Late Night Poets

Some more Late Night Poets recording the other week. We recorded another 3 songs. One of the songs I previously recorded with them was voted number 1 on theaudience.co.nz unreleased chart, winning them $10,000 to make a video for it.  

Great North Album Recording

Over the past few weeks quite a bit has been happening on Great Norths album, Acoustic guitars have been recorded, Piano, Bass and we've started Vocals and Electric guitar. Lots of recording, very little blogging. I've been enjoying my latest purchase; the Royer R121's. They're used as Overheads, Acoustic Mic's, Piano mics (behind the piano) and as a Guitar amp mic so far and I'm sure plenty of other things to come.

Pedal Steel to record on Friday and more Vocals before Christmas.

Late Night Poets Recording

New band Late Night Poets spent the past 5 days recording 3 songs, perfect timing to get to try out my new Royer R121 and BeesNeez Arabella.

French For Rabbits

 I spent a few days at Blue Barn studio in Wellington with French For Rabbits working on a Single that might feature on their forthcoming album. Pretty fun getting in to a different space for a bit although I hardly felt like I was in Wellington as I didn't leave the studio except for sleep! We worked hard and got all the tracking done, now I'm back in Auckland ready to mix it all.

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.

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)

Merry Christmas Eve

Hayden and Rachel from Great North recorded this lovely Christmas Carol the other day and I added a bit of bass and organ it's available as a free download.



Hope you're having a great Christmas!

Great North Pianos

Dale came over and we recorded most of the piano parts on the Great North album, Hayden also plays a couple of songs on piano, but they're more suited to the sound of the piano he bought recently so we plan to head over to his house to record them at some point. I think we're making good progress but theres lots to do yet!

Longtime Love

Mimsy came over to record a quiet song "Longtime Love". We're currently waiting for her band/chosen musicians to be in the country and available so we can get on with the rest of the record. But this one we're going to leave really sparse Vocals, Piano and maybe a guitar. Because of that I thought it'd be nice to make it a point of difference on the album and record Vocals and Piano live in one take, not to a click, not even with headphones on. The idea being that it'd sound like Mimsy just at home singing her song. I put up a couple of room mics to try and to capture that sensation of being in the same room as her.

I left the front on the piano to isolate the Vocal mics from the piano and the piano mics from the vocal as both were going to be quite quiet and then mic'd the piano from the back for a really warm rich piano tone. Mimsy also played with the damper pedal on to keep the tone really warm. 

Watercolours (ex Chelsea Jade)

Chelsea "feeling it"

We added and changed some more parts on Watercolours (which is Chelsea Jades new band name) today. Some of the songs are just about done, but we still have 2 that aren't even started yet... 

Really happy with how that E609 sounded on Glockenspiel, just tried it because I had it out for the keyboards speaker but it sounded pretty nice. Also I mic'd the piano from the back with my KM184s which was a nice change, warmer and less noise from the mechanics, but maybe not punchy enough for some applications.

Christmas Album - Hold Dear

Hold Dear recorded their christmas song today. If you've not heard of them they're quite a new, but very fun band. I recommend getting along to one of their shows asap. 

We opted to keep quite their song quite stripped back, its really enjoyable as it is, we considered bass and maybe drums but really it probably would've detracted from the song. I got Jonny to double the acoustic guitar part with a roomy electric, I wanted to get some of the acoustic sound of his pick hitting the strings in there too so just set him up sat infront of his amp with the volume down and put a mic a wee bit away from that. (see the last photo)

We tracked the two vocals together with Chloe and Jonny facing each other to help with their phrasing and just general feel of the vocals. 

Chloe recorded some Melodica and then I got her to quickly double it on the piano. 

It was a REALLY nice day again here in Oratia. Wow. Hello summer!

Chelsea Jade

I love this piano wholeheartedly. We've had it since I can remember. The pedals squeak and clunk and the hammers make little noises, I find myself sometimes sticking bits of felt all over it and spaying it with WD40 and one of my brothers stuck note names all over the keys years ago but it sounds so rich and full of character.


Jonathan came and recorded some more piano for a new song in the morning and then the afternoon was spent tracking drums on "Mountain Song" from Chelseas one week ep. The drum+piano recording on the original were done live in one take apparently. But both have been so difficult to recreate for this recording. I've grown quite fond of the original and getting all the great spontaneous moments and then improving on the parts in the new takes has been a bit of a challenge but definitely worthwhile.


We tracked the drums on Mountain Song in two halves, using Alex's kick on the second louder half and then my marching band kick drum on the more ambient first half. Ever since I've had the marching drums I've wanted to try the bass drum as a kick in a drum kit, it worked so well!

Alex ended up moving the snare and bringing the rack tom in closer as seen below but this photo shows his kick pedal on the marching drum. Yum.

Christmas Album - Tono

Another Christmas song in the bag, this time with Tono who usually comes with his band the Finance Company.  Ribbons and large diaphragm condensers are probably 2 of the worst mic choices for an acoustic guitar, yet I go back to them over and over when songs don't want a pristine sounding acoustic guitar (like I could get if I used my KM184s, oh boy they make an acoustic sparkle). Its a bit annoying because I know I am going to get a really resonant low end frequency with the LDC or too much low end with the ribbon and depending on the song maybe not bright enough. I think I'll probably end up using the LDC, I'm actually really happy with the acoustic sound.

We didn't have much of a plan of what needed to be recorded so we started out recording Acoustic to a click and then doubling some Acoustic on Tonos Guitar before adding Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass (my Hello Kitty Bass with the rag stuffed under the bridge, see Artisan Guns post) Piano, Tambourines, Shaker, Marching band bass drum, Organ (done on the Hammond) and then added some hand claps and a few electronic drums. What a productive day.