In my last call for Q&A, Imran Mumtaz asked for "Juicy technical details on recording the latest album (Awakened to the Sound). Software, hardware, etc.” In response, I wrote a blog (Awakened to the sound - Part 1) focusing primarily on the process of songwriting with the Sarangi. I’ve been doing my best to satisfy the curiosity of musicians and non-musicians alike in these blogs. However, I felt that it would be appropriate now dive into “juicy details” for the musicians, producers, and artists out there. For those of you who are bored by audio gear and details, feel free to skip this one.

Recording Platform

I recorded everything on Pro Tools HD. I’ve been using Pro Tools for over a decade, and despite its instability and its high price (should those two things go together?), I am most familiar with it and can’t see myself doing music without it at this point. The digital converters I used on Awakened to the Sound are Apogees. The old ADx/DAx and Rosetta ones are terrific. I love the color of these Apogees. The high end is soft and buttery, less harsh than other converters. The Apogee Symphony converters (I’m currently using since the “Awakened” album) are less colored and more clear than the older Apogees.

Sample Libraries, Virtual instruments, Real Instruments

Almost all of the instruments on this album were virtual which is quite a contrast to most of my albums. There is a reason for this. Sample libraries have gotten so amazingly good over the last ten years. Just ten years ago, playing with samples or virtual instruments was torture for me. I used them to demo parts, but it was always assumed they would be replaced by real instruments on the recording. However, current sample libraries can often sound better than real instruments. Yes, of course, there are things that are lost in the performance. But because of the quality of the sample libraries, I have more freedom to score orchestral music; there is no longer a crippling financial limitation when it comes to hiring a full orchestra from album to album.

A few more notes on sample libraries: There is a difference between virtual instruments and sample libraries. Virtual instruments are synthesized sounds that are often created to imitate a real instrument. Sample libraries are actual recordings of instruments, note by note. The sample libraries that I am deep into (such as Spitfire Audio) are meticulously detailed. For example, each piano note is recorded several times at different velocity levels (extremely soft to extremely loud). For Awakened to the Sound, I used the "Rolls Royce” of sampled pianos called the 'Hanz Zimmer Piano.’ The sample was recorded with at least 60 different microphones and ends up using about 200 gigs of my hard drive. How else would I be able to record and use a $300k+ Steinway concert piano?

Strings

Using string sample libraries took a LOT of work and time on this album. This is partly because I am so particular about the strings sounding as good or better than real strings. I studied classical music at Boston University and sat through hundreds of hours of orchestra rehearsals, so the concept of what strings “should” sound like has been permanently embedded in my brain. What this means is that I spend a painstaking amount of time crafting the expression of the instruments (velocity, vibrato, release, and portamento). I also blend different samples of bigger and smaller string sessions. For most of the songs, I used a blend of Spitfire Audio’s libraries:

Sacconi Strings (Quartet)
Chamber Strings
Albion and Albion One (Larger String Ensemble)

The smaller groups give me more expression and detail while the bigger groups give me a more epic and grand sound. The levels change throughout the songs depending on what is necessary.

Screenshot of the midi cello performance from the song “Rest.” The sample library is Spitfire Sacconi Strings. The top section shows the midi notes. Second lane down (velocity) is not actually set to control the velocity. Instead, different velocities determine bow slurring, finger slurring, and portamento. Third lane mod wheel determines the velocity (this is different than volume). Fourth lane (undefined) determines the amount of vibrato).

Tempo Mapping

It seems that click tracks, tempo grids, and quantizing, can sometimes make music lack the “feel” of human tempo. When I mix other people’s music, I most often get songs that are mapped to a single BPM throughout the song. One of my secrets for getting that 'human touch’ to my music is that I rarely have a song stay the same tempo. To me, the speed of the verse should feel different than the chorus or bridge. I manually change the tempo according to what feels best. Most people can’t tell that the tempo is going up and down.

Sometimes, instead of performing to a click or tempo map, I map the tempo grid to my performance. So basically, I record a part of performance without click, then map every single bar according to what I played (in Pro Tools command+I lets me identify each bar). This also takes a lot of time, but it enables me to just feel the performance instead of being bound to a preset tempo.

Screenshot of the tempo mapping for the song “Rest." Once the piano sets the tempo map, I can easily quantize anything I want to the piano.

Vocals

I have a bad habit of being in love with the sound of a Shure SM58 or beta SM58. These are $150 microphones in contrast to the typical $30,000 microphone found in a recording studio. I feel better about my infatuation knowing that pretty much every U2 vocal track was recorded with an SM58. About half of my albums were recorded with one as well. On this album, I blended my 58 with a Soundelux U195 going through Chanlder LTD-1 Preamps EL8 Distressors. With two vocal mics, I could blend/balance them according to the sound I wanted. The 58 gives me fatness, rawness, and attitude. The Soundelux give me clarity and depth. The challenge is getting their phase right. I had to delay one of the mics a few milliseconds to get the highs to transfer properly. One millisecond makes a drastic difference with microphones that are capturing vocals at such proximity.

“Rest”

If you’re curious about the size of a full session, the song “Rest" is a moderate size session totaling about 70 audio/instrument tracks (not including auxiliary tracks).

This is a screenshot of the entire session. From top to bottom they are:

Reddish brown - Drums/Percussion
Purple - Bass
Teal/Green - Guitars
Orange/Beige - Strings
Blue - Brass
Dark Yellow - Lead Vocals
Yellow - Backing Vocals
Blue - Misc Audio
Orange - Mixing Auxes

Thanks for your great questions and interest! If there are more details you would like to know about the album Awakened to the Sound, please comment...Thanks! - Eric

Writing & Recording: Awakened to the Sound (Part 2)