Heavy Weather - Technical Notes

Heavy Weather was created between July, 2002 and February, 2004 in my project studio, Lost Chord Sonics.  The project actually started a couple of years before that, but came to an abrupt, premature end with the loss of a hard drive on Thanksgiving day, 2000 (thus giving birth to The Eagle & The Snake: Songs Of The Texians).

 RECORDING

Heavy Weather was recorded on two MIDI-synchronized Roland VS-1680 digital audio workstations… a total of 32 tracks.  The general procedure was to set a tempo (in beats-per-minute) and length for each song on a Boss DR-660 rhythm machine, record a MIDI time code (MTC) sync track from that onto one of the VS-1680s, then come back on top of that with an audible click track on which to anchor the rhythm tracks.

The actual rhythm tracks usually started with acoustic rhythm guitar (a Takamine EAN15C on all tracks except Broke Down In Tulsa, which was tracked with the Alvarez Yairi that I currently use in my live shows).  Now, in my studio, anything that goes through a microphone gets pre-amped through a Joe Meek VC3 (probably the only thing I have in common with The Rolling Stones).  I like the subtlety of the VC3’s compression… when you’re using it, you can’t tell it’s there, but when you’re not using it, you can definitely tell it’s NOT there.

My approach to tracking acoustic rhythm guitar was: point a Shure SM-81 microphone toward where the neck meets the body of the guitar, about six inches away, press the red button, and pray… uh, I mean, play.  Now, arm another track, and play EXACTLY and PRECISELY the same part… repeat this 31,856 times, until…   Now, pan the best two takes fully apart in the stereo spectrum for a wide acoustic guitar sound… voila!  Now, let me point out one of the major challenges of recording in a room that lies directly below the main flight path of D/FW Airport: many “perfect” takes were ruined by the rumble of jet engines followed by the sound of a frustrated and spirited “Gawwwd-DAMM-it!!!” which, fortunately, I was able to eliminate from the final recordings.

Once the rhythm guitar was laid and panned, it was time to track the bass.  Now, my philosophy on bass is that the bass guitar and the kick drum are ONE instrument.  Bass guitar on Heavy Weather was either a Fender Precision or a bass guitar patch I programmed into the Roland Fantom music workstation… whichever worked the best for any given song.  In either case, the bass was recorded direct with no effects and very little EQ initially.

Next came the drums.  Here, the procedure was to program the rudiments on a BOSS DR-660 rhythm machine to get a groove in place, then to MIDI that through a Roland TDM drum module for some punchy sounds.  My physical drum kit is a set of Roland V-Drums, which I played the sh*t out of on this project… the only “programmed” element retained on the final tracking was the kick drum… all other drums and cymbals were eventually played and tracked “live”, and I lost 11 lbs. in the process (mostly on Storm On The Ring Of Kerry / Drink The Drivin' Rain).  There are several schools of thought regarding the stereo panning of drums, and mine is the “behind the drums” approach.  In other words, when you listen to the drums on Heavy Weather, it is from the sonic perspective of sitting at the kit playing the drums yourself.

Having a solid set of rhythm tracks in place, it was time to start “pre-mixing”.  That’s when I start applying EQ and dynamics in the first stages of working toward a good final mix; and in the case of Heavy Weather, that meant a big, punchy mix.  The biggest challenge, for me, on a project like this is getting the low end as big as possible, yet tame enough not to blow your subwoofers.  And so I spent quite some time “pre-mixing” the rhythm tracks before going forward.

After the rhythm section was defined, the procedure was different for each song.  But, for the most part, the next step was to record keyboard or electric guitar pads and fills.  My keyboards consist of a Roland Fantom workstation, which I use for piano, strings, and most other keyboard and synthesizer tracks.  For those spitting, sputtering, puking, Hammond B3 fills, I used a Roland VK-8, complete with drawbars, overdrive, and a fairly faithful Leslie rotating speaker cabinet simulation.  For all electric guitar tracks (rhythm and lead), I played an American-made Fender Tex-Mex Stratocaster through a Line 6 POD amp simulator.

Figuring prominently throughout this recording is the Tacoma Papoose, a miniature acoustic guitar that is tuned a fifth above a normal guitar and sounds a bit like a mandolin, but with a distinctively Celtic flavor.  My Papoose has a factory-installed preamp, which I ran directly into the recorder.

The accordion was a Hohner Student 48 miked with an AKG C3000-B condenser mic on the piano end.

My “percussion section” is comprised of a very scary arsenal of shakers, hooves, maracas, tambourines, bongos, cabasas, congas, and devices which may or may not be legal in some states.  These are generally “shaken” or “whacked” into the recorder through either an AKG C3000-B large diaphragm condenser mic or a Shure SM-81 small diaphragm condenser mic.

Gary Grammer blew his harmonica at close range into an old faithful Shure SM58 dynamic stage mic running through the Joe Meek VC3 into the recorder.

Gary Carpenter set up his pedal steel, handed me a quarter-inch cable which I plugged into the recorder, and he worked his usual magic… I don’t know how he does it, but I strongly suspect
it, also, may not be legal in all states.

All vocals were recorded into the AKG C3000-B with the exception of Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, which was sung through a Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics (B.L.U.E.) “Baby Bottle” condenser mic.

MIXING

Heavy Weather was mixed “from the bottom up”.  I knew before I even started this project that I would be mixing for power, punch, and clarity in the end.  So, the first step, on every song, was getting the bass guitar and the kick drum working together to support the rhythm track.  I spent a lot of hours (and burned a lot of CD-Rs) running back and forth between my studio near-field monitors (a pair of Alesis M1 Actives) and my van stereo system – the speakers through which I am most accustomed to listening to music.

Some of my more technically inclined listeners may realize that I am fond of using a few sub-low frequency “effects” on certain songs (such as when the old cook says “fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”), and there is always the danger of blowing not only my speakers, but YOURS as well – if these frequencies aren’t tamed in the final mix.  So, if I was monitoring on my van stereo and, say, the steering wheel started rattling or an interior door panel fell off, I knew I needed to go back into the studio and apply a bit of a roll off on a certain frequency. 

Once the low end was well-defined, the next step was to bring in the rest of the drums and the rhythm guitars.  For the rhythm section, my approach is pretty much the textbook norm: find a frequency range and a place in the stereo spectrum for each piece, and give it its space.  Since high-hat is generally panned a bit left, shakers or other percussion pieces would be panned out of its way – a little to the right.  If acoustic lead was panned to the left, electric lead would come in on the right, etc.

I don’t use reverb or effects on bass or kick drum, but from there up it is applied on an as-needed basis.  I use a combination of room or ambient reverb and some type of hall or plate to give a variety of reflections, but I generally apply it to the degree where (a) it’s not noticeable if it’s there but (b) it’s very noticeable if it’s NOT there.  Some songs (such as Indianola) called for more reverb, especially on vocals, while I preferred other songs (such as Madison) to sound more dry and “in your face”.

By far the most difficult task in mixing is to nail the lows.  After that, it’s a matter of (a) finding a dominant space for vocals, (b) making sure the snare drum and cymbals are snappy but don’t run over the vocals, and (c) ensuring that lead instrument levels have not been neglected – turn ‘em up until they’re too damn loud, then back off one notch.

Some degree of reverb and delay were added to all of my lead vocals, and lead vocals on several songs were processed through a TC-Helicon VoiceWorks pitch corrector (simply because I wasn’t going to redo the takes any further).  All backing vocals were processed through a bit of chorus and panned around the lead vocal.

All mixing was done within the scope of the VS-1680s with the exception of the brief flange sweep on Madison, which was applied to the final mix with Sonic Foundry’s (now Sony’s) Sound Forge wave editor software.

MASTERING

Heavy Weather was mastered by Jerry Tubb at Terra Nova Digital Audio in Austin, TX.  Jerry routinely masters projects by artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Paul McCartney, and I was confident he could add the final “icing on the cake”.  My main concern was that most mastering engineers today tend to compress the sh*t out of a project to make it as loud as possible, which tends to suck all the dynamics out of the music (then it gets compressed AGAIN at the radio station).  Jerry assured me he didn’t adhere to this philosophy, and the result of his work was a more punchy, sparkling, wider, louder Heavy Weather that lost virtually none of it’s dynamic range in the process. 

FINAL PRODUCT

Of all the projects I’ve tackled, I have to say that listening to Heavy Weather produces fewer winces and groans from me than listening to any of my past CDs.  Production-wise, each project has fared better than the previous.  Oh, there are many things I could have improved on Heavy Weather, but one must eventually “cut the cord” and release the record.  For best results from this CD, listen at a moderately high volume on a high-quality, full-range stereo system (preferably with punchy subwoofers) and let me know what you think.

--BB