Adventures in mixing

So, we're due for a delivery of 500 CDs this week. A nicely packaged bundle of joy with three tracks on the inside. Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it's not!

That's not to say it's not fun. But it's far from an easy process even given the amount of technology at the disposal to us all nowadays. Sure it makes it easier to craft ideas and put demos down but as far creating something that's going to grab people's attention and more importantly pass your "perfectionist" standards - that's a different matter.

It all starts, as always, in a professional recording studio. The one thing that is vital to a good sounding record is a good sounding set of drums. So we went into The Old Library last October and laid down the basics. A long day putting down drums, bass, cello and vocals (you can see the photos in the Gallery section). Once that was done there was the simple matter of transferring the audio data to our home studio. But because The Old Library uses Soundscape and we use Logic ...sorry I'm getting too technical. Needless to say it threw up some problems which delayed us somewhat.

Once we'd got the audio loaded we set about editing the drums, bass, cello and vocals. An arduous process at the best of times and because I am such a stickler for precision it meant that I averaged a song a week which is bit lengthy! When that was done, however, the songs started to take shape. Next was backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, piano, cello pick-ups, bass pick-ups, percussion, general noise - like my cat's purr which I recorded to put over the chorus in Hyper-Real. 

The mixing mostly took place over Christmas when I actually had time to give it my full and undivided attention. The final mixes were done in January and in actual fact we ended up changing a lot of the arrangements so that the songs flowed better and were shorter and to the point. Live it seems you can drag a song out for ten minutes but not on record! Gone are the days of "Master of Puppets" getting airplay for the full 8 minutes and 35 seconds!

Mastering was a fairly simple process again. For me mastering all about referencing - I used DOA by Foo Fighters to judge levels and EQ. That track is pretty recent so the levels are high and it's obviously very well produced so if you can flip between the two and get an overall feeling that the level and EQ is indistinguishable then you're a go-go!

So, that's basically what happened. Please take the time to have a listen. They're on our Music page for your listening pleasure and on our myspace page for your eternal enjoyment because you can download them for free!

Tom x

• Lessons Learned
  So it's all over now! About 4-5 months of planning went off with a bang on Sat 3rd May. A huge success and huge fun for everyone involved!
  
  by Tom Walsh on May 14, 2008 at 10:50:16 AM
  
  
• Adventures in mixing
  A quick talk through the recording process of our debut EP.
  
  by Tom Walsh on February 11, 2008 at 09:20:10 PM
  
  
• Artists' First Impressions
  I've always been the frontman in bands, and they've usually been of my creation. After a self-loathingly slack three years in Nottingham, walking into someone else's band was a bit scary. Would I come across as a loser?
  
  by Tom Walsh on November 19, 2007 at 07:07:57 PM
  
  
• Radio Ga-Ga
  Like a kid outside a dreamy sweetshop, I just wanted to press my nose up against the glass in Dean Jackson's BBC studio and peer around the radio station.
  
  by Tom Walsh on November 19, 2007 at 06:57:14 PM