we have a total of 2 days for basics at the big studio, 4 days of overdubs at a small place, then 4 days of mixing - all for 9 songs coming in at somewhere between 40-50 minutes. we practiced really hard to make sure we can come in and nail takes together - we track everything together live so overdubs are usually pretty easy in that they are just overdubs - we don't have to go and track all of the initial takes again. we had one or two songs done on the first take!day 0 - load-in the night before at water music in hoboken, nj. this way the next day will go a fuck of a lot smoother… this studio is amazingly huge and professional with a humungous live room which could probably fit a small orchestra, multiple amp rooms which are each the size of some studios i've been at and a control room with a gigantic neve board.
day 1 - set-up. we had a drum tech come in and properly set up, help select and tune the drums. this dude is super legit (drum tech for jay-z's drummer
) and was well worth the money spent. it just ensures that the drums are going to sound amazing and we can save lots of time getting good drum sounds (which of course usually takes FOREVER). andrew is using a nice vintage gretsch kit and had access to a couple of really cool old snares from the 30's and 40's.i got to choose from a bunch of amps and narrowed it down to these 4. the gibson vanguard and ampeg b-15 won out and i bi-amped them for my main keyboard, which is a nord stage running mostly wurlitzer and organ sounds. i set the gibson to break up a bit earlier and gave it a brighter, jangle-y tone while the ampeg was slightly cleaner/warmer. the fender bassman and ampeg jupiter were both cool but the bassman was too clean for my liking and the jupiter had a particular upper-mid punch that i wasn't in love with. other than that, i recorded some grand piano at the studio and anything else will be overdubs.
i'll post more of the main gear pics tomorrow when i'm at the overdub studio.
