Fish Shop R & R Studio - 26 Nov '05

Last Saturday The Negotiators recorded a demo CD at the Fish Shop R & R Studios in Port Adelaide. Neat little set up, with Nesta, a most pleasant techie, running the show. We were there for eight hours, and managed to get down 16 tracks plus ‘Mercedes Benz’ (with Nancy singing solo). At least, that’s what I hope happened as I had to leave over an hour early for parental duties. I left when we were entering the ‘mix down’ phase. Or, as Nestor said, “just when the real fun begins”.

It was a bit over an hour between arrival and having set up. It was nice to not have to lug around mixing desks, speakers, scores of metres of cables, etc. We would have been ready even sooner had not Terry gotten his days mixed up. Nancy called him at 10.15 and just caught him before he left for his day’s business. We took this minor hiccup in our stride, no angst. A good omen.

Then we got going. We firstly laid each track down in one hit as a band. Nancy was in a booth on her own (glass walled, so she could see us). Terry, Steve and I were in the largest of the spaces. Sox was in a booth with open ends and glass walls, in the same large room that us guitarists were. I think everyone else could see everyone else, I had a pillar between myself and Nancy (couldn’t do much about moving too far as I was limited by a baffle and the length of the headphone lead). The keyboard was DI’d (Direct Input), as were all vocals and the harmonica in Dumb Things. Each of our amps was set as normal, with a mike down its throat. The drums were miked up with similar to what we do with them these days on stage (I think). We had baffles (chest high, thick partitions) in front of the guitar amps to stop them splashing around the room.

I don’t know what sort of rig Nesta was driving in the control studio, but it looked quite visual and complex, with a triplet of VDUs providing the visuals from the computer and the mix desk (both a virtual and actual type appeared to be in use).

The technical equipment problems were all mine to deal with. To start, both my pedals failed to pass a signal across from input to output jacks. Very strange. Both worked last time I tried to use them, both have fresh batteries, there’s been no obvious damage to them, I tried various combinations of four different leads to make sure leads weren’t the problem. Eventually I plugged straight into my amp and adjusted it accordingly. I bet the pedals’ll work fine next time I try (after blogging this).

The other problem I had was more fundamental, my guitar kept losing tune. I haven’t suffered this to this extent before (or, for years at least). Either it’s been knocked around that I don’t know about, the G string is fading, or the atmospherics were just enough to stuff it up. We persisted for four songs, me retuning each time, and then I changed to Steve’s Les Paul (after lengthening the strap). Fustrating. I guess I’ll have to take Fernandez to a guitar doctor.

Anyway, we put down a basic mix as a band for each of the songs. This took about four hours (including listening to the final takes). After we’d played a piece, we took a concensus of what people reckoned. It’s usually majority rules, but only because, usually, the minority concedes. We don’t analyse how we make artistic decisions as a group, we just do it. It has a lot to do with respect for each other and not taking ourselves too seriously. Doing a demo isn’t a perfect science, there’s a lot of room to compromise. Ideal for The Negotiators!

Ended up we played most songs twice, and we played a couple three times. I think there are clangers in most of the final versions. Luckily, there’s usually no more than one falling down per song and it is most often at the very end (can usually be dealt with by fading the mix, and won’t be heard by our principle targets, venue booking managers who will tend to only listen to the first half a minute of each track). There were a couple songs (Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and another (?)) where we seriously diverged from the usual way of piecing out the texture between instruments – but we managed to hold onto even the wierdest improvisation in a manner that will hopefully be interesting to listen to. I think the way we do this is a function of our amassing public ‘flying hours’, as well as the raw fact of having made music together for over two years (some of us, six years).

Once we had agreed all the first takes as minimally acceptable, we overdubbed backup vocals. To do this, Steve and I each had a mike in the main room, and Nancy was back in her booth. We therefore skipped over those phases in the recording ritual where, ususally, at least the vocalist and often the lead guitar (if not the whole band) overdubs their own parts until they are ideally ‘perfect’. Nancy didn’t overdub any of her main vocals (she has a strong voice, doesn’t need it for present purposes). And it isn’t economical for the rest of us to do it, considering the purpose of the exercise (a demo CD).

I think Steve and I, alone with two mikes in a quiet main room, found it alien to begin with, but were getting into it properly by the eight track (we put backing vocals onto eight tracks – all of them over ‘chorus’ sections only). Neither of us is much of a singer though, so we’ll be mostly right in the background. This took less than an hour, with Nesta rapidly taking us from one chorus to the next.

The next stage is the one that I left shortly after it began, the Mixing Down. This is really interesting, as you can get to hear just your own instrument, or hear it relative to one or more other sound inputs (eg the vocal). The idea is to adjust the relative levels of the various inputs to what is appropriate to each song and, if necessary, parts of each song. This can encompass adding effects. For example, a touch of reverb on the vocal, a bit of ‘fattening’ on the guitar. Thus, we could bring the keyboard solo out more in ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, and the level up generally through the whole piece.

It was really interesting to listen to some of my guitaring in isolation, the little bit I heard Nesta separate for whatever reason was actually pretty good – a lot of variety with a steady pulse, and I know I can repeat the patterns if and when required. This despite my rarely learning specific ‘riffs’ for general rhythmic work. Maybe that’s the flamenco in me – pick up a basic riff and then run with it within the confines of the form and piece, ideally combining with my emotion of the moment.
So, that’s where I’ll leave this. When I get to hear the final mix, I’ll report on it. By the way, I am starting a new webpage at ‘negotiatorsnews.uk.geocities.com’. As I learn more about http it will develop. I’ll keep you posted.