The Studio: Day One (Treelady? what's a Treelady?)

The Studio: Day One

With band rehearsals behind us, we packed all of the gear Ryan The Drummer would need for three days in the studio into his small, small car. The look on my face and the huge drum in my lap will tell you how much room we had to spare after packing.

Treelady Studios

(I have yet to ask where the name "Treelady" came from)

Not many people get to see what it's like inside a professional recording studio, so I'm going to do my best to give you an insider view. 

Upon arrival, we were greeted by Engineer/Producer Dave Hidek. He's a really great guy to work with. Patient, calm, yet relentless in getting the BEST recording he can.

Studio A

Their "Studio A" is their main studio area where they do most of their recording, especially for drums. Our first day, our goal was to get the drums set up and get a good start on the drum and bass guitar tracks. Here are some shots of Studio A:

Guitars!

This is just part of their collection of instruments. We have access to every instrument on their wall!

Thankfully we've got almost all our instrumentation planned out. We'd be having a field day picking out other instruments. 

Here is a picture of the studio sauna. Just kidding...this is where the naughty musicians go when they can't behave--in solitary confinement. just kidding again. Actually, it's the isolation booth: a separate recording room sealed off from the rest of the room so that multiple instruments can be recorded at the same time, without the risk of unwanted sounds "bleeding" into the microphones. I spent most of my day in there, playing and singing songs over and over and over until we got some good takes of the drums. 

Here is the view from inside the isolation both. If you look to the bottom left, you spy Jason laying down the bass tracks while Ryan is playing drums. 

Drum Kit Microphones

Setting microphones for a full drum set might not seem too difficult, but it's actually one of the most time-consuming parts of recording. Each of the nineteen drum microphones needs to be set in exactly the right position to get the desired sound. Check out the army of microphones waiting for us as we entered the room!

 Drum tent :)

Dave set this tent up with sound partitions and a sound blanket to isolate the bass drum's microphones from the rest of the kit. I think Dave just likes building forts.







Dave carefully chooses each microphone from their HUGE selection. Each microphone is picked for it's special qualities in recording each different drum sound.

The finished product - It looks like somebody got a hold of the silly string... NOW to RECORD!

Recording Time

There is more than one way to record an album. 

You can record the whole band simultaneously, you can record each instrument one at a time, OR you can synthesize the instruments on a computer. I decided that since I want the sounds to be as real as possible for the listener, I wanted real instruments. Though, recording the whole band at once is time-consuming (especially for a newly formed band that hasn't been practicing for years and years). We decided to record each live instrument one at a time.

Recording happens very quickly-- it must happen as quickly as possible and in a planned fashion, because everything is billed by the hour. That's why the band and I spent hours and hours rehearsing and perfecting the songs so that once we get in the studio, we can get in a get out to keep things cost-efficient. Although we move quickly, we have to keep a steady pace, allowing for breaks. Recording can be mentally and physically tiresome. Things have to be executed perfectly if they're to be crystallized onto a cd.

Day One Finished!

After a LOOONG 10-hour day, we managed to get the drums set up, record three of the most difficult drum songs, and record the corresponding electric bass tracks. It's been an exciting day today, and I look forward to more of this tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll be doing the same thing, but with more songs!  More to come soon.

-Tim Ruff