You know the drill. We've got one day to do nine million things. Your job is to set up quick and get out of the way.
It seems more often than not, I'm faced with the task of an artist wanting to schedule a very limited amount of time to record their music. They work, scribe, tool, edit, rewrite, mull over, channel, hone, and maneuver their songs into perfection. A process that takes time and sensitivity. Now its time to record this collection of meticulously crafted songs and time is money. "How fast can it be done?", has led me to name this process "Renegade Recording".
The challenge with "Renegade Recording" is to be fast, efficient and precise. There's no room for experimentation or uncertainty in setups. In my years of recording, I know what works and use my most basic tool kit to be sure that the end result will still represent my own expectations of quality. Of course, the more precise you can be with your techniques, the better the chances of capturing the absolute best possible sound. But with "Renegade Recording", absolute precision is out the window.
Tech Talk: These unique challenges can lend itself to some interesting results. Simplicity first. Keep it simple and be prepared. I always setup a template for each instrument/setup I'm going to use. In Pro Tools you can create a template session from which I can import for each song. This saves time on selecting inputs, groupings and naming tracks. If there are 3 mics going for every acoustic guitar performance, set it up once than import from your template for every song. This saves time and is a very easy way to keep the creative energies stirring from the musician/artist wanting to run a mile in a minute.
Sometimes its an entire band wanting to record 6 songs in one 10hr day, other times its an acoustic artist wanting to record 15 songs in 5hrs. Set it up right so you don't have to rethink it.
The most recent adventure in "Renegade Recording" was with Barry Bliss. In the past, Barry has brought his material in prepped and ready to record vocal and guitar at the same time. The last album, Life is Fair, we recorded, mixed and mastered 14 songs in 7hrs. This time, however, Barry wanted to separate the guitar and vocal tracks. He has a new job that requires him to speak loudly over a long period of time on a daily basis so he was concerned about his vocal performance. The plan was to record all the guitar parts then lay down a vocal for each song. This went off without a hitch. Barry's voice is strong and it was nice to have separation for once. Having a separate guitar and vocal lets me effect guitar and vocal differently and there's no bleed from instrument in vocal mic or from vocal in instrument mics.
Next step was getting Bryan Copeland in for a few string bass parts on a few songs. During the string bass recordings, Debe Dalton showed up to play banjo, so I switched over very quickly to miking the banjo. To keep it simple, I used the same mic and set up for Barry's vocals, Bryan's bass and Debe's banjo. U87 through the Universal Audio LA-610 preamp. A few tweaks with the EQ and a very subtle compressor variance for each instrument. By the time the artist is ready for a real take, I'm setup and ready to capture.
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| Bryan, Debe and Barry rehearsing |
While Debe was taking takes, Steve Espinola showed up to play a little piano. We finished up with Debe and I quickly put up a couple of mics on the old Wurlitzer Piano. Stereo pair in omni over the top of the instrument with the lid opened up. Steve basically was learning the song as we recorded it. His parts are simple at times and experimental at others. It lent itself to being a very beautiful piano performance.
As I mentioned with Steve, none of the musicians playing on the tracks had ever played or even heard the songs before. Barry just threw them into the mix. Bryan made a few quick notes, Debe played through the song a few times and Steve had a couple of chords scribed out in front of him along with the lyrics. No time to think, just do.
Its amazing what happens with limits and quick performances. We really captured some magical moments. All performers involved threw down their first instincts and it worked great.
A week later, Barry added a little piano, and Bryan played a few more tracks with the string bass. I had set up the drum kit with four mics, kick, snare and 2 overs, for the days session. Barry wanted me to play drums to The Truth, which he had recorded to a click the week prior. He also wanted he, Bryan and I to record a live version The American Dream as a band for the bonus track on the album.
I played through The Truth 2 full times and felt pretty good about the parts. The first time through I was trying different things and found the grooves I thought would work. On my next full take I locked in on the changes and then, ok, sure, that's the take. Bryan did the same with the electric bass. Take one, find the changes, take two… great!
The American Dream, I gave Barry a dynamic mic, and put a couple of mics in front of his electric guitar rig. Bry played an electric bass, miked. We were all in the same room and it didn't take long for us to get a pretty solid vibe going. It did, however, take us a while to all fall into place on the changes and the stop starts. We played through this track probably 5 times before we were finished with it. I would call it a live track, even though I made a few edits to clean up a couple of sections. Its all live, just a mash up of 3 different takes to make one perfect take.
Quick mixes, again I made a template each time I mixed a new instrument and then applied it to the following mix. In 2 sessions, totaling 13hrs we recorded, mixed and mastered 13 songs which include, acoustic guitar, vocal, piano, string bass, electric bass, banjo, double vocal and drums.
I don't think the record would have the same zest or zeal had we spent 7 days on the album. I stand by the recordings and by my drum performance. I captured the happenings and the happenings happened in a hurry. Ha! Here's a link to the new Album...
I highly recommend recording at SpeakerSonic Studio.
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