Post by MALCOLM XERXES™ on Nov 22, 2004 17:34:46 GMT -5
MON. NOV. 22/2004/18:37 E.S.T.
09:55 - 11:55 E.S.T.
I was collected & driven to obtain my drums, then taken to the recording studio where I was to play the Percussion tracks (on TAMATM Drums!) for the closing credit sequence of SHUTTLEDOWNTM.
GAZ oversaw the recording & engineering end of things while I set up my kit, & was very relaxed & good-humoured about it, as one would hope anyone in an executive position of authority might be, but which they so rarely are.
This was very much appreciated by me, since my own contributions were the final stage of post-production to be addressed before the final cut of the programme.
Because he was very clear about the timbre & sonic qualities he wanted captured & conveyed, this was the easiest & most enjoyable experience of recording that I have ever had, & the very "live" sound of the space itself was highly complementary to my own preferred drum sound, which is very "live", with no muffling of the heads (aside from a pillow in the Bass Drum).
I had always fantasised about recording (& being recorded in turn) in the manner of MR. JOHN HENRY BONHAM, late of LED ZEPPELINTM: big drums in a big room, with microphones positioned in such a way that the sound had been given time to mature before reaching the mic's, just as happens in Real Time with our own ears.
MR. BONHAM'S performances on such material as "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS", "KASHMIR" & "FOOL IN THE RAIN" were very much in the forefront of my mind during this session, as well as MR. COZY POWELL'S own work on "DANCE WITH THE DEVIL", "STARGAZER" (RAINBOWTM & "TOUCH & GO" (EMERSON, LAKE & POWELLTM), & MR. BILL BRUFORD'S stellar contributions to KING CRIMSON'STM "VROOOM!" E.P.
I played several different takes of the piece, each of which had something to recommend it that the others did not, so that GAZ could determine whether he wanted to overdub 1 part over another, & the mic' placement was changed for each take, so some of the levels were very much "in the red", dependent upon how hard & often I struck a given drum.
What pleased me well was how little stick attack made it onto the final tracks, so that we really heard the sound of the Tom-Toms & Snare Drum, a practise that "Adventures In Modern Recording" tend to discourage, since Sound Engineers & Producers have fallen into having drummers deaden their kits so that the actual sound of the stick hitting the drum can be manipulated with artificial echo, reverberation & other effects, such as the Quantec Room SimulatorTM favoured by MESSRS. SIMON PHILLIPS & MIKE OLDFIELD on the "CRISES" album.
When GAZ declared the session @ an end, I was shocked, since my previous experience in bands had been to record until I had reached (or exceeded) the point of boredom, so I was reluctant to stop playing, & it was only when he reminded me that the drums are quite loud when one is not playing them oneself that I realised how much fatigue his own ears must have been suffering, given that he wore headphones throughout the session.
In fact, it was only as I typed this that I realised consciously that this marked the first & only time that I had not recorded with headphones on, myself, a factor that probably lent itself to my overall state of relaxation.
Once I had struck my kit & packed it away for the return trip, GAZ invited me to visit 2 comic shops (which we did, 1 of which was closed, regrettably!), then to audit some of his favourite takes, & it was @ that time that he revealed that he had been shooting me throughout the session!
It was amusing to see how I behaved in a Cinema Verite situation, utterly unaware of electronic scrutiny beyond the aural kind, & I noted that my physical mannerisms were those I might adopt between takes on a film shoot, or being rehearsed for a play by a given Director.
The sound quality was very much what I had heard in my mind's ear, although somewhat "cleaner", owing to the digital medium on which the recording took place, a quality that I found especially conducive to the Snare Drum takes.
GAZ discussed his plans to pitch SHUTTLEDOWNTM & FINNEGAN'S SQUADTM, & solicited my own thoughts & feelings about same, & I am happy to report that we were very much in agreement about how we ought to proceed, & why, so that bodes well.
He also showed me some script pages that he had written for a miniseries that thrilled me to bits, particularly when he showed me the 2 possible studio spaces he had selected as viable for that task.
The only downside to the day was that when we stopped @ 7-11TM, the COCA-COLATM SLURPEESTM we jerked for ourselves tasted utterly foul & rancid, as though someone was attempting to poison us.
I literally gagged on mine, & it was only through supreme effort of will that I managed not to spew it onto the floor, so GAZ informed the woman running the shop of our dissatisfaction, then we repaired to an alternate location, since he knows the location of each franchise in that chain.
Fortunately, we managed to get full satisfaction this time around, so I can reserve the spewing of COCA-COLATM for my VDU, where it belongs!
09:55 - 11:55 E.S.T.
I was collected & driven to obtain my drums, then taken to the recording studio where I was to play the Percussion tracks (on TAMATM Drums!) for the closing credit sequence of SHUTTLEDOWNTM.
GAZ oversaw the recording & engineering end of things while I set up my kit, & was very relaxed & good-humoured about it, as one would hope anyone in an executive position of authority might be, but which they so rarely are.
This was very much appreciated by me, since my own contributions were the final stage of post-production to be addressed before the final cut of the programme.
Because he was very clear about the timbre & sonic qualities he wanted captured & conveyed, this was the easiest & most enjoyable experience of recording that I have ever had, & the very "live" sound of the space itself was highly complementary to my own preferred drum sound, which is very "live", with no muffling of the heads (aside from a pillow in the Bass Drum).
I had always fantasised about recording (& being recorded in turn) in the manner of MR. JOHN HENRY BONHAM, late of LED ZEPPELINTM: big drums in a big room, with microphones positioned in such a way that the sound had been given time to mature before reaching the mic's, just as happens in Real Time with our own ears.
MR. BONHAM'S performances on such material as "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS", "KASHMIR" & "FOOL IN THE RAIN" were very much in the forefront of my mind during this session, as well as MR. COZY POWELL'S own work on "DANCE WITH THE DEVIL", "STARGAZER" (RAINBOWTM & "TOUCH & GO" (EMERSON, LAKE & POWELLTM), & MR. BILL BRUFORD'S stellar contributions to KING CRIMSON'STM "VROOOM!" E.P.
I played several different takes of the piece, each of which had something to recommend it that the others did not, so that GAZ could determine whether he wanted to overdub 1 part over another, & the mic' placement was changed for each take, so some of the levels were very much "in the red", dependent upon how hard & often I struck a given drum.
What pleased me well was how little stick attack made it onto the final tracks, so that we really heard the sound of the Tom-Toms & Snare Drum, a practise that "Adventures In Modern Recording" tend to discourage, since Sound Engineers & Producers have fallen into having drummers deaden their kits so that the actual sound of the stick hitting the drum can be manipulated with artificial echo, reverberation & other effects, such as the Quantec Room SimulatorTM favoured by MESSRS. SIMON PHILLIPS & MIKE OLDFIELD on the "CRISES" album.
When GAZ declared the session @ an end, I was shocked, since my previous experience in bands had been to record until I had reached (or exceeded) the point of boredom, so I was reluctant to stop playing, & it was only when he reminded me that the drums are quite loud when one is not playing them oneself that I realised how much fatigue his own ears must have been suffering, given that he wore headphones throughout the session.
In fact, it was only as I typed this that I realised consciously that this marked the first & only time that I had not recorded with headphones on, myself, a factor that probably lent itself to my overall state of relaxation.
Once I had struck my kit & packed it away for the return trip, GAZ invited me to visit 2 comic shops (which we did, 1 of which was closed, regrettably!), then to audit some of his favourite takes, & it was @ that time that he revealed that he had been shooting me throughout the session!
It was amusing to see how I behaved in a Cinema Verite situation, utterly unaware of electronic scrutiny beyond the aural kind, & I noted that my physical mannerisms were those I might adopt between takes on a film shoot, or being rehearsed for a play by a given Director.
The sound quality was very much what I had heard in my mind's ear, although somewhat "cleaner", owing to the digital medium on which the recording took place, a quality that I found especially conducive to the Snare Drum takes.
GAZ discussed his plans to pitch SHUTTLEDOWNTM & FINNEGAN'S SQUADTM, & solicited my own thoughts & feelings about same, & I am happy to report that we were very much in agreement about how we ought to proceed, & why, so that bodes well.
He also showed me some script pages that he had written for a miniseries that thrilled me to bits, particularly when he showed me the 2 possible studio spaces he had selected as viable for that task.
The only downside to the day was that when we stopped @ 7-11TM, the COCA-COLATM SLURPEESTM we jerked for ourselves tasted utterly foul & rancid, as though someone was attempting to poison us.
I literally gagged on mine, & it was only through supreme effort of will that I managed not to spew it onto the floor, so GAZ informed the woman running the shop of our dissatisfaction, then we repaired to an alternate location, since he knows the location of each franchise in that chain.
Fortunately, we managed to get full satisfaction this time around, so I can reserve the spewing of COCA-COLATM for my VDU, where it belongs!