The sessions were recorded in a medium hall with lots of microphone bleeds.

DRUMS

• I used SSL 4000 E Channel Strip (UA) on each drum track - utilizing the gate to suppress bleeds on the kick and snare drum mics. Since the toms weren’t playing at all times, I manually cut off regions with no transients to retain ghost notes and softer transients.
• I used Trigger 2 plugin to add extra layer of samples to fatten and enhance the Kick and Snare drums.
• I used the UA 1176 compressor on kick, snare and tom buses - preferring the API 2500 for overheads.
• I did a parallel compression on the drum bus while subtly enhacing the top and low ends.
• Hihat was recorded hot and harsh, so I rolled off some top ends and went with a less character compressor - the fabfilter C2.
• I used 2 reverb sends on drums - a bricasti convolution reverb (for ambience) and large wood room

BASS

• Bass was recorded DI so I reamped with UA Ampeg SVT-VR. I added fabfilter saturn for some saturation, Waves RBass for harmonics and UA LA2A compressor.

KEYS, SYNTHS & PADS

• Used the fabfilter pro-Q3 to knock off resonant frequencies on every track, using varying compressors depending on what character or colour was needed (VBC FG-Grey, Pro C2, Fairchild). Used a stereo imager to widen the pads.

VOCALS

• multi compression with subtle gain reductions ( Pro C2 on the tracks, UA 1176 and Fairchild on the bus). Used Pro Q3 for highpass and resonant frequency suppression. Used Soothe 2 for further resonant frequency suppression (I call it the AI supppressor of harsh frequencies) but I only use it sparingly and only when really necessary.

2 MIX BUS

• SSL Native Bus Compressor 2
• UA Studer A800 Tape Recorder
• Slate Digital FG-N eq
• UA Fairchild 670
• PSP Vintage Warmer 2 Limiter

MASTERING**
-Hard to explain (honestly), but basically just getting the songs to a competitively commercial position - smooth, eloquent, classy and proud - making them stand out on any playlist. I mixed the songs so they didn’t require any correctional moves.

• Slate Digital FG-X
• Oxford Inflator
• Abbey Road TG Mastering
• Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
• Izotope Ozone compressor & Imager
• UA API 2500 compressor
• Fabfilter Pro- L2

*All done on Logic Pro 11
*Used Yamaha HS 5 monitors and a Panasonic stereo system on the side for reference and consumer perspective.