A lot of my favorite albums were recorded live. Not just live on stage but live in-studio. Really diving into the making of several of these favorite albums, I found that the process of capturing musicians, simultaneously in a room, was a common denominator.
There’s a natural energy that comes from humans interacting with each other that can usually be perceived in a recording. It might seem obvious: The same expression and excitement of a live show, plus the quality of a studio capture, is a captivating combination.
While recording our Dawn And Hawkes albums, over the years, we have tracked many elements simultaneously-live; especially rhythm section parts, and harmony vocals, respectively.
Over time, each album has incorporated more and more of the sound of all the musicians in a room together. Recording with the full flexibility to isolate and mix each element (without unwanted affect on other parts) has required more and more gear and facilities. Not to mention practice!
As an audio engineer I’ve enjoyed working with other artists on their studio records and, in more recent years, live videos alongside my good friend, and talented Videographer, Jeff Arnold.
For our newest Dawn and Hawkes record, Light Inside, we wanted to capture these songs, with live in-studio audio, for the album and on video at the same time! An opportunity to invite viewer into the actual recording.
We booked a day at an iconic Austin recording studio; Arlyn Studios. It was chosen for the size and flexibility of the space. With two live rooms, we could separate instruments for more acoustic, sensitive, quieter songs or be in the same room for greater connection and visual variety.
It was a lofty goal, but we endeavored to capture seven songs in a 10 hour block. We had already recorded one of the songs, aptly titled “Father’s House” at Miranda Dawn’s father’s house (here’s a video of that recording).
After several shows and preproduction rehearsals, a process of trial and error (or the musicians’ term “auditioning”) deciding which parts and instruments matched each song, we mapped out the equipment setups for each song to be recorded at Arlyn.
While comparing which songs had similar instrumentation (i.e. Drums + Electric Bass and Electric guitar OR acoustic guitars, upright bass and mandolin) we consulted with our Videographer and House Engineer at Arlyn about the use of the space and what was logistically possible for them. We came up with a timeline and started turning these ideas into a sequential plan.
You might notice (in the image above) the drums moved halfway through the day. This was a bit of a sticking point, as it’s time consuming to reposition drums + mics, but was ultimately necessary for visually capturing everyone on video.
Quick side story about the cartoon speech bubble on #7: During the last song, with Clint on drums at the back of the big room, and all of the rest of us 30+ feet away, on the other side of a window, in the front room, Clint commented “do I smell bad?” 😂
We also discussed which songs were priority to record in the studio space at Arlyn vs any songs that could possibly be recorded at home, or another more economical space, and added contingencies to the schedule so that we could make the most of the studio and videographer’s time even if we had unexpected hangups:
As you can imagine there were a lot of nerves going into the day and it took us six takes to warm up the first song, “Even The Darkness”. But the sixth take ended up being the keeper!
In contrast, most of the rest of the album was made from takes one or two from each session. “Need Love” for instance only had one take with the song structure played correct - the first one. It was my fault! I lost my place on take two but we had it already and moved on.
In another interesting turn of events there was a lot of snare drum bleed in the vocal microphone for “Over My Head”. So much so I tried to overdub vocals in order to fix the mix. But, to reinforce the theme here, the live capture just had a certain energy that couldn’t be replicated. The energy of the vocals was ultimately more important than the perfection of the mix.
It was an intense, but creatively rewarding day, captured and shared with everyone. And it was only possible by the crew of folks —engineers, musicians and videography team — lending their hard work, experience and talent to pull it off.
See the full collection, videos of the actual sessions on YouTube