Through the production of my EP, I have been keen on trying to replicate the spaces, ambiences and reverbs used by Rich Costey when producing Absolution. My blog post on recording drums shows that I have researched and taken into account how the drums were recorded and therefore mixed to create the ambience that you hear on the album. I have since used the room microphone that I recorded with in all four of the tracks on my EP, which is a technique that Costey used on Absolution. Again, see my full post on recording drums for more information.
The article in ‘Sound on Sound’ (linked at the bottom of this entry) which I have used for research and inspiration throughout this project has been very important in influencing my decisions while recording. Extensive listening to the actual material recorded by Costey on Absolution has also been key. Costey makes clear that he feels ‘that mixing is an extension of the recording process, not necessarily a different thing.’ This meant that I aimed to get the right amount (or lack of) natural ambience and reverb while recording, as well as not recording something that was going to need excessive amounts of EQ.
While the majority of Absolution is relatively dry in terms of reverberation, several tracks such as Sing For Absolution, Falling Away With You, and Ruled By Secrecy feature the effect. Costey seems to show a preference for using delay, rather than reverb, as testified to on an interview about Muse’s follow-up album, which he also produced. ‘What I really like are tape delays and oilcan delays that can create a blur behind an instrument without you knowing what it is.’ Costey says in the Sound on Sound interview on Absolution that he is a big fan of the Echoplex delay unit and that ‘it’s hardly ever the case that something goes down without getting run through a [Maestro] Echoplex. I’m addicted to them.’ While I don’t personally own an Echoplex this is a useful insight into how Costey created space on the album. On ‘Sing for Absolution’ he notes that he “had the dry piano coming into the console and [I] then split the signal so that half of it went to tape and the other half went to a [Digitech] Whammy pedal. In fact, the Whammy pedal also got split, so that half of it went to — no surprise here — an Echoplex and the other half went to a [Lovetone] Doppelganger pedal. That achieved a fake stereo, with a dry attack front and centre, while the Doppelganger with the echo was on one side and the Whammy’s echo was on the other. Then we doubled it, so that it wasn’t even fake stereo any more; it was two performances, which made a lot more sense.” This shows the level of detail that went into creating a stereo image for just one instrument and, while Absolution is not an album I am paying close attention to in my LO5 (which relates to creating a full sound with minimal instruments), it is still indicative of the style of production which makes a limited amount of instruments particularly prominent.
A key example of the use of delay effects on Absolution can be heard on ‘Hysteria’ (linked at the bottom), during the guitar solo. The guitar in this section is panned lightly to the left channel, with the delay effect acting more dominantly on the right. This really helps to add image and depth to an otherwise simplistic recording where the double-tracking does not come into play until half-way through the solo. This again, can be related to LO5.
Another method that was used on the album to create space, and also used on Renegades, mixed by Rich Costey, is to closely double track guitar parts and then pan them hard left and right. This can be heard on ‘Time Is Running Out’ (linked at the bottom), particularly from the second verse. The guitar could have been recorded once through two different amps and then panned, achieving an identical guitar take. This is good for reducing the amount of takes used and therefore adds to the minimalism slightly, however it does sound limited as a stereo image. While the two tracks would be tonally different, the homogeneity in the actual take would mean that there is essentially just a stereo take of a guitar track. Recording the same take as closely as possible and then panning gives a richer sound, with imperfections not noticeable to the listener. This also limits possibilities of phasing issues. In my recordings of guitar I double tracked nearly everything apart from certain riffs and solos. This was both to enhance the texture of the songs but to create a dynamic in the guitar part that intensifies when the rest of the song does. I thought of it as layering. The majority of the guitar parts were also recorded in stereo, with an SM57 on speaker of the 2×12 cab. This wasn’t to create space but to capture a richer guitar tone that could be changed just by adjusting the volume of each track. I’ll talk more about this in my ‘Mixing Guitars (LO1)’ post. Another ‘bonus of hard panned rhythm guitars is that it makes space down the middle for featured tracks, like vocals.’ (Reverb.com, below)
Using these techniques I believe I’ll be able to mix my EP to sound at least some way to being influenced by the production techniques used by Rich Costey on Absolution.
http://www.musewiki.org/Rich_Costey:_Recording_Muse%27s_Absolution_(200312_Sound_on_Sound_article)
http://www.emusician.com/gear/1332/an-evening-with-rich-costey/37658
https://reverb.com/uk/news/how-to-double-track-guitars
![[Bliss Synth]](https://satkinaudioproject1.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2016/12/Bliss-Synth.png)
