2nd Song Online - Recording Travel II "The Sanctuary"

Our second song is previewing at 7pm this tonight and its called "Holiday." You can really hear the clickety-clacks of the Japanese Taiko Drum at the opening of it. The sticks used are super thick (almost an inch in diameter) so it really has a unique sound when the drums is hit on the wood rims.

THE RECORDING STUDIO AT HUME
Ingeniously named "Tuneful Yeti Studio at Hume Lake" by TJ Hill, the studio is a converted chapel that was gutted and turned into a commercial studio. Geared up with a control room, huge tracking room, and 3 isolation booths, it has great rooms and great gear. After getting some of the bigger tones from "the cabin," we went here for main drum sets and other additional drums. The sound isolation in the main tracking room really helped me to get the drum tones I was looking for (in the cabin, it was all headphones).

TJ played pretty much everything that made a banging sound. It was genius. We did a lot of extreme stuff here. Miking as far away as we could get (often pointing a mic at the far high point of the A-frame ceiling), other times getting a dry as possible sound for some of the stuff that sounds almost electronic because its so dry and tight. Ben also tracked all the bass tracks here.



THE SANCTUARY


One of the best acoustic environments in all of San Diego. This is the choice place for the San Diego symphony for their concerts with pipe organ. The room is massive. Our pictures and videos don't even capture the breadth of the place. I think a lot of the feeling of "bigness" simply comes from the sound of it. The walls are all brick, and each wall is angled like an accordion. The floors are this beautiful marble, and the pews are wooden without cushions. Sound just fly around and will sustain for several seconds.


Everything we captured there had an enormous sound. So much of what sounds like reverb in mixing is actually a pair of mics picking up the ambience. This was probably the highlight of tracking the album. It was pretty incredible to be in a place where the instrument essential is is a massive sanctuary 100's of feet deep and wide. Sounds became effortless there.





OVERDUBS AND MIXING
All done in my home studio in Oceanside on Pro Tools. Its amazing how important familiarity is. No matter how incredible other studios can be, or what gear they have, I somehow am always relieved to get back to my own studio and listen in an environment that is totally familiar. All the vocals were done here as well as any trinkets, guitars, or keyboards.

Stay tuned next Tuesday at 7pm for another new song, more on the instruments, and other great stuff.