Prog rock inspired composition

Date: 21/2/10
Duration: 6hrs


Being a fan of many progressive rock/metal bands, I felt I should compose something in the particular musical style of the genre. The composition I recorded here were inspired by bands like 'God speed you Black emperor!', 'Tool', 'Russian Circle' and 'Sigur Ros'.
One of the most important thing I wanted to get right in the recording was that of the snare drum. I wanted a particular sound for the snare which will be the backbone for the rhythm. I usually tune my snare tight for the 'snap' sound but I wanted for this recording something more loose and with more snare wires captured. So I when about recording the snare drum completely separately from the drum kit for maximum control during mixing

Great care was taken to insure the snare was tuned 'right' for this particular composition

Both batter and resonant heads were miked using dynamic microphones. I experimented with mic 
positions and angles to achieve the sound I wanted

I also used a AKG condenser microphone positioned above to capture the 'overall' sound of the snare drum. I always found the overhead mics to capture the 'snare' sound better than the resonant mics do in the past.


Before I laid down the guitars I had to make sure the snare sounded the way I wanted, then I made sure the bottom skin (resonant) signal was phase reversed so it won't cancel out with the signal from the batter head.

Phase invert switch is turned on to stop the two signals canceling each other out

After I was happy with the sound of my snare drum, I went about recording the guitar. I had a basic idea of what I was playing but I always like to experiment and create new ideas on the spot, playing over some drums. 

I recorded the guitars using the Line 6 pro xt originally for jotting ideas down then I re-recorded the parts running through a valve amp for more authentic sound.

After the guitar recording I encountered couple of problematic transients that refused to go away (even after several takes). So I decided to tame it using volume automation but ultimately I was unhappy with the result (the ducking of level was just too obvious) so I used a compressor emulation and some EQ to even things out and finally I was happy with the result.

Automation failed to tame the troublesome transients in the guitar recording

Using the compressor emulation of the Focusrite liquid mix I was finally able to tame the transients but also make the result musical and pleasing

Surprisingly I hardly needed to use EQ or any other shape shifting effects to make my recordings sit together in the mix. The snare drum in the recording hasn't had any eq or compression applied but I was totally happy with the result (especially at the beginning). Later on when rest of the drumkit is applied to the mix the necessary highs and lows cut were applied but I was happy with the way it all came together.

I was amazed to find out how much preparation before recording (ie tuning, mic position etc) can drastically affect the recording quality. In the past there were many occasions where I was unhappy with particular sound of the drum (eg kick drum) but instead of re-recording with a different technique I would over-dub using samples to get the sound I want. Although this is a useful technique and is relatively flexible, the overall quality of the recording is only as good as the original source. This composition has taught me that I should be more considerate of the sound source before I stick a microphone in front of it and spend just that little time more to get the sound I'm looking for.

Here is a extract from the recorded track: