Bristol Rocks will be covering the recording of AFGM's new album. We hope to feature some of the tracks at various stages of recording and mixing.
 

AFGM – The album Blog – Just About Finished!

It’s been a while since the last blog and a lot of work has been completed: 49 iterations of mixes and 21 iterations  of Mastering! Mixing is, of course, vital and with 14 tracks a lot of changes – big and small – have been made. This has also required re-recording a few instrument or vocal tracks as the final sound emerged. Perhaps, the best bit of advice to pass on is “don’t be impatient”. It’s remarkable how much a perception of a mix can change over a few days and especially when you listen to it on different audio systems. Of course, you can take it too far and even undo some of your good work so keep your backups.  

Technically, each song was bounced to a 24bit stereo track with a minimum of EQ on the output. Very little overall compression and limiting (none on this album) was used on the Master output and the ‘volume’ level was set such that the dynamics were preserved without distortion. You can get some idea of what the eventual song will sound like by slapping some limiting, reverb and compression but at this stage you want to pass a good ‘sonic file’ to the Mastering process. 

Each song in its 24 bit format can now be mastered. Mastering can make or break a song and it’s too easy to go ‘over the top’. Mastering is the process of subjecting the whole song to filtering (e.g. multi-band EQ, limiting, compression, frequency enhancement, stereo imaging) and volume changes prior to the song being recorded (bounced) to a 16bit CD compatible format. A good quality limiter is really essential to give you that full sound with a volume comparable to ‘professional’ commercial recordings.  For this album all of the above (and a few more!) were employed. Once mastered tracks have been assembled you will have to listen to relative volumes between tracks. Again – don’t just rely on the meters – use your ears. 

So now we are at the stage of thinking about the order of the tracks – there is overall agreement but a bit of ‘tweaking’ will no doubt need to be done to achieve a compromise. Our dear old drummer Mike, who died in August 2008, always made the point that “one man’s meat was another’s poison”. So we can’t please everyone and shouldn’t try.  

Without sounding too pretentious, The name of the album has been agreed: “The River” which reflects the flow of feelings common to us all – those things which help define us and shape us as human beings. The album has been a labour of love and has taken some two and a half years to complete and countless thousands of man-hours dedicated to it. We expect that the album will be released in March or April and downloadable from iTunes, Napster and other MP3 sites in May. We are now working on final drafts of the artwork and CD design. 

We hope this blog has been of some use to you and, of course, we hope you will enjoy the result. AFGM

AFGM are now at the ‘tweaking’ stage with their new album having recorded a good proportion of the necessary tracks. I was invited to their studio to listen to the rough mixed tracks and talk about the method used for getting the distinctive AFGM sound. The studio is Pro-Tools based and the tracks are recorded in the old fashioned way in that they are not time code based so cutting and pasting is not generally used. The songs exist before they are recorded so once again AFGM use the old fashioned (and best) method of writing, rehearsing and finally recording. The first recording session consists of laying down rhythm track of drums, bass, guitar, guide vocals and sometimes keys. Chris Melhuish told me that the addition of the Roland electronic drum kit has made a huge difference to the sound and makes recording the drums a doddle compared to an analogue kit – but you still need a good drummer who can adapt to the ‘new’ instrument with it’s little quirks – AFGM is fortunate to have Mike Dawe in that department. Once the rhythm track is recorded it is likely that only the drum track will be retained and the other instruments will be recorded separately to get the best sound. With the electronic drum kit recorded as both wave files and MIDI, it is possible to get a near perfect drum sound by changing kit sounds to suit the mood of the song at any stage. Tim Martin’s bass guitar is recorded direct and software plug-ins used to enhance the sound. Guitars and keyboard are mostly pre-processed with plug ins added if necessary.

Chris demonstrated some of the techniques used to create the excellent AFGM sound and what really matters here is attention to detail. Chris showed me how, for example, a rich keyboard sound is created by adding one or more keyboard sounds in the background (all playing the same thing) and although the listener is not aware of this, the overall quality of the sound is reduced when these extra tracks are switched off. The other detail that is important when this quality of production is required is to make the lead in & out of different song parts as smooth as possible. This is done by the use of linking separate parts with smooth phrases that lead in and out of the section. It is difficult to describe these linking phrases, but they most certainly apparent especially when you take them out of the mix.

The vocals are recorded after the instrumentation and the band are lucky to have a vocalist of the quality of John Telfer, but even John’s vocal track needs manual compression using the wave form to reduce the peaks. AFGM have two backing singers and the tracks had some trial backing on but there is still work to be done and I look forward to hearing the next stage when the girls have recorded their parts.

So what about the tracks? Well some of the tracks are quite similar in style to the last album, but AFGM have some most excellent surprises in store for your lugholes with a style development that you will find both surprising and satisfying. I am not letting any secrets out but be prepared for something different and refreshing when the album is released later this year.

Mike tries out his new recording kit

We have, in the past, used many acoustic kits in numerous recording studios but we have been very impressed with recent developments in digital drum technology; opportunities for experimenting here! So, unlike all our previous albums this one may eventually feature digital drums. Mike used a digital Roland TD20 drum kit, which generated 2 stereo and 8 mono audio outputs as well as an extra midi track, which will be used with BFD later during mixing sessions. BFD is an interesting Plug-in – you send it a midi recording and it gives you separate audio drum sounds – a drummer’s pic’n’mix delight.

The other recorded scaffolding tracks to be replaced were guitar (PRS with a JMP1), bass (Fender DI) and keyboards (Roland/Korg).  We also recorded a single guide vocal track – very much a guide track, as John is just recovering from Laryngitis!

In a month or so we will have another session but in the mean time we will begin the process of augmenting today’s material.

Since the studio work in August we have been busy with a mini-tour with Wishbone Ash and rehearsing with two talented female backing vocalists; certainly to be included on the album and at some gigs next year. With luck they will be on stage with us when we play the Fleece and Firkin in March 2007 and perhaps also on some of the Wishbone Ash Spring Tour - dates are still being arranged. 

Since August we have spent a lot of time on ‘Love Songs’ trying to blend various sounds and counter-melodies particularly in the instrumental bridges; there are no rules but you know when it sounds right. This has involved us in lots of experimenting and God knows how many ‘takes’. We have also had to contend with a major upgrading to the band’s recording facilities too – there is no good time to rip out bundles of cables! 

So we are looking forward to a break at Christmas and then expect to be cracking on January. We will be looking at how to use a TD20 with BFD for recording drums sounds – more to report then - 

AFGM Album Recording as of August 2006

2. At INFAR studio the bulk of the recording will then be carried out. This is likely to include some drum augmentation with a  Roland TD20

3. Initial Mastering at INFAR

4. Final Mastering (which may include tape compression)

Recording Drum Tracks: August 2006

Mackeys Studio in Bristol was selected for the recording of the drum track. Work started on Thursday 24^th with AFGM’s drummer Mike setting up his Tama kit with Studio Engineer Dave MacMullan and assistant Charlie. The point of the exercise is to record the best sound from kit without the use of EQ, compression and effects; that’s for later. The trick is in the microphone placement. This stage took them about 4 hours.

The next day the rest of the band arrive and set up. For this session all instruments (bass, keys and guitar) are DI’d (direct input – ie no amplifers). This tends to disadvantage guitar recording but for us its fine – we expect to replace all the tracks except the drums at later sessions. However, it turns out that Tim played a ‘blinder’ on a few tracks and it’s likely that these tracks will be retained. One guide vocal was recorded too. A good tip if you are recording other tracks at a later time is to ensure that you have enough ‘lead in’ – we often use a count of 8 –this tends to settle the speed and makes it easier to hit that first beat on time.

In the morning session we recorded ‘Love Songs’, ‘Runaway’, ‘Thank You’ and ‘Pictures’. ‘Lose you’ and ‘Everybody knows’ were soon finished off after lunch. This completed the list of songs for the first session. However, as we were ‘on a roll’ we thought it worth recording a song which has not yet ventured outside the rehearsal room; all things considered, it may prove to be winner. The session finished with ‘November Nights’, a favourite at our live shows but we we’ve never been sure it would make it to an album; we’ll see.

….. and here’s some technical information about recording drums from Dave MacMullan, Studio Engineer at MacKeysMusic Ltd.

The day before the band were due to record, I arranged with Mike, the drummer, to come in to the studio (www.mackeysmusic.co.uk) and set up his kit. The drum booth has a great sound but is a bit small so I knew it would take some time to get the drums miked. Mike set up the kit and being the perfectionist he is, tuned it perfectly. It's very important when miking a drum kit to make sure that you know what it sounds like acoustically. I listened to Mike play for a while and told him to take a break for an hour or so while Charlie, my assistant, and I got to work.

Previous to running a studio, I spent a lot of time touring with major acts. Believe it or not, one of the most important things on a live stage is tidiness, so I am used to making sure that bundles of cables are not seen. When setting up nine mics in a small room around a drum kit it's amazing how quickly you can end up with a huge tangle of cables, so it is essential to keep the cables neat and out of the way of the drummer. It's also important when setting up the mics to ensure that they don't get in the drummers way, not only for his sake but also to stop him from bashing your expensive mics!