Recording Journal

Allentown

2006-07-26T07:49:00.000-05:00

Belated rehash: We drove out to Adrian's parent's house in Allentown, PA about 2 months ago to take advantage of their antique piano and to do some dog sitting. We're just now getting some pics back from the developer. Freshly tuned, the ole ivories sounded beautiful and recorded well. We added a jaunty melody line to a song we're calling "Fake Moustache" and some moody accents to "Ketchup and Alcohol" which is a real brooder. Our recent tour drew our attention away from all the overdubbing so we're convening soon to listen to all the songs and assess what still needs to be done/redone. We're on the schedule at Silver Sonya to mix in early October, so the clock is ticking.

Wednesday Morning, 3AM

2006-04-07T11:32:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, more of the same. Mostly electric guitar overdubs, but we pulled out an acoustic for some texture. Progress, slowly but surely.

Pick

Tune

Hypnotize

I Am a Professional, This Is Not a Demo

2006-03-31T09:23:00.000-05:00

Adrian knocked out his additions to "Port of Call" which just about wrapped that one up minus the vocals and a few frills we might throw in later. For nostalgia's sake we also went back and listened to a few of the early rough recordins we did of the tunes. We try and make it a rule not to replicate the demo, but it was interesting to see how things have evolved and also gave us some ideas on how to approach some of the overdubs we've yet to tackle.

Reigning Supreme

On Returning

2006-03-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

Last night we took a step back, reviewed the songs, and decided to redo a couple guitar parts. The performances were solid but the tone captured was somehow dull and lackluster. In one instance, there was a little unintentional distortion that we caught on tape (we accidentally overdrove the preamp we were using). We pulled out Adrian's Fender Deville and had better luck this time. Ben recorded a few feedback solos Ira Kaplan-style on a track called Port of Call, and redid his part on another song that has only a working title. Things sound a little better. Tonight we tackle some of Adrian's overdubs on the same two songs.

golden child

"port of call" in minature

Back in Black

2006-03-06T00:21:00.000-05:00

We're still alive and recording, just been busy with releasing our new EP and redesigning our website among other things. For most of January and Feb, TJ knocked out all of his vibraphone and marimba parts and also tracked some wurlitzer. Adrian squeezed in a couple guitar overdubs here and there and Ben did a few vocal parts. Still, there's a lot to do, so much so that we made a chart to keep up with it all. Honestly, its a bit daunting. You can forget how much time goes into writing and recording music, let alone coordinating everyone's schedules. Still, its a labor o' love as they say, so no complaints. Just taking longer than expected. Some pictures below.

Egg Noggin

2005-12-23T09:11:00.000-05:00

With holidays in full swing, not much to report. Raj knocked out bass guitar for about half the songs this past weekend and we're hoping to finish up the rest this coming Monday. Elmer figured out a way to recover the files we lost by downloading a program that mines the depths of yr hard drive...It set us back a few bucks but at least we have the files again, safe and sound.

Happy Holidays Yall.

Pictures from last weekend to come....

!#)$%*!@#$%

2005-12-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

Everybody's felt murderous rage toward a computer so there's no point in detailing the the ins and outs of why last night we nearly went gangsta on Elmer's Mac and the Digi002 box, Office Space style. We trust that you know how it feels when you're 30 mins past constructive trouble-shooting, and "fucking bullshit" is the only semi-coherent thought repeating in yr head. Anyway, the upshot: We think we lost a song. Yes, we backed it up. But mysterious shit is going on and the backup is fucked up too...even tho we successfully accessed the copy on the hard drive after we backed it up. Which totally defies logic because you would think that even if the hard disk copy got corrupted...well, whatever. I'm getting pissed off just rethinking this. Good news is that everything else is safe (fingers crossed).

Technology, we gave you everything. In exchange, you betrayed us.
Now, you will feel our pain.

Weekend Review

2005-12-13T21:39:00.000-05:00

File conversions, electric guitar overdubs, xmas decorations and tree shopping in spare time, fx pedals on the fritz, bad batteries, a new capo (old one broke). We're now working at Elmer's and Ben's, switching back and forth between locations. Michael passed by on Sunday and lent us his Magnatone amp which recorded beautifully and looks cool to boot. We discussed the virtues of kiwi pop, learned about Miracle Legion and swapped a few records. After he left, we set everything up in Ben's basement, balanced his brother's Ampeg amplifier on the toilet and recorded the results. Pictures below.

Microphone Check

2005-12-06T10:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you into the more technical side of things, we thought we'd post our drum mic'ing set up. We tweaked it around about 5 or 6 times over the course of recording and although we were pretty happy with all the different arrangements, this one seemed to work best. Getting a good kick drum sound was probably our biggest challenge, but we solved that primarily by switching out kick beaters and having Elmer hit the drum harder. We also added a beater-side mic to pick up the percussive whack of the mallet.

Overheads: Pair of Earthworks TC25K through a Chandler TG2
Snare (top): SM57 through one channel of a UA 2108
Snare (bottom): SM57 through a built-in Digi002 Preamp
Floor Tom: Royer 121 through the other channel of the UA 2108
Kick (front): Soundelux ifet7 through a built-in Digi002 Preamp
Kick (beater-side): KSM32 through an UA M610

Listen the Snow is Falling

2005-12-05T23:53:00.000-05:00

After finishing one more song and redoing another, we wrapped up drum tracking around 5:00 and overdubbed an acoustic guitar or two. Meanwhile, the first snow of the season had already put down a few inches so we stayed in for the rest of evening, ordered a pizza, and restrung a couple guitars. Before calling it a night, we listened back to the songs thus far and got excited at the possibilities. Nothing fully realized yet, just rhythm and scratch tracks, but we think we've got an album's worth of keepers in there somewhere.

Tomorrow we tear down the drum mics, clean up Elmer's front room and work on more overdubs. Then we take a needed break on Wed and maybe Thurs and start back up on Friday.

Our camera ran out of batteries so no pictures this time.

He Bangs the Drums

2005-12-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

We've managed to knock out drum tracks for around 15 songs over the last three days and will tackle a few more tomorrow. For now we're just concentrating on drums b/c we don't have quite enough microphones, preamps, or digital inputs to accommodate recording the full band simultaneously. We'll start overdubs later in the week.

Food consumed thus far: graham crackers, week-old sweet potato pie, burritos, cherry coke, sprite zero, dr. pepper, water, and coffee. And ginger gummi bears courtesy of eine teutonic girlfriend and some paneer makhani to keep it real.

More pictures:

The boys are doing a mighty fine job in the next room

Indeed, couldn't agree more. Bravo.

Ben in mid-take.

Elmer from above

TJ steers the computer home

We Built This City

2005-12-02T23:14:00.000-05:00

Take house, fold in microphones, sugar, yolks, stir. Instant studio? Not quite.

But we borrowed some gear, made some promises, deals with the devil, and set up shop today.

Patch bays, mics, rugs, cables, toupees, preamps all in a line. Press record.

Here are a few pics:

two heads are better than one

adrian, ready to die

Elmer on the kit

flamenco ben

inside the head of a drum

TJ fixes levels

TJ ten years hence

our friend chandler

From the Top

2005-11-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

In about a week and half we will begin recording Pagoda's second full length album. We're setting up shop at Elmer's place this time around, temporarily transforming his house into the best studio we can put together. Aiding us in our endeavors will be our bandmate and recording engineer, TJ Lipple. TJ works with our friend Chad Clark at Silver Sonya, and together they've engineered and mastered what are in our opinion some of the best-sounding records to come out of DC. Listen to the work they've done and its evident you're hearing both a labor of love and a work of craftsmanship: its lush, detailed, complex, provocative and oozing with enthusiasm. We were lucky enough to record our Seven Nights EP with them last year.

Also at the helm will be our friend Michael Kentoff who plays in a favorite band of ours, the Caribbean. Michael and company self-record most of their own music and do so with an artistry and attention to detail that we've always admired. Evidence of their technical and creative prowess can be heard on their new album, Plastic Explosives.

For the first week and half we'll be doing basic tracking, getting down the drums and maybe a few additional instruments. After that, we'll spend our time fleshing out arrangements, adding bells and whistles and putting on finishing touches. Finally, we're hoping to have Chad mix the album at Silver Sonya. This journal is going to chronicle our efforts and pummel you with the details of all the food we eat, guitars we tune and melodies we put to tape.