Early on in the recording process we had a meeting with our tutor Lee in which we determined that some aspects of our research were missing when we held the first recording session (that later turned in to the pre-production session). As a result of this we spoke to the band in order to determine their influences, and what they wanted to sound like. We determined that they were a fan of the Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. After looking in to both bands we discovered that the Arctic Monkey’s debut album, and Kasabian’s first two were produced by Jim Abbiss.
Following this we were able to rebuild the foundations of our project and continue with the recording process. (Please find more information on Jim Abbiss and how he influenced our recording process in the Research section titled: Role of the Producer.)
We discovered that in order to get the best recording out of The Suspicious Pigeons, they would also need to be recorded together, albeit in a slightly different set-up. After our initial attempts at the first recording session of tracking separately we felt that the songs didn’t ‘gel’ like the demo tracks we had heard, and we began to lose the sense of performance and togetherness in the songs. And so we re-adjusted and had the vocalist/lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist and bassist in the live room, with the drummer in the drum booth (to give the much needed separation and minimise bleed). With this approach it was clear to see that the band fed off the energy of playing together, were much more comfortable and confident, and as a result gave much better performances than had we attempted to track the whole E.P. individually. This was possibly because of the fact they are a relatively young band, with young members who are used to playing live and with very little studio experience. This is the primary example of the way in which one of my aims was achieved: “To use my research to influence the way in which I produce the recording sessions with The Suspicious Pigeons” as well as satisfying one of our objectives “A recording that captures the sound and clients desire”.
The recording sessions continued smoothly after the initial hiccups, and I was personally very proud of some of the recordings that came out of those sessions. In terms of technical and creative issues that we came across, when we had completed several takes of ‘Six Inches’ I was still unhappy with the way it was sounding, to deal with this we suggested the band take a half an hour break to get some food and a coffee whilst we stayed in the studio to assess the song. It soon became clear that the root cause for our unhappiness with the song stemmed from the sound and tone of the second guitar. When the band returned we had a creative discussion on how to resolve this, and we helped them sculpt a new sound for the guitar part, as part of this we experimented with different pick-up arrangements on the guitar, as well as adjusting the amp settings until we achieved a sound we were happy with. Following this we asked the guitarist to re-track his part and completed a few takes. We were instantly a lot happier with the whole song in general and were pleased we had taken the time to address the issue.
A similar event happened with the recording of ‘Money’, we both felt it was their strongest song, and were happy with the way it sounded, but both myself and Max agreed that we could get more from the band’s performance. We explained that as they were having ‘Money’ as the music video and lead single that we wanted them to throw everything at the next take and to give us the very best performance they could. We ended up re-recording the entire song but both the band and ourselves were infinitely more pleased with the results.
Both of these are examples of our first objective: “To work actively with Suspicious Pigeons to engage with their sound and help further it for an E.P. recording.” – We were not ‘passive’ producers or recording engineers in the sense that we just took whatever track was the best performance at the end of any number takes, rather, we were working actively with them in their creative direction and helping them to better their sound for the good of the E.P.
I believe I have also satisfied the aim of “To also research production and mixing techniques, as well as recording processes for the various instruments we will be recording in the studio, to help us obtain the best sound possible.” with my in-depth research on microphone choice, placement, techniques etc. for the various instruments that we were recording. This information can be found on the ‘Research and Supporting Materials’ page of the blog.
My individual contribution to the project involved acting as producer for all the recording sessions, whilst also taking on some of the responsibilities of recording engineer. For instance: making sure everything was running smoothly, that the band were happy and comfortable, helping setting up the layout of the studio room, microphone placement and so on. I also put together the press pack and designed the PDF. When it came to mixing both myself and Max split the work equally, preferring to have two sets of ears as opposed to one, and we mixed the songs together using Logic Pro X.
