brian deck / reamping mixes / califone

[joninc]

hey guys - i am deep into califone this past 6 months and loving the way their last 4 or so records sound. i re-read the brian deck interview to try and find out more about what he does and it's really brief but they mention reamping mixes through guitar amps to add more air/space etc... this is something i really want to try and mess with.

taking the final mix and processing it through preamps and re-amping in different acoustic spaces and through things which will impart more character to the overall sound. i am starting to hate crystal clean more and more....

i am wondering if anyone knows more about how brian records in general - and also if the reamped signal becomes the new mix or is blended in with the mix and used as a reverb on it??

i would love any ideas on manipulating stuff with reamps and sending mixes through preamps (i have a few nice ones - would i need to place
a reamp before the pre or can i go right into the High Z input out of my consoles main outs??

also i have been listening to stuff tchad blake mixed - the man is a true artist.

[lukievan]

I second the motion for more on Brian Deck and his methods.
Thanks for bringing it up.

[djimbe]

I own the studio where the Califone guys work, and know Brian pretty well. I'll pass along the interest and see if he may respond. I need to talk to him anyway, since he's got my Sherman Filterbank and I'd like it back....

I also did some of the basic tracking on the new Califone record "Roots and Crowns" and know a few things about how the guys work, so if there are particulars you'd like to know about, ask. As far as re-amping on the latest effort, I'll double check with Brian, but my recollection is none was used. I'm also fairly confident in saying the technique hasn't seen heavy use on a Califone project since "Roomsound" (1999), which was the last Califone record Brian worked on before this latest one.

Working with those people is an absolute joy. All 4 of them are hyper creative multi-instrumentalists and they keep you on your toes as an engineer. Plus, they're all great friends. Ben and I have been playing drums together for 28 years...

[centurymantra]

I own the studio where the Califone guys work, and know Brian pretty well. I'll pass along the interest and see if he may respond. I need to talk to him anyway, since he's got my Sherman Filterbank and I'd like it back....

I also did some of the basic tracking on the new Califone record "Roots and Crowns" and know a few things about how the guys work, so if there are particulars you'd like to know about, ask. As far as re-amping on the latest effort, I'll double check with Brian, but my recollection is none was used. I'm also fairly confident in saying the technique hasn't seen heavy use on a Califone project since "Roomsound" (1999), which was the last Califone record Brian worked on before this latest one.

Working with those people is an absolute joy. All 4 of them are hyper creative multi-instrumentalists and they keep you on your toes as an engineer. Plus, they're all great friends. Ben and I have been playing drums together for 28 years...

I'm going to third the motion for info on Brian Deck and/or Califone...both being names I associate with great music. This is quite cool that you worked on those records. I can't say I have specific questions, but any interesting info and stories on working methods would be cool. Maybe I'll pull Roomsound or that EP that came out (the one with Electrical Fence on it...though I might have that song name wrong - still my fav disc of theirs though) so I can come back and say.."man, that guitar on song X! How'd they do it?"

Actually, they do have some cool guitar sounds. I'm actually intrigued by how they combine electronica elements with acoustic instrumentation. Info on how they approach that would be cool.

[djimbe]

Much of the Califone sound is generated by the guys live in the studio. Each one uses a variety of looping pedals and stomp boxes and contact mics to grab sounds and develop loops to play with. Those get recorded and sliced/diced on the computer as desired. I can't stress enough how talented these guys are. I have no idea where some of the sounds come from, or how in paticular they make them. I see the gear on the floor and watch them do their magic with it and it still baffles me. It's all familiarity with their gear and what it can do. Mr. Deck is the same way. He just seems to KNOW how to diddle with a particular computer effect or synth sound and make it the right addition. A large percentage of the crazy electronic stuff starts as a real organic, recorded sound. We have piles of things to hit and more keyboards than we should. Once it's in the computer, pitch shifting and filtering of some sort is what happens most.

The general theory is to record way too much stuff, then start removing tracks or sounds to find the song buried inside. It's a totally non-cost effective way to make a record, which is why we built our own studio. Everyone involved gets a say and a chance to add to the recording, though the guiding vision is generally held by Tim. Recently there's been a fair amount of live tracking, then addition of extra guitar or horns or whatever. The stuff on the new record that I did ("Sunday Noises", "Spider's House", parts of "Pink and Sour", and the last song on the record) were mostly band recordings that were embelished on. "Spiders's House" is a great example. That started as Tim on treated piano, Ben and Joe on drums, and Jim on glockenspiel, all live, no headphones. Jim had a button concertina loop that fit real well so we added that. It built from there. The earlier recordings were the same MO. If you've seen them play live, then you know that they can do a pretty fair emulation of the crazy electronic stuff in real time, because that's often how it was done in the studio to start with.

If it's not recorded as a band, then usually Tim will play the principle part of the song while the others listen. One will say "I got piano part...I'm next". That will prompt someone else to say "I got a horn part" which is followed by "now I got a double...now I got a harmony". Once the ball gets rolling with that sort of tracking, a song builds pretty quick. The same sort of method happens in mix too. It's a lot of fun to be a part of, and I always jump at the chance to help them record when the day job permits. A few weeks ago we were working on a song that built part by part, everyone getting their chance, almost all of it recorded direct in the control room. "Now it's my turn". "O.K. I got a part". "here's a cool sound..." We spent an evening together giggling like little schoolgirls and the finished material was great...

[joninc]

that is fantastic. what a treat to be a part of such a talented ensemble. i love the idea of a band of multi-instrumentalists. the combining and morphing of many personalities into one entity.

the thing with their records is - in many ways they are so organic sounding for such a manipulated process. they sound human and otherworldly at the same time. i saw them a few months back in vancouver as a trio and they were like into a massive crashing rhythmic dinosaur. really a sight to see. and they appeared to be so laid back while all this chaos swirles around them.

back to the recording process...

are the intial instruments tracked with much ambient micing/distance? i wondered if there was a lot of ribbon mics/dynamics and 414's - the sounds are so natural and not really zippy and bright etc... or is that sound just a result of lots of processing and eq/filters?

is tape a big part of the sound? is it tracked and mixed to digital?

so reamping isn't used much or at all on the last 3 or so?

is there any/much manipulation of the printed stereo mix?

more stories!!

[djimbe]

Brian Deck designed our recording space specifically to be open and roomy, with as few of the bad sort of reflections as possible (hence the title "Roomsound" which was the first Califone record done there). It's like a big living room, and using the sonic space is part of what most engineers that work with us like to do. We're lucky...you can put a mic just about anywhere and it'll sound good. Listen to "Roomsound" or "Cradlesnakes" closely (especially some of the more quiet and delicate numbers) and you'll hear the room. It's almost impossible to keep it out of a recording. I think a lot of the re-amping that Brian talked about was a result of the guerilla recording that used to happen. The band moved around to a number of different spaces before we built in '99, and that forced Brian to explore those spaces in inventive ways. Everyone's proficiency with their equipment, and the differing engineers in charge in the past 6 years, have made the re-amping technique just one more small tool to use if needed. It's certainly not one that I make big use of, nor Graeme Gibson (who did "Cradlesnakes"), nor Mike Krassner (who did "Heron King").

Back in the day, the Red Red Meat stuff and the early Califone was all done on 2". Now, not so much. No oxide was molested for the past 2 records that I can recall. Most of it is mixed entirely in the box. Some of it is summed as 8 pairs on a console. I think it is far less manipulated than you might be imagining. More often, what you hear is a few elements that have been severely altered, in amongst a buncha standard recorded tracks. And as I said, many of the more "electronic" sorta sounds happen at the mic. Once it's a stereo mix, it goes to an ME. The guys are very particular about what happens in mastering, and strive for limited processing at that stage. I have unmastered and mastered versions of most of the stuff, and the changes are always positive but subtle.

They are definitely a treat to work with, and have made me a better engineer and musician, just by being around them and trying to keep up. It's a pleasure and an honor to be considered part of their operation...

[joninc]

i think their pre-release for the new record seems to suggest that it is heavily manipulated or something....

?Some of these songs started as hummed melodies into my cell phone recorder while I was driving. Others were triggered by overheard conversations, loops brought in from home, field recordings or sounds we made in the studio before the tape was rolling,? says Rutili. For instance ?Spider?s House? is built on the sound of a piano with duct tape and paper clips all over its wires. ?We took our time to shape and manipulate a more experimental collage of sounds into solid melodies and more concise song structures.?

any insight to mics and front end gear stuff? much compression on some things?

[tommy]

No oxide was molested for the past 2 records that I can recall.

[drumsound]

Hey Djembe,

Thanks for the great information!

I've got a few Jim Becker stories. He and I grew up in the same town and went to the same schools and played in the same baseball league. He's a year or two older than my older brother. I remember him when I was a kid and his band was playing Zeppelin and Sabbath covers with his band.

Then years later when I was in college my brother (The Artist Formerly Known As Vince) and I ran into him at a Dead show at Soldier field. Then we started to see him all over town. He mixed my band a couple years ago at the Hidout.

When my brother bought his two flat he came home one day and Jim was playing acoustic guitar in his backyard. Jim was giving lessons to Vince's tenants.

I'm so happy he's doing so well making good music.

And I loved Red Red Meat so it cool to see Tim R (I'm not going to try to spell it) still making great music. Plus its cool that Brian Deck is still involved too. I always thought the stuff he did at Idful sounded WAAAAAAYYYYYYY better that the guy who became famous out of that room...

OK I"m done babbling...

[djimbe]

Hey Tony, that's great your history with Mr. Becker. He's a prince of a man. He also plays in a band called Paulina Hollers, which is a straight up traditional bluegrass string band. Boy do they smoke!

Idful was an interesting studio. The dramatic change in the neighborhood in the mid '90's (went from crap to too trendy and expensive for words) means that it's long gone. The quadratic diffuser from the back wall of the live room is now in my control room. Our space is as close to similar as Brian could make it, given the differing geometries. Idful was basically 4 guys. When it dissolved, those men went off to found other Chicago places: SOMA, Engine, and ours. Brian started our studio, but hangs his hat at Engine these days.

Joninc, that "tape was rolling" comment is just kinda generic for us. We're old, and we all have a heavy tape based background. I s'pose my "no tape" comment isn't totally accurate, since I think there is some cassette 4 track stuff that made it on the latest record. Tim still does some thinking with that medium. We got no exotic mics or outboard to speak of. About the most expensive thing in the locker is a pair of Coles 4038's. The rest is general stuff like 421's, 414's, a pair of Sony C37FET's...nothing too rare or unusual. Tim's voice is especially hard to record well for some reason. Almost all of the recordings of him are a 57. Sometimes paired with a nicer LDC, but usually just a 57.
Preamps...for the longest time, the only ones in the studio were on our old AMEK Big. That board gets dissed all over the place, but it was the only thing used for "Roomsound" and for the Modest Mouse record "Moon and Antartica". I have nice stuff like API and Ward Beck and old Langevin now, but that equipment is recent and is only represented on this latest record. Even the summing on "Roots and Crowns" happend on that Big. Take that, haters! A talented person CAN make that thing sing...Since he works mostly in the box at our place, Mr. Deck uses plug ins more than outboard compression or 'verb. We have a Summit DCL200 that he likes, and a Lex PCM91. And the Sherman Filterbank. Brian is a master with a Filterbank. Most everything else is Bomb Factory type stuff or the stock Digi plugs. Brian knows how to use them. Again, talent and experience...

[kayagum]

This is a very inspiring thread, especially with the Chicago recording history.... we almost forget that some good albums were recorded in the pre-DAW era.

[tommy]

we almost forget that some good albums were recorded in the pre-DAW era.

I often have to remind myself that good albums are still being recorded today.

[vvv]

Just a shout-out for the ol' Idful, where I was happy to record some tracks with Mr. Deck...

I recall it looking just about like this (without that rug):

[joninc]

thanks for the further info guys!!

i would love to see some pics of the studio to get a sense of the space and size etc...