The latest diary from Kevin
From Kevin homepage:Fri 17th - Engineers Log!
The Brew is dazed and confused- should have done the diary before a trip to the pub (a few pints of Staropramen can really bend your head!) Got the meat and tatties of the "epic" down on tape. Good skills all round. And why does American chocolate taste rubbish? A valid question raised by our resident tub thumper, and one we don't know the answer too. Mad cows maybe? Everybody's gone home to do what ever it is they do (fishing, football, flying planes). The Brew will spend Saturday behind a pair of Technics 1210's playing to, literally, tens of people- gonna be messy!! Cheers.The Brew
P.S. A few people seem to be a little confused about (amongst other things) Bruce's "iso chamber" and talk of a strange "clear acoustic material surrounding him" is all a bit Area 51. We like to call it glass.
Greetings - the updates in red are uncensored updates from the engineering staff, and are not manipulated by me, so if there is an apparent contradiction, well it's my word you'll take!
Do you enjoy the Engineers Log from "The Brew"?Friday saw us concentrating on a 9 minute song again, as we had been all day Thursday. I had the band cut 8 takes on Friday and 7 on Thursday, so 15 takes in all, and that is a lot of playing and quite exhausting for everyone (although I hasten to add, as I say to the band if they gripe, it's a damn side easy than digging holes and raising telephone poles!). You may wonder why we cut so many takes - well, I'm a real believer in the collective energy, and very often you can have the same part, played the same tempo, the same notes, but for some intangible reason, there is something about one take, such a confidence and air, that make it majestic and stand out from the rest - and when you listen to the two sections side by side, it's not even close, and really obvious. So, I try and optimize every element of the song to make it stand and have the power comes across to the listener. We do not use "click tracks", and everyone performs on every take of the song, and I try and use as much as possible from the live take to be the bed of the track. We do edit different bits of different takes together, and we do this in ProTools HD after transferring all the takes from the analog Studer 24 track. It allows it so much more flexibilty editing digitally than splicing tape together, as we can really take a look at a tom fill from one take (for example) and fly it in to another, but we do not use ProTools for digital manipulation of the musicians. The way they interact and push and pull the song is what seperates one band from another, and it is especially true for Maiden. We are recording the whole album at 96kHz, 24 bit and I will mix the songs from Pro Tools. We do have timecode locking the analog and ProTools together, so I may lock them up when I mix as well. This song from Friday sounds incredible, and I can honestly say I feel this record is going to be one of their strongest, but we'll have to see. Enjoy your weekend, it's nutrition and exercise for me!
Caveman