Day Six - Last of the bass, overdubs, production and acoustic guitars

Hello peeps!

Hope you're enjoying this blog. This has basically been for all you guys to get an inside view into the process of recording an album... well our process anyway! Hope it hasn't been too technical. I've tried to make it as easy a read as possible but give you muso's something extra.

I got up at 5:30 this morning for some bizarre reason?! Excitement probably as it's been a joy to participate and watch our album unfold day by day, layer by layer. First up was trying to record the "Jukebox" bassline on Juki's altered tuning 5 string. I managed to knock it off in one take with one minor fixup as it's a really simple part, tight on the kick drum so could really concentrate on the feeling of the part in context of everything that had been laid down before. I rarely get the chance to track with the full band and extras in my headphones as I'm either recording after drums or to the band with drums and "live" guitar parts so really enjoyed doing that. So bass parts on the album in the bag :)



Next we worked with Matt "back of the bus" James on cleaning up and rough mixing 3 songs from our first session recording "Shark" late last year. Man oh man, felt sorry for Matt as there were so many extra tracks to delete, comp into other tracks and volume balance. But he's a champion and managed to get them sounding ship shape for Gordon's inspection in no time.

The overdub and production stage is a cool part of the process as it adds that extra sparkle and fatness to the song that you don't necessarily get just from all the band members jamming in a room. It's kinda the difference between a live performance and a studio album. Each band has their own vibe with regards to this as some prefer the raw vibe of the basic tracks while others layer their recordings with loads of melodies and textures. I think our band falls somewhere in the middle and it's very song dependent. Because we've come up with loads of different sounding songs us as well as Gordon have definitely taken different attitudes based on what the song needs. So that in mind, we worked on "Jukebox" once Gordon got back from his Long Street expedition and came up with an instrumental string-driven middle eight. This involved Gordon playing the violin, viola and cello parts on the synth and us all giving suggestions as to the melodic direction of the part. Ultimately it's sounding really cool. The song is Gordon's baby and he's leading it really well. It's gonna sound like the anti-Strokes - big production, strings, the works compared to The Strokes back to basics rock 'n roll approach. A versatile man is our Gordo.



Next back to Fruit and Veg city (we really should look into getting a sponsorship there :) ) for lunch vibes then onto some extra guitar sheeite. We only did a few guitar overdubs (basically meaning recording certain parts again and adding them to the existing parts to make them sound fatter, especially guitar parts). Songs don't always need them and we felt that only a few parts should have so Scal doubled a few rhythms. Then on to the beastial guitar solo, or more like wall of sound and noise (the good kind), on "Unusable Block." It seems that Seattlites dig their guitar noise - see Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Soundgarden, The Melvins and countless bands in the Seattle 80's/90's grunge scene - and Gordo's no different. For more Seattle stereotypes, go here: http://dailyuw.com/2007/3/8/seattle-stereotypes/. He went to work with Juki on finding some cool ambient feedback based guitar parts. Juki's also definitely a noise fan, going back to his War on Salt punk band days :)

We ended off the day with some acoustic guitar and used a Yamaha tuned in Nashville tuning. We discovered this guitar lying around the studio somewhere and it sounds beautiful! It's strung with 5 non-coated strings (ie. all from the top 2 strings on a normal steelstring guitar) and 1 normal "bass" acoustic string. The tuning's weird cos the highest pitched string isn't at the bottom of the guitar so it gives it this sparkly voice. Which was perfect for "Caroline" as a layer so Scal set about recording it. Carel had to mute out my bass part so Scal could get a good enough mix in his headphones... which leads me to my Gordo quote of the day: "We should mute all your bass lines on the album and only have them on the special edition version. That way I can take your share of the album's profits." Old Jeremy "MOTB" Moyle dug that one!

Well, I'm pretty tired. Been working hard this past week and a bit... and I'm on leave! But couldn't think of a better way of spending my time.

Till tomorrow... same time same place...
K-Ro

P.S. I managed to dig up the studio diary posts on our facebook page. Check them out in the post below.

P.P.S. We're back at Zula Bar this coming Saturday the 23rd of Jan 2010 jamming with a few other cool bands so come in and let's have a party! We'll be celebrating the end of our active involvement in the album. From there on it's in Gordon and the S&M team's hands for the mixing and masterisation (sic) process.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=293446369672

P.P.P.S. I found a way to fix a water damaged phone - open it up and put all the parts in a cup on rice, uncooked of course and leave it for half a day. It works trust me!

P.P.P.P.S. Kidding, that's all I got :)

The diary entries from the first session - Sept-Oct 09

For those interested:

Day 1 - Monday 28 September 2009

For those of you who don't know, we're bringing out a new album next year and hit the studio today to go into production at Sound and Motion studios. The seeds for this album were sewn during our pre-production (also at S&M) a month and a bit back. We did rough recordings of 7 songs we wrote at the time and they sounded awesome! But where we are at the moment we’ve decided to only record 3 of them for now, together with 3 brand spanking new tunes, which are a bit of a departure from anything we’ve written before. But I guess that’s the nature of our band – we’re always discovering new music and wanting to take our sound in a new direction. The first step of this was expanding guitar textures via a whole bunch of new pedals that are making the new songs have a dreamy, spacey kind of vibe at times. Such a trip to hear what Scal and Juki are coming up with on their new toys! And Sash and I are trying to just lock together to create some cool grooves to keep the dancy feel we’ve always strove to get.

Well, there’s a bit of background to where we are at the moment. Today was a set-up day to make sure we get awesome tones and drum sounds so we can lay down the bones of our material. Matt James, the resident S&M guru (Sound and Motion of course, haven’t seen him in any leather get-ups… yet) spent the morning getting the drum kit to sound punchy and powerful so Bash Crash Sash could feel at home. He’s done a great job as the drums are sounding huuuuge! Juki’s playing through this Mesa Boogie stack kindly lent by Tyrone from S&M and Scal is playing through his creamy bluesy Vox. As for me, I’m using my ’82 Fender Precision through this radical preamp DI’ed. Sorry if this is too technical but just wanted to give some muso’s some inside info into the process J

The way we’re recording this album is the same process as Dirty Dancing and Tiny Islands in that we all record the basic tracks live at the same time. This will give the tracks the same kind of energy we get from playing gigs. We’ve always written stuff through jams so we feel this is the best way of going about it.

Stoked to get the process off the ground! Tomorrow we’re going to track the bones of 3 songs, looking forward to it! So it’s all on track so far! On Saturday we’ll be recording 2 or 3 of our new tracks. And of course we’ll be kept entertained by Juki Chan with his wall-to-wall piano playing lol!

Will keep you all up to date as to how it’s all going. See you all at Rocking the Daisies!

Karl


Day 2 - Tuesday 29 September 2009

Today was a day of tough graft in the studio. Our schedule's quite tight so we tracked 3 songs today but all of them sound amazing! The 3 we chose to do have been staples in our live show for a few months now so we thought we'd do them first to get a solid start on the album. What I can tell you is they were all done live, no click tracks, just the 4 of us in 1 room feeding off each other's energy to give the album's core a feel of being at a live Plastics show. It's a time-tested approach that was used back in the 60's.

We kicked off just after 10 after some coffee and a smoke and worked on getting the guitar tones and drum mic'ing right for the songs then started tracking. The tricky part of recording live is because all 4 of us are playing there's a lot of room for errors. But as long as the drum tracks are perfect (and they are, respect Sash!) you can do little fix-ups and re-do's on the guitar and bass parts. We're also going to be recording some overdubs and put some production into each song to fatten it up and create some textures, maybe some synth pads, piano and extra percussion. Looking forward to that cos I get to watch the other guys weave their magic!

Matt James, the S&M engineer, also had a rad idea to take an old song we were considering for "Kiss The Plastics" and record it totally analogue onto tape! That'll create a totally old school feel for the track which will really suit it. It's a really simple and mellow song Scal wrote which we didn't think was right for KTP but will be awesome to get onto "Shark."

We've got a couple of days break from the studio because of my work commitments before we're back in the studio to record 3 brand new tracks on Saturday. Before that though it's Kidofdoom's Cape Town launch of their brand new album at Mercury which we're excited for. If you see us there don't buy us any shots cos we gotta be perky for the next day's session... give them to our manager Jeremy instead ;)

Take it easy

Karl



Day 3 - Saturday 3 October 2009

Productive day in the studio! 3 more tracks in the bag, well the basics anyway. Our new tracks are quite tough to record, mainly cos they all have loads of dynamic subtleties so we've had to be super cohesive as a band. So it was quite a draining day for us but the results are sounding banging! These 3 in particular showcase the new direction our band is currently taking. They all have different vibes to each other - the 1 alternates between being moody and menacing and liberating, another's a slowish jam with rad guitar soundscapes and the newest (and never-before-played- live) is a hook-filled pop song with the the strangest swingy groove. Well that's the only way I can describe them!

Tomorrow I fix up a couple of bass parts and add some overdrive to a song or 2. Got some ideas of tones to make it sound nice and chunky :) Then Juki's gonna record some overdubs and textures.

So it's back to work tomorrow. Stoked with the way it's shaping up so far!

Catch ya later!
Karl


Day 4 - Sunday 4 October 2009

The recordings are really starting to develop nicely! I did all my bass fix-ups and added this really dirty overdrive part to one of the new guys which was loads of fun cos we got to tweak with my sound quite a lot. We're recording all the bass DI then Matt and Fuzzy are gonna be tweaking it to suit the song nicely when they mix the tracks. The rhythms are sounding really tight and groovy so Sash and my job's done for these 6 tracks!

Juki tracked a lot of his guitar today as well and added a lot of cool extra melodic stuff that's going to add that little bit extra to the song. He's gonna be finished by tomorrow morn then it's on to Scal to do his guitar overdubs. From there it's on to the fun stuff - production and extra layers like piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, synth pads. Sound and Motion's a rad studio for that cos they have loads of funky instruments lying around to mess around with and a beautiful baby grand piano called Agatha. I really suck at piano though - been messing around trying to figure out "Imagine" by John Lennon but not getting anywhere. So Juki will prob play any piano we need.

So it's back to another rad day in the studio tomorrow, Fruit and Veg city lunches and general hijinx :)

Take it easy - RTD is around the corner so prepare yourselves! And buy the new Kidofdoom cd, it's fookin awes-full!

Ciao!
K


Day 5 - Monday 5 October 2009

Almost finished all the basic tracking, bar some of Scal's geet and all the vocals which will be done in Jan. All the tracks are definitely starting to take shape and give us a peak as to what the final product might sound like. It's strange that - often when you start tracking you have some sort of idea what the song will be like but in the process often it takes many twists and turns, adding some extra layers, tweaking a guitar riff or bassline here and there. Plus it's often the first time the other dudes get the hear my bass lines crystal clear and they're sometimes like, "Rad" and I'm like "Well, I've been playing that for 6 months" Lol! Matt James took 2 days leave so Carel's taken over engineering duties for today and tomorrow and he's doing a good job! It must take loads of patience to be an engineer - often having to sit through take after take until the musician gets it right. They're a special breed!

We're all feeling a little tired but stoked at the outcome so far! Tomorrow's set aside for finishing Scal's guitar then production, which is what I've been looking forward to! Getting to think of the weird and wonderful things we can add to beefen up or add texture to the songs. So far, percussion, acoustic guitar and piano are what we have in mind for certain songs.

Till tomoz...
Karl


Day 6 - Tuesday 6 October 2009

Half of the album's in the bag! Spent the majority of the day working on production ideas and tracking extra instruments. I got to record some piano for the first time - really simple stuff cos I generally suck at it but it added a cool vibe to a couple of parts. Also borrowed a buddy of mine's Martin acoustic guitar which is pretty much the most amazing acoustic I've ever played on! And Sash added some percussion to a couple of the songs.

Gonna cut this short - lank tired after a long stretch in studio but can just say we're super stoked with how the cd's shaping up.

We've got a couple days rest before the big one, Rocking the Daisies. We're gonna be jamming a few tracks that we've recorded and a lot of you peeps wouldn't have heard before so looking forward to breaking them in!

Much love!
K

Day five - bass tracking and such

Hey everyone reading this(and if you're reading this just after I posted it... what are you doing at your pc? It's a beautiful day, go out and enjoy the sun, maybe have a G 'n T at sunset. I know I'm gonna enjoy one on my roof after this)

Anyways, I digress. We had an off day from the studio which was much needed for me as I had some time to allow my ear to recover. Luckily I got to see my GP for the first time and he really worked wonders for me - I've got this weird solidified gel in my right ear at the moment and luckily for me I'm used to wearing ear plugs so it's not that uncomfortable, and has taken the swelling away. So I honestly feel like I've been reborn. I digress again... spent the off day at Waller's bday braai (happy bday Wallertjie!) and then Sash and Jem took Gordotronic to see the Dirty Skirts at Merc.

So to the studio, woke up super early and finished prep for my bassline I had to record for Jukebox. Juki wrote this really simple, rad bouncy bassline which I tabbed out from the midi version he wrote. Homework done I headed through a little earlier than the others to meet Fuzzy (head of Sound and Motion) at the studio. Rad recording with him again! I fixed up half a verse where I think I must have zoned out in "Morgan Freeman." It was kinda weird recording through headphones seeing as though I'm temporarily "deaf" in my right ear so was just hearing everything mono through my left ear. That was pretty simple so got that down by the time the dudes arrived. Then launched straight into my bassline for "Caroline." It's one of my favourite basslines on the album, very melodic but simple as well. The song itself is sounding super super awesome and mellow!

Next Juki and Scal added some extra guitar melodies on "Caroline" to give it an epic ending. Gordon moved a mic into the hallway just outside the live room just to give them a nice natural reverb. Then it was on to "Jukebox." The rest of the guys tracked all the basics (barring bass obviously). They approached tracking in a cool interesting way - we used Juki's midi version as a scratch track to get tempo and Gordo played the piano part, then Sash laid down the live drums, then Juki and Scal's guit. "Jukebox" has kinda turned into Gordon's baby and he had loads of ideas for filling it out so him and Scal worked on some rad textures and a cool leady solo vibe at the end. Which brings me to my Gordotron soundbite of the day: Scal was messing around with this bendy note thing and Gordo said "That's rock 'n roll. I'll give you R50 if you incorporate that into your part. Well maybe we can take it out of the management fund." Haha! Add some tasteful guitar feedback to the mix and the song is sounding rad!

To end the day off we tried to track the bass for "Jukebox." However I found out when working on it that Juki had written one note that's lower than the lowest note on my bass so had to detune my bottom string. That didn't really work so I tried Juki's 5 string. That also didn't keep it's tuning and we ended up tuning the 5th string up a note and putting foam under the 4th string to mute it. That was one weird experience - first time I had played a 5 string and in a weird tuning too! Fuzzy's gonna have a look at it and try sort it out for tomorrow. He's the bass player for Lark so he's got some experience dealing with bass issues.

A productive day! Slowly but surely the rest of the album's starting to take form. Loads planned for tomorrow but all will be reveiled this time 2moz.

Till then, get your hands on the new Julian Casablancas (Strokes singer) solo album called "Phrazes for the young." It's really awesome and doesn't sound like The Strokes at all.

Peace 'n all that,
K-man

day 4!!

hey all! Sash here taking the blog today for karl and his unfortunate aural annomaly, anyhow we (the rest of the band went in on friday and started trakcking the very different sounding jukebox which started out as an acoustic song by Scal and then juki got his hands on it and made it into this really cool earl 90's seal sounding midi track and now we in the proccess of turning it into something totally different.\\: so we went into the studio and Gordon did the piano line with some really cool little changes and flourishes, then we had the task of trying to find a cool drum sound, mission accomplished and we got stuck in doing a couple of takes!
because the whole thing was done to a click track it was important to get the drum perfect so we did that and then at the end of a long day we put down some acoustic guitar. i have a feeling we never will really be able to play this one live as we are probably going to add real strings on and really go to town with it.
so its saturday today!!
what are you doing??
i hope its really grand whatever it is.
we have the day off i think were going to the lake to waste the day away and then to a braai.
back to work on sunday!
Radradradradrdarad!
keep well
see you soon
X

Day Three - more tracking

Hey Judes', Jules'

So I got some bad news last night when I found out I got a small hole in my eardrum :( It's pretty damn painful and I've been medicating it over the last few days so this day was quite a short one for me. For most of it I was on the couch at home getting the rare chance to watch some cricket (go Proteas!). But we spent the morning trying to track a very new song called "Morgan Freeman" (working title... who knows where we come up with these names!). Most of the takes broke down at some point and we struggled during this morning session. But we rehearsed it a whole bunch before I went home at lunch and Scal went to have lunch with his girlfriend and our designer extraordinaire Waller. We also had some issues on Juki's guitar intonation (basically his guitar was out of tune on the upper frets where most of his playing on this song takes place. The most common cause of this is either the neck of your geet is slightly bent or the bridge is not 100%). After fixing that at Marshall Music, Scal and I rejoined the dudes and we got into tracking again with fresh minds (and a broken ear in my case). We nailed it on the second take. It's a song we've asked Gordon to make quite lo-fi and Velvet Underground sounding. We've been listening to a lot of that at band prac and thought the song could use a different sound to the big sound of the rest of the stuff and who better to get that than Gordon "fucked up sound" Raphael. I think (and I might be wrong - I was quite zoned out for this session thanks to the painkillers) Gordon's gonna mix it on the pc then run it through a tape to give it the old school 60's/70's vibe. Gordon didn't really like the song too much in the beginning ("it's not The Ramones is it?") but I think he's warmed to it, especially in the approach we're going to take on it. I still need to do a couple of bass fix ups - my bass part is quite sparse in places and I zoned out for a second and missed one of them hehe - but that I'll do on Sunday.

After finishing the tracking I left for home to rest my ear and try get some sleep. The plan for the other guys was to record a "safety" version of "Caroline" as it's a song we're going to record totally analogue onto tape this coming Sunday. More on that song after we track it.

Sash will write the blog for tomorrow so until Sunday it's cheers!

Karl

P.S. we will be performing at Zula Bar in Long Street next Saturday the 23rd alongside MacGuyver Knife and the 357's with special dj set by Gordon Raphael so pull through! You might hear some new songs ;)