I asked Josh to give us some insight to his approach on recording his drum parts:

“My goal in these recordings was to capture the true melody of percussion and not just “play drums.” If you listen closely you will be able to hear counter melodies in the toms and extended percussion, which I feel is one thing that makes this music what it is. While recording these songs I tried to mix different styles of percussion and different techniques of playing to capture certain moods that I felt in each song. Each song has a different vibe and several “feels”- funk, rock, latin and jazz to name just a few. The inspiration for my parts is directly influenced by my Drum Corps background. I tend to think of my parts like a drum line chart, always trying to keep dynamics and strong points in mind.

My set up for recording was a 6 piece Taye Studio Maple. These drums are quite possibly the most amazing drums I’ve ever played. At times, it felt like they played themselves. The sounds and overtones of the drums was just what I was looking for in this situation. While recording I used a 22″x18″ kick, and 10″x9″, 12″x9″, 14″x11″, and 16″x13″ toms. I was also using a 13″ Fortune Snare Drum recommended and loaned to me by my good friend Richie Torrance.”

-Josh Stiles

I asked Anthony to give us some insight to his approach on recording his bass parts:

“My main goal during these sessions was to keep the integrity of the natural sound of my bass. I play a Warrior Signature Series 4-string bass. The bass is comprised of several different exotic woods including swamp ash, ebony, buck eyed burl, wenge and purple heart. The neck is made of purple heart with abalone in-lay.

Not a single piece of wood on this guitar is younger than 50 years, which is directly related to my tone and resonance. For these reasons I decided to record “direct in”.

I envisioned an organic, human elemental type of sound. If you listen really closely you can pick out what some would call imperfections, some call it soul, in my bass parts that I decided to leave in the recordings. My thought is this…human beings are not perfect, they are full of emotion and are completely erratic and unpredictable. I think that capturing the true essence of a persons intention is the only way to gain an idea of what they’re wanting to say.”

-Anthony East

Check Back, Next Post “Josh gives us  the breakdown of his Approach on Recording Drums”
& “Jake whips out his Amazing Mics”

I asked Justin to give us a breakdown on his recording set up this past Sunday:

“I ran my 100 watt Marshall JVM410H head into a peavey 5150 4×12 cabinet. This head is the core of my sound. With the way I have my sound dialed in I get an old school rock/metal tone out of it. Next to that I had a 50 Marshall Vintage Modern head running into a Marshall 1960A 4×12 cabinet. This head is great with a classic rock sound. Last I had a 120 watt Peavey JSX head running into a Peavey 5150 cab.

These diverse heads allowed me to get a wide range of sounds and tones. When blended they had a huge sound that was massive. I dialed in the sound on all three roughly the same. Bass was set some where between 5 – 6, Mids where set at around 4, and Treble was set around 6 – 7. Presence was around 5 – 6 and with the JVM and JSX the resonance was set around 5. I do not push the gain much higher than 5. I did not run and effects on the front end. This setup was used for all primary rhythm tracks. For my clean tracks I will be using a MXR stereo chorus going into a Mesa Boogie Lonestar and my Marshall JVM410H.”

-Justin Medlen

Check back next post “Anthony East & Josh Stiles- Drums & bass in the studio”