recording sessions
Köln rehearsal recordings online
25/03/11 14:22
Recordings of our rehearsals for the Köln Loopfest are now online
on our SoundCloud page.
This is the last, and is pretty representative of what you might hear next Saturday:
cologne2011 rehearsal2 listen4 by darkroom
Os, March 2011
This is the last, and is pretty representative of what you might hear next Saturday:
cologne2011 rehearsal2 listen4 by darkroom
Os, March 2011
Unexpected drum recording
09/11/10 20:56
A very long time since the last blog entry - you
would be forgiven for thinking that all was quiet
here in the Darkroom. No so - things have been
chugging along behind the scenes, though slower than
usual, mostly due to me devoting a huge amount of my
time to recent developments at Expert Sleepers.
Since I last posted, work on the new album has continued, and we also undertook a rather unusual project which has resulted in a single release and couple of videos - more on that later.
Here I wanted to post some photos of a recent recording session for the new album. Until a few weeks ago it was a thoroughly electronic affair, but after putting together the almost-final sequence of the album we decided that two tracks (the first and the last, oddly) needed some ‘real drums’. So we roped in long-time Improvizone collaborator (and Some Of These Numbers Mean Something contributor) Andrew Booker for a recording session at London’s Bally Studios.
The Flickr set is here.
Andy was playing his beautifully refurbished 60’s Ludwig kit.
Microphones used: Rode NT-2-A, Rode NT-1, Yoga BM-38 PZM, AKG C1000, Audio Technica AT4033a
Recorded through my trusty Metric Halo Mobile I/O 2882.
Os, November 2010
Since I last posted, work on the new album has continued, and we also undertook a rather unusual project which has resulted in a single release and couple of videos - more on that later.
Here I wanted to post some photos of a recent recording session for the new album. Until a few weeks ago it was a thoroughly electronic affair, but after putting together the almost-final sequence of the album we decided that two tracks (the first and the last, oddly) needed some ‘real drums’. So we roped in long-time Improvizone collaborator (and Some Of These Numbers Mean Something contributor) Andrew Booker for a recording session at London’s Bally Studios.
The Flickr set is here.
Andy was playing his beautifully refurbished 60’s Ludwig kit.
Microphones used: Rode NT-2-A, Rode NT-1, Yoga BM-38 PZM, AKG C1000, Audio Technica AT4033a
Recorded through my trusty Metric Halo Mobile I/O 2882.
Os, November 2010
Random updates
27/11/09 15:12
It's been quiet here on the blog for a while, but
stuff is going on behind the scenes.
A couple of podcast updates have gone out, largely based on the ever-growing Darkroom modular synth. Check them out if you've not already - they offer some clues as to where you can expect the next album to be going.
Also, on November 4th & 25th we indulged in a substantial amount of recording. Largely bass on the 4th, and all guitar on the 25th. For the gearheads - Mike used a Harley Benton GA5 head & some nameless old cab, mic'd up with an SM57 and the previously blogged T.Bone ribbon. Pedals included the Space Echo, a tremolo, a phaser and any number of random fuzzes (often two at once).
There's a good feeling in the Darkroom about this new album right now. To me it somehow feels more 'grown up' than anything we've done before. Definitely a progression from the last one, & we're still pretty chuffed with that.
Os, November 2009
A couple of podcast updates have gone out, largely based on the ever-growing Darkroom modular synth. Check them out if you've not already - they offer some clues as to where you can expect the next album to be going.
Also, on November 4th & 25th we indulged in a substantial amount of recording. Largely bass on the 4th, and all guitar on the 25th. For the gearheads - Mike used a Harley Benton GA5 head & some nameless old cab, mic'd up with an SM57 and the previously blogged T.Bone ribbon. Pedals included the Space Echo, a tremolo, a phaser and any number of random fuzzes (often two at once).
There's a good feeling in the Darkroom about this new album right now. To me it somehow feels more 'grown up' than anything we've done before. Definitely a progression from the last one, & we're still pretty chuffed with that.
Os, November 2009
The orange amp
06/05/09 17:00
First, we used Mike's lovely old Marshall amp (pictured), which I'm particularly fond of simply because it's orange. As I recall, this was the amp that gave us the feedback sounds on Mercury Shuffle (on the last album, Some Of These Numbers Mean Something). This time it gave us some more screaming feedback, which was nice but not why we plugged it in, and some eerie slide guitar parts for an otherwise entirely synth-based piece (a rarity for Darkroom).
Secondly, we tested out another new plug-in that I'm writing. More on that later. For now, know that it sounded awesome and we pretty much wrote a track on the spot based on its sound.
Os, May 2009
The start of a new project
19/02/09 22:10
You can see the amp rig in the photo - my trusty Rode NT-2A mic, Mike's extremely heavy Rivera combo being used as the cab, and the rather wonderful (and wonderfully inexpensive) Harley Benton GA5H all-tube head.
Os, Feb 2009
Cheap Chinese mics 'r' us
11/06/08 19:46
14th May 2008 - the second 'audit' session for the
new album, and time for a few overdubs. One track
only needed a little extra guitar (it must've only
had, like, 10 guitar parts at that point).
Mike had a new cheapo Chinese ribbon mic he wanted to try out - the T.BONE RM700. It's an odd looking thing - like a big metal lollipop. We stuck it in front of Mike's awesome Rivera amp and cranked it up.
The sound is - interesting. Makes things sound a bit old and knackered. Also it turns out there was a nasty resonant buzz on something - maybe the mic, maybe the cab - but fortunately we recorded a DI signal too. You should still be able to hear some of the buzz on the album, where we felt it was tasteful rather than annoying.
os, June 2008
Mike had a new cheapo Chinese ribbon mic he wanted to try out - the T.BONE RM700. It's an odd looking thing - like a big metal lollipop. We stuck it in front of Mike's awesome Rivera amp and cranked it up.
The sound is - interesting. Makes things sound a bit old and knackered. Also it turns out there was a nasty resonant buzz on something - maybe the mic, maybe the cab - but fortunately we recorded a DI signal too. You should still be able to hear some of the buzz on the album, where we felt it was tasteful rather than annoying.
os, June 2008
Drums!
09/05/08 18:12
16th April 2008 saw an unusual (though not unique)
event in the Darkroom calendar - a drum recording
session. I'd identified a need for some proper,
acoustic drums (you know, real things that a real
person is beating hell out of, rather than something
programmed) on the new album, so we enlisted the fine
drummer that is Andrew Booker to help us out. (We've
performed with Andy many times recently, both at the
Improvizone gigs and the
Darkroom one-off at the Green Dragon
recently.)
Andy did us proud, recording some excellent
grooves for about half a dozen tracks.
For the gear-heads reading: we used four mics in total. Andy's Blue Ball was in the kick drum. The snare was covered by a dynamic mic of some sort, which I think was the rehearsal room's. Probably an SM-57. We had one half of a matched pair of Rode NT5s as a close-ish overhead, somewhere over the hi-hat. For some reason we didn't use the other one of the pair. Finally we had my trusty Rode NT2-A as an other-side-of-the-room overhead-cum-everything mic. We've been able to get a very nice sound in the mix from this, somewhat random and thrown-together, selection.
os, May 2008
For the gear-heads reading: we used four mics in total. Andy's Blue Ball was in the kick drum. The snare was covered by a dynamic mic of some sort, which I think was the rehearsal room's. Probably an SM-57. We had one half of a matched pair of Rode NT5s as a close-ish overhead, somewhere over the hi-hat. For some reason we didn't use the other one of the pair. Finally we had my trusty Rode NT2-A as an other-side-of-the-room overhead-cum-everything mic. We've been able to get a very nice sound in the mix from this, somewhat random and thrown-together, selection.
os, May 2008
The return of the JamMan
21/03/08 17:59
This is a slightly belated report of a Darkroom
recording session that happened on 17th Feb. We were
continuing work on the "long awaited" (tm) new album.
I had prepared an unusually large amount of
keyboard parts for Mike to play over, so I just sat
back and let Mike play this time. We mic'd up a cab
driven by a lovely old amp that Mike keeps in his
basement. Not least among its features are the rather
nice backlit controls - leading us to ignore the
music for a bit and have fun taking photos of it in
the dark.
This was the session I finally persuaded Mike
to break out the legendary combination of Lexicon
JamMan and Vortex, which pair formed the basis of the
Darkroom sound for some time - until I started doing
all the looping in the laptop. It was well worth the
effort, as you'll hear when this material ever sees
light of day.
More photos here.
os, March 2008
More photos here.
os, March 2008
The return of the Space Echo
12/02/08 01:50
Another recording session for the new album the other
day. Unexpectedly productive - by means of recording
some long improvisations from Mike, we ended up with
the basis of at least three tracks, I'd say. Never
mind that Mike ended up playing in a totally
different key to the backing track that we were
supposed to be overdubbing on.
As is becoming traditional, here's a photo of
Mike's pedal selection for this occasion.
There was a new toy this time - in celebration
of our recent BBC gig Mike had splashed out on the
new Space Echo re-issue. It has
an interesting sound - it's supposed to be an
accurate recreation of the vintage Space Echo,
but not having used one I couldn't say. It
sounded a little digital to me. It also has a
slightly redundant Knight Rider-eque red light
on the front, which is probably supposed to
indicate the progress of the 'tape', but wasn't
obviously useful.
We also tried mic'ing up the fretboard of a fretless bass (do fretless basses have fretboards?). If that's useful, which it may not be, it will be for a Talk Talk-style "record a string quartet and only keep the sound of someone dropping his bow" effect.
os, Feb 2008
We also tried mic'ing up the fretboard of a fretless bass (do fretless basses have fretboards?). If that's useful, which it may not be, it will be for a Talk Talk-style "record a string quartet and only keep the sound of someone dropping his bow" effect.
os, Feb 2008
Recording for TV
08/01/08 12:59
On Sunday (6/1/2008) Mike & I did some recording for some music we've been asked to provide for a TV show. More details later, when we can reveal what show it is.
It was a slightly hectic session, as we had to record in about 4 hours all of Mike's parts for some fairly varied pieces. (Not to mention actually coming up with the music too!) The bonus side was that, unrestrained by any consideration of portability or live robustness, Mike was able to get out a lot more pedals than usual.
More on this later. There should be a web-viewable version of the final TV piece, and the music will most likely make it out on our podcast.
os, Jan 2008