Thursday, January 26, 2006
Lokomotiv Recording Sessions
Lokomotiv and Lo-Fi Studios first got together in the spring of 2004. The band is comprised of four members, Basti Artadi (vocals), David Aguirre (guitars), Danny Gonzalez (bass) and Wolf Gemora (drums). David and Wolf drove out from Laguna Niguel to Loma Linda to check out the studio and hear some music samples. Although it was not unusual for a band to come in a check out the studio, these guys had a good deal of recording experience and really knew what they wanted from a recording studio.
What made these sessions (from the first demos to the 2005 album sessions) worthwhile was the amount of time and detail put into the project. The most interesting aspect for me was that they were from the Philippines, and that they really knew rock music. They also were very familiar with the recording process, both analog and digital.
The initial sessions took a live approach with minimal overdubs on the instruments. Musically these guys were tight. Wolf’s drumming was powerful, but maintained an even attack on kick and snare, so compression was not used to "even" out the instrument, but to enhance the instrument instead. For guitars, David used PRS through a solid state amp. Bass was both mic’d and DI. Overdubs varied from complete retracking to punch-ins. Vocals were painstakingly recorded with the intent of getting a good performance and only pitching as necessary. In order to get good strong vocals, we did not record more than two songs per session.
The band tracked onto 2" analog, and then transferred to Pro Tools for editing. Like most mixes, a general mix was created, then we would move on to each instrument, addressing tones, levels of the instrument (often there were more than one track of guitars, bass and vocals) as well as the instrument's levels against the other instruments in the mix. We were intrigued by the outboard effects and processors versus the plug-ins available at that time. Each instrument received separate channel(s) for reverbs, delays and compression sent through the board. The final stereo mix was sent to CD via DAT tape.
The first group of songs completed were "Inert", "Ashes of Home", "Ride With Me", "House of Lies" and "Five Alive". I figured that the band got their best performance and a decent mix for the time spent. Recording and mix down sessions exceeded 25 hours. This was unusual for a demo, but I could see the direction that they were willing to take their sound.
Then I got a call in early January 2005 for a remix on a couple tracks that weren't quite right. We scheduled more mixing time. Another 5-10 hours were necessary to get the songs "just right." Even standout tracks like "Five Alive" were given another look. By the end of the final mix down session Wolf hinted that they would be back later in the year to record another 5 songs and combine them with the recent mixes and call it their first U.S. album.
Sure enough by May Wolf contacted me for session dates for July and August. There would be new overdubs on the old songs and 5 new songs to track. A few weeks before the next sessions I received a schedule from the band for the sessions. A lot of planning went into this schedule, besides considering what needed to be worked on, rerecorded and new tracking, the members had to work around their personal schedules. The band managed to keep on schedule and only a few extra days had to be added to finish the CD.
When Lokomotiv came in to record their next batch of songs we discussed what kind of sound we were going for the album. Instead of repeating the live sound of the first five songs, we took a different approach to recording all instruments, including vocals, in order to get an "album" sound. We still tracked the drums to tape, but then transferred the tracks to Pro Tools for the remainder of the recording sessions.
Prior to recording the new songs, bass and guitar tracks were rerecorded from the previous sessions. When we recorded the new songs we noticed a big difference in the sound we were getting. We knew that we had work cut out for us when it came to mixing! Recording sound can be very elusive. It is not always easy to replicate guitar sounds, match bass tones, vocals or recapture the sound of a room. There are ways to get a similar sound, but sometimes the best recording sound happens on the first go 'round.
For the new songs we used 13 mics to get the big drum sound! Remember this is a ROCK BAND! Micing included top/bottom snare and three room mics. We were immediately satisfied with the sound. We captured the sound of the drums in a big room. It did help that we had a big room to record in! The bass was both mic'd and DI'd using Danny’s Rickenbacker bass. The guitars were doubled tracked using amps ranging from Mesa Boogie, Fender and Marshall. David played his Gibson Flying V and PRS for most of the tracking. Often there were two amps recording at the same time. The tones from each amp were different enough to give a big guitar spread in the mix.
Once again the band was well rehearsed. Recording the drum tracks took two days for the five new songs. Next came rhythm guitars and bass tracks done over the course of July. Rough mixes were made for Basti so he could prepare for his grueling vocal days. Vocals were doubled tracked and a variety of effects were used to create a vocal sound that went beyond the natural voice sound. Finally the lead guitars were recorded. Most leads were live takes with some punch-ins. On the ballad “Maria Salvacion” an e-bow was used to get a string sound at the end of the song. The layering of guitars and vocals on “Maria” took advantage of all 32 tracks on Pro Tools!
When it came to mixing this time we stuck to Pro Tools format only. The studio has most major plug-ins for Pro Tools (Waves, Antares, Bomb Factory, etc.) for any compression and effects. We focused on one, maybe two songs a session, starting with the straightforward songs and moving on to more complicated ones. "Maria Salvacion" took two sessions to get the mix down. On mixing the earlier songs I was able to recreate the bigger drum sound by some old fashioned studio magic--and not the digital kind! All mixes were scrutinized, digested and given anywhere from 24 hours to two weeks consideration before calling a song "finished"!
Once we got a few songs mixed, Wolf contacted several Mastering Studios to find the best place for their style of music. This was an adventure unto it's self, full of promises over the phone, questionable credentials and phony Gold Records! Ultimately the best mastering place was found and DiscMakers took care of the duplication and packaging. For more information about Locomotiv's CD and gigs go to Locomotiv's website is http://www.lokomotivrocks.com/.
There are Rock 'n' Roll stories about bands taking months--and even years--to record, often the process might be focused on a single song taken to its fullest extent before moving on to the next song. Sometimes songs are written in the studio, especially when the band lacks enough songs for the booked sessions. Having the resources (financial and creative) as well as the ability to create on the spot becomes the order of the day. Personal and professional commitments can make scheduling studio time difficult. Watch the Metallica movie "Some Kind of Monster" to see how those two worlds collide. Locomotiv showed the professionalism and tenacity to make their debut American CD, “Rock n Roll Death Toll” a reality.
