Great North - Organ

Oh I missed a day! I was caught up in Pedal Steel excitement! The Saturday before we tracked Pedal Steel Hayden added the piano part to the new version of Spring Tide and then we recorded the Organ for the whole album.

I realised that the Leslie cable I have on the back of the organ is crazy long so I managed to put the Leslie speaker in the hallway as an isolation room so lounge noises didn't interrupt recording too much. I also set up a mic next to Hayden and a mic next to me so we could easily talk to each other seeing as we had lots of organ to record and it would be easier than coming back and forth to discuss parts (just like in a real studio with 2 rooms and a talkback)

Mimsy Cable; More Keys!

Recorded some more Keys with Mimsy the other day, we had a few more songs to finish off, used the Pianet a bit more and then added some Organ to a song. The Organ bass was quite important so as well as micing the rotating horn (in stereo) I put a mic on the bass rotor which you can see in the bottom photo. We also tracked some of the bass part seperately so I could treat it differently to the rest of the organ and I ended up just using that 1 mono mic.

Christmas Album - Artisan Guns

Apparently 17 songs just wasn't enough for a Christmas compilation and I agreed to record Artisan Guns Christmas song this Saturday (despite it all needing to be done before Tuesday) we'd planned to record it the other week but Jonathans hand ended up being put in a cast and a couple of members just couldn't make the recording.

Anyway its recorded now and is really great. We ended up using all of my guitars, Matt used my acoustic for the main part (and then doubled the end with his jumbo) then added a rhythm track on the Musicmaster, a dirty rhythm track on the Gretsch then played a part on the Tele, which Jonathan also used again later to double the Organ part.

Theres some really cool backing vocals in the end part where the "bay" and "bee" of "baby" are split in to two parts sung by reuben and matt. One sings the "bay" and holds that note while the other comes in with the bee over the top and they end together. So we recorded this part with them both infront of the mic together.

Alex added a few layers of toms, rims, tambourines and samples from his drum pad that don't make much sense on their own but together work really nicely off each other. We recorded the electronic drums with a delay plugin in time to the click so that they delay would be part of the drum performance, but also so I could adjust the delays various settings and sound later. The final section has a pretty big sounding drum kit in it, I've got 2 room mics up in the recording (and they're both fairly high in the mix) the ribbon which you can see in the photo and my Blue Kiwi set to omni in the corner behind where the photo was taken, just next to the door.

Finally Jonathan (who came straight from cricket) added some Organ which helped to tie the song together, for a couple of the parts we turned the leslie up to 8 so it was just starting to break up. Its probably one of the most satisfying sounds ever.

The album is coming out on the 6th of December as a very limited CD release in stores and online as a free download from www.littlemonsterstudio.co.nz

Christmas Album - Bannerman

Bannerman recorded their Christmas song on Wednesday evening. 

We tracked Drums, Bass, Organ, Keys, Vocals and electric guitar live. Ritchie sung and played guitar in the bathroom and the guitar amp out in the corridor and everyone had headphones. 

I even had my Leslie set up in the laundry for Finns Hammond to plug in to, but different years of hammond connectors meant no real Leslie fun (although we ended up running it through a plug in Leslie emulator in protools)

After that Cole played some tambourine and then Finn and Oliver recorded their Trumpet and Trombone parts respectively. Ribbon on the Trumpet and MD421 on the Trombone.   

Christmas Album - Great North

Great North came over to record their Christmas song for the Album, we tracked Drums, Bass, Acoustic Guitar and Vocals live with a guide Keyboard track and then overdubbed Piano, Glockenspiels, Backing and Group Vocals, Percussion, Organ and Toy Piano.

I'm really pleased with how this song is sounding. Haydens coming back to record some trumpet in and Strahan (who was up north while we were recording) should be over soon to record his guitar.

Chelsea Recording.

Jonathan played some piano (Chelsea singing a guide track) (this photo may be staged)

he also brought his newly acquired Univox organ which is VERY COOL and doubles up as a guitar amp that James used. All the photos of it were really blury so here is one from the auction Jonathan won it from

great keyboard sounds and as a bonus its an amazing guitar amp! We recorded some cool flutey sounding keys on Phoenix with it.


James played some guitars!


Chelsea made him wear a shark cape.


It made for many lols whilst serious work was being done.


Chelsea recorded some Glockenspiel.


The next day Liz came and round and played some flugel (which was recorded with an MD421 if you're interested and sounded lovely) Chelsea also sang a bit and I think we have one song fully tracked (except maybe an explosion of harps and birdsong... but we'll see about that)

Progress is being made! Tracks are sounding really cool! Hooray!!

HAMMOND. LESLIE. GOOD TIMES.

This is probably my most exciting/excited blog post ever.

I am now in possession of a beautiful old Hammond E262 (one of the wood options on the E100) Tone Wheel organ, pretty much a B3/C3 but with lot less features and a bigger heavier cabinet. This was designed to be the home model with its built in speakers and they were made between 1964 and 1969.

Also it has a lovely Leslie (model 145) with it. I turned it on yesterday and it was the most joyous thing I have ever heard. This is something I have dreamed of owning for years. I never thought it would happen and am incredibly grateful to Mark, Roxie and the Haines family.