trinityamps.com

So I've got an amazing young indie band called Make Your Exit in my studio, Sly-Fi Chapel, recording their new EP. Trinity gear is factoring into the record in a pretty big way, so I thought it would be fun to share some of the session with you all.

I'll talk more about tones and Trinity in my next installment, and have some clips for you to hear, but in the meantime why don't you get to know the band. This from a Much Music NXNE blog posted 3 days ago:



Full article here:

http://blog.muchmusic.com/nxne-friday-night/

And here's their MySpace site, with tracks from their previously released self-recorded EP:

http://www.myspace.com/makeyourexit

Just sent Stephen some pics from this session, so hopefully they'll be posted below!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

The Guys, The Guitars and The Gear!!








And of course the best thing to do after the session is go fishing!!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Looking forward to the article and the clips. Would be interesting to know why they made the decisions for certain amps, gear.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

OK, so the guys rolled in on Saturday midday after their late night NXNE extravaganza, and we commenced the search for the perfect tones... these guys are REALLY into tone.

We spent a fair amount of time with the drums - trying out different combinations of Thomson's (there's a bunch of Mikes in this band so we go by last names!) DW kit, my Sonor Hilites, and my (new to me but very old) mid 60's Rogers kit. I think all in all, I tuned 18,000 drums... OK, well maybe not 18,000 but a lot. At the end of the day - the old Rogers were doing it for everyone.

Next was bass... Dellios has an old Acoustic model 450 SS head, and of course I have my old 70's Ampeg B-15, and my Hiwatt. After much deliberation we went with a Radial J48 DI thru to the B-15 (single 15) and Mike's Ampeg 410. Massive sound with his Rickenbacker 4001 and my P Bass. And, erm, ahem, Stephen confirmed that his next project after the Tweedle/Tramp will be the Trinity B-15!!! Look out folks - gonna be CRAZY with that Tone Tubby 15"!!

Guitar Amps - we went down my lineup of 20+ amps with both guys and figured out what each guy was going to use... Denby is Fender guy with a bit of a Trinity twist - his lineup included my '69 Twin Reverb, my Prosonic, and my early 90's Blues Deluxe. BUT, the two 10's in the Prosonic weren't cutting it, so we plugged in my Marshall/Trinity 1965 410 cab with Tone Tubby Ceramics that Stephen just finished with - boys and girls, this is a SERIOUS cabinet. Those 10" TTC's are SOOOO warm and creamy. It was amazing. The other guitarist/lead singer Jeff prefers more of a Brit tone for himself. He owns one of the new AC30's (which we used), and with that we added my 90's AC30 (VERY different tone from the new ones), my Mesa Mark2c+, and drum roll please... the Triwatt prototype, and my TC-15!! All of the amps ended up being run through my Hiwatt 412 with Fanes because it just sounded AWESOME for everything...

Guitar-wise Denby used my Epiphone Sheraton the most, although my Les Paul Doublecut with P-90's, my Danelectro, and my Ric also saw some action. Jeff played his PRS Custom 22 a lot, as well as my Tele and SG...

One of the coolest things about this band is that they wanted to record everything live off the floor (except saxophone - there's a sax player named Oliver!) with amps blazing in the room. This can be a bit of an engineering challenge, but my studio is big enough that we were able to separate everything enough that the bleed wasn't an issue...

I'll put some rough clips up tomorrow of the live-off-the-floor tracks. The guys played great and I think the tunes sound fantastic...

And BTW, feel free to ask any questions that you may have!!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

These guys have a really keen sense of their own aesthetic... They're into dirt but not distortion, and dark roomy sounds, so they were looking for tones that were cleanish but had a unique edge and were slightly unpredictable. Blend between the two players was paramount. Denby definitely is more the clean tone guy, Jeff seems more comfortable with a little "hair" on his tone. And a lot of the tones had various pedals in line. Different for me is that these guys don't like to run amps too wide open - most of the tones came from the "middle" of the amps and weren't overly loud in the room... Guitar choices were made based on the feel of the guitar for each player, and if we were looking for a specific thing. If we had a tone up that was close but wasn't quite right for the track, then swapping out the guitar usually did the trick!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

How did you do this? A challenge indeed.

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

By making sure the amps are as physically separate from the drum overheads as possible, then making sure the amps are positioned so bleed between them is minimal, and then positioning the room mic so that the "mix" is right. It's a lot easier to do in a big room with high ceilings...

Sorry didn't get to the rough clips today - pretty intense overdub day. I'll get to the live-off-the-floor roughs tomorrow!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

...and a little "hair" on his chest

Joe G

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Some assembly required,
Brain sold separately...

Phew!! What a whirlwind! Eleven Days has come and gone and the band has now left my studio. I've got one more day of mixing to do, and then potentially a short recall/revision session, but for all intents and purposes we're done!! Boy, was that fun!!! What a great band, what a great group of guys... and it was refreshing musically - they set up and played, did a couple of overdubs and voila!! No drum sample enhancement, very little editing, no auto-tune!!! Just get good tones, play, and mix - Refreshing. If these guys are any indication of where music is going (and I think they are) then the future looks REALLY good to me...

Wanted to get to this sooner, but the days were long and intense so there wasn't really time to do anything extra... so, without any further delay:

This song is called "Three Movements". It was the first song that we tracked live-off-the-floor. Jeff was playing his PRS Custom 22 through the Triwatt prototype into my 70's Hiwatt 412 with Fanes. The first clip I isolated drums, bass, and Jeff's Triwatt part so you can really hear the tone... if you hear ghosting of the other parts it's just bleed from the amps that were live in the room!!!

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... RINITY.mp3

Here's my first crack at the mix complete with overdubs, sax, vocals! If anyone's interested Denby's guitar part was played with my Epiphone Sheraton into my '69 Twin Reverb with Jensen C12K's...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... ntsMIX.mp3


The next song we'll look at here is "Smokes And Lint". It's mostly instrumental with a bit of vocal in the breakdown at the end. Lots of Trinity was featured on this one! For the live beds Denby used my Fender Prosonic as a head into my Marshall/Trinity 410 cab with Tone Tubby Ceramics. The first part of the song he's playing my Danelectro, and then at the quiet end part he switches over to my Rickenbacker 360. Then for the overdubs (the part where the guitars play the melody hook), Jeff played his PRS Cu22 into the Triwatt plugged into the Marshall/Trinity TTC 410. Denby doubled the part using the same rig, but used my Gibson Les Paul doublecut with P90's. Then Jeff overdubbed the crunchy part that comes out of the melody part, again using his PRS into the Triwatt/TTC 410 cab. Here's the tune with drums, bass and the above mentioned parts...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... RINITY.mp3

And the first mix of "Smokes And Lint"... btw, the piano and organ are real and were played by Jeff. Bells and percussion were played by Dellios and Oliver. No digital instruments were used!!! And for those keeping score, Jeff's guitar parts on this one were my Tele into my AC30 into the Hiwatt cab...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... intMIX.mp3


And finally for today, "Leave This Town". On this one no Trinity amps were used, but Denby played my Epiphone Sheraton through the Prosonic into the TTC 410. This first clip is only the last part of the song since Jeff played the only part on the first half...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... RINITY.mp3


And the mix... Jeff's rhythm parts were PRS Cu22 into my Mesa Boogie Mark2c+ into the Hiwatt, and I'd have to double check but I think the OD's were done with my Twin...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... ownMIX.mp3

There's a rockin' romp called "Kids" that we used my TC-15 through the Hiwatt cab on, but I haven't mixed that one yet! Loved that tone! And there's also a TC/Leslie thing on one of the songs - AWESOME. As soon as I have them this weekend, I'll post!!

Hope some of you enjoy this and find it useful or at least interesting!!! PS... Oliver the sax player took an AMAZING night photo of the chapel and it's now on their myspace (link above). Check it out!!! Thanks Ollie!!!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

I can really hear the TRIWATT in 3 movements. Sounds classic. Well heard in the first clip and nicely put together in the second edited version.

It's not so obvious in the second clip; that Dano makes a big difference. These are clips I need to listen to some more.

I like the fresh sound of this Band. Need to seee them live!

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Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Well, in a sense you ARE hearing them live!! But seriously they play around Toronto quite a bit - before their NXNE show they had a packed house show at the Horseshoe (for our non-Canadian friends "The Horseshoe" is one of Toronto's legendary live music venues - the Rolling Stones have been known to play unannounced shows there!)... Yeah "Three Movements" is THE Triwatt tune - that amp was PERFECT for that track... there's another one that I'm mixing this weekend where the TC was the shiznit too!

Agreed, TOTALLY fresh. They are a part of an emerging scene in Toronto where all the bands have a very cool original thing happening (I know 'cause I've worked with a couple of them!!!). What a pleasure to work with these guys on this...

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Alright finally got through mixes for everything, we're going to spend the week listening and then have a go at some revisions, but my Trinity friends they're close enough for our purposes! The good news is the boys have decided to spring for mastering in a great mastering studio (my friend Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel will be mastering - Noah has been mastering my work for many years now). Once we have that done, I'll post one of the masters so any of you that were uncertain what mastering does for the sound of a record will be able to compare the sound of the mix to the finished master...

Anyway, back to guitars/amps! So, this song is called "Kids". Jeff played my Gibson SG through my TC-15 into the Hiwatt 412 on this one. Love this tone! Presented first isolated so you can hear it!

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... RINITY.mp3

And for those interested, Denby's playing my Epiphone Sheraton through the first amp I ever bought - my early 90s Fender Blues Deluxe!! Here's the whole tune...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... idsMIX.mp3

Next up is an excerpt from the song with the working title "DMST". This tone shows the TC-15 through my Leslie 18 Guitar cab - it's got the rotating speaker similar to an organ Leslie, and a footswitch which switches between fast and slow. REALLY cool tone!! Can't remember the guitar we used and didn't make note of it in the session or notes, but I want to think it was either Jeff's PRS Cu22 or my PRS Cu24 using single coils...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... rinity.mp3

And here's the whole song... Jeff's main guitar on this one is his Cu22 through his brand new Vox AC30 into the Hiwatt 412, and Denby's playing my Epi Sheraton into my Twin Reverb on the intro, and my Gibson LP doublecut with P90's into the Twin Rvb on the rest of the song...

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... MSTMIX.mp3

Hope someone found this interesting! Ask away if you have any questions about the session!

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Oh - I don't doubt it at all! I've been the sounding board for a friend's band's recording process for their first indie CD. The process of choosing someone to do the mastering was quite revealing. There's definately a magic in that process. They tried mastering it themselves, then several samples from semi-pro & pro studios. The difference was amazing.

The samples sound great. Cool to hear the Trinity gear in this context.

Yes, it's an important part of the process, but what it does for me has really changed over the years... at the beginning of my studio life I used to rely on mastering to "save" my mixes - I didn't have the gear nor the expertise to get my mixes to sound like a "record". So, the mastering engineer I had to use had to be able to sort of "put his thing" onto the sound - lots of EQ and lots of compression, so when you'd get it back it was WOW! different... In recent years, my mixes for the most part sound how I want them to, and if a mastering engineer were to "put his thing" onto that, it would change the sound of my mixes and make me very unhappy! So these days it's more about the "sound" of the gear in the mastering chain. The reason I like to work with Noah so much is because he's mature enough to know when he needs to dig in, and when not. A few times recently all he's done is run my mix through his VERY expensive gear chain to get the level and sheen, but hasn't touched a single EQ knob or compressor. Very difficult to find a mastering engineer with that much restraint!!!! Anyway, still VERY important, but a lot less WOW! than before since he's not doing as much to radically alter the sound...

Thanks Emo! I appreciate you taking the time to listen...

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

Man, i love the sound you get out of those drums......
And off course the rest as well.
I really should get into recording drums.........

Well done, and great to hear a band the raw way.

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www.paradisepi.com

Hey thanks nickkbh! That was the first time I recorded those old Rogers - man are they nice drums!!

Thanks for listening and thanks for your kind words, and yes, you should get into recording drums... it's really fun!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

I'd like to record drums, but i dont have the space for it.
But a friend of my records drums so i really should go there.......
But, we dont have the budget.

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www.paradisepi.com

The space issue is one thing, but for me, by the time I've spent the necessary time to make programmed drums sound relatively real to my standards (not talking r&b/hiphop programming here) I could have done 3 sessions with a real player that would sound better anyway!! In my world it's more cost-effective to use a real player, but then my world is probably a lot different than the real world!!! LOL!!!

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Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com

I only just noticed this thread!

This is so cool!

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Great tones come in small glass jars!

Hey Cool! Glad you found your way over here Phil!!

Alright, for all those interested in the "magic" of mastering, I've posted my final mix for "Leave This Town" and also the mastered version. I'd be curious about your impressions of the "magic". Do you hear a difference between the mix and master? Is the difference significant to you? Do you have a preference between the mix or the master?

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... NALMIX.mp3

http://www.trinityamps.com/publictrinit ... MASTER.mp3

_________________
Brent Bodrug
Producer-Engineer/Songwriter

www.slyfichapel.com