Planning how I'm going to record the Rare Words EP

So this trimester the most complicated and unfamiliar project I'm working on is producing two tracks with a local metal band called Rare Words.

Before going into any detail of my plans I'll include a video of their previous work which shows what we can expect from the production (This is the same video I posted in my last blog):

As we can hear the production is quite complex sounding with each element sounding relatively clear and a lot of elements going on

By analysing the level of production, this allows me to try and get an idea of the scope of the project and how complex it's going to need to be. The first thing I do to plan with bands is let them fill out a questionnaire template that I've constructed, and then I tailor some of the questions to fit what type of recording I'm doing. I learnt this last trimester when in class we did a brainstorming session of questions you could ask a band, which we did in preparation for a class production. Instead of back and forth conversation with a band, I have used a copy of the questions that we came up with in class and send all of the relevant ones (or add new ones) to the band to get an idea of how what resources and quantity team members I'll need to do the recording, plus how I'm going to plan that. I do this practice straight up with Bands to give myself time to figure out how I'm going to do certain elements and how I'll need to research these.

Here's a sample of the questions and answers I received back from Rare Words:

Q. What 2 songs are we looking at doing a recording of? Do we have a demo of this available?

A. 2 Demos that we'd want to do - still need tweaking which we'll do over the next couple of days/week: (LINKS TO DEMO’S)

Q. Time (length), Complexity (instruments, textures), Structure (inc. instrumentation/arrangement)?

A. Complexity is all pretty easy. (Rest of the details were revealed in demo tracks, about 3:30 in length for each track)

Q. Is everything locked in composition wise?

A. Composition wise it's all locked in as we self produce but the songs will be slightly different by the time we track.

Q. Lyrics?

A.Lyrics I need to work with still - shouldn't take long as most of the choruses are already written

Q. Tempo? Tempo changes?

A. No tempo changes.

Q. What are your reference tracks? (What would you like your mix to sound like)

A. References would be AMO (Bring Me The Horizon Album) as discussed/Technology by Don Broco.

Q. What equipment are we using? What amps will we be using for guitars and what type of drum kit?

A. Fender Jazzmaster, Our drummers kit probably, amps we have access to AXE FX/Kempers, Peavey 5150 combo/full head and cab

Q. Are there any preferred microphones that you like to use / ones you want to bring from home?

A. No preferred Mics

Q. Can the drummer play to a click track? Will they be comfortable playing without the rest of the track as a cue or will we need to record a demo version first for them to drum over? (If there is a demo will they want to record over this)

A. Drummer can play to a click - we use one live (we later decided they would play over the demo track, and a click track)

Q. Is the band located nearby to SAE (West End, Brisbane) or will there be over an hour of travel?

A. Whole band lives within 20 minutes of West End

Q. How often do we need to take breaks at a time?

A.Breaks aren't really necessary - can just smash through as much as quickly as possible except lunch probably

Q. What is each band members name, their role and their contact number?

A. Joel Reardon Vocals

Brent Ottley Guitar

Luke O'toole Bass

Jack Douglas Guitar

Andrew Cooke Drums

Q. How many layers of each element are we needing for each song if more than one? For example, how many guitar layers, vocal layers are we looking to do?

A. Layers wise - 1 guitar left 1 guitar right, quad tracked on big choruses/heavy parts. One vocal track apart from harmonies etc

Q. And lastly, how did you go about in your last recording session - what was the order of recording and how did you do each element.

A. Usually go drums/electronic stuff, guitars, bass, any electronic stuff left and finish with vocals

Something really big I learnt through this process was about the use of guitar simulators instead of actual amps - this is something the band actually asked me if we'd prefer to use real amps or their Kemper / Axe FX amp simulators. As this is my first time recording a band like this, knowing what that is was something that I had to research.

From the research that I did, I found that the Kemper and Axe FX simulators are essentially a digital form of various types of amp tones all in one box with no speaker output. I have used things similar to this before such as the plugin Guitar Rig 5, but instead of this being a digital plugin it works as a physical piece of gear. To do this, you can DI the guitar signal straight into the simulator and it outputs into an affected guitar signal, much like a normal guitar amp works except instead of recording the output from a microphone, it records directly into the DAW.

There was some discussion and thinking about whether we would use real amps or the amp simulators, and the band said it would be easier to use the amp simulators as its less to bring with them and its all of the guitar tones in one box. Just to ensure they weren’t doing so in order to cut corners (many bands do so to spend less money on studio time), I asked them about how they did the recording on what I find to be their best work, Demons (posted earlier), and they said it was all done through amp sims as well - the reason for asking this is because I'm comparing reference material and trying to replicate that quality of sound.

Coming from a pop and electronic background I love to do things digitally, and decided this would be an interesting way to go about doing guitars. Also since the project and recording period is already quite complex on its own, it would be really useful to have a direct guitar input so we can plug it in and record, rather than messing with microphones to achieve the ‘right’ tone. That being said, I still want to get a recording of the clean DI signal, that way if something doesn’t sound quite right, we still have the option of reamping the signal through actual amps. I had to do some research on how exactly the amp simulators work and how will we get it into the DAW? I also wanted to know if it was possible to record both a clean signal and affected signal from the Kemper / Axe FX itself or if we’d need to figure out an alternative signal flow.

I managed to find this tutorial online which shows the various outputs of the Kemper rig and the it shows at 2:10 how you can record both a clean DI signal plus an amplified output simultaneously from the rig itself. I then looked for images of the back of the AXE FX amp and compared to see if there were also the same outputs and it looked pretty much the same. And it appears that both the amps work about the same in regards to being able to send 2 signals from the box itself rather than alternative routing through a DI. It was also worth looking into S/PIDF while researching these as I have decided it would be much more efficient to record our guitar layers in the MIDI studio. I love using the MIDI studio for these types of recordings as you can sit directly with the artist and it’s really just a plug and play situation. Due to the straigh tfoward nature of the studio it also allows for very few technical problems to occur that would otherwise be a potential issue in the larger studios. Much like Bring Me The Horizon, the band uses many electronic elements that we can also work on in the MIDI studio.

What was tricky about starting the planning for this project is thinking about how the various studio sessions were going to play out, especially since finding early on that the band isn’t really all at the same place at the same time that often outside of rehearsals. From my understanding, the tracks are mostly written and created by the lead singer and bass player, and the rest kind of just come in and perform the other elements without composing it. Since the studio sessions are broken up, it was important to figure out which element was being recorded and in what order they were going to be completed.

The order of recording will go:

-Drums

-Bass and Guitars

-Vocals

-Electronic elements

The first and foremost element that I’ll be recording for this project is the drum sections. The drums for this project will be replaced with triggered samples so that the kicks and snares are the exact same hit each time, a common trait within the genre. This would also preferably need to be done to the drum recording before recording the other elements as it will help the members of the band get a feel for the energy and have a clearer idea of where the sound is going, potentially improving the characteristics of the performance. More importantly than the triggering is the timing needs to be tightened PRIOR to recording the other elements so that they are playing to a kit that is on time rather than playing to an un-synced recording. That means there needs to be a bit of a gap between recording the drums and the other elements so that I have the time to work on this to a level where it is close enough for the band to record to.

Research is still needed to be done to do some elements in this project as I’ve never recorded this type of vocal or drum sound before, but at the moment this is how the project is rolling out and some of the logistics of how I’m doing it.