It’s not as if this track is brand new on the scene (was released in late 2009), but HEATLH is one of my favorite bands of the moment… which I’m finding much inspiration in right now… Brilliant noisy art rock.

Band website: www.healthnoise.com
Label website: www.lpurecords.com

I’ve been jamming on Janelle Monáe for a bit after a few of my Facebook friends linked to a couple of her videos last week. A modern version of soul with some hip-hop undertones, and a slightly weird twist to it all. Very inspiriting. And the dance moves are brilliant.

“Many Moons” short film

Performing “Tightrope” on Letterman

tightrope letterman live
Uploaded by yardie4lifever2. – More video blogs and vloggers.

Love the guitar line at the top of “Tightrope” – how it stops and starts over, with a sort of funky up and down motion.

Last Tuesday, Mother/Father – the band I’m involved with in a management capacity – released their new EP, Physical Heaven.

Physical Heaven is the latest project to become a part of my production/recording/mixing portfolio, and I (as well as the rest of the team) are excited about finally being able to share this release with you.

You can listen to Physical Heaven in full here:

Buy Physical Heaven on iTunes

Buy Physical Heaven on Amazon

Buy Physical Heaven on Radical Notion Digital

Other production and recording notes:

Produced, recorded, and mixed by: Jacquire King
“The Hours Witch” produced, recorded, and mixed by: stinson
Additional production by: James Robert Farmer, David Miller, stinson, and Willie Forreal
Additional engineer: stinson
Mastered by: Richard Dodd

At my studio I often run into a problem when recording: I run out of resources.

I prefer to record all basic tracks live with the whole band, and often times this approach to recording leads me to run out of resources-mics, cables, mic pre’s, inputs, etc.

Although this really only becomes a problem when I’m recording five or more people at once, it happens often enough that I find myself having to work inside this challenge on most sessions where basic tracks are recorded at my studio.

My philosophy on recording allows me to approach a limitation, such as the one described above, as a catalyst for creativity, instead of viewing it as a disadvantage. I believe working within certain limitations causes you to make commitments on the spot, which in the end puts a more organic and natural feel on the character of the recording.

When I’m faced with the challenge of having to pick priorities for what mic will get used where, one of the first candidates for omission are the room mics. The reason I’m so quick to lose the room mics, is because I’ve developed a little mixing technique that allows me to recreate the room ambience in a very natural sounding way, which I will describe below.

Artificially Recreating Natural Sounding Ambience

1. Assign all your drum tracks to a stereo buss.
2. In your DAW create two Aux Inputs, and assign both of their inputs to the same stereo buss. Name the first Aux Input “Dry,” and the second Aux Input “Wet.”
3. On the “Wet” channel, insert a reverb plugin. I prefer to use a convolution reverb, because a sampled room sounds so much more natural than a totally synthetic reverb.
4. Turn the “Dry” channel up to 0dB, but leave the fader on the “Wet” channel all the way down for now.
5. Take just a few minutes to balance your drums while listening through the “Dry” channel. Don’t spend too much time on this initial balance, as you will fine tune it in a moment. Simply get the basic pan/level balance that feels right to you.
6. Once you’re happy with the basic drum mix, pull up the “Wet” channel to a good audible level. You may want to bring down the “Dry” channel just a little bit. You want the “Wet” channel a bit louder than it will be in the final mix for now. At this point you are not trying to get the final balance, you’re trying to get a sense for how the reverb sounds.
7. Spend a few minutes dialing in the settings on your reverb plugin. In most cases you will want to find a sound that most closely resembles room mics set up to capture a whole drum kit or band. However, some projects may call for something different. Use your judgement to determine what sounds best in the context of the mix you are working on.
8. After you have finished dialing in the settings on your reverb plugin, you should now begin focusing on the balance of the “Wet” channel against the “Dry” channel. As you balance these two channels together, you may find that you want to fine tune the balance and pan of the individual drum tracks from step five.

That’s it! Once you’re happy with the overall balance/pan of the individual drum tracks, and the “Wet” Aux Input channel with the “Dry” Aux Input channel, you should have a drum mix that includes some natural sounding ambience. Experiment with including or excluding certain drum tracks from the submix, such as overhead mics.

You can take this a few steps further by taking this entire submix, and incorporating the buss compression technique, or adding a bit more reverb of a different type to just the snare drum. You can also use this technique on something else entirely, such as an electric guitar submix, or a horn section submix.

Hope this little mixing tip helps you achieve a natural sounding ambience to your mixes when you don’t have the resources to record with room mics. As always comments are welcome. If you end up using this technique, post a link so we can all hear your mix.

Typically, the records where I’m in the producer’s chair are recorded live, with all the musicians close enough together that they could reach out and touch one another. I do this because it ignites a special kind of energy when the band is all playing together. It also means that all the tracks bleed on one another.

There’s a fear in the recording community of track bleed. People can be meticulous about making sure all the instruments are isolated, so they don’t bleed on one another. They’re afraid that all this bleed will degrade the sound of the record, or lock them into a position that keeps them from having options later.

I love bleed. I think track bleed actually enhances the sound, as to me it’s all about what happens when the parts come together, not really the micro-focused aspect of the individual parts themselves. It’s also about the human element of recording, and track bleed helps create a sound that has more of a human feel.

But it’s all very subtle. Realistically, track bleed is very much a non-issue. Honestly when all is finished, the listener is never going to know the vocal got on the piano track a little bit, and the drum mics also picked up the guitar. All that is a layer of production that really just creates a subconscious texture.

You would be surprised what you can get away with – across all genres, and in most situations.

If the individual tracks of your recording are the single bricks which make up the house, bleed is the mortar which holds the recording together.

It’s human, it’s real, it’s organic, and it’s warm. Take advantage of it.

A friend suggested I look up the band Wild Beasts. So I did (thanks Adam!). And I’m into them. A couple songs and videos in particular really have an aesthetic that’s exactly my kind of thing:

“The Devil’s Crayon”
Love the plucky pointed-yet-muted guitars, drenched in reverb and performing a layer of scraping riffs throughout this song.

“Hooting & Howling”
The dark, cold water theme really took me in. The general arrangement and instrumentation formed a unique listening experience for me as well. Kind of got tired of the scenery to the video about halfway in though. I did like the fact that they never went to a different set (an idea I’ve had-if I ever direct a video I’ll take this approach). However, would have helped if they did a little more within the set to change some major element about halfway through.

There’s a common semi-subtle detail in both these videos, where at times they focus on dust or small particles – oxygen/debris in the water in “Hooting & Howling” and dust coming off the snare drum at the beginning of “The Devil’s Crayon” – which inspired me. Overall, I love the way Wild Beasts approaches song arrangement/structure, instrumentation, and vocal style.

And here’s a bonus video: “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues” This one features the band floating horizontally just slightly above the ground. Again, a concept I had for a video, if I ever end up directing one. Kinda like the band is reading out of my notebook…

Wild Beasts Official Site: http://www.wild-beasts.co.uk