Hope all is well with you! Much has been happening on the publicity front in Q1 and I’m excited to have Head Above Tide out in the world. In the previous post, I detailed the steps involved in laying down the “bones” of each song: drums, bass, and rhythm guitar or MIDI keyboard. Now, I’d like to share with you the overdubbing process we formulated for the album. Overdubbing, or layering new recordings upon an existing track, is traditionally done by miking each instrument separately, placing each one in an audio mix via panning, and then summing those individual recordings together to create a 2-channel output (i.e. left and right channels that simulate a “stereo-like” image). I didn’t take this traditional route as I wanted to produce a true stereo representation of the band playing in a room. Therefore, I opted to use the same stereo mic array and room as in the initial tracking, placing each player or speaker in the location I wanted he or she or it to appear in the stereo image. Before commencing the overdubbing, I needed to choose the best of these initial takes. I kept in account issues with tempo and rhythmic fluctuation. Occasionally, I did decide to edit (i.e. digitally splice) takes together if the tempos and general feel worked from one to the next.
As engineer Art Halperin recorded these initial takes, we hit a couple of snags and had to think on our feet. During setup, Michael O’Brien amplified his bass guitar through a speaker cabinet and unfortunately the resulting sound sympathetically vibrated the drum snare wires. As this issue frequently occurs when an amp speaker is too close to a drum kit, we decided to instead feed the bass signal directly into the DAW (i.e. plugged the instrument into the audio interface). The good news is we were able to reamp the bass performance later without the drum kit present. Reamping allows one to tailor, with effects and EQ settings, the timbre of a recording as it is replayed through an speaker, which can then be re-recorded in a space. As I wanted the bass to be a part of the stereo image, we chose to use the same mic array and room for any reamps we needed done. The 2nd snag was an issue with the acoustic guitar level, since in these initial sessions the level was too low as compared to the drums. Our exceptional drummer, Yorgos Maniatis, unfortunately was set too close to the room mics and was hitting quite hard. Because of the volume disparity, I decided to overdub another acoustic guitar track on several songs. We used the guitar monitoring signal from the initial sessions on another couple of songs, which was fed into the bassist’s and drummer’s headphone mix. This signal originated from the internal piezo pickup, which was plugged directly into the audio interface. Although the resulting mono recording had a harsh quality to it, we transformed the sound into an electric guitar like timbre when reamping it through a Fender Twin Reverb. Electric rhythm guitar was also treated in the same fashion. Happily, our change of plans worked out. Having the acoustic guitar, electric rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums on separate recording tracks make mixing easier, as we could set their levels independently of one another. Yet all were present in the same room to produce a true stereo image.
After I chose the initial takes, I planned to record and reamp the lead guitar parts. The lead parts I wrote, apart from the ad libbing and solo sections, were sympathetic to my vocal arrangements. However, the musicians hired also had the option of developing the parts to idiomatically fit their playing approach, which I’m glad to say they did. Before sending them the tracks to work on, I set down a quick scratch vocal in my home studio for the players to use as a reference track. Dave Ramsay and Richard Padrón then brought their incredible stylistic flourishes to three of the more technical tracks, while I handled the remaining. They captured their performances directly into their DAWs at their respective home studios, which I then added to the main tracking and subsequently reamped into the studio room. To these lead guitar recordings, I added overdrive and feedback through either DAW plugins or by adding a BB Preamp pedal to the signal flow, while utilizing the native spring reverb of the amplifiers. For any stereo effects such as tremolo and chorus, I fed the guitar signal into two guitar amps (a Fender Twin Reverb and Vibrolux) which I placed on opposite sides of the room. Art Halperin then wicked up the volume and we enjoyed the sympathetic stereo vibrations!
Once the lead guitars were tracked, I began overdubbing vocals. I recorded my solo vocals first over a few sessions while spending a couple of months rehearsing the backup singers. I then brought them into the studio and structured the sessions in the following manner: I’d sing a few takes with the singers and they’d then sing two or three more without me. For the ones without me, the singers listened to the monitor of my solo vocals so they could respond to my phrasing. Occasionally, we utilized click tracks (i.e. a metronome set under the existing performance) in songs that normally had conducted tempo changes. This two-tiered approach benefitted the post-production process, as I could easily remove any backups that didn’t work out and replace them with backup-only takes synced with my solo vocals. However, I used this “fix” infrequently as the takes with all three of us had a vibrant live feel. I even had the idea during the mixing process of concurrently layering the backup-only tracks on top of the ones with all three of us singing. Their doubled parts thickened the timbre considerably, creating a choral effect of 4 backup singers. I did not use this doubling method on lines either singer sang on their own. You will find that on the album, the two Lisa Trenary singers appear on the right side while the two Cherette White singers appear on the left side of the room!
One song, “A Mutiny”, was unfortunately not ready for these vocal sessions so I instead recorded them at my home studio using an Earthworks SR30/HC hypercardioid small diaphragm condenser mic. This model, from the same manufacturer as the TC30 mics in the stereo array, has a similarly flat EQ and fast transient response. Though each vocal part was recorded separately, I believe the mic captured our vocals fairly transparently. The 3 mono recordings were then panned to mimic the real stereo image present in the other songs. Listeners with discerning ears and a good stereo monitor setup would be able to easily hear the spatial differences between the vocals recorded in this track and the ones recorded in true stereo.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to covering the final recording processes before mixing: sampled instruments, convolution reverb and other applied effects to the individual tracks.
Jason Vitelli's Music 