Big Time

bcgood · 1st February 2007, 10:50 AM

Hello Kevin nice to have you here. I love a lot of your work, So and especially Unforgettable Fire are my favs but let's start with So.

Big Time really stands out to me as sounding innovative. That was the first song that made me pay attention to the engineering aspect before I knew anything about recording. That was like the white man's Billy Jean in a weird sort of way to me. I really like the sound of the bass and the layering of Peter's vocals and harmonies. How where his vocals recorded and what effects where used? I would love to hear more about other specifics of the recording of that track as well as any funny session stories and anecdotes etc. Thanks for sharing!

bcgood

Kevin Killen · 2nd February 2007, 03:39 AM

BCGOOD,

Peters vocals were recorded using an old Neumann Tube 47. At first we did a blindfold test on PG with a number of different mics, anything from a Shure 57, U87 to the 47. We all liked the U47.

It has this very unusual amount of air associated with it and lacked some of the lower resonances that you would typically find with that vintage. It turned out one of the wires in the connector had come off and when fixed the "air " was gone. So Neil Perry our tech did some fiddling and concluded that the shield had been disconnected. To replicate that we patched the mic into a mult on the patch bay and returned the "normal" mic into a fader. Then we took a patch cord with the shield removed and put that into the mult and patched it into another fader. This "adjusted" 47 had all the air back so we just balanced the vocal performances with a combination of both. It was fun to do it that way and we avoided any of the console eq.

Peter also has a very rich tone with a lot of highs so the net effect was this truly wonderful sound. In terms of effects we used any combo of the AMS delay and Reverb, the Quantec Room Simulator, the Dimension D, tape slap and the 480L. Sometimes we used all of them but sparingly to create an unusual halo around the voice.

Still is one of my favorite vocal treatments.

bcgood · 2nd February 2007, 04:40 AM

Thank you so much for sharing! It was interesting to read how you guys ended up using the modified u47. It's funny how "mistakes" can give you what you where looking for all along...

bcgood

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2nd February 2007, 03:39 AM	#2
Kevin Killen engineer / producer / mixer Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 312	BCGOOD, Peters vocals were recorded using an old Neumann Tube 47. At first we did a blindfold test on PG with a number of different mics, anything from a Shure 57, U87 to the 47. We all liked the U47. It has this very unusual amount of air associated with it and lacked some of the lower resonances that you would typically find with that vintage. It turned out one of the wires in the connector had come off and when fixed the "air " was gone. So Neil Perry our tech did some fiddling and concluded that the shield had been disconnected. To replicate that we patched the mic into a mult on the patch bay and returned the "normal" mic into a fader. Then we took a patch cord with the shield removed and put that into the mult and patched it into another fader. This "adjusted" 47 had all the air back so we just balanced the vocal performances with a combination of both. It was fun to do it that way and we avoided any of the console eq. Peter also has a very rich tone with a lot of highs so the net effect was this truly wonderful sound. In terms of effects we used any combo of the AMS delay and Reverb, the Quantec Room Simulator, the Dimension D, tape slap and the 480L. Sometimes we used all of them but sparingly to create an unusual halo around the voice. Still is one of my favorite vocal treatments. Last edited by Kevin Killen; 2nd February 2007 at 03:40 AM.. Reason: spelling

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1st February 2007, 10:50 AM	#1
bcgood Lives for gear Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: West Coast Posts: 3,129	Hello Kevin nice to have you here. I love a lot of your work, So and especially Unforgettable Fire are my favs but let's start with So. Big Time really stands out to me as sounding innovative. That was the first song that made me pay attention to the engineering aspect before I knew anything about recording. That was like the white man's Billy Jean in a weird sort of way to me. I really like the sound of the bass and the layering of Peter's vocals and harmonies. How where his vocals recorded and what effects where used? I would love to hear more about other specifics of the recording of that track as well as any funny session stories and anecdotes etc. Thanks for sharing! bcgood

2nd February 2007, 04:40 AM	#3
bcgood Lives for gear Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: West Coast Posts: 3,129	Thank you so much for sharing! It was interesting to read how you guys ended up using the modified u47. It's funny how "mistakes" can give you what you where looking for all along... bcgood