RECORD ROCK, RECORD JAZZ, RECORD INDIE...
it's all gravy...
STADIUM ROCK
Really this track is meant to be performed at Madison Square Gardens, but for the last Dead on Tv record That Little Studio was the venue. This monster of a track took several sessions, and remixes, to get right, but eventually we captured the raw energy and emotion that this song had when performed live. A combination of mic'd and also amp modeled guitars made EQ balancing easier, and 3D placement of synths and guitars helped the multiple parts layer into a wall of sound. In a good way.
LITTLE STUDIO - BIG SOUND
BIg ol' drums, 5 piece horns section, numerous guitar layers... this album has everything. Recorded over several days in the wind down of the 2020 'stay at home' season - it think they were just glad to be out of the house - this was a lot of fun. Live and amp modeled guitars combine to have so many 'signature sounds' I lost count, we re-recorded the horns at least twice to get exactly the right feel, and (not for this track, particularly) really, I mean reeeally experimented with the percussion.
INDIE - NO MESSIN'
UK 3 piece The GodSquad wanted to sound rough and ready, loud and with everything front and center (if you know what I mean!). The drums are mainly from the overhead mics with tweaks from the kick and snare mics for punch, along with the parallel compression. The vocals are heavily saturated (I LOVE Softube's Saturation Knob plugin, which I think is still FREE) and the guitar simple and crunchy. As someone famous once said - Keep It Simple, Stupid!
JAZZ, SAXES AND HORNS
From my production album Suspense Jazz (featured in Netflix's Firefly Lane). The saxes are a P Mauriat System 76 and a couple of (sadly discontinued) Yamaha 62s, recorded separately using Shure clip mics and a large diaphragm condenser microphone in the corner of the room to pick up some natural and bass heavy reverb. There's a couple of tastefully programmed brass parts for depth and the drums are sampled using Toontrack's fantastic Superior Drummer Jazz Expansion, but it's mainly about the saxes!
INTIMATE SESSIONS
I usually use a simple two mic setup for recording acoustic guitars. For this one it was a Shure SM57 for bite and dynamics and a Rode NTK for air and ambience. The NTK is also my go to vocal mic. We didn't add anything else to this particular track as Jules's voice is so good it's nice to just let it shine! The guitar was my Martin 00-15, sounds delicious! Left it pretty raw and intimate with fret and finger noises included and a very dry vocal.
POP ROCK
I used a selection of mics for the vocals on this - including a Telefunken TD 25 and a Shure 527b for those 'radio' BVs. Damon Albarn eat your heart out. A hollow body Gibson ES gives the guitars a real pop roundness and the Hammond gives it a cheeky ska vibe. NSFW lyrics, no edit available.