21 April 2008
Clackety Clack - Balor Knights.
HUGE TECHBLOG ALERT. As this entry is about my band, I don't want to bang on about how fucking ace we are.
Where: Recorded at Yellow Arch, mixed at new Klangtone HQ (Broomhill)
When: 26 February 2008, mixed in early March
Songs: 1, Clackety Clack
Charge: Duh.
Links: Myspace page, Desq. Coming soon! balorknights.com again.
A mix project only, this. Desq, the eLearning company, *hounded* us for months to be a part of this, it was very sexy! Their original brief was to provide eLearning materials for people - libraries, colleges, that sort of thing. They did loads and loads of disciplines (sculpture, poetry, choreography...) before almost getting the plug pulled on them by their client. When eventually it got going again and they had to get footage of a song being recorded and mixed, and the deadline was really tight.
Balor Knights is my band, and frankly we're taking it extremely easy for a while, as half the band (me included) are sick of getting shafted by bastard promoters. This was a quick session which we took advantage of to write another song for our album and have some fun. And as we weren't well-rehearsed, I deliberately mixed it lo-fi to capitalise on how we could be endearingly ramshackle.
Mixing is not very intuitive these days. Loads of bands I like really piss off my mates, because the production quality is too high. Cave-In etc. No matter how nice the production of an Elliot Minor/My Chemical Romance song is, they still sound like wankers. Same with loads of local bands, they polish the fuck out of their songs and sound unappealing because of it. Way I see it, if you're a tiny local band, don't try to hide it. If you're good, people will love the intimacy before you go stadium.
Trouble is, if I just make it sound like a demo then the band get (rightly) pissed off. Anyone could do that. Trick is to send loads of clues that it's lo-fi when it's not really. So I went for loads of separation. Used the room mics to provide reverb, mostly on the drums. The close-miked drums were dry, guitars have spots of reverb occasionally, and the keys have a spacey delay to really separate them off. the vocals were completely dry, I rerecorded my lead vocals under the duvet for spot-on deadness.
The second trick is to limit the frequency ranges of each instrument. Each frequency range needs to be covered, but not by all instruments. Take the upper frequency limit of the guitars and vocals down a little too far so they sound odd on their own but fucking cool (=lo-fi) with the rest of the band. Then make sure your cymbals are compressed (ie just the upper ranges of the overheads) so they don't overpower the melody instruments. I also compress the lower end of the guitars so the bass is always on top of them (ie louder), but with the Yoyo session, they expressly told me to let the guitars rip all over the bass, so it's personal taste. In Balor Knights, the bassline is always a joy so it cannot be impeded by mere guitars.
With bass, unless you have spent a fortune on your rig, it will have loads of disgusting woofy tones in. I use a parametric equaliser with a high Q to find the ones that sound the most like low hummy feedback, and apply lots (at least 12db) of cut to remove them. After 2 or three of these, suddenly you can hear loads of lovely twang.
Enough! Listen to the damn song. Even I'm addicted to it, and I wrote it. ¶ 7:44 PM 0 Comments
Where: Recorded at Yellow Arch, mixed at new Klangtone HQ (Broomhill)
When: 26 February 2008, mixed in early March
Songs: 1, Clackety Clack
Charge: Duh.
Links: Myspace page, Desq. Coming soon! balorknights.com again.
A mix project only, this. Desq, the eLearning company, *hounded* us for months to be a part of this, it was very sexy! Their original brief was to provide eLearning materials for people - libraries, colleges, that sort of thing. They did loads and loads of disciplines (sculpture, poetry, choreography...) before almost getting the plug pulled on them by their client. When eventually it got going again and they had to get footage of a song being recorded and mixed, and the deadline was really tight.
Balor Knights is my band, and frankly we're taking it extremely easy for a while, as half the band (me included) are sick of getting shafted by bastard promoters. This was a quick session which we took advantage of to write another song for our album and have some fun. And as we weren't well-rehearsed, I deliberately mixed it lo-fi to capitalise on how we could be endearingly ramshackle.
Mixing is not very intuitive these days. Loads of bands I like really piss off my mates, because the production quality is too high. Cave-In etc. No matter how nice the production of an Elliot Minor/My Chemical Romance song is, they still sound like wankers. Same with loads of local bands, they polish the fuck out of their songs and sound unappealing because of it. Way I see it, if you're a tiny local band, don't try to hide it. If you're good, people will love the intimacy before you go stadium.
Trouble is, if I just make it sound like a demo then the band get (rightly) pissed off. Anyone could do that. Trick is to send loads of clues that it's lo-fi when it's not really. So I went for loads of separation. Used the room mics to provide reverb, mostly on the drums. The close-miked drums were dry, guitars have spots of reverb occasionally, and the keys have a spacey delay to really separate them off. the vocals were completely dry, I rerecorded my lead vocals under the duvet for spot-on deadness.
The second trick is to limit the frequency ranges of each instrument. Each frequency range needs to be covered, but not by all instruments. Take the upper frequency limit of the guitars and vocals down a little too far so they sound odd on their own but fucking cool (=lo-fi) with the rest of the band. Then make sure your cymbals are compressed (ie just the upper ranges of the overheads) so they don't overpower the melody instruments. I also compress the lower end of the guitars so the bass is always on top of them (ie louder), but with the Yoyo session, they expressly told me to let the guitars rip all over the bass, so it's personal taste. In Balor Knights, the bassline is always a joy so it cannot be impeded by mere guitars.
With bass, unless you have spent a fortune on your rig, it will have loads of disgusting woofy tones in. I use a parametric equaliser with a high Q to find the ones that sound the most like low hummy feedback, and apply lots (at least 12db) of cut to remove them. After 2 or three of these, suddenly you can hear loads of lovely twang.
Enough! Listen to the damn song. Even I'm addicted to it, and I wrote it. ¶ 7:44 PM 0 Comments
Fine young cannibals - Yoyo Static.
Gotta love the Static. They're a proper art band that sounds different every song. Stephen's got a plan later on in the year to release a whole set of compilation EPs. I turned up as a rep for my band Balor Knights (we shall speak more of them later) and we were mulling over the problem of getting 16 bands recorded without bankrupting someone. So I offered to help out recording people and he got in touch in March.
Recording went like a dream - Static are one great band. Do not be fooled by Pat the drummer only being 15. He's a seriously good player. Their new fella Ben has a great voice too, really matches Stephen's. Of the two songs this time, Eating Habits is my favourite, I'm a fan of songs that have loads of layers and cool lyrics. On Life and All Its Luxuries, Jim brought along his enormous Vox Organ, which is an amazing sound. Bet this sounds awesome live.
Where: Yoyo's practice room
When: 4-5 April 2008
Songs: 2: Eating Habits, Life and All of Its Luxuries
Charge: £30
Links: Myspace page, Little Meister site ¶ 1:28 AM 0 Comments
Recording went like a dream - Static are one great band. Do not be fooled by Pat the drummer only being 15. He's a seriously good player. Their new fella Ben has a great voice too, really matches Stephen's. Of the two songs this time, Eating Habits is my favourite, I'm a fan of songs that have loads of layers and cool lyrics. On Life and All Its Luxuries, Jim brought along his enormous Vox Organ, which is an amazing sound. Bet this sounds awesome live.
Where: Yoyo's practice room
When: 4-5 April 2008
Songs: 2: Eating Habits, Life and All of Its Luxuries
Charge: £30
Links: Myspace page, Little Meister site ¶ 1:28 AM 0 Comments
20 April 2008
Pockets Filled With Matches.
First gig of the year*; Pockets Filled With Matches, recording a demo before they blow £250 big ones on a Proper Recording at 2-Fly. Good call, new band, practice run is always good so's Alan doesn't have to spend hours covering up your problems.
This lot are fucking shouty and atonal, it's a great racket. Paul their guitarist is a legend and presuming he can stop sound engineers fucking with his sound just cos he's 18, all will be well. My favourite's Spazz-Maths and it came out best too - think I prefer it to the 2Fly version, cos the vocals degenerate into static at the end, which is ace (Elie's idea). But the room was a bit boxy-sounding and the PZMs I used on the drum overheads didn't help. Nic Scarlet: "Sounds great, really garagey". Yep.
Reference materials: Pretty Girls Make Graves
Where: Elie and Paul's front room
When: 12-13 January 2008
Songs: 4: Spazz-Maths, Dictatorphone, Thumbscrews, City Bright Lights.
Charge: £40 + beer
Links: Match Myspace - 2Fly final products on 2 songs, don't bother with the proper website it's a placeholder.
*Incidentally, I've been doing on-and-off recording for people for years, just never properly put a name to it until about a year ago. Will probably put up some old stuff later. ¶ 6:59 PM 0 Comments
This lot are fucking shouty and atonal, it's a great racket. Paul their guitarist is a legend and presuming he can stop sound engineers fucking with his sound just cos he's 18, all will be well. My favourite's Spazz-Maths and it came out best too - think I prefer it to the 2Fly version, cos the vocals degenerate into static at the end, which is ace (Elie's idea). But the room was a bit boxy-sounding and the PZMs I used on the drum overheads didn't help. Nic Scarlet: "Sounds great, really garagey". Yep.
Reference materials: Pretty Girls Make Graves
Where: Elie and Paul's front room
When: 12-13 January 2008
Songs: 4: Spazz-Maths, Dictatorphone, Thumbscrews, City Bright Lights.
Charge: £40 + beer
Links: Match Myspace - 2Fly final products on 2 songs, don't bother with the proper website it's a placeholder.
*Incidentally, I've been doing on-and-off recording for people for years, just never properly put a name to it until about a year ago. Will probably put up some old stuff later. ¶ 6:59 PM 0 Comments
19 April 2008
A gap in the market.
Morning from the North.
Welcome to the Klangtone website/blog/thing. This is a one-man bedroom recording studio setup. Why? Because although Sheffield has done phenomenally well at the top end of the music market recently, for the other million Sheffield bands that haven't sold a billion MP3s, life is pretty shitty.
Some basic cash-flow: The digital revolution means almost all parts of being in a band is very cheap. But rehearsal and recording music still costs a bomb. Sheffield has a piss-weak local government, which continually bows to pressure from its two (main) universities to knock down the cultural quarters of the city and replace it with student accommodation. Also, the baseline cost for a hired-hand Sheffield recording studio is £150-250 per day, which will not get you more than 3 good songs finished at best. No wonder so few bands get round to releasing their first album.
So Klangtone was set up to fill this gap. If you're shithot, skint, and realistic about what you can achieve, we want to hear from you. By the way - I might say 'we' by mistake. It's just one of me. ¶ 12:19 AM 0 Comments
Welcome to the Klangtone website/blog/thing. This is a one-man bedroom recording studio setup. Why? Because although Sheffield has done phenomenally well at the top end of the music market recently, for the other million Sheffield bands that haven't sold a billion MP3s, life is pretty shitty.
Some basic cash-flow: The digital revolution means almost all parts of being in a band is very cheap. But rehearsal and recording music still costs a bomb. Sheffield has a piss-weak local government, which continually bows to pressure from its two (main) universities to knock down the cultural quarters of the city and replace it with student accommodation. Also, the baseline cost for a hired-hand Sheffield recording studio is £150-250 per day, which will not get you more than 3 good songs finished at best. No wonder so few bands get round to releasing their first album.
So Klangtone was set up to fill this gap. If you're shithot, skint, and realistic about what you can achieve, we want to hear from you. By the way - I might say 'we' by mistake. It's just one of me. ¶ 12:19 AM 0 Comments
