Andy Stevens - Awakening

[clinton]

Good record.

*** I like the drums

I played the drums

[Mathieu Benoit]

Is it at Backstreet Records yet? I want to hear it! Who recorded it?

[Malcolm Boyce]

...I want to hear it! Who recorded it?

Yes. Details please.

[clinton]

Well the bass and drums were recorded by Marc Gosselin at Atlantica and the rest was done by Andy at home. Adam Kierstead played bass, I played drums and Andy played the guitars. Amy Stewart also played some keys on it.

It IS at Backstreet and you guys should check it out....

[Malcolm Boyce]

Picked up a copy today.

Any chance of luring Andy in here to talk about the recording?

[Mathieu Benoit]

I forgot, I'm gonna go to Backstreet on Thursday and pick it up.

[adam]

Picked up a copy today.

Any chance of luring Andy in here to talk about the recording?

He's touring across the country with his metal band at the moment, but I'll send him a link!

Further to Clinton's comments above, it was mixed by Tim Davidson (who is absolutely fantastic) and mastered by J. LaPointe at Archive. You probably saw this on the CD, but, uh, yeah. OK!

[macrae11]

Tim Davidson is great. I wish I got to work with him more often.

[whiterabbit]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for picking up the album!

Adam and Clinton are correct about all things, including me being on the road. I'm in Brandon MB right now, playing the North Hill Inn tonight!

Yeah, Gosselin did the tracking of the rhythm section and the rest was all done in my shitty apartment with my shitty gear (and some rented stuff). I built a sound-booth out of my bed.

Apex 460 (is that the tube one?) was used for vocals and acoustic guitars. sm57 for electric and my behringer b-2 for the glock. Tim mixed the heck out of it and Lapointe mastered. Aside from getting my CD's from the factory THE DAY OF THE RELEASE SHOW, the whole process was quite enjoyable!

That's all for now, thanks for the interest boys! If you're into tour blogs, check out www.myspace.com/wtu

-Andy

edit - and thanks to Gosselin for the last minute pre-amp loaner (8-channel tascam), saved the day man!

[Malcolm Boyce]

Hey Andy, thanks for popping in.

So what format did you record to at home? A home computer based DAW setup, or something in a hardware specific device? I'm curious because folks are using a lot of different things, and I think it's interesting for those with home setups to hear about people using different gear for commercial releases.

[whiterabbit]

Tracked through the tascam preamp Marc lent me and an RNC 1773 Compressor, then into a Yamaha AW1600 Hard Disk Recorder, then transferred into Steinberg Nuendo 2.x for some edits/etc, all using 44.1khz sampling rate.

Sadly I recently sold that Yamaha unit as well as the RNC.

[Mathieu Benoit]

Sadly I recently sold ... the RNC.

[Malcolm Boyce]

Tracked through the tascam preamp Marc lent me and an RNC 1773 Compressor, then into a Yamaha AW1600 Hard Disk Recorder, then transferred into Steinberg Nuendo 2.x for some edits/etc, all using 44.1khz sampling rate.

How did you transfer files for mixing at Tim's place?

[whiterabbit]

Exported out of Nuendo into 44.1 WAV's, it's got processes to grab all the files conveniently enough.

[Mathieu Benoit]

I just got it today, I'll give it a few spins over the weekend and give my usual in-depth analysis. Andrew if you want to have a listen I can get you one too when I go to see you Monday. I will tell you that it's a damn pretty CD though.

[Tim Davidson]

Andy's project was mixed in Cubase using a lot of Waves plugs. Andy had a good sense of where he wanted to go with the mixes and both Marc and the mastering engineer did a great job.

A very useful tool on this mix was Drumagog for adding weight to the kick drum. Drumagog has become one of those "how did I get along before I had this" tools. Especially helpful when tracking has to be done in a rush or the client's drum kit is just not top notch.

It was a pleasure working with Andy and I really like the material.

[Mathieu Benoit]

Fuck. This is very good. So many things to say... not enough time this weekend but I'll post my thoughts sometime this week. Tim did a great job with the mix, and Andy, you should be very proud of this.

[clinton]

client's drum kit is just not top notch.

Did you find that was the case was this session? I think the drums sounds are pretty terrific save that the toms are a bit too upfront.

[Mathieu Benoit]

Did you find that was the case was this session? I think the drums sounds are pretty terrific save that the toms are a bit too upfront.

Toms are a bit unbalanced, but not always. The kick doesn't do much for me but the snare is really close to what I'd envision. I have to say too, what you choose to play is really great, you've a great sense of what to play for the song.

[adam]

I maintain:

[adam]

...although ultimately I like the final drum mix quite a bit. (I have heard the D112 'sound' described as "basketball bouncing on a gym floor" and I vehemently agree. I would choose just about any mic over it for just about any situation. But overall I like the mix. Full disclosure: it was my kit.)

[clinton]

I have to say too, what you choose to play is really great, you've a great sense of what to play for the song.

Thanks man!

[macrae11]

I maintain:

+10

[Mathieu Benoit]

...and I maintain that Andy got a great, and I do mean great, vocal sound with an entirely un-moded Apex 460. If the drums were the only thing outsourced and no one told me so, I'd still know. I don't want to sound like I'm being too picky, especially since I know that Gosselin engineered it, but Andy did such a great job keeping his part of the tracking coherent that the drums never quite translate that well consistently through the album by comparison. Now bear in mind that Tim admitted he had to compensate a lot for them in the mix which I'm sure helped a lot. What makes it easy to overlook that however, is Clinton's performance and the overall strength of the songwriting and the vocals are quite fantastic from both a production and a musical perspective. If the drums reflected the consistency of the rest of the tracking, I'd dare say you have the best overall production I've heard for that style of music in a long time. Local or otherwise. Have I mentioned that this is a really solid mix? Because it needs to be said a lot...

Anyways, back on topic. D112s aren't great but Andy did all his work with a Bear-Ringer mic, a cheap tube mic and a 57. I really want to make sure that the point that's clear here is that engineering is about making whatever you have work. A great engineer will do whatever he/she can to make it work. People can place too much importance on gear, and I do to, but this is again a reminder that that it's the human interface that matters.

Especially helpful when tracking has to be done in a rush or the client's drum kit is just not top notch.

The clients drum kit not being "top notch" isn't as relevant when you have the time.

Bottom line though... You can sing man, and that's all people are really listening too and you did it with a stock 460.

[Malcolm Boyce]

Trying not to assume anything, were the drums and bass gtr recorded during basics, or were they done later on in the project?