Anatomy of a session in Bogota, Colombia

[sparkyness]

Event ASP 8's!!!!

Hah!....my local weapon of choice here in Dublin when assaulting my ears. I love 'em.

[rwc]

Opening those was the 2nd time I ever laughed out loud looking inside a device.

The first time, being when my coworker opened a pultec that had no solder on a ton of the joints, probably for half a decade at least, that no one ever complained about.

The reason for the laughing at the events: the white resistors on the back of the PCB are kind of hanging off these pads on the board, instead of going through holes or anything.. I've fixed 3 different pairs of events, and every time, it was one of those resistors, one side had come off the board.

Maybe I'm a nerd. It'd be funnier if I had a picture.

[joel hamilton]

Hey Joel, in the videos I noticed the doghouse built around the bass drum and I was wondering, how does that affect the room mic'd sound? I usually get a bunch of the low end from the room mics, if you build a bass drum tunnel does that change the type of sounds your gettign from your room mics for the drums?

Maybe a better question would be; what do you try to capture in the room mics when you track drums?

I doghouse the kick to keep the honky shell sound out of the overheads, more than out of the room. Plenty of the low end of the kick gets in the room mics even with a sweet rainbow sleeping bag laid over the kick. Really it helps keep the snare out of the kick a little bit, also...
the events are just what we had there. borrowed.

[stapes]

glad to hear you could count on the old school stapes down there.

Erik Wofford
Stapes Audio

[joel hamilton]

glad to hear you could count on the old school stapes down there.

Erik Wofford
Stapes Audio

FULLY man. They rocked the house, just like they have every time i have put them up from the very beginning.
They are great microphones. Totally overlooked these days, IMO. If people want some great, musical omni microphones, they really just need to get a pair of the avensons.
Are they still being made?!?

[*cisko*]

Hey Joel its Cisko here, good to see your experience here was a positive one. Although i wasn`t able to be there more, I must say that besides all the recording aspects, wiring problems, etc what impressed me most (besides de ball mic out in the hall) was the approach to the songs and the vibe you set in the studio, although you were working in a bit of a hurry, you set a nice easygoing mood, without losing focus on the music or the work at hand, which to me is the best thing you can have while working on a project.

[joel hamilton]

Hey Joel its Cisko here, good to see your experience here was a positive one. Although i wasn`t able to be there more, I must say that besides all the recording aspects, wiring problems, etc what impressed me most (besides de ball mic out in the hall) was the approach to the songs and the vibe you set in the studio, although you were working in a bit of a hurry, you set a nice easygoing mood, without losing focus on the music or the work at hand, which to me is the best thing you can have while working on a project.

YEAH MAN!!!BOTOX!!! I am so glad someone is representin' for Bogota here now!! glad to see you on the board, and thanks for the kind words.
You really helped make it happen, man.
I hope to see you posting around here more often.
I mean that.

[*cisko*]

Fo` sho!, anyway, i didnt know i was a hip hop guy you borrowed something off of, haha, oh im sorry the events werent to your liking, watching the videos i saw there was so much stuff i missed at the sessions, but i was really impressed with the sonds you got with the minimal gear you had, we have a saying here in colombia " its the indian , not the arrow" and you proved that 100 percent

[joel hamilton]

Fo` sho!, anyway, i didnt know i was a hip hop guy you borrowed something off of, haha, oh im sorry the events werent to your liking, watching the videos i saw there was so much stuff i missed at the sessions, but i was really impressed with the sonds you got with the minimal gear you had, we have a saying here in colombia " its the indian , not the arrow" and you proved that 100 percent

The "hip hop guy" lol...That was confused with Mike, the dude from venezuela that was going to lend us his KRK monitors before you brought over the events. He is in a hip hop group. I dont hate the events, I just dont know what they are telling me. Any monitor is fine if you know them well. That is why every chance I got i listened to some of the stuff I had mixed, so i knew what I was hearing a little better just in time to stop...
I am not kidding that you and "hunk" really made that studio work for me, and I appreciate it so much. Please come visit me in NYC any time, my man. The invite is open to you and Hunk, for real.
Hit me up with the email address i gave you sometime...

[*cisko*]

in terms of musicianship and composition, did you thnk you had to work hard to get the sound and over all feel of the songs that you needed or did you think that the guys were able to deiver spot on when ever you told them?

[*cisko*]

oh right, forgto to ask, what did you prefer in terms of the different pres that were avialable, meaning why did you never use the solo 610, or the ssl, as opposed to using my isa 428, or the quad eight

[joel hamilton]

oh right, forgto to ask, what did you prefer in terms of the different pres that were avialable, meaning why did you never use the solo 610, or the ssl, as opposed to using my isa 428, or the quad eight

I was appreciative of all the pieces of gear that were made available to me for that session, man. The choice was simple with the SSL pre's: the phantom power was busted on them and I needed it for the condensers I had set up.
The quad 8 strips worked really well, and the focusrite thingies you had there, the 428, that thing did WAY better than I thought it would for the drums. that was the kick/snare top, T1 and T2. All the close mics on the drums were the focusrite.
Where was the solo 610? I am not a big fan of those, but i would have used it. I was also really surprised at how well the liquid pre did. That worked really well for the OH and one of the room mics. I had it on "vintage british" or something like that because i liked those sounds from the liquid channel I first reviewed for TapeOp when it first came out years ago.

in terms of musicianship and composition, did you thnk you had to work hard to get the sound and over all feel of the songs that you needed or did you think that the guys were able to deiver spot on when ever you told them?

The guys are really talented. The drummer/s totally kicked ass, and Javi and Camilo did really, really well also. The most important thing to me is if the people feel like they can do their best in a given situation.. way more than what pre i am using.. and we were genuuinely having fun and making good sounds happen with what we had, time/gear/energy wise.
There are some things I will re-do back here in NYC with the guys, but for the most part, the stuff we got going on there is totally killer. Listening to the ruff mixes is a pleasure, because the energy of the session comes through the speakers for me, and I think it is going to translate to something people want to listen to again and again... which is the idea, right!?!?

[*cisko*]

awesome, listening back to thse ruff mixes, you can hear how excited they really were of the the work being done, i really like the turn the songs took, since they have been playing around with them for a while now, so its cool to hear how organic they sound compared to what they did for their first album which was filled with loops and heaps and heaps of different percussin parts. i love the simplicity of the new songs, but i guess we still have to listen to the finished product, and actually I cant wait!

[joel hamilton]

awesome, listening back to thse ruff mixes, you can hear how excited they really were of the the work being done, i really like the turn the songs took, since they have been playing around with them for a while now, so its cool to hear how organic they sound compared to what they did for their first album which was filled with loops and heaps and heaps of different percussin parts. i love the simplicity of the new songs, but i guess we still have to listen to the finished product, and actually I cant wait!

Kind words, my man.
The guys will be here in Brooklyn with me January, as you know. Too bad you cant come up at the same time!!!

[juliansilvaOnAir]

Joel, i can only echo those around me - thanks for sharing this. I'm inspired by the idea of being able to utilise disparate and imperfect materials where it really matters, and when time and money is pressing. I also enjoy the fact that an experienced professional can still be thrown in at the deep end, and make it work!

It's too much to hope for that there would be someone from the Columbian recording community here, right?!

I'm from Colombia, and i knew Joel was going to go before he did, because I have been friends with Diva Gash since 1998, i was their sound guy for a long time, in fact, Javier became their bass player because my girlfriend at the time was friends with Camilo and Yeyo, the now departed Keys player. It was a gas, and i hear Joel, you truly have to be the wizard there, the information and education about the science of recording is close to minimal, in terms of the physics, the stuff that you actually need... i can go on and on. I started mixing live on a mackie 24-8 and EAW speakers, then my boss left and i had to work withe everything from Allen and Heath, to Peaveys XR-600, JBL speakers to hand made speakers, to Yorkville, Crown amps to hand made amps too... the list goes on. I identify with Joel trying to make the hodgepodge work! i was there, (in the situation and in the city) a lot!




i have another post here, but i'll say again that i opened my mastering studio, www.onairmastering.com. Everybody is welcome, and kudos to Joel for being brave and not letting the common "Colombia is dangerous" knowledge scare him! I'm going december 28, and i know i will have a great time!. Those Plates of food are NO JOKE. you leave the place feeling happy, guilty, sleepy... they're good for 3 people!

Julian Silva