Audible - Isolette EP

[Jeff White]

http://music.audibleband.com/album/isolette

Been working on this for a while. Some information regarding the recording and mixing can be found in my blog located in my signature. It is free to download for a few weeks and available in FLAC or Apple Lossless.

Let me know what you think! Total DIY in a garage, two basements, and a living room in Philly! We had a lot of fun making this record. These folks are all good friends of mine and I was flattered to be asked to help out. Ex-members of Matt Pond PA, Mazarin, Lefty's Deceiver, The Bigger Lovers, The Future Tips.

Jeff

[bradfromtampa]

I downloaded the ep and have skimmed through it. I like what I've heard.

What are you using as far as gear goes. I'd love to get some sort of mobile recording set up.

[Jeff White]

That EP was made with a combination of Mike's and my gear, plus a bunch of borrowed mics (two 421s, two Coles 4038s, and an RE20), from NFL Films in NJ where Mike works as an engineer.

It was tracked to PT using a Digi-002 clocked to an Apogee Mini-Me. Mic preamps were four Brent Averill 312s, a Sytek with Burr-Browns on 3-4 (actually, we had two of them), and the preamps on the Mini-Me. Overheads were my OktavaMod MK-012s. Mike's guitars were the Coles through the 312s. Not sure about Ed and Jim's guitars, as most of them were tracked in Mike's basement.

On the first four songs, the basics (Steve's drums, Kris' bass, and Mike's guitar) were tracked live. Mike did a few overdubs (essentially doubled). All four songs basics are not edited except for a few bass notes on two songs just to tighten things up. No punches on the live basics. I recorded all of the basics to free the band up, plus Jim and Ed on a few tracks at the garage during the days that we did basics. The bass was recorded with a DI for isolation and later reamped through Kris' bass rig with the Radial X-amp. We placed a dbx 163X post X-Amp (maybe in the bass amp fx loop?). We double-miked the bass cab with the RE20 and my SM7b in order to see which sounded better. We liked the combination, so the record is two tracks of bass using those mics with no DI track.

Synths are Reason (intros), an SK-1, and a Nord Electro 2.

Vocals were tracked entirely using an 1970's Microtech Gefell UM70s. For the first four songs this went through the Mini-Me. On the last song it went through the Sytek's Channel 1.

The last song "Fourteen Weeks" was tracked entirely at my house in both my living room (old metronome, Gibson J45) and my basement studio (vocals). I track to Digital Performer through a Black Lion Modified MOTU 828mk2.

The record was mixed and mastered by Mike and I in Digital Performer at my place.

I'd be more than happy to answer any other questions.

[bradfromtampa]

Iactually got to listen to it some more and really like it. I was wondering if that was a Gibson acoustic on the last song. I recorded someone in my once and they too had a j45 and it seemed to just record itself, probably a combo of the player and guitar.

Not to get too geeky, but what is your normal setup for recording?

[Jeff White]

Here's a little hand held video Ed put together of all of us at WXPN's World Cafe' Studio. Audible was there for a studio session that was broadcast on WXPN's Y-Rock a week ago.

http://vimeo.com/8961873

Some more answers...

Yeah, that was a Gibson J45 in my living room. OktavaMod MK-012 where the neck meets the body.

My normal setup for recording? If I am doing remote work I basically use Digital Performer with a Black Lion 828mk2 for bigger sessions (up to 12 simultaneous tracks) and an Apogee Duet for smaller sessions (1-2 tracks). Everything gets recorded to my Powerbook, which can handle a ton of audio if I don't need any plug-ins. And that's it. I have 12 channels of preamps (Black Lion preamps on the 828mk2, Sytek, modified Presonus MP20, EH 12AY7, PM-1000, dbx 386 via SPDIF). I have decent mic locker and a few extras that I can borrow. I just make it work. I build my own cable now, and that has made a huge difference in sound quality, believe it or not. I also take a pair of monitors with me and use headphones and most importantly my ears.

At home I have a Dual G5 and basically a 600 sq ft basement that is treated with black show drape to deaden the space a bit. I have a Grendel Sound Dead Room II for guitars (that sounds great!), a variety of amps, some outboard stuff (RNC, dbx 163X, Symetrix CL-100, Electrix Filter Factory, Maestro Echoplex EP-3, Alesis Quadraverb plus), and good monitors (NS-10ms, Axiom M3 v2s). I've gotten down to basics.

After working with a few of Mike's bands in the past year (Audible, Future Tips) and being a fan of his other stuff, I have decided that moving forward I have to grab a bunch of 500 series stuff. So that's next. Been saving some cash.

Check out my (geeky!) blog in my signature for more details on stuff that I am currently working on.

[thethingwiththestuff]

Wow dude, fantastic job!

[Jeff White]

Thanks Matt! We need to grab a beer. I'll be at 700 tonight after I spec another recording gig. If you are around it would be great to hang out and catch up.

Jeff

[creeping justin]

hey jeff - really nice job. sounds great. enjoying the blog, too.

justin

[Jeff White]

Philly peeps...Audible is playing at Johnny Brenda's TONIGHT (the 29th) with the Swimmers and East Hundred. I'll be there. Let's have a drink(s).

Justin: How ya been? What's new? Send me a PM and let's hang!

[jgimbel]

Philly peeps...Audible is playing at Johnny Brenda's tomorrow night with the Swimmers and East Hundred. I'll be there. Let's have a drink(s).

I'll be there. I did the album artwork for East Hundred's last two albums, and I actually did photography for Audible when they played The Swimmer's CD release party a while back. Great music from all three bands. I'll be there, it'd be cool to finally meet you.

On another note, I've been waiting to post on this thread to actually have something constructive to say, but I don't have anything. The recordings just sound awesome. I love seeing any time you post about recording in a house in Philly. I don't know many people at all who do recording here other than all the MXL/M-box/ACID users in West Philly, so it's always nice to know another Tape Opper's making music, and good music on top of that. Great recordings, as always. I still have that sample of the Oktavas and I believe an SM7 on kick that you had posted at one point. I LOVE that sound.

[enroper]

Good to hear from some more local people.

wish i could make that show but i have a gig of my own.

east hundred is awesome too, took some photos of them a year or so back ( http://edroper.com/blog/2008/07/27/head ... n-hundred/ )