Favourite Recording of 2012 (so far) ?

PaulBrewer

What's yours ?

Here's mine ....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvs7EAy7b9s

krd

PaulBrewer wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvs7EAy7b9s

I really like the strings.

Does it cost an arm and a leg to record at Air?

And who pays?

DamagedTrax

without doubt, anything from the new macabees album but especially this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HaW5alLnC0

PaulBrewer

krd wrote: »

I really like the strings.

Does it cost an arm and a leg to record at Air?

And who pays?

It does cost an arm and a leg - but it's worth it don't you think ?

PaulBrewer

DamagedTrax wrote: »

without doubt, anything from the new macabees album but especially this tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HaW5alLnC0

Produced and Mixed by Cenzo in his new studio I believe ?

krd

PaulBrewer wrote: »

It does cost an arm and a leg - but it's worth it don't you think ?

It's a beautiful place. And I really hope they manage to keep it open. The string stuff they do there does sound amazing.

It's probably "drop with the fright" expensive.

EMI own it?..........Are they running people signed to EMI through there as some kind of tax loss.

I was reading a few years back, Lilly Allen only got 25 thousand as her budget to make her first album. And for her second album she got more, but not a huge amount more. A few days at Air would probably gobble its way through a budget really quickly.

Do they have people who do string arrangements and stuff? Who records there?

PaulBrewer

It's a couple of grand a day (though I'm sure there are deals !) for room plus assistant I believe.

Players and arranger would be extra which will not be insignificant with the top lads/lasses.

However the couple of time I was there on string dates, such was the speed and accuracy of players, an awful lot could be achieved in a 3 hour session.

The David's Lyre album wasn't a particularly big budget with a lot of it being recorded in producer Tom Fuller's small studio.

The wallop the real strings give to the track is pretty spectacular though.

It's Abbey Road that's owned by EMI - AIR ,I think, is still owned by Richard Booth who also owns Strong Room.

peter05

PaulBrewer wrote: »

It's a couple of grand a day (though I'm sure there are deals !) for room plus assistant I believe.

Players and arranger would be extra which will not be insignificant with the top lads/lasses.

However the couple of time I was there on string dates, such was the speed and accuracy of players, an awful lot could be achieved in a 3 hour session.

The David's Lyre album wasn't a particularly big budget with a lot of it being recorded in producer Tom Fuller's small studio.

The wallop the real strings give to the track is pretty spectacular though.

It's Abbey Road that's owned by EMI - AIR ,I think, is still owned by Richard Booth who also owns Strong Room.

A little off topic, sorry in advance.

Since EMI is been broken up between Sony and Universal music, what is happening with ownership there? I always thought there was a Trust/Board over Abbey Road.

PaulBrewer

Again I'm not sure of details but when the sale of Abbey Road was suggested (was it last year?) the heritage guys kicked up stink and it's listing became such that selling and turning it into anything else would be very difficult, if not impossible.

peter05

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Again I'm not sure of details but when the sale of Abbey Road was suggested (was it last year?) the heritage guys kicked up stink and it's listing became such that selling and turning it into anything else would be very difficult, if not impossible.

2010, my selective memory strikes again. Not part of consolidation.

krd

PaulBrewer wrote: »

It's a couple of grand a day (though I'm sure there are deals !) for room plus assistant I believe.

Players and arranger would be extra which will not be insignificant with the top lads/lasses.

If I had a budget for something it's probably not what I would do. On the other hand. A singer songwriter album, could be made sound incredible with good strings and a good arrangement.

However the couple of time I was there on string dates, such was the speed and accuracy of players, an awful lot could be achieved in a 3 hour session.

Those guys can play. Years of training. If they're given the sheet music they can get it really quickly.

The wallop the real strings give to the track is pretty spectacular though.

That....that...wallop....the growler sound of the low strings. That isn't just that they're real strings. (some real string recordings won't even have that). Most string emulations are absolutely crap. But my Korg keyboard - which has been at a friends place for years - the string sound, on the low notes it does that growler sound. It's actually a really great sound - I don't know how to replicate it. Most string emulations are really thiny - which is fine when you want a thiny string sound for a part. A lot of the time when people use strings, it for a soft pad.

When a cellist bows the low notes slowly there is a bassy growling sound - with string emulations you just don't get that much control.

The other thing about the track, is where the strings come in - and where they come in, is part of the wallop.

Latchy

This ...

flyswatter

This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyORw8bee4o

Absolutely superb production throughout.

krd

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Players and arranger would be extra which will not be insignificant with the top lads/lasses.

Is there anyone in Dublin (okay Ireland - I know all of Ireland isn't Dublin, but who really counts the "flyover counties"), who does strings (quartet) and arrangements?

Seziertisch

krd wrote: »

Is there anyone in Dublin (okay Ireland - I know all of Ireland isn't Dublin, but who really counts the "flyover counties"), who does strings (quartet) and arrangements?

Tough one. I'm sure you could easily enough find someone to do an arrangement, but whether or not they would be able to get what it is that you are trying to do and work accordingly is another thing.

If you do have something particular in mind there are enough string samplers available as VSTs with which you could knock together the arrangement yourself, even if you don't read music.

Finding the players would be the biggest difficulty. The general consensus seems to be either find one or two really good players and get them to layer up the parts or else be willing to shell out for the top guys and gals to do it all at once.

And by good players I mean people who play it by ear, who not only have good pitching but don't have to be told exactly what to play down to the last accent and ornamentation, and that take it on themselves to add little musical flourishes here and there in keeping with whatever else is happening in the arrangement.

Otherwise, if you were to decide to go the route of hiring a quartet, getting a group of student/semi-professional/amateur players in is asking for trouble. A lot of times its a pitching nightmare, where it turns out only one or maybe two of them are any good and the others are just making up numbers. And by making up numbers I'm not saying that they are even bad players per se, sometimes its just that they feel intimidated by the studio environment or have trouble adjusting to playing with monitoring or whatever. Unfortunately for a quartet to work everbody needs to play the right thing at the same time and one person suffering from nerves throws a serious spanner in the works. And knowing that it is just one person is no consolation to you if the meter is running and the clock in ticking in the studio.

And moving on to the top players, even if the arrangement requires more than 4 players it often happens that a quartet is used and then they double or treble up or whatever to fill it out. I recently enquired as to the cost of a 16-piece string ensemble in the UK and was told 5k for the day was the going rate (not including studio time) ... even if you were working on something which had a pretty reasonable budget you would still think twice before splashing the cash like that.