An introduction to how recording works- Making the “Magic”… with Supernal

I thought I would write a note about what Supernal has been up to lately.

The recording process so far has been really fun. The studio has a great feel about it. There are drapes, curtains and mood lighting, and it usually smells like incense. In fact it doesn’t seem like most studios at all, which I think is awesome. We have spent a fair share of time in about 7 studios to date, and this is the first one that is truly comfortable. There is no glass. Usually studios have a glass that separates the band, or musicians from the control board and engineer. It’s sometimes a completely different room. You usually have to talk through a sort of intercom with “Talk” and “Playback” buttons. Here, there is no disconnected feeling between where the “magic” is happening and where the “magic” is being recorded. I really like that. We started our sessions with some pre-production where we figured out some song arrangements with the band and our producer. We were able to all talk to each other comfortably and quickly since we were literally standing in the same big room.

Here is a brief synopsis of how songs get recorded:

After the songs have been figured out and everyone knows who is playing what and how, we record a “take”. The band plays together and records separate “scratch” tracks of what every member is playing, which can be referenced back to as the recording process continues. The first stage of the real recording starts with drums. The drummer plays along with the “scratch” tracks (not including the drum tracks) and with a metronome to keep time, although sometimes a “click” is not used. There are often up to 20 tracks for a drum take, as every drum has a separate microphone, and microphones are also often set up around the room to catch the sound of the room as the drummer is playing.

The bass is recorded next, in which the bass player plays along with the new drum tracks. Often the vocal “scratch” take is also played, as a reference to where we are in the song. Guitars are recorded next, and the tracks build up from there, since often you will record a few different tracks of guitar, with different “clean” and “distorted” sounds, different parts, and inserting guitar solos as necessary. Keeping these tracks separate helps in the mixing process, and makes recording faster as you often will have different amps and guitars being used for different parts and songs.

Once all the different instruments are recorded, vocals are usually last. The lead vocals and sometimes backing vocals are often recorded in a smaller booth or room, but it is fun to play around with different sounds and natural reverb that occurs depending on where you set up the microphone. Different microphones and “pre-amps” also suit different voices (as is the same with amps and guitars) so you definitely want to test things out before you hit “record”. Once all of the performances are recorded, the mixing stage is next, done by the engineer and/or producer. Here all of the levels and equalization of all of the tracks are set until it sounds like a good song! Lastly you often choose to get the songs “Mastered”, which will unify the sounds of the different songs and make the music sound better for broadcast and duplication. This is the stage I know least about but I know it has to do with equalizing the “high and low frequencies” of the sound, and also sequencing every second on a record. That’s the works!

So that is basically what we have been up to lately. We are having fun and creating stuff that I hope you will hear in the near future!