2nd Last Chance album underway

[Dr Nick]

No WAY!!!!

He's an amazing drummer. That's a SERIOUS score. Well done! 

[Dinosaur David B]

No WAY!!!!

He's an amazing drummer. That's a SERIOUS score. Well done! 

 

Way! I'm absolutely thrilled!  Dream come true, shit. 
 

[eduardoritos]

OMG

You're a lucky man, Dave

[M11]

I'm curious, Dave, how did the drum tracking workflow with Tichy go? Did you get together with him in person at a studio to record? Or did he work remotely, with you sending him a backing track with a click, and he just sent you back the audio files? Did he suggest any arrangements for the songs?

[Dinosaur David B]

I'm curious, Dave, how did the drum tracking workflow with Tichy go? Did you get together with him in person at a studio to record? Or did he work remotely, with you sending him a backing track with a click, and he just sent you back the audio files? Did he suggest any arrangements for the songs?

 

Hi Mario. We worked remotely like we had with our other drummer, Jordan. 

First off, it was wonderful. And a TOTAL dream come true for me. I cannot adequately describe the feeling I get tracking guitars to Brian's drum tracks! And the way his drums sound as we start to really produce them!


The feeling I get is . . .  

I told Brian this, and I'll say it to anyone who asks: Brian is a consummate professional!
Not only are his drum tracks incredible, he's very easy to work with. He did everything he said he'd do, and he did it exactly WHEN he said he'd do it. No  bullshit. No dicking around. NO PROBLEMS!

The way it worked was like this:  I'd put down scratch guitar parts and a guide vocal over a drum machine beat to create the demo.
I'd send him the demo (with and without the drum machine) with the specific notes and ideas I had for the song. We also spoke on the phone frequently to confer. 

But mostly, he inherently knew what to do. 

And from the very first day, I told Brian, "I'm not just hiring your hands and feet, I want your musical BRAIN. If I suggest something that sounds off or wonky to you, TELL ME.
If you have a better idea, TELL ME.
If I left you 2 bars for a drum fill, and you're feeling 4 bars, (or similar) adjust the track.
If you think of something cool that I haven't thought of, TELL ME. We'll adjust it!"

So YES, I left him plenty of leeway to do his thing. I made it very clear to him that I wanted BRIAN FUCKING TICHY, and for him to play what HE thought worked best!

That said, once I knew I had Brian on board, it TOTALLY influenced how I wrote the last 5 songs for the album. I constructed things as much as I could SPECIFICALLY to make HIM shine as bright as possible. Where possible, avoid straight up, straight beats.

So syncopation! Swing! As much as I loved Brian on Whitesnake's fantastic Forevermore album, I told him I wanted some of that Pride and Glory/Horse Called War, Brian Tichy. Kinetic, and GROOVE oriented.

And with Brian, you get EXPLOSIVE, regardless. 

So while I left him plenty of room to be himself, he mostly felt my ideas were working. But yes, Brian did come up with two song endings that would have otherwise been fadeouts. 
 

Brian's more than a drummer. He's a complete musician. Probably a better guitarist than I am. 
 

  

 
 
 
 
 

[Nick Layton]

Awesome bro, can't wait to hear it!

[Dr Nick]

Brian is the type of musician I'd love to speak with about how he built his career. Thinking of that son of mine - all advice very useful. 
 

[Dinosaur David B]

I posted this in the speakers thread, but I figured I'd repost it here.

I've been having a lot of fun testing out the 10 new cabs sims I got for recording my new album.  And the thing is, when they're great cabs, with great speakers, recorded extremely well in real studios, they ALL sound great. It's then just a matter of picking the sounds you want for any given thing. I even charted out SOME of my findings so I can refer back later and see how one cab mixed with another, and which things I liked best.  



This was a time-consuming and somewhat tedious exercise, but not technically "hard" to do. Pretty Dino-brain simple, actually.

Using one LP and one Superstrat, both through the same amp, preserving the same settings, all I did was record the same 8-bars of an AC/DC riff (always a great benchmark) through different cabs. Once closed mic'd with a 57. Once closed mic'd with a 121.  Doing JUST that taught me a LOT.

And later down the road, it helps me when I'm trying to figure out which combinations to use on any given recording.  If I want a "dark" sound -- these combinations provide that. I want a "balanced" sound, try these. I want a pissed-off complexity, try theses. 

IMO, better to go through the effort once, then refer back to it when needed, rather than in-the-moment trial and error when you just want to get tracking. I have the session with these sounds saved as well, so I can HEAR the different combinations that I put in the chart.

The main reason I'm doing this is that I'm taking a different approach to my guitar sounds on this album.  
In the past, I'd vary the guitars and amps a lot to change my sonics for different moods in songs. Nothing wrong with that approach.

But this time, I'm doing it differently. I'm trying to use fewer guitars and amps, and get more of my tonal variation out of the cab/speakers, and mic choices. 

Early returns sound HUGE. Which is great, because I'm now competing with a new level of BEASTLY drum sounds. 
 

But also, I'm getting more track-to-track sonic continuity. And I think that continuity is a big part of most of the Dino (tonal benchmark) albums we love. 
 
 
 
 

[Dr Nick]

This is the sort of rabbit hole I would LOVE to fall down. 

I WISH I had the time to learn and work through all this sort of stuff. But I probably don't have the ear training, so would struggle to comprehend the nuances off all this without someone leading me through it. 
I know when I think something sounds good. 
Getting to that point is a whole other ballgame. 

Keep the updates coming, loving this. 

[Dinosaur David B]

This is the sort of rabbit hole I would LOVE to fall down. 

I WISH I had the time to learn and work through all this sort of stuff. But I probably don't have the ear training, so would struggle to comprehend the nuances off all this without someone leading me through it. 
I know when I think something sounds good. 
Getting to that point is a whole other ballgame. 

Keep the updates coming, loving this. 



 

FWIW, it's completely EASY to do just that. Just pick a cab you like in the moment, and away you go with it. I did that on my last album. 

This time, though, I realized that it's the CREATION part of the process that I enjoy most.  So I'm trying to take my time with that, and milk as much enjoyment out of the process as I can. Because once the album is done, and I'm happy with it, the pushing of that album to get heard is the part that I HATE. It's pretty soul crushing. 

So I went very analytical (as I always do) and spent a few hours just getting used to these new tones I have to work with. And again, they ALL sound great, so it's hard to go wrong. But the different cabs/speakers/mics DO provide different tonalities. And I want to know how to best use them.

I also approach every album as if it's my last. Because it always could be.