DIY house recording suggestions Mickey Kojak used on his newest album

Given the constraints of the lockdown, moving into my typical studio spots to document wasn’t all the time an possibility, so quite a lot of the recording was achieved at house within the field with naked bones however a really creatively-focused arrange.

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Drums – Choose your samples properly

Regardless that I used samples for almost all of the drums, I handled it like a drum equipment you’ll arrange for recording. I used the identical kick and snare samples throughout many of the document and ran the identical drum equipment plugin in my DAW (Logic Professional), enjoying in all of the hi-hats, cymbal, and tom elements on my keyboard as if it had been a observe run-through.

The percussion and synthy bleeps and bloops all got here from numerous sources. I’ve a Yamaha CS01 which I actually like for metronomic synth percussion sounds and nothing beats a Moog for self- oscillating insanity.

Bass – Clear is King

The 2 foremost sources of bass for the document had been a ’70s Fender Jazz and Novation Bass Station II. I’ve had quite a lot of totally different synths in my time (24 to be actual, eep) and I used to be so amazed at how extremely fats, punchy, and versatile the Bass Station was.

I had Moogs, Korgs and a bunch of software program plugins I might use, however I all the time ended up reaching for my Bass Station. Each of those had been DI’d as clear as may be.

Synths – Don’t be afraid to experiment

The digital synth sounds on the document are primarily from a Casio CZ1000 or an Ensoniq ESQ1.

Once I couldn’t be bothered plugging these in, I reached for a few of the Arturia retro synth recreations, that are bloody unbelievable. Specifically the Synclavier offered some whacky and wild sounds, which had been nice for results.

Guitars – Draw upon your tastes

The guitar sounds on the document had been actually enjoyable to craft and are primarily recorded on my Customized Store Tele. There was an actual push and pull between my supervisor (who I blended the document with) and I on what tones we had been aiming for.

I wished gnarly, sludgy guitars and he wished to listen to these transients. I actually love the sound of steel guitars, particularly those on the primary Slipknot document and the brand new Doom soundtracks made by Mick Gordon.

After some time, we discovered a contented center floor however I do surprise what might have been if we turned all these knobs as much as 11!

Vocals – Create house

I recorded quite a lot of draft vocals at house on an SM7, however when it got here time to document correctly, I had a fairly slick and easy chain arrange with a classic C12 operating right into a Neve 1073. My supervisor tracked these vocals and we had been fairly eager to get heat and uncooked with these, so we pushed the mic and pre proper as much as its limits.

When it comes to processing, we had quite a lot of corrective EQ (my voice will get fairly nasally when pushed into the mic and pre), some savage compression offered by a Fairchild 670 plugin, and a really tight slap delay on most lead takes.

When it got here to backing vocals, the SM7 was an awesome selection because it was tonally very totally different and stayed proper out of the way in which.

Mixdown – Get brutal

I wrote, recorded and produced the entire songs in Logic Professional. When it comes to mixing, I received them to a degree I used to be actually pleased with, possibly 85-90 per cent of the place they ultimately landed. Bouncing down all of the stems and dealing with my supervisor (former proprietor of REC Studios) on the ultimate combine was a good way to create some house from the manufacturing/writing and transfer PURELY into the mixdown.