up drum kit and I split the Bass three ways so I could make sure I had options on mixdown. 2 mics on the cabinet and one Direct signal. The drums were a four piece kit, hats, and three cymbals. I chose my 1962 Ludwig 6 lug snare for its wonderful depth and woody tone. Adam hit it and said, "Ah yeah. That is exactly what I want My snare to sound like!." I spent a good part of 3 hours dialing in the drums. I used multiple mics on the snare, 3 in fact (vintage 55s, SM57 top and bottom), for as full a sound as possible. I also used two mics on each tom to capture the attack and the release on the other end. Full, Big, Powerful, like Adams playing. 

They made probably 7 takes before they felt like they got it. We listened to the chosen take a few times to make sure it was all there. Once we were certain, we changed gears and set up Ken's guitar rig. We split the signal to two amps. Ken's Marshall Super Lead into my 4x12 Marshall Lead 1960 cabinet, and then to the Fender Hot Rod. Both amps offer completely different tonal characteristics. The crunch from the Marshall and the classic Fender sound combined to translate a warm and rich guitar tone. I put 2 mics on each cabinet. I find that the Marshall cabinet has a lot of nice qualities from speaker to speaker, so I used the traditional SM57 off center cone for one speaker, and a Sennheiser MD421 to capture the more guttural bass tones. On the Fender, I used the same concept only with one speaker. I put a Sennheiser e609 for the brighter side and another MD421 for the girth. Sweet blend. About 6 feet back I put a U87 to capture the blended sound of both cabinets. A temporary blanket wall behind the U87 helped this to sound nice and tight. Then high over head about 12 feet from the sound source I have another room mic that captures the amps in the room. This adds a real nice aura to the sound. 

Ken killed the guitar track. With some input from Adam, they basically wrote half of the guitar parts while tracking. Adam had mentioned double tracking the guitar, but Ken and I felt pretty good about the tone of the single take. It's also more in tune with their live sound and I didn't want to muddle up the mix. We then tracked a very clean acoustic track for the intro and outro of the song. Ken's acoustic has a very interesting quality. Brassy strings and a nice low resonance from the body. I put a U87 at the twelfth fret facing in towards the sound hole and then a C414 flat 3 inches from the body of the guitar. Both were inserted with LA3A's and the sound was bliss.

Two Amps One Sound

We spent the next day tracking the vocals and mixing the song. It was new to see Adam squirm and get nervous about singing. Not uncommon for any singer, but I had never seen Adam squirm. Ken and Adam both sang well and we dialed in some ideas back and forth between the 3 of us. Ken and Adam both have unique voices and I think we represent their aggressive live delivery well on this song. 

The mix came together rather quickly. I didn't use a single compressor on any of the live tracking of the drums, bass or electric guitars. I wanted all that dynamic and nuance to be raw and true to their sound. While mixing, I set up a parallel bus compressor for the drums. On my first drum bus I set up a stereo 1176 to pump the drums a bit without taking much in the way of dynamics. On the second drum bus, the paralleled bus, I added a much heavier compressor setting with lots of pumping and more on the squashed side. I only use a small amount of this to fill out the sound. It gives significant ambience to the overall track. I did very little in terms of EQ. The drums already sounded great, why would I change that? I wouldn't!

The guitars I sent to a bus and added a pinch of a plate reverb. I also EQ'd the bus a bit, adding in a fuller low frequency. Once I squashed the room mic and added it to the guitar mix, it added so much character. We all lit up when we heard the final guitar mix. It is so full and huge! The bass sound was also right on the money in the recording, so I found a nice even smoldering tone from just using more of one signal than the rest and that was it.

Its Ken South Rock! You'll hear the whole thing when it becomes available online. They're hard at work on the video as I write this. They'll be on tour for the next few months beginning in February. Catch them live whenever you can. They're playing tomorrow, January 29th, with a great line up at The Mercury Lounge.

Jagged Leaves & Dashan Coram's 'Piep'

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We're at the end of the road with the Jagged Leaves EP. The evolution of the Daniel Penta sound has been in the widest of variety. He is a lifelong singer/songwriter, the kind who explores himself in many different styles and genres from band name to band name, from year to year, from moment to moment. The singular thru line for Dan is his incredible lyric and deliberate vocal delivery. 

Jagged Leaves is an exploration in a more stripped down musical form. There are no roaring electric guitars or overdrive on this collection of songs, other than the mans voice. Jagged Leaves is a progressive and musically stylistic drummer, a melodic double bass player, the heavy down stroke of Dan's acoustic guitar along with Dan's brute force vocal, Erin Regan's stunning femme fatale vocal and a sugary trumpet line. There are bits and pieces of other instrumentation, very minimal, but also very attractive to the acoustical aesthetic of the material.

On the final day of recording and mixing, we added the last instrument of sorts. Dan wanted an oscillator,  a single note attenuator that wiggles up and down the sound scale. We had tried to acquire one from a few different friends with very little luck. The sound in ones head is often very clear and precise, and trying to pin it down can be difficult without the right tool. 

I had remembered our very good friend, Dashan Coram, using one in the later years of Huggabroomstik. I remember it being a very simple and small handheld box with a single dial on it. Dashan passed away just a few short years ago, and his memory is not without it's emotional experiences. When I mentioned this to Dan, we both agreed we needed

something like that, or even that very one. I contacted Dashan's brother Awan, aka Spider $tyle, and asked him if he could help out by locating it for me. I sent him a few pictures of what it might look like and he sent me back  a couple of snaps and the piece was there, smiling right at me.

As soon as we plugged it in, Dan said, "Well, that's it." He took a few passes with the song, and in a quick easy short couple of bursts, it was finished. 

The Micro-Piep 555 as it's labeled. I've never seen one like it, and can't find out any information about it on the internet. I showed it to some friends the night Awan handed it to me and they were like, "Oh wow, The Piep!" This little box has been around. It went on tours with Huggabroomstik through Germany and France and who knows where else. It's had a life of its own and now here it is in the light of day again. The 'Piep' a great little piece and I just wanted to share it with you, as Dan and I really got a great bit of sound and emotion out of it. 

The Jagged Leaves EP will most likely be out later this year.

The Story of my Trident 80B part II

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When I was sealing the deal with the Trident 80B, I was in Europe. Fortunately my father, renowned author Thomas B. Speaker, took charge of finalizing the purchase. I was actually in Germany when we finalized the deal. 

As things go, I had to make plans to get the 500lb+ mixing console from a storage facility in Nashville, TN. I researched online and after one slight hiccup with a company I won't mention, I asked my guy at Vintage King how they handle movement for large scale recording consoles. He helped make arrangements for me and it was to arrive the first week of June. 

I finished out my Euro tour confident that all was being handled properly and the board would arrive in a timely fashion. Meanwhile, I had to prepare my space for such a large board. The room where the Trident will live is not ideal. Just over 8' x 11'. The board itself is just under 8' wide. I had to physically tear out a wall for the board to slide into place.

Deconstrucion

I hired Adam Aron Amram, of Ken South Rock, who also plays drums on several projects I work on. He's a friend, he's a carpenter and he's excited for me and this amazing console. He also was a huge factor in getting that board from downstairs to upstairs.

When the console arrived in the middle of the afternoon, June 4th, I thought I was ready for it. I had on call, 4 heavy lifting dudes to get the piece negotiated up the turning stairwell. However! When the console arrived, it was over weight… by a Lot! The folks on the other end had told me the console comes with a large quantity of Mogami cable. What they didn't tell me is that it would be still attached, coiled up, and packed on top of the console. There was easily an extra 300lbs of cable added to the stack. That made the console 800+lbs. Way too big for 4, let alone 5 or 6 guys, to manage. On top of that, it was still attached to its legs and too wide to fit into the front door. 

Removing the Channels 1 x 1

Luckily for me it was a beautiful day. 70 degrees sunny and perfect. I had the delivery guys wheel the console in the alley way next to my building. I knew I had to break it down and lose some weight in order to get it up three flights of stairs. Oh yeah, there's no freight elevator. 

Fader Guide Photo

With the help of Kenichi (Ken) Minami, Adams pal from Ken South Rock, we started to remove pieces of the console. We stripped out all of the faders, I had to photo the wire connections so that I could put everything back together properly. We stripped out every channel and bus channel as well. The next step was figuring out the wiring. Ken, very carefully and meticulously packed and carried the pieces upstairs. But there was just no way to get the console on the go with a 300lb umbilical dragging behind it. 

Some of the ideas where to have two guys carry it along behind. Another idea (not mine) was to cut it all off in one fail swoop and rewire it in its entirety later. WTF?! No way, that would have meant hours and hours of soldering. I knew there was a way to get that worked out and I just needed time. I sent everyone away for dinner. I needed to think and line all of the cable out to see where it went. 

Cable in Afternoon

About an hour of just sitting there looking at the console and the cables, I was kind of freaking out. Confusion, exhaustion, regret and overwhelming stress where wearing me down along with the sunset. It was getting dark now and the guys would be back soon to load the console onto dollies for the long haul to the top. I needed an idea and I needed it quick. I realized after handling the cable from one end to the other that it was all attached in one basic area. The Trident 80B patch-bay is a thing of beauty on this old console. Everything you ever need is worked thru the patch-bay and that is where every single cable with the exception of 8 small lines originated. 96 patch-points connected all of the cable to 96 cable endings. I took out the two patch-bays, and after removing 96 screw patch-points, all 300lbs of cable fell away like dominos. We're in business.

Strip It! Strip It Good!

My guys showed up as I was removing the final array of screws. That's when Adam and Josh, from GBM, took charge of dismantling the beautiful Ash wooden pieces that frame the board, and detached the legs. The console weight was now just a few hundred pounds and ready for the lift. We wrapped it in packing blankets and shrink wrap, rolled it through the front door on a pair of loaner dollies and away it went. The crew handled the console pretty easily now and in about 25 minutes it went from the alley way next to my building to the third floor loft where it will reside in the live room for testing and wiring.

Just around the corner

Big ups to Scott Loving, Dave Treut, Adam Aron Amram, Josh & Rondell for their heavy lifting!

To be continued...

Trident 80B Recording Console

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"Some of the best recordings in the world were done on a Trident such as The Beatles' 'Hey Jude', David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' and James Taylor's first album, and many more."

Built by Malcolm Toft/Trident and designed by John Oram, who worked for VOX back in the 60's, The Trident 80B was one of the most successful British consoles designed, hand wired and produced in the early 80's. Its sought after for its "open sounding mic pre's and very 'musical' eq as they say… its the classic Trident British sound." 

The Inspiration

My long time friend Jim Gerovac, of the band Craving Strange, had told me about a documentary called Sound City, with the story of a vintage mixing console renowned for its sound and pedigree. After seeing this documentary, I knew I was ready to take the plunge into upgrading my recording studio center piece. The heart of any recording studio is the mixing console. Its where all the mics get plugged into, its where the sound travels before it goes to tape, or the computer or anywhere else. The console is THE heart and soul of any recording studio's system.

For my price range I was finding a lot of 16 channel, class A consoles that were new and would do the job. But I had run into issues in the past with only having 16 inputs. It just wasn't enough. For big bands recording live, I needed more inputs. At least 24, and for the future, I'm certain I would need/want even more. I found information about the Trident series consoles on a few of the forums that I frequent. Its versatile, its known for its incredible drum sound and "musical EQ's". The Trident 80B has 32 inputs and 24 outputs. Perfect for large scale recording with room to grow. 

In my research about consoles like these for sale, I found them to be quite pricey. Even a little bit out of my price range. There were 3 on the market at the time. Two being sold through Vintage King, a reputable company whom I've worked with in the past. One of their 80B's was far from perfect, "a fixer upper" and the other was "refurbished in mostly proper working order". There was one more on ebay, that had been written very little detail and was going for 20% less money. I messaged the ebay seller and found out this console was being brokered by Warren Rhoades of Sound Stage Studio in Nashville, TN. Warren was selling it for a friend of his who has owned it for the last 10 years. Warren was actually the original owner of the console.

This is where things get interesting… 

Original Magazine Ad for the Trident Console

This particular Trident 80B console was ordered and purchased by Warren for Sound Stage Studios, in Nashville, TN back in the early 1980's. This console was in Sound Stage for about 20 years, where it recorded the likes of Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp. None of this information was listed in the ebay add. Just that it was in Nashville and in working order. Warren told me, "The console is in perfect working order, has been in storage for the last year. It comes with a bunch of cable and we need to get it out of storage as soon as possible."

I had a friend of mine in Nashville go check it out. He brought with him a music producer friend of his. "Dude, for the price and condition of this desk, you are getting a steel." I made an offer on the console, with a bit of negotiation, we came to an agreement. Now I had to get the 500lb+ thing from Nashville, TN to Brooklyn, NY.

To be continued...

Remix

SpeakerSonic

My Trident 80B console has a setting called Remix. What is Remix? Remix is common practice in the art of making music. It means just what it says, you take a mix of your song that may need some improvements, and you mix it again. 

In the old days and more of a specialty now, mixing a song meant having all hands on deck, working together with the faders, buttons and knobs of the mixing board, watching notes to a time line while the song was bounced to 2 track tape. It meant hours and hours of making those notes, and hours and hours of putting them into effect using the analog console, while the song played thru from beginning to end. 

Now a days, with the help of computer based recording platforms, mixing or remixing can be much more simple. I use Pro Tools, but almost any computer based program comes with automation, multi effects processing, plug in inserts and easier ways of getting the perfect mix without setting up hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear, for the mix of one song only to have to do it all over again for a remix.

What's this button do?

Tech Talk: Automation is when you program the volume, panning, and effects levels to move on their own. Multi effects processing could mean compression, reverb, delay, flange, chorus, equalization, or anything that effectively changes the characteristics of a signal or sound-wave. A plug-in is a direct insert onto a digital audio track. This is also typically an effect of some sort.

More recently, I've been implementing board mixes into my process of mixdown. A board mix is basically a mix of the old and the new. You send all of the audio outputs from the computer back to the analog mixing console. This gives you the chance to add analog EQ and outboard gear to final mixing stage. Also, just the fact that the audio signal is passing once again thru an analog source, can really warm up the sound. In the business of recording music, warmth = "Awesomer!"

The time saving part, is that I've already applied my volume changes, panning, effect levels, inserts and multi effects, inside the computer. I could then bounce the track down to 2 track tape, or bounce it down to a 2 track digital audio file such as Wav or Aiff. 

I read in a book once, mix your song, remix it, remix it again, and remix it again till it feels right. But the reality is, you should be very careful how far you go in the remix process. You don't want to lose the magic of a first or second mix. 

A quick anecdote: Michael Jackson and the engineer for the Thriller album, Bruce Swedien are mixing Billie Jean. Its the end of a long day and Quincy Jones has left for the night. Bruce and Michael work late into the night on what they believe is an absolutely fabulous mix of one of my all time favorite songs. When Quincy arrives in the morning, they're wrapping it up. They exclaim, after mix 91, they've got the perfect mix and can't wait for Quincy to hear it. Quincy says, "Let me hear this piece of shit." He got real quiet and after a moment said, "Now lets listen to mix 2." Mix 2 blew it all away and that's what went out on the Thriller album, mix 2.

WATCH Bruce Swedien talk about Billie Jean

One Way Or Another

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Taste. When it comes to recording music, taste is everything. What you like, what the musicians like, what the producers like, what the artists friends like, what the artist wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend like. Anyone who listens to the music is going to have an opinion. "It sounds too big! It sounds too far away. It sounds great! It sounds boring. It sounds like its on the radio." It's easy to hear things if you listen for them. Whenever I work with an artist, the first thing I do is ask them, "What are you going for? What do You want it to sound like?" 

Finding that balance of what sounds good to you and the group, and what sounds good to other listeners is always difficult. I have no control over the song if I'm just there to record and mix it. I can offer ideas of what I think will make things more appealing to someone like me, but it may or may not appeal to the one being represented by the art. I'm always invested in the music I'm working on even if I'm just there to push the buttons. I put the mics in place. I dial in the EQ or compression. I'm the first and only person between the artist and the tape machine. 

Tyrone with bass player Kyle Bruse

Art is an idea. Art is a concept. Art is the execution of a concept or an idea. Art is hard? Art is simple. Art is subjective. Art is none of the above? Whatever you perceive your art to be, it's best to be able to express it in a form that is able to be understood by those you are working with. "I want it to sound very natural. I want it to sound anthemic. I want it to sound like the Beatles. I want it to sound like The Black Keys."

John Ginty on the Porta B3 with Vintage Leslie Cabinet

I'm currently working on several projects where my influences vary. On one particular project, I'm co-producer with an artist. Tyrone came to me with a concept and I'm helping to take his song ideas and make them full band representations of  those ideas. I've called in some friends to be a part of the project and he is also bringing people to the project. Each time you add a player, the variables, the vibe and the concept, changes. For instance, we're working with a big hitter named John Ginty as the B3 organ player. John has the #3 Blues album in the nation right now. He plays with The Dixie Chicks and The Allman Brothers regularly. He is a master of his instrument and a creative genius. He takes the songs and puts in his parts, simple at first, and then fully flushed out with his own creative juices. Taking the songs to a place inconceivable to both myself and Tyrone. Now, we have a choice. Go with the simple syrup that has bits and pieces of flare, or go with the whole spice rack. Its a tough decision. I'm there as a critical ear and can offer opinions, but the choice is Ty's. I'm an enabler. 

Another project I just finished is with Dan & Rachel. We, very quickly, recorded and mixed a song for their future tour of Italy. Dan came over for the final mix on Sunday and we sat back and both thought it sounded pretty full and good. Once it arrived home, Rachel wanted a few changes which I implemented post mix session, put it in the dropbox and then it was complete. A few days later, they might want a tweak or two. Thus is life. Everyone hears it, and mixed with their own emotions, experiences or expectations, it evolves until its just right. I am a vessel. "I am merely a guide." I am that which is in-between concept and execution.

The point. Everybody's a critic, myself included. The bottom line. If you do your best and work hard for the people who are putting their trust in you, all will be well.

Double Duty

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Killy Mockstar came in the other day again to sing the final song of her EP and to mix up some tracks. We've shifted gears away from it sounding like a live record and we've headed full on into the world of effects, and Kenny G. Its true, our sax man was adamant about the Soprano Sax having a big, soft sound like that of the rarely mentioned Kenneth. Such is life.

Poison, a rollicking, punk racer of a song, was the final vocal performance and Kelly made quite a time of it. She is used to cueing the band for some of the changes which made our life a little harder since on this day, we have this Kelly and on cue/record day, we had that Kelly. One of the changes took some doing, counting, figuring and finessing. Once we got thru it though, we were home free and into the process of high fiving and talking about how awesome we are. Its what we do.

Add, Subtract, Multiply photo by Craig Schober

The psychology of voice. You have to be there for the singer. You have to make sure they feel confident and empowered. You have to tell them how good its going when it is, and how to make things even better if they need some coaching. Singing is a powerful force to wield. It takes a sophisticated delivery to tell someone what you think will make them feel or sound better. Tough stuff. Trust is where its at. If you both trust each other, things go very well. 

Mixing these tracks has taken on many forms. This record is very colorful. You have players in this band with so much talent and you want each person to be represented and even pushed forward on certain parts. I'm doing my best to get everyone's voice heard. We're getting towards the end and I believe it to be going very well.

No Time For Rest

Shifting gears.

Dan & Rachel have been in the last few days as well. The goal: Record and Mix one new song for an upcoming tour. We've been recording this track in bursts. They came over after my Killy Mockstar session on Friday. No break for this guy over here. As soon as Kelly was out the door, I was in it thick asking about what they needed and setting it up for the session.

Multiple timing shifts on a tempo map, plus a reference guitar and vocal for starters. Live drums, two electric guitar performances, piano, synth bass, double vocals for Dan and a super clean and delicate vocal for Rachel.

Casey Holford came in for the 4 hour band recording parts. He got a look at the new set up over here, which is nice for me to show off, and helped out a lot with the guitar tone choice. I put together a pretty big drum sound. Rachel is playing a steady kick and snare for the track, so I close miked both and then put in a few room mics for depth. 

Tech Talk: On the snare I used a pair of MD 421's top and bottom with LA3A inserts, on the kick I used an AKG D112 with API 550b & 527 comp insert. Placed middle into the port aimed at the beater. For the room, I used an AKG C 414 about 4 feet from the front of the kit, and then high in the room and 10 feet back, another C 414. For the guitars we chose the Mesa/Boogie Mark III. It has a full range of sounds and is easy to dial in quality tones. I put another MD 421 on the cone, and again used the C 414 for the room a few feet back. 

Daniel Voicing

At the end of our four hour session together, we had finished with the drums, guitars, bass and piano. The next day, yesterday, we spent about 2.5 hours on vocals and a percussive 1/4 note decaying delay sound that pops in and out of the track. I get such a great vocal sound over here. I know Dan and Rachel's voices so well, that I had already chosen the setup prior to their arrival. Here we also worked together on finding the right delivery. Rachel and I directed Dan, and then Dan and I directed Rachel. The outcome is impressive. 

Those two had to run off before we could mix it, so that is happening a little later today. Its mostly mixed at this point, it just needs a little fine tuning in the sense of vocal placements and levels. I added a wonderful gated reverb to the drums and then added the 1176 all buttons in technique to the drum bus. They sound HUGE!