In early October, The Timeline Post rented Busy Box Studios for three days. We needed to track drums and guitars for the upcoming album. We had recorded these instruments before, but felt that our tracks were sub par. The only way to get better recordings was to find high-end gear in a large, well-tuned room. So, we setup up at The Busy Box and recorded around 30 hours. I engineered the sessions, and since I am the drummer, Stephen Hudson was the assistant engineer during drum takes.
We tracked using Pearl Exports, not high end by any means. With fresh drum heads and a decisive approach to tuning, most drums will sound great recorded. We used a fairly standard microphone setup and I enjoyed the ability to use preamps from an API 3124, Chandler TG-2, and the Presonus Digimax. For AD conversion we used an Lynx Aurora 16 going into Pro Tools HD. For a full gear list, visit Stephen’s site.
With guitars, we have had trouble with intonation due to the use of an odd C tuning. So, Stephen setup his G&L Asat for us and we found that the Fender Telecaster could not be tuned that low and stay intonated. The G&L was then plugged in to a VOX AC30 and miked by a Sennheiser 421, Cascade Fathead, and Red R7 on an AKG 451 body. With the API’s, Chandlers, and my American Concertone serving as preamps, we achieved the tone we had been seeking. We dialed back the distortion somewhat on a few tracks, and found it satisfying.
