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Showbiz recording


Seffie

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Hey guys, Now im doing my 3rd year uni project on replicating Showbiz and Unnatural Selection. At the moment i'm just looking at Showbiz and need some help. Anyone got any websites, books, interviews, vids etc on how muse recorded showbiz looking at things like equipment used (including microphones and microphone placements) what it was recorded on (analogue or digital), effects and processors used etc. I need something that I can actually reference in a dissertation so musewiki is good but I need original sources.

Also who was the mix engineer on the track (unless it was John Leckie or Paul Reeves)

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I would doubt you have the resources at hand to simply pick from, IE modules or desk, mic's, and the hardware it was put through afterwards from compressing and EQ if any to reverb.

 

It is likely a matter of gaining your marks from the written aspect, even if you don't achieve a sound like on showbiz/resistance, which are extremely different and from completely different decades in rock music production.

 

For Unnatural I would have at hand, a Royer 121, Class A preamp either 1073 module or other various 500 series such as the 512c....everything should go through your best preamps, for drums, you might not have that many decent channels so make do with what you have..... a 1176, hell make that 2 1176s (don't matter what manufacturer or revision), and also an arsenal of plugins, if you have access to waves the SSL bundle was used by spike stent if that helps, which it probably won't, trying to mix like that is like trying drive a race car like Lewis Hamilton....you will fail.

 

Well tuned guitars and drum kit, don't take a guitarist or drummers word for this, they are your mortal enemy once you hit record, keep a gun on the bridge.

 

Mic the Bass for low and highs, DI will simply not just do. Make sure Mozart and Brahms have decent amps with them, get the sound on the amp then it's just much simpler process. Don't put the distortion knob past 4-5 or use pedals.

 

d112 on the kick, woofer outside too, hard beater of course for this setup, beta 57 OR 414 if you have one to spare, on the snare, 421s on the toms and a good set of overheads and a room mic to be slammed later. Album went through Lynx converters too, Lavry Gold as well. Either or. You will also have been smart and replaced all drum heads and had someone tune them who knows what they are doing, be that you or a friend, don't trust the drummer, they tend to just give you a blank stare and then give an unconvincing YEA, SURE whenever you ask them something, or ask them are they capable of doing something. Make sure the drummer is visible at all time too, like I said, your mortal enemy.

Vocals, do whatever you want, you probably aren't using matt bellamy so it won't really make much of a difference what you do, the singer is always gonna sound like that singer. Neumann KSM stages are what they use on most recent records, I hate the sound personally. Might have used a 87 or 67 too on Resistance, I can't recall. SM7 might do for you, the guy will probably be a typical lead singer and not know any mic technique whatsoever and this mic will help, probably leave the foam on. Through the best preamp you have, not tube, stay away from that shit, it's not the 50's. Unless it's your only option of course.

 

Mic placements - you have a pair of ears, use them. Get a good pair of headphones also if you haven't got them by now.

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Didn't see the bit about Unnatural Selection.

 

I don't know if Matt had his own for The Resistance, but for Absolution & BH&R, they made use of an AKG C12 for vocals (Don't know if it was an original or reissue) and one or two done with a SM7.

They definitely used a C414 for The Resistance for percussion and possibly other things, don't know exact models and Matt's guitar cabinets were mic'ed up using Royer R122s (The active model) backstage for gigs, given some of his answers in interviews, he probably did this in the studio as well.

 

Regarding John Leckie. His preferred guitar amp mics are SM58s (Not the 57) and U47s and possibly prefers API something or other over the Neve 1073, in fact I don't think he's a fan of 57s for anything, although might be wrong about that. Check out his Q&A section on Gear Slutz and interviews for books such as Behind The Glass and various magazines.

 

I haven't checked too much into the equipment lists for all the studios Muse have recorded at, but I don't think they've used SSL desks that often, if at all.

 

 

Best thing to do is to go through the album's notes to find out who the producer (Ok, we already know that) and engineers were and look into ways to contact them.

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You could tell me what you have at your disposal from A - Z

 

The most important things is getting the drum sounds and the guitar sounds before you even plug in any recording gear, it won't matter really what microphones you use after that, the most important part is the source, and like I said, for Resistance and Showbiz, the gain knob won't need to go past 4 or 5 for guitars. Musewiki is the best resource for what they used in certain eras.

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I've been looking at gear slutz like you said and it seems to be quite helpful. The mic list your give me is really good too. As for what I have at my disposal, theres too many microphones to rattle off, they have an ssl desk, couple of c24 and a few yamahas, probably go through the ssl at record on to a DAW just for ease but still keeping the analogue sound that appears in Showbiz.

The amps aint brilliant either, ive got myself and ashdown mag 300 which is probably the best thing from uni for and as for guitars amps, think they have a line6 spider and a marshall (not sure what model though). Drums are awful, which is bad for the whole track as I know the drums are one of the most important parts in recording.

 

I know the orginal sound is key but I know I am going to struggle to replicate it as I cant have all muse's equipment. This is mainly for my written part where I am looking into what they used, why they used it and comparing between different peices of kits. (should have explained that before tbh but everything your saying is very helpful thanks)

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Well, if you are planning on using people worthy of the terms guitarist, singer, drummer, bassist then I'd assume they have half decent gear or access to it, you could even record with a MIDI kit and just scour the internet for samples you like. Limits inspire creativity. At the end of the day I doubt the majority of your marks are coming from the end product, but rather the writing and critical reflection afterwards. But then again, I haven't seen the brief.

 

I don't think the point of the thread matters, but rather the point of the entire project.

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just because someone is a good drummer, guitarist, bassist etc doesn't automatically mean they'll have good gear. what if they couldn't afford it? I know a tonne of simply amazing musicians that can't afford good gear. They record using whatever they can get their hands on.

 

your gear argument has fail written all over it.

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I don't think the point of the thread matters, but rather the point of the entire project.

 

The thread is about the project, which is to find out how a couple of songs were recorded and what equipment was used and then make a similar recording. The actual recording I'd imagine is irrelevant to an extent as of course not all the equipment will be available, but that's something you mention in the project.

 

Or have you not done similar sorts of projects before and do you not question how sounds were made?

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Hence the ''or have access to''....:rolleyes:

 

At the end of the day the person is likely not doing a degree, since they think research is asking people on a forum, and letting them do the research for them, pretty much an essential skill along with networking (hence the access to decent musicians and access to good/desirable equipment) for working in the slowly rotting music industry where ''sound engineers'' get poured out every year, which is a pity, since it should be protected such as ''Doctor''.

 

If you are doing such a course you'd need to be in the ''studio'' every minute you can, using every preamp, every mic, and every placement on every instrument. And then some.

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What the fuck is this guy on about?

 

OP is doing his final year of a degree. He wants to know how a specific album was recorded so he can talk about it in the write up of the project. He came to the messageboard for the band in question to find out specifics from the people who would know.

 

But yeh, what a fucking moron, he should have been in the studio networking with pre-amps.

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What the fuck is this guy on about?

 

OP is doing his final year of a degree. He wants to know how a specific album was recorded so he can talk about it in the write up of the project. He came to the messageboard for the band in question to find out specifics from the people who would know.

 

But yeh, what a fucking moron, he should have been in the studio networking with pre-amps.

 

did lol

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Well cheers for the replies.

It is actually for a degree and i came here because I thought someone would know something. Im not sat in a studio every second of the day because theres no chance, too many students and not enough rooms. All i was looking for is places where I can get information that I can reference to put into the report because as you know you cant just put "I did this because it sounded good and I try a lot random things and this worked". I have to have some point to start with, why did i choose this mic, room, desk and where did i find the information telling me that i should use this blah blah blah. Things would be a lot easier if i didnt have to reference everything.

 

But anyway cheers for the info that you've said.

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What the fuck is this guy on about?

 

OP is doing his final year of a degree. He wants to know how a specific album was recorded so he can talk about it in the write up of the project. He came to the messageboard for the band in question to find out specifics from the people who would know.

 

But yeh, what a fucking moron, he should have been in the studio networking with pre-amps.

 

:facepalm:

 

Just saying, there is already a lot of contempt for people, what is it, about 3000 a year coming through with a Music Technology Degree who don't know the fundamentals of audio engineering, research, communication, professional approaches, mathematics, physics, sound synthesis yadda yadda. There are people with grammies that can find it competitive to get work.

 

Simple googling would have brought up those links and the muse wiki has more than enough information.

 

If you are all so bored around here and need a bit of drama I'm in, I mean jeez, it's normally one person posts the responses to threads and then 10 people just reword it and pretend they know what they are talking about. :LOL:

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If you are all so bored around here and need a bit of drama I'm in, I mean jeez, it's normally one person posts the responses to threads and then 10 people just reword it and pretend they know what they are talking about. :LOL:

 

All you've done is namedropped a couple of mic pres.

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I have no idea what point you're trying to make. In fact, I strongly suspect you don't have a point to make at all, other than "music tech graduates can suck my balls".

 

My bad.... everything will be fine and we'll all be sound engineers making hit records.

 

All you've done is namedropped a couple of mic pres.

 

:LOL:

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