Devils Elbow are a three-piece band from Napier, New Zealand, whose music described as punk-influenced, alternative, country-flavoured, electric-folk, garage or rock ‘n’ roll. This latest single of theirs features drums, bass, guitars, vocals and a harmonica, and has some pretty catchy hooks. It’s just been put up online, and you can actually download the entire EP for free for now.

Check it out at: http://devilselbowofficial.bandcamp.com/album/broken-record-syndrome

I’ve been doing some songwriting throughout the past 8 years, but considering the track was briefed to be an electronic techno-house club hit I decided I would bring on the boys from Disarm Productions (http://www.disarmproductions.com) to cover the songwriting, and then pass the track to me to mix. I’ve worked with Jeremy and Will before on a few “One UK” tracks so knew that they would be perfect for this task. Considering this track is based upon London experiences, who else would be better to write the track than Brits themselves??

It can sometimes be a difficult task trying to portray a creative concept through words, however I feel the boys picked up on everything the client and I had discussed. The track came back sounding great, and after a few minor tweaks the multi-tracks were sent over back for me to mix. As you’d expect with anything associated with London, the track starts calm and slowly builds into a chaos. A lot of the themes in the song are based around the London Underground, and there are several subtle sounds that will trigger memories in those that have visited the city.

It ended up being a pretty fun track to mix, and I spent a fair amount of time experimenting with a number of effects to enhance the content of the song. I’m happy with the mix and am impressed with the work the Disarm Productions lads did. Overall a great experience!

Righto, better get back to it – I just received another track to mix!

Taking a closer look at the band, you’ll see three of the lads were previously in The Lookie Loos. They continued jamming after ending The Lookie Loos, and soon enlisted singer Marijke and keys player Paora to form Nightmare Blue. They describe their music as “ambient feel with touches of alternative and pop influences”, and judging just from the guide tracks I’m sure they will live up to that description!

We hit the studio on the first weekend of July, aiming to lay down five drum tracks. They packed the car, head up from the Waikato and spent a day loading up on coffee and smashing away at the drums. I must say, Will did an impressive job of beating up the snare skin too! I ended up using a few extra room mics on this recording, giving us plenty of options for ambient drum effects. Plus, since we had spare channels and a number of great mics sitting around it would have been rude not to use them!

I ended up heading down the the Waikato the following weekend to track bass, then handed over the files for the band to track synth, guitar and vocals. The tracks are currently being mixed, and should be out within the coming few months.

I’ve uploaded a few pictures from that session, so head along to the gallery to see them all.

Check out more info about Nightmare Blue at: www.facebook.com/Nightmareblueband/

As the previous post mentions, we tracked drums at York Street Studios in Auckland on the 31st March and 1st of April. After a few weeks break we head over to Golden Age studios in Morningside to continue on with the rest of the album. Considering this album consists of a lot of synths, some guitar, bass and vocals, we didn’t really need the space and channels that a large studio offers, plus Golden Age offered a large array of analog synthesisers – perfect for this album! After a few minor arrangements of the decor, we had a great setup that allowed easy switching between instruments, and a number of synths all connected via Midi.

Instead of the original plan of tracking everything on one song per day, we opted for tracking and finishing one instrument at a time. With Greg back in the production seat after playing the drum tracks, it was Nik Brinkman’s time to shine. As the sole writer of Junica, Nik also played all the bass, guitar and keyboard parts, as well as singing all the vocals. Also, he’s a very experienced and comfortable player, making my job easier! It’s always pleasure to be able to set up the sound and record with complete trust in the performer to give a great performance.

We began with bass, then began to fill in all the synth parts. As this album was heading in a very 80′s Pop direction, there were a massive number of synth layers! I must admit, I was just a little nipper during my time in the 80′s so never really got to appreciate the introduction and eruption of MIDI based synthesiser, but Greg Haver could not have felt more at home! We had Moogs, we had Jupiters and Junos, Nords, Korgs, basically everything you could ask for. As you can imagine, we had a fair bit of fun finding sounds, layering synths, and creating some pretty unique sounding parts. The difference between an analog synth and its digital reproduction is instantly obvious. There’s just a magical something about an analog synth has a much rounder and thicker sound – a third dimension as such – that digital plugins just can’t mimic. You can’t beat electricity through wires!

With the tracks sounding epic just with drums, bass and synth, it was time to lay down the guitars. Once again, the parts were there, and it was just a case of capturing the magic and tracking them up. It was an interesting change for me to record an album that was more synth based that guitar based. Synths seem to be lost in a lot of popular genres these days, which is a true shame as they’re such cool instruments! As we layered pieces of guitar, we finished off little parts of synths to enhance the guitar parts. Soon enough the tracks were all vocal ready!

Coming in fresh after a good night’s sleep I made sure I had a big clean up before starting vocals. It’s one of the most important parts of a record, and having a clean room and workspace makes a massive difference. After a lengthy re-arrangement of the live room, I was pretty happy with the acoustics of the room and felt it was suitable for tracking vocals. We spent a bit of time setting up, ensuring the vocal sound was right and trying a few different options. Another coffee down and we began tracking up the vocals. As with before, Nik just got straight into it and once again offered great takes one after another. After tracking the vocals, I’d sit down with the lyric sheet and the takes and spend a while ensuring we had used all the best performances. Without giving away too many of the trade secrets, the tracks were finely crafted and polished up before wrapping up the session perfectly on time. We left the studio happy as could be, with all the recording done and just some sorting out of the recorded backing vocals to do before mixing.

The internet has truly revolutionised the logistics in transferring albums to be mixed. No longer are tapes packaged and couriered around the world. No, instead it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons and trillions of 1′s and 0′s are sent digitally at an amazing speed. I still often sit back in awe and watch the little blue bar move along, amazed at the things we take for granted every day. I feel like I’m starting to get onto a bit of a rant and may begin getting all philosophical soon, so think it’s a good point to tie it off soon…

Anyway, it wasn’t too much longer that I awoke to a few new emails from Clint with download links for the mixes. I’ve always really admired Clint’s engineering and mixing skills, and base a lot of my techniques on Clint’s techniques, so knew that the mixes would sound awesome! All I can say is that the tracks sound huge, and I’m looking forward to hearing the masters! The album should be out relatively soon, and really enjoyed playing a part in this album. Spending time in the studio with Greg again was a great privilege and made for a lot of fun.

Best of luck to Junica for this coming album, and I hope the album and Junica do very well!

The start of March brought visits from great friends of mine Clint Murphy and Greg Haver. Clint is an Audio Engineer, and Greg is a Record Producer, and I have been on numerous sessions with them both in New Zealand and in the United Kingdom. From these two I adopted vast majority of their work ethic, recording techniques and various other traits that have helped shape me into the engineer I am today. They had popped back to New Zealand begin work with a few kiwi bands, so I caught up with them as much as possible during their stay.

On the weekend of the 31st of March and 1st of April, I headed back into York Street with Greg Haver to track drums for Wellington artist Junica. Without giving too much away about the album, Junica’s tracks are all very 80′s and 90′s, so we really embraced recording techniques from that era. Due to Greg’s extensive background in both producing and drumming, dating right back through the 80′s, I was introduced to a range of techniques I had never used before. I learned a lot more about the 80′s sound in general, have never used so much gated reverb before! I’m currently just working on a few tidy ups and session preparation for when we continue with the rest of the album later this month, where we’ll begin on guitars, synths and vocals before the tracks are taken back to the UK for Clint to mix. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and will be sure to let you know when the tracks are out. Rumour also has it that a great 90′s singer will be making a guest appearance on the album! I know you’re busting to hear some of it, so for now just scroll to the bottom to check out another track from Junica featuring Pip Brown (Ladyhawke).

I attended an SAE Producer Seminar that featured both Clint Murphy and Greg Haver talking to SAE students and alumni members about record production and sharing their experiences. Mid way through the chat I was also invited up on stage to join in and also share some of my experiences. It was great to be a part of it, and really enjoying chatting and reminiscing over projects passed. We’ve all worked together on a number of projects, but also have plenty of our own stories so had plenty to talk about.

As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve been having a number of meetings with artists, managers, fellow engineers and producers, and have some great ideas that will be beneficial to the NZ music industry – covering right from the quality of the recordings to the album budgets. I’ve been gaining a lot of interest from the few concepts I’ve discussed with others, so I’m working overtime to put these into play as soon as possible. I have a large whiteboard divided into seven sections and jam packed full of ideas, so am structuring out business plans and already have a clearer picture of how to accomplish it.

I’m feeling extremely organised and really inspired. Check back soon for an update on how things are progressing, for now I’ll leave you with Junica and Pip Brown.

Junica – ‘Living In My House’ Ft. Pip Brown

With 2012 in full swing, it’s been a pretty productive start to the year. I admit, I haven’t been in the studio very much at all – but hey, it’s summer, and can’t complain with afternoon meetings in the sun and organising bookings in the studio for winter when it will be cold and miserable outside.

I don’t know whether there’s something about it being 2012 – maybe this new year has breathed a fresh blast of inspiration back to me – but I seem to be on a roll with ideas and concepts, all of which are gradually being turned into business plans. Some may never see the light of day, but sure enough I’ll start rolling out a few unique plans throughout this year, so stay tuned and keep an eye on what I’m setting up. I’m pretty excited about what I’ve got planned ahead – some plans even extend out for about 3-4 years! Forward thinking is key, and picturing the long term goal helps make the steps there seem a lot more achievable.

Throughout the past month or so, I’ve been in and out of various meetings of all sorts – some regarding forthcoming albums, others about creative concepts, and various business based meetings. I feel like I’m making some pretty good headway, and with the amount of album & single budgets I’ve been doing, it seems like the rest of this year will be pretty hectic and good fun. I’ve been meeting a lot of musicians and their managers, and with the range of options available I’ve been working with them to achieve the most professional product possible within their budget. I have been presenting 2-3 options per session, and giving the artist choice of what will suit them. Even if you aren’t ready to record, feel free to get in touch about plans and I can put together a budget. It’s always easier once you can see exactly what you need for your project, and (as mentioned above) picturing the long term goal helps make the steps there more achievable.

In fact, aside from feeling extremely busy with organising future sessions, I’m filling in any spare time with web design. I’m currently working on a client’s website, and have a few more in tow for downtime outside of the studio for later in the year. I enjoy the change in pace every now and again – sometimes you just need a little bit of quiet time away from the music, and using my knowledge in web design is a sure fire way to keep myself busy. As I said, it’s just something on the side though… No matter what I’ll always be an audio engineer at heart!

Back to audio now – I have taken priority to extending options for clients, including meeting string sections, session musicians, and other create and industry folk, in order for me to be able to offer any option for forthcoming recordings. I have created ties with a wide range of great musicians, and with the number of session musicians I am confident I have a combination that will work for you. I feel as though strings particularly are a really undervalued addition to a track. I’ve had a bit of interest regarding strings from artists that have already recorded tracks, so am looking at taking bookings on behalf of the string section to add strings to a finished song. Obviously, with a higher number of tracks comes a better price, so if you’re interested in getting real strings put on your tracks, you know who to message!

As previously mentioned, more classy features are being worked upon on my website. I don’t have a timeframe for the release of these goodies, but I can assure you it’l be worth the wait. There is some pretty advanced coding being done, well beyond the scope of my code knowledge, but I know what I am working towards (which is the main thing). I don’t want to give away too much, but think it’l blow you away once it is up.

I’ll be heading off to Hamilton at the end of this week to meet up with a few of musicians and may pop in at a local studio, then in March I’m heading down to Christchurch for a few weeks, then back to Auckland for an album in April. Bookings are filling up this year and I’m pretty excited about the material I’ll be working on. It’s going to be a great year, and hope you’re all feeling as positive about it as I am!

Until next time,
Nick.

So December turned out to be the busiest month I have had since returning to New Zealand! No complaints though.

At the start of December I was asked to head into York Street and help out Simon Gooding for the new Nathan Haines album. Musically, it was a relatively simple set up, with four musicians all playing together in the live room. Inside the control room, it was mayhem. We were tracking through the Neve into Pro Tools, but also had a 1/2″ 2-track tape machine running, meaning we were recording all the microphones, the live mix onto tape, the live mix into Pro Tools, and the 2-track return from the tape machine into Pro Tools. Confused yet? It was a bit of a puzzle to set up, but soon enough we were sorted. I wasn’t so much an engineer on this project but an assistant. I could see why they wanted an extra set of hands though! It was great fun and was sounding awesome. Looking forward to hearing the finished result. I had to leave early to head off to pack, as the next morning I had an early flight to Christchurch.

Well, it wasn’t as early as the trip in October, but still – anything before 9am is early in my opinion. I got to Christchurch around 9am on the Sunday morning and had a day off, which I spent catching up with some of the extended family. Had a relatively early night, as I knew of the impending workload!

Kevin Allison from Angels Gate Studio had flown me down to engineer a few weeks of recording while he produced the tracks. We had various sessions over the next 15 days, and got a lot of work done.

The next Saturday I decided to check out the container mall and head in to see the Christchurch Cathedral – it was the last day the walk to the cathedral was open until the new year. Although I only have scattered memories of Christchurch from my childhood trips to see my grandparents, I found it very confronting and actually quite upsetting. Being in the middle of a CBD with no noise, no cars, no people in the buildings, and the ground covered in rubble was a very haunting and surreal scenario – it felt like a movie set. On the flip side, after walking out of the walkway it was quite uplifting to see the brightly painted containers and a bustling Cashel Mall. Buskers were out, carols were being sung, and I found the contrast quite amazing.

After the 15 days, I was feeling pretty knackered do had an early night. The next day I headed into Cashel Mall and began my Xmas shopping. As expected it was pretty busy. There are a cool range of shops there, so the Xmas shopping was a bit easier than I had thought it would be. The amazing thing about the container mall is that you step inside one and it no longer seems like a container. You completely forget that you aren’t in a ‘proper’ shopping mall, and in all honesty I quite like the containers. They’ve done a great job and it’s really good to see things picking up again. In comparison from my first trip down to Christchurch, I couldn’t believe the speed that the cleanup is happening. Entire blocks had been demolished in the 5 weeks I was away. Even in the nine days since I saw the cathedral, things were changing dramatically. There were a few minor rumbles while I was down there. Nothing to really write about, but they were definitely getting stronger in my final few days. In fact, I even mentioned to a few people that it felt as though it was picking up a little and gearing up for a bigger shake. Unfortunately, that seemed to be right, and I felt quite upset seeing the news of the two big quakes last Friday. Kia kaha Christchurch, keep strong. I’ll be back down again soon!

I had a few other bits and pieces going on when I was in Christchurch. I spent about half an hour every night responding to emails and organising sessions for next year. I also when around to a local engineer’s house and checked out his home studio – I was pleasantly surprised with his setup and the sound he was getting from it. The tracks had a great sound and had been tracked very well, something I really respect in an engineer, not to mention a home-studio recording! We’re discussing mixing options for next year, and personally think it would be a pleasure to be sent sessions in such good condition already! I also organised budgets for a 14 song album for mid next year, and upon my return to Auckland went for a meet-and-greet and watched them practise last Thursday night. They seem pretty well organised, have a realistic budget (another rare thing in NZ!) and are very serious about making a professional record.

Those two session are just the tip of the iceberg – next year is already ramping up to be a busy but exciting and fun time. There is work coming in from around New Zealand and abroad, and I’ll be working on some exciting new upgrades to my website shortly. I’ll be sure to keep you more in the loop and make sure future posts aren’t as long as this one. If you have made it this far, well done and thanks for reading! Time to balance my books before heading off to the beach for a relaxing new years. Hope everyone had a great Crimbo and hope you have a great new year!

All up, I worked on 14 songs in the 15 days I was down there… Pretty big effort if you ask me. Looking forward to getting back down to Christchurch soon to record and mix some of the great local artists!

Until next time,
Nick.

Tomorrow and Saturday will be spent down at York Street Recording Studio in Parnell. I’m off to work with Simon Gooding on a jazz recording with Nathan Haines and some of the finest jazz musicians in New Zealand. Apparently we’re firing up the tape machine and tracking it straight to tape! It should be a nice change giving Pro Tools the next few days off. I’ve helped on tape transfers and whatnot before, but never really got my hands dirty working primarily on tape. It should be a blast! I better stock up on Isopropyl alcohol (not for me) and cotton buds.

After wrapping up the York Street session, I’ll be getting up early to head to Christchurch on Sunday. I get a day of relaxation and catching up with family before hitting the studio on Monday morning. There’s a range of work coming in – artists based both in the Christchurch area and from the West Coast, and I believe there’s some voice overdubs for TV and a recording for a film soundtrack. I’ll be mixing a few more tracks, as well as a few tweaks on the old mixes, for Christchurch artist Shayna King too. During my last trip down I engineered vocals and one full song, then mixed four of her songs. The time away from the studio with these mixes has helped me figure out exactly what to expect from the Control Room on this visit.

I should be back in Auckland in time for Christmas, although I don’t actually know what date I am flying back yet! We’ll see how the work goes, and will book a return flight once we have an idea of when the tracking and mixing will be completed.

There is a day or two free for now between bookings. I have one mix pencilled in, but have room for a few more tracks. If this interests you, feel free to get in touch with me via email, phone or Skype.

Keep an eye out for more info and photos about the session at York Street (starting tomorrow) and the Angels Gate sessions throughout the next few weeks.

San Pedro started early this year, and have been writing furiously ever since. They plan to record an EP next year, and thought it was the perfect opportunity to put some demos down. It’s great to have something recorded to listen back to – especially as a very new band. Being able to distance yourself from the playing and listen to your music as a listener is a very important part of being in a band.

We managed to get four tracks recorded, all played live without a click after spending time rearranging the tracks to get them sounding tighter. The cool thing about York Street is that I could track everything live with no bleed – there’s plenty of rooms and isolation booths so allow complete separation between drums, bass, guitars and vocals.

We were very limited on time, so we didn’t have time to play around with guitar sounds and effects, not to mention different drum setups! I have plenty of ideas of where to take these songs, and how to give each of them their own special flavor. The mixes were bashed out pretty quickly too, however we all understand they were just some demos. The boys will be using these to help raise their public profile and apply for funding to do them properly.

I’m hoping to get the boys back in the studio for a few days early next year to do a single or two, so keep an eye on them. I’ve already got a great big list of ideas, so can assure you the singles will sound huge!

Check out their track “Gape” below:

As you may have read, I took a trip to Christchurch on the 21st of October to track two songs over Labour Weekend. The day started abruptly with my alarm screaming out at 4:30am. It wasn’t even bordering on daylight by then, so was quite a shock to the system! I had factored in an entire day in the studio to familiarize myself with it and suss out any potential challenges or issues for the recording. My flight left Auckland at 6:50am. I should have spent the flight catching up on some much needed sleep, but the picturesque views of the sunrise over the beautiful New Zealand scenery did get the better of me.

Upon our approach to Christchurch, chatter amongst passengers faded away as a distant silhouette of the CBD appeared beneath the clouds. As one of the many passengers not to have visited Christchurch since the earthquakes, my face was also pressed hard against the window to capture a glimpse of the ghost city. Due to the early hour of the morning, I was presented with quite a haunting image – the few remaining tall buildings silhouetted though golden tinted morning fog. One of the most striking things was the apparent lean of the Grand Chancellor Hotel – something I had previously thought to be barely noticeable. Upon my arrival, I met Kevin Allison at the airport. Kevin is a US expat now based in Christchurch, and is the owner of Angel’s Gate Recording Studio. After a quick chat we were soon on the way to the studio.

We pulled up at Angel’s Gate just before 9am, and within minutes we were inside discussing gear and the forthcoming session. After a short studio tour and a look over the gear and extensive guitar & amplifier collection I began sorting out a few tracks for an emerging Christchurch artist. It takes a while to get your head around a session someone else has engineered (as everyone has their own techniques), so spent the first part of the morning sorting out and familiarizing myself with four of her tracks. Little did I know, I would be doing a lot more work on these.

Shortly after lunch the artist arrived at the studio to track a few vocals, as these tracks only had guides on them for now. The studio was running an API 1608 console, so it was great being able to run the vocals through the API EQs. I find them really clean and clear and really seem to be notched to great frequencies. As per usual I compressed her vocal on the way in, and used an API 2500 outboard compressor to do so. We tracked two songs worth of vocals that Friday evening, and made a start on a third before calling it a night for her. We put together a comp, then called it a night ourselves. Turned out to be a very productive first day!

The next morning I was up at 7:30, starting the day with a coffee to get me ready for the session! For the weekend we had another local band in, and was engineering for a Sydney based producer. We opted to track the whole band live and track vocals after, along with any other overdubs. We maxed out the 16 channels available on the API desk – the perfect size for recording this band! The band play a style similar to classic rock, bringing elements from 70′s rock and combining it with modern sounds. The singer has got the classic gravelly rock ‘n’ roll voice and a few pretty catchy tunes. The two days concluded with all band and overdubs tracked and the vocals recorded but not comped. I spent half an hour or so putting down monitor mixes and backing up to his drives before farewelling the band and getting on with the cleanup.

Monday morning arrived, and I was asked to continue on with the tracks I was mixing on Friday. I spent the morning comping her vocal tracks we had recorded, then finished tracking the other two later that afternoon. We spent the evening working on harmonies too. I love backing vocals, they really bring so much to a track, especially multiple harmonies. With the recording out of the way, the next few days were just for me to mix the tracks! The first mix in a new room is always a challenge, as you don’t really know the finer intricacies of the room, or what the low end is like, etc. The monitoring was good though, so I felt relatively comfortable. We did take a few mixes out to the car to give them the car test. It seems to really work – and helped me to recognise how big the low end is in the room. Vocals are another thing that can be hard to judge – in some studios the vocals sound really quiet, others really loud. I had become somewhat familiar with Kevin’s car stereo from the drive to and from work every day, so was a real bonus listening in there. Kevin is the studio manager, and was producing this artist’s tracks. I spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday mixing, with a half day of touch-ups on the Thursday, before heading off to visit family, friends and have a few meetings before my flight on Friday afternoon.

In the limited time I had off I made it to another studio soon to be opened, met up with Sleeping Dogs, Tainted and a local rapper, as well as catching up with some of the family in Christchurch. It’s lucky I stuck around for an extra week – I ended up working seven days rather than just the two. I’m pretty happy with the mixes so far, although after having a week away there are a few things I am keen to touch up. I’m planning on heading back to Christchurch before the end of the year, so will be able to do it then. There seems to be a few great facilities opening up in Christchurch that will really benefit the South Island, so I can feel a few more trips coming on!

I’ve attached a few photos from my trip, check them out below or in the gallery: