Note: Many answers and explanations are in my book: “The World Is Going To Love This (Up From The Basement With The Strokes)”
I wondered if you ever have had any input on the instrumentation and/or arrangement of songs and wondered what impact you think this has on your recordings?
These days less and less input on arrangement and instrumentation. Throughout the past 20 years I would say I have had very little input on those things, but occasionally I would suggest me playing a synthesizer solo, or me singing a harmony or playing a guitar line. In fact I added some synthesizers and Guitars in October in New York for one bands project recently.
The fact of the matter is, that I work with many many bands… Especially young ones: and they really know what they are doing and they really know what they like and they are extremely talented not only in playing their instrument and playing their songs as a band, but they really thought through their arrangements and their instrumentations extremely well!
It’s also pretty much of a fact that in the last 20 years, possibly influenced by the first two strokes albums, bands don’t add too many overdubs… Perhaps an acoustic guitar perhaps some vocal harmonies and percussion, so most arrangements these days are pretty stripped back, and rely on the power of the parts.
What equipment did you tend to use? Any particular prices of outboard gear you tend to favour or microphones that have stayed in your arsenal?
I tend to use Sennheiser 421 as the inside kick drum Mike, I’d like to use something like Fet 47 Neumann as the outside kick Mike, and I have a secret weapon which is a condenser Mike 40 inches in front of the kick drum placed on the floor which is a general drum chaos Mike. I like Coles as stereo overheads, I use a single big room Mike which could be a U87.
I prefer Sennheiser 421/Royer ribbon Mike on a guitar cabinet. (always 2 mics, I can substitute an sm57 if they dont have a royer, but always the Senheisser 421!)
I insist on Neumann U87 and Electrovoice RE-20 On bass cabinet and no DI!
I would prefer the kick drum, snare drum top, both bass microphones, Guitar microphones to be going through API preamps or Neve or a great sounding rock n roll SSL.
I use analog compressors like LA2A or Distressors on the room microphone, and the drum chaos mic.
I also use U67 or TLM 170R as vocal mics through Neve 1073 and LA2A compressor.
I don’t use equalizers while recording, and I love the UAD API graphic EQ 560 And waves REQ when I’m mixing.
I use the top and bottom snare Mic and also a third Mic coming over the kick drum which I call “wurst” because of my friend Moses Schneider.
I find the Sennheiser 421 one of the greatest sounding and most versatile microphones, I will use it alongside other fantastic condenser microphones inside of a classic grand piano, I will use it along with a condenser Mike acoustic guitar, I will use it as a kick drum as I said I also like beta 52 by Shure as kick mic. I like to use Sennheiser 421 on every tom.
Although I have also had good luck with Beyer dynamic on toms
I love Shure sm 57 on snare top and bottom.
I like Mini Moog model D and Arp Odyssey for synthesizers, I love Pro Tools for recording bands, I love Apple computers. I love giant ATC speakers for monitoring, I currently use Hedd Type 20 at home for mixing and they work great although if I was a multimillionaire I would have massive giant ATC speakers for fun too!
I know you like to make sure artists are comfortable in the studio so you can get the best out of them, how do you go about this especially when there are deadlines and conflicting opinions, especially from clients?
I spend a lot of time with email and sometimes phone calls or zoom finding out exactly exactly who’s playing what instrument, what the values of the band are… Can they play the song live basically and add the singing and overdubs later? I find out from them how long they think it will take, and I add my opinion after talking. I have a secret weapon mentioned in my book of setting up the studio before the band ever gets there so they can start recording right away which is a psychological Superman move !!
Almost no band I ever work with needs more time to finish what we set out to do, nor do they have extra time at the end of the session… For some reason I always really do perfectly well how long it’s gonna take to do what they want.
Understanding time commitments has a lot to do with a weird topic called perfectionism if you ask a band how many songs they can record in the day and they say 1,2 or three!! You’re in luck because they will rock ‘n’ roll and they will play real well and they know what they’re talking about. If they say it’ll take three days to record a song… It means that there’s a perfectionist in the group and then you gotta hope that they’re the kind of perfectionist that can be satisfied… There are those kind! And then there’s the other kind which is a nightmare because no matter what anyone does they’re never satisfied. Luckily they are rare, so far . I think Julian Casablancas was somewhere between those two types of perfectionists
Bands rarely have disagreements among themselves in the studio from what I have observed and if they are they are minor. But sometimes if I make a suggestion and Band doesn’t like my suggestion, in most cases I just completely let the band have their way and I don’t take it personally because it’s their music. But quite often the bands are grateful for my suggestions and my particular edit of a guitar solo or my tone selected for a vocal will stick and everyone will be happy about it.
Lastly, because I don’t want to bombard you and you must be incredibly busy, I wondered if you have any favourite recording techniques involving mic placement, or dialling in compressors/EQ”s/pre’s or anything unique to you that you have continued to employ in your career?
I’m a funny recording engineer. Other than the equipment that I told you about and the fact that the music that the band plays has to be very interesting and innovative and powerful and keep my interest all the time otherwise I probably won’t work with them 🙂 I always use fast attack and fast release on compressors, like 99.9% of the time. In my personal preference the high hat goes on the right side and the floor Tom goes on the left side when you’re listening in the speakers, but you know it doesn’t have to be that way if the band wants it different.
As a producer the only thing that stays the same from job to job is that I want my clients to be very happy they chose me and they want them to be very proud of their music when they leave the studio. Both because of that’s how I wanted to be treated when I was a young musician, and if they tell their friends they had a great time then I get more work ha ha
And one more thing: I only listen to the music (monitor the DAW) out of two channels I don’t spread it out across a mixing console, I hate that and it waste time! And I also don’t like headphones mixers, I want the band to hear exactly what I’m hearing and if they need something to be louder during their vocal I will turn it up in the mix for them. So two channels out always, and the band is hearing exactly what I’m hearing in the studio almost always
I forgot to add although it should be very apparent if you read those chapters in my book… I like it when the whole band stands in one room with all their amplifiers and drums, and they don’t wear headphones unless they need a click track and they just play the music like that. That’s how I like to record, and it’s pretty unique. I don’t use baffles or anything like that and I try to balance the sound in the room
So that nobody’s drowning anyone out. These days I don’t really have to do much the bands do it all automatically.
I also listen to the drums very carefully, they have to sound absolutely amazing in the room which means that the kick drum has to be big and “BOOOM” like John Bonham!! When I listen to the overhead mics one cymbal on one side can’t be louder than one cymbal on the other side— after the band records the song we can do overdub and vocals. This is the way I like to do it, and I take the time while the band is playing their songs, recording to do mixing in the control room because they don’t have headphones on and they’re not being affected by my moves. By the time they come in to hear the take take, it should sound like a final mix so that they’re really impressed with me and themselves 🙂
The last thing I will say is that one of the most important things for me when someone is singing or doing an overdub or a punch in: the headphones should sound like a fantastic record already! The mix should be so perfectly balanced and sound so good that the performer will play like Superman or Superwoman because they can hear themselves properly and everything around them is very supportive. This is a real art form getting the headphones right