Producing Walker Bradley
Saturday morning we stepped into Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA to track drums, bass and electric guitar for Walker’s song, “Walls.” I was excited to have Ben Hackett back engineering another one of my sessions and we were fortunate to have Colin Stevens joining us assisting the session. Ben is a “fix it in the mic or mic position” engineer, which I love! Getting it captured correctly at the source AND gain staging it properly is really important and sets the mix engineer (me) up for even better success comes mix time. Ben works really efficiently, he’s organized with his labeling (also setting me up for success) and is a total team player which is so important in the studio.
As you might know from my previous blog, I create a spreadsheet input list for every session I do (download a blank copy of my input list to use for your sessions here). This is something I’ve been doing as a way to save time during setup and keep a record of the way the song was recorded. One other thing it does that I enjoy is it creates a conversation between me and Ben as a way to talk through what I was thinking as far as the sonic characteristics I’d like to capture and open the door for Ben to make suggestions based on the song we’re tracking and my descriptions of the way Walker and I would like the source to sound. Even as a producer I think it’s incredibly important to not only hire team players but to be a team player yourself. When you hire talented people that you trust it elevates the song.
On the note of hiring talented people, I was really excited that Walker brought in Grayson Wright to lay down drums and Jonathan Shatto to track bass. I was also excited to track our rhythm section at the same time. Now this did mean more time spent setting up before we could be in the red but I think was worth it! There was a quick chemistry between Grayson and Jonathan. They were total pros and knocked their parts out before lunch.
The recording process is always full of surprises. This session I had planned to have our drum overheads be Coles 4038 but one of the studios Coles had an issue prior to our session and was down for the count so we had to switch things up. Now as you likely know the Coles are warm and full-bodied which is what I was originally envisioning for the overhead tones BUT Ben and I jumped into the live room to strike the set up and figure out a new plan! Ben suggested using the pair of Lawson 251 mics. Neither he or I had used them on drum overheads before BUT we were willing to audition them. We set them up, measured them both 38.5” from the snare and headed into the control room to check how they were sounding!
Just wow, those mics were the perfect fit! They were really natural and open sounding. So even though they were sonically significantly different from the Coles, they were perfect for the track. At the end of the day, that’s what I want. I want to be walking out of the studio with files in my hand that serve the song!
We loved the sound of the 251’s but both Ben and I felt like we were getting too much of the room in our overhead mics. So we added in the panels atop our side gobos and that help tighten up the overheads. I also felt like when we tightened up the overheads it allowed us to better use the room mics more for an overall drum sound and use the overhead mics for bringing clarity to the cymbals.
There were two other stand out mics that we used for the drums. On my input list I had left the snare bottom slot empty and when Ben saw that he quickly suggested that we use a lav mic. That was a first for me but it won’t be the last! It was pleasantly bright, open and snappy. The second stand out mic was our trash mic. We used an EV 635 and this time placed it on the floor under the snare aimed at the kick pedal. We ran it through the CBS Audimax compressor and blended it lightly to taste. It was crunchy, hairy and it added a nice attack/slight bite to the drums!
Here’s a quick list of the mics we used on these drums.
Kick In: ATM25
Kick Out: Lawson FET 47
Snare Top: Sennheiser 441
Snare Bottom: Lav Mic
Toms: Josephson E22
High Hat: Josephson C42
Overhead L & R: Lawson 251
Mono Overhead: Coles 4038
Heart: Beyerdynamic M88
Trash Mic: EV 635
Room Mic: AEA R88
Far Room Mics: Earthworks TC 30k
Our bass set up sounded really great. We tracked 3 channels for Jonathan’s bass. He sent us a clean signal from his Nobles Tube DI, a “wet” signal from his pedals, and we sent a signal to an old Ampeg SVT Tube amp mic’d up with an Soyuz Bomblet which added a really nice grit and body to the bass track. Come mix time I anticipate brining in the amp signal and/or the affected channel in on the choruses or big sections of the song!
After lunch we did a quick overdub of some cymbal swells and then jumped into tracking electric guitar! We tracked Walker’s electric parts through my trusty Matchless SC30 and his BadCat Couger 15. The amps were similar BUT were different enough that we ran them in stereo which sounded really big. Walker had done a really awesome job arranging all his lead & rhythm parts and we were able to throw down all the parts in an hour and a half. I’m excited to wrap up the production of this song and jump into the mix!
If you have any questions feel free to ask them below or shoot me a DM on Instagram @briandanehansen
Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Recording!