Song Exploder

Song Exploder is a Podcast by Hrishikesh Hirway where artist deconstruct and talk about a song they have created. They discuss the inspiration of each element in the song and how it evolved to be the way that it is. Unknown Mortal Orchestra was a guest on this podcast and deconstructed their hit 2015 song Multilove. Ruban Nielson discussed how this song came to be and listening to his process inspired me to create a song from another genre in the production style of Ruban Nielson. I wanted to record a song being conscious of the production decisions that i would make and ensure they were the same as if Ruban was doing it.

Before jumping into this project i had to do some research on the styles of production that Ruban used. From the equipment he used on his records to the mixing and recording techniques. I discovered that for his first two albums everything was recorded with mainly two mics, the Shure SM57 and Shure SM58. He also used a Sennheiser E945 for some of the recordings but i only found one instance where he discussed using this microphone. I found out that the synths that he used on his records were a Roland Saturn 09 Synth and a Korg MiniKorg 700s. When it came to microphone techniques i found specifics on how he recorded his drums. He places a 57 at equal distance between the snare and the kick with the diaphragm pointing across the face of the kick and another warm sounding mic placed to pick up the low end of the kit. For a lot of his songs he uses drum machines instead of live recorded drums. He only ever uses two mics on a kick because he finds that phase issues tend to be the biggest problem when it comes to the tracking of drums. In terms of guitars, i found somewhere that stereo tracking is his favourite method. This was as much hard evidence as i could find on his production style other than everything was done in his home studio and recorded straight to tape. For all of the other production decisions i was going to make, i watched interviews of him talking about making the records and used my ears and deducted how that sound was made based off my knowledge of production.

In terms of the song that i chose to cover i had two choices that i was tossing up between. Both songs are by a British artist called Keaton Henson.

One being Alright and the other being You. I chose both of these songs because they are simple songs with different variations of four chords. I also chose these songs because they are both completely different to the genre of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I ended up going with You because it was originally recorded using a guitar rather than a piano and that would translate easier to the style that i was after.

Recording guitar was the first element that i wanted to track because it would set the bones and timing for the rest of the recording. In my research i found that Ruban likes to use stereo tracking for his guitar work but in the particular song i have decided to reference from UMO, he doesn't use this technique and the guitars are set directly in the centre of the mix behind other elements in the mix. I chose to use So Good At Being In Trouble as my reference track because i think this is the particular sound that would translate well to You. i set up and amp in the large Audient studio and positioned a 57 at medium range, about 30 cm from the speaker straight on and another 58 straight on at a distance of 3 meters. I chose this because i wanted to A/B between these mics and find what one would emulate the guitar tone i was after. I was looking for a guitar sound that would sit back in the mix but still drive the tonality of the song. I layered 4 different tones over each other to give rhythm and thickness to the sound, building the layers as the long progresses. Two of those layers were done with a Flanger effect to give a vintage feel that suited the genre i was after.

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I recorded the drums and bass at the same time so they could vibe off each other and give a tighter sound than if i were to do it separately. The drums were recorded with two microphones, a 57 positioned between the snare and the kick drum in the same way that Ruben explained in the research that i found. I also used a Royer 121 to give a warm sound to the low end . I found that this setup gave a Lo-Fi sound that i was after. The bass was DId straight into a LA610 and then into pro tools. After listening back to the recording of the drums i decided that the rhythm i was after was more complex than the simple ¾ rhythm that i got the drummer to play. I overcame this problem by sampling the drums that i recorded and putting them into a software drum machine where i recreated a beat that suited the song better.

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The vocals are a major part of this song are create the depth and space that make this song interesting. I got my vocalist to sing into both a 58 and 57. I put the 58 through a FATSO tape emulator to give it the warm dull compression that i was after. I also used the 57 so i had a dry option without compression to reamp afterwards if i wasn't happy with the tonality of the 58. I double tracked the vocals hard left and hard right and then also did a low harmony down the centre to gel them together.

The mixing process was relatively simple because of the decisions i had made when recording. I ensured the guitars were sitting behind in the mix by recording them that way, and the vocals were the largest and most interesting part in the mix because i had made them so forward and spacious. I used a Tape Machine to record the mix in and see the difference that would come from converting the mix to tape. I made a few adjustments to bass and the vocals and re-tracked to tape and then back into the DAW. I am happy with the end product but if i were to change one thing, i think i would find a different song to cover. I realized that a lot of the excitement and feeling that came from Keatons song was because of the constantly fluid timing, when covering the song i changed it to a constant 175 BPM and in that process lost the emotion.