Session notes from
a small studio
The Live Room
One rug, no treatmentA small tracking room with a borrowed upright, a rug that never moves, and curtains that do more work than any panel we bought. Most of what you hear on these records is the room agreeing with the player, not a plugin agreeing with us.
The room is already an instrument. You can either tune it or fight it, and fighting it costs more.
Room First
Before a microphone comes out of the case, clap once and listen to what comes back. Curtains, a bookshelf and a rug fix more than most outboard ever will.
Microphone Pairs
Character variety beats a shortlist of five similar condensers. One clean, one dark, one that flatters a loud singer, and the pair you reach for without thinking.
Honest Takes
Breaths, chair creaks and a slightly early entry are not faults. Comping every bar into place is how a performance quietly turns into a demo of a performance.
Tape And Saturation
Used as glue, not as a costume. If the plugin is doing the work the arrangement should have done, the arrangement is the thing that needs another pass.
Drum Bus Decisions
Slow attack, fast release, and a number chosen in the first ten minutes. Two buses, one for the kit and one for the room, usually settles an argument that gear cannot.
Mixing For The Song
The vocal sits where the lyric needs it, not where the meter looks tidy. Half the moves we make here are undone by the end of the afternoon, and that is the job.
What Stays
Out Between
Sessions
Four or five things get used on almost every record we track here. Everything else lives in a case, and most of it could leave tomorrow without anyone noticing.
Ribbon On The Amp
Dark, slow, forgiving. It hears the cabinet rather than the fizz above it.
A Matched Pair
Small diaphragm condensers for guitar and overheads. Boring on paper, right on records.
Tape And Saturation
Hardware when it is warmed up, a plugin when it is not. Both come off if the take did not need them.
Honest Monitoring
One pair of small speakers, one set of headphones, and a room we know the faults of.
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Session notes from a small indie studio
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Los Angeles, California