Hayley Is A Hitman

Hayley Is A Hitman

Being a project that took its time i will be braking this one up into two posts. The first will deal with the recording session and the later the mixing and after events.

I discoverd this band in its infermacy when the drummer who i went to school with had asked me to "like" them. Following on from this i offered to record them once they where up and running. The dates where picked and booked and i was getting in for what would be my first solo session with just me and the band.

Starting early and schiving the days lectures we started what turned out to be a 20 hour recording session spread across 2 days. 

Set up:

Drums:

Kick: EV re20 placed in the middle of the kick drum (left the skin on whoops!)

+ a sm57 on the front skin for some click 

Snare: beyer m201 top & Sm57 bottom 

Toms: sm57s

Hi hat:  errrr cant actually remember, possibly a Earthworks sr30 or akg c451b

Overheads: or should i say front facing microphones \/ \/

Intresting note on overheads. I used a spaced pair of AKG c414s facing the kit from the front around 5 feet in the air. Esentialy if i was stood facing the kit from in front. This worked well for picking up the cymbals while reducing the sound of the snare and toms. (picked up some extra kick which was EQ' ed out) I have yet to try this again but really should as i liked it :)

Bass:

Di bix

Guitar

Line 6 pod

Trying to keep things live and full of energy and with the lack of experience i had at this point, i started out trying to record the band as a live unit. This FAILED. Instead we resorted to tracking with a click which also didn't work :L. After tricking the drummer into thinking he was practising i got a take sneakily, the rest where tracked with the garage band original demo. Having the guirist in the control room semmed to make for un comfortable session he may as well just have recorded it haha.

DISASTER!!!

Should really have learnt to save my work, pro tools crashed :( :(. Ahh well, after the break we took it was decided we should start again as we were not happy with what had been recorded.

( Luckily for me !)

Moving on...

Tracking guitars was effortless as jon the guitarist was tight as hell and nailed most takes first time round. Ben the bassist was a little slacker but got it down no real problem.

Second day!

Having finished most of the instumental tracking we packed up the kit and proceded to do vocals. From this early stage i decided scraping condensors for all those nasty growls and scream and choose a good old dynamic. Using 2 microphones again , the Shure sm57 and shure sm7b. The SM 7b was the same microphone used on thriller. I still love using this microphone for its clairty and high SPL. It just takes screams and/or dirty vocals very nicely.

Taking on the role as more of producer i began to add those little details only a studio recording could do. We recorded some glass bottles for the first number along with some cans opening ( I should add the can opening was perfect, probaly should sell the sample :L ). The second song also had some treatment with some gang vocals recorded for it in the corridor outside the studio using microphones at either end. This didn't really work despite good intentions. I tailored some of the backing screams as well to what i thought would suit as well as some minor adjustments. As one last cool effect we sampled a floor tom for reversing later (Cant even rember what for!)

Being slightly under prepared and leaving it late we still had synths to add. Leaving jon to play with pro tools and its amazing choice of synths ( ahhhmmmm) we eventually just gave up with the idea and opted for the original samples used in garage band. 

Taken From Facebook

20 hours in the studio, (17 hours in the ridiculous heat before finding the fucking a/c switch)
13 Can's of monster,
4 Budweiser's,
2 Guinness's,
 3/4 a bottle of Jagameister
7 liters of water,
3 meat pasty's,
1023 Gay reference's,

2 nan breads,

1 byriami,

2 bowls of rice,

1 pack of crisps,

1 ridiculous baguette that Sam made,

1 girly vegy mcdonnads burger, (eaten by mark of course
)
1 big mac,

1 mcdonalds burger,

2 dulux quater pounders,

Hundreds of comments making fun of Mark,

4 cookies,

2 packs of quavers,

APX 10 KM of walking,

And we recorded 3 songs. :)
 

Should some that up well.

Part 2 to follow!