So many plans, so little time!

Well I have finally managed to update my website with some more recent recordings and reviews! Check out new songs from The Ambience, Chutes, Rubys Wishes and Elephants on www.anchorbabyrecordings.com

The coming months are looking to be very busy, with brand new EP's from amazing Brighton band PHORIA and Folkestone lads MAGNETS, a gospel album coming in from highly skilled MD IRA JACKSON, the start of a mini album from folk/jazz/whatever artist BERNARD EVELEIGH, a two-tracker from GREAT ANCESTORS and loads more to be announced!

I'm getting into a lot more location recording recently, and am always on the lookout for cool spaces to use. So if you have a very dead sounding room, or a very lively sounding room, or access to a church or cool sounding space please drop me an e-mail at anchorbabyrecordings@live.co.uk

I am currently looking for a CHURCH HALL to use for recording some drum parts and ambient guitar/vocal parts on the new PHORIA and MAGNETS records, please get in touch if you know of any!

I have recently managed to obtain a bundle of URS plugins, which I can highly recommend, they sound absolutely AMAZING and since their discovery I have barely touched my Waves bundle (aside from the Waves SSL buss compressor, which I swear by across the mix). So any future recordings will feature the sound of URS, see how different they are to my current mixes!

So recent activity around Anchor Baby includes a cool band coming in by the name of The Taints, pictured at the top of the page, outside the studio - Like the Libertines with a kind of Sheffield sound too! And this coming Sunday an acoustic live session from Ruby's Wishes on KMFM, to be broadcast at 1:20pm and also a short interview with myself and the band! Make sure you tune in!

On top of all of the above, I have now been asked to join Tener Duende, the Folkestone based Gypsy Jazz/Flamenco trio as their bass player, to replace the amazingly skilled Chester Boyd who is off to Uni in September. So lots of practising to do!

The other short stories...

Back to recording news then:

Kuulama were in last weekend recording their first demo, and it's sounding great! The Selmer amp (pictured with beloved ribbon mic) really worked out well for that WHO-style "CLAAANNNGG!!!"...See a short video of the guys in the studio below:



I am extremely happy to announce that shortly the guys from Phoria (and myself of course) will begin work on the follow-up to their very popular EP 'Yourself Still' with a new six-tracker! THe recording will start over the next couple of months and won't be done in the studio this time, but in various locations around Kent and Brighton, including houses, apartments overlooking the sea and a spooky old manor house!

Towards the end of the month I will have the AMAZING Great Ancestors in to record two brand new songs, I can't wait to capture the sheer energy of that band. Then it's the recording of the Jairus/Monarch split (I'll be doing both bands tracks for the sheer fun of it).

6th of March sees the beautiful Ruby's Wishes performing an acoustic set live on KMFM, and an interview with the band and me about the recordings and plans for this year.

The Ambience album 'Colour in Silence' is FINALLY finished!

I am also offering music recording and production lessons, prices from £15 per hour - I will teach beginners or people with experience, just let me know what you'd like to learn and drop me an e-mail at anchorbabyrecordings@live.co.uk

Exciting times!

A lesson in over EQ'ing, and other short stories...

Over the last couple of years I have tried to steer away from over EQing, unless I am mixing something recorded by someone who DOESN'T apply the 'get it right at source' approach - there are plenty of them out there!

Now it's a known fact amongst my friends and clients that I'm not too much a fan of 'the music technology course', this is due to a number of reasons and based on a string of work experience pupils who have been studying for two years, THINK they know it all and in actual fact have to be re-programmed by me and start again! Now, if you've done one of these courses you'll be taught how to 'fix' things with EQ. For example: "Boost 40hz on the kick for a bit of sub, cut at 400hz to reduce that boxy sound, boost at 4.5khz for a bit of click and then further at 10khz for a bit of snap". Experience has taught me that you can very rarely rely on ONE mic to achieve your sub, weight, click and snap and also brings me onto the main focus of this blog entry: PHASE issues.

EQ tends to introduce distortion and phase shift. So when you EQ something, certain ranges of frequencies become out of time with the rest of the frequency content. Basically certain frequencies will lag behind the others. You can often notice things like this on snare drums - the close mic on the snare could be perfectly in-phase with the overheads and you have a nice weighty snare sound. As soon as you start EQing radically you are in danger of the phase inverting - the snare may sound fine on its own but as soon as you dial in the overheads you're left with a very thin sounding snare! If you have to EQ things, it's often best to keep the Q's narrow and boost a few frequencies a tiny bit as opposed to something like 3k on a steep shelf by 12db to brighten a snare!

So, that's lesson 1. Lesson 2 goes back to the point I was making earlier about mics. Let's suppose you've started by getting a kick drum to sound as good as you possibly can in the room (VERY important, if you haven't done that then don't bother reading on!).

You are better off using a mic to capture the weight and depth your kick drum (I usually use a Heil PR48 for the kind of music I record) and then another mic to capture the snap (an AKG C1000 works out well for this if you want a bit of life too, or a Shure Beta 91 boundary mic - VERY snappy!). Blend the two signals to taste, a bit of SUBTLE EQ on the way in if necessary and you should have a good solid kick drum recording, ready for very little processing in the mix. You've recorded your weight and your click and snap already, so no need to go screwing things up with EQ, and your recording as is natural sounding as can possibly be. But with multiple close mics be aware of PHASE issues again, get it right!

In summary, the lesson is always the same: Do whatever you can in the room before you even look at a mic, then pick the RIGHT mic, or the right combination of mics to capture it! Keep things subtle, and don't give me any "But I don't have a massive mic collection" nonsense - the answer to that is "Learn to use what you DO have to achieve the results above!"...You'll be a better engineer for it.

Radio, Radio, Radio!

Another two of my recordings, by two different bands (Chutes and Delta Sleep) were played on BBC Kent Introducing last Sunday. In fact, the whole Delta Sleep EP has been played weekly (one track at a time) since November. That brings the total to over 10 bands so far in the last 9 months on Kent Introducing alone. I am very proud that the bands passing through the studio doors are making an impact and also proving that Anchor Baby Recordings works with good quality acts!

More Radio play this coming Sunday where you will be able to hear 'Earthquakes' by Ruby's Wishes being played by Adam Dowling on KMFM, which will be followed by an acoustic 'live session' at KMFM on Sun 6th March, as well as an interview with the band and myself - be sure to tune in!

On other news, the Mecurials recording is now mixed and sounds great. Fantastic lyrics and performances from Bernie and Paul!

The Ambience album is FINALLY being mastered on Friday 28th by Oz Craggs, and has been 10 months in the making! In order to celebrate I will be putting one of the tracks up (along with Ruby's Wishes, Elephants and Chutes) next week on the website MP3 player!

Even more news: I will shortly begin work on the new Magnets EP, which is being planned at the moment. This will mostly be recorded at various different locations around Kent, including a spooky old manor house that has a perfect room for a really lively drum sound! There will no doubt be a few teaser videos from these sessions one they get under way, so look out for them!

Dan.

Anchor Baby TV!

Last night, due to a no-show at the studio (no more bookings without deposits!) I decided to make some videos in order to show you what's going on around the studio, what kind of equipment we have there etc. The first is a video about how I usually mic a guitar amp, for some weird reason the audio and the video are slightly out of snyc, but you get the idea! The second video shows you some of the amp collection, enjoy!

I know, I know...

...I said I was going to be updating this thing more regularly, and I haven't - but I will now! From this moment on I am a new person! Actually, I did join a gym today, and am aching all over as a result, but that's nothing to do with music, or the studio - so let's hold that thought. Perhaps I'll put some photos up when I'm a muscle-bound warrior, carrying a dead Buffalo over my shoulder and eating an Eagle in a bap.

The ELEPHANTS farewell EP (I Won't Forget You, You Won't Forget Me) is now finished and will be available soon via Alcopop Records! It definitely captures the bands live energy. It's catchy, and downright dirty sounding! It also features a cameo appearance by me, playing piano and other percussive instruments.

In December new Folkestone-based band indie band CHUTES (feauturing ex members of ELEPHANTS and ADANO LIES AWAKE) entered the studio to record their new 3-track EP. It's sounding great in its early mix stages, I'm really happy with the weight in the low-end of the mix, God bless working with a sub.

November saw another amazing new Kent band entering the studio. They are all-female, amazing musicians and called RUBY'S WISHES. One of their songs will be up on my website soon, but if you can't wait for that please check out their bandcamp page at www.rubyswishes.bandcamp.com - they sound like a cross between Smashing Pumpkins, X-Ray Spex and Elastica and are seriously incredible! I have been working very closely with this band on the production side of things, excpect to be hearing much more from them very soon.

The Christmas-themed single from local punk band FUCK THAT! (featuring me on drums) is now available to download for free from www.fuckthat.bandcamp.com - check it out if dirty, energetic, and lyrical controversy is what floats your boat! In fact, here's a video of us at Tinseldayer II, on December 18th:



JAIRUS have been working on the recording of Pink Floyd's classic 'Sheep' during rehearsal time in October and November, I have finally managed to get it mixed thanks to the laptop, and it has now been mastered by Pink Floyd's head engineer Andy Jackson at Tube Mastering. You can download the song for free from www.jairus.bandcamp.com So that just about brings us up to date. I have lots planned for 2011 already and will definitely be updating this page a few times a week, so get subscribing if you're interested in what's going on! I will also be chatting about general recording/mixing techniques etc, so if you're into that side - get subscribing!

Dan.

Thankyou for the old sounds!

It is with great sadness that I announce this:

Elephants, one of the few local bands who have made an impact on the national music scene have decided to call it a day. They have done very well these last two years with slots at the Radio 1 Big Weekend, two BBC Maida Vale sessions and numerous tours and showcases.

A 'Farewell' EP is currently being mixed by me, having also been recorded and produced by me at Anchor Baby. The aim is to get this ready for the bands final show at Tinseldayer II on December 18th - THE best local music event this year!

In other news, I have had more great bands in the studio over the last month or so in the form of Blue Train, Surgery Without Research and the VERY WELL REHEARSED function band Counterfeit Notes! I have also had the pleasure of recording a pianist who played for the Queen for 11 years!

November and December are looking exciting, with album demo's from Cats and Cats and Cats, a new EP from Bellingo, the Elephants farewell EP and the brand spanking new single from local punk supergroup ;) FUCK THAT!

I am also selling a guitar amp head (pictured!). It's a Selmer Treble n' Bass SV series 50watt valve head - from 1973. It has the original valves in it, and has recently be re-finished in silver tolex, so it looks amazing!

These amps are fast becoming collectors items and are being sold on E-Bay for anywhere up to £500. I am asking £400 for this one as it's immaculate. If anybody is interested please e-mail me via the website www.anchorbabyrecordings.com