The Point Of No Return

We just ended the recording phase of the project. I usually call the last day of recording the "last chance" because I don't like to add anything else during the mixing sessions. In this day and age of digital recording, its very easy to get Obsessive-Compulsive. This is because it is relatively easier to add and tweak things at the last minute, compared to the days of analog recording. But this usually ends up only prolonging the agony, and/or the inevitable. There is a point when enough is enough, and one must make a commitment. Besides, perfection is relative. People are not machines. A great performance strikes a balance between technical accuracy and human feel. Our engineer Angie often complains about some artists and producers who are either too obsessive with insignificant details, or afraid to make a commitment. I try to approach each recording as a performance, and in the case of bands, a HUMAN performance. It must strive to be as technically perfect as possible, but it must also contain a delicate combination of quirks, gestures, energy and vulnerability that makes a performance expressive and yes, human. This is why I don't enjoy a large number of popular recordings. These are either sanitized to the point of sounding mechanical, or contain too much ear candy that distracts from the music. While decisions affecting the recording are constantly made from the very start, this "last-chance" session is a turning point in the project. This is because the next stage, mixing, has less to do with the human performances, and more to do with balance and sound processing.

Our day started with just Angie and I in the studio doing microscopic spot tweaks on some of the tracks. I hesitate to call these "corrections" because the changes are applied on things that are not necessarily "mistakes". These are little sounds and gestures that are just enough to bother me, but not enough to make me want to sign off. A little pitch correction on a guitar feedback track so that it fits the harmony, a little nudge on the downbeat of a vocal part so that it locks in with the rhythm section, a little noise reduction on a buzzy guitar amp. Microscopic things. A couple of hours later, the band showed up to do some last minute additions and replacements. Lacking a low distorted guitar on an arrangement? Need a screaming guitar solo for the vamp? No problem. Fire up the guitar amp and burn. Background vocals lack kick? Easy. Plug in the mic and redo. Missing off-beat accents on a complex rhythmic part? Grab a shaker and ........ shake! Again, microscopic things that complete the picture.

At the end of all of these small but significant additions, we reviewed each song and made the all important decision of whether they were ready for mixing. Thank God, majority of the recording stage has been smooth sailing. So making these commitments was easier than we anticipated. Angie then made pre-mixes, which means versions of the songs with all the individual parts present. These were then burned to a CD. I intentionally scheduled a one-week break before mixing. This allows me enough time to take a step back and objectively evaluate the recordings, understand how each track interacts in the context of the arrangements, and formulate technical strategies for the mixing stage.

Whenever I hear the expression "point of no return", I can't help thinking that this carries a bit of anxiety over the unknown. But based on the events of this day, I have no fear. The band, the engineers, and I are confident of the outcome. The next phase will not be a piece of cake, but it will be an exciting and rewarding experience.

Options

We've just finished the instrumental tracks, and are preparing for the vocal dubbing.

In my book (yes, I am indeed trying to write a book on record production), each production begins with a framework. In the academe, a framework is a set of philosophies and theories that guide the work. In the pre-production stage, I met with both the band and the engineering team to come to grips with what everyone wanted, and what I felt the album needed. In our very first pre-production conversations, Ebe discussed with me the problems of performing live as a three-piece band. The studio however, allows such a small ensemble to transcend the limitations of manpower. But one has to be careful how this advantage is applied. On the one hand one can take the no-frills approach and record with a minimum of extra instruments, much like in a live performance. "Sa Wakas", while not completely spare in terms of instrumentation, sounds slightly minimalist compared to a lot of other pop/rock bands releases. While it worked on many levels, he found himself looking for more. On the other hand, Ebe felt that, in hindsight, "Dramachine" was the opposite, being about as far as one could go production-wise without blowing things out of proportion. My instinct told me that Ebe was looking for some kind of middle ground on this third album. So my framework involved two targets. It is common wisdom that each musical element has to be recorded not just as an isolated entity, but within the context of the whole arrangement. Its very easy to get enamored by a novel sound or recording technique. But it is worthless if it disturbs the rest of the arrangement. This requires foresight, something Ebe expected me to provide, but which in reality everyone actively contributed to. The second target was provide as many options in the recording of each component as possible. The following are examples of how these targets were operationalized.

Bass players are often the most neglected musician in a band. There is a saying, that "bass is bass", meaning there is only so much that can, and should be done with them technically and musically. This attitude is not only unfair but totally wrong, since the bass line is the foundation of the harmony, specially for a 3-piece band. During the pre-production rehearsals, I reminded Jal that the bass is not only tasked with providing the harmonic root, but is equally responsible for the propulsion of the rhythm section. I've heard a number of recent albums in which the bass, due to too much compression, is reduced to a muddy drone. The way out of this trap is to strike a balance between tone and attack. So for the bass tracks I set up a three-way signal split. The first was sent "direct" into the recorder. The second was sent through an electronic amp simulator (in this case a SansAmp). The third was sent to a real bass amplifier in the studio floor, then miked into the pre-amps. This was done to get a gritty sound of a real amp. All these options were set up so that in the mix, we could use any single, or combination of sounds at any part of a song. All this was done not just as an indulgence, but as a means to access different sounds emanating from one single performance. This might not be "heard" in casual listening, but I guarantee it will be felt in the final mix.

For the guitars, Ebe had a special request. He specifically asked if we could dispense with using "stompboxes" (foot-controlled guitar effects) in the whole album. He is apparently going though some sort of "gadget overload". This was providential because I too had grown quite weary of too much dependence on these kinds of devices. One of the problem I have noticed of many recent local band recordings is that guitars are so heavily processed/distorted that you can't hear the tones anymore. Call me "old school", but I've got this thing for "physical" sound, and I am only too happy to surround myself with real amplifiers and microphones. So I eagerly agreed to Ebe's request. We rented three amplifiers, a Laney full stack, a Fender Twin, and a Fender Hot Rod. Together with Ebe's three guitars (a Fender Strat, a Fender Tele, and an Epiphone with humbuckers), we could come up with an infinite number of combinations. Of course, I have to mention that we also used Vin Dancel's now legendary Norman acoustic guitar. Again, we have come up with a wealth of options that can be deployed come mixing time. The guitar tracks are everything I aimed for, and more.

Through the whole process, our engineering team, chief engineer Angie Rosul and assistant engineer Mark Villena, have been instrumental in giving us the most fantastic sounds for all our instruments. I've worked with Angie for many years, and he actually has more experience with the band than I do, having engineered all of the Sugarfree albums, as well as producing most of the first. What I find especially valuable about him is that he can not only immediately "get" some of my more abstract ideas, but can make it come out even better than I originally imagined. In addition, Angie has his own set of favorite sounds, and we welcomed those he suggested because they added even more options than we originally planned. Mark, on the other hand is an interesting fellow. He seems to have this obsession with constantly tweaking things. These incremental tweaks may not always work, and I have on occasions gotten a bit impatient. But when they do work, his contribution is invaluable.

I'm very, very happy with what I have heard so far. There are a number of pleasant surprises that have popped up, but these have resulted from a careful application of the framework. When my wife first heard the instrumental tracks, she immediately bugged me to start on the vocal tracks because she liked what she heard so much that she couldn't wait to hear the completed songs. We still have some way to go, but I can't wait either.

Kaka

I thought I'd write a little about Kaka, because he is the "new kid" in the band, both literally and figuratively. One of the problems with his coming into such an established band is that he was expected not to stray too far from the legacy left by Mitch, but at the same time had to establish his own musical identity. Raimund Marasigan, Mike Dizon and I had a chance to listen to both Mitch and Kaka casually in the backstage during the anniversary gig, and for the most part, we couldn't distinguish between the two. But on closer listening, I sensed a number of differences.

On a personal level, Mitch strikes me as "pilyo" and "malikot". This is evident even from the pictures on the 2 previous album liners. This is also noticeable musically. Mitch has a tendency to play "on top" of the beat most of the time, regardless of tempo or feel. And his repertoire of pinpoint-accurate fills are the envy of not just a few drummers. Kaka, on the other hand looks more "boyish" compared to Mitch. His playing style is looser, with more wrist action. Because of this, he has a wider range of feel, from laid-back to anticipated (which I partly discussed in an earlier entry on tempo).

When I started attending their rehearsals, I found Ebe and Jal were having difficulty adjusting to the fact that that Kaka's playing carries more sustain than Mitch's. This was most evident in the way he uses the ride cymbal. Kaka has a tendency to lean into his ride cymbal A LOT, and the band was initially put off by what seemed to be an excess of what they called cymbal "wash". While at first I told Kaka to use the ride more sparingly, I had a hunch that the problem had more to do with equipment than style. So my impulse was to inspect Kaka's ride cymbal. It is a 20" K. Zildjian Custom. K's usually have a "dark" sound that is fine for jazz drummers who play at soft to moderate levels, and are looking for a more mid-range swishy sound. But this is too much for a pop/rock drummer who plays at loud levels. So for the studio sessions, I lent him my own ride, a 30 year old, 22" A. Zildjian medium ride, which Raimund and I have dubbed "the infinite ride", and which can be heard on a number of Eraserheads songs through the years, as well as a couple of cuts off Dong Abay's "Flipino". It still packs a lot of sustain that Kaka seems to like, but has just a little more "ping" than the K. The slight added definition was just enough to please not only Ebe and Jal, but surprise Mitch as well (he attended a couple of drum sessions). For crash cymbals, Kaka has a fantastic K. Custom projection crash which sounded great in the studio. So just to give him an alternate color in the crash department, I also lent him my 16" A. Zildjian thin crash, which has a higher relative pitch but a much faster decay.

In the course of the guitar sessions, I found Kaka's drum tracks sound slightly "barumbado", like a little boy who likes to crash and bump into things. This fits right in with the rest of the arrangements because this album contains more heavy guitars than previous albums. The "ringy", sustained sounds allow it to cut though, and brighten up the dense guitar parts.

The sound of Sugarfree as a band is still unmistakable, but Kaka has managed to add a new, interesting, and youthful voice. I am confident that even the most die-hard Sugafree purist will enjoy the new musical identity that Kaka brings to the band.

Anong Ulam Ngayon?

I'll make this quick because I've got a pile of term papers to check, and I also have to evaluate the album tracks before the recording session tonight.

People will do anything for food. They will jump through flaming hoops for hot rice, walk barefoot on hot coals for tasty "ulam", and sleep on cold concrete for refreshing beverages. OK, so I'm exaggerating a bit. But as most people involved in media production will tell you, the quality and speed of people's work markedly improves when they are fed well. I was talking with a television executive who was a former producer/director, and he said this is why people love working for stars like Dolphy. The food on their projects are always good, and the same for the stars and crew alike. Talk about social equality.

Back when I was working with the Eraserheads, while food wasn't one of my responsibilities, we were always reasonably well fed. There were times when we ordered out from fastfood places. Most studios have a folio filled with flyers from fastfood delivery places, so this is the fastest way to get food to hungry musicians and engineers. But one can only take so much of burgers or pizza before getting "sawa". Except for Raimund, who can't seem to get enough of fastfood, I noticed we had a tendency to order from places that had "lutong bahay" type stuff, like "Binalot". There were occasions however, when (the legendary) Tita Beth would send down some nice "sinigang na isda" or some other good old pinoy dish. We enjoyed this a lot, and hoped it would never end.

When I worked on Dong Abay's album, I decided not only to buy good food on the way to the studio, but when I had the time, my wife and I would actually cook at least once a week. This proved to be time consuming, because I had to plan and buy things in advance. But it was well worth it because I saw the smile on peoples faces from having had a nice meal before or during the session. Since Shinji, our engineer was Japanese, we even got a chance to make some quasi-Japanese dishes we had been practicing for years, like kani salad and fresh tofu sprinkled with with nori. Surprisingly, this costs about the same, or at most only marginally more than ordering out from Jolibee or McDonanld's.

For the Sugarfree sessions, I purposely built this into the production logistics and budget. Day 1 has been the only day I ordered for delivery, from "Rufo's" in particular. On day 2, which was Jal's birthday, he brought a kaldero of spectacular binagoongan. Since then, I've tried to buy food from "pinoy" food restaurants. like Ninang's, and a similar place near my house called Lola's. I have also made it a habit to have rice cooked fresh in the studio, either in my own, or the studio's rice cooker. This makes a big difference, so I just have to get something like a kaserola worth of adobo or kare-kare on the way to the studio, and let the hot rice warm everything up. Last Wednesday, Monch brought over a hugh pizza from Yellow Cab for our 4pm merienda (Wednesday sessions are 1-9pm). Although I thought the guys would still be too full for dinner at 7pm, I went ahead and cooked dinner in the studio anyway (yes, I know how to cook!). To my surprise, they finished everything. This kept them going until the end of the session, and presumably until their gig at 11pm.

I'm planning on bringing something Chinese on Tuesday if I have the time to pass by a nice restaurant, and a kaldero of my wife's special spare ribs soup on Wednesday. I don't know what I'll end up buying tonight though. Ironnically, it might be something "fastfoody" to contrast all the saucy food we've been having. Whatever it is, it will probably be something I myself would look forward to eating.