The Tops

from the album Pocketknife

Kat Frankie (Germany/Australia)

 

Hello,

i've just completed work on a album for the Australian singer/songwriter Kat Frankie where I used my plug ins extensively. You can listen to three songs 'The Tops', 'Everything Everything' and 'Berlin Cops' from the new album here on MySpace...

http://www.myspace.com/soundslikekatfrankie

I thought It would be useful to shed some light on exactly how my plug-in designs can be used in the real world.

Yes, I actually use the plug-ins I design for real projects in my daily work as an audio engineer. In fact, this is exactly how all my designs are created, tweaked and the bugs ironed-out.

Read more about the design process and some tips here or read on below.

First things first, notes on saving my work and my plug-in design process.

 

The Tops

from the album Pocketknife

Link here

http://www.myspace.com/soundslikekatfrankie

This month sees the release of Kat Frankie's 'The Tops' which was recorded via Scope and the range of De-Vice' plug-ins. The following is a description of which of the De-Vice' plugins were used on what and how. For a detailed list of the signal flow and setup, see last months notes below this feature.

Acoustic Guitar

Double tracked acoustic guitars were fed through the SLiM-JiM compressor for some light levelling in the 'reverse feedback mode' which emulates the soft knee style of compression used in many classic compressors. The SLiM-JiM allows the user to conveniently choose between several styles of compression via a single click.

The filter section was used to filter out some of the low rumble effect resulting from the ribbon microphones used. Ribbon mics were used to help get a smooth, warm sound but as they can be quite dominate in the low frequency range, the SLiM-JiM helped keep the guitars sounding smooth without being too intrusive in the low end of the bass. A Trakker plug-in was then used to add some air to the double tracked guitars emphasizing the plectrum just slightly to help them sit with the wire on skin sound of the drums where brushes were used.

Vocals

The SLiM-JiM was used on the voice with the rumble reduction on and the forward feed mode switched in. In this mode, I was able to set a slow attack and fast release to help bring out the breathiness in the voice and a nice bit of pumping/breathing happening to keep the voice up front but still dynamic. No additional EQ was used as the saturate control on the SLiM-JiM helped nicely to add some more highs and a touch of sibilance to give the voice some more character and emphasize the natural sound of the tube microphone used for the recording.

Bass

LeveL--DeviL was a good choice for the tube pre-amp directly recorded bass as the playing level was quite consistent and I didn't want to squeeze the life out of the track. The natural 'reverse feed' design of the LeveL--DeviL helped create a vintage sounding bass track that sits well with the bass drum.

The ISON EQ was used to cut some of the highs and give a nice solid bottom end. The ISON has an EQ mode switch offering seven different types of EQ curves. The GL mode allowed maximum control over the sound of the bass in this situation.

Drums

The sound I was after was the fat squashed sort of Beatles sound from the sixties so several plugins were used on the kit. The kick drum was recorded using a ribbon for a fat sound while Trakker EQ was used to helped bring out a bit of snap just so the beater was audible and helped it sit well with the bass.

The main percussive sound in the drum track is due to brushes being used and very close miking with ribbon microphones to create an unusual sort of slapping sound very different from sticks. An ISON EQ was used in percussion mode to bring out and exaggerate this effect.

Two different sub groups of drums were created while mixing so a blend of totally dry and squashed drums could be controlled and faded in and out during different points in the song. Sends were used on each drum sound for each of the two busses.

One buss was heavily compressed using the SLiM-JiM in 'reverse feed' mode with maximum gain reduction and maximum saturation. The sidechain section of the SLiM-JiM EQ was set to compress the high frequencies and leave the lows alone to help make the drums sound fat while the ISONEQ was used to bring out some of the mid frequencies and a little of the room sound without having to use an artificial reverb.

The second buss benefited with just a touch of the LeveL--DeviL compressor to keep it consistent and not so dramatically different from the super-squashed buss. At different points of the song the mix between both busses was varied to give the drums some dynamic movement.

Other

The featured flute sound of the track is instantly recognizable to many as the famous Mellotron sample playback tape loop instrument which featured on The Beatle's Strawberry Fields and Led Zep's Stairway to heaven. Mine was a sample of several notes played back from the Creamware STS5000 sample playback instrument in Scope and heavily quashed with a LeveL--DeviL which helped it to breathe nicely in the mix. The part was fed to Logic and recorded to a track live without quantising to help it sound loose as played by a human.

Thanks for reading!

Everything, Everything

from the album 'Pocketknife'

Kat Frankie (Germany/Australia)

On with the details

The following is an explanation of how I used my plug-ins for the song 'Everything Everything' from Kat's new album. Here, I'll go into details of how the album was created and which specific plug-ins were used in the recording, edit, mix and mastering processes.

The recording process:

The gear

Emagic's Logic Pro 6.4.3, now Apple Logic Pro 7.2 on An Apple Powermac MP866MhZ (dual processor) with 800MB Ram running OSX 10.4 was the main recording platform. When I started on this project, I was working at 44.1Khz 24bit including for the song 'Everything Everything' but for the last three songs, I decided to bump up the sample rate to 96KhZ 24 bit which made noticeable improvements to the width and depth as well as the clarity of the mixes.

I use an RME HDSP 9652 PCI audio card which has 24 Channels of ADAT in and 24 Channels of output just like the Scope ADAT version card I use to develop my plug ins on the PC. Very handy as this allows me bring audio into the PC from my external mixer pre amps, route it through the Scope mixer, send the output to speakers and headphones and at the same time also sending the audio signals out of the ADAT outputs into the RME card in the Mac for recording.

I find that keeping the systems separate makes everything work smoother and gives me the ultimate control over the entire process. The Scope system in the PC acts as a digital mixer, router, pre-mixer, mix down and mastering machine and allows me to create separate mixes for myself in the control room and for the person being recorded in the other room.

Working this way, I can use all the great PC and MAC software on the same project, always have a system I can record on in case of crashes and working like this allows me to do multi track mix downs from the MAC directly into the PC. This is great when I need to do alternate mixes with and without voice in one pass or in the case of surround sound mixes for film or DVD where you have to supply separate stereo music, effects, dialog and ambient mixes.

Setting up to record

I always send a click, the stereo mix and the direct signals from the microphones out of Scope to a basic mixing desk in the recording room so the person I'm recording has the main sounds on separate channels and can create their own mix which makes the tracking process much smoother and lets me concentrate on the sound and performance rather than me constantly answering requests for this up or this down.

Once I have sound from the mics, I bring them into Scope and connect them through to the MAC via the ADAT destination modules in Scope. I sometimes also record a 'safety' mix of all the channels sub-mixed through another small mixer in Scope and patched into Wavelab or similar program on the PC to capture a rough 'where we were at' version as a reference. If I wanted to, I could also record this on the PC as a fully multi track version just by patching all the channels to Logic Audio, Cubase, SAW or Nuendo programs for example, thus creating two simultaneous multi-track recordings on two separate computers.

I recommend you get someone to assist if you are going to do this as it requires a bit of watching but it can save your life in a live recording situation where you want to record an entire band or capture a non-repeatable performance.

Acoustic Guitar

The guitar mics and direct guitar pickup sounds were brought into Scope and sent out to the headphone mixer as a stereo mix so it sounded as close to how I'd treat it in the final mix. To help it sit better, I used the SLiM-JiM compressor on the monitor mix only set to compress the lows so that the 'boominess' was controlled and the nice strummed string sound cut through clearly. Although I recorded the guitar without the compression, I did run the guitar channels through the 'filter' section of the De-Vice' ISON EQ to clean-up the bottom end.

High pass section of the De-Vice' ISON EQ

The De-Vice' ISON EQ has built-in filters but also comes free with 'filter only' versions that are very DSP friendly when all you want are Low Pass filters (let low frequencies through) or High Pass filters (let high frequencies through).

I wanted to remove rumble only so I carefully adjusted the 'steepness' curve button between 6dB to 48dB and found a setting to take off just the rumble below 80Hz and not any of the musical part of the frequency spectrum.

Voice

I decided to record the vocal tracks for this song 'dry' or without effects as I usually do but I still used effects in the recording chain. Well, actually the monitor chain. Here is where the De-Vice' LeveL--DeviL plugin came in use.

De-Vice' LeveL-DeviL analog style compressor

The LeveL--DeviL is a very soft compressor due to it's analog style design using 'reverse feedback' sensing unlike most modern compressor's 'forward feed' designs. This is perfect when you want to softly and transparently 'hold' a sound and generally make a recording more consistent in level without squashing it to death.

So with the LeveL--DeviL this time as a monitor compressor, I dragged it into the project window inside Scope and patched it between the input from the vocal microphone and the headphone mix vocal channels so I was sending a compressed version to the headphone monitoring mixer in the recording room. I adjusted the 'compress' knob so that the 'gain reduction' VU held all but the very quietest words to help hold the voice in place. The aim of using a compressor when monitoring is to try to create a comfortable vocal level in the artist's headphones even if they move around a bit and to reduce the need for them to constantly adjust the mixer levels.

I also made sure that I patched this 'compressed' version into my monitor mixer inside Scope so I could hear what the artist was hearing. This way, I could keep an ear on how the recording would sound in a mix situation with compression and how all the sounds would sit with each other. I decided I liked the way the voice was sounding with this compression setting so I also patched it's output to another channel of the ADAT output so now I could record both dry and wet vocal tracks. This is useful when mixing as less effects are required. You simply balance the compressed and uncompressed channels for more or less compression 'sound' in the mix.

Bass

I turned to the SLiM-JiM compressor for recording the bass as I wanted to record the bass directly injected (DI'd) while monitoring it with the music through the control room speakers so I could pump the volume and the bass player could play with more vibe in the same room as me rather than through headphones in another room.

Compression helps to create a comfortable and consistent level in the room during the tracking process. As I was going to record the bass with compression, I wanted make sure I didn't over compress the low frequencies too much. I found that the high strings were jumping out but rather than go for EQ, I used the SLiM-JiM's 'multi-band' capabilities and I switched the 'Sidechain' section so that the SLiM-JiM would compress high frequencies and let the lows through. I also used the 'saturate' control to add warmth and simulate some tape compression which really fattens a DI'd bass sound. I set the attack to slow and the release to fast to make sure I was getting a nice balance of the initial attack, pluck transients and a smooth release that best matched the bass sound.

The 'style' mode button was set to 'FW' which created a bit more bite to the bass sound. This mode is a more modern style of compression which allows more control over the attack and release functions of the compressor unlike the LeveL--DeviL's fixed 'reverse feedback' analog style mode.

SLiM-JiM switched to standard sidechain mode where all frequencies are compressed equally

You can't get lows back again easily in the mix if you didn't record them so using the multi-band capabilities of the SLiM-JiM worked very well to take off the string brightness I knew I would not want in the final mix. This was not true for every song of coarse and I adjusted the sidechain section according to the instrument and part being recorded to only compress what I thought needed it. Recording the bass this way worked very well and meant that I was building up the mix as I went. There were no surprises in the mix as I already knew how it would sit with the drums and I did not need to use any additional compression on the bass in the mix-down process.

The Drums

I was playing the drum part myself in the control room so I could control the mix levels etc. without having to run between rooms. I find that EQ and some compression on the drums when I'm listening to them through the headphones gives me a better idea of how things will sound when the entire project is completed and everything is a bit more 'squashed' sounding so, although I recorded all the drums dry without EQ or compression, I monitored my drum mix through the SLiM-JiM.

This time though, I set the sidechain to compress the high (cymbals) and mid frequencies (snare) by pressing two of the sidechain buttons in at the same time. This is a special feature of the SLiM-JiM which makes it a true multi-band compressor and not just a compressor that favours one frequency range over another. I wanted a very soft drum sound so the compression made playing along with the recordings far more rewarding and allowed the quiet brush things I wanted to play to come through better without me having to play harder. Because the lows were not being compressed, a nice sub kick sound came through clearly in the headphones an filled in the picture nicely.

 

Mixing it all down

Drums

All the drums were sent out of two sub mix busses from Logic Pro on the MAC via four ADAT channels into Scope. I divided them up kick, snare, stereo toms and cymbals. The toms and cymbals were lightly compressed with the LeveL--DeviL just so that the transients were being controlled. The snare was compressed using the SLiM-JiM set to compress the lows and mids and an ISON was used set to 'percussion' mode to allow a nice crisp brushy sound specifically designed for EQ'ing percussion. This help the clarity of the brushes to come through while the compression kept the lows and mid 'whack' sounds under control. The kick was left uncompressed to provide a nice thump. I find that you get a better low thump on kick without compressing it.

An additional drum overdub for the big built-up drum part in the middle of the song was recorded with a stereo PZM mic and squashed as much as possible to create a wild track which was mixed in to the main drum part.

The SLiM-JiM set to compress the highs and lows with maximum 'saturation' was used and the 'compress'/threshold control was adjusted so the entire drum part was being heavily slammed. I set the attack to slow and the release to the fastest setting to create a sort of analog style 'sucking and breathing' effect which I really like. In addition to compressing the highs and lows, I also click the 'mid' sidechain control and 'phase inverted' it via the little button below it. This helped the mid frequencies to jump out more and gave a great slap to the toms.

Vocals

The vocals were fairly heavily compressed using the SLiM-JiM set to 'reverse feedback' mode and the sidechain set to compress the low and mid frequencies and let the high sparkle through. I also pumped up the 'saturation' all the way to create some tape compression sound. I used a slow attack and fast release to let the initial attack of the voice through and then clamp-down fast. The fast release helps to add some 'grit' to the vocal sound and means it's ready for the next word simulating the old LA2A type of optical compression. No EQ was used.

Bass

The bass was left untouched compression-wise and mixed into the kick sound. I used a Trakker EQ, the smaller version of the ISON to enhance some of the low mid 'growl' of the strings and help it standout against the other mid frequencies of the drums etc.

The Trakker has the same sound as the big ISON but without the graphic curve display and with just the four most widely used EQ modes of the ISON. The gain on each stage is not as extreme as with the ISON going only to 18dB instead of 24dB so it's easy to get a good sound quickly without the risk of over EQ-ing anything.

see comparisons of the ISON, Trakker and other popular EQ's at the bottom of this page here

Other parts of the mix like the cello, bowed cymbals etc. were fed through LeveL-DeviL and softly compressed to create a nice bedding for the featured instruments and melodies.

Guitar

The acoustic guitar was a combination of direct pickup and ribbon microphones which I fed as a stereo mix through the SLiM-JiM and compressed using the '-' compress all mode of the sidechain. As you may remember, I had already removed un-wanted lows and rumble so now I just needed to make the guitar audible and warm sounding. I didn't want the acoustic guitar to compete too much with other instruments but just sit well so I used it to create a warm bodied guitar sound that helps the song move along.

Mastering

The mastering process was fairly simple as I'd already gotten a sound I was comfortable with in the mix. I did want to experiment with the dynamics so this is where most of the work went. As you can hear, the song goes from brushes and voice to full band with strings, bass and two drum kits back down to brushed snare, bowed cymbals and whispered voice at the end so the whole song could not just be flattened with compression. I ended up splitting the mix playback off into two stereo pairs and sending one version of the mix through a SLiM-JiM set to compress heavily and and LeveL-DeviL set to compress softly. I ran the two pairs into two separate stereo channels in Scope and switched between the mixes to create dynamic changes in the song between each section. This was simple to setup and allowed me to get a nice gentle sound at the start and to use the dynamics like an effect throughout the song. The ISON EQ was used here too to add some mid boost around 500HZ and the highs were also boosted at around 12 KHZ to add some shimmer. The ISON was switched into 'M' mode which is useful to add air to a mix without sounding harsh. The resultant mix was then recorded into Wavelab at 24bit

I hope this has been helpful ...Until next time and be sure to checkout the full range of De-Vice' plug-ins here...