iPressRecord... » Yamaha PM-1000

Tracking with The War On Drugs – Part 1

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:01:25 +0000

Spent the afternoon and early evening tracking bass and keys (and some loops) with Adam and Dave of The War On Drugs. I’ve been asked to hang out and help out with some overdubs over at Adam’s place here in Philly, and since I am such a huge fan of this band this whole adventure is a real treat.

We worked on a few songs (which are in various states of amazing). Tracked Dave’s bass both direct (DI through my Sytek) and through a Fender Bassman 4×10. The Bassman was miked with my Shure SM7b through my 1970’s Yamaha PM-1000 preamp. Adam laid down some passes of his new ARP Omni 2 (which I almost bought last week but finally abstained from gear lust). We went DI through the Sytek. Everything was recorded to Tascam MS-16 1″ analog tape…the good stuff. Oh the smell of oxide! Preamps XLR’d right into the back of it.

Between songs we transferred tape into Digital Performer through the Black Lion Audio MOTU 828mk2 (it has the old analog and clock modification from 2006…more on this to come in a later post). I exported everything as WAV files so Adam can drag and drop into PTLE to continue the madness.

Looking forward to getting together next week for more tracking, reamping, and burritos!

YLA – Finished Recording

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:51:21 +0000

Mike V and I finished recording vocals tonight for his Young Lion Apprentice debut, Save The Soundtracks. As usual, vocals were tracked using Jeremy’s (Swivel Chairs) Microtech-Gefell UM70s. Most of the vocals on the record were done with this mic (at some point Mike Kennedy from Audible had it for Isolette’s vocals, so I switched stuff around). I used a few different preamps, including the Yamaha PM-1000, Electro Harmonix 12AY7 (which is out of commission and needs to be repaired), and my Burr-Brown modified Presonus MP20 (with the RNC “Really Nice Compressor” inserted). I believe the other mic we used at times was one of my Audio Technica AT4050s, which we ran through the MP20/RNC.

Mike recorded everything at home on a Tascam 424 MKIII 4-track. He can chime in here if he wants to and go into his gear list or his fondness for Rustica Pizzas (Basil pesto / sun-dried tomato white pies) that fueled the sessions over here. Anyway, we started transferring at 24-bit 96K and mixing last summer. I think at some point he wanted to re-record some vocals that he wasn’t happy with (originally recorded with an SM58), and I was having a difficult time getting some of the vocals that he recorded at home to sit in the mix. The mixes are pretty rich for 4-tracks; lots of delay and reverb direct to tape. We made the decision to redo all of the vocals back in September or October in order to have them cut through the instruments. In the past two weeks we finished them up after a few sessions this Fall and a break for the holidays. I think that it took five or six sessions, tops. Mike and I are a lot happier with the way that things sound between now and last Fall.

Tonight was especially cool since I was able to use my 1977 Maestro Echoplex as tape delay for Mike’s vocals on “Withered Arms”. (The Echoplex was a gift this Fall from Dave Palaitis of Lifetime, a life-long friend.) It is amazing that something that sounds so noisy at times (and that at times deceives you into thinking that a hamster runs around on a track inside of it) can actually sound so good. I have to get this thing into the shop so that I can use it for more and more vocals, even those that are up front in the mix. It is a little scratchy and noisy right now. However, I’m totally in love with this thing. Thanks again, Dave! We recorded the vocal track and then used the Radial X-Amp reamp to get it to the Echoplex. Then the EP-3’s output was fed to the PM-1000’s DI.

We’ll finish some mixing tweaks in the next week and then master Save The Soundtracks.

Back To Recording After A Long Weekend

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:29:40 +0000

Spent the weekend seeing various shows in Philly. Gildon Works on the 14th at L’Etage, BC Camplight and Bloodfeathers at Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday the 16th, and then Audible at their Y-Rock taping yesterday at WXPN Philadelphia’s Studios.

I also spent Saturday mastering Audible’s Isolette EP with MK, and will be finishing up some small corrections this evening.

Mike V, aka Young Lion Apprentice, was in the Laundromat all afternoon recording vocals for his upcoming full-length. We used the 1970s MG UM70s through my 1970s Yamaha PM1000 preamp. Lots of transformers between the mic and preamp in this signal chain folks. We finished vocals for four more songs. There’s three more to go before mixing tweaks and mastering.

Looking forward to a little soup before some more mastering work.