Quail State Drums

Had a fun few days recording drums for Quail States album, its something that Jono has been squireling away on for some time now in his bedroom recording to programmed drums. He enlisted Stu Harwood (Tono & the Finance Co, Proton Beast, etc etc) to play the real drums on the album and I recorded them all here over a couple of days.

I guess half of the record is a lot louder than the music I usually end up recording (seriously noisy bands I want to record you, I don't just do folk pop) which was really fun because you can get away with some slightly more flashy drum fills and loud drums are just generally more fun. Then the other half is a lot quieter, really simple drum patterns that repeat with little difference the whole way through, kinda like a motif. Amazing what a difference a real drummer makes.

Also note the couple of Ribbon mics in the bottom corners of the photo which Stu brought with him, they made for great room mics, delicious! He also brought a Great River MP2NV which we ran them through, driving them a bit on the input and controlling that with the output level. 

Teacups - Piano

Ben came to record some piano and organ parts for a couple of songs on the Teacups EP. I forget how amazing the Hammond and Leslie can sound when someone who really knows how to play them is playing (and when I get the excuse of recording to turn the leslie up a bit). Getting that Hammond going is heaps of fun.  

Note to self; learn how to shred on piano.

Teacups

Last week Liz from Teacups came over and recorded her remaining backing vocals, some glockenspiel and trumpet. We opted for the cheaper blue Glockenspiel because its bizarrely pitched lower than the black and white one. Although it did seem a bit frivolous recording a $40 glockenspiel with a stereo pair of Neumann KM184's it sounded great!

Josie Tuck - Xylophone

Here is a picture of Josie from our recording session last week. I said I was going to take a photo and she wanted to pretend she was actually playing so I recommended she play the super hard chord from one of her songs which is what is happening in the above photo. We recorded most if not all the Xylophone for her songs.

Both the Xylophone and Vibraphone have recorded a fair bit brighter than what they sounded like in the room but I think I'm happy with how they sound, its far easier to make them warmer than to make them brighter later on and I have a feeling that I might appreciate some of that high end when they get layered up with all the other instruments.

Josie Tuck

Josie Tuck has gone through a few name changes recently and I think she intends to come up with a band name eventually but for now lets call her Josie Tuck. We started work towards her album this week, recording guide tracks for almost all the songs and some Vibraphone for the few songs that will be based around Vibraphone (It might appear on other tracks too at some point but we'll have to wait for later in to the project to see)

This should be a really good album, its something a fair few people have been waiting for for quite some time.

Valvecaster Overdrive

I built this simple Valve overdrive and just finished putting it in its case. Sounds pretty good, not much drive but just like you turned a valve amps volume up. A fair amount of volume boost though so pretty nice to drive the input of a Valve Amp. It works really well with my AC15 as I find the pedal to sound a little scooped and the AC15 has a bit more midrange than the princeton.

Its a pretty simple circuit almost all wired off the valve socket (which was a bit fiddly) so essentially its all point to point plus it runs off a standard 9VDC power supply! (but I want to read up and experiment with slightly higher voltages)

I currently like the bleak utilitarian look of the aluminium case but I might paint it later. Its pretty nice to have made something from scratch and be able to open it up and know what everything is. Will have to try some more in the future, I already have parts for a super simple feedback looper.

If you're interested in making your own its based on the Valvecaster from http://www.beavisaudio.com/projects/ValveCaster/

It even glows!
 

Teacups EP Drums

Spent the day recording some drums for Teacups EP with Jackson (Sharpie Crows), Chelsea and Liz. Talita is in France making beautiful food. Some of the photos on her blog make me want to cry with how delicious they look.

Great North Album Launch

All photos by Saskia Cederman

Last Saturday Great North released their album Halves (which you can listen to and buy here) They had a release show at Grey Lynn Library Hall (coincidentally on Great North rd) where I did sound. 

What a show! Both Great North and Tono and the Finance Company played amazingly, but Great Norths set seemed to captivate the entire room. Theres something exciting about being in a room with a few hundred people all silent, knowing you're all focused on listening to a band play. Great North finished their set with Halves and Tono, Jono and Stu marched in from the back of the room playing my marching drums. Obviously I knew it was going to happen but feeling the low rumble of their drums slowly creep up from behind me gave me shivers. I've tried recording them countless times now but you can't capture the sound of them being hit in real life in a big room.

Being in that room again was somewhat of a trip down memory lane, it was where I first started doing live sound properly. Some of my first paid live sound jobs were at Grey Lynn Library Hall doing sound for Ska and Pop Punk bands in 2006/2007.

Thanks to Saskia Cederman for letting me use some of her photos.

Tono and the Finance Company

Great North

Great North

Great North featuring Tono, Jono and Stu on my marching drums (they're dark infront of the band but you can just about see them)